The Rydell Revelations

At Whit's End, Emily Jones and Mr. Whittaker examine a mysterious box found next to the kitchen sink, a portable Imagination Station unit someone cobbled together from Whit's old technology. Whoever built it would have to be clever with machines, programming, and math, and Emily believes she knows exactly who that describes. She asks to investigate on her own, and Whit agrees that they will compare notes when she is done, warning her that you never know what you'll find.

Soon afterward, Morrie Rydell bursts into Whit's office in a panic, claiming that his sister Suzu has been kidnapped, and that the kidnapper is Emily Jones. He explains that Emily has been asking people questions about him all week, that he saw Emily and Suzu arguing after school before Suzu rode off on her bike with Emily chasing her, and that when he got home he found both girls' bikes outside, Suzu's room torn apart, and Emily's phone lying on the floor. Since Emily always records her cases, Morrie says, the proof is on the phone. Whit insists on hearing everything, so the two of them listen to Emily's recorded case log, which she calls the case of the Rydell revelations.

Through the recordings, Emily's investigation unfolds. She first talks with Zoe, who remembers that Morrie reluctantly became Olivia Parker's campaign manager during the student elections and coached Zoe to write newspaper stories full of drama and conflict. That jogs Emily's memory about an unsigned handwritten note once left in her locker, saying Matthew needed to be at the computer lab after school, which helped turn the friendly race between Matthew and Olivia into a feud. Digging through her files at home, Emily compares the note to the inscription "My darling magpie" written inside the fake Mary Malloway novel from an earlier mystery that Morrie admittedly staged. The handwriting is close, but not a perfect match, so she needs a sample of Morrie's own writing.

The next morning Emily stakes out the Rydell house and meets Mrs. Meido, the family's kindly housekeeper and nanny, who reveals that Morrie and Suzu's father works at the U.S. Embassy in Japan and that their mother has died. At school, Olivia tells Emily about another strange episode: a man calling himself Jordan Winward promised that a "Student Project Fund" would match whatever the drama club raised for the state drama festival, then vanished after the club raised its half, leaving Olivia to quietly cover the rest out of her own college fund because she had made a promise. Morrie argued against trusting the offer, yet Olivia still felt as if the whole situation had been manipulated.

Olivia nudges Emily to talk to Matthew, her former detective partner. Matthew immediately knocks a hole in her theory, since he has math class with Morrie and knows his handwriting is barely legible, nothing like the locker note. Frustrated, Emily grumbles, "That guy's more slippery than a greased eel." Still, she lays out her case: the writer's ruse, the election, the fundraiser, lingering questions about the open-lockers incident, and a bizarre Imagination Station adventure she recently experienced while standing wide awake at the Whit's End kitchen sink, right where Whit later found the mysterious box, and right after Morrie conveniently spilled ice cream on her. Matthew thinks the evidence is pretty thin, but he confirms one thing from her adventure: the real Morrie truly can solve big equations in his head. Matthew also gently asks how she escaped the strange adventure, and Emily admits she had to accept that it was built to help her cope with losing him as a partner. Though Matthew still doesn't want to be a detective, he promises he will always be her friend.

Finally Emily corners Suzu at the school bike racks and accuses Morrie of masterminding everything, including the terrifying escape room where Emily and Matthew once feared for their lives. Suzu protests that Emily doesn't understand, then lets something slip: "We would never have let anything happen to you." We? Before Emily can press her, the girls tussle over Suzu's backpack, spilling it open, and Emily glimpses Suzu's notebook. The handwriting matches the locker note and the book inscription perfectly. Suzu snatches it back and flees home. Emily follows her to the Rydell house, finds the front door ajar and Suzu's room trashed, and demands the truth as the final recording cuts off.

The phone falls silent, and Morrie asks what Whit thinks. Whit calmly answers that he thinks Emily was right, telling Morrie, "I think you're trying to game me." Just as Morrie has, Whit says, been gaming most everyone in Odyssey since he moved to town, leaving the mystery of what really happened to Suzu and Emily hanging until the story continues.