A to Z Mysteries: The School Skeleton

by Ron Roy

  “It could be a woman,” Ruth Rose said.

  Josh turned and grinned. “What about Mrs. Eagle?” he said. “Maybe she stole Mr. Bones.”

  Ruth Rose laughed. “No, her feet look as small as my mom’s,” she said. “My mom wears size six.”

  “Let’s go to my house and make a list of all the grown-ups at the school,” Dink suggested. “Then we can figure out how to check their shoes.”

  “Why don’t we go to your house and make a snack?” Josh asked. “How about a turkey sandwich and apple pie with vanilla ice cream on top?”

  “How about guinea-pig food?” Dink said.

  In his kitchen, Dink found a plate of cookies and a note from his mom, saying she was shopping. The kids walked up to Dink’s room with the cookies and Josh’s drawing.

  Dink handed Ruth Rose a pad.

  While she wrote, Dink went to his dad’s closet and found a pair of his sneakers. On the bottom he found a circle with SIZE TEN stamped inside. Then he got a ruler and measured the sneaker. It was eleven inches long, the same as the footprint they had found in Miss Shotsky’s office.

  “Guys, I think the skeleton snatcher wears a size ten,” he said.

  “I’ll bet a lot of the male teachers wear that size,” Josh said.

  Ruth Rose showed them her list. “I got thirteen people,” she said.

  “Did you count Mr. Dillon and Mr. Neater?” Dink asked.

  Ruth Rose nodded. “Yup. All the adults who work at the school.”

  “We can cross off five names,” Josh said. “Mrs. Eagle, Mrs. Waters, and Miss Shotsky all have smaller feet. And Mr. Dillon was wearing loafers today.”

  “Who’s the fifth?” Dink asked.

  “The custodian, Mr. Neater,” Josh said.

  “Why cross him off?” Ruth Rose asked. “He wears sneakers.”

  Josh laughed. “But they’re the biggest sneakers I’ve ever seen. I think he wears about size thirteen!”

  Ruth Rose put an X in front of the names of the five people Josh had mentioned.

  Dink looked at the eight remaining names. “Four women and four men,” he said, dropping a hunk of cookie into his guinea pig’s cage. “Do you think one of them took the skeleton?”

  “One way to find out,” Josh said. “Check their shoes against my drawing.”

  “How do we do that?” Dink asked.

  “Just tell them about the footprint we found, then ask them if we can measure their feet and check the treads of their sneakers.”

  “There’s one problem,” Ruth Rose said. “If one of the teachers did take the skeleton, he won’t let us measure his feet!”

  “Then we’ll know he’s the guilty one,” Josh said.

  “But what if two teachers say no?” Dink asked. “Then we still wouldn’t know which one did it.”

  “But at least we’d have narrowed it down to two,” Ruth Rose said. “Then we could figure out what to do next.”

  “We’d better decide,” Josh said. “Every kid at school wants to win those aquarium tickets.”

  “But we’re the only ones who know about the footprint,” Ruth Rose said. “We’ve got a head start.”

  “Not for long,” Josh said. “Miss Shotsky and Mr. Neater saw the footprint, too. And I showed the drawing to Mrs. Waters and Mr. Dillon. Pretty soon the whole school will know.”

  “Okay, let’s talk to those eight teachers tomorrow,” Dink said.

  “We could put notes in their mailboxes,” Ruth Rose suggested.

  “Great idea!” Dink said. He sat at his computer, and Josh and Ruth Rose gave him suggestions. This is what they came up with:

  DEAR ___________,

  WE HAVE A CLUE TO THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING SKELETON. MAY WE TALK TO YOU TODAY? PLEASE CHECK YES ________ OR NO ________ AND PUT THIS IN MRS. EAGLE’S MAILBOX.

  THANK YOU!

  SIGNED,

  DINK DUNCAN, JOSH PINTO,

  AND RUTH ROSE HATHAWAY

  Dink printed eight copies. Using Ruth Rose’s list of names, the kids addressed a letter to each.

  “That should do it,” Dink said when they were finished. “We’ll ask Mrs. Waters to put them in the mailboxes tomorrow morning.”

  “And by afternoon, our class will have tickets to the aquarium,” Josh said, grinning at his friends.

  “Don’t get your hopes up yet, Josh,” Ruth Rose said.

  “Why not? If we find the right shoe, we find the person who took Mr. Bones, right? So we win the tickets, right?”

  Ruth Rose shook her head. “Wrong. We have to find the skeleton to win the tickets,” she said. “While we’re running around measuring people’s feet, some other kid might find Mr. Bones!”

  CHAPTER 5

  The next morning they met in front of the school before the first bus showed up. There were only a couple of cars in the teachers’ parking lot.

  “I hope Mrs. Waters isn’t late today” Josh said as they entered the school. “We need to get these notes in the mailboxes before the teachers get here.”

  They hurried along the silent hallway to the principal’s office. Mrs. Waters was just taking off her coat.

  “Mr. Dillon isn’t in yet,” she said when the kids walked in.

  “We came to see you,” Dink said.

  “Well, isn’t that nice!” the secretary said, flipping a page on her calendar. “Goodness, where did March go already? Now, how can I help you kids?”

  Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose explained their idea.

  “You honestly think one of our teachers took that skeleton?” she asked.

  “We don’t know,” Dink said. “But the footprint looks like an adult’s. Would you mind putting these in the right mailboxes?”

  He handed Mrs. Waters the eight notes they’d printed. She read one and smiled.

  “Of course I will,” she said. “And I wish you luck finding Mr. Bones. I know Mr. Dillon will be happy to have this mystery solved!”

  Mrs. Waters stood up, walked to the teachers’ mailboxes, and placed the notes in eight different slots.

  The kids thanked her and left. Just then the bell rang, and students began rushing through the front door.

  They walked to their room and found Mrs. Eagle at her desk. “My, my, look who’s eager to get started!” she said.

  Once more, the kids explained about the footprint, the eight notes, and their plan for finding the person who took the school skeleton. They showed her Josh’s drawing of the footprint.

  “And you plan to ask each teacher if you can measure his or her feet?” Mrs. Eagle asked, grinning.

  “That footprint is our only clue,” Ruth Rose said.

  “We want our class to win the tickets,” Josh said.

  Mrs. Eagle smiled. “All right, if the teachers agree, you three may leave the room later,” she said.

  The morning seemed to last forever. Dink kept glancing at the clock, and Josh kept sighing and fidgeting at his desk.

  Finally, during math, a fifth grader came into the room and handed Mrs. Eagle a stack of papers.

  She looked through the stack, then called Dink up to her desk. “Here are your responses,” she whispered. “All eight have checked YES. You might as well go now, and good luck!”

  Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose quietly left the room. They brought with them eight sheets of drawing paper, a ruler, Josh’s footprint sketch, and Ruth Rose’s list of teachers’ names.

  “Guys, I just thought of something,” Ruth Rose said in the hallway. “Whoever made that footprint yesterday might be wearing different shoes today.”

  “You’re right,” Dink said. “So anyone whose shoe is about the right size, we’ll ask if they wore the same shoes yesterday”

  They started walking down the hall. On one classroom door, someone had hung a sign. It said: COME HOME, MR. BONES. WE MISS YOU! There was a drawing of a skeleton under the words.

  Three girls wearing skeleton masks scampered down the hallway. “Mr. Bones, where are you?” one of the girls said. The other two laughed
at their friend.

  Outside the fifth-grade room, a paper skeleton hung from the ceiling.

  “The whole school is looking for the skeleton,” Josh muttered. “We have to find it first!”

  “Then we’d better get going,” Ruth Rose said. “Maybe no one else knows about the footprint yet.”

  First on her list was Miss Alubicki, the kindergarten teacher. They showed her Josh’s drawing and asked if she would let them trace her left foot.

  “Of course,” Miss Alubicki said, smiling. “But I can already tell you, that foot is a lot bigger than mine.”

  The little kids giggled as Josh traced around her foot on a piece of paper. Outside in the hall, Josh compared it with his drawing.

  “It’s definitely not her,” he said. “Miss Alubicki’s foot is only seven inches long.”

  Ruth Rose drew a big X in front of Miss Alubicki’s name on her list. After the name she wrote: TOO SMALL.

  They went next door and peeked into Mr. Diodato’s first-grade class. The tall teacher was writing at the chalkboard: WHO STOLE THE SCHOOL SKELETON?

  Dink knocked, and Mr. Diodato looked up. “We have visitors, class,” he said, grinning.

  While Josh traced Mr. D.’s sneaker onto a sheet of paper, the first graders gathered around.

  Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose thanked Mr. D. and left. In the hall, Josh measured what he had traced onto the paper. Mr. Diodato’s sneaker was almost thirteen inches long. The bottom tread had little squares, not zigzags.

  “Cross him off, too,” Dink said. Ruth Rose put an X by Mr. Diodato’s name and wrote: TOO BIG.

  “Six more names to go,” Josh said, glancing at Ruth Rose’s list. “What if it’s none of them?”

  “It must be someone on this list,” Dink said. “How could a stranger sneak into the school and walk out with a skeleton?”

  One by one, the kids traced teachers’ shoes onto paper and measured them. They compared the tracings with Josh’s drawing. One by one, Ruth Rose put X’s next to the names.

  With only one more name to go, Ruth Rose’s list looked like this:

  KINDERGARTEN—MISS ALUBICKI—TOO SMALL

  FIRST GRADE—MR. DIODATO—TOO BIG

  SECOND GRADE—MISS CRUMPET—TOO SMALL

  THIRD GRADE—MRS. EAGLE—TOO SMALL

  FOURTH GRADE—MR. QUATRO—ABSENT MONDAY

  FIFTH GRADE—MRS. GOLDEN—TOO SMALL

  PRINCIPAL—MR. DILLON—WAS WEARING LOAFERS MONDAY

  SECRETARY—MRS. WATERS—TOO SMALL

  NURSE—MISS SHOTSKY—TOO SMALL

  ART TEACHER—MR. LOVE—TOO BIG

  MUSIC TEACHER—MISS ARIA—TOO SMALL

  JANITOR—MR. NEATER—WAY TOO BIG GYM TEACHER—MR. PALMER

  “Not one of these people could have made that footprint,” Ruth Rose said.

  “Who’s the last name?” Dink asked.

  “Mr. Palmer, the gym teacher,” she answered.

  Josh crossed his fingers. “Maybe he’s the one!” he said.

  They found Mr. Palmer sitting behind his desk. He smiled when the kids walked into his office.

  “I read your note,” he said.

  “Thanks for seeing us,” Dink said. “May we measure your shoes?”

  Mr. Palmer grinned. “Sure. But I guarantee I didn’t steal that skeleton yesterday morning. I was in the emergency room at the hospital.”

  He stood up and held out his left foot. There was a white cast on it. “I slipped on some ice getting into my car yesterday,” he said.

  He pointed to a pair of crutches leaning in a corner. “I can hardly carry my lunch, let alone a skeleton!”

  CHAPTER 6

  “I hope your foot gets better fast,” Dink said.

  “Thanks, and I hope you find the skeleton,” Mr. Palmer said.

  The kids left and walked toward their room.

  “We must’ve figured something wrong,” Josh said. “One of these people has to be the perp.”

  “The perp?” Dink said.

  Josh grinned. “Yeah, you know, the guy that did it.”

  “So if it wasn’t anyone on this list, who was it?” Ruth Rose asked. “That footprint didn’t get there by magic.”

  “I wonder if it could be a trick footprint,” Dink said.

  “What do you mean?” Josh asked.

  “I read a story once about some kids who made fake bear tracks to fool their parents,” Dink said. “They taped some rolled-up socks onto an old rake. Then they stamped ‘bear’ tracks in the snow all around their house.”

  “But why would the skeleton snatcher leave a fake footprint?” Ruth Rose asked.

  Dink shrugged. “Why would anyone steal the school skeleton in the first place?”

  “Well, whoever did it is pretty mean,” Josh grumbled. “Playing tricks on innocent kids isn’t nice!”

  Dink and Ruth Rose burst out laughing. They were still giggling as they got close to their room.

  “Wait a sec, I want to put this drawing away,” Josh said.

  “STOP!” Ruth Rose shouted as Josh stepped up to his locker. “DON’T MOVE!”

  “What!” Josh gasped, smacking his chest with one hand. “You almost gave me a heart attack!”

  “Look what you almost stepped on!” Ruth Rose pointed to a circle of white powder on the floor. In the center of the circle was a footprint.

  It was a very familiar footprint.

  Ruth Rose grabbed Josh’s footprint sketch from his hand and knelt next to the new print. “Check it out, guys,” she said.

  Dink and Josh bent down for a closer look. It was a left footprint with a zigzag pattern. When Ruth Rose placed Josh’s drawing on the floor, the two footprints were identical.

  “Oh my gosh!” Josh cried. “The skeleton snatcher was here!”

  Just then Mrs. Eagle popped her head through the door. “What’s going on?” she asked.

  Ruth Rose pointed at the footprint. “Look, Mrs. Eagle.”

  “He’s back!” Josh said.

  “And he came right to your locker,” Dink added, grinning. “The zombie is after you!”

  “No way!” Josh argued. “See, the footprint is halfway between my locker and yours.”

  “Maybe he stole something from one of your lockers,” Ruth Rose said.

  Mrs. Eagle knelt and put her finger in the white stuff. Then she lifted her finger to her nose. “Hmm,” she said. “This smells like talcum powder. Why don’t you boys open your lockers?”

  “You go first,” Josh told Dink.

  “Okay,” Dink said. “Since you’re such a scaredy-cat.”

  “Am not.”

  “Are too.”

  “Boys,” Mrs. Eagle said.

  Dink pulled open his locker door. His jacket hung on a hook. On the shelf, his books were neatly arranged. His lunch bag sat on top of his books.

  “Nothing’s missing,” Dink said. “Now you, Josh.”

  “No problem,” Josh said, flipping up the latch on his locker door. His jacket hung on the hook. His books were stacked on the shelf. His brown-bag lunch was perched on the books.

  But in front of the lunch bag was a twisted piece of white paper.

  “What’s that?” Josh asked. “I didn’t put that there.”

  Dink leaned close and whispered, “Maybe it’s a note from the snatcher!”

  “Yeah, right,” Josh said, grabbing the paper twist. “Hey, there’s something inside!”

  When Josh untwisted the paper, a metal object fell onto the floor.

  But Dink, Josh, Ruth Rose, and their teacher were all staring at the paper in Josh’s hand.

  It was a drawing of a smiling skeleton. Someone had sketched a big “2” in the center of its forehead.

  Mrs. Eagle bent down and picked up what had fallen. “How odd,” she said, showing the kids a shiny key.

  CHAPTER 7

  Dink, Josh, Ruth Rose, and their teacher walked back into the classroom.

  “Now we have another mystery to solve,” Mrs. Eagle told the clas
s. “Josh, why don’t you and Dink and Ruth Rose tell the class what you’ve been up to?”

  The three kids told their classmates about the first footprint and showed them Josh’s drawing. Then they explained how they had traced and measured each teacher’s shoe to try and find the one who had left the footprint.

  Josh’s drawing, Ruth Rose’s list, and the eight shoe outlines were on Mrs. Eagle’s desk. Also on the desk were the drawing of the skeleton and the key that Josh had found in his locker.

  “One more thing,” Mrs. Eagle said. “Someone sprinkled powder on the floor near Josh’s locker, then made another footprint.”

  She looked at the class. “Any ideas?”

  Bobby raised his hand. “I think the same person who took the skeleton put the key in Josh’s locker,” he said.

  “But why?” asked Ruth Rose. “We don’t know what the key goes to.”

  Mrs. Eagle took the key and walked over to the classroom door. She slipped the key into the keyhole and tried to lock the door.

  “It doesn’t work in this one,” she said. Then she tried the key in her desk lock. “Nor this one.”

  “We could try all the locks in the school,” Frankie suggested.

  Mrs. Eagle nodded. “Good idea, Frankie, but there are dozens of doors and desks.”

  “Could the key go to a suitcase or a safety-deposit box?” Dink asked.

  Mrs. Eagle smiled at Dink. “Good thinking.”

  “Maybe it’s the key to someone’s house,” Tommy said.

  “These are all good ideas,” Mrs. Eagle said. “But it’s not practical to go around Green Lawn trying the key in every keyhole.”

  “What I can’t figure out is why he’s doing this,” Dink said. “Why leave footprints and a key that he knew we’d find?”

  Josh raised his hand. “And why did the guy pick my locker to leave it in?” he asked.

  “Maybe he didn’t,” Ruth Rose said. “The lockers don’t have our names on them. The guy might have just picked any third-grade locker.”

  “You’re right,” Mrs. Eagle said. “Maybe the key was meant to be found by anyone in this room!”