Chapter 7: 1st Case Solved
The Super Detective Siblings are seen back in the playground of the school. With their backpacks with them, Brandon opens his to take out his laptop.
Prika then says while he takes off his glasses, "We got so many clues, and we need to add them up before we leave for the day. What are you doing, Brandon?"
"Luckily for us, my glasses have a built-in camera. It records everything and takes pictures daily. Plus, it has a USB port for me to load them into my laptop," said Brandon, taking the USB port from his glasses and plugging it into his laptop.
While he typed on it, Baby Luma commented, "Genius, Brandon. If Luigi were here, he would praise your work."
He then responds, "You think so? I idol his work of science."
When the photos and recordings from his glasses pop up on the screen, he says, "Okay, what should we check first?"
"First up, it's everything from the delivery trucks. From what we learned is that the delivery people did say they deliver the ice cream and paperwork proof it," said Tallulah.
Brandon then reveals recordings of the adults' conversations and pictures of the truck where the ice cream is and the holed crates.
"Can't we just check the security tapes of the school to find our suspect?" Garth asks.
"I don't know. That sounds a bit too far," said Kennedy.
"It's our only shot."
"Okay, Brandon. You think you can do that?"
"Already on it," he responds.
The camera footage of the delivery area shows the delivery people doing their work with Mr. Cottener talking to them and Mrs. Torma and Angelica helping them out.
"Hmm…Mr. Cottener is chatty with them. Angelica looked too happy while carrying the ice cream crates," Bruce commented.
But when Mrs. Torma takes out a drill press cutter and drills a hole in each create, the Super Detective Siblings are shocked by this.
"Why would Mrs. Torma do that?" Lyla asks.
Then Brandon says, "Oh, yeah. It's to release the cold air, so the ice cream melts into the perfect texture, so they'll be easier to eat."
"Oh, yeah. Now about the kitchen," said Prika.
"I forgot to mention when I was looking through the freezer; I found another door behind a chef's chart. Plus, I even uncovered some tire tracks on the kitchen floor."
When he pulls up the kitchen clip, a clip shows Janitor Jasper talking to Mrs. Fanderson and Ms. Poppernickle while the ice cream filled crates. But once they left, the clip became static.
"Gah, someone must've erased it. It was our shot to find the culprit," Baby Luma said, starting to get mad.
But when he does, he starts to sparkle and glitter, which Brandon's laptop begins to glitter and sparkle. The clip then starts to make the erased footage appear again. The Toad Twins watched behind a shrub, and Baby Luma's friends were surprised.
"Baby Luma, you brought the erased footage back! That must be your Luma Power, Repair. Which makes things that were destroyed or erased back to the way it's supposed to be," said Prika, hugging him in delight, which made him blush red.
And once the Super Detective Siblings looked at the laptop, they gasped and said, "We got our culprit!"
The Toad Twins were proud before they walked towards the children for Blue Toad to say, "My students, you seem happy today. Did something good happen?"
"Mr. BT, we found out what happened to the missing ice cream," said Tallulah.
"That's great. You got enough evidence?"
"We sure do you. Can you and Mr. YT gather all of the lunch people, the principal, and the janitor at the kitchen?"
"Sure thing, kiddos," said Yellow Toad.
A few minutes have passed, the Super Detective Siblings are standing in front of the Toad Twins, the lunch people, Principal Tarlmer, and Janitor Jasper.
"Teachers, Lunch people, Principal, and Janitor, we gathered you all here to tell you what has been happening to the missing ice cream," said Prika.
"You do?! Thank goodness, I don't want my job lowered," said Mrs. Fanderson.
"Please, follow us to the freezer," said Baby Luma, leading the way.
And when Tallulah opens the freezer door, Ms. Poppernickle says, "Are you trying to say that freezer is where the ice cream is all along?"
"Not quite. There's a secret door that leads us to it," said Tallulah, removing the chef's chart to present the door.
"A door in the freezer? I didn't know about this," said Principal Tarlmer.
"Principal Tarlmer, our culprit, built it to stow away the ice cream in their getaway truck by the end of the day," said Garth, opening the door.
The Super Detective Siblings then led the adults while Angelica said, "Mom, this is freaking me out."
"Calm down, sweetie," said Mrs. Torma, holding her daughter's hand.
When they reach another door, they open to find themselves outside the delivery parking lot, which it's disguised as a wall.
"We're outside. But how?" said Janitor Jasper.
"There! In that disguised delivery truck! That's where you will find the missing ice cream," said Kennedy, pointing to a small delivery truck.
The Toad Twins then opened the trunk for all the adults and Angelica to gasp at seeing packs and tubes of ice cream inside.
"Well done, Super Detective Siblings. You found the missing ice cream," said Yellow Toad.
"Yeah, but who would do such a thing and how?" said Blue Toad.
Then Bruce said, "Our culprit was a sly one. They know that Mrs. Torma would puncture a hole in each of the crates for the ice cream to melt enough to be eaten, and Janitor Jasper would come cleaning in the kitchen every morning. They would use Jasper's vacuum cleaner to take the ice cream out through the holes."
Then Lyla said, "And once they hid the ice cream at the freezer's hidden door during the whole day, they would use their breaks to haul them into their truck that way, they can get away without detection. But they knew that cameras would catch their work so that they would erase it."
"But thanks to Baby Luma's power, he managed to recover the lost recordings. And which I will show with my laptop will reveal who it is," said Brandon, showing his laptop.
And when everyone looked at it, they all gasped when they saw the person doing their vacuum cleaning work, who is none other than Ms. Poppernickle.
When she tries to tiptoe away, the Toad Twins grabs her by the arm to not let her escape while Principal Tarlmer then says, "Ms. Poppernickle, it was you all along?! But you're lactose intolerant."
Then Prika said, "She is. We thought it was strange that her locker was empty but cold to the touch. We also noticed fingerprints on her locker door from the glovers she used, not affected by them. And if you go into her pockets, you'll find the keys to the truck and the wet-cold gloves."
Mr. Cottener digs into Ms. Poppernickle's pockets to find the keys and the gloves while saying, "The little star is right. Back in my farmer days, I could recognize any truck key. And these keys are no doubt belonging to this truck."
When he pushed the button, the truck honked and lit up.
"But now here's the one thing we don't get, why did she do it, and where did she put the rest of the ice cream?" said Baby Luma.
Annoyed, Ms. Poppernickle responds, "Can you blame me for what I did?! You children would barely eat the food we prepared for you! All the hard work and effort we put into it goes to waste by throwing it into the trash. I wanted to teach you a lesson for not appreciating it by taking the one thing you'll ever buy at the cafeteria: ice cream. And I would give it away to charity. Not every child can have food and ice cream as you do. You should've been grateful that we wished to serve you lunch every day."
Everyone then begins to feel bad for her that Tallulah said, "Oh, Ms. Poppernickle. We didn't know. We're sorry."
"Yeah, we're sorry," said the rest of the Super Detective Siblings and Angelica.
Then Principal Tarlmer said, "I was going to have you fired and arrested for your deed, Ms. Poppernickle. But after understanding why, I decided to only serve ice cream around Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays."
"So, I'm off the hook?" said Ms. Poppernickle as the Toad Twins let her go.
"Well, you're going to have to pay with your salary for the ice cream you've given away and work extra shifts."
"Understood, sir."
"Well, Super Detective Siblings. Since you solved your first case, I shall allow it. Keep up the good work."
"Yes, Principal Tarlmer," Super Detective Siblings respond.
"I knew we could do it," said Prika, hugging her team.
Baby Luma becomes blushing red while the rest of the Siblings shake their heads as they smile.
