Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Carnival Crime by Donald Sobol Page A

Brown.
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    Encyclopedia wasn’t looking for the spotlight. He had read more books than almost anyone and never forgot what he read. That was how he had gotten his nickname. Only his parents and his teachers called him by his real name, Leroy.
    Thursday night the Browns were having roast chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner. As his father poured gravy on his potatoes, Mrs. Brown said, “Careful, dear, you don’t want to drown them.”
    Chief Brown put down the gravy boat. “Sorry,” he said. “This museum case has me stumped.”
    â€œWhat happened?” asked Encyclopedia.
    â€œA small sculpture was stolen yesterday from the Idaville Museum. It was a statue of the Roman god Mercury.”
    â€œHow small is small?” asked Mrs. Brown.
    â€œIt was about a foot tall,” said Chief Brown. “And pretty heavy, too, because it was carved out of marble. The robbery took place a couple of hours after the museum had closed.”
    â€œDoesn’t the museum have security cameras and an alarm system?” asked Mrs. Brown.
    â€œThey certainly do,” said the Chief, “and they’re good ones. We reviewed the tapes. They show that all the museum visitors left when they were supposed to.”
    â€œAfter that?” asked Mrs. Brown.
    â€œAfter that,” Chief Brown said, “the security camera was mysteriously turned off. Now, it made sense that the alarm system was not activated for the night since people were still at work inside. But the security cameras are never turned off on purpose. That points to an inside job. The problem is, there were three employees inside the museum at the time the robbery occurred. One was the Curator of Antiquities, the second was a security guard, and the third was a janitor. They all claim to be innocent.”
    â€œThe Curator of Antiquities would certainly know how much a statue like that was worth,” said Encyclopedia.
    â€œHe ought to,” his father said. “In fact, he was the one who told us the statue is worth a hundred thousand dollars. However, he’s not familiar with how to turn the security cameras on and off.”
    â€œThe security guard could do that,” said Encyclopedia.
    â€œHe could,” agreed his father, “but he claims he was nowhere near the control room
    â€”which is where the switch off happened. We dusted for fingerprints. The place was clean as a whistle.”
    â€œWhat about the janitor?” asked Mrs. Brown.
    The Chief shrugged. “He says he knows nothing about art. If you need advice on washing a floor, though, he’s your man.”
    â€œHave you arrested anyone?” questioned Mrs. Brown.
    â€œNo,” said the Chief. “The problem is, the three suspects alibi one another. They were all in the building at the same time. The security guard was making his nightly rounds when he saw the curator working late in his office. They even said hello to each other. The security guard also saw the janitor washing the floor of the lobby. Both the security guard and the curator saw the janitor later rolling the pail away with the mop over his shoulder when the floor was done. They waved to him, too. Apparently, the staff doesn’t stand much on ceremony. They’re pretty friendly.”
    â€œI don’t suppose you can arrest them all?” asked Mrs. Brown.
    â€œNo,” said the Chief, “not unless we thought they were working together. We don’t think that. We’ve interviewed the other museum employees, and these three don’t seem to have known one another especially well. We’ve checked their work schedules. Nothing out of the ordinary. And that’s too bad. I’m afraid if we don’t zero in on one of them soon, the trail will go cold.”
    â€œDon’t worry about that,” said Encyclopedia. “I believe I know who’s artfully hiding his guilt.”
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    WHO DOES ENCYCLOPEDIA THINK IS THE