Encyclopedia Brown and Dead Eagles (7 page)

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Authors: Donald J. Sobol

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Solution to The Case of the Parking Meters
According to Bugs’s story, Sally had stolen the reel of film as soon as it ended. That is, before Bugs had a chance to rewind it.
And he did not rewind it in front of Officer Culp and the detectives in his house.
Had Sally really stolen the film as Bugs claimed, it would have appeared upside down and backward when Bugs showed it to Officer Culp and the detectives.
Encyclopedia pointed this out, and Bugs confessed. He had written the Robin Hood card himself.
One of his Tigers had made the telephone calls to Encyclopedia and Sally. Another Tiger had posed as the boy detective in the movie.
Solution to The Case of the Hidden Will
The first clue was Mr. King’s basement, on whose walls hung enlarged framed pictures of every playing card in the deck.
The second clue was the poem. The first “King” was written with a capital K since it stood for the family name. The second “king” was written with a small k, and so it stood for something else—like a card.
The third clue was the description of Mr. King’s four sons. Only Frank did not have a moustache.
The will, Encyclopedia realized, was framed in with the picture of the king of hearts, the only king that doesn’t have a moustache.
There it was found. And Frank, the thieving son, inherited nothing.
Solution to The Case of the Mysterious Thief
The thief had to look like a woman and punch like a man. In short, a man dressed as a woman!
John Rizzo had dressed as a woman, and his wife had dressed as a man. Sally’s clue was their positions at the table.
When a man and a woman sit at a table for two by the wall, good manners call for the woman to face out so she can see and be seen. The man faces the wall.
But Mrs. Rizzo, dressed as the man, had sat with her back to the wall. She needed a full view of the restaurant in order to act as a lookout while her husband stole the money.
Only Sally remembered that the beefy “woman” and the slender “man” had sat in the wrong places.
Thanks to Sally, the Rizzos were caught.
Solution to The Case of the Old Calendars
Encyclopedia meant that sooner or later Butch would realize that Bugs had forged the note asking him to divide the twenty-five calendars evenly.
Alas for Bugs, he made an error in math. Encyclopedia spotted the error right away, and so he knew the note was a fake.
Mr. Downing, a math teacher, never would have written “... divide the 25 calendars by ½.”
Why not? Because 25 divided by ½ is 50, not 12 ½! (25 divided by 2 is 12½.)
When Butch finally realized that the note was forged, he took back the twelve calendars from Bugs—and set another record for knockdowns.
Solution to The Case of Lightfoot Louie
Lightfoot Louie had to travel a distance of five feet. The tube was one foot long. So he had to travel five laps.
At the finish, Hoager had cried, “He’s on the last lap now.... Here he comes....” Then he pulled the worm from the open end, or starting point.
However, the worm could have finished at the same end at which it started only by racing even laps—2, 4, 6, and so on.
Starting at the open end, Lightfoot Louie would have finished the five laps at the opposite, or closed, end.
Caught in his mistake, Hoager confessed. He had made up the entire race. Lightfoot Louie hadn’t budged an inch.
Solution to The Case of the Broken Window
Mr. Hall was too upset by the theft of the stamp to notice that something else was missing from his desk.
It was something used in looking at stamps—a magnifying glass.
The thief had broken his magnifying glass when he struck the window with it. He had picked up all the pieces except one from the carpet and dropped them, with the frame, onto the ground below.
To maintain his costume, he had stolen Mr. Hall’s magnifying glass along with the stamp.
Mr. Hall found the magnifying glass where Encyclopedia reasoned it was—in the hand of “Sherlock Holmes.”
The stolen stamp was found in “Holmes’s” wallet.
Solution to The Case of the Gasoline Pill
Encyclopedia had asked to see Wilford’s wallet, but not to find out how much money he had.
The detective wanted to see if a shoemaker’s claim ticket was in it. It was.
Mr. Arronzi, the shoemaker, had told Twinkletoes that he was too busy to mend any more shoes for two days.
Yet Wilford had left his boots to have new heels put on.
So Wilford lied about getting on a plane that very day and flying to Brazil for a year or two.
The claim ticket told Encyclopedia the truth. Wilford fully expected to be in Idaville to pick up his boots in two days.
Solution to The Case of the Pantry Door
The thief was Lois.
After leaving the kitchen, she had slipped back, locked the detectives in the pantry, and stolen the money.
Then she had run to the front door and slammed it. She wanted Encyclopedia to believe that the thief had fled the house.
Finally, she had sneaked upstairs. To prove where she was, she had answered Encyclopedia’s pounding by shouting, “All right, I hear you! Hold your horses. I’m coming!”
That was her mistake! Only if she knew that Encyclopedia needed help would she have called, “I’m coming!”
Had she been innocent, she would have thought he was trying to get
into
the pantry, not
out!

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