The Case of the Missing Dinosaur Egg Read Online Free

Charlotte hadn’tbeen there when Mom and Dad told us about the legend, so I filled them in.
    â€œThank you, Cameron,” Mr. Morgan said. “Mr. Webb and I are also aware of the issues in a certain nearby nation. However, our initial investigation indicates they are irrelevant.”
    â€œWhat’s ‘ir-rel-e—’?” Tessa started to ask.
    â€œDoesn’t matter,” Nate said.
    â€œIt matters to
me
!” Tessa said.
    â€œI mean the word ‘irrelevant’ means it doesn’t matter,” Nate said. “So Mr. Morgan’s saying President Alfredo-Chin didn’t steal the dinosaur egg.”
    â€œThat is our opinion at this time,” said Mr. Morgan.
    â€œWell,
that’s
a relief,” said Tessa. “But then who did?”
    Sometimes I can’t believe my sister. “Tessa—if they knew that, they wouldn’t be asking us to help, would they?”
    Tessa was ready to admit I was right—except before she could, Mr. Morgan proved I was wrong. “We are confident we know who stole the egg,” he said. “Professor Cordell Bohn.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

    If I were dramatic like my sister, I would have jumped out of my chair, waved my arms and probably stomped my feet.
    I liked Professor Bohn! He knew interesting stuff about dinosaurs, and besides, he was smiley and funny and not like the other so-serious grown-ups. I didn’t want him to be an egg thief, and I didn’t believe he was one, either.
    But I am not dramatic like my sister. So what I did instead was ask very, very calmly, “How do you know?”
    Mr. Morgan explained.
    It turned out he and Mr. Webb had spent Saturday afternoon and evening interviewing Professor Bohn, Professor Rexington and a few other people. What they learned was that Professor Rexington had been waiting for the dinosaur egg to arrive from a certain nearby nation all week. Then, at lunchtime Friday, a wooden crate showed up on her desk.
    â€œIt was the right kind of crate with the right kind oflabel,” Mr. Morgan said. “Naturally, she assumed it was the dinosaur egg.”
    â€œWait a second,” said Tessa. “What do you mean it ‘showed up’? Didn’t someone bring it to her?”
    â€œSomeone must have, but she was at lunch, and we don’t know who,” Mr. Morgan said.
    â€œWrite that down, Cammie,” Tessa said.
    I held up my notebook so Tessa could see I already had. Tessa nodded. “Good work. So then what happened?”
    Mr. Morgan explained that inside the crate, Professor Rexington found the gleaming, cream-colored ostrich egg, wrapped in crumpled newspaper and brown straw.
    â€œShe knew right away it belonged to an ostrich,” said Mr. Morgan, “and she immediately notified Professor Bohn. Rather than being upset, he was amused. He told her he fully expected the egg fossil to show up later in the day.”
    â€œBut it didn’t,” Nate said.
    Mr. Morgan nodded. “And when it didn’t, he decided to use the ostrich egg as a prop for his talk and see what happened. Meanwhile, they reported the missing egg to security.”
    â€œSo that’s where you come in,” Nate said.
    Mr. Morgan nodded. “We tried to trace the real dinosaur egg’s route to the United States. Apparently, it was shipped from the airport in the capital of a certain nearby nation. The shipping records show the crate was scanned into the system when it arrived at Dullesairport here in the United States. After that, the crate seems to have disappeared. We think the thief must have picked it up from the airport here, but we can’t find any record of that.”
    For a moment the room was quiet except for the sound of me writing. When I had caught up with my notes, I realized something: “This is all pretty mysterious, but none of it says Professor Bohn is the thief.”
    Mr. Webb said, “On the contrary,” and I almost dropped