The Dinosaur Mystery (5 page)
When Mrs. Diggs saw how upset Jessie looked, she spoke to the officer herself. “Lieutenant, all these children are friends of our family. They're here for a visit. If they were in the dinosaur hall the other night, it's because someone, perhaps a work person, left the door open. The children wouldn't touch a thing. They've been staying with us and wouldn't so much as use a spoon without asking for permission!”
This didn't stop the police officer. “That's very well and good, Mrs. Diggs, but this isn't an apartment, and there are valuable fossils missing, not a spoon. I must do my job. Anyone who was in or near this dinosaur hall in the last few days has to make a statement. That includes these children. I'm sorry.”
“We don't mind,” Violet said firmly. “We came in here because we thought we were chasing someone.”
“Chasing someone?” the police officer asked. “Who were you chasing?”
“A shadow Benny saw,” Soo Lee answered.
When she heard this, the police officer lost interest. “Oh, a
shadow.
Well, small children are always seeing shadows. My six-year-old nephew thinks the shadow of the tree branch outside his bedroom is a big snake.”
This upset Benny so much, he couldn't be quiet. “It wasn't a snake I saw or a tree branch shaped like a snake. It was a
real
shadow that belonged to a real person. I chased it with my brother Henry, but it disappeared when we got inside here.”
Soo Lee tilted her head back and looked up at the giant dinosaur skeleton. “Then we saw this skeleton all over the ceiling, all black and pointy with big teeth, from Pete's flashlight.”
The officer took another look at Soo Lee. “You mean the night guard over there?” she said, pointing at Pete. “He was in here with you?”
Soo Lee nodded. “Not the whole time. First we were in here by ourselves. I was scared. Then Pete came.”
“I see, I see,” the police officer said. “I have to talk to that fellow again. People keep telling me he's often in places where he shouldn't be. And despite several work orders, he never did arrange to get the remote security camera fixed in here.”
“Dear, dear,” Mrs. Diggs said after the officer went off to question Pete. “I'm afraid poor Pete is in for it.” With that, Mrs. Diggs went off to join Mr. Diggs.
“Did I do okay, Jessie? Did I?” Soo Lee asked.
Jessie smoothed the little girl's shiny, black bangs. “Of course you did. We all told the truth, and that's always okay. The police have to interview everyone.”
Violet came over to Jessie and spoke in a low voice. “One thing I'm not sure about is where Pete was when we were in here. Was he already inside or did he follow us in?”
The Aldens looked at each another. No one had an answer to that.
A
fter all the excitement had died down, Mr. and Mrs. Diggs cleared everyone from the dinosaur hall. Only the Aldens and Dr. Pettibone were left.
“Now Titus,” Mrs. Diggs began. “I know you must be very distracted by this terrible loss, not to mention losing a morning's work so close to the opening. This is the perfect time for the Aldens to pitch in.”
“Who are the Aldens?” Dr. Pettibone had completely forgotten that he'd already met the children.
Why, these children here, Titus. James Alden's family,” Mrs. Diggs said. “They are very eager to work on the dinosaur exhibit.”
“With my dinosaurs?” Dr. Pettibone said. “No, Emma, I don't think so. I plan to work alone right up until the opening, even if I have to stay up every night.”
Soo Lee and Benny found it hard not to interrupt. They kept waiting for Mrs. Diggs and Dr. Pettibone to stop talking.
“Can I ask him about being in the manhole?” Benny asked Henry in a loud whisper.
When Dr. Pettibone overheard this, he stopped right in the middle of his sentence and turned away from the Aldens. “I simply can't do my work with all these children around, Emma. Send them away. Just send them away.”
Mrs. Diggs sighed and motioned to the children to follow her out. When they reached the lobby, the children could see how upset Mrs. Diggs was.
“I know you are patient,” Mrs. Diggs began. “Let me talk to Titus privately. I'll tell him about all the experience you children have had working with valuable things. He's so upset right now. Maybe this morning would be a good time to get the posters up now that the planetarium is straightened out. Archie left them on the table next to the sky show programs.”
“We'll go get them and start right away, Mrs. Diggs,” Henry said as they headed toward the planetarium. “Maybe Dr. Pettibone will be glad for some helping hands when we're done.”
Dr. Skyler spotted the Aldens right away. “You're late,” she said. “I suppose you couldn't wait to get to Dino World. As you can see, there's a huge crowd waiting to get into the planetarium. All the silly ruckus at Dino World made people want to come here instead.”
Henry shifted from one foot to the other. “We didn't know you wanted us to work at the planetarium this morning. We finished the cleanup job last night, but if you need us in here, here we are!”
“I've already made other arrangements,” Dr. Skyler snapped.
“Where are the Dino World posters Mr. Diggs left here yesterday?” Jessie asked. “I'm positive I saw them when we left.”
Dr. Skyler came over to Jessie. “What are you talking about? Only my sky show programs were here when I arrived this morning. Perhaps you mislaid them when you were working here. That's just the problem with letting children do an adult's job.”
The Aldens didn't know what to say. Hadn't they done a good job? Wasn't the planetarium sparkling clean now and open for business?
The children went out to the lobby and watched the planetarium line get longer.
“Why isn't she happy about all these customers?” Violet asked Henry and Jessie. “More people came here because of the news about the dinosaur bones.”
Henry and Jessie looked at each other. They were thinking the same thing. Did Dr. Skyler have something to do with the missing bones?
“Let's track down Mr. Diggs,” Henry said. “Maybe he came back for the posters.”
The children made their way past the construction area when a workman called out: “Watch your back! Watch your back!”
The Aldens turned around. The man was pushing an oversized garbage can filled with trash.
“Wait a minute,” Henry said when he saw what was inside the can. “It's a whole bunch of the Dino World posters! Hey, mister, is it okay if I take these?”
“Sure thing, fella,” the man said. “It's less for me to haul out.”
Henry reached in and took out a thick stack of posters. “Where did these come from?” he asked.
The man shrugged. “Beats me. I just take the stuff out, I don't look at it.”
“Well, we need these,” Jessie explained. She ran off to tell Mrs. Diggs they would be putting up the posters.
“Now we have a job to do,” Henry said. “Let's get these up around the area. Maybe if we do that, Dr. Pettibone will change his mind about us.”
The Aldens enjoyed being out and about in the city. When people saw the children putting up the Dino World posters on bulletin boards and telephone poles and store windows around the area, all they could talk about was the disappearance of the
T. rex
bones so close to the opening.
“We almost didn't need to put up these posters,” Jessie said when they ran out of them a couple of hours later. “Everybody already knows about the show thanks to the news reports.”
“Like grandfather always says,” Violet began, “sometimes something good comes out of something bad.”
The dinosaur hall was still roped off when the children returned. A guard unlocked a door to the passageway so they could take the shortcut back to the apartment. They had just gotten to the ground level when Mr. Diggs stepped off the service elevator.
“Why children!” Mr. Diggs said when he saw the Aldens. “I was going back to the apartment to get you some lunch. And tell you the good news, too.”
“I like good news,” Benny said.
“Well, the good news is that Titus agreed to have some of you children help him out,” Mr. Diggs said. “Emma told him about how you put up the posters for his exhibit, so he changed his mind.”
“Now that we know the good news, what's the news about lunch?” Benny asked.
Mr. Diggs smiled. “Well, Benny, we have some tuna sandwiches and chips and our secret brownies. In fact, I need a couple of helpers, so maybe you and Soo Lee can give me a hand. We'll send something down to Titus while he's showing the older children the ropes.”
“What kind of ropes?” Soo Lee wanted to know.
Jessie laughed. “Not real ropes, Soo Lee. That's just a saying people use when they want to show somebody how to do something new.” Turning to Mr. Diggs, she added: “Does that mean we should go back to the dinosaur hall now?”
“I think so, before Titus changes his mind. I've never seen him so mixed up.” Mr. Diggs unlocked the elevator for the older children. Before the doors closed, he pulled Henry aside. “Right now, Titus is a little nervous about the younger children working with the fossils. Emma and I will keep Benny and Soo Lee busy this afternoon. See you later.”
“I feel bad for Benny and Soo Lee,” Henry said to his sisters as the elevator went up. “They wanted to be near that dinosaur more than anybody.”
“Henry, do you think there's another reason Dr. Pettibone doesn't want them around?” Violet asked.
Henry shook his head. “I don't know. Maybe he really does think they're too young.”
When the elevator doors opened, the children found themselves inside a cluttered office right behind the dinosaur hall. No one was there.
“I wonder if Dr. Pettibone knew we'd be coming this early,” Henry said. “Maybe we should go back out and come in through the main entrance.”
Jessie noticed a light coming from under a door marked
Fossil Lab.
She knocked, but there was no answer. She turned the doorknob, and slowly pushed the door open a crack. The children saw Dr. Pettibone stuffing straw inside a wooden crate.
Jessie gave a louder knock to get his attention. Dr. Pettibone jumped back.
“It's the Aldens,” Jessie announced. She didn't want to upset him by barging into the lab. “Is it okay to come in?”
Dr. Pettibone quickly covered the crate with a lid, even though there was straw sticking out all over.
“Stay out there,” Dr. Pettibone called back. “I have a lot of unmarked fossils in here, and we've had enough disturbances already.”
Finally Dr. Pettibone joined the children in the outside office. He quickly brushed off his white lab coat then locked the door behind him. “I wasn't expecting you until after lunch.”
“We finished putting up all your posters early,” Violet said. “So we came here right away. What happened to your dinosaur was so terrible.”
Violet's sweet voice had an odd effect on Dr. Pettibone. For a second he looked friendly. But then he got gruff all over again.
“Now that you're here,” he said, “I need you to answer the phones and sort out this paperwork that piled up while I was away.”
The children tried not to look disappointed. Answering phones and sorting papers wasn't exactly what they had hoped to be doing â not when there were dinosaur bones missing!
“Of course, whatever you need,” Jessie said politely.
“Good.” Dr. Pettibone handed Jessie a piece of paper. “Now here, I've written down the facts about the missing bones, so you can report them to any curious callers. If anyone from the newspapers or television and radio stations call, please be sure to mention the Dino World opening next week. You can also file the papers in this folder.”
Dr. Pettibone turned to Henry. “As for you, young man, you can clear some of that rubbish outside the hall. The janitor opened up an empty room just down the way. Everything can go in there.”
Dr. Pettibone looked at Violet. “I understand, young lady, that you have very nice printing. Here are some blank labels for each of my new fossils and the list to copy. Can you do that while I'm working in the other room?”
“I'll write very neatly,” Violet said. “If you need anything else done, just ask me. I like to draw, too. I read in a book that sometimes fossil scientists need sketches of what they find.”
Dr. Pettibone took a long look at this serious girl. “The labels will be plenty. I need all my concentration when I work on my fossils. No distractions.”
With that, Dr. Pettibone unlocked the fossil lab door, went in, and relocked it from the inside.
The three children set to work without another word.
“N
o, the dinosaur bones are still missing, but come to the Dino World opening next Tuesday,” Jessie told a caller. She put down the phone. “Whew, that phone hasn't stopped ringing for an hour. I know it's awful about the theft, but now people are so curious about Dino World. More people than ever will come.”