Read Online The Big Dip by Melanie Jackson - Free Book Online

I’ll join you soon. First I gotta talk to the nice detective.”
    Ellie wrinkled up her nose at Detective Gagel. “Mister, your breath would clobber an army .”
    â€œYeah, yeah.” The detective flipped his coin some more. “So I forget my Tic Tacs occasionally. We all have bad days.”
    I would have grinned, but that would have made my skull ache even worse.

Chapter Thirteen
    Ellie trotted off, still jabbering, to the ambulance. Detective Gagel spun the coin. “I understand you and your friend figured out that Jake was a police plant.”
    Your friend. Amy . Was she here? I squinted past the searchlights.
    It was more likely she’d followed Skip to the police station. It was Skip she’d be worried about.
    Detective Gagel explained, “Jake Grissom was working undercover to catch Babs Beesley, who specialized in robbing galleries and museums. Jake convinced Babs he could fence the loot from the PNE gallery.
    â€œHe told Babs he’d get millions for the Margaret Rose. Babs handed it over—but then she had second thoughts. Maybe someone tipped her off. We’ll never know.
    â€œJake and I were meeting here to return the Margaret Rose to the gallery. Jake arrived ahead of me. The roller coaster was his favorite ride. He must’ve decided he had time for a spin on it.
    â€œHe didn’t realize that Babs was following him. “When I arrived on the platform, I saw her hunch down behind you and Skip.”
    Detective Gagel stopped tossing the coin. He clenched it till his knuckles turned white. “I blame myself for not putting a tail on Jake. If only I’d protected him…”
    â€œYou did your best, sir.” Now I knew Detective Gagel hadn’t been running with Babs. He’d been running after her.
    He managed a smile. “And you did your best, son. In fact, you did better. You caught Babs Beesley for us. When VanDusen security phoned, I rushed over. But by the time I got there, you’d scrammed.”
    I said ruefully, “I saw you talking on the phone. I thought you were Ellie’s kidnapper. It took me a while to figure out what the Margaret Rose was.” I shook my head. “At first I thought it was a flower. Then I realized it couldn’t be.
    â€œSo I thought back to after Jake was shot. He pretended to be holding onto my jacket— but he was really dropping the Margaret Rose into my pocket .”
    â€œWhich is where we found it,” Detective Gagel said, “when we searched your house.”
    He flipped the coin up one last time. Then he held it out to me.
    And there she was, the late Princess Margaret Rose of Britain, captured in profile on a solid gold coin.
    â€œDated 1952,” said Detective Gagel, holding the coin so I could read the print. Her Royal Highness Margaret Rose, younger daughter of King George VI. “What makes the coin so valuable is that only a few were minted. The King died that year, so the coin was immediately out of date.”
    â€œShe sure was pretty,” I said, studying the young princess’s profile. “Kind of sad-looking. Maybe she didn’t like being a princess.”
    â€œNot an easy job,” agreed Detective Gagel. “Why, I recall my mother telling me that Princess Margaret Rose couldn’t even marry the guy she wanted to.”
    I remembered VanDusen Gardens, and Hugo’s wife gossiping about somebody’s unhappy marriage. I thought she’d been talking about a friend.
    Then I forgot about princesses. Amy walked up to us. She smiled shyly.
    I wanted to smile back, but decided not to risk a worse skull ache.
    â€œI hope you don’t mind that I talked to the police,” she said.
    For a long moment I just looked at her. “ I hope I’m not hallucinating again,” I said at last. “That you’re here, I mean. I thought you’d be…I mean, what with Skip…”
    â€œI wanted to tell you about