The X'ed-Out X-Ray Read Online Free PDF Page A

red on the X-ray.
    “Josh, what are you doing?” Dink asked. “Don’t ruin that X-ray.”
    “I’m not ruining it,” Josh said. “This red marker stuff is coming off on my fingers.”
    Josh used his T-shirt to wipe away the rest of the red
X.
“Look at this,” he said.
    Where the two lines of the
X
had crossed each other, Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose could now see a funny shape. It looked like a fuzzy egg, or a pear.
    “What is it?” Ruth Rose asked.
    “I don’t know,” Dink said. “But whatever it is, that doctor covered it up with that big
X.”

The kids held the X-ray up to Dink’s window and examined the weird shape from all angles.
    Ruth Rose traced around the shape with her finger. “It looks kind of familiar…. OH MY GOSH!” she yelled. “Dink, go get the morning newspaper!”
    Dink raced out of the bedroom and was back half a minute later with the paper.
    Ruth Rose found the picture of Penelope Gwinn and the drawing of the stolen pendant. “If I’m right…”
    Ruth Rose held the drawing of thependant to the glass of Dink’s window. Then she placed the X-ray on top of the newspaper page. The funny shape they had been trying to identify fit over the pendant. The drawing was a little bigger than the shape on the X-ray but they were the same.
    “The blurry shape is a penguin!” Ruth Rose shouted. “It’s exactly like Penelope Gwinn’s!”

    “I don’t get it,” Dink said. “How could Peneloe’s pendant be on this X-ray?
    Josh looked at him. “You tell us,” he said. “It’s your arm in the X-ray.”
    “Dink, what happened in the first-aid tent?” Ruth Rose asked. “What did the doctor do?”
    Dink thought back to yesterday morning. “He wrapped my arm, then he took me to the …no! Wait a minute! While he was putting the bandage on my arm, he made me read a sign taped to the tent wall!” he said.
    Dink looked at Josh and Ruth Rose. “He said he wanted me to read to make sure I didn’t have a concussion,” Dink went on. “But I think that doctor stole the pendant! He hid it inside the bandage and made me read so I wouldn’t see him do it!”
    “But why would he put it inside your bandage?” Josh asked.
    “I know,” Ruth Rose said. “He knewthe cops might be searching people, so he hid it on you. He let you sneak the pendant out of the park for him.”
    Dink nodded, feeling his heart racing. “Then, when he got me to the X-ray office, he unwrapped the bandage and took the pendant out.”
    “But didn’t you see him do that?” Josh asked.
    Dink shook his head. “I was so dumb,” he said. “He had me read another sign while he was taking the bandage off! I wasn’t looking at my arm!”
    “So the thief wasn’t the hot-dog guy,” Josh said. “Or that woman or big Hans. It was your doctor!”
    “How do we find him?” Ruth Rose asked.
    “His name is Dr. Fleming,” Dink said, remembering the name tag.
    “Georgie Fleming,” Josh said, looking at the autograph book.
    “Let’s call Hartford Hospital,” RuthRose suggested. “How many Dr. George Flemings could there possibly be?”
    They ran to the telephone in the hallway. Ruth Rose got the number for the hospital and dialed. There was no Dr. George Fleming on their staff. No Georgette or Georgina or Georgia, either. No G. Flemings at all.
    But there was a Dr. Richard Fleming.
    “May I speak to him?” Ruth Rose asked. A minute later, she was talking to Dr. Richard Fleming.
    She asked him two questions: Was he working in the first-aid tent in Bushnell Park yesterday? Did he know anyone named Georgie Fleming?
    Ruth Rose hung up. “He was home with a cold yesterday,” she said. “And he’s never heard of Georgie Fleming.”
    “Great,” said Dink. “So how do we find the Dr. Fleming who was in the tent yesterday?”
    “Dr. Richard Fleming told me somethingelse,” Ruth Rose said with a little grin on her face. “Someone stole his white jacket yesterday. Right out of his office!”
    Dink and Josh just stared