by Ron Roy
“I don’t know that, either,” Dink said.
Simon came with their food, and they started eating. After a few minutes, Dink wiped his mouth and said, “Ruth Rose, do you still have the pieces of glass you picked up in the crypt? When I cut my finger?”
Ruth Rose unwrapped the tissue, revealing a bunch of glass slivers.
“They’re all different colors,” Josh said.
“Right,” Dink said. “They’re exactly like the pieces I just saw on Kip’s floor. What if someone from Kip’s Place had bits of glass on the bottom of his feet, and carried it into the crypt?”
“And that person stole the Royce Vase?” Ruth Rose asked.
Dink nodded. “Yes! They brought your gram’s vase to make the switch, and they didn’t realize they were also bringing pieces of glass and leaving them on the crypt floor.”
“But who?” Josh asked.
Dink shrugged and sipped his drink. “Kip gets a lot of customers coming in there,” he said. “Maybe one of them stole a key and returned later to get the vase from the kiln.”
“Like that woman who came in,” Ruth Rose said. “Dawn.”
“She was making something out of stained glass!” Josh said.
Dink nodded. “Yeah, and she was wearing running shoes,” he said. “Little pieces of glass could get stuck in those grooves on the bottom. My sneakers pick up stuff all the time.”
“Don’t forget we were walking around Kip’s, too,” Josh said. “Maybe the glass in the crypt came off our feet.”
Dink shook his head. “I don’t think it was one of us. When I cut my finger, I was sitting way back in that corner,” he said. “None of us walked in that part of the crypt.”
“Guys, that crypt must have had a big padlock on the door, like the others,” Josh said. “So how did the vase thief get in?”
“Josh is right,” Ruth Rose said. “Maybe someone did steal Kip’s key to rob Gram’s vase, but they’d have to steal another key to get into the crypt.”
The kids thought about that. “I wonder where the cemetery keeps those keys,” Dink said.
“I know who probably has a key to the Royce crypt,” Josh said. “Foley Royce!”
“But he’s from England, and he’s never even heard of my grandmother or Kip,” Ruth Rose said. “So how would he be able to swap the vases?”
The door banged open, and Maria rushed in, holding her cell phone. “There you are!” she exclaimed. “My poor feet! I practically ran over here! Good thing I wore running shoes!” She plunked her phone on the table and sat next to Ruth Rose. She stretched out her legs, with her feet on the seat next to Dink.
When Dink slid over to make room, he noticed the bottoms of Maria’s sneakers. Caught between the rubber ridges were slivers of blue, green, and red glass.
Dink looked away. When he reached for his lemonade, his hand shook.
Was Maria the person who snuck into the crypt?
Did she steal the Royce Vase?
Simon came over, and Maria asked for a glass of water.
Dink stopped himself from staring at the soles of her sneakers. But he couldn’t stop thinking about them. He snuck a peek at Maria. She didn’t look like a thief. But what did thieves look like?
Dink couldn’t finish his sandwich.
Think, Dink, he told himself.
Ruth Rose’s grandmother had said Maria Hoffman liked valuable things.
Maria knew about the vase Gram Hathaway had made.
Because of her museum work, she probably knew the Royce Vase was in the family crypt. And the cemetery was a short walk from her apartment!
Dink wiped his hands on his napkin. He tried to make sense of it all. At home, he wrote lists when he was confused, so he made a mental list now:
Maybe Maria knew the vase was in the crypt.
Maybe she also knew Ruth Rose’s grandmother was a good pottery maker.
Maybe she downloaded a picture of the Royce Vase.
Maybe she asked Ruth Rose’s grandmother to make her one like it.
Then maybe she got into Kip’s Place and took the vase.
Next, she went to the crypt and made the switch.
It was all possible.
“Earth to Dink,” Josh said, nudging him.
“Sorry,” Dink said. All the maybes were giving him a headache.
“Did you see Gram?” Ruth Rose asked Maria.
“Yes. She’s fine and sends her love, but I’m afraid that’s the only good news,” Maria said. “The police think they found evidence she was in that crypt, and they want to keep her there a little longer while they investigate.”
“What kind of evidence?” Dink asked.
“Pieces of glass,” Maria said. “They still think she swapped her vase for the Royce Vase. I told them that was absurd, but they’re keeping her until—”
“She has to stay at the police station?” Ruth Rose interrupted.
“I’m afraid so, dear,” Maria said. “But at least she’s not in a jail cell. They have a little room. She has a TV and a tiny window.”
She reached across the table and gave Ruth Rose’s hand a squeeze. “Just until the police can find the real thief.”
Or until we do, Dink thought.
“But,” Maria went on, “my attorney, Lanny, has promised to call. So let’s get you kids settled in. I have—”
Just then, Maria’s phone rang. “That will be Lanny!” she said. She grabbed the phone and hurried outside.
Dink leaned over the table. “Guys, I think she stole the vase!” he hissed.
“Who, Lanny?” Josh said.
“No, Maria!”
Josh and Ruth Rose stared at Dink.
Maria sailed back in, slipping her phone into a pocket. “Lanny is meeting me and your dear grandmother at the police station in an hour with a plan,” she said. “Let’s go home.”
Dink paid Simon, and the kids followed Maria out to the street. Gus’s repair van was still parked in the alley. When they walked behind the van, Dink saw a big black G painted across the rear doors. G stood for Gus, he guessed. And then he remembered something.
“Wait, I want to go into Kip’s for a minute,” Dink said.
“Why?” Josh asked.
Without answering, Dink zipped through Kip’s front door. Dawn was cleaning her worktable. Kip was on the phone in his office and didn’t notice Dink.
Dink whipped out his phone, took a picture, and was out the door in less than a minute.
While they walked toward Maria’s apartment building, Dink was forming a plan.
Inside the apartment, Maria pulled three sleeping bags from a closet.
“Now I’m going to find a cab to go to the police station,” she said. “If Lanny can work her magic, I’ll bring Gram Hathaway back.”
As soon as Maria was out the door, Ruth Rose grabbed Dink by the arm. “What do you mean, you think Maria is the crook?” she asked. “She and Gram have been best friends forever!”
“Maria has pieces of glass stuck in the bottom of her sneakers,” Dink said. “And that’s not all.”
Dink grabbed a pillow off a sofa and sat on the floor. Josh and Ruth Rose did the same. “Here’s what I think,” he said. “Maria knows a lot about old gold and silver stuff, so she probably knows the Royce Vase is worth a lot of money. And she made a plan to get it. She also knew it was in the crypt. Your grandmother’s vase gave her the idea to switch the two.”
“But why did Maria need Gram’s vase?” Ruth Rose asked. “Why didn’t she just break into the crypt and take the Royce Vase?”
“Because of the dead guy’s family,” Dink said.
“The family?” Josh asked.
“The Royce relatives,” Dink said. “Maria must know there a
re still some around. If a family member visited the crypt and the Royce Vase wasn’t on that pedestal, they’d call the cops. And the cops would look for people who know a lot about old silver. Sooner or later, they’d check out the museum where Maria works. And Maria couldn’t take that chance.”
“So she had to put another vase in its place just in case,” Josh said. He laughed. “Hey, I made a poem!”
Dink nodded. “We know Maria goes to Kip’s a lot. She could have grabbed silver paint from his shelf when she stole your grandmother’s vase,” he said. “Then she painted the vase before she brought it to the crypt.”
“So what do we do?” Ruth Rose asked.
“I’m not finished,” Dink said.
Dink took out his phone and found his recent photos. He showed Josh and Ruth Rose the one from when they arrived at the crypt.
“Josh looks scared,” Ruth Rose said.
“Not scared,” Josh said. “Just careful.”
Dink swiped his phone screen to look at more pictures. “Look at that pedestal,” Dink said. He was glad to see that the R on the pedestal’s base was clearly shown. “There’s the R for Royce.”
Dink swiped again, bringing up the picture he had just taken at Kip’s. “This shows a picture tacked to one of Kip’s shelves,” he explained. “It’s a photo of the Royce Vase, sitting on that same marble pedestal inside the crypt. I think Ruth Rose’s gram was looking at this picture when she made her vase, which explains why hers looks like the Royce Vase.”
They all stared at the picture.
“I think Maria had found that picture of the Royce Vase in one of her books, and your grandmother made her vase look just like it,” he told Ruth Rose. “Only your grandmother didn’t know anything about the Royce Vase. She was just copying Maria’s picture.”
“But how did Kip get the picture of the Royce Vase?” Ruth Rose asked.
“Maria probably texted it to him, and he printed it,” Dink said. “Kip did tell us Maria was a good customer of his.”
“I can’t believe Maria would steal something and let Gram take the blame,” Ruth Rose said.
Dink stood up. “Let’s search this place while she’s gone,” he said.
“For what?” Josh asked.
“For the Royce Vase!”
“But she’s got tons of vases,” Ruth Rose said. “Gram said she collects them.” She pointed to the bookshelves. “Look at all those, and there are probably more.”
Dink held up his phone. “But we have my picture of Kip’s picture of the Royce Vase, so we know what it looks like.”
Josh took Dink’s phone and made the image larger. “Hmm…21H—7W. I’ll bet these letters and numbers tell how big the vase is,” he said. “H must stand for height, so the vase is twenty-one inches high. W is for width, so it’s seven inches wide.”
“I think you’re right,” Dink said. “Let’s start searching before Maria gets back. Look for silver paint, too.”
“I’ll take the bedroom,” Ruth Rose said as she turned in that direction.
“I’ll check out the kitchen,” Josh said.
“Remember you’re looking for a vase,” Dink said. “Not cookies.”
Josh laughed and headed for the kitchen.
Dink wandered around the living room. He found vases in cupboards. More stood on bookshelves, small tables, and even windowsills. There was a special cabinet with at least a dozen glass vases. He counted twenty-seven vases in the room—some small, some medium, and a few really tall. None was the Royce Vase. He didn’t see a single can of paint.
Dink decided to look for books about old silver and found a fat one. He flipped through the pages and saw pictures of silver bowls, candlesticks, pitchers, and belt buckles. Checking the index, he found the pages about Paul Revere. He turned to that chapter and found photos of several tall vases. One of them could have been the vase Foley Royce’s ancestor had bought.
Dink closed the book and returned it to the shelf. Was this where Maria found the picture to send to Kip?
The bottom shelf was filled with books about famous people who were no longer alive. There was one about President John F. Kennedy. Dink ran a finger along the book spines: Elvis Presley. Abraham Lincoln. Marilyn Monroe. Albert Einstein. Thomas Alva Edison.
“No Royce Vase and no paint,” Josh said as he walked into the living room.
“How about cookies?” Dink asked him.
Josh grinned. “Found one, but it’s gone now,” he said.
Ruth Rose came from the bedroom. “Maria sure has a lot of vases!” she said. “I counted eleven in a cabinet. But none were twenty-one inches high.”
The apartment door opened, and Maria came in, out of breath. “Hi, kids,” she said. “How have you been entertaining yourselves?”
“Checking out all your books,” Dink said. “You must read a lot.”
“My favorite hobby,” Maria said. “Notice I have no TV!”
She walked over and gave Ruth Rose a hug. “Your gram is still with the police, I’m afraid,” she said. “But Lanny is there, too, and they’re talking.”
“Will she come home tonight?” Ruth Rose asked.
“Honey, I honestly don’t know,” Maria said. “Lanny promised to call when she knows more, even if it’s in the middle of the night.”
Dink watched Maria kick off her sneakers and step into pink bunny slippers. Is this a woman who would leave her best friend in jail? he wondered.
“You don’t have a TV?” Josh asked. “How do you do that?”
“I watch important stuff on my iPad,” Maria said. “But I’d rather be out walking or riding my bike than sitting on the sofa. There’s a great park not far away, and Green-Wood Cemetery has wonderful walking trails.”
“You hike in the cemetery?” Josh asked.
“All the time,” Maria said. She winked. “That place is filled with treasures.”
Maria cooked spaghetti with turkey meatballs for supper. The kids did the dishes while Maria laid out their sleeping bags. “Do you require stuffed animals to sleep with?” she asked, grinning at the kids.
“Josh has a giraffe named Jerome,” Ruth Rose said. “But Dink and I are too mature.”
“Jerome Giraffe belongs to one of my little brothers,” Josh said.
Dink grinned. “Then why is Jerome always on your bed?” he asked.
“Because I feed him cookies!” Josh said.
Maria pulled a small wooden chest from behind one of the sofas. “Here’s a stash of my grandkids’ favorite books,” she said. “Help yourselves if you want something to read. I have a date with Bertie.”
“Who’s Bertie?” Josh asked.
“Bertie is my nickname for Albert Einstein,” Maria said, pulling the man’s biography from the bottom shelf. “Einstein’s sister was called Maria, like me. I think my parents named me after her. If I’d been a boy, they’d have named me Albert.”
Josh and Ruth Rose each chose a book from the box. Dink took the Thomas Edison biography from the bookshelf.
Josh went into the bathroom with his backpack and came out wearing Batman pajamas. He climbed into his sleeping bag, then hopped right out again. He turned around and reached his arm all the way to the end of the bag. “There’s something in here,” he muttered.
“Probably a tarantula,” Dink said. “They hide in dark places and wait for their prey.”
“Nope, it’s a lollipop!” Josh said.
“Are you going to eat that?” Dink asked. “It might have been down there for years.”
Josh crawled into the bag again and set the lollipop next to the lamp on a table. “Maybe I will, Bill.” Three minutes later, Josh was asleep.
Dink read about how Thomas Alva Edison invented the electric lightbulb and other things. When his eyes got tired, he closed them. He thought a
bout what life was like before electricity. No computers. No TV. People lit candles or kerosene lamps. He shuddered, remembering the darkness when they were locked inside the crypt. Good thing that jogger came along.
Dink opened his eyes. Yeah, that jogger let them out, but who locked them in? Maybe a breeze did close the door, making that hasp thing fall over the metal loop. But who put the stick through the loop? Could it really have been a parakeet?
Dink shook his head. It was hard to believe a parakeet could jam a stick through that small loop with its beak. It must have been a person. Would someone just passing by do it? Maybe that guy mowing the lawn noticed the plastic tie had been cut. Maybe he shoved a stick through the hasp to keep the door from opening until he got a new padlock.
Dink closed his eyes again, picturing the guy with the lawn mower. He had looked at them funny when they asked about the Royce crypt. He had a name tag on his shirt. What was it? Alan? Alfred? No, it was Albert. Like Albert Einstein.
Maria called Albert Einstein Bertie. The name Bertie clicked in Dink’s brain. Where had he heard it today? He let his mind take him backward. They were on the train. Then they met Ruth Rose’s gram. They took a taxi to Park Slope. They stopped by Kip’s Place. Josh joked about the old gravestone, and Kip said his cousin had found it somewhere. His cousin Bertie.
Dink sat up in his sleeping bag. The Edison book slipped to the floor. Bertie was a nickname for Albert. Could Albert who works in Green-Wood Cemetery be Kip’s cousin Bertie?
Dink’s mind raced. Albert could get the keys to the crypts. Albert might also have the key to Kip’s studio.
Maybe Albert stole the Royce Vase, not Maria.
Dink turned to Ruth Rose’s sleeping bag. Only the top of her hair stuck out of the bag. The book she had been reading lay on the floor.
Dink poked her awake, then did the same to Josh. They stared at him with sleepy eyes.
