Free The Case of the Exploding Loo by Rachel Hamilton

audience with you, later this week.” Ms Grimm is breathing heavily. I don’t know why. It’s not like
she’s
been pounding
up and down the stairs. “You are a lucky, lucky girl. Such a wonderful man.”
    A man? So Ms Grimm isn’t the Great Leader. I look at her closely. Is she dribbling? The pupils of her eyes are huge and her face is sweaty. I flick through the unusual facial expressions
stored in my memory and decide she’s over-excited.
    During breakfast, I’m so busy trying to picture a man who could make Ms Grimm dribble that I accidentally eat a herring. As the salty tail brushes my tonsils, yesterday’s fish
reappear in my throat and it’s a struggle not to empty my stomach all over the dining table.
    I can still taste herring in Chess Hour. I let Remarkable Student Aisha win because I can’t bear the thought of her crying through Maths Hour when I feel this sick. The sickness fades
slightly when Ms Grimm announces we’re having double Maths instead of Music. After yesterday’s scree-chathon, violins have shot up to second place (below fish) in my list of Things I
Hate Most in the Whole World.
    Ms Grimm hands out turquoise iPods during today’s maths test. I immediately think of Mum’s Curry in a Hurry freebie.
    CLUE 21
    The colour turquoise connects LOSERS, Curry in a Hurry, Kazinsky Electronics, the cab driver and now these iPods.
    I put in the earphones. The music helps me focus and the test answers come easily as I whizz through the paper. Behind me, one Remarkable Student rushes out of the room with a
nosebleed and another complains of a headache and has to be taken to the nurse.
    Is this what people mean by exam nerves? For
Fermat’s
sake, it’s only a maths test.
    We return the iPods and mark our own papers under the watchful eye of Mr Kumar (Maths Teacher). I can’t stop staring at him.
    CLUE 22
    Mr Kumar (maths teacher) is the spitting image of Curry in a Hurry Man.
    I think they have the same surname too. I was going to add that to my clue list until Remarkable Student Sandeep told me that over forty million people in India have the name
Kumar. It didn’t seem such a good clue after that.
    I glance up in surprise as Mr Kumar hands me a shiny new iPod.
    “Every student whose test score has increased by more than five per cent since yesterday gets their own personal media player,” he explains.
    Nice! The only downside is they have Ms Grimm’s face engraved on the back. The iPods, that is, not the high-performing students. Engraving students would be child abuse.

    “Expensive reward,” I mutter.
    “Probably discounted.” Porter appears behind me. “Mr Kazinsky, the science teacher, owns a big electronics store in town.”
    “Mr Kazinsky? Of Kazinsky Electronics? Teaches here?”
    I’m pretty sure there aren’t forty million Kazinskys in the world. More links. More connections. How wide has Ms Grimm cast her net?
    “Why would someone with a successful electronics business want to be a science teacher?”
    “No idea.” Porter scratches his mother’s face off the back of the iPod. “But I heard him thank Mother for finding such perfect guinea pigs.”
    “He’s paid in guinea pigs?”
    Porter rolls his eyes. The movement reminds me of Holly and I realise this is the first time we’ve gone more than forty-eight hours without speaking.
    “He meant guinea pigs to test his products on,” Porter explains.
    “That’s animal cruelty.” I’ve seen pictures of dogs in laboratories being forced to smoke cigarettes. I imagine guinea pigs being forced to try out Kazinsky sandwich
makers and hair straighteners. “We should report him.”
    Porter’s expression makes him look even more like my sister. “He wasn’t talking about
real
guinea pigs. Mother hates animals – have you seen any round
here?”
    “Only the other Remarkable Students.” I stop laughing when I see Porter’s face.
    CLUE 23
    Porter thinks Mr Kazinsky and Ms Grimm are testing electronic devices on