Maybeck said to Philby, “I know you feel like a zombie. I’ve been there. But we have to hurry. We’ve got to get you out of here.”
46
FINN AND MAYBECK escorted Philby and Willa to the train platform for the Wildlife Express Train. Amanda had announced a discovery and asked that they meet her. She’d been very secretive, and they were eager to talk with her.
Charlene was still keeping an eye on the bat enclosure. The ice truck had not been moved.
The kids stood around watching Finn as he finally made the call to Rob Bernowski, Jez’s boyfriend. He had the BlackBerry on speakerphone so everyone could hear.
“Rob?”
“Yeah? Who’s this?”
“My name is Finn Whitman. I’m a friend of—”
“Jez’s. Yeah, I know.” He didn’t sound too thrilled. “She talks about you and the others all the time.” Too much of the time, his tone of voice implied.
“Have you seen her by any chance? Heard from her?”
“No. Why?”
“Just curious,” Finn said.
“What’s up with that?”
“Just asking.”
“Because?”
“Yeah, well…listen…I know this is going to sound stupid, but if there was one thing Jez could change about you, what would it be?”
“Is this some kind of contest or something?”
Finn hesitated. Willa was nodding violently.
“Yeah, that’s it exactly,” Finn said. “A contest. A school thing. How well do boyfriends and girlfriends know each other?”
“The one thing she would change?”
“Yes. That’s the question.”
A long hesitation on the other end of the call. “My clothes. She doesn’t like my jeans, man. I wear ‘em kinda low.”
“Your jeans?”
“Yeah. Did I answer right?”
“I’ll have to get back to you on that,” Finn said. “That’s all you can think of?”
“I can tell you the one thing I’d change about her,” Rob volunteered, not giving Finn a chance to stop him. “I’d take her iPod away from her. She’s, like, addicted to that thing. That, and all the word games she plays. She’s into scrambling every word she can—making other words out of the same letters, you know?”
“Anagrams,” Finn said.
“What’s that?” Rob asked.
“It’s what you call that: an anagram is a word that can be made from the letters of another word.”
“Never heard of it.” He paused. “So what about my prize? Do I win a prize?”
“Ah…we’ll let you know. Thanks for your answers.” Finn ended the call.
“Anagrams,” Philby said. “You think it’s worth a try?”
“Do we think what is worth a try?” Maybeck asked.
“Jez wrote ‘change Rob’in her diary—”
“And inside the tree stump,” Willa added.
“Some kind of code?” Finn asked.
“Give me the BlackBerry,” Philby said, reaching toward Finn.
“I really don’t think we should call him back,” Finn said.
“I’m not calling anyone. The BlackBerry has Internet. We can settle this pretty quickly.”
Finn and the others leaned over Philby’s shoulder as he used the BlackBerry to Google an anagram site. Then, reaching a site, he typed in “change Rob,” and hit the button to generate anagrams.
The small screen showed a long list of possible letter combinations.
“‘Branch ego,’” he read from the screen. “‘Corn bag he.’” They laughed. “‘Herb can go.’”
“Let me see that.” Willa moved in next to Philby, to where their shoulders touched. No one missed how close she got to him, least of all Maybeck, who suddenly started shifting anxiously. Willa studied the screen and spoke in a quiet voice.
“We’ve done this before,” she reminded him. “The clues from the Stonecutter’s Quill. Remember? We solved that anagram without a Web site.”
“That’s because we didn’t have a BlackBerry. There’s nothing here,” Philby said.
“There are no proper names,” Willa said.
“So?” Philby challenged.
Willa took the BlackBerry out of Philby’s hand and held it where she could study it clearly. Then she calmly returned the BlackBerry to Philby, who passed it back to Finn.
“So I’ve got one,” she said, capturing the full attention of the others. She meant this as a challenge. She remained incredibly close to Philby, and she was looking him directly in the eyes. “One word. A name. A Disney name.”
“I give up,” Finn said.