The Missing Mummy (4 page)

Josh growled and wiggled his eyebrows.

“It's too hot to eat, anyway,” Dink
said. “Let's go sit in the shade for a few minutes.”

The kids followed a gravel path around the side of the museum. They passed trees, shrubs, and flower beds. At the corner of the building, they found a goldfish pond and a few benches. Fat goldfish came to the surface, as if expecting food.

“Look!” Josh said, pointing at the back wall of the museum. “That must be where the bomb blew up.”

A large sheet of plywood covered the blasted-out hole. Bags of cement and a stack of cinder blocks stood nearby.

“The crooks must have run right past this bench,” Josh said.

The kids sat down. From their bench, they could see the bank clock on Main Street.

“I wonder where they went,” Dink said. “They couldn't have carried that gold far.”

Ruth Rose pulled the museum map from her back pocket. On one side was a drawing of the rooms inside the museum. On the other side was a map showing the little park, the museum, and Main Street.

Josh pointed at Main Street. “Maybe they had a getaway car waiting,” he said.

Ruth Rose shook her head. “Parking isn't allowed in front of the museum. If the crooks had left a car there, the police would have noticed it.”

“And there are no other streets near the museum where they could have
parked,” Dink observed, studying the map.

Josh glanced around at the trees and shrubs. “So where did they take the gold?” He looked down at the ground. “Maybe they buried it!”

Dink shook his head. “They were in a hurry. I can't see them taking the time to dig a hole,” he said. He checked the digital sign in front of the bank. “Anyway, we'd better get inside. It's almost two o'clock.”

The kids left, following the path back around to the front of the museum.

“Yum, I smell something good,” Josh said as they hurried up the front steps.

“You're
always
smelling something good,” Ruth Rose said.

They entered and paid the woman behind the counter. An inflated rubber tyrannosaur stood in the center of the
lobby. In its teeth, it held a sign that said
FOLLOW THE ARROWS
.

A minute later, the kids found Dr. Tweed standing outside an open door.

“Hello again,” he said. “Come on in. We're just about to start.”

A bunch of kids were sitting in a circle of desks. Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose slid into three empty seats. In the middle of the circle stood a giant dinosaur skeleton. Its huge head almost touched the ceiling!

“I'm sure most of you recognize
Tyrannosaurus rex
,” Dr. Tweed said.

Dink stared up at the skeleton. He tried to picture what the massive dinosaur would have looked like when it was alive.

“Today,” Dr. Tweed went on, “we are going to study this prehistoric carnivore—”

A boy in the front row raised his
hand. “Did you get the mummy back?” he asked.

“Yes, one of our guests found it in the ladies' room,” Dr. Tweed said. “Now, as I was say—”

“I saw on TV that someone broke in and stole the treasure,” a girl said.

Dr. Tweed sighed. “Yes, that is true. The thieves are still at large, and the treasure is missing. But we are here to discuss dinosaurs today.”

He opened a cupboard and pulled out a long bone. “A tyrannosaur leg fossil,” he said. “This dinosaur lived and died in what we now know as Utah. You can touch the bone, but please be gentle.”

The kids crowded around Dr. Tweed to touch the fossil.

“What do we know about the tyrannosaur?” Dr. Tweed asked.

Answers came swiftly:

“They had big teeth!”

“They ate other dinosaurs!”

“They laid eggs!”

“Good,” Dr. Tweed said. “Did you also know that
Tyrannosaurus rex
had an amazing sense of smell? It could smell its food from hundreds of yards away.”

“Like Josh,” Dink whispered.

“And
T. rex
also had a very small brain for his size,” Dr. Tweed went on.

“Like Dink,” Josh mumbled.

Dr. Tweed dimmed the lights and showed slides. The kids learned how the dinosaur lived, what it ate, and how it raised its young.

When the slide show was over, Dr. Tweed turned the lights up again. He pulled open a cupboard. “Now you can construct your
own
dinosaur.” He asked for volunteers to pass out clay, wood, and wire.

“Your creation will stand on the wood. Use the wire to help shape the legs and tail.”

Soon twenty pairs of hands were building miniature tyrannosaurs.

“This is fun,” Josh said. “Maybe I'll be a sculptor instead of a painter.”

Ruth Rose looked at Josh's pile of clay. “Josh,” she said, “we're supposed to make dinosaurs. Yours looks like a potato.”

“Very funny,” Josh said. Then his eyes opened wide. “That's it!”

“That's what?” Ruth Rose asked.

“That's what I smelled last night when we were in the closet!”

“Potatoes?” Dink asked.

Josh shook his head. He closed his eyes and sniffed. “French fries!” he said.

Dink shaped a tail for his dinosaur. “All I smelled was dust from the bomb. How could you smell French fries?”

Josh was making a row of teeth for his tyrannosaurs. “Because I have an amazing sense of smell,” he said.

“I'm afraid we've run out of time,” Dr. Tweed said. “You may take extra clay and finish your sculptures at home.”

He handed out cardboard boxes for carrying the clay dinosaurs.

“Thank you all for coming,” Dr. Tweed said as everyone got up to go. “Tomorrow is Wet Wednesday. I will be away, but one of my colleagues will be here in my place. Be sure to wear shorts and old sneakers, and bring permission slips from your parents.”

A few minutes later, Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose stood in front of the museum holding their boxes.

“What time does our bus come?” Josh asked.

“They run every half hour,” Ruth Rose said, glancing across the street at the bank clock. “It's three-thirty now. We must have just missed one.”

Josh grinned. “Good, we have time to get a snack.”

Dink rolled his eyes. “Josh, my folks are still freaked about the bomb. I
promised I'd get right home after the museum today. Let's just go wait in the shade.”

They walked around to the little pond and sat on a bench. Immediately, the goldfish came up for handouts.

Suddenly, Josh stood up and stuck his nose in the air. “I smell it again!” he said. He swiveled his head, like a periscope looking for enemy ships.

“There!” he said, pointing back along the park path toward Main Street. A small restaurant stood next to the bank.

A sign in the window said
AUNT FREDA'S FABULOUS FRIES
.

“Forget your stomach, Josh,” Dink said. “The next bus will be here soon.”

Josh slumped back on the bench.

“I'm being falsely accused,” he said. “All I'm trying to do is figure out what happened to that gold.”

“Okay,” Dink said. “So tell us.”

“Okay,” Josh said. “I smelled French fries last night. They sell French fries across the street. So maybe the robbers work there. Maybe
that's
where they took the gold!”

“I saw those crooks dragging the gold,” Dink said. “There's no way they carried it all the way to that restaurant.”

Ruth Rose looked at Dink. “Still, Josh might be right about the thieves working there,” she said. “Maybe we should go over and check it out.”

“But our bus …”

“Come on, Dinkus,” Josh said, standing up. “We'll catch the next one.”

“Okay, but I still think it's just a trick,” Dink said. “You'd do anything for a plate of fries.”

The kids carried their boxes through the park, across Main Street, and into the restaurant.

They sat in a booth by the window. Overhead, a ceiling fan hummed, and a jukebox played an Elvis song.

Six teenagers were just leaving. They left behind a small mountain of dirty dishes and glasses.

A roly-poly woman came through a swinging door with three glasses of ice water. She had gray hair and wore a white apron over her dress.

“Welcome to Aunt Freda's,” she said. “I'm Aunt Freda. I'll bet you've been to the museum, right?”

“How did you know?” asked Ruth Rose.

The woman pointed to Ruth Rose's small box.
WADSWORTH MUSEUM
was printed on the side.

“We made dinosaurs out of clay,” Josh said.

“Oh, that would be Dr. Tweed,” Aunt Freda said. “He's one of my regular customers. So, what can I get you today?”

“Fries and a lemonade, please,” said Josh.

“You'll love my fries,” Aunt Freda said. “The best in Hartford!”

“I'll have the same,” Ruth Rose said.

Dink made it three, and Aunt Freda bustled away to the kitchen.

Josh leaned forward and whispered, “Maybe Aunt Freda was one of the robbers!”

Dink grinned. “She doesn't exactly look like a robber,” he said.

“Plus, the crooks were taller and thinner,” Ruth Rose said.

Aunt Freda returned with their fries, drinks, ketchup, and napkins. “Let me know how you like my fries,” she said. “It's my secret recipe!”

The kids dug in, sharing the ketchup.

A few minutes later, a woman with short dark hair came out of the kitchen. She was wearing an apron and carrying a large plastic tub.