"Mr. Lyman? Can you answer this question?"
The math teacher's angry shout immediately woke Harry from his morning nap. After a glance at the problem on the board, he stammered out an answer. It turned out that Harry was quite good at math; he was able to get the correct answer even in his groggy state.
His two-person support crew had been busy until after one in the morning, and Peter had personally escorted them all the way home to ensure their safety. But it was clear that not everyone was Spider-Man, able to get by on just four or five hours of sleep and still feel energetic. Today, both Harry and Amadeus were extremely tired.
Cindy, who was sitting next to Peter, looked strangely at the two in the back seat. She didn't quite understand why they were so sleepy when Peter was the one who had been out late last night.
As she thought this, Cindy looked at Peter and handed him a note. Peter took it, a little curious. He and Cindy hadn't had a proper conversation in a while—since that kiss, they had barely exchanged more than three sentences. But then again, Cindy's conversations with anyone usually didn't last more than three sentences, so maybe it was okay?
Peter took the note while thinking and was a little surprised by its contents. There were two sentences. One was that she wanted to go on patrol with him after school, which wasn't a problem. The other thing that made Peter curious was that Nick Fury wanted to meet him, not in New York, but in Washington D.C., at the S.H.I.E.L.D. Triskelion.
Peter thought about it carefully. There was only one possibility: the news of the Thunderbolts' betrayal in the Wasteland Universe must have alarmed Nick Fury.
Peter tore off a piece of paper and wrote a reply for Cindy while listening to music. Patrol was definitely fine, but since it was Wednesday, the Detective Club was scheduled to meet, so he would have to stay on campus for a while. As for the trip to Washington, Peter would need a suitable excuse, but that was something for the "Black Eyepatch" to handle.
He finished writing his reply and handed it to Cindy. Just then, the math teacher called on a sleepy Amadeus to answer a question. After reading his note, Cindy gave Peter another unexpected response: she wanted to join the Detective Club.
"Hmm... very good. The deduction is perfect, but there's no need for such a detailed psychological profile of the suspect—I didn't actually think about that."
Jessica Drew took Cindy Moon's analysis with a bit of embarrassment. Cindy's deduction was a little too... meticulous. Not that it was professional, but she really wanted to dig into every single detail. She had even written a psychological profile of the suspect based on some of their actions, which was a little alarming.
Felicia was also there. She looked at Cindy, whom Peter had brought, with curiosity, then smirked as she read the deduction. "I can't find a reason to say no, Jessica."
"I agree. A perfect deduction. Welcome to the Detective Club."
Jessica smiled as she accepted Cindy's answer, then pulled out a mountain of deerstalker hats and handed one to Cindy. Just then, Felicia moved closer to Peter.
"I heard that the NYPD received a tip from Spider-Man today, and they raided the Fisk Natural Arts Museum, where they found evidence that one of Fisk's companies was involved in art smuggling?"
Felicia's words weren't meant to thank Spider-Man for his contribution. She was probably annoyed that he hadn't asked her to join him on such a textbook heist. Peter felt a little helpless. "Maybe it's because they weren't hiding it very well, which is why Spider-Man found it."
As it turned out, this evidence would only cause Fisk to lose a little money; it wouldn't be enough to take him down completely. To Fisk, an extra few decades in prison didn't make much of a difference. Unless a new, serious federal crime was discovered and the court sentenced Fisk to death, Fisk in prison was no different from Fisk on the outside.
For a moment, Peter really wanted to just break into Ryker's Island and kill Fisk, but maybe, as Fisk had said the last time Peter had threatened him, Fisk had been waiting for him to do just that. Then, everyone would see a super hero killing a prisoner in his cell, and the public would lose faith in super heroes. No one would know if the hero who appeared so righteous on the surface was secretly a vigilante who would take the law into his own hands and abuse his power.
Perhaps this was exactly what Fisk was waiting for.
By the way, there was something unexpected on that list from yesterday: neither the supplier nor the buyer included the name of Kraven the Hunter. Neither his real name nor any aliases could be found. There were even very few Russian clients on the list.
Hearing Peter's response, Felicia raised an eyebrow, clearly dissatisfied, then added casually, "I hope he can find some evidence that isn't so easy to get next time."
"Alright, yes, sign here, and you're officially a member of our club."
After helping Cindy with her membership application, Jessica looked over at Peter and Felicia. "What are you two talking about over there?"
"Oh, nothing much, just some news about Spider-Man."
"Hmm... Spider-Man..."
As the days went on, with Spider-Man joining the Avengers, the clues they could gather seemed to be getting fewer and fewer. Jessica looked as if she was about to give up on her investigation into Spider-Man.
But it would be strange if she could find anything. Every time they had a meeting, she was analyzing things with an informant in the room. First, it was one, and now it should be... Hmm? Was it true that of all the Detective Club members, including himself, only Jessica didn't know that Peter Parker was Spider-Man? Did everyone else, including the newly joined Cindy, actually know?
That's a bit of a low blow.
"So, hey, where are Harry and Amadeus?"
Peter apologized, scratching his head. "They seem to have been up all night yesterday, and they were really tired all day, so they asked for the day off."
"They must have been up all night playing video games again. Young people these days, always getting addicted to things like that."
The club president grumbled, completely ignoring the fact that she was only two years older than them. She seemed very unhappy that Harry and Amadeus were skipping the Detective Club meeting. Just as Peter was thinking this, she pulled out a USB drive.
"They're going to miss out on the top-secret information I managed to get today!"
Peter asked, a little curious, "What top-secret information?"
"Information about the Kravinoff Manor in the suburbs of New York!"