Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Carnival Crime (6 page)

Solution to The Case of the Vanished Sculpture

 

Encyclopedia thought it was odd that the janitor would carry a wet mop over his shoulder after cleaning the floor. Surely the mop would leave drip marks. The only reason to carry the mop was because it wouldn't fit in the pail. And the only reason for that was if something else was in the pail besides the dirty water—something like the missing sculpture. Confronted with this information, the janitor confessed to the crime and returned the stolen sculpture. He's now cleaning floors at his new address—the state prison.

Solution to The Case of the Glittering Diamonds

 

As Encyclopedia knows, diamonds are the hardest substance in nature. Therefore, if the diamond Bugs had in the box was real, there was no reason for him to be worried about it getting scratched. Since he was worried, the diamond was clearly a fake. When faced with this fact, Bugs admitted that he made up the story so that the Tigers could afford to buy the supplies to make their own baseball diamond.

Solution to The Case of the Tempting Toys

 

Cooper always barked at strangers. Encyclopedia had noticed that Cooper didn't bark at Biff when they arrived. That meant they had met before. When faced with the fact, Biff admitted he had met and petted Cooper earlier when he was taking the toys. He had planned to impress some girls by giving them prizes he could have claimed to have won at the fair. Without the stuffed animals, Biff could only impress the girls with his charm—which meant he was really out of luck.

Solution to The Case of the Missing Songs

 

Encyclopedia noted that the manager knew what the songs were about even though he had said earlier that Fiona had shown them to no one. The only way the manager could have known they were love songs was if he had taken them himself. It turned out that Fiona was planning to fire him. He planned to “discover” the songs later, earning her gratitude and thereby continuing on as her manager. As things turned out, he was fired even sooner than he expected.

Solution to The Case of the Home-run Hitter

 

Encyclopedia knew that Babe Ruth of the Yankees had hit three home runs in a game four times. However, Ruth could never have hit the home runs Sammy described. The home team doesn't come to bat in the bottom of the ninth inning if it is already ahead, and Sammy had stated the game had taken place in Yankee Stadium, the Yankees home field. So the Babe could never have hit the home runs as Sammy said. Caught in his lie, Sammy confessed. He had found the ball in the back of his closet, but he figured if he was the only one left in the line when the museum opened, they would put his ball on display. When Chip took out some of the mementos he had brought, Sammy knew he had struck out.

Solution to The Case of the Lazy Lion

 

Encyclopedia had been surprised that the lion's sleepiness had been unexpected. After all, the ringmaster had brought out the wheelbarrow filled with steaks during the act—and it had to have taken time to prepare that. Therefore someone had to have known the lion would be unable to perform.

That someone was the ringmaster. He was hoping to make the lion tamer look bad so that he would have to leave the circus. That would improve the ringmaster's chances of dating Lola. Since he didn't want the performance to be ruined, he had prepared the steaks in advance. Once he was exposed, he confessed his misdeeds and was forced to clean up after all the animals for a month.

Solution to The Case of the Explorer's Map

 

A lot of what Nate said about Columbus and his explorations were true. Any first map of Columbus might not have much on it. However, Columbus sailed under the Spanish flag for Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. Anything written on the map, such as “Atlantic Ocean,” would have been in Spanish, not in English. When Encyclopedia pointed this out, Nate quickly rolled up his map and sailed back home as fast as possible.