The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity by Mac Barnett

Author:Mac Barnett
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

CHAPTER XVI

A Clue!

WHEN STEVE GAVE HIS SECRET knock on Dana’s window, he noted gratefully that his best friend lived in a one-story house. A light flipped on inside, and Dana appeared on the other side of the glass, his eyes screwed shut.

“Hey, chum,” said Steve.

“Don’t call me chum,” mumbled Dana. He scratched his head. “It’s the middle of the night.”

“Well, I’ve been running from Librarians who think I’m a private detective and breaking out of police stations. I need somewhere to hide out.”

Dana was unfazed. “Come on in,” he said. Steve climbed through the window. Dana threw a bunch of pillows on the floor and tossed Steve a blanket. They were both asleep in less than ninety seconds.

Late the next morning Steve was in Dana’s kitchen, dipping Dana’s mom’s makeup brush in a tin of hot chocolate mix.

“Hey! You said you weren’t going to ruin that brush,” said Dana through a mouthful of toast.

“If I told you what I was going to do, I knew you wouldn’t give it to me,” Steve said without looking up.

“Well, what are you doing?” Dana asked.

“Dusting for fingerprints.”

“Why?”

“Well, if Mr. E. didn’t hire me to get the book, I figure maybe he went to look at it himself. But he was probably too smart to check it out. Which would mean his fingerprints would be on it.”

“Do fingerprints even show up on paper?” asked Dana.

“Nope,” said Steve. “But they’ll show up on this.” Steve used the makeup brush to gently apply cocoa powder to the shiny plastic the library had put over the book’s cover.

“Well, well, well,” he said to himself. The brown powder had revealed a bunch of swirly prints. Steve examined them with his magnifying glass. Through the glass the thumbprints looked pretty much the same, only bigger. He cut a piece of packaging tape and pressed it down on the book cover, then lifted it. A fingerprint was captured on the tape. Steve did this a few more times. Dana watched over Steve’s shoulder.

“Okay,” Steve said when he was finished. “We’ve got four different thumbprints here.”

Four pieces of tape were laid out on a page of Steve’s notebook. “One is mine. One will be Ms. Bundt’s. Another one is Mackintosh’s. And the last belongs to our first suspect.”

Dana was impressed. “What do we do next?” he asked.

Steve looked at the The Bailey Brothers’ Detective Handbook, which was sitting next to his plate, open to the section on fingerprint clues. Reading, he said, “Now we just match these prints against the ones I’ve got in my case files.”

“Cool,” said Dana. “Whose prints do you have in your case files?”

“My mom’s. Mine. Yours.”

An uncomfortable silence settled over the kitchen. Dana stared at Steve. “So unless Mr. E. is really me or your mom . . .”

“Take it easy on me,” said Steve. “I’m still building up my files, okay?”

Steve hastily bit off a piece of a toast and paced around the kitchen.

“Okay. Here’s what we do. Who has everybody’s fingerprints?”

“The FBI?” said Dana.

“Yeah, but they’re in Washington, D.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.