It’s obvious the video is homemade. It has no title or music, and at first the screen is hazy, and all we can hear is a buzzing that hurts my ears.
But then a round face appears from out of the haze. Mrs. Lu is sitting at a desk in what looks like a small office, talking to someone, though we cannot see—or hear—who that someone is. Whoever is filming is not doing a very good job, because the image wobbles. The words Ming Lu, cafeteria employee, appear in white block letters at the bottom of the screen.
Mrs. Lu’s face is shiny with sweat. She is not wearing her hairnet. Instead, her black hair is tied back in a red bandanna; a few gray hairs poke out at the front. I did not notice before how high her cheekbones are. “I did not vandalize the cafeteria.” Mrs. Lu’s shoulders are straight, and she sounds upset, as if she is insulted that anyone would accuse her of committing a crime.
“I don’t get it!” Nico says to his sister. “When did they have time to make a movie? The cafeteria just got vandalized last night.”
“It wasn’t really vandalized, silly,” she tells him.
“Shhh,” Stacey says to Muriel. “We’re trying to listen.”
Mrs. Lu stares right into the camera. “Why would I make more work for myself? I have to clean too much already. Those students who come to the cafeteria—not the kids at forensics camp; those ones seem okay to me—I mean the university students. They do not clean their tables. They leave garbage all over the place. And what bothers me even more is that they do not say good morning or thank you to me. Never! They treat me like I am—what is the word in English?—invisible.” Mrs. Lu smacks the desk when she finds the right word. “I do not like my job very much, but I am still proud of the hard work I do. In any case, I cannot quit. I need money to support my family.” Her dark eyes soften when she mentions her family. I don’t think Mrs. Lu is making this stuff up.
Offscreen, we can hear a woman’s voice—could it be Samantha’s?—ask Mrs. Lu, “If the cafeteria smelled so bad that it needed to be closed, wouldn’t that mean you’d get a few days off from work?”
“That is possible,” Mrs. Lu says, shaking one finger in the air. “And they would have to pay me too—which would be very nice. Like a holiday.”
The screen goes gray again. Nico pops up from his swivel chair. “Guilty!” he calls out. “Mrs. Lu even looks guilty! I could see it in her eyes!”
“Nico,” Samantha says, “sit down right now! You seem to have forgotten something. Forensic scientists”—she emphasizes the word scientists—“never, ever jump to conclusions. They base their findings strictly on scientific evidence. There is nothing scientific about your observation that Mrs. Lu looks guilty.” I have never seen Samantha’s cheeks get red before. I think she is finding her job a bit challenging.
“Okay, okay.” I can tell from the way Nico is gripping the arms of his chair that he wants to swivel. “I’m just really getting into this.”
“Getting into it is good,” Lloyd tells him, “but jumping to conclusions—not so much.”
Next up is a middle-aged guy wearing a chef ’s hat. He has a craggy face and a long thin nose. From the information at the bottom of the screen, we learn that this is Leo Tessier, head chef at the university cafeteria. Leo Tessier has a thick handlebar moustache and a small neat beard. Like Mrs. Lu, he begins by denying he had anything to do with the vandalism. Unlike Mrs. Lu, he does not look at the camera when he speaks.
“See how he’s not making eye contact?” Nathaniel says. “That’s suspicious!”
“Nathaniel!” Lloyd says sharply. “What did Samantha and I just say about jumping to conclusions before you collect and analyze your evidence?”
Leo Tessier speaks with a French-from-France accent. “Eet ees true,” he says, twirling one end of his moustache (I don’t say anything about that, though it strikes me as slightly fake and suspicious), “that it was not my dream to be head chef at a cafeteria.” His head drops a little when he admits this. “I always thought I would be head chef at a great restaurant”—he switches to French to say the word restaurant—“a Michelin three-star restaurant. That was my life’s ambition. But it does not mean I do not cook like a great French-trained chef. The students adore my rôti de boeuf, my roast beef, and on Fridays, my sole amandine never fails to sell out.
“My only complaint is that I work too much—all the time, nonstop. If I had a day off during the week, I would have time to apply for a better job.” Chef Tessier closes his eyes as if he is imagining himself preparing rôti de boeuf and sole amandine in one of those three-star restaurants. When he opens his eyes again, he looks sad, and I notice the baggy skin under his eyes. “Zee smell in zee cafeteria. Epouvantable! Awful! We will have to close the cafeteria for at least three days to air it out. Perhaps four.”
If anyone else thinks the chef did it, they are not saying. I guess we all figure it is better to keep our hunches to ourselves than get lectured by Samantha and Lloyd.
Our next suspect is Amelia Lester, the assistant chef. The first thing I notice is that her hair is the same color as Samantha’s—only Amelia has dreadlocks. Her blouse has puffed sleeves—it looks like it probably came from a vintage shop. Amelia does not mention the vandalism. Instead, she starts talking about her boss. “Leo Tessier is not a bad person,” she says, “but when it comes to food, he is living in the past. He pays no attention to trends or to the environment. If you ask me, it’s irresponsible.” I can hear Stacey going, “Hmm” in the background. “People,” Amelia continues, “especially young people, want more vegetarian options these days—and it’s not only a matter of taste. They want to eat sustainably and responsibly. If I ever get to be head chef at this cafeteria, the first thing I’m going to do is take his rôti de boeuf and sole amandine off the menu and replace them with soybean burgers and lentil loaf. That’s what people want, and that’s what our planet needs!”
Stacey claps.
“Why are you clapping?” Nico asks. “This whole thing is fake.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” Stacey tells him. “Besides, even if it is, it’s very inspiring!”
There is still one more potential suspect on the video. This one is a young guy around Lloyd and Samantha’s age. He is wearing a Che Guevara T-shirt and a black beret like Che’s. The bottom of the screen says Jonah Cartwright, student. “I don’t know why anyone would think I vandalized the cafeteria,” he says, shrugging his shoulders. “I have way too much schoolwork to do something dumb like that. But I want to be up front with you: it is true that I have been involved in a number of important student strikes. But those were different. We were protesting possible tuition hikes. Look, I’ll even admit that the police picked me up one night for defacing university property—but that was two years ago. I’m through with that kind of stuff. I swear I am.”
The same woman’s voice we heard before asks Jonah whether he eats meat and fish.
“Absolutely not!” Jonah sounds insulted, “I’m vegan.”
The woman asks whether Jonah has any problem with other people eating meat and fish and whether he thinks the university cafeteria should have more vegetarian options.
“Now that you mention it,” Jonah says, “more vegetarian and vegan options would be cool.”
“I hope you guys took notes,” Lloyd tells us when the video is over.
Stacey looks up. “I made a list of everything they said.”
“You’ve just met your four suspects,” Samantha tells us. “I think you’ll agree that each one has a plausible motive for vandalizing the cafeteria.”
Lloyd needs Samantha’s help to get supplies for our next activity, and so for a few minutes it is just the six of us at the conference table.
Nico does a double swivel in his chair. “I still think Mrs. Lu did it.”
“Even if she feels frustrated, I don’t think Mrs. Lu would risk losing her job. Not when she has a family to support,” I say.
Mason grins at me from across the table. “Now who’s talking about forensics camp as if it’s real?”