The Case of the Ruby Slippers (4 page)

“What's that about?” I asked.

“President Richard M. Nixon,” he said. “You know, the only American president who ever resigned. The heroes are two reporters.”

Besides newspaper headlines, Kyle's poster had a postcard of an apartment building where some burglars working for President Nixon broke in and stole stuff. Kyle's objects were a reporter's notebook, an old-fashioned telephone with a dial on it and a pair of blue plastic gloves like my dentist wears.

Courtney pointed at the gloves. “What're those for?”

“Burglars use them,” Kyle explained, “you know, so they don't leave fingerprints.”

It doesn't take long to set up a poster and organize a feather duster, an apple and a mirror so they look the way you want. When I was finished, I looked over at Courtney's display . . . and got a big surprise.

I have known Courtney Lozana since kindergarten. That's when my mom was elected senator, and we moved here from California. I have been to Courtney's house a hundred times, and we have watched
Beauty and the Beast
, dressed up as Beauty and the Beast and sung all the songs from
Beauty and the Beast
.

So when Courtney told me her movie-story was
Beauty and the Beast
, it was like
duh
.

But her poster was not
Beauty and the Beast
at all! It had pictures of a girl with pigtails, shiny green skyscrapers and a rainbow. There was a book cover, too, and on it a red-and-green illustration of a lion wearing eyeglasses.

In case you haven't guessed, Courtney's poster was
The Wizard of Oz
.

Now, one by one, Courtney was removing objects from her bag and placing them in front of her poster: a road map of Kansas, a black witch's hat and . . . two ruby slippers!

After what happened yesterday, it was totally weird to see those slippers. “Where did you get them?” I asked.

Courtney looked at me like I was crazy. “Uh . . . I've had them with my dress-up clothes for practically ever?”

I shook my head and said, “Sorry. But what happened to
Beauty and the Beast
?”

Courtney said, “I changed my mind. I like
Wizard of Oz
better.”

This was weird. Why all of a sudden . . . ?

But then I thought of something. “Courtney, this isn't because you want to be invited to my aunt's party tomorrow, is it?”

The party is a secret from Aunt Jen, but not from everyone else. Courtney's my best friend. Of course she knew all about it.

Now she turned pink. “We-e-ell, I wouldn't
mind
being invited. I've met your aunt lots of times, and I really, really,
really
love the movie.”

This was kind of annoying. I mean, if she wanted to be invited, couldn't she have just told me?

By this time, parents had started to arrive. The idea was Ms. Nicols and Mr. Brackbill greeted them at the door, then they walked around and looked at the displays and asked us questions.

Later, we were going to have punch and healthy snacks.

When Mr. Lozana came in, he headed right toward us. Mr. Lozana is tall with black hair and a beaky nose. He smiles a lot. When he saw Kyle's movie-story, he laughed. “Excellent choice,” he said. “The reporters who brought down a president!”

Courtney said, “
Da-a-a-ad!
” and nodded at me.

“Oh, hello, Cameron.” He smiled. “Not the current president, of course.”

I didn't have to say anything back because just then Elena's and Alexander's moms came over to me to ask questions about
Snow White
. When they left, I looked at Courtney's poster again. One of the photos was the ruby slippers in their case at the museum. I had seen these same slippers yesterday, but now I noticed something strange. The two slippers didn't exactly match each other. The tops were different, with the bow on the right shoe a lot closer to the toe.

“Courtney—look at this.” I pointed it out.

Courtney squinted. “Those slippers come from a long time ago. Maybe they just weren't that good at shoemaking back then.”

By now, Elena's dad was talking to Kyle, and Mr. Lozana was listening to us. “It wasn't that long ago,” he said. “And you're right, Cameron. The two slippers don't match. Many people think they come from two different pairs, and the mates are missing.”

It turned out Mr. Lozana knew a lot about the ruby slippers. Like, lots of pairs were made for the movie,
and they're even different sizes. No one who remembers is around anymore, but it could be that some were made for close-ups and still photographs, some for the dancing scenes and some to be worn by the stand-in for Judy Garland, the star.

“If there're so many pairs, where're the rest?” I asked.

“That's a good question,” said Mr. Lozana. “In 1970, the movie company MGM cleaned out an old warehouse. It was full of costumes and props, including four pairs of ruby slippers. Today the the National Museum of American History has the pair that seems to be mismatched, and collectors have two others. The fourth pair was stolen a few years ago and has never been recovered.”

While I had been talking to Mr. Lozana, Granny arrived. Now, she and Nate were looking at Courtney's poster. “Who would want some old pair of shoes?” Nate asked.

Mr. Lozana laughed. “Movie memorabilia is like art—valuable to collectors. The last time a pair of ruby slippers sold, they brought more than half a million dollars. You'd know that, Courtney, if you ever read my blog.”

“I didn't know you ever wrote about movie stuff on your blog,” Courtney said. “I thought you only wrote about politics, and that's boring.”

“In this case, movie stuff and politics intersect,” said Mr. Lozana. “Apparently there are elements in this administration who mistake our democracy for a monarchy.”

Nate is good at translating grown-up talk. “He means your mom is acting like she thinks she's a queen,” he explained.

I had no idea what Mr. Lozana meant, but the way he said it sounded like an insult. “You take that back!” I said.

Granny put her hand on my shoulder. “Perhaps Mr. Lozana could explain.”

Mr. Lozana said he'd be glad to. “The ruby slippers are under the care of the museum, but they belong to the people of the United States. Is it appropriate for President Parks to use them for a private family event?”

“My mom can do whatever she wants!” I snapped, but as soon as the words were out, I knew I'd made a mistake.

“Precisely my point, Cameron,” said Mr. Lozana. “No, your mom can't. She works for the American people, and they don't want their valuable property risked for no good reason. In fact, look what happened—the property disappeared. There's a photo of the empty box on my website.”

Granny shifted her feet. “Since you know the slippers disappeared, you must also know they were found and are now secure.”

Mr. Lozana nodded. “And my recommendation is that the slippers be returned to their rightful location at the museum immediately.”

“Thanks a lot, Dad!” Courtney said. “Now I'll
never
get invited to the birthday party.”

Granny smiled. “Do want an invitation, dear? I think it can be arranged . . . if your father doesn't mind.”

“Can I, Daddy?” Courtney asked.

Mr. Lozana frowned but gave in. “If the judge can be generous, so can I.”

The judge, by the way, is Granny. Judge was her job in California before she retired and moved to the White House to be with us.

Courtney pumped her fist. “
Yes!
I'm going to the party!”

At lunch I remembered to tell Courtney who else was coming to my aunt's party—Paul Song—and Courtney choked on her sandwich, and Jeremy, one of the Secret Service agents, had to come over to see if her life needed saving or anything.

Courtney waved Jeremy away and croaked, “I'm okay,” but after that she had a coughing fit, and her eyes bulged out.

Paul Song is that adorable.

By then, I had decided to forgive Courtney for finding a sneaky way to get invited to the party. If things were the other way around—if Courtney lived in the White House—I would have wanted to go, too, right? Maybe I wouldn't have been brave enough to plain old ask either.

And Courtney's dad? Well, I guess he isn't her fault.

After lunch, our class went to the computer lab so Mr. Brackbill could give us a research assignment. We
do that every Friday afternoon. Today's was to find three facts about Niagara Falls. The finding part is fun, but then we have to cite our sources, which means write down in a special order exactly where we found everything. I get that this is important, but doing it is kind of a pain.

Evgenia was my partner. I'm a fast looker, and she's a fast typer, so right away we learned how many gallons of water flow over the falls every second (750,000) and how tall they are (American falls 176 feet, and Canadian falls 167 feet).

“Those are the same facts everybody's going to find,” Evgenia said. “We should look for something different.”

“I know,” I said, and told her that Niagara Falls is one of the pictures on the fancy antique wallpaper in the Dip Room.

Evgenia typed “White House Diplomatic Reception Room” into the search box, and the first result was a link to Mr. Lozana's blog.

Huh?

We clicked on it and saw his entry about the ruby slippers, which had a photo of Mrs. Silver with the empty box. The photo was taken in the Diplomatic Reception Room, which is why it came up. Behind Mrs. Silver was the man in the black suit, the one we figured was from the museum.

Something about the picture bothered me. How had Mr. Lozana gotten a copy of it? But before I could think about that, Mr. Brackbill said, “Five minutes, everybody,” and Evgenia and I had to hurry.

I scrolled down and learned that the wallpaper was made in 1834 by a French guy, and all the pictures on it are famous American scenery.

Evgenia typed all that, plus “White House Museum,” which is the name of the website, and we finished just in time. High five, Evgenia!

Tessa's and my meeting with the museum security people wasn't till four thirty in Mrs. Silver's office, so we had time to eat our after-school snack first. As usual, it was Nate, Tessa and me along with Granny, Mr. Bryant and Hooligan in the second-floor kitchen. When there are cookies, Hooligan stays wide awake, hoping treats will fall. Today, though, it was all healthy stuff—cut up vegetables and apples—so Hooligan dozed off.

While we ate, I told Tessa how Courtney had gotten herself invited to Aunt Jen's party, what Mr. Lozana told us about all the pairs of ruby slippers, plus how he said Mom was acting like a queen.

Tessa's eyes got big. “Mom would make a
great
queen! And then
I'd
be a princess!”

Nate said, “I think you're missing the point, Tessa.”

I nodded. “Me, too, Tessa. I mean, what if Mr. Lozana's right? It's true that the ruby slippers don't belong to our family. I've been thinking about it.”

Tessa rolled her eyes. “There's the real problem, Cammie. You think too much.”

It was twenty-five past four when Mr. Jackson took Mr. Bryant, Tessa and me in the elevator down to the ground floor. Hooligan came, too.

Tessa was still wearing her school clothes, but now she also had on her pink baseball cap with the sparkles, the one she always wears for detecting.

“Why did you put that on?” I asked.

“Same reason you put your notebook in your pocket.” Tessa grinned. “Just in case.”

Mrs. Silver's office is in the East Wing. When the president is a man, this part of the White House is for his wife, the First Lady. Since my mom's a girl and my dad would never make it as First Lady, the East Wing is for Aunt Jen and her staff.

When we got there, two men in gray suits were standing on either side of Mrs. Silver, who was sitting at her desk. Mrs. Silver introduced everybody, and we all shook hands except for Hooligan. He woofed.