The Case of the Gasping Garbage Read Online Free PDF Page A

love with me?”
    Drake pushed up his glasses. “Observe,” he said, pointing to the strips of paper. “Inks are not all the same.”
    “Certainly not,” agreed Nell.
    “An ink may look black—” said Drake.
    “—or blue,” added Nell.
    “But they are in fact made of many different colors. Nell and I separated the colors in a process called chromatography. It’s quite elementary, really. As alcohol moves through the ink, the different colors separate.”
    “That’s because,” Nell explained, “the different colors do not have the same weight. They move faster or slower depending upon how heavy they are.” She pointed at the strips of paper with her long wooden pointer. “As you can see, each ink is like a fingerprint. All we had to do was match the ink in the letter—”
    “—with the ink in the paper strips,” finished Drake proudly. “And each strip is carefully so we know whose pen it was.”
    “And?” asked Lilly, her eyes wide. “Whose was it? Who wrote me the letter?”
    Drake and Nell glanced at each other.
    Drake swallowed hard. The science of love was proving to be quite a challenge. “Uh—you tell her,” he said.
    Nell took a deep breath. “Ms. Crump, I think you’d better sit down.”
    Lilly sat. She could hardly wait.
    “It was Baloney,” Nell finally blurted. “Bubba Baloney Mahoney.”
    Suddenly there was a silence. A deep silence. A deep, dark silence. A deep, dark, dreadful silence. (A silence rather like when you’ve just found out that your favorite football team has been beaten 85 to 0, or perhaps when your teacher tells you that, yes, your assignment was due today .)
    Drake couldn’t stand it any longer. He shook Lilly’s shoulders. “Snap out of it!” he ordered.
    Lilly didn’t respond. Instead, she slid off the stool like a wet noodle and fell to the floor.
    Drake was desperate. He knew that if he didn’t do something soon, Lilly might go into shock. After that, a coma. After that … well, he knew that whatever it was, it would be quite awful. “Quick, Scientist Nell!” hollered Drake. “Pour a beaker of water over Ms. Crump’s head! There’s not a second to lose! Four hundred milliliters should do the trick!”
    “Check!”
    Sploosh!
    “ Splutter! ”
    Dazed and drowned, Lilly stared at them. Her hair dangled in limp, soggy strings, like a wet mop that hadn’t yet been wrung out.
    “Speak!” ordered Drake.
    “Oh, Baloney!” Lilly said. She clasped her hands together.
    “Huh?” Drake and Nell looked at her in astonishment.
    “Thank you, Detective Drake and Scientist Nell. Thank you! This is the happiest day of my life!” Lilly gave each of them a teeny-tiny hug.
    Drake returned the love letter, along with a business card. “Call us. Anytime.”
    “Oh, I will! I will!” Lilly said. Then she flew out of the room as fast as her little legs could carry her.
    After she was gone, Nell shook her head. “There are some things science can’t explain.”
    “Indeed, Scientist Nell,” Drake said. “Indeed.” That evening, Drake wrote in his lab notebook:

    Love letter mystery solved.
Baloney the culprit.
Don’t understand this thing
called LOVE.
    (A MYSTERY.)
Received one fish with
buggy eyes as payment—
MUST RETURN in one week.
       PAID IN FULL.

D o you want to perform experiments just like Drake Doyle and Nell Fossey? Create your own laboratory—it’s easy!
    1. Start by collecting beakers and flasks. Clear glass bottles and jars work great. Wash thoroughly; remove old labels by soaking them in warm, soapy water. Anytime an experiment calls for a beaker, use a jar. For flasks, use bottles.
    2. Find a lab coat. Lab coats protect your clothes and skin from chemicals and other messy stuff. (Plus, they’re spiffy.) Large, white, button-down shirts with the sleeves rolled up work well. If you can’t locate any around your house (ask first!), you can certainly find an inexpensive one at a secondhand clothing store. Using a