The Potato Chip Puzzles: The Puzzling World of Winston Breen by Eric Berlin Page A

page 242.)
     
    “Wait a second,” Winston said. His dreamlike examination of passing license plates was interrupted by a random thought that had dropped from nowhere, demanding attention and pushing everything else to the side. “Wait a second,” he said again, trying to lasso that thought, tie it down, figure out the words to express it.
    Everybody waited, and then Mal said, “Yeeess?”
    Winston said slowly, “The Brookville Brains were the first to solve the planetarium puzzle, right?”
    “That’s what they said,” Mr. Garvey sniffed. “Doesn’t make it true.”
    “They were one of the first, anyway. We saw them run out. And there were still a few teams in the theater when we got in there.”
    Mr. Garvey conceded the point with a shrug. “All right, fine,” he said.
    Winston felt his way along. “They had four good tires when they left the planetarium. Right? They drove to a deli, and they bought some drinks or whatever. While they were inside, someone came along and did to them what he’d already done to us.”
    “Gave them a back-tire wedgie,” said Mal.
    “Yes, he gave them a”—Winston stopped, completely derailed. He looked at Mal. “Is that really what a bottle under the tire is called?”
    Mal shook his head. “I just made it up.”
    Winston stared at his friend for a moment and then continued. “I thought the cheater was a kid on one of the other teams, that he was cheating without anyone on his team knowing about it.”
    Jake said, “That’s what I thought, too. That’s what I still think.”
    “But it can’t be,” said Winston. “The entire team is cheating together.” He paused to give his next statement maximum impact. “Including the teacher,” he said.
    “Wait a minute!” Mr. Garvey said. “You don’t know that.”
    Jake turned around in his seat. “I don’t get it either,” he said. “How hard is it to pop a bottle under someone’s tire or move a couple of signs? A kid can do that all by himself.”
    Winston said, “Whoever gave the Brookville team a flat tire had to follow them to the deli first. Did a kid drive the car?”
    They thought about that. Mr. Garvey said, “Come on, Winston. I know there’s a lot of money at stake here, but a schoolteacher isn’t going to resort to cheating.”
    Jake gave a snort of laughter.
    Mr. Garvey turned and gave him a curious look. “What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked. Winston recognized a wisp of threat in that voice.
    Jake must have noticed it, too. “Nothing,” he said, turning to look out the window.
    But Mr. Garvey persisted. “Is there something you want to say, Jake?”
    For a moment, Winston thought Jake was going to keep looking out the window, saying nothing. But he said, “What you did to the girls’ team was cheating. Leaving them in the wrong place.”
    “It was nothing of the sort,” Mr. Garvey said. “It wasn’t a very nice thing to do, perhaps, but it was hardly cheating. All these teams are very competitive. We’re all looking for a way to get an edge on our opponents.” He concentrated on the road long enough to change lanes. “Do you think if the girls’ teacher had discovered the real puzzle location, while we were standing in that little hallway, that she would have come back and told us the right place to go?”
    “Yes,” Jake said simply. “We all said we would look for the puzzle together.”
    Mr. Garvey shook his head. “Don’t you believe it, Jake. Don’t you believe it. They would have left us there, same as we did to them.”
    Jake turned and looked out the window again. There was no point arguing. Jake thought Mr. Garvey was wrong, and Mr. Garvey thought Jake was wrong, and neither of them was going to convince the other.
    “That said,” Mr. Garvey announced, “I have a hard time believing a teacher would sink so low as to give somebody a flat tire. That’s cheating. I still think it’s one kid, not the entire team, and certainly not a teacher.”
    “How could a