Mystery #19 Kristy and the Missing Fortune: Chapter 7

Kristy raids Janine’s closet and SABOTAGE?

Kristy's having tea with Mildred Abbott the next day and she's nervous because she's picturing Mrs. Abbott as a proper lady. So, of course, this means none of her typical uniform. Kristy will have to dress up for, like, the fifth time in her life. And we have an outfit description! “I chose a dark-green corduroy skirt, which I planned to wear with a white button-down shirt, and a blue sweater, panty hose (ugh!), and brown loafers.” Either that's one of maybe three skirts she owns or she had Charlie raid Janine's closet while she was in a BSC meeting, not knowing he was already in there for unmentionable times.

Oh and Kristy has to wear this to school because she has no time to go home and change. Someone's going to get laughed at!

But this isn't for another day. She has another plot device kid project to throw herself into! And sure enough, Karen barges into her room and starts jumping on the bed, saying she wants to go to the “Plant Place.” She's wearing overalls and carrying Watson the Millionaire's good English trowel that she convinced him to let her borrow. Of course he did. He'd let her drive the car if she said “pretty please with sugar on top?” enough.

Giving Charlie a break for once, Watson the Millionaire drives Kristy, Karen and David Michael to the Arboretum, and leaves them there because he promised Emily Michelle he'd watch Barney with her. Kristy says it’s weird seeing Watson the Millionaire being so domestic and I think he deserves some recognition for willingly sitting through Barney. Anyway...

Jessi's already there raking with Matt Braddock and David Michael signs to him, asking if he can help. Ok, this is one thing that's always annoyed me, a lot more now as an adult. I know they mentioned the kids and the BSC picked up some signs so they can communicate with Matt. Are they that good that they can pick it up so quickly? Being that it all happens in like a year...damn time warp. My friend knows ASL and I've asked her how difficult it is to be able to communicate. From the way she's described it, it's very in-depth and signing sentences is very different than saying them, there’s a completely different sentence structure and grammar. Maybe the kids know some really basic stuff? Or they're all geniuses? Or maybe I'm reading way too much into a BSC book again?

Anyway, Karen whines that she hates raking. Well, so do I, so I'll hold off on calling her a brat here. Instead, Jessi sends her into the greenhouse to work with Haley and puts us all out of our misery, whew. As the boys rake, Jessi shows Kristy around to see what wonderful, amazing things the BSC did with the kids. Dawn and the Hobart boys fixed a wall! Stacey and Charlotte weeded a garden! The Perkins girls discovered a new species of flower!

But not all is rosy and green! See what I did there? Jessi pulls Kristy aside and tells her she's really suspicious about things that are going on. Strange things. No, she didn't catch Claudia doing calculus (because that would be strange). She tells Kristy a bucket she was using disappeared! Kristy's about to call BS on this being suspicious but Jessi says she also saw footprints, along with a pile of weeds that Stacey and Charlotte said they threw out! And an empty pack of matches! Weeds and an empty pack of matches...yeah, are you sure Sharon hasn't been spending time there lately?

Jessi thinks someone is trying to sabotage all the work they're doing on fixing up the Arboretum. Kristy still seems amused by the whole “they stole my bucket” thing. 

But she tells Jessi she'll keep her eyes open and thinks nothing of it. While carting away leaves, Kristy notices a business card on the ground that reads: “DT DEVELOPERS. Fine Quality Homes and Construction.” They're the ones committing the sabotage of stealing buckets! They want the place to look like Claudia's bedroom so Mrs. VanderBellen (the donor) won't buy it and they can knock it down! Mystery solving time! You know who we have to get:

Ok maybe not. Mallory is totally Velma though. Jinkees!