Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7 "Still think the crook is Mrs. Cornelius?" Dink asked as they walked back up to the tenth floor. "Mrs. Cornelius's description sure does sound like Miss Booker," Ruth Rose admitted. Dink laughed. "Bad posture, baggy clothes, orange hair—sounds more like Josh!" He opened the door to his uncle's apartment. "There you are," Uncle Warren said. "Thank you for cleaning up. What a lovely surprise! Ready for blueberry pancakes?" "I am!" Josh said, heading for the kitchen.

After taking his first bite of pancake, Dink reached into his pocket for the folded paper towel. He pulled out the orange hair and showed it to his uncle. "Josh found this stuck to one of the chairs," he said. "We think it came from the crook." Dink's uncle studied the hair. "This is oddlooking. Wait, I'll be back in a jiffy," he said. The kids heard cupboard doors opening and closing. A minute later, Dink's uncle was back, carrying a small wooden box. He moved the pancake platter to one side and set the box in its place. Then he pulled off the lid, revealing a shiny microscope. He plugged the microscope's cord into a wall outlet. "Josh, may I have one of your hairs?" he asked. "Sure." Josh grimaced as he yanked out a hair. Then he passed the hair to Uncle Warren. Dink's uncle laid both hairs on a glass slide, then placed the slide under the microscope lens. He adjusted the scope and put one eye to it. "Well, I think it's a real hair," Uncle Warren said after a minute. "But it's very different from yours, Josh. Take a look. Your hair is the one on the right."

Josh bent over the scope. "All I see is nothing," he said. "Try closing one eye," Uncle Warren said. "Wow, that's better!" Josh said. "The hairs look like tree trunks!" Ruth Rose was next. "The hairs do look different," she said. "Look, Dink." Dink closed one eye and peered through the lens. The hair on the right was thin and smoothlooking. The one on the left was fatter and more orange than the other one. "Mrs. Cornelius told us she saw someone on her balcony with orange hair," Dink said. "She did?" Uncle Warren said.

Ruth Rose nodded. "She has this neat magnifying glass attached to her balcony door," she said. "So she can watch the birds at her feeders." "I looked through it," Dink told his uncle. "It makes stuff look bigger and clearer." He told his uncle how Mrs. Cornelius had described the person on her balcony. "Baggy coat and poor posture? Well, well. Maybe she really did see our thief!" Uncle Warren said. "I'd better call Detective Costello." While his uncle dialed the phone, Dink motioned for Josh and Ruth Rose to follow him. They left the apartment, but Dink walked past the elevator. "Where are we going?" Josh asked. "I wanted a few more of those pancakes." "Let's walk down," Dink said, shoving open the exit door. "I don't want anyone to see us." "See us what?" Ruth Rose asked. "I want to get one of Miss Booker's hairs," Dink said. "And I don't want Roger to see us, just in case they're partners." "So now you think they did it together?" Josh asked.

"I don't know, but we can't take any chances," Dink said. "Oh, boy," Josh said, skipping down the stairs. Dink and Ruth Rose followed Josh. "How do you plan to get a hair?" Ruth Rose asked. Dink shrugged. "I don't know yet," he admitted. Out of breath, the kids finally reached the lobby. Dink peeked around the corner to make sure Roger wasn't watching; then they hurried out the rear exit. They didn't see Miss Booker behind the building. Josh took a look down the alley, but she wasn't there either. "Let's look out front," Ruth Rose suggested. Dink and Josh followed Ruth Rose down the alley. They were halfway to the front of the building when Ruth Rose bent down and picked something off the ground. Dink and Josh caught up and looked over her shoulder. Ruth Rose was holding a Polaroid snapshot. It was a picture of a framed painting. Dink gasped when he recognized the rowboat floating on a pond.

"It's a picture of the stolen painting!" he said.