Chapter 14

Chapter 14 Tip tip (n) information passed to a reporter "Maxwell, I've got a problem," Jessie said. She was lying on her bed, with the phone pressed close to her ear. There was no response from the other end of the line. Jessie knew Maxwell was there, because she could hear him breathing. "Why aren't you saying anything?" Jessie asked. "You didn't ask me a question," said Maxwell in his usual flat voice. "So? When someone says 'I've got a problem,' you're supposed to say something like 'Really?' or 'What is it?' or 'Tell me about it.' "Jessie sometimes found it exasperating that she had to

explain these simple things to Maxwell. But that's just the way Maxwell was. She waited a minute to see what he would say, but then she just gave up. "Oh, for Pete's sake! Here's my problem." She told Maxwell about the survey and the mysterious candy hearts and how no one knew who had drawn the heart on the door in the bathroom. "I was going to write an article called 'The Candy Heart Mystery,' but I haven't solved that one yet. And I haven't figured out the secret on the bathroom wall, either!" Jessie had been reading an Encyclopedia Brown mystery before calling Maxwell. She loved the way each chapter contained clues to solve a mystery, and the way the answer to each mystery was revealed in the "Answers" section at the back of the book. If she knew the answers to the two mysteries in 4-O, then she'd have a blockbuster frontpage story. "I don't know," she continued. "Maybe I should

just use the survey as my front-page story. Everyone seems pretty interested in that. Which story do you think I should put on the front page?" "I don't know." "I know you don't know. I'm asking for your opinion." "I don't have an opinion." Jessie tugged on a thread that was hanging off her jeans. "If I only knew who was sending the candy hearts. Or who wrote the heart on the bathroom door." "Maybe it's the same person," said Maxwell. "That would be the story of the century!" Jessie's head practically exploded thinking about what a success her newspaper would be if she revealed the answer to both mysteries. Kids would be fighting over The 4-O Forum. Maybe she'd even get an award, like the Pulitzer Prize. "I bet I could figure out who wrote the heart on the bathroom door," said Maxwell. Maxwell

had a gift for seeing details and patterns that other people missed, but Jessie was sure that even Maxwell couldn't match the handwriting with anyone else's in the class. "No, I tried," she said. "I've been looking at everyone's writing, and no one makes their Ms and Es and Ts like that." "Then match the heart," said Maxwell. "What do you mean?" "Figure out who draws a heart that looks like the one in the bathroom and you'll catch the thief." "We're not looking for a thief!" said Jessie. "It's just someone who wrote something dumb on a bathroom wall. Probably a fifth-grader!" "Follow the heart," Maxwell said in a voice that sounded deep and spooky. "Follow the heart." Jessie sat quietly for a minute thinking to herself. This was an idea that hadn't occurred to her, and she thought it was the best tip she'd

received all week. Then she said, "Maxwell, you are a genius." "Yep," said Maxwell. Jessie could hear the quiet music of his favorite computer game starting up on his end of the line. "I'm Maxwell. And I'm smart." After she got off the phone with Maxwell, Jessie wandered down to the basement and started digging through some stuff that was piled in one corner. She had to push her way past a box of kindling, a folding card table, and a big cardboard cutout of Darth Vader, but she finally got to what she was looking for: the signs from last summer during the Lemonade War. One of them she stared at long and hard. It had a picture of a cat sipping a tall glass of lemonade—and sprinkled in the corner were a few cutout paper hearts. She hadn't made those hearts.

Then she walked over to the craft table and rummaged through the messy pile of scrap paper. When she found a certain sheet of pink construction paper, she held it up and stared at the leftover hole. "Aha," said Jessie in a whisper.