Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4 As the kids walked home, Josh studied his drawing of the left footprint. "How can we find the guy who wears this sneaker?" he asked. "It could be a woman," Ruth Rose said.

Josh turned and grinned. "What about Mrs. Eagle?" he said. "Maybe she stole Mr. Bones." Ruth Rose laughed. "No, her feet look as small as my mom's," she said. "My mom wears size six." "Let's go to my house and make a list of all the grown-ups at the school," Dink suggested. "Then we can figure out how to check their shoes." "Why don't we go to your house and make a snack?" Josh asked. "How about a turkey sandwich and apple pie with vanilla ice cream on top?" "How about guinea-pig food?" Dink said. In his kitchen, Dink found a plate of cookies and a note from his mom, saying she was shopping. The kids walked up to Dink's room with the cookies and Josh's drawing. Dink handed Ruth Rose a pad. While she wrote, Dink went to his dad's closet and found a pair of his sneakers. On the bottom he found a circle with SIZE TEN stamped inside. Then

he got a ruler and measured the sneaker. It was eleven inches long, the same as the footprint they had found in Miss Shotsky's office. "Guys, I think the skeleton snatcher wears a size ten," he said. "I'll bet a lot of the male teachers wear that size," Josh said. Ruth Rose showed them her list. "I got thirteen people," she said. "Did you count Mr. Dillon and Mr. Neater?" Dink asked. Ruth Rose nodded. "Yup. All the adults who work at the school." "We can cross off five names," Josh said. "Mrs. Eagle, Mrs. Waters, and Miss Shotsky all have smaller feet. And Mr. Dillon was wearing loafers today." "Who's the fifth?" Dink asked. "The custodian, Mr. Neater," Josh said. "Why cross him off?" Ruth Rose asked. "He wears sneakers." Josh laughed. "But they're the biggest sneakers I've ever seen. I think he wears about size thirteen!"

Ruth Rose put an X in front of the names of the five people Josh had mentioned. Dink looked at the eight remaining names. "Four women and four men," he said, dropping a hunk of cookie into his guinea pig's cage. "Do you think one of them took the skeleton?" "One way to find out," Josh said. "Check their shoes against my drawing." "How do we do that?" Dink asked. "Just tell them about the footprint we found, then ask them if we can measure their feet and check the treads of their sneakers." "There's one problem," Ruth Rose said. "If one of the teachers did take the skeleton, he won't let us measure his feet!" "Then we'll know he's the guilty one," Josh said. "But what if two teachers say no?" Dink asked. "Then we still wouldn't know which one did it." "But at least we'd have narrowed it down to two," Ruth Rose said. "Then we could figure out what to do next."

"We'd better decide," Josh said. "Every kid at school wants to win those aquarium tickets." "But we're the only ones who know about the footprint," Ruth Rose said. "We've got a head start." "Not for long," Josh said. "Miss Shotsky and Mr. Neater saw the footprint, too. And I showed the drawing to Mrs. Waters and Mr. Dillon. Pretty soon the whole school will know." "Okay, let's talk to those eight teachers tomorrow," Dink said. "We could put notes in their mailboxes," Ruth Rose suggested. "Great idea!" Dink said. He sat at his computer, and Josh and Ruth Rose gave him suggestions.

This is what they came up with: DEAR ___________, WE HAVE A CLUE TO THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING SKELETON. MAY WE TALK TO YOU TODAY? PLEASE CHECK YES ________ OR NO ________ AND PUT THIS IN MRS. EAGLE'S MAILBOX. THANK YOU! SIGNED, DINK DUNCAN, JOSH PINTO, AND RUTH ROSE HATHAWAY Dink printed eight copies. Using Ruth Rose's list of names, the kids addressed a letter to each. "That should do it," Dink said when they were finished. "We'll ask Mrs. Waters to put them in the mailboxes tomorrow morning." "And by afternoon, our class will have tickets to the aquarium," Josh said, grinning at his friends. "Don't get your hopes up yet, Josh," Ruth Rose said. "Why not? If we find the right shoe, we find the person who took Mr. Bones, right? So we win the tickets, right?"