The Candymakers and the Great Chocolate Chase Read online

  The Marshmallow Room was empty. With everyone outside still celebrating, it was a little spooky having the factory so quiet during the middle of a workday. Miles ran into Henry’s small office. After a minute or two Logan called out to him. “We should keep looking.”

  When Miles rejoined him, he had a strange expression on his face. Before Logan could ask if everything was okay, Miles said, “We must have missed him outside.” Back out they went.

  They grabbed Philip away from his adoring fans and started searching the grounds in a big loop. They finally spotted Henry near the marshy side of the pond, where the mallow roots grew. He was walking in the tall grass, clearly deep in thought. The boys were almost upon him before he noticed them. And when he did, he immediately turned the other way and bumped right into a tree.

  “Seriously?” Philip said, marching toward him. “You’re trying to ditch us?”

  Henry turned to face them, rubbing his nose and fixing his glasses. “Saw that, eh?”

  Philip said something else to Henry in a low voice, but Logan didn’t hear. He doubted it was very nice.

  “Are you okay?” Logan asked. He noticed that the bottoms of Henry’s pants were wet. He’d gotten too close to the marsh and wasn’t wearing his tall wading boots. “Where have you been? What’s going on?”

  Henry sighed. “I wish I knew.”

  “But you agree something’s wrong with the Harmonicandy?”

  Henry stuck his hands in his pockets and nodded. Logan had held out a shred of hope that maybe only his Harmonicandy had been off, or that he’d misinterpreted Henry’s reaction while he was eating. That last shred was now gone.

  Philip threw up his arms. “This is crazy. There’s nothing wrong with it. It was delicious!”

  “I agree with you,” Henry said. “It tasted wonderful. But it was not the same as the one you submitted to the contest. I… I should have told you then. I should have stopped you.…”

  “Stopped us from what?” Miles asked.

  “From using the wrong chocolate.”

  “The wrong chocolate?” the boys repeated in unison.

  Henry nodded. “I sampled some of the chocolate Philip was using while I was helping him work on the recipe. I knew right away that I’d tasted it before—only once, and it was a long time ago. But you don’t forget a thing like that. Never expected to taste it again.”

  A worried feeling had started to settle in Logan’s stomach. Henry wasn’t making any sense. Why would the chocolate they used have been from some old batch? “What are you talking about, Henry?”

  Henry gave a sad little shrug. “I don’t know how else to explain it. Wherever Philip got that batch from, he wasn’t supposed to use it. I didn’t tell him because I wanted to give the Harmonicandy the best chance to win. I wanted to save the factory. Not for myself. I’m old, and I’ve been here perhaps too long. It didn’t occur to me that of course Philip wouldn’t be able to use the same chocolate again if he won. I didn’t know about the clause in the contest rules that says the exact recipe has to be followed. Not until that other contestant got disqualified, anyway. And by then it was too late, of course. All I could do was hope that when the time came—when today came—no one would notice the difference.”

  “And no one did,” Philip said firmly. “I mean, no one but the two of you. So let’s keep it that way.”

  Ignoring Philip’s remark, Logan asked instead, “Do you remember where you got the chocolate from?”

  Philip threw up his hands again. “Of course I don’t. Some shelf in the back of Max’s lab, probably, with all the other ingredients.”

  Logan turned to Henry. “Can’t we just find more of this chocolate? Steve and Lenny should know where all the different batches are, right?”

  Henry shook his head. “There is no more. I am certain of it.”

  “We’ll just need to look again,” Philip said, already turning back toward the factory.

  “There is NO more,” Henry repeated firmly. Philip hesitated, then nodded.

  No one spoke for a minute. “So what do we do?” Logan asked. “Production of the Harmonicandy is scheduled to start in two weeks.” He looked at Miles, who had been very quiet since they’d left Henry’s office. “What do you think, Miles?”

  “I don’t think we should say anything to anyone,” Miles said softly.

  “Exactly!” Philip said.

  “We’ll wait until we get back from the trip,” Miles continued. “And then if it’s still a problem, we’ll tell them what’s going on.”

  “I agree,” Henry said. “While normally I would never suggest hiding anything from your father, he has enough going on right now with the rush to get the Mmm Mmm Good product line up and running. I’ll work on it here, you work on it on the road, and hopefully we can sort it out before production starts.”

  Logan couldn’t imagine how they could change anything from the backseat of a van, but it hardly mattered. He had to break the bad news. “We’re not going on the trip.”

  “What?” Philip shouted. “That’s crazy. We’ll figure this out. We are going on that trip!”

  “It’s not because of this,” Logan insisted. “Like Henry said, it’s going to be crazy around here for the next few weeks. My parents have to be here to deal with all the new equipment and supplies coming in. But listen, it’s a good thing to put off going to the stores. This will give us time to figure out what’s going on, and—”

  “No,” Miles said in a loud voice. He cleared his throat and repeated it. “No. Philip’s right, and you know I don’t say that easily. We need to go on the road trip. Not later, now.”

  Logan had rarely heard Miles sound so forceful. “Why?” he asked.

  Miles hesitated, then looked Logan right in the eye. “Tsurt em. Esaelp. I tnac llet uoy ereh.”

  Logan stared at him. He knew how to decipher Miles’s backward talk by now. What could Miles have to tell him that he couldn’t say in front of the others? He glanced at Philip and Henry. Henry looked at Miles blankly. Philip was scowling. He’d once said that learning Miles’s backward talk would encourage him to use it more, and they should break him of the habit. Logan was pretty sure it annoyed Philip so much because he couldn’t understand it.

  “Even if we could still go,” Logan said, “I told you, my parents can’t take us. Neither can the suits who were going to drive the other van.”

  “Henry can drive us,” Miles said, looking at him pleadingly. “Will you do it, Henry?”

  “Of course he can’t do it,” Philip snapped. “You heard Big Billy. He’s giving the Marsh-Wiggle to the factory. That thing’s, like, half marshmallow. Henry needs to be here to get it up and running. Obviously.”

  Logan and Miles stared at Philip. “How do you know what’s in the Marsh-Wiggle?” Miles asked angrily. Miles almost never got angry at anything. Whatever he knew that Logan didn’t was clearly getting him worked up.

  Philip shrugged. “I make it my business to know the top sellers at each factory. Plus the name kind of gives it away.”

  “He’s right. I can’t go,” Henry said. “I’m sorry. But don’t worry. I found—”

  “What I still don’t understand,” Philip said, interrupting him, “is what you meant when you said you tasted the same chocolate a long time ago. When?”

  “I don’t recall,” Henry said, rubbing his head as if it hurt. “I just know that it was a very special batch of chocolate, and you used up the rest of it.”

  Out of the side of his mouth, Miles said to Logan, “Eh si gniyl.”

  Logan’s eyes widened. He sure hoped Henry hadn’t figured out that one! Logan leaned close to Miles. “Lying about what?” Logan whispered.

  “I’m not sure,” Miles whispered back. “But about some of it.”

  “You know that’s rude, right?” Philip said loudly.

  “Sorry,” Miles muttered. Then he said, “Hey, maybe Reggie could take us?”

  Philip shook his head. “My dad’s coming home in a few days.