CHAPTER 7: THE CULPRIT
After discovering more about the virus, Sam and Alex got even busier than ever. They split up and checked out the records Jerry told them to look—Sam through the school records (of course, Sam did that in secret—she wouldn’t want to blow her cover as a spy) and Alex through the employer records of the North Dakota Health Centre. They did copies of every person in the data file and brought them all into the WOOHPS HQ to scan through. There were stacks upon stacks of paperwork on Jerry’s table as the girls and Jerry personally went through them one by one.
“I can’t seem to find anyone that fits the puzzle, Sam,” Alex sighed as she threw away the 21st file copied from the North Dakota Health Centre employer records. “None of them look suspicious enough to me. I can’t pinpoint a single one!”
“Just keep looking, Alex,” Sam said determinedly as she flipped through Mandy’s school records. “You’ll be sure to find something in there that might lead us to Clover’s culprit sooner or later.”
“What bothers me is that why would anyone want to hurt or kill Clover?” Jerry commented as he ran through a file from the school records. “Did she offend anyone recently?”
“She may have blown off a few dates before she started getting sick, but that’s no biggie. The only one offended right now is Mandy because she thinks that Clover’s been hogging all the school glory,” Alex replied. “But that’s after she got the Ice Queen virus. Mandy would have to hire a janitor to help her pick up the trash if that’s what it takes to not chip her nails and make her home look perfect, let alone do her science project.”
“That’s it, Alex! You’re a genius!” Sam exclaimed, standing up abruptly.
“I…I am?” Alex was surprised and a little confused.
“Yeah! Remember the time Mandy and I were to enter the Spelling Bee competition? She had her father call in those 3 weirdo-s to help her out so that she can win the competition. She could never do anything without at least her henchwomen by her side! She must’ve had help to do her science project on the stink gas and whoever it is might have a chance to tamper with it! Why didn’t I think of that?”
“How can you be sure that Mandy isn’t the mastermind behind all this?” Alex folded her arms. “She hates Clover enough to kill her, I bet.”
“If she wanted to, she had already hired a sniper to do it. Besides she wouldn’t want to attempt spraying herself with the stink gas if she knew what was in there. It’s time we pay our little Miss Popular a visit. Jerry?”
Jerry needed not to be told twice. He pressed the button on his table and sent Sam and Alex falling down the secret chute under their seats. As soon as the girls were gone, Jerry continued on his search through the files. After going through countless files and was thinking about taking a break, he came across something interesting and peculiar in one of the files from the North Dakota Health Centre. He stared and stared at the picture for a quite a long time, his face going solemn and calculative all over. Without wasting a second longer, he began to work his fingers over the keyboard of his laptop.
“What? Are you accusing me of cheating on my own homework?”
Sam and Alex were at Mandy’s triple-storey home and, as usual, she and her henchwomen (I can’t seem to know their names) were enjoying a relaxing dip in their indoor Jacuzzi. Sam and Alex had come in unannounced and didn’t bother to entertain any of Mandy’s cynical demands of their business being here. They got right down to business asking her who helped her with her stink gas project and they have expected a fierce reply.
“We have no time to answer any of your petty remarks and, yes, you obviously would cheat to get an A for Algebra!” Alex growled back at her. “So just tell us who helped you with your stink gas homework already!”
“You have just got to be kidding me! Me, Mandy, a cheater? That is like so accusingly wrong!” Mandy fluffed her hair proudly and arrogantly. “I did this science project with my own two hands and my girls here can be witnesses. Ask them. They’ll tell you that I did it single-handedly without even asking for their help, unlike you three.”
“Of course they’ll testify for you! They practically live for you! No doubt they’ll lie for you too!”
“Look, Mandy. This is a matter of life and death here,” Sam tried to be as patient as possible with the bratty attitude of Mandy. “This has to concern about the life of Clover. If you are concerned about a dying life that your project has caused, you’d better spit out whatever info you have on your stink gas.”
“What?” Mandy looked at the girls in disbelief. “Are you saying that my stink gas has something to do with Clover’s soon-to-be death? Now that’s rich!”
“We’re telling the truth!” Alex said desperately, finally blurting out the truth and not wanting to hint anymore. “Clover is actually very, very sick and there is something in that stink gas of yours that’s causing it. We know that you had a little help in completing your project—you could simply afford anyone to help you. You have to tell us who’s been helping you with the project or Clover will die!”
“Get real! I will have nothing to do with your silly jokes or your boring threats,” Mandy huffed as she got out of the Jacuzzi. “Come on, girls. Let’s go downstairs and make ourselves some ice cold lemonade while they send themselves outta here.”
As Mandy and her henchwomen left, Alex looked desperately at Sam, seeing if she had any ideas about how to persuade Mandy to tell her what they need. When she saw Sam showing not much of a reaction, Alex rushed forward in front of Mandy and her henchwomen and did the unthinkable—she went down on her knees and begged.
“Please, Mandy. Please! I beg of you! I have never asked any favours from you or tried to pester you to help us do anything. I ask just for this favour. Just please tell us the name of the person who helped you with your project and we’ll leave you alone! I promise! Please!”
“Oh, come on, Alex! Lighten up, will ya?” Mandy said exasperatedly, obviously not taking in this act. “Stop it with the pretence already! Why are you so desperate to know who does my homework anyway? It’s not like he’s gonna help you do yours! You’re not pretty enough!”
“So someone did help you do your homework, didn’t he? Who is it? Tell me please!”
“I told you, I will have nothing to do…”
Mandy’s voice trailed away and was going all pale when she saw Sam standing in front of everybody with a penknife dangerously close to her wrist. She was staring at them with such determination in her eyes as she brought the blade of the penknife close to the veins of her wrist, threatening to cut it. Alex, including the henchwomen, was shocked to see Sam attempting this feat.
“Sam, what are you doing?” Mandy asked tentatively, pointing at the penknife.
“You know exactly what I’m trying to do, and if you don’t give us what we want,” Sam said in a calm and determined tone, “I assure you I will kill myself and you’ll scrubbing this blood-stained floor regretting that you have never helped me.”
“Why are you doing all this?” Mandy was beginning to sound worried and scared now. “Why are you willing to go through all this trouble just to get some stupid name?”
“Because this is what friends are for,” Sam said as she could feel the coldness of the blade of the penknife on her wrist. “They go through thick and thin and no matter what happens to them, they will always be best of friends, and that means they will do anything to save their friends’ lives. Maybe some day when you have real friends, you’ll understand what I mean.”
“I’m not buying this, Sam. If you think that this is some sort of a scare game, I’m not going to fall for it,” Mandy said nervously, challenging Sam.
“You still think this is a game?”
So saying, she pulled the blade quickly across her wrist. She felt a sharp, abrupt pain as her veins on her wrist slashed and blood began to pour swiftly out of the open wound and onto the marble floor of the indoor Jacuzzi. Mandy and her henchwomen let out a strangled scream and Alex hurriedly got up onto her feet and rushed towards Sam, grabbing her bleeding wrist and holding it tight, keeping the pressure to stop the bleeding. She, too, found it hard to believe that the calm and collected member of the Totally Spies would do such a silly thing like this.
“What…What is this?” Mandy laughed nervously as she saw the blood trickling more and more onto the marble floor. She was beginning to go pale with horror and disgust. “Come on, Sam! You don’t have to…”
“If you don’t give me a name,” Sam said weakly but determinedly. “My jugular will be next.”
“Al…Alright! Alright! I’ll tell you already! Just stop making yourself bleed!” Mandy finally agreed in desperation. She turned towards her henchwomen and said, “Don’t just stand there, girls! Get the first-aid kit or something, and get someone to clean this blood off the floor! I don’t want to be accused of murder or something!”
Soon, Sam and Alex were at the living room as one of the henchwomen helped to bandage Sam’s slashed wrist. Mandy came in later with a tray of drinks, one of them looking pale-white in colour. She sat down and passed the pale drink hastily towards Sam, not looking at her in the eye as she said, “Here, a glass of glucose, for the loss of blood.”
“I didn’t know you knew this kind of things,” Alex said, slightly admired.
“Well, being stuck with a mother who knows the ins and outs of healthcare food gets to you,” Mandy replied, still not wanting to look at Sam and Alex in the eye for fear that they could see the small inkling of kindness in her. “I still don’t understand why you would want to do something as stupid as this just for a name.”
“Like I said,” Sam replied after taking a sip from her glass, “You’ll understand if you were to have real friends like I have. Now, would you mind telling me who helped you with your science project?”
“You have to swear that you will tell no one about this, ‘coz I told our Science professor that I did it by myself!”
Alex did a Cross-my-heart-and-hope-to-die sign.
“Well,” Mandy continued reluctantly, “I saw that the deadline was near, so I begged Daddy to help me with my work. Sweet Daddykins, busy as he always was, flew in a kid from…let me see…North Dakota, I think. Daddy said he was a genius and he could help out with my homework in no time. He really was a genius. He helped me mixed this and that I didn’t have to move even a muscle…”
“Wait a second,” Sam interrupted. “Did you say he came from North Dakota?”
“Yeah, from some health lab or something. I dunno. He looks really young to be a scientist and all though. I think he could use some of his genius time to date. Would you believe that he’d finished high school and college when he was between 12 and 14? Now that is one serious bookworm. Though he does look really cute and all…”
“And what was his name?” Alex asked anxiously.
“Well, it’s pretty long, but I think his name is Johannesburg Wilkinson. Named after the place he was born, that is.”
“Did he say anything about his past in school? Anything at all?” Sam asked.
“Come to think of it,” Mandy tapped her chin. “He did tell me about some bitchy girl who agreed to go with him to some prom night and cancelled it at the last minute over another cute guy. That is so lame. He’s cute enough to be surrounded by girls and that girl just stood him up and all! What a waste!”
“Thank you so much, Mandy,” Alex reached out and hugged Mandy gratefully, surprising herself a little. By far, this was the first time she had ever been that close a body contact with Mandy and she was actually feeling really grateful for her info. She quickly pulled herself away from Mandy and flashed her a friendly wink before following behind Sam as she dashed out of Mandy’s front door in a thrice. Mandy rushed after them and yelled at them at the door.
“And if you ever, ever breathe a word about me being nice to you brats, you’ll be sorry!”
“You’re just in time, girls. I’ve got some news for…Oh dear, Sam, what happened to your wrist?”
Sam and Alex were back at WOOHPS and could be seen racing towards Jerry’s office to tell him about the info they have got from Mandy when they were greeted by Jerry’s surprised look on his face after seeing Sam’s bandaged wrist.
“It’s a long story, Jerry, but we’ve finally got a name from the person that could be behind Clover’s sickness,” Sam said, waving away Jerry’s question.
“Yeah. We’ve gone through a lot of trouble getting it though,” Alex chimed in. “His name is quite long and it’s…”
“Johannesburg Wilkinson,” Jerry finished Alex’s sentence as he clicked a few buttons on his laptop.
“Why, yes. And guess where he’s from—the…”
“The North Dakota Health Centre,” Jerry finished Alex’s words again as he clicked a button from his remote to show his picture on the screen. He had hair almost as red as Ronald Weasley in Harry Potter and fair skin (minus the freckles, that is), with striking green eyes to match. A very handsome fellow he was. Jerry continued with what he was about to say, “This is what I’ve found from his files just now: his full name is Johannesburg Robert Wilkinson and he’s the youngest member in North Dakota Health Centre—only at about an age younger than you girls. He’s born genius with an IQ level of 210 and went through home schooling taught by his father, a professor in Beverly Hills College. He went to high school when he was 12 years old and graduated from it within 3 months. Then he went to college and finished his course in healthcare and medicinal remedies and graduated when he was 14. He soon received a job offer at North Dakota Health Centre and was there ever since.”
“Mandy told us about him being dumped by a girl during his year in high school. Is there any info about him regarding about that?” Alex suddenly popped out the question.
“I’m not exactly sure about that,” Jerry rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “People don’t exactly have private personal info such as this in their bio-data mainframe, you know.”
“Where did Johannesburg study during high school?” Sam asked.
“Well, let’s see…” Jerry said as he clicked on the keyboard for a few moments. After clicking the word ‘ENTER’ a small file came out revealing the name of his school. “It’s Georgia High, Nevada. Why do you ask?”
Sam’s face slowly darkened as she began to make sense of everything that has been going on since the past few months. Alex and Jerry noticed the change of attitude on Sam and stared at her quizzically until Alex finally broke the ice.
“What’s wrong, Sam? Have you figured out something?”
Sam took a while before she could finally blurt out her words.
“That’s where Clover used to study before she moved here to Beverly Hills High.”
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