The Dinosaur Mystery (8 page)

“It's so dark in here, I don't think the camera has enough light to show us anyway,” Jessie said.

Henry felt his way toward the storage room. “Maybe there's a flashlight in there.”

It was already early evening, so even the daylight from the small storage room window had completely disappeared. Henry reached into some cabinets. Finally, he felt something. “Hey, I found a flashlight!” he called out to the other children.

With the flashlight in hand, Henry tried jiggling and banging the exit door. Soo Lee and Benny stayed next to him, afraid of the big dark room.

“I'm getting the ladder to climb up to the remote camera,” Henry said. “Maybe I can find some way to make it work.”

“Can we stay with you, Henry?” Violet said. “Even with the flashlight, it's still so dark in here.”

With the help of the others, Henry put up the ladder and climbed up to the camera. “Rats,” he said. “I bet it's connected to the electric lines that went out. All the power is off in here except for the emergency generator that runs the exit lights.”

“Will we have to stay in here all night, Henry?” Soo Lee asked.

Henry climbed down the ladder. “Pretty soon someone will come for us, Soo Lee. I'm sure Dr. Skyler will be back here in no time … I know! Let's have a special sky show!”

The other children sat down while Henry went over to the star projector. It was mounted on a turntable that Henry could turn by hand. He aimed the flashlight through the little holes, and a handful of stars appeared in a small space on the ceiling.

“Now look just to the left Soo Lee,” Henry said. “Do you know what that is?”

“The Big Dipper!” Soo Lee cried. “My father showed me.”

“Good!” Henry said. “Now, who can tell me what is next to the Big Dipper? See, it's got four legs.”

“It's Pegasus, the horse with wings,” Violet said. Like all the Aldens, she knew the night sky very well from many summer evenings in their backyard.

Henry kept all the children busy for the next half hour, helping them find some of their favorite stars. They soon forgot they were locked in a dark room.

The next thing they knew, the lights went on in the planetarium all at once. The children were almost sorry to see the stars and the night sky disappear.

“Hey, somebody got the electricity back on,” Henry said. “I bet Dr. Skyler will come back for us in just a bit.”

Sure enough, the Aldens heard a key in the lock. But when the door opened, it was Pete Lawlor and Nosey standing there, not Dr. Skyler.

“Hooray!” Benny cried as the dog wagged his tail and licked Benny's face.

“How did you know we were in here?” Jessie asked Pete.

Pete pointed up to the remote camera. “I was doing some rounds. When I came back, I noticed a light blinking on my control panel at the guard desk. Sure enough, when I checked the circuit breaker box, I saw the switch in here had flipped. I put it back on. Then I rechecked my screens, and there you were!”

“Do you think you should check if something's wrong with the wiring or anything?” Henry asked. “What made the electricity go off?”

Pete shrugged his shoulders. “Beats me. The smoke detectors didn't go off, so everything seems okay.”

But everything wasn't okay. Up in the office overlooking the planetarium, Eve Skyler stood in the shadows looking down at Pete, Nosey, and the Aldens. She wasn't one bit happy with what she saw.

CHAPTER 10

Give the Dog a Bone

I
t was the morning of the Dino World opening and Mr. Alden had returned, just as he had said he would.

The Aldens were talking so fast their grandfather could hardly keep track of their adventures.

“We saw a man go down a hole in the street. Then we got locked up in the planetarium.” Benny stopped to take a breath. “But we still didn't find the bones, Grandfather.”

Mrs. Diggs poured Mr. Alden more coffee, “These children have been so busy, James, they didn't get a chance to do everything they planned during their visit.”

Soo Lee stood next to Mr. Alden. “We wanted to find bones, but we only saw ones that weren't lost.”

Mr. Alden smiled. “Tell that to the crowd waiting outside the museum! I had a hard time getting a parking space when I arrived. Bones or no bones, Dino World is going to be a crowded place today.”

The Aldens could hardly wait for their grandfather to finish his coffee.

“Maybe you children can run ahead and take one last look around just in case our missing bones turned up.” Mr. Diggs suggested. “I just hope Titus had time to finish attaching the plastic model bones we had to make for opening day.”

Jessie sighed. “We're sorry we didn't find the real ones, Mr. Diggs.”

Mr. Diggs shook his head, “Well, even if you don't find the bones, I will speak to Eve Skyler about those posters!” Mr. Diggs scratched his head. “Lately I've been thinking this place should be called the Pickering Mystery Museum what with all these strange goings-on.”

Mrs. Diggs handed Jessie some keys. “Here's an extra elevator key and one for Dr. Pettibone's office. We'll meet you in the dinosaur hall in just a bit.”

In no time the children reached Dr. Pettibone's office. It was pitch-dark.

Henry turned on the lights. “Dr. Pettibone must be in the dinosaur hall getting everything ready for the opening. Let's check if he's there.”

But when the children entered the big hall, they couldn't believe their eyes. Pete Lawlor was up on a ladder, and he was holding up a piece of jawbone next to
T. rex
's
head!

“Pete! What are you doing here? And where did you get that bone?” Henry yelled out.

Pete cradled the jawbone like a baby and tried not to lose his balance.

“Watch out!” Jessie warned as she ran over to steady the ladder, When Pete looked down, he saw five pairs of suspicious eyes staring up.

“It's not what you think,” he began. “I found this jawbone here when I came in after my shift. It was just lying on this bed of straw.” He pointed to a pile of straw on the floor. Chips of white plaster were scattered everywhere.

Hand in hand, Benny and Soo Lee raced around to the other side of the dinosaur.

“The tail is back! The tail is back!” Soo Lee called out.

The older children ran over. Soo Lee was right. Every bone on
T. rex
's
tail was in perfect position.

Jessie swallowed hard before she spoke to Pete again. “Did you have anything to do with these bones, Pete?” she asked when he came down from the ladder.

Pete Lawlor looked pale and sick. “Please let me explain. I
did
come in here a few times when I wasn't supposed to, including the night you kids arrived. But I never took anything. I just liked looking at
T. rex
, that's all.”

Violet spoke in a gentle voice. “We know you wouldn't take anything, Pete. Did you bump into the dinosaur by accident and damage it? That could happen to anybody.”

Pete shook his head. “I know I don't always watch where I'm going. That's why I keep setting off the alarms. But a couple of times they went off when I had nothing to do with it. I just like seeing all the things in this museum. It gets so quiet at night, I like to go visit things. But I wouldn't hurt a tooth on
T. rex
here. Honest.”

With that, Pete gently lay the jawbone section on the straw. “When I sneaked in here this morning and saw this big bone just sitting here, I tried to reattach it before we opened. I want folks to see the real thing, But there's still a bone missing. Until it shows up,
T. rex
isn't complete.”

“That's okay, Pete,” Henry said. “We don't really think you had anything to do with these bones. What I can't figure is …”

Before Henry could finish, Pete and the Aldens heard Nosey's nails clicking across the floor.

“Here boy, here boy,” Pete said when Nosey burst into the dinosaur hall whining and panting, “I sent him around to sniff things out, but all he does is keep running back to the fossil lab.”

“That's what Watch does when he wants to show us something,” said Benny,

“Naw,” Pete said. “I already followed him upstairs. He keeps running back to the lab for no reason. There are lots of bones up there, but not the missing one.”

“Sometimes missing things turn up in the most obvious places,” Jessie said.

Soo Lee and Benny ran ahead and called out to the dog. “Come on, Nosey! Come on!”

Nosey zoomed right past the children and headed straight to the fossil lab. He sniffed at the door and wouldn't stop whining.

“Well, doggone,” Pete said. “Not again!” He pulled Nosey by the collar.

“No, let's see what he does,” Henry said.

“He'll keep sniffing, that's all,” Pete said.

Just then, the elevator door opened. Mr. and Mrs. Diggs, Mr. Alden, and Dr. Skyler stepped off the elevator.

“Why is everyone here?” Mrs. Diggs asked when she saw everyone crowded into Dr. Pettibone's office.

Before anyone else could answer, Pete spoke up. “Some of the missing bones are back — all the tailbones and most of the jawbone!”

Mr. and Mrs. Diggs ran out to check the dinosaur for themselves. When they returned, they looked shocked and relieved at the same time.

“If this isn't the most amazing thing,” Mr. Diggs said. “Every single piece is back except for the hinge joint that connects the jawbone to the …” Mr. Diggs paused and looked annoyed. “Why does Nosey keep whining at the lab door? I guess I'd better unlock it and find out.”

“What on earth happened in here?” Mrs. Diggs cried when she stepped into the lab. “It's been ransacked!”

“What does ‘ransacked' mean, Violet?” Benny asked.

“It means somebody turned everything upside down and inside out,” Violet answered.

Indeed, Dr. Pettibone's office was a wreck. Rock and plaster chips lay all over the work tables and on the floor.

Nosey raced over to a dark corner. Mr. Diggs turned on the lights.

“It's Mr. Bones!” Benny and Soo Lee cried at the same time.

Dr. Pettibone was hiding in the corner!

Mrs. Diggs went over to Dr. Pettibone and put her hand on his arm. “Titus, what is it? Why are you hiding here? Did someone harm you?”

Dr. Pettibone shook his head slowly, over and over. “I harmed myself, Emma. Please forgive me.”

“Whatever do you mean, Titus?” Mr. Diggs asked.

Dr. Pettibone sat down on one of the work stools and began to explain. “I've ruined everything.
Everything.
I only meant to introduce
T. rex
to the world, and instead I made a mess of things.”

“You mean
you
stole the bones, Titus?” Mr. Diggs asked.

Dr. Pettibone nodded. “I thought people would appreciate the importance of this magnificent creature if something happened to it. Last week, I disarmed the remote camera so I wouldn't be seen. Then over several nights when I said I was in Montana, I took the bones one by one. I made plaster casts for them for safekeeping inside of one of my field crates. Last night I took the bones out of their casings and reattached them to the skeleton. But then I got confused and couldn't find the critical hinge joint to reattach the jawbone. I don't know which block of plaster I hid it in.”

“What a terrible thing to do, Titus,” Mrs. Diggs said. “Everyone recognized the importance of
T. rex
's
discovery without all this fuss!”

Just then, Dr. Skyler spoke for the first time. “Mr. and Mrs. Diggs thought I had something to do with the missing bones, Titus,” Dr. Skyler said. “I just came to apologize to you for some awful things I
did
do.”

Dr. Pettibone looked more confused than ever. “What are you talking about, Eve?”

Dr. Skyler took a deep breath. “I … I tried to delay the opening of Dino World. I'm afraid I even involved the Aldens, sabotaging their work and locking them in the planetarium. I made so much work for them at the planetarium, I knew they wouldn't have much time to help you with your exhibit. And I …”

Jessie faced Dr. Skyler. “Were you the person who took down all the posters we put up? We found them hidden in the storage closet.”

At first Dr. Skyler didn't answer. Then she put a hand on Jessie's shoulder. “It was me. I took down every poster I could find. Please understand. It was so hard for me to see Dino World getting all the attention. I thought my planetarium would seem very dull after everyone saw Dr. Pettibone's magnificent dinosaur and all his other fossils. I'm so sorry, particularly since you children helped me get the sky shows underway again.”

Dr. Skyler turned to Mr. and Mrs. Diggs. “I've already written up a letter of resignation, Emma. Or you can fire me.”

Dr. Pettibone looked up at Mr. and Mrs. Diggs. “Don't fire Eve, fire
me.
Or I'll make it easy for you and resign right now. I don't know what I was thinking. My plan didn't work in any case. Now one of the key bones I removed is actually missing.”