The Case of the Gasping Garbage (8 page)

“WHAT SEEMS TO BE THE TROUBLE, MS. JACKSON?”
asked Drake.

“It’s my twin sister, Chloe.” Zoe pointed across the emergency room lobby. Both Drake and Nell gasped as Chloe bent over a basin on her lap and … well … barfed.

“Eew,” said Zoe.

“Ugh,” said Nell.

“Oh, dear,” said Drake.

Nell flipped open her lab notebook. “Why don’t you take it from the top, Ms. Jackson.”

Zoe nodded. She cleared her throat. “You see …”

“Yes?” asked Drake, his pencil poised over his notebook.

“Yes?” asked Nell, tapping her foot.

Finally Zoe looked them square in the eye. “I think I poisoned my sister.”

“DO YOU SUPPOSE FRISCO, BALONEY, AND SHADY JIM ARE ALL IN IT TOGETHER?”
asked Drake, quite horrified by the thought.

June gasped. “But that would be cheating!”

“Cheating indeed, Ms. Jewell,” agreed Nell. “But it’s all we’ve got to go on right now.”

“Great Scott!” cried Drake…. “Don’t look now. To your left. By the corn dogs. Under the licorice ropes. James Frisco! The very man!”

… Drake and Nell sprang into action. They whipped out their magnifying glasses. They whipped out their periscopes. Their binoculars. Their repellant (it was a rather buggy day)…. They began surveillance (to watch, spy, stakeout, observe, shadow), determined to expose Frisco, the bad mad scientist, at his game.

“STAND BACK, EVERY ONE, BECAUSE IT DOESN’T GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS!”
Frisco whipped the cloth away to reveal an animal track (a fossilized
cast,
in paleo terms). But not just any animal track. No, indeed.

“This,” declared Frisco, “is the fossilized footprint of a
T. rex
!”

“Oooh! Aaah!” cried the crowd.

It was really quite stunning.

“Did I just say that it doesn’t get any better?” asked Frisco. “Well, ha ha! I lied! Because where there’s a footprint, there’s the creature that made the footprint! Behold … the one and only … the best, the most fabulous and horrifying … BEAST!” And he whipped the curtain open.

“Oh my gosh!” cried Nell, her jaw dropping.

“Great Scott!” cried Drake, his knees turning to jelly.

Woof!
cried Dr. Livingston, who hid behind Nell.

“I can’t believe it!” cried Pepper. “It’s a
T. rex!”