The Castle Crime Read online

  DINK, JOSH, AND RUTH ROSE AREN’T THE ONLY KID DETECTIVES!

  WHAT ABOUT YOU?

  CAN YOU FIND THE HIDDEN MESSAGE INSIDE THIS BOOK?

  There are 26 illustrations in this book, not counting the one on the title page, the map at the beginning, or the picture of the queen’s jewels that repeats at the start of many of the chapters. In each of the 26 illustrations, there’s a hidden letter. If you can find all the letters, you will spell out a secret message!

  If you’re stumped, the answer is on the bottom of this page.

  HAPPY DETECTING!

  This book is dedicated to travelers, dreamers, and readers.

  —R.R.

  To George Alexander Louis, Prince of Cambridge

  —J.S.G.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Text copyright © 2014 by Ron Roy

  Cover art copyright © 2015 by Stephen Gilpin

  Interior illustrations copyright © 2014 by John Steven Gurney

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York.

  Originally published in paperback by Random House Children’s Books, New York, in 2014.

  Random House and the colophon and A to Z Mysteries are registered trademarks and A Stepping Stone Book and the colophon and the A to Z Mysteries colophon are trademarks of Random House LLC.

  Visit us on the Web!

  SteppingStonesBooks.com

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  Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at RHTeachersLibrarians.com

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Roy, Ron.

  The castle crime / by Ron Roy; illustrated by John Steven Gurney.

  p. cm. — (A to Z mysteries Super edition; #6) “A Stepping Stone Book.”

  Summary: While visiting London, Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose solve a mystery and meet the Queen.

  ISBN 978-0-385-37159-9 (trade) — ISBN 978-0-385-37160-5 (lib. bdg.) —

  ISBN 978-0-385-37161-2 (ebook)

  [1. Mystery and detective stories. 2. Robbers and outlaws—Fiction. 3. London (England)—Fiction. 4. England—Fiction.] I. Gurney, John Steven, ill. II. Title. III. Series: Roy, Ron. A to Z mysteries Super edition; #6.

  PZ7.R8139 Cas 2014 [Fic]—dc23 2013005012

  Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

  v3.1_r1

  Contents

  Cover

  Secret Message

  Copyright

  Title Page

  Map

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Secret Message Answer

  “Watch the traffic,” Dink’s father warned Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose. “Don’t forget, they drive on the left here in England.”

  They all stood across the road from the Madame Tussauds wax museum in London, England. The building was long, gray, and wet.

  Dink’s father was in London for a conference and had invited the three kids along. It was their first trip to Europe. So far, they’d visited the Big Ben clock, Buckingham Palace, and the Tower of London.

  Last night, the four had gone on a Jack the Ripper walking tour. A guide showed them the streets and alleys where a murderer killed several women in 1888. The murderer was never caught.

  Yesterday they had ridden on a huge Ferris wheel called the London Eye. From the top, almost 450 feet off the ground, the kids could see most of London. When a helicopter zoomed past them, the pilot and Josh waved at each other.

  “Let’s cross,” Mr. Duncan said, stepping over a puddle. It was raining lightly. Cars and buses swished past them, splashing water onto the sidewalks.

  “Ian, our tour guide, will meet us at entrance number one,” Dink’s father said.

  He and the kids stood in front of the museum. A sign on the building said MADAME TUSSAUDS. They saw an orange door with a big numeral 1 over it.

  “Let me get a picture,” Ruth Rose said. She pulled a small purple camera from her purple backpack. Her jeans, jacket, boots, and headband were also purple. Ruth Rose’s outfits always matched. They were a different color each day.

  “Cool!” Josh said. He ran his fingers through his damp red hair.

  “Smile!” Ruth Rose said, aiming her camera. Standing in front of Mr. Duncan, Dink and Josh slung their arms around each other’s shoulders. Dink grinned at the camera, but Josh made a goofy face.

  “How do I look?” Josh asked, crossing his eyes.

  “Like you’ve lost your mind,” Ruth Rose said. She pushed the button and got the shot.

  “What mind?” Dink asked, giving Josh a shove.

  The three kids were best friends. They lived in Green Lawn, Connecticut, more than three thousand miles away from London.

  “Let’s go inside,” Dink’s father said. “It’s starting to rain harder.” They walked toward the door.

  “So who’s Madame Tussaud?” Josh asked.

  “Her married name was Tussaud, but she was born Anna Maria Grosholtz,” Ruth Rose said. “She was born in France in 1761. She learned how to make wax figures that looked like real people and opened a museum here in London. People paid money to see the figures.”

  “How do you know all this stuff?” Josh asked Ruth Rose.

  She showed him her London guidebook. “I studied on the plane,” she said.

  “You kids ready?” Dink’s father asked as he rang the bell next to the orange door.

  The door opened and a tall, thin man peered out at them. He wore black-rimmed eyeglasses. A name tag on his shirt said IAN. “Hi! Are you the Duncans from the States?” he asked.

  Ian had spiky black hair. The tips of the spikes were bleached yellow.

  “I’m Mr. Duncan,” Dink’s father told Ian. “This is my son, Dink, and his friends Josh and Ruth Rose.”

  “Great, come on in,” Ian said. He glanced at his watch.

  “Sorry to get here so late,” Mr. Duncan said. “I was at a conference and just got out a few minutes ago.”

  “No problem,” Ian said. “We still have twenty minutes before we close. And you can always come back tomorrow if you want.”

  They followed Ian into a lobby with a ticket counter. The walls were covered with posters of famous people. A giant chandelier hung from the tall ceiling. Dink noticed a stack of bumper stickers for sale. They had MADAME TUSSAUDS printed in bold black letters. Maybe I’ll buy one on the way out, he thought.

  A tall woman walked up to the group. Her name tag said MANDY. She was dressed in a yellow sweatshirt with a picture of Madame Tussauds on the front. She wore bright pink lipstick and green eye shadow. She was chewing gum and holding a cell phone.

  “For you,” Mandy said, handing the phone to Ian.

  Ian took the phone. “Will you excuse me?” he said to Dink’s father and the kids. “Mandy, would you take over?”

  “Sure,” Mandy said as Ian walked away.

  “Are you a guide, too?” Ruth Rose asked.

  “No, but I fill in sometimes. I usually work on the wax heads, making sure the faces look real,” Mandy said. “I love using makeup!”

  A small TV was perched on a shelf behind the ticket counter. The news was on, and a man with wavy hair was talking with a British accent.
r />   “He doesn’t sound like you,” Josh said to Mandy. “Are you from here?”

  Mandy shook her head. “No, I’m from California.”

  “Cool!” Dink said. “Have you ever seen any movie stars?”

  “Plenty,” Mandy said. “I worked in special effects at one of the movie studios. We turned actors into monsters with wigs, makeup, masks, fake claws, and lots of fake blood!”

  “That is awesome!” Josh said.

  “So, have you kids ever been to a Madame Tussauds wax museum before?” Mandy asked.

  Mr. Duncan and the kids shook their heads.

  “Is there more than one?” Dink asked.

  “Yes,” Mandy said. “There are sixteen now. You have four in the United States: in New York, Las Vegas, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. There are other branches all over the world.”

  Josh was staring at the TV set. “Guys, did you hear that?” he asked. “He just said the Queen of England got robbed!”

  Mandy walked over and turned down the sound. “It happened yesterday, on her birthday,” she said.

  “The Queen of England was born on April twenty-first?” Ruth Rose asked.

  Mandy nodded. “In 1926, I think.”

  “So what happened?” Dink asked.

  “The queen was driving to Windsor Castle yesterday for her birthday party,” Mandy said. “She brought some of her favorite jewels with her. When she stopped the car, one of the robbers reached through the window and grabbed her jewel case.”

  “Why did she stop?” Ruth Rose asked.

  “The robbers were disguised as her grandsons Prince William and Prince Harry,” Mandy explained. “They were wearing lifelike rubber masks. William and Harry are both in the military, so the robbers wore uniforms like theirs. I guess the queen thought the robbers were her grandsons, so she stopped and rolled down the window.”

  “Wow!” Josh said. “So did they catch the guys? Did they find the jewels?”

  “No,” Mandy said.

  “Where’s Windsor Castle?” Ruth Rose asked. “I read that the queen lives here in London at Buckingham Palace.”

  “Yes, you’re right,” Mandy said. “But Windsor Castle is only a short drive away, and the queen likes to go there some weekends. Her husband and Prince Charles were there, planning her party. The two grandsons secretly showed up to surprise her.”

  “Wait, I’m confused,” Dink said. “You said the robbers were dressed up to look like her grandsons. Where were the real grandsons?”

  “The real Princes William and Harry were inside Windsor Castle waiting for her to arrive,” Mandy explained. “But the queen didn’t know that, of course. So when she saw the two robbers outside the castle grounds, she thought they were her grandsons. When she stopped, they snatched her jewels.”

  “But how did the robbers know the queen would be driving to Windsor Castle that day?” Josh asked.

  “And how did they know she’d have those jewels with her?” Ruth Rose added.

  Mandy shrugged. “I guess we’ll never know,” she said.

  “What did the queen do after she got robbed?” Ruth Rose asked. Dink noticed that Ruth Rose’s eyes were opened wide.

  “She drove to the castle and called the police at Scotland Yard,” Mandy said.

  Mandy led the kids through a pair of black curtains. On the other side, they saw a roomful of people. Only they weren’t real people. They were man-made statues that looked alive. A few tourists were wandering around.

  “Oh my gosh!” Josh said. “There’s Johnny Depp!”

  “And Kate Winslet!” exclaimed Ruth Rose.

  “And John Wayne!” Dink added.

  “They look so real!” Josh said. “Are they all made of wax?” he asked Mandy.

  “The heads are sculpted from wax, but not the bodies,” Mandy said. She tapped on Babe Ruth’s arm. It sounded hard, like plastic.

  “Long ago, Madame Tussaud used wax for the bodies as well,” Mandy explained. “But wax melts and shrinks, so now we make the bodies out of fiberglass.”

  “Mandy, how long does it take to make one of these?” Dink’s father asked.

  “About four months,” Mandy said. “If you come back another day, you can meet some of the artists who create them.”

  Ruth Rose walked up close to the figure of a beautiful blond woman. “Is this Marilyn Monroe?” she whispered.

  Mandy smiled. “Gorgeous, isn’t she?”

  The famous movie star was wearing diamonds. “Are her diamonds real?” Dink asked.

  “Nope. They’re fake, just like all the jewelry in the museum,” Mandy said.

  “How about their hair?” Josh asked. He was standing next to a statue with long hair and a flowing beard.

  “It’s all real human hair,” Mandy told them. “And each hair was placed in the wax head by hand, with tweezers, one hair at a time.”

  “Wow!” Dink said. “That must take forever!”

  Mandy smiled. “About six weeks to do a head of hair,” she said, pointing to Elvis Presley. “We put about ten thousand hairs in Elvis’s head.”

  “What do you do when the hair gets dirty?” Ruth Rose asked.

  “We shampoo it,” Mandy said. “That’s why we use real human hair. We can even style it and cut it, the way you do with your own hair.”

  They walked through another pair of black curtains. Suddenly they were in a room with red velvet walls, fancy furniture, and soft lighting from electric candles.

  “This is the world leaders’ room,” Mandy told the kids.

  Ian was talking to a small group of tourists. He was explaining how the wax heads were made.

  Dink walked over to the figure of a woman with reddish hair. She was dressed in a black suit. He read a sign that said she was Margaret Thatcher. She had been the prime minister of the United Kingdom.

  Ruth Rose and Josh were reading the sign, too. “So she was like the president of England,” Ruth Rose said. “Cool. She was the big boss!”

  “Look, there’s our president!” Josh said. He walked over to the current president. He wore a dark blue suit and red tie. He was smiling and looked very real.

  “Where do you get the clothes?” Ruth Rose asked.

  “Usually, the subject gives us two sets of clothing,” Mandy said. “We dress the statue in one set, and the other is kept in our wardrobe room for emergencies.”

  “What kind of emergency?” Josh asked.

  “Well, as you can see, people like to walk right up and touch the statues,” Mandy said. “So the clothing gets dirty, smelly, even ripped sometimes. Once, a little boy threw up on David Beckham’s uniform!”

  “Gross!” Josh blurted out.

  Mandy smiled. “Totally,” she said. “So we just changed Beckham into his spare uniform.”

  “There’s so much to see!” Dink said. There were more than forty world leaders in this room.

  “You’ll have more time on your next visit,” Mandy said. She looked at her watch. “We close in ten minutes, but your London Pass lets you come back as often as you want.”

  “Is the Queen of England’s figure here?” Ruth Rose asked.

  “She’s in the next room,” Mandy said. “Follow me.”

  On the other side of some black curtains was Queen Elizabeth. She stood next to a red-and-gold chair. Gathered around the queen were her husband, Prince Philip; their son Prince Charles; and the queen’s grandsons Prince William and Prince Harry.

  Metal poles held a red velvet rope that stretched around the Royal Family, keeping the kids and Mr. Duncan about ten feet away.

  “Why is this rope here, but not around any of the other figures?” Josh asked.

  Mandy rested her hand on the rope. “To keep people away from the queen,” she said. “Too many tourists like touching her.”

  “Wow,” Dink said. “They all look so real!”

  “Yes,” Mandy said. “William and Harry came in not long ago to have their pictures taken with their wax figures. We could hardly tell them apart
!”

  “The men are a lot taller than the queen,” Dink said.

  “She’s average height,” Mandy said. “About five feet, five inches. Her son Charles is nearly six feet, and both grandsons are about six-three.”

  “Even the fake diamonds look real,” Ruth Rose said.

  The queen wore a diamond tiara on her white hair, and a fabulous diamond necklace around her neck.

  “Yes, these were made to look identical to the queen’s own jewels,” Mandy said. “In fact, it was her tiara and necklace that were stolen yesterday.”

  The four stared at the Royal Family. Prince William had blond hair and wore a navy-blue jacket and a black tie. His cap was black and had a wide red band over the bill.

  His brother, Harry, had orangey-red hair. He was wearing a red tunic with silver buttons. A white belt was cinched around his waist. The silver belt buckle gleamed under the lights. Both men wore white trousers, white cotton gloves, and black shoes.

  “It almost seems like they could wake up and walk around,” Dink said.

  “How do they make the eyes look so real?” Josh asked.

  Mandy tapped her watch. “I can show you, but not today,” she said.

  As they passed through the black curtains, Dink noticed a man standing near Albert Einstein. He was holding a sketch pad and a pencil.

  “I should have brought my sketching stuff,” Josh said.

  The kids watched the man making swift marks on his pad. He was tall and had a short beard. His hair was hidden under a baseball cap.

  Mandy walked up to the man. “Sorry, sir, but we’re closing in a few minutes.”

  The man nodded, closed his pad, and strolled toward the exit.

  As Mandy led the group out, Ruth Rose peeked into an open doorway. “Oh, is this where the extra clothes are kept?” she asked.

  “Yes,” Mandy said. “Want a quick peek?”

  She led them into a large room with a carpet on the floor. Everywhere the kids looked were racks of clothing. Each rack was inside a glass case. Dink noticed a small, round lock on each case. Above the glass cases were shelves holding fake jewelry, wigs, hats, beards, even a row of false teeth.