by Ron Roy
“Closer,” Simon said.
They squeezed closer. Dink was between Mandy and Ruth Rose. He could smell Mandy’s spicy perfume.
Simon took the shot and handed the camera back to Ruth Rose.
“I’ll pick you up at six,” Simon said as he climbed into the jeep.
Mandy unlocked door number one of Madame Tussauds.
As soon as they were inside, Mandy unlocked the other door, and the tourist group crowded in.
Dink looked around but didn’t see Ian.
Suddenly Ruth Rose grabbed Dink and Josh and pulled them aside.
“What’s going on?” Josh asked.
“That guy! He came in with the group,” Ruth Rose whispered. “He’s here again!”
“Who?” Dink asked.
“That artist guy we saw last time we were here,” she said. “Only today he looks different, and he doesn’t have his sketch pad.”
Dink and Josh peeked over Ruth Rose’s shoulders. It was the same guy, all right. But he had shaved and was wearing a different hat.
“Why is he here twice in the same week?” Ruth Rose asked.
“And he isn’t looking at the wax people,” Dink said.
“And why is he wearing sunglasses inside?” Josh added.
The three kids kept their eyes on the man as he walked around the room.
“I’ll bet he’s one of the robbers!” Josh said.
“You said that about the gardener at Windsor Castle,” Dink reminded him.
“He looks sneaky,” Ruth Rose said. “Not like a regular tourist.”
They watched the man until he disappeared through the black curtains.
“Guys, we came to check out the fake jewels in the wardrobe room,” Dink reminded them.
The kids slowly made their way toward the wardrobe room. Dink kept an eye out for Ian but didn’t see him. Mandy had taken the group to another part of the museum. Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose were alone.
The door was partly open, and Dink peeked in. The room was empty. “Come on,” he whispered.
The kids slipped into the wardrobe room, and Dink pulled the door almost closed.
Sofia’s chair was empty. Her keys lay on her sewing table.
Dink glanced through the small window. He saw rain splashing on the glass. Traffic flashed by on Marylebone Road. Someone in tall boots hurried past the window.
Dink stepped over to the shelf that held all the fake diamond jewelry. “The queen said her tiara and necklace have her initials,” he said. “So let’s check this stuff.”
They got busy.
There were only two tiaras on the shelf. Neither had any letters engraved on the fake silver.
Dink saw at least five fake diamond necklaces. The kids picked them up and checked for the letters E.A.M.
“No initials, guys,” Josh whispered. “They’re all fakes.”
Dink felt disappointed. He’d convinced himself that a perfect place to hide the queen’s stolen jewels was here, among this fake stuff.
“Hey, guys, check this out,” Ruth Rose said. She was a few feet away, standing in front of a glass case. The case was labeled ROYAL FAMILY. Inside was a rack of outfits. Lined up on the floor were pairs of shoes that went with each outfit.
Dink and Josh walked over.
“See those two uniforms hanging next to each other?” Ruth Rose said. “We’ve seen them before.”
She was pointing at a dark blue uniform jacket. On the next hanger was a red tunic with silver buttons.
“Those are the extras,” Josh said. “Prince William and his brother Harry’s statues are wearing them out in the other room.”
“That’s right,” Ruth Rose said. “And the queen told us the robbers were wearing the same outfits. I wonder where the robbers got those outfits.”
It took a minute before Dink realized what Ruth Rose was suggesting. He stared through the glass case. “Oh my gosh, you think the crooks wore these?” he said.
Ruth Rose nodded. “Where else would robbers get two uniforms just like the ones Prince William and Prince Harry wear?” she whispered.
She dashed over to Sofia’s table and grabbed the key ring. She was back in a jiffy and inserted one of the keys into the glass case’s lock.
“Ruth Rose, you can’t just—” Josh started to say.
“Shhh,” Ruth Rose said. “Keep your eye on the door!” She tried three more keys before the tiny lock clicked open. She slid the glass door aside and lifted the hanger that held the blue jacket. Under the jacket hung snow-white trousers. Pinned to the hanger was a pair of white cotton gloves. A small paper tag on one of the gloves said PRINCE WILLIAM.
Ruth Rose replaced the hanger and grabbed the one holding the red tunic. The white trousers were there, and a white belt with a shiny silver buckle. But there were no white gloves. A tag that said PRINCE HARRY was pinned to the tunic.
“Where are Harry’s gloves?” Ruth Rose asked. “The queen said both robbers were wearing white gloves.”
“The dog bite,” Dink said. “Maybe the glove got torn.”
“And they wouldn’t want to leave a torn glove here with these uniforms!” Ruth Rose said. “It might even have the robber’s blood on it!”
“But, guys, how would the robbers get these uniforms?” Josh asked. “They couldn’t just walk in here and take them.”
Ruth Rose held up the keys. “Sofia could have let them in,” she whispered.
“Sofia’s in on it?” Josh asked. “Sofia and Damon are the robbers?”
Dink shook his head. “Sofia is too short to wear these uniforms,” he said. “But Ian is tall enough. Maybe he and Damon are the crooks. Two cousins pretending to be two brothers!”
“And Sofia could have helped them,” Ruth Rose said. “She could have snuck out the uniforms, then hung them back where they belong after the robbery.”
Ruth Rose picked up the shiny black shoes beneath the red tunic. She turned the shoes over and looked at the soles. “Check this out,” she said.
The boys looked. The soles of both shoes had traces of mud on the leather. Stuck in the mud was a blade of grass. The other pair of shoes also had mud on the soles.
“Someone wore these shoes in a muddy place,” Ruth Rose whispered.
Dink remembered the muddy grass outside the gate to Windsor Castle. He thought of the tire marks in that same area.
Suddenly Ruth Rose reached for the white belt that was hanging with the red tunic. She pulled the belt free and held the silver buckle close to her face.
“What’re you doing?” Josh hissed.
“Whoever wore this belt last might have left his fingerprints,” Ruth Rose said, studying the buckle.
She rolled the belt and shoved it into her pack.
“I’ll just take that, please,” said a voice behind Ruth Rose.
The three kids whirled around. A tall man was standing inside the door, leaning on it.
It was the artist. Without the dark glasses covering his eyes, he looked angry.
Dink noticed that he was holding something small and black.
“I’d like the belt,” the man said. “And handle it carefully, miss.”
“Why do you want it?” Ruth Rose asked. “It’s only a belt.”
The man opened the leather case he’d been holding, revealing a gold badge. He stretched out the case so the kids could read the words stamped above the badge: INSPECTOR A. GRABBE, SCOTLAND YARD. “Now may I have the belt, please?”
“You’re that detective from Scotland Yard!” Ruth Rose said. “Your name was in the paper.”
The man nodded. “The belt?”
Ruth Rose pulled the rolled belt from her pack and handed it to Inspector Grabbe. “I wasn’t going to steal it,” Ruth Rose said. “We were just trying to find the robbers who stole the queen’s jewels.”
“Yes, me too,” said the inspector. He peered closely at the buckle, then slipped the belt into a clear plastic bag. “And how are you doing?”
“We have some ideas,” D
ink said.
Finally, the man smiled. “I’d love to hear them,” he said, moving into the room.
“So you’re not really an artist?” Josh asked.
Inspector Grabbe shook his head. “That was just my cover,” he said, grinning. “I’ve been keeping an eye on one of the museum employees. When I saw you three sneak in here, I decided to follow you. Now if you’d like to tell me what you know, you can go back to Welcome House.”
“You know where we’re staying?” Dink asked.
The inspector nodded. “I’ve been watching one of the employees there, too.”
“Is it Damon?” Ruth Rose asked. “His cousin Ian works here. Were you watching them both?”
The man didn’t answer. “What brought you kids to the wardrobe room today?” he asked instead.
“My father told us about a crook in a story who hid a letter right out in the open,” Dink said. He went on to explain why he thought the missing diamonds might also be hidden in the open.
“Not a bad idea,” Inspector Grabbe said.
“We talked to the queen yesterday,” Josh said. “She told us the real diamonds, the ones the crooks stole from her, had her initials on them—E.A.M. So we came in here to check all the jewelry.” Josh pointed to the jewelry on the shelf. “If we find the initials, that means the diamonds are real, not fake.”
“You spoke to the queen?” the detective said.
Ruth Rose explained how they went to Windsor Castle to look for clues.
“Did you find any?”
“We think we saw where the getaway car was parked,” Dink said. He reached into his pocket. “And we found this.”
He handed the foil wrapper to the detective. “One of the robbers could have dropped it,” Dink said.
The detective read the name. “Summer Green? Never heard of it.” He smelled the inside of the gum wrapper. “Nice. Kind of spicy.”
Dink leaned back and blinked. Where had he just smelled something else that was spicy?
“That’s not all,” Ruth Rose said. “We think the robbers borrowed the uniforms they were wearing from that glass case. There’s grass and mud on the shoes!”
The inspector nodded. “I’ll have my team check those uniforms and the belt buckle. But even if fingerprints show up, whose prints are they?”
“It could be Damon Fox,” Josh said. “He has a bandage on his hand, and the queen said her dog bit one of the guys!”
“Damon Fox has an alibi,” Inspector Grabbe said. “He was visiting his mother Saturday when the robbery took place. And that bandage is a patch his doctor gave him to help him quit smoking. No dog bit his hand.”
“Oh my gosh,” Dink said suddenly.
“Oh my gosh what?” Josh said.
“Mandy’s perfume,” Dink muttered. “It’s spicy.”
“What’s that?” the detective asked.
“Mandy’s brother was taking our picture outside,” Dink said. “I stood next to Mandy and I smelled her perfume. But now I don’t think it was perfume. It was her gum! It has the same spicy smell as the gum wrapper!”
Josh and Ruth Rose stared at Dink.
Dink felt his hands getting sweaty. “Maybe Mandy dropped that gum wrapper where the getaway car was parked,” he said. “Maybe she’s one of the robbers!”
“It would be easy for her to get those uniforms,” Ruth Rose said.
“And she’s tall enough to wear one of them!” Josh said.
“But who wore the other one?” Dink asked.
No one had an answer. Dink heard thunder and glanced through the window. It had started to rain harder, turning the street shiny. He watched cars streak by, throwing off water. The wet cars looked black.
“What about Simon?” Dink asked. “He’s tall, too.”
“Who’s Simon?” Inspector Grabbe asked.
Ruth Rose pulled her camera out of her pack. She found the picture she’d snapped of Mandy and Simon leaning against his jeep. “Simon is Mandy’s brother,” she said. She handed over the camera. “That’s him right there.”
The detective stared at the picture, then passed the camera back to Ruth Rose. He sighed. “We have no proof. Mandy may have access to those uniforms,” he said. “And she may chew Summer Green gum. I’ll bet millions of people chew it, too. But that’s not enough evidence to arrest her. Matter of fact, it’s not evidence at all.”
“But what if you find her fingerprints on the belt buckle?” Ruth Rose asked.
Inspector Grabbe shrugged. “Mandy works here. She could easily explain why her fingerprints are on that belt,” he said. “Her prints there wouldn’t prove she wore the uniform to commit a robbery.”
Suddenly Josh grabbed the camera. He examined the picture of Mandy and Simon. “What’s that behind their legs on the car?” he asked. “On the bumper!”
Ruth Rose and Dink studied the picture with Josh.
“It looks like a bumper sticker,” Dink said. “You can see part of the words. The rest is muddy.”
“I can make out DAME and USSAUD,” Ruth Rose said. “Oh, I know. It says MADAME TUSSAUDS. The museum sells bumper stickers. Mandy must have put one on the car.”
“But look at it now!” Josh said. He ran over to the sink and held the camera in front of the mirror.
Now the letters read DUASSU and EMAD.
“Oh my gosh!” Dink said again. “Those are the letters the queen saw on the getaway car!”
“Let me see that!” Inspector Grabbe took the camera from Josh’s hand. “You kids are right!” he said. “She told me about the letters she saw, but they didn’t make sense.”
He smiled at the kids. “Now they do make sense!” he said. “The queen was seeing a Madame Tussauds bumper sticker. But since she was seeing it in her car’s rearview mirror, she read the letters backward!”
“So the crooks are Mandy and Simon!” Ruth Rose said. “And Simon’s jeep is the getaway car that the queen saw!”
“The queen saw a black car, though,” Josh said. “Simon’s jeep is green.”
“But it was raining,” Dink said. He pointed out the window. “Dark cars look black when they get wet!”
Inspector Grabbe smiled. “How’d you kids get so smart?” he asked.
Josh tapped his head. “Mighty Josh brains,” he said.
Everyone laughed.
“I just thought of something else,” Ruth Rose said. “Simon’s fingerprints are on my camera. So if they match the ones you find on the buckle, that means he wore the belt, right?”
Inspector Grabbe nodded and slipped the camera into another clear bag. “I’ll give it back later,” he told Ruth Rose.
Just then, the thought that Dink had been chasing popped into his head. “Did the queen say anything to you about the robbers wearing rubber masks?” he asked the inspector.
“Nope. She just said they looked like her two grandsons,” he said. “Why?”
“Because someone told us the robbers were wearing lifelike rubber masks,” Dink said. “We thought we read it in the paper, but now I remember who told us. It was Mandy. But how would she know about the masks if no one else did?”
“Of course. Only the thieves would know about the masks,” the inspector said. “The queen never mentioned them, so I didn’t know. And the newspapers didn’t know, either. If Mandy said the crooks wore masks, she must have known firsthand!”
“And she knows how to make masks!” Josh said. “She said so! So can you arrest Mandy and Simon? Do we get the reward?”
The inspector smiled. “What would you do with ten thousand pounds?” he asked.
“Buy a helicopter!” Josh said. “I’d fly all around the world with my sketch pad. I’d be a flying artist!”
“I’m afraid I can’t arrest them yet,” Inspector Grabbe said. “If I did, they could clam up about the stolen jewelry. We’d never find it! And without the queen’s jewelry, we can’t prove those two were the crooks.”
“But what if we could find the jewelry?” Dink asked. “And what if
Mandy’s fingerprints were on it?”
“Then we’d have a slam dunk,” Inspector Grabbe said. He gave Dink a look. “Do you know something?”
Dink nodded. “In that story my dad told us about, ‘The Purloined Letter,’ the crook hid the letter right where no one would look, out in the open, with some other papers. So we looked for the queen’s jewels on the shelf with a bunch of fake jewelry. Only they weren’t there.”
The inspector nodded. “Go on.”
Dink lowered his voice. “But we didn’t look in the right place,” he said.
“So what is the right place?” Inspector Grabbe asked.
“I think the queen’s jewelry is on her wax figure,” Dink said. “Right out in plain sight.”
“Here, in the wax museum?” Inspector Grabbe asked. “On the queen?”
“Mandy told us the tiara and necklace on the queen’s wax figure were fake!” Josh said.
“Sure she did,” Dink said. “And they were fake before the robbery. But after the robbery, I think Mandy took the fake stuff off the queen’s wax figure and put the real jewels on her! It’s a perfect hiding place!”
“You know that red rope they have around the figures of the Royal Family?” Ruth Rose asked. “No other statue has a rope. Mandy said it was to keep people from touching the queen, but I’ll bet it’s so people can’t get a close look at the jewels she’s wearing!”
“If you’re right, this is amazing!” Inspector Grabbe said. “Police and detectives are combing every corner of London for the queen’s jewels. They’re questioning every known fence. But the jewels end up where no one would dream of looking—on the wax queen!”
“Let’s go check it out!” Josh said.
“Not so fast,” the Scotland Yard inspector said. He pulled a cell phone out of his pocket. “I need backup.”
“We can be your backup!” Josh said.
Inspector Grabbe smiled. “Tempting,” he said. “You kids are smart, but I need big and smart.” He tapped a number into his cell phone and began talking.
Twenty minutes later, two detectives, a man and a woman, arrived outside the wax museum. They were wearing regular clothes so they wouldn’t stand out.