The Dinosaur Mystery Read Online Free PDF Page B

beard.
    Pete gave Benny a friendly punch on the shoulder. “Oh that! Maybe your eyes were fooling you. That’s Dr. Pettibone! He just got back from the airport this morning and came straight here”
    This didn’t stop Benny. “Wait — Soo Lee saw him, too. Come on Soo Lee, let’s go find the man.”
    Soo Lee hadn’t been in the Alden family too long, but already she liked adventures and mysteries and emergencies just as much as her cousins. She followed right behind Benny. The two of them scooted through the crowd with Henry, Jessie, Violet, Pete, and Nosey trying to keep up.
    When the crowd parted, Benny jumped up and down. “There’s the man who went down the hole!”
    â€œBenny is such a good detective,” Jessie whispered to Violet, “but this time I wonder if he’s right. Dr. Pettibone does have a white beard, but he looks so important and so serious, I’m sure he wouldn’t be sneaking down a manhole.”
    â€œThat is the man we saw,” Soo Lee insisted when she overheard Jessie. “Do you think he forgot his key and couldn’t get in?”
    Before Jessie could answer, Archie Diggs and the bearded man came over. The Aldens could see that the man was upset. He never once looked directly at the children.
    â€œTitus, I would like you to meet James Alden’s grandchildren, Henry, Jessie, Violet, Benny, and Soo Lee, his grandniece,” Mr. Diggs began. “Children, this is our famous fossil expert, Dr. Pettibone.”
    The children all said their hellos, but Dr. Pettibone was too busy trying to keep Nosey from jumping on him. “Young man,” he said to Pete, “get that dog out of here! It only adds to all this confusion.”
    â€œAs I started to say, Titus, these are James Alden’s …” Mrs. Diggs began until she noticed how upset Dr. Pettibone was, “Are you all right, Titus?” she asked. “I know you’ve had a great shock. I’ll go get you some water. Maybe there’s some way these children can help out. James Alden has told me many times how helpful they’ve been in emergencies. If nothing else, they can do some small things that need doing so you can focus on those missing bones.”
    â€œMissing bones?” Dr. Pettibone said, as if he didn’t know anything about them. “Ah, yes. The missing bones.”
    Just then, two police officers stepped through the crowd. Mrs. Diggs turned to the children after Titus Pettibone and Archie Diggs went off to speak to the police. “You children will have to forgive Titus’s manners today. He’s simply beside himself. He can’t seem to figure out what to do, poor man. This dinosaur is his whole life. Why, he went and called the newspapers before he called the police. Imagine!”
    The children leaned their heads back to get a better look at the Tyrannosaurus skeleton. While it wasn’t as scary during the day, the dinosaur was still plenty huge and plenty frightening, even without part of its big jawbone and some of its tailbones.
    â€œWho would want a dinosaur bone anyway?” Henry asked.
    â€œI sure would!” Benny answered before he realized what he’d said. “I mean if I found one or they sold them in the museum shop.”

    This made Mrs. Diggs smile. “Don’t worry, Benny. You don’t look like a bone thief, if there was a thief, that is. The police wondered if perhaps somebody on the staff or work crew somehow disturbed the skeleton without meaning to and possibly broke the bones. Of course, no one’s been in here since Titus was gone, so I’m probably wrong.”
    â€œWe were here,” Soo Lee announced. “The other night.”
    Jessie looked embarrassed. “It’s true, Mrs. Diggs. Remember we told you we thought we saw someone — or Benny thought he did — so we came right in. The door wasn’t even locked.”
    A police officer came