Act 2: The Shadow of a Secret
"Okay, Lendrum." Ed said. "What exactly happened? How did every book in the library just disappear?"
"I got caught up in Mark Twain's 'Puddin' Head Wilson'. It drew me in like lemonade on a hot Mississippi day." Lendrum explained. "Books were being checked out through the library's automated system."
"But they weren't being returned." Ingrid surmised.
"It happened, in the words of Hemingway, 'gradually, then suddenly'." Lendrum sobbed. "Oh, what kind of a librarian am I?"
"It's not your fault, Mr. Lendrum." Fillmore assured. "Someone took those books. And we're gonna find out who."
"I'll call the station." Montoya said.
The Safety Patrol came to the crime scene and sealed it off. While everyone else investigated on their own, Fillmore, Ed, and Vallejo gathered around Ingrid as she checked out the library computer.
"Over the past week, massive amounts of books have been checked out under bogus library cards." Ingrid said.
"How did they do that?" Vallejo asked.
"They probably hacked the mainframe." Ed said. "Either that, or they used the library work station while Lendrum had his nose in his book."
"Anything else you know?" Vallejo asked.
"Riddle me this." Ed said making Vallejo roll his eyes. "What's nowhere but everywhere except where something is?"
"Nothing." Fillmore answered.
"Next time, Ed, just say that." Vallejo said. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go and get my usual threat from Principal Folsom. You wanna come, Montoya? She's friendlier if you're there."
"Can't. I got work to do." Montoya said as she sat at another computer.
"Please, let us through!" cried out a boy at the other side of the yellow tape. "I'm Noah Hawthorn, president of the X Middle School Book Club!"
O'Farrell was about to insist he step back, but Fillmore stop him. "It's cool, O'Farrell. He can come."
"May I, as well." Said a familiar adult stepping up. It was Hugo Strange, the school's new guidance counselor. "Mr. Hawthorn is a patient of mine, and I worry about his mental health."
"I suppose there's no harm in that, Mr. Strange." Fillmore said opening the tape for them and the Book Club that followed.
When Noah looked around, his face was absolutely horrified. He placed his hand on a shelf to physically feel the emptiness that filled it. "Oh, this is so… unacceptable. They stole everything good in us. They stole our books."
"Hey, Noah, we'll get them back, man." Fillmore assured.
"But what about our innocence, man?" Noah asked. "They stole that too."
"We can only get the books back, Noah. The rest, that's up to you."
Hugo Strange observed the conversation curiously. "It's truly impressive how passionate these children are."
"Most of them are." Ed said. "That's how things are at X Middle School."
"Well, I've never set foot in this school until just a couple of weeks ago, so I'm still getting used for this." Strange said.
Right behind him, Montoya opened up the library database and hit the search box. She typed in AA 02 A3 for the classification and got a result. She raised her eyebrow curiously as she saw the number match a certain book.
"'The Count of Monte Cristo' by Alexander Dumas?" Montoya whispered to herself. "Why would Sage want a book like that? Well, he can't get it since it's missing along with the rest, so we better find the books quickly."
Back at the crime scene, Ed brushed his hand on an empty bookshelf and noticed something. He discovered white flakes covering a small area.
"What did you discover?" Ingrid asked.
"I look like sugar, but I'm not sweet. I add flavor and I preserve meat. What am I?" Ed asked.
"Salt." Ingrid answered.
"Correct." Ed said showing off the salt he discovered.
"All right. Sounds like an angle." Fillmore said. "Bag up a sample of this stuff and bring it down to HQ. I'm going on a trip to the grocery store."
Montoya took a little breath before entering Vic Sage's room. She approached him as he observed her empty hands.
"Let me guess. It was checked out?" Sage asked.
"You could say that." Montoya said. "Somebody used fake accounts to check out every book in the library without returning them. There's not a single book left, not even the Count of Monte Cristo that you wanted."
"Oh. So that's what the book is." Sage said.
"What?" Montoya asked. "You wanted the book without even knowing what it is? Why?"
"The better question is what do you know about that specific book?"
"Well, I asked Mr. Lendrum about it. He told me that book is one of the oldest in X Middle School history. Not only that, but it's been rarely checked out. Only a handful of people have ever borrowed it from the library."
"Really? In that case, it might be what I'm looking for."
"For what?"
"Let's just say, it's going to tell more than one story. There's a liar in our midst, and my investigations lead to that specific book giving us a clue of their intentions. And if I do that, I might just be one step closer to finding the dark secret of X Middle School. You'll understand in due time, Renee. For now, you've got a book thief to arrest."
Montoya was still confused as she left the detention room.
While Ed and Ingrid were waiting for Fillmore, they decided to let Tehama in on their own personal investigation. They showed her the rocket they found and the label on it.
"We found this lodged in the ceiling." Ingrid said. "We think it may have something to do with the custard spill."
"What is it?" Tehama asked.
"It's called Carbee Cola, the most highly carbonated soda in history. It's only ever sold in Cleveland." Ed said pulling out a piece of paper. "I checked the internet and printed out this article."
"Well, if it's from Cleveland, maybe Fillmore can help you." Tehama said. "That's where he lived before his family moved here."
"Fillmore?" Ed asked just as the man in question walked in with a grocery bag full of salty treats.
"You called?" Fillmore asked not noticing the rocket, which Ingrid hid in her desk.
"Are we having a party?" Ingrid asked.
"Not quite." Fillmore said. "Just something to compare with the salt sample we found at the crime scene."
Ingrid took salt from each treat and observed them under a microscope. She searched each one until she finally found a match.
"Crackers. These pretzel rods are an exact match."
"Pretzel rods?" Ed asked picking up the bag that was once studied. "Have we seen these before?"
"Yeah. Tony Clementina." Fillmore said. "Whenever we're not booking him, he always has a bag of those on hand. Let's find him."
"He's still in school." Ingrid said. "We had to cut him loose pending a suspension hearing."
RIIIIIING!
"That's the last bell." Ed said. "I take it Clementina takes the bus home?"
Ed was right. Clementina was on his way entering the school bus when his eyes suddenly caught the Safety Patrol heading toward him. He rushed the kids behind him to go before him so he could get on last and the bus would leave, but it wasn't fast enough. The Safety Parol kept the bus from leaving by flashing their badges and they were let onboard, much to Clementina's dismay.
"Freeze, Clementina." Ingrid demanded.
"How about you freeze?" Clementina replied snatching a kid's model of the Taj Mahal made out of balsa wood.
"Please, don't!" begged the robbed kid worrying for his project. "That's my Balsa Mahal! It took me weeks! It's priceless! It's to scale!"
"Don't be stupid, buddy." Ed said. "You've got nowhere to go."
"I'm not so sure of that." Clementina said stepping back.
When Tony turned, he quickly opened the emergency door at the back of the bus, but when he looked down, he froze up and gasped. The model he had was thrown out of his hands, but it was safely caught by Ingrid while Fillmore chased after Tony. The bigger kid jumped out of the door with his eyes closed, and when he landed, he ran as fast as he could to the school yard.
After stealing a unicycle from the Mime Club, Clementina rode it for a faster getaway. His plans were put in jeopardy when Fillmore took a skateboard to keep up with him. The chase eventually lead him to the pole-vaulting area where Ed stood there waiting. He extended his foot and stopped the unicycle making Clementina fall to the ground. Fillmore stopped to make the arrest.
"How'd you know he's end up here, Ed?" Fillmore asked.
"Because the simple-minded are predictable."
When the Safety Patrol checked Clementina's backyard, the first place they checked was his shed, which had knock-off T-shirts he was planning to sell to the Glee Club. Although hopeless at first, they eventually found the missing library books filling up the treehouse that hung above.
After the books were secure and Clementina was taken to the station, there was another mystery to be solved, one that could only be solved in the Student Council office. Once they arrived, Ingrid and Ed were greeted by the student body president, Harvey Dent, who dressed neatly, but the tie that he wore was white on one half and black on the other. He greeted the two with a friendly smile.
"I just heard about the library fiasco." Dent said. "Congratulations, Officer Third, for putting all the literates in this school at ease. You two, Mr. Nashton."
"I prefer Nygma, Mr. Dent." Ed said.
"And Fillmore helped too." Ingrid said.
Dent's smile dropped as if hearing that name disgusted him. "Somehow, I doubt that. I'm sure you two were in charge of this heroic act, not that punk, Fillmore."
"You don't like him a lot, do you?" Ed asked.
"That's putting it mildly considering all the trouble that boy caused. Backtalking. Chalk boosting. Locker rigging. Class cutting. Milk counterfeiting. You name it, he was behind it. You may have met some delinquents with bad attitudes, but none of them hold a candle to Cornelius Fillmore."
"Fillmore was a delinquent?" Ed asked.
"Still is. I don't know what angle he's cooking with this Safety Patrol phase, but he doesn't fool me." Dent said. "Last year, back when I was running for office, I confronted him and publically declared that when I win, I would issue zero-tolerance policies against lost causes like him."
"Sounds like you were pretty harsh on him." Ingrid said.
"He deserved it." Dent said. "Did you come all the way here to try and defend him?"
"Well, no." Ingrid said. "We actually wanted to ask you about the custard spill."
Dent raised his eyebrow. "Well, that was a long time ago, but okay. Truth be told, it was the best thing that ever happened to me."
"Really?" Ed asked. "From what we heard, it was a disaster. And it was your project."
"Well, yeah, I was upset at first," Dent said, "But after taking responsibility, I was put in charge of disaster relief. As it turned out, my leadership skills and the way I handled the situation turned out to be good for the votes. If that platform hadn't given way, I wouldn't have won the election by a landslide."
"So you think it was an accident?" Ingrid asked.
"Of course," Dent replied, "And even if it wasn't, I don't care. If somebody did it, I'd thank them, because if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be the student council president. And the joke would be on them."
Fillmore was just passing by the library when he took a look through the open doors. He looked curiously at Renee Montoya, who was digging through the carts full of the recovered library books. Curious enough, he entered.
"What's up, Montoya?" Fillmore asked.
"Oh, Fillmore." Montoya said. "I was just… looking for a book."
"I'm sure there are a lot of them in there." Fillmore joked.
"No, a specific one. The Count of Monte Cristo. I can't find it anywhere."
"Maybe it was checked out by someone else before the robbery." Fillmore said.
"No. I don't think so." Montoya said. "Don't ask me why I know, but the book's rarely ever been checked out. It doesn't seem likely that someone would just check it out casually right before a mass robbery. The odds are too great."
"Well, maybe it wouldn't hurt to look." Fillmore said before joining her in going through the books. Eventually, they came across a startling revelation.
Ed was curious at the mess that Ingrid was making at her desk. There were several bent straps of tape and talc stains on her face and hair. He chuckled when he approached.
"Making a mess already, Third?" Ed asked smugly.
"Just working on the Carpee Cola rocket thing." Ingrid said. "Tehama just showed me a way to collect fingerprints. We can use it to see who fired the rocket. And caused the custard to spill."
"I see." Ed said before noticing the black paper on the table. He saw that there was already a piece of tape with a fingerprint attached to it. "Who's is that?"
"Oh, that's Fillmore's." Ingrid said. "Tehama was just using it to demonstrate how the process works." Just as she said that, she successfully peels off a fingerprint and places it on the black paper. "Aha. There we go."
Ed took a good look at the recently-collected fingerprint and widened his eyes. "Hold up. What?"
"What's up, Ed?" Ingrid asked.
"Tear one off and scratch my head. What was once red is black instead."
"I'm thinking… a match?" Ingrid asked.
"Exactly. It's a match." Ed asked pointing at the two fingerprints on the paper.
Ingrid looked closely and shared his surprised reaction. They were called by Fillmore to the library right afterwards, but the revelation still haunted their minds. After seeing the two fingerprints on the paper, there was no doubt about it.
Both fingerprints belonged to Cornelius Fillmore.