by Ron Roy
“I’m the only one who ever put the money in the bag,” Jud said. “I must’ve been wearing a Band-Aid, and it slipped off my finger when I stuck the bag in the compartment.”
“Or the Band-Aid could have fallen off the thief’s finger when he stole the bag,” Officer Fallon said. “Whoever it was.” He gave Jud a close look.
Jud thought for a moment before he spoke. “I know it looks like one of us stole the money,” he said. “But I sure didn’t take it, and I can’t believe Dean or Scoop would, either!”
“Could the robber be someone else?” Dink asked.
“But who?” Officer Fallon said. “Jud, you told me only you and Dean have keys to your dinosaur.”
“That’s right,” Jud said. “But Dean is my best friend!”
Officer Fallon slipped the baggie and his pen into a pocket. “Between Scoop Raker and Dean Whitefeather, who had more opportunity to get at that duffel bag?” he asked Jud.
Jud looked at his feet. “Dean, I guess,” he mumbled. “He slept next to Tyrone last night.”
Officer Fallon put his hand on Jud’s shoulder. “I want you to wait in my office while I get Dean,” he said. “Do you think he’s still at the fireworks?”
“I guess,” Jud said.
“Meanwhile, I’ll put this money in our safe,” Officer Fallon went on. “I’ll see you at the station in a few minutes.”
Looking embarrassed, Jud turned and headed toward Main Street. In a few seconds, he had disappeared in the darkness.
Officer Fallon looked at Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose. “Your parents might be missing you by now,” he said. “I’ll take you back, okay?”
Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose followed Officer Fallon to his cruiser and climbed into the backseat. Officer Fallon drove them to Main Street.
Colorful fireworks were still lighting the skies over the town swimming pool. Officer Fallon parked between the tennis courts and the baseball field.
The kids watched him walk toward the baseball field fence; then they went to find their parents.
“There you are!” Dink’s mother said. “We thought you’d been abducted by aliens!” Looking at his watch, Dink realized they’d been gone nearly half an hour.
The kids sat where they could watch Officer Fallon. He walked over to Dean, and the two men stood talking for a minute. Then Officer Fallon led Dean to his cruiser. The car pulled onto Main Street and disappeared.
“I can’t believe Jud’s friend robbed him,” Ruth Rose said.
Josh lay back on the grass. “I wonder what will happen to Tyrone now,” he said.
“I guess Jud and Scoop will hire someone to take Dean’s place,” Dink said.
“Where is Scoop?” Ruth Rose asked.
“Wasn’t he by the fence with Dean?” Dink asked.
“No,” Josh said. “Only Dean was there. Maybe Scoop went back to the hotel. He said he didn’t get much sleep last night because of the storm.”
Dink remembered the storm raging outside his window last night. He thought about Dean waking up in the rain and dashing for the truck. In his mind, he saw those muddy footprints on the shed floor. And that morning, Scoop’s wet sneakers hanging from his car antenna.
“Guys, I think everyone’s wrong about Dean!” Dink said suddenly. “I think Scoop stole the money, and I think he hid it in the garden shed!”
“But he didn’t have a key,” Josh said.
“I think Scoop knew that Dean wouldn’t sleep outside once it started to rain. Dean moved into the truck cab to stay dry, and that’s when Scoop got inside Tyrone.”
“How? Scoop didn’t have a key” Josh said again.
“Somehow, Scoop must have taken Jud’s key while Jud was asleep,” Dink said. “Scoop stole the duffel bag, hid it in the shed, then ran back to the hotel. He must have planned to return to the shed later to get the money.”
Suddenly Ruth Rose gasped. “Maybe that’s where Scoop is now!” she said. “He could sneak away, like we did!”
“Come on!” Dink said. The kids zipped past the Mystic Greenhouse, cut behind the Book Nook, and raced toward the rose garden. Out of breath, they crouched behind some rosebushes ten yards from the shed. A light flickered through the open door.
“Someone’s inside!” Josh hissed.
The three kids crept close enough to see inside the shed. They saw a dark-haired figure kneeling in front of the stack of burlap bags. When the man stood up, they knew it was Scoop Raker.
“What should we do?” Ruth Rose whispered.
“The screwdriver is there,” Josh said. “I’m gonna lock him in!”
“No!” Dink said. “Let’s go get Officer Fallon!”
Josh shook his head. “Not enough time! When Scoop doesn’t find the money, he’ll take off!” He started to crawl through the rosebushes toward the shed. “Ouch!” he yelled.
“What happened?” whispered Ruth Rose.
“Darn thorns!” Josh whispered back.
Suddenly Scoop burst out of the shed. He turned his flashlight beam on Josh. Before anyone else could react, Scoop had grabbed Josh by the arm.
“Okay, kid, what did you do with the money?” he demanded.
“YOU LEAVE HIM ALONE!” Ruth Rose cried as she and Dink sprinted to Josh’s side.
“Yes, leave him alone,” a deeper voice said. Officer Fallon and Dean stepped out from behind the shed.
CHAPTER 10
An hour later, the kids were lying on their sleeping bags in Dink’s backyard. They were gazing up at the stars.
“There’s the Big Dipper!” Josh said, sitting up.
“I think I see Mars!” Dink said.
“There’s a shooting star. Make a wish!” Ruth Rose said. “I wish I could be the first woman president!”
“I wish Ruth Rose could become president and put me in charge of desserts,” Josh said.
Dink and Ruth Rose sat up and laughed.
“I wish Jud and Dean would leave Tyrone in Green Lawn,” Dink said.
“Yeah,” Josh said. “That would be so excellent. We could make him walk all over town.”
“People would pay us to give them rides in Tyrone,” Ruth Rose added. “We could send the money to Jud and Dean for their museum.”
The three kids sighed and settled back on their sleeping bags.
“I still can’t figure out how Scoop got Jud’s key,” Ruth Rose said.
“Oh, that was easy,” Josh said. “I figured it out a long time ago.”
Dink popped up and glared at his friend. “And are you planning to tell us?”
Josh let out a dramatic sigh. “Scoop heard Dean say it was going to rain last night. He knew Dean would probably move inside somewhere to stay dry. I think that’s when Scoop decided to steal the money. He waited till Jud was sound asleep, then took his key.”
“But how did Scoop get into Jud’s room?” Dink asked.
“He didn’t have to,” Josh said. “They slept in the same room.”
“Joshua, how do you know that?” Ruth Rose asked.
Josh grinned. “Remember when Mr. Linkletter said hi to us at the fireworks? I heard him ask Jud and Scoop how their room was. Room, not rooms.”
“It’s a good thing Officer Fallon showed up at the shed,” Dink said. “I wonder how he knew Scoop would go there.”
“Dean might have convinced him,” Josh said. “Dean must’ve figured out the only way the crook could have gotten a key was by taking it from Jud during the night. And Dean knew Jud and Scoop shared a room.”
“Well, I hate to admit it,” Dink said, “but you’re pretty smart.”
“I know,” Josh said. “But thanks anyway.”
“You’re welcome,” Dink said.
“Maybe I’ll put you in charge of the FBI when I’m president,” Ruth Rose said.
Josh yawned. “Naw. I’d rather be in charge of food.”
The three kids smiled in the dark. Then, as the stars twinkled above them, they slowly went to sleep.
A to Z Mysteries
Dear Readers,
My first book was called A Thousand Pails of Water, and it was published in 1978. The story was about a little boy who saves a huge whale. In my story the boy finds the whale stranded on the beach, stuck in some rocks. The boy knows the whale will die out of the water, but what can he do to help? He sits and watches the whale. The whale watches the boy.
Then the boy has an idea. He rushes to the water’s edge and fills his plastic pail with water. He throws the water onto the whale. Of course, one pailful of water isn’t nearly enough, so the boy goes back for more. He throws many pails of water— more than a thousand—on the whale’s body. I won’t tell you the ending, but it is a happy one for the boy and for the whale.
At about the time my book was published, the Science Center in West Hartford, Connecticut, asked me to come and see a whale it was building as an exhibit for kids. The workers at the Science Center built a large sperm whale. It is hollow, so you can go inside the whale’s belly!
When I began thinking about the T book, I remembered that hollow whale. That’s what gave me the idea for Tyrone, the hollow dinosaur in The Talking T Rex. I had a lot of fun writing this story, and I hope you enjoy it.
The Science Center still has the sperm whale on its front lawn. You can visit it if you are ever in West Hartford.
Here’s a picture of A to Z Mysteries fan Ethan Hunt. Ethan sure knows how to get buried in a book!
Happy reading!
Sincerely,
Collect clues with Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose
in their next exciting adventure,
THE UNWILLING UMPIRE
“You’re not going to believe this!” Josh whispered. “Mr. Pocket’s autographed baseballs are gone!”
“What do you mean, gone?” Dink asked.
“I mean they’re not there anymore!” Josh yelped.
Ruth Rose looked toward the clubhouse. “Maybe Mr. Pocket moved them someplace else when the game started,” she said.
Josh was shaking his head. “No! The glass case is smashed in a million pieces!” he said. “Someone stole those balls!”
A STEPPING STONE BOOK™
Great authors write great books …
for fantastic first reading experiences!
Grades 1-3
Adam Sharp series
by George Edward Stanley
#1 The Spy Who Barked
#2 London Calling
#3 Swimming with Sharks
Duz Shedd series
by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat
Junie B. Jones series by Barbara Park
Magic Tree House® series
by Mary Pope Osborne
Marvin Redpost series by Louis Sachar
Clyde Robert Bulla
The Chalk Box Kid
The Paint Brush Kid
White Bird
Jackie French Koller
Mole and Shrew Are Two
Mole and Shrew All Year Through
Mole and Shrew Have Jobs to Do
Mole and Shrew Find a Clue
Jerry Spinelli
Tooter Pepperday
Blue Ribbon Blues: A Tooter Tale
Grades 2-4
A to Z Mysteries® series by Ron Roy
Andrew Lost series by J. C. Greenburg
Capital Mysteries series by Ron Roy
#1 Who Cloned the President?
#2 Kidnapped at the Capital
#3 The Skeleton in the Smithsonian
Starvation Lake series by Gloria Whelan
#1 Welcome to Starvation Lake
#2 Rich and Famous in Starvation Lake
#3 Are There Bears in Starvation Lake?
Stephanie Spinner & Jonathan Etra
Aliens for Breakfast
Aliens for Lunch
Aliens for Dinner
Gloria Whelan
Hannah
Next Spring an Oriole
Night of the Full Moon
Shadow of the Wolf
Silver
NONFICTION
Magic Tree House® Research Guides
by Mary Pope Osborne and others
Grades 3-5
The Magic Elements Quartet
by Mallory Loehr
#1 Water Wishes
#2 Earth Magic
#3 Wind Spell
#4 Fire Dreams
NONFICTION
Thomas Conklin
The Titanic Sinks!
Elizabeth Cody Kimmel
Balto and the Great Race
Do you love the A to Z Mysteries?
Then check out Ron Roy’s brand-new series
about KC and Marshall in Washington, D.C.!
Capital Mysteries
Text copyright © 2003 by Ron Roy
Illustrations copyright © 2003 by John Steven Gurney
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright
Conventions. Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.randomhouse.com/kids
www.ronroy.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Roy, Ron.
The talking T. rex / by Ron Roy; illustrated by John Steven Gurney. — 1st ed.
p. cm. — (A to Z mysteries) “A stepping stone book.”
SUMMARY: Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose investigate the theft of a great deal of money from the belly of a nearly life-size Tyrannosaurus rex model that their friend, Jud Wheat, is using to raise money for a dinosaur museum.
eISBN: 978-0-307-54791-0
[1. Robbers and outlaws—Fiction. 2. Fourth of July—Fiction. 3. Mystery and detective stories.] I. Gurney, John, ill. II. Title.
PZ7.R8139 Tal 2003 [Fic]—dc21 2002014976
RANDOM HOUSE and colophon and A TO Z MYSTERIES are registered trademarks and A STEPPING STONE BOOK and colophon and the A to Z Mysteries colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.
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