together and helping people solve their problems Plus we have a mascot It’s an alligator because I love them Pluser alligator rhymes with investigator And I really like that I think we can be our own clients I said But our case will have to wait We have a more important job today You mean going to the baking contest said Connor And making sure we eat as many cookies and cakes as we can I have to get in those three hundred cookies before Mom and Dad catch us No well yes that’s true But we’re also judges for the contest so we need to make sure we’re fair about who we choose to win Judging the contest was a privillage privaledge privilege we were given for being so good at solving mysteries 4
Every year Mrs Hamilton runs a baking contest She owns a great bakery in our neighborhood called Cake’n’Bake The winner of her contest will have their dessert sold in her bakery for four months Connor pulled out the paper that listed all the rules for judging He covered up the lines so I could only see one at a time I have dyslexia That means I reverse letters and numbers and sometimes they jump around Seeing only one line at a time helps the words stay still We have to judge the best dessert That means tasting the food That’ll be easy said Connor Nothing burned wins Connor moved his hands so I could read the next line And we have to judge the dessert based on the presentation 5
I frowned What do you think that means It means the cookies and cakes have to look nice when they’re on the plate he said He pointed to the last line Also we’re not supposed to play favorites That’s going to be difficult I said because I know everyone in the contest and they’re all my favorites Mine too agreed Connor I wonder what kinds of treats everyone will be baking I said I heard Mr O’Reilly is making a baked Alaska I wonder what that is Let me check When Connor and I found out we were going to be judges we went to the library and borrowed a whole bunch of books on baking I thought if we know the recipes that make up the treats it might help when it 6
comes to judging them I took out one of the books and looked up baked Alaska Crickets It looks really complicated Connor leaned over my shoulder Holy smokes They bake ice cream in an oven 7
