Violet and the Mummy Mystery

by Harriet Whitehorn

  ‘Hi, chaps! Gosh, am I pleased to see you! This mummy case is really tricky. I am COMPLETELY stumped. And there is SO much media pressure. I could really use your help, if you don’t mind.’

  ‘We’d like that, wouldn’t we?’ Violet said to the others, who nodded. ‘I’ll just get Art,’ Violet said, and sprinted off before Rose or Agnes could object. ‘Don’t eat all the biscuits,’ she called over her shoulder. She returned with Art a few moments later.

  ‘PC Green, why don’t you tell us all the facts, and Rose, do you want to get out the crime-solving matrix so we can add to it?’ Violet said. ‘All we really established before was that the thefts must have been committed by two people working together and the most likely pair was Miss Beasley and Professor Petit,’ she explained to the policeman.

  PC Green gave a thoughtful sigh and pulled out his notebook, as the others sat round the table.

  ‘So, chaps, according to Professor Fitzherbert, when he arrived at the museum at seven this morning, the mummy was gone. There were no obvious signs of a break-in and the security guard, Ralph, said that he had seen nothing unusual when he did his rounds during the night. There had been no deliveries or visitors and the Professor’s door was locked.’

  ‘Was it just the mummy that was stolen or the case and the coffin too?’ Rose asked.

  ‘All of it,’ PC Green confirmed.

  ‘Did the security camera show anything?’ Violet asked

  ‘No, it was disconnected by the thief.’

  Everyone tutted with irritation.

  ‘However,’ PC Green went on, ‘between about five in the morning and six, no one was at the museum – Ralph had finished his shift and Alf was late arriving because their mother is ill. Poor lads, their father died recently too. So for an hour no one was there.’

  ‘It must have happened then,’ Agnes said. ‘Did anyone see the mummy after that?’

  ‘Gosh, you’re on the ball,’ PC Green said. ‘No, I don’t think so. But Alf did say that everything seemed fine when he arrived and the doors were locked, as they should be.’

  ‘That would suggest that whoever took the mummy had a key,’ Rose said.

  PC Green nodded. ‘Yes. Pity I forgot to ask who has keys.’

  ‘It’s all right, Dolores told us,’ Rose said, looking at her notes. ‘Ralph and Alf, Professor Fitzherbert, Miss Beasley and Professor Petit all have keys.’

  ‘Hmm, interesting. I talked to each of them about what they got up to last night. Let me tell you what they said.’ He did a lot of flicking through the pages in his notebook.

  ‘Professor Fitzherbert left the museum at six-thirty to go and visit his elderly father – isn’t that nice? He was seen by Miss Beasley and Ralph. Then Miss Beasley left at six forty-five and she spent the evening at home with her sister. She was seen by Ralph.’

  ‘And Professor Petit?’

  PC Green let out a little snort. ‘He’s a very rude man. He called me an idiot and refused to answer any of my questions until Professor Fitzherbert stepped in and told him he had to. Apparently, he left at nine-thirty, but no one saw him,’ PC Green said. Three pairs of eyebrows shot up at PC Green as if to say, There you go then. ‘But Ralph did mention that he was patrolling at that time so might not have seen him.’

  ‘Now, what about motives?’ Art said. ‘Do you think the mummy has been stolen to find the location of Nefertiti’s tomb?’

  ‘Well, not necessarily,’ PC Green replied, going back to his notebook. ‘Professor Fitzherbert said a mummy like that is incredibly valuable and that it could just be a coincidence.’

  ‘That’s true,’ Agnes said. ‘The mummy is probably worth millions.’

  ‘I think it seems too much of a coincidence,’ Violet said.

  ‘When we were at the museum, Professor Petit got very angry about Matilde possibly having discovered the location of Nefertiti’s tomb,’ Art said. ‘Do you think he might want to sabotage her research?’

  ‘He’s always been jealous of Mama,’ Agnes said.

  ‘But he might want Nefertiti’s tomb to be found, even if it was by someone else,’ Rose pointed out.

  ‘Dolores was suspicious that Professor Petit and Miss Beasley were involved in the previous thefts,’ Violet said. ‘And we do know that Miss Beasley is particularly keen on New Kingdom artefacts.’

  ‘So they both have a motive,’ PC Green said. ‘But they both left the museum before five in the morning.’

  ‘They could have come back,’ Violet said.

  ‘We shouldn’t just rule out everyone else without examining the facts first,’ Rose said, the sensible one as always.

  ‘The only other people with keys are Ralph and Alf and Professor Fitzherbert. And I shouldn’t think Professor Fitzherbert would steal from his own museum,’ Violet said.

  ‘It’s not exactly his museum,’ Rose pointed out. ‘But he does run it and if Matilde uncovered Nefertiti’s tomb it would make the museum even more famous.’

  ‘He used to sell artefacts to people, didn’t he?’ Art asked Agnes.

  ‘Yes,’ she replied. ‘But he told Mama that he didn’t enjoy it and wanted to work in a museum where everyone can see the objects.’

  ‘Well, that’s very nice of him,’ PC Green said.

  ‘What about Ralph and Alf?’ Violet asked.

  ‘I did wonder about them, so I had a quick word with Professor Fitzherbert. He said that they are incredibly trustworthy and reliable and had worked for him before. They were part of the new team he brought in when he started,’ PC Green said.

  ‘Along with Miss Beasley,’ Agnes said.

  ‘It does all seem to point to Professor Petit and Miss Beasley,’ Rose said, showing them the updated crime-solving matrix.

  ‘You guys are amazing,’ PC Green said with a sigh of relief. ‘It’s so much clearer now. So, where do you think they would hide this mummy?’

  ‘We should start by searching their homes,’ Rose said.

  ‘Good idea. Look, I’ve got their addresses here.’ More flicking through pages. ‘Professor Petit lives at 14 Elmbridge Villas, and Miss Beasley lives at the Basement Flat, 35 Arcadia Road. I’ll get back to the station and fill out the forms for search warrants. It’s so speedy now – I should have them in about a week.’

  ‘A week!’ Agnes spluttered. ‘They could have moved the mummy anywhere by then! Can’t you do it any quicker?’

  ‘Young lady,’ PC Green said gravely, ‘you have to respect the process. Right, I’d better be off; there’s a press conference later so now I can tell them we have a definite lead, mentioning no names of course. Perhaps I’ll just drop a hint that one of them is rude and French . . .’

  ‘No, don’t!’ Violet said. ‘That will alert him!’

  ‘You’re right.’ PC Green nodded. ‘I can’t tell you how much I love our teamwork – together we’re better! I’ll just take another biscuit for the road.’

  After he had gone, Agnes asked, ‘Is he always so hopeless?’

  Rose nodded.

  ‘Yes,’ said Violet. ‘That’s why we have to go and search Miss Beasley’s and Professor Petit’s homes ourselves. They’re both quite near. We can easily go tomorrow morning; we’ll just tell our parents that we’re going to the sweetshop.’ And they all agreed this was an excellent plan, especially if they could find some time to actually buy some sweets on the way home.

  The following morning, Rose, Art, Violet and Agnes decided to split up. Rose and Violet would tackle Professor Petit’s house, while Art and Agnes would try to get inside Miss Beasley’s flat.

  Violet and Rose made their plan as they walked to Elmbridge Villas. First, they waited until they saw Professor Petit leave, which, luckily for them, was quite soon after they arrived. And then they walked up to the front door and Rose nervously rang the doorbell.

  Professor Petit’s landlady, Mrs Frobisher, opened the door. She was a small, timid woman who loved cats. In fact, when she greeted them, she was holding a large ginger cat in her arms.
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  ‘Good morning,’ Violet said, speaking English in her best, thick French accent, sounding rather like Grand-mère. ‘I am Professor Petit’s niece, Marie, and this is my sister, Rose. Is my uncle in?’

  ‘No, I’m afraid he’s not. You’ve just missed him,’ Mrs Frobisher replied.

  The girls pretended to look surprised.

  ‘He is expecting us,’ Violet said. ‘Could we wait for him in his room?’

  Mrs Frobisher looked flustered.

  ‘I’m not sure . . . He’s a very private man and never lets anyone in his room – not even me. Why don’t you wait in the hall?’

  Rose thought fast. She did a huge pretend sneeze.

  ‘Unfortunately, I am terribly allergic to cats,’ she said in an equally thick French accent. ‘I’m sure our uncle wouldn’t mind us waiting in his room, as we are family,’ she said.

  But Mrs Frobisher still wasn’t sure. She was rather terrified of the bad-tempered little Frenchman. Violet could see her wavering, so stepped in.

  ‘Can we just wait for ten minutes? And then if he’s not back we’ll go away,’ she said.

  Mrs Frobisher agreed and Violet and Rose exchanged sly grins as she showed them up to the Professor’s room. She left them alone as soon as she had unlocked the door, muttering something about having to look after one of her cats.

  Professor Petit had two rooms on the first floor of the house, which he used as a bedroom and a sitting room. Violet and Rose half expected to see the mummy laid out before them when they opened the door. But it wasn’t. There was just an unmade bed and a mess of clothes, books and dirty dishes. Violet glanced out of the grubby window to see Professor Petit crossing the road, coming back to the house.

  ‘Oh no,’ she gasped. ‘He’s coming back! We need to get out of here. Quick!’ She grabbed Rose’s hand and ran through the door and down the stairs, colliding with Mrs Frobisher, who was just coming to check on them. Unfortunately, at that very moment, the front door opened, revealing Professor Petit.

  ‘What are you two doing here?’ he demanded.

  ‘That’s not a very nice way to greet your nieces!’ Mrs Frobisher said. ‘Especially when they’ve come all the way from France to see you.’

  Professor Petit looked confused. ‘They are not my nieces and they most certainly haven’t come from France – these little girls live around the corner.’

  There was a silence.

  ‘I can explain,’ Violet said, although her mind was empty. She felt like someone jumping off a cliff, hoping that a parachute would appear from thin air and save her. Rose’s brain was a terrified blank too. They were going to be in so much trouble.

  ‘Please do,’ Professor Petit said coldly.

  ‘Yes, please do,’ echoed Mrs Frobisher. ‘I am so sorry, Professor. I would never have let them into your rooms if I’d known.’

  ‘You have been in my rooms!’ he cried, furious. ‘You had no right, no right at all!’

  ‘I’m sorry. We just wanted to ask you some questions about the disappearance of the mummy,’ Violet said.

  ‘Oh really?’ he asked sarcastically. ‘Well, why didn’t you wait until I came back then? I suppose you think I took the mummy?’

  Violet and Rose went a bit red and looked at their feet.

  ‘Right, come on, we’ll see what your mother has to say about this, Violet.’

  As you might have expected, Camille was not amused. She told Professor Petit how very sorry she was and made the girls apologise repeatedly. When he had gone, she said, ‘Rose, I think you had better go home. I want to speak to Violet on her own.’

  Rose nodded and scampered off to find Art and Agnes.

  ‘Violet, I’m very disappointed in you. Professor Petit may be bad-tempered, but he is not a bad man; he would not have stolen the mummy. And, even if you did suspect him, you cannot just search people’s houses without their permission. You should leave the investigating to PC Green.’

  ‘But it was going to take him a week to get a search warrant, by which time the mummy could have been moved anywhere,’ Violet objected. She was itching to go and find out how Art and Agnes had got on.

  ‘Please may I go and play in the garden?’ she asked.

  ‘Only after you have tidied your bedroom, done your homework and cleared out the Maharani’s cage,’ Camille replied calmly.

  Violet whirled around her bedroom, furiously tidying, and then sat down and rattled through her homework as quickly as she could. The last job was the worst, for although the Maharani’s cage had been specially designed by Benedict, and was very beautiful, cleaning it was still a pretty unpleasant experience. Especially as the Maharani insisted on perching on Violet’s shoulder while she did it, squawking ‘BAD VIOLET!’ into her ear.

  Eventually, it was done and Violet dashed out into the garden to find Art and Agnes sitting on a bench with Rose.

  ‘Did you manage to see inside Miss Beasley’s flat?’ she asked expectantly.

  ‘No, but she was out and as it’s a basement flat we looked through the front window. Then Art managed to climb over the gate to the back garden and look through the windows on that side.’

  ‘Until one of the neighbours chased us away,’ Art added.

  ‘And?’ Violet asked.

  ‘Well, it was quite strange,’ Art said. ‘Either Miss Beasley is incredibly tidy or she doesn’t actually live there. Anyway, there was no sign of the mummy.’

  Violet sighed with disappointment. She had been sure that they would find it at one of the houses.

  ‘So what should we do now?’ Agnes asked Violet.

  ‘I don’t know,’ she replied truthfully.

  Despite many discussions, and much poring over the crime-solving matrix, the friends were completely stumped and pretty fed up about it.

  PC Green didn’t fare any better. He interviewed Professor Petit and Miss Beasley again, but they both absolutely denied taking the mummy. Mrs Frobisher even made a statement saying that Professor Petit had arrived home that night at ten, just as she was going to sleep, and could not have left again without her hearing. He went out as normal at eight o’clock the following morning. Miss Beasley’s sister had come forward to say that Miss Beasley had spent the night at her sister’s flat, and confirming that she too had not left until the following morning.

  Since the mummy was so valuable, Interpol, who are the international crime solvers, became involved, but they could find no trace of it either. Finally, all the grown-ups said that the best hope of discovering the mummy was if it turned up for sale to a collector.

  Weeks passed and eventually the school term finished. The mummy was still missing and so Matilde had no reason to stay in London. She and Agnes were going home to Cairo at the end of the week.

  ‘How was your last day at the museum?’ Benedict asked Matilde, as they sat down for supper.

  ‘They gave me a nice card and a cake, but it was sad because of the robbery,’ Matilde replied. ‘It would have been such an amazing discovery and I was so close. Anyway, there is some good news: Ralph and Alf have been offered great jobs working on a dig in South America, looking at some amazing Inca remains.’

  ‘I thought they were Egyptologists?’ Agnes said, puzzled.

  ‘I know. I was a little surprised too, but apparently a friend of Miss Beasley’s arranged it for them. And Professor Petit is away for two weeks, lecturing in Switzerland, and Professor Fitzherbert is coming to Egypt, for three weeks’ holiday. We’ve arranged to meet up – he’s keen to see you too, Agnes.’

  ‘So Miss Beasley will be all alone?’ Violet asked suspiciously.

  ‘Yes, with whoever they get as the new security guards,’ Matilde replied.

  ‘Come on, Violet, you have no real proof that she or Professor Petit were involved in the thefts,’ Benedict said.

  Violet sighed and said, ‘It’s just so annoying not to have found out who stole the mummy.’

  ‘I agree,’ Matilde said. ‘But I haven’t given up hope yet that she�
�ll turn up. And, in the meantime, I have just had an idea that might cheer you up, Violet.’ Matilde turned to Camille and Benedict. ‘Why doesn’t Violet come to Cairo with us?’ she asked. ‘Just for a week. I spoke to Grand-mère today. She was complaining that she’s bored in France and wants to come and visit us. She’ll look after Agnes for me, as I’ll have so much work to catch up on. It would be so nice for Agnes to have Violet with her and Grand-mère would love it too.’

  Benedict and Camille exchanged glances.

  ‘I think that sounds like an excellent idea,’ Benedict replied. ‘Violet, what do you think?’

  Violet hesitated. She would love to go to Egypt, but how would she ever solve the case from there?

  Camille read Violet’s mind and said, ‘Chérie, a break from thinking about this stolen mummy will do you good. Nothing is likely to change in a week. And think of the fun you will have with Grand-mère and Agnes and all the amazing things you’ll see – the pyramids, the Valley of the Kings . . .’

  Violet knew her mother was right. She thanked Matilde and said she would love to go. So the plan was made. Art and Rose were very jealous of Violet’s visit to Egypt, but in a nice way, and PC Green promised to get in touch if there were any further developments on the case.

  A week later, Violet, Agnes and Grand-mère were standing in the middle of the largest souk in Cairo, which is called the Khan el-Khalili. Now, I need to explain what a souk is – it is an indoor market that you find in Arabic countries. Here there were lots of small stalls and shops selling everything you can imagine, from perfume to chandeliers to slippers to showerheads. Grand-mère was in her absolute element because, if there was one thing that Grand-mère adored, it was shopping, and shopping where she could have a good old haggle about the price was her idea of heaven. So far she had bought five pink lampshades, three pairs of leather slippers with bells on, a chess set, two backgammon sets, several glass bottles of bath oil and a hookah, which reminded Violet of the caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland. And Grand-mère was still going strong. Normally, Violet would have been excruciatingly bored, but it was all so different – the noise, the people, the smells – that she was having a great time.