“TONIGHT?” FRED SQUEAKED. “BUT I’M NOT READY!”
“Geez, Fred, get a grip!” Mai said. “We can handle it, Grace. No problem.”
“Good,” Grace said as they walked down the nearly empty hallway.
“Shoot, I’m going to be late!” Fred said suddenly, looking at his watch. “See you!” He rushed off to class.
“Come on, Mai,” Grace said, opening the door to the library. “I want to check something out on the computer.” They had a free period and didn’t have to be in class until later.
Grace raced to the back of the room, claiming the one and only computer. She opened the web browser and typed the name Sandstar into the search box.
“What’s Sandstar?” Mai asked, pulling a chair up beside her. “It sounds familiar.”
“When I searched Dad’s office, there was a ton of stuff about Sandstar,” Grace replied. “That’s the company that got the tar ponds cleanup project. I want to check it out, just in case it means something.”
A long list of hits popped up in the search engine. Grace clicked on the first one. “Wow, look at this,” she said. “The Sandstar contract is worth four hundred million dollars!”
“Hey, now I know why that name sounds familiar!” Mai’s eyes glimmered with recognition. “I saw something about them when I was researching our project for Mr. Grange’s class. I remember reading that it was one of the costliest environmental projects ever undertaken. But I was mainly researching the history of the contamination—I hadn’t done much on the cleanup part.”
“Hmm,” Grace mused, clicking on another internet link. “Look at this one. It’s an environmental site. They don’t think the method Sandstar is using will work. That’s what Dad had in his notes, too. He said an incinerator wouldn’t work ’cause there’s too much waste to get rid of.”
“Try another one,” Mai said.
They scanned the list. “Ooh, that’s Sandstar’s website,” Mai said, pointing at a link. “Try that.”
Grace clicked on the link and scanned the news section of the site. “It looks like they started the cleanup six months ago and it’s on schedule. Look at all these articles—apparently they’re meeting all their deadlines and the government is happy with the progress.” Grace’s hopes plummeted again. Another dead end.
She was about to log off when, on a whim, she searched for the Cape Breton newspaper site. When it popped up, she clicked on the obituaries and entered Beatrice Stanley, the name of Rick Stanley’s great-aunt, in the search box. Nothing came up. She deleted the last name and just searched for Beatrice. Still nothing. Had he been lying about where he got the money for his car? But so what if he did? There was probably nothing wrong with the guy anyways. Jeeter was the suspect now.
Coasting into her driveway after school, Grace stopped short at the sight of her mom’s car. Darn. She was supposed to be working.
“What are you doing home?” Grace asked as she walked through the back door into the kitchen. Her mom was sitting at the table, filing her nails.
“I switched shifts with Eleanor,” she explained. “I wanted to spend a little time with you.”
“Oh.” Ugh, gushy-gooey Mom front and centre.
Grace’s mom frowned. “How about a little enthusiasm?”
“Sorry, Mom.” Grace did her best to seem happy. “Sounds fun! What do you want to do?”
“Let’s do some baking,” her mom replied. “I thought we’d make some squares for the community fundraiser.”
“Great!” Grace said, faking a smile.
It took hours to make four different kinds of squares. Who’d want to eat them anyways? Grace wondered. She was sure her mom had mixed up the salt and baking powder measurements, but she knew better than to say anything.
“There!” her mom smiled, putting the last piece of cherry on a square. “Who says we don’t make a good team?”
Grace looked up at the clock. Seven-thirty. It was getting closer and closer to night time—and spy time.
“Grace,” her mom said, wiping her hand on a dishtowel. “I talked to Dr. Solomon today.”
Whoa! Grace hadn’t expected that. “Dr. Solomon? Why’d you do that?”
“I was concerned after our talk last night so I called him,” she answered. “He wants to see you.”
Grace could feel her face getting hot. “Well, I don’t want to see him. I’m fine!”
“No, Grace, I don’t think you are fine,” her mom replied. “You talked last night as if you’re trying to be some kind of detective, investigating what happened to your dad—like that’s going to change anything. It’s called avoidance, Grace. Believe me, I know.”
“Mom—”
“Let me finish, honey. It was a terrible accident, but it happened and there’s nothing we can do about it. It won’t bring him back.” She reached over and cupped Grace’s face gently. “I worry about you. You’re all I have.”
Great! Now her mother thought she was having a breakdown or something.
“Come on. I have a surprise for you.” She grasped Grace’s hand and tugged her gently up the stairs to the master bedroom. She went to the closet and pulled down the same box Grace had seen her with the other night. She put it on the bed and patted the mattress for Grace to sit beside her.
“These are the pictures of your last fossil-hunting trip,” she said. Her voice sounded shaky. “The photo shop called after your dad….Anyway, it took me a long time before I could go get them.”
They spread the pictures out over the bed. Seeing her dad’s smiling face—his big grin and twinkling eyes—was shocking to Grace. She picked up a picture of her and her dad together. Both of them were covered in dirt. She was waving her rock hammer over her head and her dad was holding a fossil of a calamite leaf. She remembered how he had taken forever to balance the camera on the rock ledge and set the automatic timer for that photo.
“I got that camera for your dad so I could at least see what you were both so crazy about,” her mother said. “I should have gone with you two once in a while.” She held up another picture of them. “You guys look like you were having a wonderful time.”
“We were,” Grace said, staring at their glowing faces. “You know, Mom, it’s not that we didn’t want you to come…” Grace looked up at her mother’s sombre face. “We just didn’t think you wanted to.”
“I know,” her mom said. “I just knew you guys were so in love with it all. I didn’t want to interfere with you two, my dynamic duo.”
I love you, Mom, Grace thought. She knew she should say it, but she couldn’t form the words out loud. Instead, to her shock, something else popped out of her mouth. “If you think I should see Dr. Solomon, I will.”
“Really?” Her mother looked relieved. “That’s wonderful, honey. You know, maybe I’m too hard on you. It’s been such a difficult time. How about if we cancel grounding for the weekend? A trial run. Stay out of trouble and we’ll talk about getting rid of it altogether.”
Grace leapt up and grabbed her mother in a stranglehold. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she squealed, raining kisses on her mother’s cheeks.
“Okay, that’s enough,” her mother chuckled, gently pushing her away. “We can talk about this later. I may have to go out tonight for a manicure client. She doesn’t get off work until nine-thirty. Either that or she’ll come here.” She glanced at her watch. “My goodness, it’s almost eight-thirty!” She stood up and wiped her face. “You take the pictures, honey, I got them for you.”
Grace gathered up the photos in her arms and walked back to her room. She put them down on her desk and peered out the window into the fading daylight. It was cloudy.
It was going to be a perfect night for spying.