A to Z Mysteries: The School Skeleton Read online

  Everyone looked at each other and started whispering.

  Mrs. Eagle made a pile of all the evidence on her desk and handed it to Josh along with the key. “But now we have to get back to work,” she said.

  • • •

  It was windier and colder as Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose walked home after school.

  “Let’s go to my house,” Ruth Rose said. “I’ll make hot chocolate.”

  “With whipped cream?” Josh asked.

  “Marshmallows,” Ruth Rose said.

  “The big, fat ones?”

  “No, Josh, the little, bitty ones,” Ruth Rose answered.

  “I like the big ones,” Josh mumbled.

  A few minutes later, Ruth Rose let them in with her key. She found a note from her mom, saying she’d taken Ruth Rose’s little brother, Nate, to the dentist.

  In the kitchen, Ruth Rose’s cat, Tiger, was lying on the table in a patch of sun. Ruth Rose shooed Tiger away, then made hot chocolate in the microwave.

  Dink and Josh sat at the table. Josh laid the key and the drawing of the skeleton on the sunny spot vacated by Tiger.

  “I think we’re missing something,” Dink said, looking down at the key and the drawing. “The guy steals a skeleton and leaves a footprint. Then he plants a key in your locker and leaves another shoe print in powder that he sprinkled on the floor. He’s trying to tell us something, but what?”

  Ruth Rose brought three mugs and a bag of marshmallows to the table.

  They all floated marshmallows on their hot chocolate.

  “I just remembered something,” she said. “Didn’t Mrs. Waters tell us she was missing her powder?”

  “But she didn’t make that footprint outside my locker,” Josh said.

  “I know,” Ruth Rose said. “But someone could have stolen her powder to use it to make that footprint. Maybe the thief wants everyone to suspect Mrs. Waters of taking the skeleton.”

  The kids sipped their hot chocolate and thought about that.

  “It would have to be someone who can get into her desk to get the powder,” Dink said finally.

  “Like Mr. Dillon!” Ruth Rose said.

  “Yeah, but the footprints aren’t his, either,” Josh said. “Remember he was wearing those loafers with no tread on the bottom.”

  “And why would Mr. Dillon steal something and blame it on his secretary?” Dink asked. “It doesn’t make sense!”

  “I wonder if anything else has been stolen from the school that we don’t know about,” Ruth Rose said.

  “Well, if anyone would know, it’s Mrs. Waters,” Dink said. “We could talk to her again tomorrow.”

  Josh picked up the skeleton picture that had been wrapped around the key. “What do you guys think this “2” on the skull means?” he asked. “The school doesn’t have two skeletons, does it?”

  “The high school and the middle school might have their own,” Ruth Rose said. “Did anyone steal their skeletons?”

  “I doubt it, or we’d have heard something,” Dink said.

  “I don’t want to live in a town where some zombie goes around stealing skeletons,” Josh grumbled.

  “Anyway, this key must mean something,” Dink said. He placed the key next to the skull’s mouth. “Talk to us, Mr. Bones!”

  “Wait a minute!” Ruth Rose cried. She moved the key up a few inches, next to the big “2.” “What does that say?”

  Josh dropped a marshmallow into his mug. “It says ‘key-head,’” he said. “‘Key-face’? ‘Key-bones’?”

  Ruth Rose shook her head. She pointed at the key. “Key,” she said. Then she pointed at the number on the skull. “Two,” she continued. Then she pointed to the skeleton’s body. “Skeleton,” she said. “I think it says ‘key to skeleton’!”

  CHAPTER 8

  “I think he’s trying to tell us that this key unlocks wherever Mr. Bones is hidden,” Ruth Rose continued.

  “But where?” Josh asked. “The key could go to a lock in California.”

  “The skeleton is probably still in the school,” Dink said. “How could anyone carry it out of the building in broad daylight?”

  “But how could anyone hide it inside the school in broad daylight, either?” Ruth Rose asked. “Somebody would have been bound to notice.”

  “Unless Miss Shotsky did it,” Josh said. “She carries Mr. Bones to classes all the time.”

  Dink shook his head. “Trust me, she was surprised when she saw the skeleton was missing.”

  “And that wasn’t her footprint,” Ruth Rose said.

  The kids stared at the drawing and the key.

  “Why give us the key?” asked Josh. He had a chocolate mustache. “Does this guy want to get caught?”

  “It’s almost like he wants us to find Mr. Bones,” Ruth Rose said.

  “Well, at least no other kid has found the skeleton yet,” Dink said. “We can still win aquarium tickets for our class.”

  Ruth Rose picked up the key and held it close to her eyes. “That’s strange. This key looks brand-new,” she said.

  “How can you tell?” Dink asked.

  “There are no scratches on it,” Ruth Rose said. “And it’s very shiny.” She dug her house key out of her pocket. “See, my key has a lot of tiny marks from where it rubs against the inside of the door lock. But Josh’s key looks like it was just made.”

  “So how do we find out what it opens?” Josh asked, slurping the last of his hot chocolate.

  “We could ask Mr. Neater,” Dink suggested. “He has keys to everything in the building.”

  “Wait, could he have put the key in Josh’s locker?” Ruth Rose asked.

  “That would mean he took the skeleton,” Dink said. “But his shoes are way too big, remember?”

  “Unless he faked the footprints,” Josh said, “like those kids who made the bear tracks.”

  Dink wrapped the key in the skeleton drawing and handed it to Josh. “Let’s show him this tomorrow,” he said. “And don’t lose it. The key is our best clue!”

  A few snowflakes fell as Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose hurried into the school building the next morning.

  “Whoever heard of snow on the first of April,” Josh muttered. He was wearing a green hat pulled down over his ears.

  Mr. Neater had a small office in the school basement. The kids found him there, sitting on a stool in front of a workbench. He was trying to unjam a stapler.

  “Good morning, Mr. Neater,” Dink said.

  The white-haired man turned and smiled. “Hey, kids. What brings you down here? Playing hooky?”

  Josh pulled the wrapped key from his pocket. He removed the drawing and showed the key to Mr. Neater. “Have you ever seen a key like this?” he asked.

  Mr. Neater held the key under the light over his workbench. He examined both sides before he shook his head. “Nope, don’t think so. But I can tell you it’s a copy. This key was made from another, probably in some hardware store.”

  “You were right!” Josh marveled. “How come you’re so smart, Ruth Rose?”

  Ruth Rose just smiled.

  Mr. Neater unclipped the key ring from his belt and plunked it down on the workbench. He fanned the keys and compared a few with the one Josh had given him. “See, an original key has the name of the company that makes it. Like this one is a Yale key.”

  He tapped Josh’s key. “But yours has no name—it was copied from another key. Where’d you get it?” he asked, handing the key back to Josh.

  “It was in my locker with …”

  Just then a fifth grader came clomping down the basement stairs. He was taller than Dink and had dark brown hair and dark, mischievous eyes.

  “Well, hi, Cory,” Mr. Neater said. “What’s up?”

  “I found this in my locker and wondered if you could tell me what it goes to,” Cory said. He handed Mr. Neater a shiny key.

  Everyone stared at Cory’s key.

  “Did you find a drawing of a skeleton with the key?” Ruth Rose asked.


  Cory nodded. “Yup, all twisted around the key.”

  “And was there a footprint outside your locker?” Dink asked. “In powder?”

  Cory looked suspiciously at Dink. “Yeah. How’d you know?”

  “Because there was one near my locker, too,” Josh said. “And I found a key in my locker, with this wrapped around it.” He showed Cory his picture.

  Cory dug into his pocket and drew out a twisted paper. Both boys laid the drawings flat on Mr. Neater’s bench. The pictures—like the keys—were identical.

  “Say, do you suppose this has anything to do with Miss Shotsky’s skeleton disappearing?” Mr. Neater asked.

  “Sure it does,” Cory said. He pointed to the number “2.” “The kids in my class figured it out easy. The key and the picture mean ‘key to the skeleton.’ We’re gonna find the skeleton and get free tickets to the new aquarium!”

  More footsteps clunked down the basement stairs. This time it was two second-grade girls. They were holding hands and looked embarrassed to see four older kids there.

  “Susan and Jane, right?” Mr. Neater said, smiling at the two little kids.

  The girls nodded. Susan nudged Jane, who opened her hand. “Miss Crumpet wanted to know if you know what this key fits,” she said shyly.

  The key was the same as the two that Cory and Josh held.

  “Bet you found this key in your locker, right?” Mr. Neater said.

  Jane nodded. “And a silly picture of a skeleton with a ‘2’ on his head!”

  CHAPTER 9

  Green Lawn Elementary didn’t have a cafeteria. All the kids brought their lunches from home.

  Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose took their bags outside and sat on the swings in the sun. A lot of other kids came out to eat, too.

  “Tuna fish,” Josh said, smelling his sandwich. “What’ve you guys got?”

  Ruth Rose peeked inside her plastic bag. “Baloney and cheese,” she said.

  Dink’s sandwich turned out to be egg salad. “Who wants to trade?” he asked.

  “I’ll take the egg,” Ruth Rose said.

  “I want the baloney and cheese,” Josh said.

  “Good,” Dink said. “I wanted the tuna.”

  The kids swapped sandwiches and began eating.

  “A kid from each class in the school found a key and a drawing,” Dink said after he’d swallowed his first bite.

  “So there are six keys and six drawings and six footprints,” Josh said around a mouthful of sandwich.

  Ruth Rose shook her head. “Now every class is trying to find Miss Shotsky’s skeleton before anyone else does.” She sighed. “That’s about a hundred kids!”

  Two small boys walked past, looking for a place to eat their lunches. One of the boys carried a drawing of a skeleton.

  “Even the little kindergartners!” Josh wailed, kicking some sand. “It’s not fair.”

  “I just thought of something,” Ruth Rose said. “There’s a door that connects Mr. Dillon’s office to the nurse’s office. He could have snuck in when Miss Shotsky wasn’t there and taken the skeleton.”

  “It would take him only a couple of minutes,” Josh said.

  “Guys, I thought we already decided the snatcher couldn’t be Mr. Dillon,” Dink said. “He wasn’t wearing sneakers.”

  “But he could easily have taken Mrs. Waters’s powder,” Ruth Rose reminded him. “The powder, the door to the nurse’s office … everything else points to Mr. Dillon.”

  “But why would the school principal steal the school skeleton?” Dink asked. “He’s the one offering the reward for finding Mr. Bones!”

  Josh balled up his lunch bag. “Let’s go see Mrs. Waters again. Maybe she’s remembered where she saw that zigzag sneaker sole.”

  The kids hurried into the school and headed for the principal’s office.

  “Let’s leave our lunch stuff,” Dink said, stopping at his locker. They opened their locker doors and put their lunch bags inside.

  They found Mrs. Waters sitting at her desk with a cup of tea in front of her.

  She looked up when the kids walked in. “This school has gone wacky,” she said. “First Miss Shotsky’s skeleton disappears. Then I start losing things. I’ve been searching for my closet key for two days! Whatever will be next!”

  “You’re missing a key?” Josh asked, already digging in his pocket.

  “Yes. I haven’t been able to put my purse and coat in the closet,” Mrs. Waters said.

  Josh found the skeleton drawing wrapped around the key. He removed the paper and put the key on Mrs. Waters’s desk. “Is this it?”

  Mrs. Waters picked up the key and examined it. “No, this isn’t the one I lost.”

  “Could it be a copy of your key?” Dink asked.

  “I suppose.” Mrs. Waters looked at Dink. “Why would anyone take my key and make a copy? Where did you find it, Josh?”

  “In my locker,” he said. “Along with this.” He showed Mrs. Waters the picture of the skeleton.

  “A key and a skeleton?” she said. “What does it mean?”

  “We think the key leads to the skeleton,” Ruth Rose said. “So it might be in your closet!”

  “My closet! Who would do such a thing?”

  Mrs. Waters stood up and marched over to her coat closet. Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose followed her.

  Mrs. Waters inserted the key into the lock and turned it. The door slowly swung open.

  Hanging from Mrs. Waters’s coat hook was the school skeleton. Mr. Bones had a big grin on his face.

  “IT’S MR. BONES!” Ruth Rose screamed.

  CHAPTER 10

  Mr. Dillon came flying out of his office. “What’s the matter?”

  Before Mrs. Waters could answer, Miss Shotsky burst into the little room.

  “Who screamed? Anyone hurt?” Miss Shotsky cried, looking first at the three kids. “Are you kids all right?”

  “Yes, and here’s your friend, Miss Shotsky.” Mrs. Waters pulled the closet door all the way open.

  “Well, for heaven’s sake!” Miss Shotsky exclaimed. “And what’s this?”

  She removed a folded paper that had been taped to the skeleton’s hand. She read it out loud: “APRIL FOOLS!”

  They all burst out laughing.

  “Someone has been playing a trick on the whole school!” Mrs. Waters said.

  “Well, Mr. Bones is going back where he belongs,” Miss Shotsky said. She lifted the school skeleton off the hook.

  “Say bye-bye,” she said, waving the skeleton’s hand. Then she carried it into her office.

  Mrs. Waters went to her desk. She looked at her calendar. “Today is April Fools’ Day,” she said. “It totally slipped my mind.”

  She carried her coat to the closet. She placed it on the hook, then bent down and picked something up off the closet floor. When she turned around, she was holding a pair of sneakers. She turned them over so everyone could see the bottoms.

  “Zigzag treads!” Josh said.

  “Are those the sneakers that everyone’s been talking about?” Mr. Dillon said. “How did they get in your coat closet, Mrs. Waters?”

  Mrs. Waters stared at her boss for a moment, then shook her head. “I have no idea, Mr. Dillon.”

  “Um, excuse me, I think I know,” Dink said.

  Mr. Dillon looked at Dink. The lights glinted off his eyeglasses. “You do? Tell us, Dink.”

  Dink blushed. “Well, someone decided to play an April Fools’ Day joke on the whole school. So he took Miss Shotsky’s skeleton and hid it in Mrs. Waters’s closet.”

  Dink looked at Mrs. Waters. “He took your key so you wouldn’t be able to open the door.”

  “But why would this person hide his sneakers?” Mr. Dillon asked.

  “Because he left a footprint,” Josh said. “And he planned to make more footprints later.”

  “And he borrowed Mrs. Waters’s powder to do it with,” Ruth Rose said, grinning at Dink and Josh.

  “He took the key somewhere and had six
copies made,” Dink went on. “He drew six skeletons and left them and the keys in six different lockers, one for each classroom.”

  Mr. Dillon shook his head. “Amazing! Why would he do such a thing?”

  “I think he wanted all the kids to search for the skeleton,” Dink said.

  “I’m confused,” Mr. Dillon said. He sat in Mrs. Waters’s chair. “How could some stranger come into the school and do all this without being seen?”

  Dink glanced at Josh and Ruth Rose. They both nodded.

  “We think it was someone who works here, sir,” Dink said.

  “One of the teachers?” Mr. Dillon said. “But who? And why?”

  Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose looked at Mr. Dillon. They kept staring until the principal blushed.

  “Oh my goodness!” Mrs. Waters cried. “It was you, wasn’t it?”

  “Caught,” Mr. Dillon said, grinning.

  “But you wanted to get caught,” Ruth Rose said. “That’s why you left footprints and keys and notes.”

  Mr. Dillon nodded. “Yes, I wanted to get caught. You see, I love April Fools’ Day. When I was your age, I couldn’t wait for this day. I played pranks all the time!”

  “I did, too!” Mrs. Waters said. “My sister was always finding frogs in her sweater drawer.”

  “No one plays tricks or pranks anymore,” Mr. Dillon went on. “Each year April first just slips by, unnoticed.

  “So I decided that this year would be different. This year, everyone would remember April Fools’ Day.”

  Mr. Dillon kicked off his loafers and pulled on the zigzag sneakers. “I’ve missed these,” he said. “I wear them to school every morning, then change to my loafers.”

  Dink laughed. “We went around measuring teachers’ feet, and all the time those sneakers were in the closet.”

  The principal grinned. “I have to admit, I had a lot of fun. On Monday I went in to wash my hands at Miss Shotsky’s sink. It was early; no one was here. Then I saw the skeleton with her scarf draped around its shoulders, and that’s when I got the idea.”