George’s eyes widened. “How can we promise that? If he took the telescope—”
“He didn’t take the telescope,” Alma interrupted. She walked into the kitchen of the break room, gesturing for the girls to follow her. Once they were there, she stared at the soda machine and finally pushed the top button. A can fell to the bottom with a clanking sound. She picked up the orange soda and opened it, taking a sip.
“If he didn’t take it, does he know who did?” Nancy asked.
Alma glanced over the girls’ shoulders at Louise, who had followed them into the kitchen. Louise was tall and had curly black hair.
“All right,” Alma finally said, as if she was just deciding to tell them Bill’s secret. “I don’t know anything about that missing telescope, and I don’t think Bill does either. But you girls were right—he was hiding something.”
“He switched with someone for his last shift,” Louise said. “We’re not allowed to do that, but he wanted to work outside the café. He was supposed to be working in the Hall of Planets, though.”
“Why did he need to switch?” George asked.
Alma laughed. “Well, you see, Bill has a little crush on Polly, one of the waitresses in the café. She only works on Saturdays, so one of his friends switched with him. He worked in the café and his friend went to the Hall of Planets. And Bill got to make googly eyes at Polly for two hours.” She rolled her eyes.
“Two hours?” Nancy asked. She had pulled out the Clue Book and was writing down everything the guards said. “Which two hours? Are you sure he was there the entire time?”
Alma took another sip of her orange soda. “Hmm . . . must’ve been from four to six p.m. He just got off his shift.”
George leaned over, looking at the Clue Book notes. “We went to the show from four to five,” she told Nancy. “And Dr. Arnot had brought the telescope up to the roof just before that. So it must’ve been stolen in that hour window.”
The other guard pushed through the kitchen to a door on the other side. She waved at the girls to follow her. “If you want to see for yourself, come on.”
Nancy and her friends went into the room with Alma and Louise. There was another guard in there, sitting at a desk covered with computer monitors. Each monitor showed a different part of the museum.
“Security cameras!” Bess said, pulling up a seat. “Why didn’t you say something sooner? All we have to do is look at video of the roof and we’ll know who took the telescope.”
Alma sat down beside her. “There’s only one problem. There is no security camera on the roof. What do you think, Paul? Can you pull up the four o’clock shift near the café?”
Alma looked to the guard on her other side, a gray-haired man with a mustache and glasses. He hit a few buttons on his keyboard and the main monitor showed the café. The time said 4:01 p.m.
“You’re right,” George said, pointing to the screen. “That’s Bill, right there!”
Nancy narrowed her eyes, studying the black-and-white video. Sure enough, Bill was standing against a wall by the café. He kept looking and making silly faces at the waitress who was serving a table a few feet away.
“Can you speed it up so we can see the whole two-hour shift?” Alma asked.
“That would help,” Nancy agreed. “Just so we can be one hundred percent certain he never left that spot.”
Paul nodded. He hit a button on the keyboard to fast-forward the footage. Nancy could see Bill in the video. He shifted on his feet. At one point he checked his cell phone. But for the whole two hours he just stood there, giving visitors directions or waving to Polly.
“See?” Alma said when it was finally done. “I told you. He’s not your suspect.”
“He has an alibi,” Nancy said. She’d learned that word while the Clue Crew had been solving other mysteries. An alibi was when someone was in another place at the time a crime happened. It proved that they weren’t a suspect.
“If he’s not our thief,” Bess said, “then who is?”
Nancy flipped through the Clue Book, stopping at the page where she’d written down the list of suspects. There was only one other group of people they hadn’t yet talked to. “The women from River Heights Greens.”
“You really think they had something to do with the telescope going missing?” George asked.
“I don’t know anymore,” Nancy said. “But we should find them and see if they know anything—before it’s too late. . . .”
SNEAKY ON THE STAIRS
It took the girls almost twenty minutes to find the group of River Heights senior citizens. The women all had gray or white hair, and most were wearing Velcro-strapped shoes like Nancy’s little cousins wore. They were huddled around the rover in the moon landing exhibit.
“This is silly,” Bess said as she looked over at the group of women. Most of them had glasses hanging from chains around their necks. A few of them even walked with canes. They certainly didn’t look like thieves. “There’s no way one of them could’ve carried the telescope down the stairs.”
George tucked her short brown hair behind her ears. “But maybe one of them saw something strange. You never know!”
The girls walked up to the group. Nancy pulled out the Clue Book, ready to write down everything they said. “Hi, there. We were hoping you could help us,” she said. “We heard that you were on the roof of the museum between four and five p.m. today. There was a valuable telescope there that’s now missing.”
One of the women, a short lady wearing a pearl necklace, frowned and cupped her hand behind her ear. “What was that, dearie? You’ll have to speak up!”
Nancy turned to Bess and George, who shrugged. So she repeated her words, only this time shouting them.
The lady looked confused. “A telescope? Why would we know anything about that? We sure didn’t take it.”
“MAYBE YOU SAW SOMETHING?” Bess asked in a loud voice. She clasped her hands together, hopeful. “DID ANYTHING SEEM ODD? DID YOU NOTICE ANYONE STRANGE ON THE ROOF WHILE YOU WERE THERE?”
“For gosh sakes, you don’t have to scream!” a lady wearing a blue sweater set said in a grumpy voice. “Not all of us are deaf !” She scanned the group of women. “Where are Mildred and Susanna? They mentioned seeing something fishy on the roof.”
Two women pushed forward. One was wearing glasses with dark lenses in them. The other was large and round and wore her hair in a long white braid. “That girl we saw,” the one with the glasses said. “Is that what they’re asking about?”
Nancy glanced sideways at George. What girl were they talking about? Was it possible they’d stumbled upon another suspect?
“What do you mean?” George asked. “You saw a girl on the roof?”
“The one with the telescope!” said the woman with the white braid. Nancy heard someone call her Mildred.
“We saw her take the telescope,” the other woman, Susanna, said. “She grabbed it and walked out with us. She marched right down the stairs and out the side door.”
Nancy couldn’t help but smile. They had finally found a clue! “What time did that happen? Do you remember what she looked like?”
“How old was she?” Bess chimed in.
Behind them, a group of Driftwood Day Camp kids ran onto the moon exhibit. A young girl with pigtails laughed as she climbed onto the rover.
Mildred pressed her fingers to the side of her head. “Well, I think she had freckles. And maybe brown hair?”
Susanna shook her head. “No, no, no. She had pimples on her cheeks. They weren’t freckles. And she had black hair, definitely black. Wasn’t she tall?”
Nancy held the pen above the Clue Book, but she didn’t write anything down. Susanna was wearing glasses with thick, dark lenses. Was it possible her eyesight wasn’t that good?
“She wasn’t tall,” Mildred said. “She was average height.”
Nancy looked at Bess and George. There had to be a better approach.
Bess took charge. “Okay, what do you both
agree on? Did you definitely see her with the telescope?”
“Yes,” they said at the same time.
Mildred ran her fingers over her long white braid. “She went down the stairs with us and out a side door. I’m certain of that.”
“Me too,” Susanna said. “And she had a red scarf wrapped around her head, so it was hard to see her face.”
“That’s right,” Mildred agreed.
Nancy scribbled down the things they had both agreed on.
Suspect:
A girl:
-Red scarf
-Went down the stairs and out a side door
George studied Nancy’s notes. “And how old do you think she was?”
“Forty?” Mildred said, unsure.
“No, no—she was just a teenager,” Susanna said.
They both stared at Nancy, waiting for her to write something down. Nancy didn’t. This happened a lot with witnesses. They would both see the same thing, but they’d see it differently. They’d give two completely different descriptions of suspects, and Nancy would have to just look for what they agreed on.
“So she’s anywhere from fourteen to forty years old,” Nancy said. “She was wearing a red scarf on her head and she took the telescope down the stairs and out a side door.”
“Which means it could already be gone,” Bess said, frowning.
“I think that scarf was a disguise!” Mildred announced.
“Maybe,” Nancy said. She looked down at the Clue Book, knowing they had less than two hours before the museum closed. They had to hope the mysterious girl was still here somewhere.
George scratched her head, the way she always did when she was stumped. “What next?” she asked.
“We could walk around,” Bess said. “See if we run into the girl with the red scarf.”
Nancy closed the Clue Book and tucked it into her bag. She smiled, knowing there was an easier way to find her. “I think I have a better idea!”
A CLUE IN A CAN
Nancy knocked on the break room door. The café was emptier than it had been before. Polly, the girl Bill liked, was clearing off a few tables. A young couple was sitting by the wall, eating bowls of soup.
When the door swung open, Alma was standing there. She ran her fingers through her red hair. “You came back!” she said. “No luck with the senior citizens from River Heights Greens?”
“That’s why we’re here,” Nancy said. “We think you might have video of our suspect leaving the roof.”
Alma shook her head. “I told you. There are no cameras on the roof.”
Bess smiled. “Actually, we’re more interested in the side exit at the bottom of the stairs. Is there a security camera there?”
Alma opened the door all the way, waving the girls inside. “There is. Let’s see if Paul can find the footage. Do you know when it happened?”
The girls followed Alma through the break room kitchen and into the room with all the different monitors. Paul was still there. He’d opened a bag of potato chips and now crumbs were all over the table.
“It would have been between four and five o’clock,” George said. “A woman came down the stairs with the group from River Heights Greens, and then she took the telescope out a side door.”
Paul hit a few buttons on his keyboard and then pulled up a picture of a stairwell. Nancy could see a door at the bottom of it. He pointed to the screen. “These are the stairs that come down from the roof, and that’s the door I think you’re talking about.”
He hit another button and the video sped up. The clock at the bottom showed the time. 4:00 p.m., 4:05 p.m., 4:10 p.m., 4:15 p.m., 4:16 p.m., 4:17 p.m. But it wasn’t until 4:46 p.m. that the video showed anyone leaving the roof.
“There!” Bess said, pointing to a few women walking down the stairs. “That’s them!”
Paul slowed down the video. It showed five of the women from River Heights Greens, walking down the stairs. They all held on to the railing. Right after they passed the camera, another group came down. Mildred and Susanna were with them. A girl in a red silk scarf was there too!
“That’s her!” Nancy cried. “That’s exactly who Mildred and Susanna described!”
Paul pressed the pause button, and Nancy, Bess, and George studied the picture. The girl was definitely in disguise, like Mildred had said. She was hunched forward, carrying something heavy in her arms. She was wearing black pants, but the red scarf was long, and its loose ends covered most of her shirt.
“Let’s see what happens,” Alma said. She reached over the keyboard and hit a button. The video continued.
Once the ladies from River Heights Greens had walked offscreen, the girl stood by the door. She looked around and then opened it a crack, pulling a can from her handbag and using it to prop open the door. Then she pulled something from under her shirt. It was the telescope! She ran outside, carrying it with her.
“Why is she going outside?” George asked. “And why did she need to keep the door open?”
“There,” Nancy said, pointing at the screen. “That’s why.”
Just beyond the door they could see a car parked at the curb. Bess smiled. “She was bringing it to someone outside the museum!”
“Which means it’s probably long gone,” George said with a groan.
After less than thirty seconds, the girl came back inside. The red scarf was still covering her hair and part of her face, so they couldn’t see any of her features. She spun around, looking over her shoulder, and ran up the stairs. Then she jogged off camera.
“She gave the telescope to someone,” Bess said. “And then she came back inside. So she could still be here somewhere.”
Nancy studied the screen. She pointed to the can that the girl had used to keep the door open. “Can you please zoom in on that can, Paul?”
Paul hit a few buttons, zooming all the way in. They looked at the can the girl had taken out of her pocket. It had a bunch of grapes on the front of it.
“Hmm . . . ,” George said. “So our suspect likes grape soda.”
Bess plopped down in the chair beside Paul. He offered her some potato chips, and she took a handful, snacking as she stared at the screen. “Whoever she is, she must know that Dr. Arnot has realized the telescope is gone. She must know people are looking for it.”
“What do you mean?” George asked, furrowing her eyebrows.
“She left the can there,” Bess said. “If she’s worried about getting caught, she might come back to get it. She wouldn’t want to leave evidence behind.”
Alma nodded. “That’s a good point. Hopefully, the soda can is still there.”
“We can have a stakeout,” George added. “We’ll hide nearby, waiting for her to return to the scene of the crime. The museum closes in about an hour. It’s our last chance.”
Paul rewound the video to the moment where the girl went out the door. Nancy stared at her face, which was completely in shadow. Who was she? What did she want with an expensive telescope? And who was the person waiting in the car outside?
Nancy crossed her arms over her chest. Hopefully, they’d get answers before it was too late.
COMET-HALL CHASE
Nancy leaned forward, looking out a small, circular window. She could just barely see the side door through which the girl had taken the telescope. The soda can was still there. She was starting to put the pieces of the puzzle together. It seemed like one person in particular took that telescope. And Nancy thought she knew who that person was. She didn’t want to tell Bess and George until she was sure, though.
“Do you see her?” Bess asked. She was sitting on a bench inside the giant model of Jupiter, looking out the window in the planet’s side. The window was right where Jupiter’s giant red spot was. They’d been hiding there for almost a half hour, waiting for the girl to come back.
“Not yet,” George said.
On the wall inside the planet, a video played for the fourth time. “Jupiter is the fifth planet from the sun and the largest planet in
the solar system,” a voice blasted through the speakers. “It’s a gas giant with a mass that’s one-thousandth the size of our sun.”
Nancy scanned the Hall of Planets. There weren’t as many crowds as there had been just an hour before. A family with two small kids walked around the hall, but other than that it was empty.
“Come on,” she whispered to herself as she stared at the stairwell. “Where are you?”
“Maybe she already left,” George suggested as she sat down on the floor, pulling her knees to her chest.
But almost as soon as George said it, Nancy noticed a woman with a red scarf wrapped around her head come down the stairwell. The girl glanced behind her before going to the door and opening it a crack. She stared outside.
“She’s here!” Nancy hissed. “It’s her!”
George and Bess rushed up behind Nancy, gazing out the round window. “What is she doing?” Bess asked.
They watched the girl. She stood by the side door, peering out into the street. Every now and then she turned around, checking to make sure no one was coming down the stairs behind her.
“It’s like she’s waiting for someone!” Nancy turned to the entrance of the exhibit, knowing there was little time. “Come on. Now’s our chance! We have to talk to her before she gets away.”
Nancy ran down Jupiter’s stairs and through the Hall of Planets, passing Mars and Venus. Bess and George followed close behind. When they were a few feet from the side door, the girl was turned so her back was facing them. They finally had found their suspect!
“Excuse us,” Nancy said. “Can we talk to you for a minute?”
The woman straightened up. Nancy noticed she was wearing the same pants she wore in the security video. But it was only up close that Nancy saw her shiny black Mary Janes. They had a tiny apple embroidered on the side, by her toes. She’d seen the same shoes once before, earlier in the day. Any suspicions she’d had about who took the telescope were finally confirmed.
The girl paused for a moment, and then she knelt down and grabbed the soda can that propped the door open. Without saying another word, she darted past them and through the Hall of Planets.