Forensics Squad Unleashed by Monique Polak

Author:Monique Polak
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUV028000, JUV036000, JUV035000
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Published: 2016-03-01T05:00:00+00:00

FIFTEEN

Samantha and Lloyd exchange worried looks when we tell them about Nathaniel’s grandmother’s dog. They look even more concerned when we say there have been other dognappings in the city in the last few weeks and that the police department does not consider the missing dogs a priority.

Stacey notices their reaction too. “Do you guys have dogs?” she asks them.

“I don’t,” Samantha says. Then she adds, “Allergies,” as if she needs to explain why someone would not have a dog.

“Me neither. Our apartment building doesn’t allow them.” Lloyd’s forehead creases, which makes me wonder if something is troubling him. “But I grew up around dogs. My brother was a dog person.” When Lloyd uses the word was, I shiver. His brother must be dead. Judging by Lloyd’s age, the brother could not have been very old when he died. “Those missing dogs,” Lloyd says. “You don’t happen to know if they were purebreds, do you?”

I picture the posters I’ve seen. A Chihuahua, a standard poodle…and now Nathaniel’s grandmother’s Pomeranian. And didn’t Larry say he had heard someone was stealing purebred dogs? “I think so,” I tell Lloyd.

“Hmm…” is all Lloyd says. When he rubs his forehead a few times, I know for sure that something is bugging him.

At first, probably because we are all thinking about the missing dogs, it’s hard to focus on the case of the vandalized cafeteria. Samantha makes four columns on the whiteboard, one for each suspect. She puts their initials at the top: L.T. for Leo Tessier, the chef; A.L. for Amelia Lester, his assistant; J.C. for Jonah Cartwright, the student; and M.L. for Ming Lu. Or Mrs. Lu. Either way, the M works.

Samantha adds the words evidence and possible motives to the left side of the whiteboard.

“Excuse me,” I say. “How come we’re looking at possible motives? Didn’t you guys tell us forensic scientists don’t try to figure out the why? That that’s a detective’s job?”

“You’re right—technically,” Samantha says. “We’re just trying to make forensics camp as interesting as possible.”

“It’s working!” Mason calls out. “This camp is definitely interesting. I’m liking it as much as cooking camp.” Coming from Mason, that’s a big compliment.

Lloyd waves his cell phone at Samantha, signaling that he has to leave the room to make a call. “Give me ten minutes,” I hear him tell Samantha in a low voice as he slips out of the conference room.

Samantha’s eyes follow Lloyd as he closes the door behind him. I think she is worried about him. But when she turns back to us, she is all business again.

“This morning,” Samantha says, “we’re going to apply Locard’s Exchange Principle to our case. Let’s start by making a list of trace evidence that might have been taken from the scene, as well as trace evidence that was left. Can any of you think of evidence that could have been taken?”

“Willy,” Nathaniel says quietly. “Willy was taken.”

“Willy?” Samantha says.

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