The Case of the Ruby Slippers (12 page)

Some people remembered to say “Happy Birthday!” But mostly everyone was totally distracted by two dogs breaking a zigzag trail through the crowd in the entrance hall and beyond.

A couple of good things, though. Aunt Jen sure did look surprised. She even put her hand to her chest like maybe for a second her heart had stopped. And of course United States Marines don't let little things like rampaging dogs keep them from their mission. They struck up “Happy Birthday” exactly as ordered.

Meanwhile, Mr. Will yelled: “Stop those dogs!”

And Gigi Sawyer yelled: “Give me those slippers!”

Which was pretty much what I would have expected.

Because my crazy idea, the one that wasn't so crazy, was that Mr. Will was the thief and Miss Sawyer the buyer. I still had no idea what that toothbrush thing was, but it must have come from Mr. Will's room—like the underwear and the blue glove, the kind of glove burglars wear so they don't leave fingerprints.

Then there was the way Ozzie acted in her crate—all that stuff about her being a guard dog. What was she
guarding? The ruby slippers, of course—tucked away in her crate.

Mr. Will had been the one who knew all along how the slippers had chips in them. The chips had been his idea, just like the surprise party. So he had come to the White House a day early, followed the RF signal to Mrs. Silver's safe on Friday morning and broken into it. Since he couldn't cut the chips out of the shoes, he did the next best thing—disabled them with sunscreen, so the museum receivers couldn't pick up the signal anymore.

There were still some things I didn't understand. Like how did the man in the black suit fit into all this anyway? But there would be time to sort that out later. Right now, two fast dogs were making a fast mess of my aunt's birthday party.

Mr. Ross has had a lot of practice herding Hooligan. Now he appeared by his office and nodded at Tessa, Nate and me. We got in position on the outside edge of the action, with Charlotte and Jeremy across the room from us. Then, step by step, we moved forward, keeping the stampeding dogs in front of us.

When Hooligan realized he was trapped in a shrinking circle, he let loose with one big “
Aw-roohr!”
of protest, then collapsed panting on the marble floor. A moment later Ozzabelle surrendered her slipper beside him and rolled over so Tessa could scratch her belly.

Hooligan, meanwhile, was all about the slipper's excellent potential as a chew toy. Positioning it between his front paws, he prepared to chomp.

“No, you don't, buddy.” I rescued the red shoe, and
while I was down there grabbed Ozzabelle's, too. You might think they smelled like dog slobber, but they didn't. They smelled like sunscreen.

“Hey—stop there!” someone behind me yelled.

While everyone had been watching the dogs, two people had been sneaking toward the ground floor stairs. Now that they'd been spotted, they ran for it. One of them was tiny and wearing a purple scarf—Gigi Sawyer. The other was a man wearing a chauffeur's uniform with the collar turned up. He had a mustache and sunglasses on.

Sunglasses indoors?

In an instant, the Secret Service had stopped them, and the crowd had shifted its attention. Along with Tessa and Nate, I ran to get a better look, too. By now, the man and woman were in the safekeeping of a couple of sharp-looking White House marines.

“Mister?” Tessa said to the man. “Your mustache is crooked. Here. Let me fix it.” She tried, but the mustache came off in her hand to reveal . . . Mr. Will!

The instant Mr. Will's face was uncovered, the lost tourist—the one wearing cargo shorts to a White House party—lunged at him. “Why you dirty double-crossing rat!”

Jeremy caught the man in shorts in a big bear hug from behind. Now that I saw him close up, I realized he was—or used to be—the man in the black suit. He must have come in this morning with the other tourists, found a place to hide and stayed.

“I'll strangle you!” He tried to break free of Jeremy's
grip. “I should have known you were no professional driver when you insisted on bringing that dratted little dog!”

“You won't strangle him if I get to him first,” said Aunt Jen.

“Make that three of us,” said Granny.

Personally, I would have taken my chances with the man in shorts.

“My dear?” Gigi Sawyer spoke to me. “Could I just hold the slippers a moment, please? I've wanted to for such a long time.”

The marine beside her nodded, and I gave them over. Miss Sawyer examined the red shoes for a moment, then frowned. “Why, that's the museum pair!” She shot Mr. Will an evil look. “My understanding was that I'd be buying the lost slippers. These shoes are one of the Smithsonian's most popular exhibits! The police never would have rested till they were found. How dumb do you think I am?”

“Shhh!” said Mr. Will.

“Don't you
shshh
me!” Gigi Sawyer turned to Charlotte. “This fellow was ready to double-cross me, too. Well, I'll show him! Get me a pen and paper, young lady. I'm going to confess everything I know about the case of the ruby slippers.”

Once the bad guys had been hauled away and the ruby slippers locked in a display case in the East Room, there didn't seem to be any reason to cancel the party.

And it turned out Mr. Will and Mrs. Silver had done a great job on the planning. The East Room had been totally decorated in a Wizard of Oz theme with a yellow brick road on the floor and movie posters everywhere. On top of the birthday cake was a tiny Emerald City made of almond paste. Mr. Baney, the White House florist, had made centerpieces out of poppies and black witch's hats.

Plus—needless to say—Paul Song's version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” was the best one yet.

Once she got over the shock, Aunt Jen had a good time. And so did I. True, Paul Song danced with Courtney, but he was only being polite. He danced with me more. And he said he'll write me another letter if I promise not to make fun of his terrible spelling.

Anyway, now it was over, and after eating birthday cake, no one really wanted dinner. So our family—Dad, Mom, Aunt Jen, Granny, Tessa, Nate and me—were in the solarium waiting for the early news with Jan and Larry. Mom's staff had warned her that the ruby slippers would probably be the top story.

“There's still some stuff I don't get, Cammie,” said Nate. He was on the sofa next to his mom. “Like how were the man in the black suit and Mr. Will connected?”

“The man in the black suit was just a plain old innocent thief,” I said. “He was out to steal the slippers, and what he didn't know was that the limo driver he hired was really Mr. Will in disguise.”

“Okay so far,” Nate said, “but I still don't get the empty shoe box and flying slippers and all that.”

“Are you kidding?” said Tessa. “That's the easy part. Go ahead and explain, Cammie.”

“I'll try,” I said. “I mean, like Tessa and I already figured out, the man in the black suit couldn't exactly steal the slippers right in front of the police on Thursday afternoon. And he couldn't hand the slippers over to Mrs. Silver either. If he did, he'd never see them again. So instead he took the slippers out of the box, and handed it empty to Mrs. Silver. Then when the box was opened in the Dip Room, he acted all surprised and hysterical like someone else had stolen them.”

“So the empty box was a diversion,” Granny said.

“Right,” I said. “He thought he could get away with the slippers while everyone's attention was focused on the box in the Dip Room. But he didn't count on a
couple of things. The first one was that his driver was Mr. Will. When Mr. Will saw where the man in the black suit had put the real ruby slippers, he grabbed them for himself. I bet he put them right into Ozzabelle's crate in the backseat so she could guard them.”

“What was the second thing?” Dad asked.

“Hooligan,” I said.

Hooligan, sacked out on the rug between the sofa and the TV, woofed.

“He was out walking with Mr. Bryant and must've smelled Ozzabelle in the limo,” I said, “so of course he dragged Mr. Bryant over for a look. When Mr. Will saw them coming, he threw the first thing available for a dog to chase—an old red shoe.”

“Old red shoe—
right
,” said Tessa. “You mean a ruby slipper. But he knew he could get it back later because it had the chip in it.”

“Right,” I said.

“And then he did the same thing with the second slipper when we went out there to look for it.”

Dad shook his head. “If you ask me, this whole thing is really scary.”

Mom looked surprised. “What do you mean? The case is solved, the slippers are fine, and the bad guys are in jail.”

“True,” Dad said. “The scary part is it's starting to make sense to me. If I understand, what happened next is Mr. Will stole the slippers out of Mrs. Silver's safe, sunscreened the chips to interfere with the signal and substituted the other pair. Then, when the safe was
opened, Cammie recognized that that pair wasn't for real.”

I nodded. “Good one, Dad!” And we high-fived. “Mr. Will got unlucky again when Mrs. Silver's safe was opened. He didn't figure on me being there. If I hadn't been, it might've been that nobody noticed the substitute slippers right away. And in that case, he would have had time to hand the slippers over to Miss Sawyer and escape.”

Mom shook her head. “You're all much too smart for me,” she said. “Except I think I can make one contribution to the discussion. You see, the Secret Service was already onto Mr. Will. Your grandmother recognized that electric toothbrush gizmo.”

“You did?” I turned to Granny.

Granny grinned. “Your father showed it to me. They're used for breaking into safes. The vibrating metal tip opens the lock if you know how to use it. I turned it over to Malik.”

“Oh yeah, and speaking of Malik,” Nate said, “what was in the box Courtney got from the pretty photographer?”

“I finally got a chance to ask her,” I said. “And it didn't have anything to do with the ruby slippers at all. It was an anniversary photo of Courtney's grandparents. The pretty photographer took it when she had her own studio before she went to work in the White House.”

Mom was nodding. Apparently, she already knew all about this.

“Is she gonna lose her job, Mom?” Tessa asked. “I don't think Malik would like it if she did.”

“What does Malik have to do with it?” Dad asked.

“Oh, Dad, for gosh sake,” Tessa said. “Keep up! Anybody can see they
like
each other.
Duh
.”

Mom smiled. “She shouldn't have given Mr. Lozana that photo from the Dip Room without permission. But she's new. For her sake and Malik's, I think we'll give her another chance.”

Finally, it was time for the news, and just like Mom's staff expected, the first thing they showed was a photo of the ruby slippers safely back in their locked case at the National Museum of American History. After that there was a photo of Aunt Jen beside one of Mr. Will.

In the room with us, Aunt Jen groaned, as Jan's voice on TV said: “First Auntie Jennifer Leone had been romantically linked with this man, William Will, now in custody in connection with the theft of the ruby slippers.”

Then the picture shifted to a clip of Mr. Will being led from the White House in handcuffs, while Larry's voice said: “A spokesman for Mrs. Leone said the relationship is now over.”

“Hooray!” said Nate.

Granny gave him a look, but Aunt Jen said. “And good riddance. Only I hope my next breakup doesn't happen on TV.”

The TV story went on for a while and, because of Gigi Sawyer's extensive confession, it confirmed a lot of my guesses about what happened. There was also
footage of Paul Song, Hooligan and Toto from
The Wizard of Oz
.

Ozzabelle, who had been sacked out with Hooligan, woke up for that part and wagged her tail. She was still with us because she couldn't exactly go to jail with Mr. Will, could she? And besides she never liked him. Otherwise, why would she have brought me all those clues?

Anyway, we were going to keep her for a couple of days until her new owner could take her. And guess who that was? Antonia Alfredo-Chin! It turned out she had been wanting a dog for a long time.

“You girls are getting pretty good at this detecting business,” Mom said later when she came in to tell Tessa and me goodnight.

Tessa said, “So true.”

But I said, “According to Granny, solving a case is part brains and part luck. There was a lot of luck this time—like how Mr. Will was a slob so Ozzabelle could help us out by bringing clues.”

“I like it.” Mom grinned. “That means the moral of this story is keep your room clean.”

“No way, Mama.” Tessa threw her covers off and hopped out of bed.

“What are you doing, young lady?” Mom asked.