The Lemonade Crime Read Online Free PDF Page A

envelope. Evan watched as she pulled it out slowly. The card was red. It had one word on it.
    Jessie looked around like she was making a very important decision, but Evan knew she'd already decided who would get that red card. Jessie never left anything until the last minute.
    "The judge is going to be ... David Kirkorian."
    There was dead silence.
    Then Paul shouted out, "Are you kidding me?"
    "He can't be a judge!" said Ryan. "He collects human bones!"
    "I do not!" said David, turning bright red but stepping up to Jessie and taking the card out of her hand.
    Then everyone started talking at once. David, meanwhile, held up the red card and shouted, "Ha, ha! I'm the judge! I'm the judge!" They made so much noise, the duty teacher came over to see what was going on with class 4–0. That quieted everyone down. Nobody wanted the duty teacher getting involved. One of the unspoken rules on the playground was
Never tell the duty teacher what's really going on.
    "Why him?" asked Paul after the duty teacher walked away.
    "Because he's the only one in the whole class who's
impartial
," said Jessie. "He's not friends with Evan or Scott. He'll be fair. He won't play favorites. And that's the most important thing about a judge. A judge has to treat everyone the same."
    David held up the red card in one hand and placed the other one over his heart. "I solemnly swear that I'll be a fair judge," he said.
    "Good," said Jessie.
    But Evan couldn't believe it. Who was going to listen to a kid like David Kirkorian?
    For Evan, the day went downhill from there. All afternoon in class, they worked on things that Evan hated: math fact drills, spelling rules, and writers' workshop. Then Mrs. Overton discovered that one of the jump ropes was missing from the 4–0 milk crate, and that was Evan's fault because he was Equipment Manager.
    But the thing that really slam-dunked the day right into the garbage can, the thing that changed it from a crummy day into absolutely one of the top ten worst days of his life, happened after school.
    Evan was strapping on his bike helmet when Adam walked up to him at the rack and pulled out his bike. "You want to come over?" asked Evan.
    "Can't," said Adam. "I promised my mom I'd help her get the house ready for Yom Kippur."
    "Is that today?" asked Evan, clicking the buckle under his chin.
    "It starts Friday night, but my mom wants me to clean up my room today and do some other stuff, too."
    Evan knew that Yom Kippur is a holiday where the grownups don't eat all day. It was supposed to help them think about their sins, but Evan couldn't figure that out. When he was hungry, he couldn't think about anything except what he was going to eat next.
    "You want to come to the break-fast party?" asked Adam. The Goldbergs always ate a big meal at sunset when the holiday fast was over.
    "Sure," said Evan. He'd been to lots of Friday night dinners at Adam's and Paul's houses. He liked the candles and even the prayers he didn't understand, but mostly he liked the food: challah bread, roasted chicken, and applesauce cake.
    "Are you going to go the whole day without eating this year?" asked Evan. Last year, Adam had bragged that he was going to fast next year for Yom Kippur.
    Adam shrugged. "I might try." Then he looked down at his bike and bounced the front wheel a couple of times on the hard blacktop. "Look. Uh. There's something I've been meaning to say to you. You remember how over the summer, Paul and Kevin and me, we ditched you in the woods that time?"
    "Yeah," said Evan, wondering why Adam was bringing up something that had happened months ago. Evan had been really mad back then, but now it was over.
    "Well, I'm really sorry. And I hope you'll forgive me." Evan looked confused. Adam shrugged. "Dude. It's Yom Kippur. The Day of Atonement. You have to go around and ask people to forgive your sins."
    Evan laughed. "You're such an idiot!" He shoved Adam. Adam grinned, faked like he was going to throw a punch, then got on