Mystery at the Museum

The big day is finally here! My class is going to the dinosaur museum. My backpack is overflowing with dinosaur books. When we walk in, a stegosaurus skeleton towers over us.

“Ben, look!” my friend Ruby says.

“Wow,” I reply, gazing up in wonder.

A man in a green suit is standing next to the stegosaurus. He’s eating a doughnut with rainbow sprinkles.

“I’m Professor Rex, dinosaur expert,” he says. He points to the skeleton. “Behold, a stegosaurus skeleton. Incredibly rare. Incredibly valuable!”

I flip to a page about the stegosaurus in my favorite dinosaur book. It says that they had three toes on their back feet and five toes on their front feet. I count the toes on the skeleton’s front feet. One, two . . . three. I raise my hand.

“Yes, you in the striped shirt?” asks Professor Rex.

“It’s Ben,” I smile. “Why are there only three toes on its front feet? Are some of the bones missing?”

“How preposterous!” Professor Rex yells. Doughnut sprinkles fly out of his mouth. “This is a complete skeleton.”

“But—” I begin.

“Let’s move on,” he says sharply.

I can’t shake the feeling though: Something is wrong with this skeleton.

“I’m telling you, some of the toes on that skeleton were missing,” I say to Ruby when we return to school.

“Why would Professor Rex say the skeleton was complete?” she wonders.

“Maybe the museum made a mistake,” I say.

Ruby nods. “Let’s go back after school and check it out.”

When we get there, we start by searching for anything strange or suspicious. Then Ruby stops short.

“Muddy footprints!” Ruby shouts. Sure enough, there is a trail of dog footprints leading away from the door.

“Maybe a dog got into the museum and took the bones!” I say excitedly. 

We follow the footprints to the museum’s security office. I peek inside and spy a woman in a security uniform eating a doughnut with sprinkles. A fluffy dog is sitting beside her. Its paws are covered in mud!

“Can I help you? I’m Mindy, the security guard. And this is Pickles,” the lady says, pointing at the dog. 

Just then, Pickles barks and runs out of the office.

“He must smell something,” Mindy says. “There have been a lot of crumbs around the museum lately. If there’s food on the floor, he’ll find it!”

Then she chases after Pickles.

“Ben, look!” Ruby says. She points to a crumpled piece of paper on the desk. It says “For Sale: Stegosaurus Skeleton.”

“This looks like an ad for the skeleton we saw this morning!” Ruby says. 

I gasp. “Maybe that’s why some of the toes are missing. Someone is starting to steal the dinosaur bones and plans to sell them. Could it be Mindy?”

“Maybe,” Ruby replies, thinking hard.

I look at the ad more closely.

“This ad is for a full skeleton,” I realize. “Wouldn’t everyone notice if an entire dinosaur skeleton went missing?” 

Feeling stuck, we head to my mom’s art supply store to ask for help.

“Hi, kids!” my mom calls to us. “I just have to finish organizing some paint.” 

Suddenly, we see a familiar shade of green dart into the next aisle. It’s Professor Rex! He’s chomping on a doughnut with sprinkles and carrying a big bag of clay. My mom comes over as he walks up to the register.  

“Welcome back!” she says to him. Then she turns to us. “Since he moved here six months ago, Professor Rex has become one of my best customers.”

“Yes, uh . . . I love making clay pots,” he says, spraying sprinkles everywhere. He seems nervous. “I must go.”

Professor Rex pays for the clay and then scampers out of the store. My mom picks up the phone. “Time to put in Professor Rex’s next order of clay!”

Ruby and I decide to talk to my mom later. As we walk outside, Ruby throws out her arm. Taped to the store window is an ad for the stegosaurus skeleton! 

Ruby and I head back to the museum’s dinosaur display. That’s when we see it . . . a trail of sprinkles! We follow the trail past the skeleton, down a hall, and then . . . it stops. I have an idea. 

“Pickles!” I say. “He can sniff out food anywhere.” 

We find Pickles snooping for food outside the cafeteria. Using treats, we lead him to the sprinkles trail. He starts sniffing, then breaks into a run. We dash after him. He leads us down a hidden hallway and into a dark room. It’s filled with bags of clay and a sheet covering something huge. I pull the sheet off to find . . . a stegosaurus skeleton!

There are three toes on the back feet and five toes on the front feet, just like the book says.

“This is the real skeleton! The one upstairs must be fake!” I say. 

“Well done,” says a voice from the shadows. It’s Mindy, the security guard! Pickles barks happily and trots over. 

“Someone has been replacing the real bones with fake ones so they can sell the real skeleton,” she tells us.

“Yes, and that person is you! We saw the ad on your desk!” I say. 

“That’s not my ad!” Mindy says. “I saw it outside the museum. It’s my job to look into suspicious activity.” 

“But we also saw a doughnut on your desk,” Ruby adds. “And we followed a trail of sprinkles here.”

“Doughnuts are the cafeteria’s best dessert,” Mindy says. “And I do not leave crumbs around!”

I look at Pickles, who is still sniffing around. Suddenly, he knocks into a desk with a computer on it. The screen comes alive. The ad for the skeleton pops up! 

“I know who else loves sprinkled doughnuts,” I say. “And leaves crumbs.”

“And who has been buying supplies to make a fake skeleton,” Ruby adds.

Pickles barks at the desk. Then a head pokes out from under it. 

It’s Professor Rex!

“You pesky kids! If you hadn’t started snooping around, I would have been rich!” Professor Rex yells.

“Come with me, Professor Rex,” Mindy says. We walk to the museum director’s office and tell her everything.

“So you’re the culprit,” the museum director says. “You are fired!”  

“It was a perfect plan,” Professor Rex sighs sadly. 

“But you made a mistake when you made the fake bones,” I say. “You put the wrong number of toes on the front feet!”

“Who knew a couple of dino-loving kid detectives would catch me?” Professor Rex huffs.

“Don’t forget about their treat-loving assistant,” Mindy says with a smile.

“Arf! Arf!” Pickles barks in agreement.