Read Online The Case of the Ruby Slippers by Martha Freeman - Free Book Online Page A

case with the slippers in it. People were crowding around, pointing and holding kids up. Most people didn’t stay very long, but one person—a small woman with very short gray hair—just stood staring. Around her throat was a necklace with a pendant shaped like the letter
A
.
    â€œDo you notice anything?” Dr. Zapato asked me.
    â€œIt’s like that lady’s stuck,” I said.
    He nodded. “In the last six months, she’s visited the museum some twenty-five times. And she’s not the first to become obsessively interested in the slippers either. So, to help us keep them safe, we decided to hire an outside security expert, one who came very highly recommended. I believe you know him—Mr. William Will.”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

    I almost dropped my pen. Mr. Will was working for the museum? Then he couldn’t be the thief!
    â€œWe’re talking about the same Mr. William Will, right?” I said to make sure. “My aunt’s boyfriend Mr. William Will?”
    Dr. Zapato turned off the projector. “The very same. With his assistance, we believed we had devised a foolproof method to ensure the slippers’ safety. Unfortunately, something seems to have gone wrong.”
    â€œWhat foolproof method?” Charlotte asked.
    Dr. Zapato said, “RF technology.”
    Tessa would’ve said, “What’s RF technology?” but I didn’t want to sound dumb.
    Luckily, Mr. Morgan explained. “RF stands for radio frequency. In this case, it means putting a tiny, chip-sized transmitter into an object so it can be followed by the positioning systems on satellites.”
    Dr. Zapato went on, “Taking care not to detractfrom its historic value, we have ‘chipped’ each slipper. As a result, when they left the museum on Thursday with the imposter—the man now in police custody—we were able to monitor their progress on handheld receiving devices.”
    Mr. Webb held up a gadget slightly bigger than a cell phone. It was silver with a green and black screen that showed a grid pattern.
    â€œWhen the slippers are transmitting,” Dr. Zapato continued, “their location shows up as red flashing dots. We were able to track the slippers to the White House and eventually to Mrs. Silver’s safe. But then, at one twenty-two Friday morning, the flashing dots disappeared. Apparently, something went wrong with the transmitters.”
    â€œDo you think that’s when the slippers were stolen from the safe?” Charlotte asked.
    â€œVery possibly,” said Dr. Zapato, “but there’s no way to know for sure.”
    â€œCould whoever have stolen them remove the chips from the slippers?” I asked.
    Dr. Zapato shook his head. “First of all, the existence of the chips was a closely guarded secret. Secondly, they’re implanted in the leather and cannot be removed without causing severe damage.”
    I stopped writing and shook out my hand. Something was bugging me. Last night Mom had asked Mr. Will if it was okay to tell Tessa and me about the man in the black suit being an imposter. So that meant my mom must’ve known all about how Mr. Will was working for the museum, right?
    â€œDr. Zapato,” I said, “what does my mom have to do with all this anyway?”
    â€œI was getting to that,” Dr. Zapato said. “It seems thieves typically find objects in transit easier to steal, so Mr. Will suggested we flush out the would-be thief by lending the slippers to the White House for a party. Your parents, Cammie, graciously agreed to help. We then leaked the information to the media, hoping that the thief would see an opportunity.”
    Well, that was a relief. No matter what Mr. Lozana said, my mom didn’t think she was a queen.
    â€œAnd the plan worked,” Charlotte said. “The man in the black suit tried to steal the slippers.”
    â€œDid the thief—the man in the black