The Potato Chip Puzzles_ The Puzzling World of Winston Breen - Eric Berlin [64]
“You hired a computer hacker?” Winston was astounded.
There was a small silence on the line, and then Ray said, “Well, that would be illegal. So, no, I’m not going to say he’s a hacker. He’s more like a magician. A telephone magician.”
“Okay,” said Winston, but he thought, He’s a hacker. Winston was amused and a little amazed at the idea of Ray Marietta, big and no-nonsense, calling up a computer hacker on his behalf. “What did this magician say?” Winston asked.
Ray said, “I gave him a brief rundown on everything you told me. I gave him your phone number, and he just called me back. He was able to get a list of the people who called your house that day. You say this guy, the cheater, called you in the afternoon? Somewhere around four o’clock?”
“Yes.” Winston held his breath. Was he really about to learn the identity of the cheater?
“You got one phone call at that time,” Ray said. “It came from a residence in West Meadow. Someone with the last name of Root. Do you know anyone with that name?”
CHAPTER TWELVE
WINSTON HAD HOPED Ray Marietta could help them out, providing answers to a few mysterious questions. Now, hanging up the phone, he found that the questions had only multiplied.
Jake and Mal were staring at him. “What did he say?” Jake asked.
“Brendan Root called me,” Winston said quietly. He looked up at his friends. “That mysterious phone call a few days back? It was Brendan Root.”
“That kid?” Mal said. They all looked over to where Brendan was still pacing.
Winston couldn’t wrap his head around it. “But he can’t be the cheater,” he said. “And he can’t be working with the cheater. That makes no sense!”
“Why not?” said Mr. Garvey. He was also gazing over at Brendan Root and his team. “They haven’t been hit by the cheater. Isn’t that what you told me? No flat tires. No sabotage of any kind. Isn’t that suspicious? The man in the green jacket is working with one of these teams. Why not them?”
“But,” Winston said, wondering what he was about to say.
“And your name was in the cheater’s papers,” Mr. Garvey reminded him. “How did the cheater know you would be here? Simple.” He pointed across the town green at Brendan. “That young man called you and asked you directly.”
Winston stared at the trees and the sky. Mr. Garvey was right—he had to be. Brendan called him hoping to find out if Winston would be at the puzzle event. Told the answer was yes, Brendan had spread the news—he’d told the man in the green jacket, who put Winston on the list of kids to watch out for. How else could Winston’s name have found its way onto the cheater’s list?
But it still felt wrong, somehow. Winston thought back to the conversations he’d had with Brendan Root. That first meeting back at the potato chip factory—Brendan seemed thrilled to meet Winston and acted like someone who couldn’t wait to start a one-on-one, do-or-die puzzle competition. Heck, Brendan didn’t have to come over to introduce himself at all, but he did.
And then, in the parking lot of the amusement park, Brendan wanted to cheat to help Winston. Brendan would have given Winston the answer to the Ferris wheel puzzle if Winston had agreed. He was sure of it.
“So what do you want to do?” Mal said. “Walk over there and accuse him?”
“Of course not,” Mr. Garvey said airily. “Don’t be silly. They haven’t won yet. If they do, then we’ll discuss how to make use of this interesting new information.” Mr. Garvey smiled for maybe the first time all day. He looked as satisfied as a cat with a new toy. He continued, “Until then, we have a puzzle to solve ourselves, don’t we? We should get back to that.” He shook the list of words for emphasis.
Yes, true. They still needed to solve the sixth puzzle. Winston tried to distance himself from thoughts of Brendan Root. It wasn’t easy. It was too incredible, the idea of Brendan tracking him down and