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Authors: Zilpha Keatley Snyder
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shook her head and said she’d rather not talk about it anymore, Tree didn’t push it. However, she must have taken what Abby had said pretty seriously, because she closed up the office, went to the insurance company’s office, and got them to get a search warrant to check out Mr. Barker’s house and car, which they hadn’t done before because Mr. Barker had an alibi—a friend who insisted they were together at the time the fire started.
Abby never found out exactly what Tree said to the insurance people, but that afternoon a fire-damaged bucket was found in the trunk of Barker’s car, and the investigators also found at the back of his closet a pair of his shoes that had incriminating stuff on the soles. And when the police interviewed his friend again, the friend admitted that he’d been bribed to lie about being with Barker that night.
It turned out that the other two fires really had been accidents. One had been caused by a cigarette and the other by some bad wiring, but the two of them happening so close together probably gave Barker the idea that he could torch his own place and everyone would think it had just been one more attack by the neighborhood arsonist.
For the rest of that week, Abby was able to arrange her diary entries into two lists—a Bad News list and a Good News list. She put Mr. Barker’s being arrested for arson under the Good News heading, but the fact that the O’Malley Agency didn’t get, and never was going to get, all the money he’d agreed to pay them went under Bad News. On the other hand, the agency did get quite a bit more publicity, and that, according to Tree, was all to the Good.
Another good development was that although Dorcas did have the talk with Daphne she’d threatened, and both Abby and Paige did get seriously chewed out, that was about as bad as it got. For one reason or another, Dorcas seemed to have forgotten about insisting that Abby stop spending so much time with Paige.
The other Good News item was a very exciting e-mail that came on Friday from Abby’s dad. The e-mail said that Mr. Montgomery, her dad’s boss, had asked him how he would feel about moving back to his old office in San Francisco. That really was Good News in Abby’s book. But from Dorcas’s point of view? Abby wasn’t too sure. When Abby asked her—came right out and asked her how she felt about it—Dorcas said, “I think it’s great. Martin loves San Francisco.”
But lots of people loved San Francisco, and there were all kinds of ways to say great. The way Dorcas said it was only great—not GREAT, and certainly not THE GREATEST.
9
S O THE ARSON CASE was solved by… well, by a hunch, but except for Abby and Tree, nobody knew whose hunch it had been. At first Tree had wanted to tell that it had been Abby who had fingered the arsonist, but Abby had begged her not to. They’d had quite a discussion about it the day after Mr. Barker was arrested. Dorcas had left early to follow her latest lead in a missing-person case, and Abby was passing through the office on her way to catch the bus to school.
“Oh good,” Tree said when Abby came in. “I wanted to talk to you.”
“Oh yeah?” Abby said. “What about?”
“About letting people know that you were the one who had the…” Tree paused and then went on. “The hunch about who the arsonist was.” Her eyebrows went up when she said the word hunch, to show that she knew it had been something a little different from a good guess. Or maybe a lot different.
Abby quickly shook her head. “No. No. Don’t. I don’t want you to.”
“Why not? You ought to get the credit for what happened,” Tree said. “The insurance people are very grateful. They might even pay us some kind of bonus.”
“But I don’t want a bonus.” Abby slid out of her backpack and sat down in one of the client chairs. “I don’t want anybody to know that I had anything to do with it. And if you told the insurance people it was my hunch they’d be
Abby never found out exactly what Tree said to the insurance people, but that afternoon a fire-damaged bucket was found in the trunk of Barker’s car, and the investigators also found at the back of his closet a pair of his shoes that had incriminating stuff on the soles. And when the police interviewed his friend again, the friend admitted that he’d been bribed to lie about being with Barker that night.
It turned out that the other two fires really had been accidents. One had been caused by a cigarette and the other by some bad wiring, but the two of them happening so close together probably gave Barker the idea that he could torch his own place and everyone would think it had just been one more attack by the neighborhood arsonist.
For the rest of that week, Abby was able to arrange her diary entries into two lists—a Bad News list and a Good News list. She put Mr. Barker’s being arrested for arson under the Good News heading, but the fact that the O’Malley Agency didn’t get, and never was going to get, all the money he’d agreed to pay them went under Bad News. On the other hand, the agency did get quite a bit more publicity, and that, according to Tree, was all to the Good.
Another good development was that although Dorcas did have the talk with Daphne she’d threatened, and both Abby and Paige did get seriously chewed out, that was about as bad as it got. For one reason or another, Dorcas seemed to have forgotten about insisting that Abby stop spending so much time with Paige.
The other Good News item was a very exciting e-mail that came on Friday from Abby’s dad. The e-mail said that Mr. Montgomery, her dad’s boss, had asked him how he would feel about moving back to his old office in San Francisco. That really was Good News in Abby’s book. But from Dorcas’s point of view? Abby wasn’t too sure. When Abby asked her—came right out and asked her how she felt about it—Dorcas said, “I think it’s great. Martin loves San Francisco.”
But lots of people loved San Francisco, and there were all kinds of ways to say great. The way Dorcas said it was only great—not GREAT, and certainly not THE GREATEST.
9
S O THE ARSON CASE was solved by… well, by a hunch, but except for Abby and Tree, nobody knew whose hunch it had been. At first Tree had wanted to tell that it had been Abby who had fingered the arsonist, but Abby had begged her not to. They’d had quite a discussion about it the day after Mr. Barker was arrested. Dorcas had left early to follow her latest lead in a missing-person case, and Abby was passing through the office on her way to catch the bus to school.
“Oh good,” Tree said when Abby came in. “I wanted to talk to you.”
“Oh yeah?” Abby said. “What about?”
“About letting people know that you were the one who had the…” Tree paused and then went on. “The hunch about who the arsonist was.” Her eyebrows went up when she said the word hunch, to show that she knew it had been something a little different from a good guess. Or maybe a lot different.
Abby quickly shook her head. “No. No. Don’t. I don’t want you to.”
“Why not? You ought to get the credit for what happened,” Tree said. “The insurance people are very grateful. They might even pay us some kind of bonus.”
“But I don’t want a bonus.” Abby slid out of her backpack and sat down in one of the client chairs. “I don’t want anybody to know that I had anything to do with it. And if you told the insurance people it was my hunch they’d be
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