Free Laugh Till You Cry by Joan Lowery Nixon Page A

and the other guys weren’t going to use that powdered sugar in cooking. They had something else in mind. Maybe a search engine like Google could tell him what that might be.
    He watched as the screen brought up sites with recipes that called for powdered sugar. Only one site differed from the rest. Powdered sugar helped fight mites that infected bees. Hayden, Brad, and Eddie weren’t planning to help bees. Cody was sure of that.
    He remembered that the telephone caller had used the word
smoke
, so he typed it into the Search box and hit Enter.
    He saw Web sites for antismoking campaigns, smoke detectors, and cigar stores. He stopped when he found a Web site devoted to smoke and bees.
    Powdered sugar and bees, smoke and bees? Was there a connection? Cody sighed. If there was, he couldn’t figure it out.
    Puzzled, Cody shut down his computer, flopped across his bed, and tried to think. Instead, he fell asleep.
    He woke to find his mother gently shaking his shoulder. “Office Ramsey is here to talk to you,” she said.
    Cody jumped to his feet so fast he staggered, bouncing off the dresser and desk on the way to his open bedroom door. He hurried down the stairs, trying not to make too much noise, and dashed into the living room.
    Not even taking time to say hello to Jake, Cody asked, “Did Bobby confess?”
    “Slow down,” Jake said. He patted the sofa cushion next to his. “Have a seat and I’ll fill you in on what we found out.”
    Cody immediately sat down, aware that his mother had taken the easy chair near the fireplace. “What was it?” he asked in a rush.
    “Bobby left the school just as you said, through the basement door. His mom had already arrived at the school and was waiting for him at the side street, where she had picked him up before.”
    Cody scowled, trying to think. “Why didn’t he go out the front doors, the regular way?”
    “He claimed he didn’t like having a lot of kids and Mr. Carmody watch him leave. He’d used the door before, and his mom had picked him up there before.”
    Cody looked up. “How about the phone call?”
    “It came from the same place as the first one. Outside the convenience store.”
    “I suppose Bobby and his mom didn’t stop at that store.” Cody slumped, waiting for the answer he knew would come.
    “They say they didn’t,” Jake told him. “They went straight home.”
    “Didn’t anybody see the person making the phone call?”
    “The people at the convenience store claimed they couldn’t. As I told you before, the public telephone is located outside, out of sight of the checkout counter.”
    “We’re back where we started,” Cody said.
    “Not completely,” Jake answered. “We know that the calls were made when you were away from the other kids, with no one to alibi you. Once could be coincidence. Twice makes me begin to think someone planned it that way.”
    Cody sat upright. “You mean I was set up?”
    “I didn’t say for sure,” Jake cautioned him. “I just said it was a possibility.”
    “Hayden,” Cody said.
    His mother leaned forward. “Cody, Hayden is your cousin. You’re imagining things he might do to you. Your last complaint about him was that he planned to shove your head in a toilet.”
    “Mom, he
said
he would.”
    “Did he do it?”
    Cody squirmed. “Well, no, but—”
    “See what I mean?” Mrs. Carter said. “Hayden wouldn’t harm you or make threatening phone calls and try to get people to think you made them. Give Hayden a chance to be your friend, and he will be. Please don’t let me hear you say one more word about suspecting Hayden of anything.”
    Jake was more direct. He said to Cody, “Do you know for a fact that Hayden saw you go outside to eat lunch or go into the basement?”
    “I saw him in the hall, going to the cafeteria, so he might have.”
    “I didn’t ask if he might have seen you. I asked if you knew for a fact.”
    Cody closed his eyes, trying as hard as he could to remember. Finally, he