Forensics Squad Unleashed (19 page)

She uses a kitchen towel to open the freezer and then starts emptying its contents onto the floor. When the freezer is empty, she reaches into the fridge for the mustard container. She squeezes the container, but the opening is blocked. When she unblocks it with her fingers, a little wad of mustard flies up into the air and lands in her coffee cup. As she leaves her mustard message on the counter, we hear her say to herself, “Writing with a squeeze bottle sucks.”

When Amelia tosses the mustard container into the garbage, she makes a noise that sounds like a battle cry.
She tosses her coffee cup into the garbage too. Then, at the very last second, just as the
DVD
ends, she reaches under the deep fryer for the grease trap—and grins into the camera.

TWENTY-EIGHT

There is pizza for lunch, and our visitors stay for some too. Lloyd and Samantha have ordered four jumbo pizzas—two vegetarian and two all-dressed. I keep expecting Leo and Amelia to get into another fight, but then I remember that all that conflict between them was just part of a performance. They may disagree when it comes to their philosophies of food, but they seem to get along fine in the real world.

Camp ends early today. I hate saying goodbye, so instead I ask for permission to use the photocopier so I can make us each a copy of the list with our contact information.

Lloyd shakes our hands. I figure Samantha will shake our hands too, but at the last second she seems to reconsider and gives us each a hug. And then they are off.

The six of us linger a little longer in the lobby of the Life Sciences Building.

The guy from building services waves when he sees us. “You are just the people I was looking for.”

“We are?” Nico says.

The man takes a white envelope out of his shirt pocket. “Someone dropped this off for you guys this morning.”

He hands me the envelope. Inside is a letter—and a crisp one-hundred-dollar bill.

I read the letter to the others.

“I am writing to thank you from the bottom of my heart for rescuing my beloved Rexford. The police told me that the six of you have been attending a forensics camp at the University of Montreal. If I was still a kid, I’d go to a camp like that myself. You have made me very happy by finding Rexford for me. Please find enclosed the one-hundred-dollar reward that I promised. Sincerely yours, Ada Dell
.”

Muriel has already whipped out her cell phone and is dividing one hundred by six. “That’s sixteen dollars and sixty-six cents for each of us,” she says. “More or less.”

Mason has a different idea. “Why don’t we donate the money instead?”

Nico slaps his knee. “Hey, I just got a better idea—you can donate it to me!”

“What if we donate it to a shelter for homeless teenagers?” Mason says.

Even Nico has to admit that’s a good idea.

“My mom will know which shelter needs it most,” I tell the others.

Once that is settled, we head out of the building.

In the distance, I can see an older couple with a small dog walking toward us. When the dog stops to poop, the man leans over to scoop it up with a plastic bag. You can see from
the way the man moves that reaching down makes his joints ache. But then he reaches down again to pat the dog’s head.

It is only when we get a little closer that I realize the dog is Willy, and the people are Nathaniel’s grandmother and her fiancé, Fred.

Nathaniel is on the sidewalk next to me. When I look at him, I can tell he is watching the couple and the dog too. They are at the curb, and Fred takes Nathaniel’s grandmother’s arm and helps her back up to the sidewalk. She smiles up at him, and Willy barks. He has recognized Nathaniel.

“Hey, Willy!” Nathaniel calls out. “Hey, Grandma.” Then he pauses a little longer and calls out, “Hey, Fred!”

Nathaniel’s grandmother lets Willy off his leash, and the Pomeranian comes prancing over to us. If he was traumatized from being dognapped, he seems to have made a full recovery.

“We were hoping we’d run into you,” Fred says. “The bakery called. Our wedding cake is ready. They made an extra cake with the same batter and frosting, and they invited us to come and sample it. There should be more than enough if all of you kids want to join us. What do you say?”

Nathaniel is squatting on the ground. Willy is dancing on his hind legs again. “I say yes,” Nathaniel says slowly.

“What flavor cake is it?” Mason asks.

“Double chocolate with buttercream frosting,” Nathaniel’s grandmother says.

The eight of us—nine, if you count Willy—head for the bakery together.

Mason and I end up walking side by side. He gives me a nudge. I figure he wants to discuss double chocolate cake. But I figured wrong, because instead he says, “Hey, I’m sorry I didn’t do a good job of watching Roxie last night. It was my fault the dognappers got her.”

“Apology accepted,” I tell him, reaching out to shake his hand. “Besides, everything worked out okay. But I just want to make one thing clear, Mason. Next summer, I don’t want to go to cake camp or pottery camp or tennis camp or whatever weird camp our parents have planned. I want to go to the advanced-level forensics camp. And I think you should come too.”

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I could not have written this book without Rachel Rudolf, who told me about the forensics day camp at the University of Toronto, Mississauga campus. Rachel also spent several days with me at the camp in July 2014, answered many questions about forensics and read an early draft of this story. Thanks also to Tracy Rogers, director of the University of Toronto’s Forensic Science program, for letting me attend camp for a week, and to forensic-anthropology students and counselors Tori Berezowski and Danielle Stoewner for being smart and fun and putting up with my many questions. Special thanks to the kids I met at camp—for sharing their love of forensic science and for not minding having a curious, noisy adult around all week: Ben Allday, Isaiah Chidambaram, Lavinia Contreras, Harriet Dolenko, Michael D’Onofrio, Katherine Fay, Patrick Kuo, Monica Lamacchia, Sophie Mahan, Anthony Marchetta, Alexandra Markiewicz, Callum McDonell, Christian Palermo, Kyle Rakoczy, Delaney Ras, Jacob Russo, Megan Shih, Zoe Szabo, Mason Vaccari, Megan Wahl and Wan Yun Xue. Thanks also to my friend Viva Singer for her expertise about all things dog related and for letting me talk through another story with her. Finally, many, many thanks to the entire team at Orca, especially my editor and friend, Sarah Harvey, for her wise guidance.

Forensics Squad Unleashed
is Monique Polak’s nineteenth novel for young people. Monique is a two-time winner of the Quebec Writers’ Federation Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Literature. She has taught English and humanities at Marianopolis College in Montreal for thirty years. She is also an active freelance journalist whose work appears regularly in the
Montreal Gazette
and in Postmedia newspapers across the country. In 2014, Monique spent a week at the University of Toronto’s forensics camp, doing research for this novel. Monique lives in Montreal. For more information, visit
www.moniquepolak.com
.