The Hubble Identity 4
Chapter 4
The Search
Ms. Hardbroom looked livid. She glared down at Maud and Enid.
"Would you two care to explain what you were doing?!" she growled.
Maud cleared her throat and spoke.
"Ms. Hardbroom," she said, "We were investigation Millie's disappearance."
"by putting Drusilla on the highest spire of the academy?!" Ms. Hardbroom snapped
"We have reason to believe that Ethel Hallow knows something about Millie's disappearance," Maud replied
"And we believe that Drusilla probably knows something about it." said Enid. Ms. Hardbroom looked skeptical but to their surprise she decided to give them the benefit of the doubt. Reaching into the a nearby cupboard she pulled out a small bottle of truth potion.
"We'll settle this once and for all." She said, she took a spoon from the tea service on the table and instructed Drusilla to take a dose of the potion.
After Drusilla took the potion Ms. Hardbroom spoke again.
"That teaspoon of potion means that for the next ten minutes Drusilla will be incapable of lying." She explained, "Now Drusilla, is Ethel involved in the disappearance of Mildred Hubble?"
"I don't know for sure," said Drusilla, "Earlier today she seemed to be really certain that she would never see Mildred again, but that's all I know."
"Fine," said Ms. Hardbroom, "You may go, Drusilla." After Drusilla left she turned to Maud and Enid, "You to on the other hand will spend the evening writing 1000 lines: I must not terrorize my fellow students!"
Maud and Enid nodded and walked out of the room.
"Ethel must have wised up since that frog incident." Muttered Enid, "My guess is Drusilla told her what you did."
"Yeah," said Maud, "So Ethel's learned that if Drusilla knows to much someone, will eventually get it out her!"
Enid nodded. They entered the detention room and began writing their lines.
"The bad thing," said Enid as she finished a line, "is that now we're back to square one, and Ethel's gonna really be on her guard when she finds out what we did to Drusilla!"
Maud didn't reply at first. She wrote another line, but the wheels were turning in her mind all the time.
"Enid, I have an idea," she said
"What?" asked Enid
"That truth concoction of Ms. Hardbroom's, it might just be the key to getting the truth if we used it on the right person-if you know what I mean!" replied Maud
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Early the Next morning Mildred came downstairs to the kitchen to find Jason standing at the kitchen stove cooking!
"You can cook too?!" She exclaimed playfully as she sat down on one of the high stools by the kitchen counter.
Jason looked up and grinned.
"Kind of hard to be only son of an award-winning chef without learning a few things." He chuckled.
Jason plated some fluffy scrambled eggs, fried potatoes with peppers and onions, toast and sausage. He sat a plate in front of Mildred and slid onto the stool next to her.
"I hope you like it, Mom would've cooked, but she had to go in early today," he explained, "a new shipment of supplies is arriving at the restaurant."
Mildred took a bite of the food.
"MMM," she said, "It's wonderful, how do you not have a girlfriend?!" she teased
Jason blushed a little.
"Never found one that wanted to put up with a guy who has a tendency to run off at all hours of the night to help his dad," said Jason, "or to put it another way, play detective!"
"You help your dad with his cases?!" said Mildred intrigued. Jason nodded as he took another bite.
"From time to time, when he needs and extra set of hands, or when he has more cases than he can handle." He replied
"Wow a real-life Sherlock Holmes!" said Mildred impressed
"I hate to burst your bubble," chuckled Jason, "But it's not that glamorous, the vast majority of the cases we get, deal with someone who suspects that their significant other is cheating on them and wants proof one way or the other."
"I see," said Mildred finishing her breakfast.
"Yeah it's only very rarely that we get a case that involves something else." said Jason
"speaking of which," said Mildred, "Do you think that this Corelli will leave your restaurant alone now?"
Jason shrugged,
"I hope so but I'm not sure," he admitted, "one thing is for sure, he's not going to be happy that his boys were sent home with their tails between their legs; it's bad for business, because, the greatest weapon that his kind has is fear."
Mildred nodded, and her eyes flashed with the golden glow.
"If they do come back, they're in for a surprise," she smirked, "Because Corelli doesn't know who he's messing with!"
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Maud and Enid Made there way down the corridor toward the dining hall. They knew that if they wanted to use a truth potion on Ethel that left them with two options. Either make their own batch or get a hold of Ms. Hardbroom's bottle.
They figured that the safer option was to make their own. First things first though they had to put in an appearance at lunch or Ms. Hardbroom would get suspicious and it wouldn't do to have her skulking about. They would stay until Ms. Hardbroom was satisfied and returned to the emergency conference with the other faculty.
Ms. Cackle, Julie Hubble and several other members of the faculty had, for the last two days, been trying to figure out a way to locate Mildred. The problem was whatever it was that had been done to cause this was, thus far, proving impossible to trace.
Mr. Rowan-Webb put down the book he had been reading.
"I have a theory," he said
"What is it?" asked Ms. Cackle
"Let us say, just for the sake of the argument at this point, that someone did something to Mildred's project that caused this to happen. To do this and cover their tracks so well it would take knowledge and training above any that is taught at this school."
"I think I understand what your getting at." Said Julie, "You think that if some student, Let's say, around here were responsible for what happened they would have to have had outside help!"
Mr. Rowan-Webb nodded,
"Exactly!"
To Be Continued…. Please Review!