"Warehouse of Edible Evidence" by Elena Nesterina, summary Automatic translate

"Warehouse of Edible Evidence" is a humorous children’s novel by Elena Nesterina, written in 2002. The author uses good humor to describe everyday school life, childish speculation, and true friendship. The plot revolves around a humorous misunderstanding that escalates into a dangerous investigation.

This story is part of the well-known book series "The Fairest Mafia" and is its fourth installment. The series was published by Eksmo as part of the popular children’s detective series "The Black Kitten." Other works in this series include "The Mafia Writes an Opera," "A Poodle Wanders Through Europe," and "The Stolen Piano."

The beginning of the investigation and suspicions of Anton Mylchenko

Seventh-grade student Antosha Mylchenko has a wild imagination. He writes a detective story in which he imagines himself a great detective under the pseudonym Anton Velikolepensky. In real life, Antosha notices strange changes in the behavior of his homeroom teacher and physical education teacher, Pyotr Bronislavovich. The teacher appears angry, confused, and forces the children to practice outside in the cold.

Antosha sneaks into the gym and sees the gym mats torn apart. Later, he notices the young history teacher, Anastasia Gennadyevna, sympathetically stroking Pyotr Bronislavovich’s head. The detective shares his suspicions with his classmate, Zoya Redkina. He claims the gym teacher is being starved at home due to family problems.

Soon, the children find a newspaper bag of buckwheat porridge and blackcurrant jam hidden behind the mats. The boys decide to secretly feed their favorite teacher. They bring a jar of borscht, navy-style pasta, and sausages from home, leaving the food in the gym. Because of this charity, Antosha and Zoya skip physics class and receive bad grades from their formidable math teacher, Ekaterina Alexandrovna, nicknamed "Shepherd."

Surgery in the athlete’s apartment

Zoya remembers that the piano her parents recently sold to Pyotr Bronislavovich contains her childhood secret stash. It contains her relics — a dried flower and a postcard from the lead singer of the band Na-Na, as well as an old cake. The girl goes to visit her gym teacher. While Antosha maintains surveillance outside, Zoya tries to get inside the piano.

The apartment’s owners greet their student warmly. It turns out they’d already opened the piano because of the noise. They’d mistaken the bag of dried-out cake for moth repellent and thrown it in the trash. Zoya fearlessly rushes into the kitchen and rescues her treasures from the trash. She returns to Anton and proudly shows him the postcard.

Rodent infestation at school

Meanwhile, a real drama unfolds at school. It turns out the gym has been closed due to a rat infestation, which is gnawing at the mats and equipment. Soon, three gray rats are running busily across the table in the school cafeteria during lunch. This causes panic among the students. Brave Arina Balovantseva freezes in terror, as she is extremely afraid of rodents.

Her loyal protector, Vitya Ryndin, supports the frightened girl and promises to rid her of this fear. The school administration blames the rat infestation on Pyotr Bronislavovich’s negligence. The principal wants to remove him from his position as head teacher and transfer him to the unruly eighth grade, "G," and assign a strict math teacher to seventh grade, "B."

Seventh-grade protest and new evidence

The students of Year 7, "B," decide to defend their homeroom teacher. Led by Arina, they stage a picket right outside the principal’s office. The students sit on the floor and threaten a hunger strike. The principal gives in and signs an agreement: if Pyotr Bronislavovich stops the rat infestation, he will remain with his class.

Arina, Vitya, Zoya, and Antosha begin a joint investigation. They realize the rats appeared unexpectedly. Furthermore, a suspicious woman, uninvited by school officials, had been secretly planting poison in the gym. The children find her phone number. Arina sends her a message inviting them to meet at the "Press" kiosk.

Antosha decides to act independently and changes into his mother’s coat, hat, and high-heeled boots. This causes the boys to miss the real suspect in the brown coat. However, the children quickly see through Antosha’s disguise. They finally manage to track down the mysterious woman. She enters a corner apartment on the ground floor of a building adjacent to the school gym.

Exposing a secret laboratory

The girls draw hopscotch on the dry asphalt to keep the old ladies at the entrance from chasing them away. A man with a briefcase joins the woman. Arina comes up with a bold plan: to peek through the window of the first-floor apartment. Strong Vitya stands on a wooden box and lifts Arina onto his shoulders. The girl takes a pair of tailor’s scissors to open the blinds.

Arina sees a veritable laboratory inside. Cages containing a huge number of rats stand on tables. A woman in a white coat drips a dark liquid onto dog food. The rodents eat the food, become incredibly aggressive, and easily push aside the steel bars of the cages. The scientists are unable to control the test animals, who chew through the baseboards and escape under the floor.

Arina takes a picture of the room. It becomes clear that the rats are fleeing through an underground passage. Beneath the house runs an ancient tunnel with utility lines from the early twentieth century, leading directly to the school gym. The besieged scientists, Alevtina and Artyom, realize they’ve been exposed. They frantically begin collecting reagents and deleting files from their computer.

Arina runs to the school principal and tells her everything. The principal, a doctor from the sanitary and epidemiological station, and Petr Bronislavovich rush to the apartment. A team consisting of Antosha and Zoya blocks the exit. The adults enter the lab and catch the scientists red-handed. Alevtina and Artem confess that they were developing a drug to boost immunity and fearlessness.

They conducted experiments without permission and lost control of the mutated rats. A special unit from the sanitary and epidemiological station fills the underground tunnel with concrete under high pressure. The dangerous underground corridor is permanently sealed. This saves the school from harmful rodents and the possible collapse of the gym’s foundation. The scientists disappear unnoticed amid the chaos.

Zoya Redkina manages to catch up with Alevtina and Artyom. She asks for luck and fearlessness pills to ensure good grades. Arina and Vitya arrive and save their friend from a dangerous experiment. Arina explains to Zoya that she’s already very brave to be able to openly admit her fears. The girls make peace, and Zoya forgives Antosha Mylchenko.

Returning to normal life

The school lifts the quarantine. The principal solemnly retains Pyotr Bronislavovich as the homeroom teacher for seventh grade, "B." The strict "Ovcharka" is transferred to the unruly eighth grade, "G." The gym teacher proudly tells his wife about his students’ heroism. The couple decides to take the children on a hike to Gremyachiy Spring for the May holidays.

Antosha Mylchenko is finishing his detective story. He sets the action in the nineteenth century and replaces the rats with fantastical hybrids called "nukhoriks." Zoya Redkina advises him not to show the story to Arina and Vitya, lest they give him a dressing-down for his fiction. She decides to share her new secret with Antosha, since he is, after all, a good friend.