by Ron Roy
“How can he tell that?” Ruth Rose asked.
“He’s a paleontologist, but he told me he used to be a detective,” Dink said. “He knows about clues and stuff.”
“Dink, Trevor could be the thief, remember?” Josh said. “The hairs could be his. You even said so. If you ask him, he has to lie to us, like Dude, these hairs are from a dog or a chimpanzee or something. If Trevor and Sylvia stole the diamond, he’d be crazy to admit that the hairs came from him or her!”
“Maybe, but I want to watch his face when I show him the hairs,” Dink said. “Sometimes the bad guy’s eyes give it all away.”
“I like your idea,” Ruth Rose told Dink. “We’ll watch Trevor’s eyes.”
“But what if he really did steal the diamond?” Josh asked. “As soon as you show him the hairs, he’ll know we suspect him. He could lock us up in a dungeon under the museum!”
Ruth Rose laughed. “I doubt there’s a dungeon under the New England Children’s Museum,” she said.
“Well, there could be,” Josh said. “And everyone knows dungeons have tons of spiders!”
Dink grinned. “Let’s go find out,” he said.
The kids hurried back toward the museum. “I hope Sylvia isn’t the thief,” Ruth Rose said. “She’s so nice! I saw her give a sandwich to a homeless man yesterday.”
“I thought Trevor was pretty nice, too,” Dink said. “But they both have straight black hair, and they both work at the museum. We know Sylvia was there when the River Diamond got stolen, and maybe he was there, too.”
They passed a store that sold toys. The window display was a tall building made of small plastic blocks. In front of the building were miniature cars, trees, children, and dogs, all built from the little blocks.
The next store showed a female mannequin wearing a dark fur coat. A sign next to her said FUR STORAGE. LET US KEEP YOUR BEAUTIFUL FUR COAT SAFE!
“Hey, remember that guy Nog who works at the museum?” Josh asked. “His hair was black. So was his beard!”
“Yeah, but I’m pretty sure his beard and hair were fake,” Dink said. “Besides, they were both curly. The hairs from my shirt are straight. So is the one I found on the sink in the bathroom.”
The kids kept walking toward the museum.
“I just thought of something!” Josh said. “I’m so smart!”
Dink and Ruth Rose stopped walking. “Please tell us why you are so smart,” Dink said, grinning.
“I just figured out why the thief has to be Sylvia,” Josh said.
“Why?” Ruth Rose asked.
Josh grinned. “Her last name is Slate, right?” he asked.
Dink and Ruth Rose nodded.
“So an anagram for SLATE is STEAL!”
Dink just shook his head.
* * *
—
Ten minutes later the kids walked up the museum steps. A sign next to the door gave the museum’s hours.
“It won’t be open for another hour,” Ruth Rose said.
Dink saw a button and pushed it. They all heard a loud buzzing sound.
Sylvia opened the door. She smiled when she saw the kids. “Hey,” she said. “Have you come back for more cookies?”
Sylvia wasn’t wearing her cap. Dink stared at her hair. It was shiny, black, and straight.
“Um, no,” Dink said. “But they were really good. We came to see Trevor. Is he here?”
“My brother?” Sylvia asked. “Sure, he’s in his lab.”
Her brother! Dink thought. “Can you ask him if we can talk to him?” he said.
Sylvia stared at Dink for a minute. “Okay. Come on in,” she said.
They stepped inside the lobby, and Sylvia locked the door behind them. She walked them to the lab door and knocked, then opened it and slipped inside.
Everything in the exhibit looked the way it had yesterday. The boxes of Spinosaurus bones were laid out neatly against a wall. The River Diamond display looked as if it had never been disturbed. No one else suspected that the diamond under the dome was a fake.
The kids stood beneath Spino and waited. Dink looked up at the plank that had fallen last night. Could it fall again? He took a few steps backward.
“Did you hear what she said?” Josh hissed. “They’re brother and sister! It’s a family crime! Dr. Wurst is probably their father!”
Ruth Rose giggled. “Too much TV, Josh,” she whispered.
Just then Trevor and Sylvia came out of the lab. When Dink saw them together, he could tell they were related. Their hair was the same, and they both had blue eyes.
“Hey, Dink,” Trevor said. “You wanted to see me?”
Suddenly Dink felt scared to ask Trevor about the hairs. What if Trevor and Sylvia were the thieves?
Dink thought about how fast he and Josh and Ruth Rose could run for the exit if they had to. But could they unlock the door?
“We wanted to know if we could see your lab,” Ruth Rose piped up.
“My lab?” Trevor asked. “Why?”
Dink still didn’t know what to say.
“Because I want to be a scientist!” Josh blurted out. “When I told my teacher we were coming here, he asked me to interview someone who works in a lab. I need to learn about clues and fingerprints and stuff.”
Trevor smiled. “Cool,” he said. “Okay, come on in. See you later, Sis.”
Good, Dink thought. Josh figured out a way to ask about the hairs.
Sylvia gave her brother a long look, then headed for the office. Trevor led the kids toward the lab door.
Dink’s legs felt like rubber bands. Even with his hands stuck in his pockets, they were cold. He felt his cell phone and wished he had let his dad know where they were.
After the kids were in the lab, Trevor closed the door and leaned against it. He folded his thick arms over his chest. “Okay, ask away,” he said.
We’re trapped, Dink thought. And there were no windows.
“Why did you become a scientist?” Josh asked Trevor.
“I like to study things,” Trevor answered. “I want to know what makes the universe work. I like to solve problems.”
Dink looked around the room. Everything was white and very clean. Like a hospital. On top of a stainless steel table, he saw a microscope, bottles filled with different-colored liquids, and a long bone. Next to the bone was a row of sharp knives.
“Um, you told Dink you were a detective once,” Josh said.
Trevor nodded. “I studied criminology in college,” he said. “Thought I’d have fun catching bad guys, but it wasn’t much fun at all. Now I study old bones and try to imagine what the real beast looked like, what it ate, and how it lived and died.”
Dink glanced at Trevor’s neatly combed black hair. Did three of those hairs end up on my shirt? he wondered. Did Trevor shove the fake diamond under that heavy board?
“Did you learn how to take fingerprints when you were a detective?” Ruth Rose asked.
“Yup.”
Dink took a deep breath, then asked his question. “Can you tell where a hair came from? I mean, from a certain man or woman?”
“Sometimes,” Trevor said. “It depends on how complete the hair is. The shaft of the hair is the part we can see. On our heads, the shafts are what we shampoo and comb. But under the scalp, on the end of each hair shaft, there’s something called a follicle. This follicle has a tiny bulb that attaches the shaft to the skin. Scientists can study a follicle and learn a lot about the person the hair came from.”
Dink took the paper towel from his pocket and laid it on the table. He unwrapped it so they could all see the black hair against the white paper. Then he took the first three hairs from the anagram book and laid them next to the others on the paper towel.
“Where’d you get those?” Trevor asked.
>
Dink blinked. He didn’t want to lie. “I…”
“They’re part of a mystery we’re trying to solve,” Ruth Rose said. “We love mysteries. It’s sort of a hobby for us!”
Dink swallowed. Thank you, Ruth Rose!
Trevor picked up the paper towel and held it close to his eyes. “Hmmm,” he said.
He stepped over to the microscope and slid the hairs onto a little glass tray. He sat in a chair and adjusted the microscope while looking through the eyepiece at the hairs. “I thought so,” he said. “Come take a look.”
Dink moved over, and Trevor stood up. “Kneel in the chair so you can see,” he told Dink. “Keep both eyes open, but put one against the little rubber cup.”
Dink followed Trevor’s instructions. At first all he saw was a dark blur. “It looks all fuzzy,” he said.
Trevor adjusted a knob. “Better?” he asked.
Dink pulled back. “Yes! One of the hairs looks like a tree branch with bark!” he said. “I can see the follicle thing on the end! The other three hairs are different. They’re smoother.”
Trevor smiled. He removed the four hairs and placed them back on the paper towel. “Finding hairs at a crime scene is one way detectives can arrest the right person,” he explained. “They compare the follicles and the shafts. Only one of the four hairs you gave me is from a human head.”
Trevor folded the paper towel and handed it back to Dink. “The other three aren’t even real hair,” he said. “They’re man-made, which means they don’t have follicles and never grew out of skin.”
The three kids just stared at him.
“Then where did they come from?” Ruth Rose asked.
Trevor shrugged. “Probably from an article of clothing,” he said. “Gloves, a jacket, a fake fur collar, maybe.”
A thought was buzzing around Dink’s brain, like a bee in a bottle.
The kids thanked Trevor and left the lab. “Well, Mr. Detective,” Josh said to Dink. “What do you think? Did Trevor’s eyes tell you he stole the River Diamond?”
“He could have,” Dink said. “But now we know the hairs you found on my shirt aren’t Trevor’s hairs.”
“They aren’t anyone’s hairs,” Ruth Rose said. “They’re fake—like the diamond is fake.”
The kids walked through the Spino room. Dink stopped and gazed up at Spino’s head, which almost touched the ceiling. The workers were sitting together, taking a coffee break.
“He saw it all,” Dink said.
Josh was standing next to Dink. “Who, Trevor?” he asked.
“No, Spino,” Dink said. “He saw what really happened last night before the alarm went off. Spino saw who shoved the ladder, making the plank fall on top of the diamond case. Spino saw who stole the River Diamond and left that fake one.”
“Too bad dinosaurs can’t talk like the ones in that movie last night,” Josh said.
Ruth Rose walked over to the River Diamond exhibit. “But we don’t know for sure if this is a fake,” she said, peering through the dome. “Couldn’t it be the real River Diamond, and Alex is wrong?”
Dink joined her and looked through the dome. “I think Alex is right,” he said. “The plank couldn’t scratch a real diamond, but it could scratch a fake one. And this one definitely has a scratch on one side.”
“Now we just have to figure out how fake hairs got on that plank,” Ruth Rose said.
“Even if they’re not human hairs,” Josh said, “they still could have dropped off a human.”
“How?” Ruth Rose asked.
Josh shrugged. “Maybe the thief works in a place that makes fake fur coats,” he said. “He might have some of the fake fur on his body. Or maybe the crook was wearing gorilla gloves when he moved the plank to—”
“Oh my gosh!” Dink said. “Nog was wearing a caveman costume! The wig and beard were curly, but that coat thing had straight black hair all over it! And I’ll bet it was fake fur!”
“You’re right!” Josh said. “I saw a movie once where some thieves were dressed like apes. Their costumes looked just like the one Nog was wearing!”
“If Nog lifted the plank or shoved it, some of the hairs from his costume could have been left behind!” Ruth Rose said. “Then when we shoved the plank, the hairs got onto your shirt!”
“But I don’t think Nog was here last night,” Dink said. “Did anyone see him?”
“I didn’t,” Ruth Rose said. “But he could have been hiding somewhere, just like Trevor could have been hiding.”
“And then he creeps out in the middle of the night,” Dink added. “He makes the plank fall, grabs the River Diamond, and leaves the fake one. I like it!”
“But I thought we decided it was Trevor, Sylvia, and Dr. Wurst?” Josh said.
“That was before Trevor told us the hairs were fake,” Dink said.
“But what if he’s lying?” Josh asked. “What if Trevor realized the hairs were really his and knew we were onto him?”
“I think he was telling the truth,” Ruth Rose said. “I was watching his eyes. They didn’t look sneaky. His eyes looked interested in what he was telling us.”
“And I saw the hairs under the microscope,” Dink said. “The one I found in the bathroom was different from the three you found on my shirt. Trevor was combing his hair over the sink, so that hair was probably from his head. The other three weren’t his, so maybe he never touched that plank.”
“Okay, so now what do we do?” Josh asked.
Dink walked toward the office. “We find Nog, but I’m guessing that isn’t his real name,” he said.
“A fake name, fake hairs, and a fake diamond,” Josh said.
“If we can get some hairs from Nog’s costume, we can see if they’re the same as the ones that came from the plank and my shirt,” Dink said. “That would at least prove that Nog was messing with the plank.”
“Maybe we’ll catch him with the diamond!” Josh said.
“What about fingerprints?” Ruth Rose asked. “If we got Nog’s fingerprints, the police could see if the same fingerprints were on the fake diamond. If his fingerprints are on the fake, doesn’t that prove he’s the thief?”
“Right,” Dink said.
“How do we get his fingerprints?” Josh asked.
“I’ll think of something,” Ruth Rose said. “First we have to find him!”
Dink knocked on the office door.
Sylvia opened the door. “Hi, kids,” she said. “Was Trevor any help?”
“He was a lot of help,” Dink said. “We learned about how detectives can catch crooks by finding their hair.”
Sylvia touched her own hair. “So…?”
“Trevor told us about artificial hair, too,” Ruth Rose added. “Like that caveman costume Nog was wearing yesterday. We’d like to talk to him about…our project.”
“Is Nog his real name?” Dink asked.
Sylvia laughed. “No, his name is Jack.”
“Do you know where he lives?” Josh asked.
“Nope, he’s never told me,” Sylvia said.
“He told us he lives near Paul Revere’s house,” Ruth Rose said.
“Oh, that’s a museum,” Sylvia said.
“Is it close enough to walk?” Ruth Rose asked.
Sylvia shook her head. “Not really,” she said. “But you can walk to where they park the Swan Boats. You’ll find a bus stop there. Wait for one that says Paul Revere House on the little sign. If you see Jack, ask him why he didn’t come to work today!”
* * *
—
The kids walked to the Swan Boat pond, then waited about ten minutes for the Paul Revere House bus. Dink paid with some of the money his dad had given him, and they took seats up front.
“It’s pretty cool to think Paul Revere hung out around here,”
Josh said. “He might have ridden on this same bus. Maybe he sat in this seat!”
Dink laughed. “Josh, Paul Revere died almost two hundred years ago,” he said. “In those days, people rode on horses, not buses.”
“I knew that, Matt,” Josh said, making goofy eyes at Dink. “Just playing with you.”
The bus stopped in front of a dark brown house. A small sign said Paul Revere lived in the house starting in 1770.
The kids left the bus and walked toward the house. It was squeezed between some other old buildings. Another bus pulled up, and a bunch of tourists climbed down. They walked up the sidewalk toward the house.
Dink saw a restaurant, a dry-cleaning place, and a flower shop. “Maybe we should ask if anyone knows where Jack lives,” he said.
They were heading for the flower shop when they passed a bright yellow door. Ruth Rose said, “Wait!” She pointed to a sign that said YOUR FANTASY—RENT COSTUMES FOR ALL OCCASIONS. “If Jack lives near here, maybe he got his caveman costume from this shop!”
In the window, they saw Elvis, a clown, and Mickey Mouse. “Come on,” Ruth Rose said.
Inside the shop, costumes hung from hooks on the walls. They saw princesses, movie stars, even a giant chicken.
“Can I help you?” a man asked from behind the counter.
The kids stepped up to the counter. “Do you have a caveman costume?” Dink asked.
The man nodded. “Sure do,” he said. “But I’m afraid it’s for adult sizes. Way too big for you.”
“Can we see it anyway?” Ruth Rose asked.
“Sure,” he said. “It was rented for a long time, but it just came back this morning.”
The man went behind a curtain and returned a few minutes later with a large, flat box. He removed the lid and laid it on the counter in front of Dink. Inside the box, the kids saw Nog’s fake fur coat, shaggy beard and wig, and club, which turned out to be made of cardboard.
