Scat

In order to protect the Everglades, the US government has announced “a plan to buy up the drilling rights for oil and natural gas beneath the vast Big Cypress Preserve to protect the vanishing wetlands from future damage” (150). Drake McBride purchased a plot of land in Big Cypress with the hopes of making a huge profit by selling the drilling rights back to the government. When no oil is found on his land, McBride concocts a scheme to drill for oil in the neighboring sector and then pipe it in secretly, essentially tricking the government into believing there is oil on McBride’s land. Jimmy Lee Bayliss set the fire on the day of the field trip, “to scare off the kids before one of them blundered into Section 22 and spotted Red Diamond’s mud pit and drilling equipment” (155), and he is shocked to meet an arson investigator from the fire department checking out the scene of the fire. When he learns that the police suspect Duane Jr.—who has an arson record—Bayliss decides to frame Duane Jr. for the crime. 

Nick finds it hard to pay attention in Wendell Waxmo’s class and is unprepared when called on. Marta comes to his defense, blurting out to the whole class that Nick is distracted “[b]ecause his father got blown up in Iraq, and nearly died” (159). Waxmo turns instead to Duane Jr., telling him that his pimple essay was terrible—a D+. Duane seems sincerely hurt by this. 

The scene shifts to Twilly Spree’s backstory. Twilly was born into a rich family and is worth millions, but his only driving passion is the environment, specifically the Florida Everglades. Though he is a large donor to conservation groups, Twilly also gets “personally involved” in environmental disputes from time to time (164), to an extent that sometimes reaches beyond the letter of the law—such as bubble-wrapping the Red Diamond employee to a tree and stealing the pipes from the drilling site. He receives an emergency shipment by helicopter: a crate of bottles, packed with dry ice to keep them cold, containing what looks like milk. 

Back at the school, Nick is called in to Dr. Dressler’s office. Mrs. Starch has sent him a letter care of the school. It seems that Mrs. Starch has found out about his trip with Marta to explore her house. She says that she is fine but orders Nick to undertake no further investigation into her whereabouts. While in the principal’s office, Nick sneaks a look at Mrs. Starch’s personnel file, which confirms that she has no family and thus that the “family emergency” excuse is false. He deftly avoids promising to give up the investigation and runs outside to where his mom is waiting by the car with news.