Chapter 11: The Choicest Pumpkin

"Amanda? What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at the carnival?" Dotty asked when Amanda suddenly arrived at the house and limped into the kitchen. The boys were seated at the kitchen table, carving their pumpkins, still arguing over which pumpkin was the best.

"I still say that one is the best one," Phillip grumbled.

"Yours is bigger," Jamie insisted.

"No, yours is," Phillip said.

"If you feel that way about it, why don't you switch pumpkins with each other?" Amanda suggested.

"We tried that about half an hour ago," Dotty said, rolling her eyes. "Peace lasted for about fifteen minutes before they started up again. I don't have any idea how they can tell the difference between them. This whole argument is just silly! Those pumpkins look alike to me."

"Jamie's pumpkin is rounder than mine," Phillip insisted.

"And the stem on Phillip's is curved more," Jamie pointed out.

"They don't look that different to me, either," Amanda said. "Now that you boys have started to carve those, you'll have to finish them. I'm sure they'll both turn out great."

Amanda had the feeling that they had both switched their positions on which pumpkin was their favorite, maybe even several times, since they'd picked them out at the pumpkin patch. She couldn't be sure, though. The pumpkins looked nearly identical to her. Speaking of which . . .

"A friend brought me home, Mother. I need to change shoes. I turned my ankle in these." Amanda held up her remaining shoe.

"What happened to the other shoe?" Dotty asked.

"I, um, had to leave it back at the carnival," Amanda said. "The heel's broken." It wasn't really true, but it might be true later when she got hold of that stupid shoe again.

"You poor dear! I guess you're right. You really didn't have enough time to practice in those shoes before you had to wear them tonight. But don't worry, I'll get you some ice, and we'll wrap that ankle for you, and you'll be as good as new."

"Thank you, Mother."

"Where is your friend?"

"What?"

"The friend who brought you home. Didn't she come in with you?"

"Oh, no . . . well, she really couldn't, but, um, she'll be back in a minute to pick me up again."

"Oh, well, alright then. Let's see about that ankle."

While Dotty helped Amanda to wrap her ankle, Amanda brought up the subject of the pumpkin keychains.

"You know, Mother," she said, "do you remember those keychains that they were giving out at the pumpkin patch?"

"Well, of course, dear," Dotty said, although Amanda thought that she looked slightly guilty.

"It's funny," Amanda said, "but I could have sworn that the one they gave me had triangle eyes. When I found it in my purse this afternoon, though, its eyes were round."

Dotty glanced at her, and Amanda definitely caught the guilty look in her eyes.

"Well, yes," she admitted. "When we got home from the pumpkin patch, I was looking for some cough drops. I couldn't find any in the cabinet, and you were on the phone with someone, so I checked in your purse. I found the cough drops, but I also saw the keychain they gave you. It's silly, I know, but I just thought that the one with the triangle eyes was cuter than the one with the round ones, so I decided to trade with you. I didn't think that you'd mind."

"Oh, it's not that," Amanda said. "I was just confused, that's all. Where did you put the other keychain?"

"I've got it here in my pocket," Dotty said, taking it out and handing it to her. Sure enough, it was the one that Amanda remembered getting from Max.

"Would it be alright if I borrowed this?" Amanda asked. "I just want to, um, show it to my friend. I was telling him—I mean her, about the keychains, and I want to show her the difference between the two of them."

"Well, of course," Dotty said. "I'm sorry, I really should have talked to you before taking your keychain."

"That's alright, Mother," Amanda said. "I'm just glad that you told me now." Dotty would never realize just how glad.

A few minutes later, Amanda joined Lee where he had parked across the street. She was now wearing sensible black flats and limping only slightly.

"Did you get it?" he asked.

"I got it!" Amanda said, handing over the keychain.

"Let's have a look at it."

Using his Swiss army knife, Lee carefully pried apart the two halves of the pumpkin. Inside was a folded piece of paper with an address written on it, today's date, and a time, 6:00 pm.

"I know this address," Lee said. "That's Senator Parker's mansion. When I was on the phone with Billy, arranging for someone to come pick up Tony, he mentioned it as one of the possibilities for the Halloween party where the assassination would take place. But I don't understand why Tony told his girlfriend that he was going to kill the President. The President is definitely not going to be at Senator Parker's Halloween party."

Amanda frowned and said, "Lee, did he say that he was going to kill the U.S. President or just a president?"

Seeing what Amanda was getting at, Lee said, "According to Olivia, he just said 'the president,' but you're right, he didn't specify the president of which county. I don't know of any other presidents currently visiting the United States—"

"No, I don't think it's the president of a county, Lee," Amanda said. "I think it's a company president. Mrs. Kelly was bragging earlier that the president of her husband's company was friends with Senator Parker. She said that she and Mr. Kelly would probably have gone to the senator's party tonight if they hadn't had the school carnival on the same night."

"We'd better get over there right away."

"But you got the assassin back at the carnival, didn't you?"

"We can't take the chance. I think there may be more than one assassin. Olivia mentioned that Tony had a friend he was always hanging around with, and he told her that this friend got him the assassination job. As long as this friend is still on the loose, there's danger."

Amanda checked her watch. "It's only a little before six right now."

"We don't have much time," Lee said. "We'd better call Billy again. We're going to need backup."