The Dinosaur Mystery Read Online Free PDF Page A

tunnel,” Soo Lee said when they didn’t see signs of anyone in the back hall.
    â€œOkay, okay,” Jessie said. “Let’s check.” She turned the doorknob to the passageway door, but it was locked. “I guess you have to have the key like Pete did. Let’s just wait for Benny and Henry to come back.”
    Across the street, back in the museum, Henry and Benny banged on the side entrance door. Again, they heard a voice: “The museum is closed! Come back tomorrow.”
    They banged again, and this time Pete and Nosey came running.
    â€œOh, it’s you and Benny,” Pete said. “Sorry it took so long, but Nosey thought he heard something down at the other end of the museum.”
    â€œHe did?” Benny said. “Well, guess what? We saw somebody go down the manhole in the street. We came to find out if the person came into the museum through the underground part.”
    Pete laughed. “Well, if somebody did, the person is stuck down there. You have to have a key for any of the doors that lead off of it. And if you had a key, then you sure wouldn’t need to go down the manhole to get inside the museum or apartment. You could just walk in the front door!”
    This didn’t stop Benny. He was ready for an adventure, and he was going to have one. “What if somebody wants to sneak in a secret way? Maybe Nosey did hear somebody.”
    Pete patted Benny’s curly head. “Tell you what, Benny, I’ll take you down to the passageway myself, and we’ll check it out. That’s my job. First let me take a look at the television screens to make sure everything is A-OK in the rest of the museum.”
    Benny and Henry walked quickly to the guard booth. This time Pete let Benny inside so he could get a look at the screens that showed different rooms in the museum.
    â€œSee any prowlers or anything suspicious on any of those televisions?” Pete asked Benny.
    â€œJust me!” Benny said with a laugh. He made faces at the camera that was pointing right at him from the ceiling of the guard booth.
    â€œThat’s a dangerous face if I ever saw one!” Pete joked.
    Henry checked out the row of televisions, too. “This is pretty neat,” he said. “Do you ever see anything on the screens?”
    â€œNot so far,” Pete said. “It’s pretty dull. Once in a while I get excited when I see a person on the screen, but it always turns out to be somebody who works here. I still like walking around, not just watching these televisions the whole night.”
    â€œHey, why is this screen dark?” Henry asked.
    Pete explained, “Oh, that one’s been on the blink for the past couple of weeks. It’s the screen for Dino World. We can’t seem to get the camera working right. Not that it matters. Titus Pettibone is a better guard of that place than any of the real guards.”
    â€œBut who watches over the place now that he’s away? Don’t forget, last night it was unlocked,” Henry said.
    Pete looked away. “Oh, uh, well … maybe one of the work crew got tired of asking Titus for the key and taped the latch to go in and out. There’s a lot of work in there that still needs doing before opening day.”
    Benny was getting impatient. “Is there a television screen for the passageway? If we don’t get down there, the person I saw will be gone.”
    â€œThe passageway isn’t rigged up to the remote cameras,” Pete said. “Only Mr. and Mrs. Diggs and a few other museum people ever use it. Or utility people when they check the water and gas lines. Anyway, the doors down there and the service elevator all lock from both sides.”
    Just as Pete had said, the passageway was deserted when they got there.
    â€œRats! We took too long,” Benny said. “The person got away.”
    â€œGuess so, Benny,” Pete said. “Want to help me out on my post tonight? Maybe