But when they reached the prep room, they stopped short.
Something was wrong.
The door of the prep room was open. The children had locked the door before they’d left the night before. Who would have opened it? Pete had said Sam wasn’t in yet, and he and Dr. Snood hadn’t been upstairs that morning. The only other person who would have a key was the security guard, and she had no reason to go in there.
Had someone broken into the prep room?
The children looked at each other silently. “What’s going on?” Henry said quietly.
Jessie shrugged her shoulders.
“Hello?” Henry called, slowly pushing the door open farther. The door creaked as it slowly swung open.
The Aldens peered into the dark room. Everything looked just as they had left it the evening before. Sam’s papers were stacked neatly on her desk. Her chair was pushed in underneath. The coffin was still at the back of the room.
Jessie bent down and studied the lock on the door.
At last Violet asked what they were all wondering. “Did someone break in?”
“Looks that way,” Henry said. “We locked the door last night, so whoever it was must have picked the lock.”
“Wait a minute,” Jessie said suddenly. “If someone was trying to get in, they’d pick the lock from the outside, right?” she asked.
“They’d have to,” said Henry.
“Well, look at these scratch marks.” The children bent and looked where Jessie was pointing.
“So?” Benny asked.
“If someone was trying to get in, he or she would be on the outside of the door, right?” Jessie asked. “But the scratches are on the inside.”
“So this lock was picked from the inside,” Henry said.
“So that means ...” Violet began.
“Someone was trying to break out,” said Jessie.
The children looked back into the room. They looked all the way down to the other end where the coffin lay. And then they noticed something they hadn’t noticed before.
Something even more frightening than the picked lock.
The lid of the coffin was open.
CHAPTER 10
The Truth Comes Out
“It was the mummy!” Benny cried. “It escaped!”
The lid of the coffin wasn’t completely open, but it was pushed back several inches. It definitely was not the way it had been left the night before.
From across the room, it was too dark to see if the mummy was still inside.
“That’s ridiculous, Benny,” said Jessie. But she didn’t sound sure.
“Then who was it?” asked Benny.
“I don’t know,” said Jessie. “But it wasn’t the mummy. The mummy has been dead for thousands of years.”
“Come on, let’s go take a closer look,” Henry said.
The children began walking slowly to the other end of the dark room. They didn’t take their eyes off the coffin. Benny lagged behind, afraid of what they might find—or not find—when they got there.
The coffin was exactly where it had always been, its painted designs visible even in the dim light. When they’d crossed the room, the children stood a few feet away, just looking at it.
They knew the mummy couldn’t get up and move. They knew, as Jessie said, that it had been dead for thousands of years. But in the darkness, with the lid of the coffin slightly open, somehow anything seemed possible.
Henry took a few steps closer.
He was trying to peer inside the gap left where the lid had been pushed back. But the light was so dim that it was hard to see.
“Is the mummy still there?” Benny asked nervously.
“Yes, I think so,” Henry said, squinting and moving closer.
“This is silly,” Jessie said at last. She walked quickly back to the door and switched on the light.
Henry stepped up to the coffin and looked in. He could see the magnificent death mask peering up at him from inside the coffin. “Yes, there it is,” he said, breaking into a smile.
The others breathed a sigh of relief and moved closer to see for themselves.
“There’s something else in there, too!” Benny cried, pointing in the coffin.
The other children peered in. There was a large, straw bag tucked in next to the mummy.
“That’s Sam’s bag,” Violet said. “What’s it doing in there?”
Benny looked inside. All he saw inside was a brown-paper bundle. He put it up on the table. Before Henry could stop him, Benny had begun unwrapping it.
“I don’t think you should—” Henry began. But he stopped speaking when he saw what was in the package. “I don’t believe it!” he said.
“It’s the missing gold cat,” Benny said.
The children looked at each other, speechless.
“I’ll go get Pete,” Jessie said, walking toward the door.
A few moments later, Jessie returned with Pete—and Dr. Snood.
Jessie showed them the lock on the door. “See, here are the scratches.”
The two men studied it. “This was definitely picked from the inside,” Dr. Snood agreed. “Just as you said.”
Then they walked to the back of the room and looked at the open coffin. “You children didn’t open this?” Dr. Snood asked.
The children all shook their heads.
“Help me,” Dr. Snood said to Pete. Together they lifted the lid off and placed it gently on the table. Then they both walked slowly around the coffin, examining the mummy and the death mask.
“I don’t know why someone opened the coffin, but fortunately the mummy doesn’t appear to be damaged,” Dr. Snood said at last. He sounded relieved.
“There’s something else,” Henry said.
Dr. Snood looked up from the mummy. “What is it?”
Henry motioned to the gold cat. “We just found this—in Sam’s bag,” said Henry.
Dr. Snood picked up the statue. “In her bag, you say?” He strode over to Sam’s desk. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I think it’s time I had a word with Dr. Dickerson.” He picked up the telephone.
“No,” Jessie said.
Dr. Snood spun around in surprise.
“I mean, please let me call,” said Jessie quickly. “I have a plan.”
Dr. Snood looked at her for a moment and then nodded. “All right,” he said.
Jessie picked up the phone and dialed Sam’s number. She looked nervous. “Hello, Sam,” she said after a moment. “It’s Jessie, at the museum. Pete asked me to give you a call. He needs to see you.”
She listened for a moment before she spoke again. “I don’t know, he didn’t say. He just asked that you come right away.”
Again she listened, then said, “No, Dr. Snood is out at a meeting.”
At last Jessie smiled. “All right, we’ll see you soon.”
She hung up the phone.
“Why did you tell her that—about Pete asking you to call and Dr. Snood being out?” Henry asked.
“I know it isn’t right to lie,” Jessie said. “But I didn’t think Sam would come if she knew Dr. Snood wanted to see her. I’ve noticed that she’s always avoiding him.”
“That does seem to be true,” Dr. Snood agreed.
“I guess you might say I’ve ... set a trap,” Jessie said.
“Very smart, young lady,” Dr. Snood admitted.
Jessie smiled and felt her cheeks turning pink.
Pete grinned. “I told you these kids were good.”
“I have a question,” said Henry. “Has Sam told either of you about the pieces missing from the exhibit?”
“What?” the two men said. They looked at each other and then back at the children.
“Pieces missing?” asked Pete. “I’ve heard nothing of the kind.”
“Neither have I,” said Dr. Snood.
“We noticed some pieces missing, like a small baboon sculpture, and the little blue hippo, and a flute, and this gold cat. Sam said she had told you,” s
aid Jessie.
“No one said anything to me,” Dr. Snood said. He seemed to be straining to remain calm. “When Dr. Dickerson comes, we’ll get to the bottom of this. Pete and I will wait in here until she comes,” Dr. Snood said, stepping into the exhibit hall.
When the two men had gone, Violet said sadly, “I hate to think that she’s the one who’s been stealing the pieces all along. She’s so nice.”
“I agree,” said Jessie. “But she could still be a thief.”
The Aldens waited for Sam to come. No one felt much like talking. The only sound was the clock ticking on the wall.
Finally, the children heard footsteps in the hallway. “That must be her now,” Jessie whispered.
The footsteps came closer, and then Sam stood in the doorway. “What’s the matter?” she asked.
Then she spotted the statue on the table. “What’s this doing in here? I put this—” She stopped abruptly as Dr. Snood stepped into the room, with Pete behind him.
For a moment, Sam and Dr. Snood just looked at each other.
Then a slow smile spread across Dr. Snood’s face. It was not a happy smile. Instead, he looked very, very angry.
Sam sighed heavily and looked at the ground.
“So it’s you,” Dr. Snood said, his voice tight. “Even under all that red hair, I’d recognize you anywhere. I hoped I’d never see you again.”
“Hello, Reggie,” Sam said.
“What’s going on?” asked Benny.
Dr. Snood turned to the children. “We’ve found our thief,” he said. “Her name is Samantha Peters.”
“It was,” said Sam. “I’ve married. Now I’m Samantha Dickerson.”
“You two know each other?” Pete asked.
“Yes,” said Dr. Snood. “Dr. Peters—or Dr. Dickerson, if you prefer—was my partner many years ago, before I became the director here. We were digging in an Egyptian tomb. She was a brilliant Egyptologist, and everything was going well. Until I realized I could never work with her again.”
“Why?” asked Benny.
“Shall I tell them?” Dr. Snood asked Sam.
She looked away, refusing to answer.
Dr. Snood turned back to the children. “She suggested we might take a few ‘souvenirs’ from the dig—small statues to keep for ourselves or sell. I told her, definitely not. But it sounds as if that’s exactly what she’s been doing here.”
“Is it?” Violet asked Sam in a soft voice.
Sam was looking at the floor. She sighed again. At last she looked up at the faces of the children. Her face looked sad and tired. “Yes, I have,” she admitted at last. “When Pete asked me to run this exhibit, I was very happy. I haven’t been making much money lately. I thought I’d be able to pocket a few pieces and make some quick cash. I was planning to sell them to a rich collector I know.”
“That’s who you were talking to on the phone about a cat, wasn’t it?” asked Jessie.
“Yes,” Sam said. “When I found out that Dr. Snood was the director here, I was afraid he’d catch me. So I had my hair curled and dyed red. I went by my married name and called myself Sam so people would assume I was a man. Unless they met me, of course.”
“So that’s why you’ve been avoiding Dr. Snood,” Jessie said.
“Yes,” said Sam. “When Tina got hurt, I was pleased that Pete suggested you children would help me. I figured I could slip anything past a bunch of kids.” She raised her eyebrows. “But I didn’t realize who I was dealing with. You Aldens are smart. And you don’t give up.”
“No,” Henry said. “We don’t. Not until we’ve solved the mystery.”
“So you never told anyone that those pieces were missing, did you?” asked Violet.
“Of course not,” said Sam. “I didn’t think you’d even notice if a piece was gone here and there. That’s why I didn’t take them all at once. I hadn’t counted on you having such good memories. I had to pretend I was surprised each time you noticed another one missing. But I figured that if you kids were the only ones who knew, then I was safe.”
“But then why did you give me that list to make sure nothing was missing?” asked Jessie.
“I made up that list myself. I left off the pieces I’d already taken,” Sam said.
“What about my notebook?” Jessie asked. “Did you take it?”
“I did,” Sam said. “You let me look at it, and I never gave it back. I changed it, too. I tried to make it look like your handwriting, so you wouldn’t realize. Then I left it by Dr. Snood’s office, so you’d think he’d taken it, not me.”
“What about the lock on the door and the open coffin?” asked Henry. “Did you do that?”
Sam nodded. “That’s where I was hiding the pieces,” she said.
“In the coffin?” Benny asked, shocked.
“I knew no one would look in there,” she said. “Last night I came back here very late, after everyone had left. I was planning to take out the last of the pieces. But then the security guard came by, just as I was about to leave. I quickly turned off the lights so she wouldn’t see me. But then she did something I hadn’t expected.” Sam laughed a short laugh. “She thought no one was in here, so she locked the door. I was locked in.”
“And you had to break out,” Henry said.
“Exactly,” said Sam. “Good thing I know how to pick a lock. But in my hurry I left the coffin open and forgot to lock the door behind me. And I accidentally left the most valuable piece here—that gold cat.”
While they were talking, Pete had quietly gone over to the telephone and made a phone call. A police officer appeared in the doorway just as Sam was finishing her story.
As the police officer led her away, Pete said, “It looks as if the mummy’s curse is on Sam.”
James Alden and his grandchildren arrived at the museum that night just before seven o’clock.
“I can’t wait to see how everyone likes the exhibit,” Benny said.
“And I can’t wait to see what you’ve all been working on,” Grandfather said.
“Hello, Aldens,” Pete said, coming over as soon as he saw them. He brought Dr. Snood with him. The Aldens were surprised to see how happy Dr. Snood looked.
“James, good to see you,” Pete said. He introduced Dr. Snood to James Alden.
“The exhibit looks great,” said Grandfather.
“We couldn’t have done it without your grandchildren,” Pete said.
“I must admit I had my doubts at first,” Dr. Snood said. “But I was wrong. They did a great job with the exhibit—and they caught a criminal!”
“That is their specialty,” Grandfather said proudly.
“Can I tell you something, Dr. Snood?” Jessie asked in a quiet voice.
“Yes,” Dr. Snood said.
“We thought you might be the thief,” she said.
“Me?” he said. And then he did something they had never seen him do. He began to laugh. “Why me?”
“Well, we kept seeing you looking at the pieces, and then they’d be missing,” said Jessie. “And there always seemed to be something bothering you.”
Dr. Snood was silent for a moment. Then he spoke. “You children are wise beyond your years. There has been something bothering me, and it took this exhibit for me to realize it.”
“Realize what?” Pete asked.
“I realized, as I watched this exhibit being put together, how much I miss Egyptology. That’s my real love. So I’m stepping down as director. I’m going to lead a dig in Egypt next year.”
“Excuse me,” said a voice behind the children.
They turned around and were surprised to see Lori Paulson.
“Hello, Ms. Paulson,” Pete said.
“What are you doing here?” Benny couldn’t help asking.
Suddenly Henry laughed. “I think I know,” he said. “You’re a reporter for the Greenfield Daily News, aren’t you?”
“How did you know?” Lori asked, surprised.
“When I called the newspaper yest
erday, you were the one who answered, weren’t you?” Henry said.
Lori nodded.
“I knew your voice was familiar,” Henry explained. “I just didn’t figure out it was you until now.”
“I’ve just started working there,” Lori explained. “I’m an assistant in the Arts and Entertainment section. I was trying to make a name for myself by bringing in a report on the new exhibit. The museum was keeping it all such a secret. I thought there had to be something important going on. I wanted to get the story before any other reporter.”
“So that’s why you were always at the museum asking questions,” said Benny.
“I was hoping you kids would tell me something,” said Lori. “I listened when you were in the café and made notes in my notebook.”
“So that’s what you were hiding under the table that day,” Henry said.
“I also sneaked up to the exhibit hall a couple of times and tried to peek in,” Lori told them.
“We heard your footsteps,” Violet said.
“And I did something I regret.” Lori looked down at her feet and then back at the children. “One day, I sneaked into the prep room and went through the papers on the desk and looked at the artifacts. I was hoping to learn something to put in the article. But I heard a sound and rushed out before I had a chance to put things back. I’m afraid I left quite a mess.”
“What were you doing at the Carson City Museum?” Henry asked.
“I heard they’d tried to get this exhibit, too,” said Lori. “So I called them to find out. They wrote to me, and then finally gave me an appointment with the director the day I saw you there.”
“And what did she have to say?” Dr. Snood asked.
“She told me at first they were disappointed they hadn’t gotten the exhibit,” Lori said. “But when she talked with Pete Miller, they came up with some ways the two museums could work together in the future.”
“Good work,” Dr. Snood told Pete.
“Why were you being so secretive?” Jessie asked Lori.
“I was afraid that if you knew I was a reporter you wouldn’t tell me anything,” Lori said.
“We thought you were a spy” said Benny.
“A spy?” Lori said. And they all burst out laughing.