The Case of the Missing Dinosaur Egg Read online

  The First Kids Mysteries

  The Case of the Rock ’n’ Roll Dog

  The Case of the Diamond Dog Collar

  The Case of the Ruby Slippers

  The Case of the Piggy Bank Thief

  The Case of the Missing Dinosaur Egg

  THE CASE OF THE

  MISSING

  DINOSAUR

  EGG

  MARTHA FREEMAN

  Text copyright © 2013 by Martha Freeman

  All Rights Reserved

  HOLIDAY HOUSE is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

  www.holidayhouse.com

  ISBN 978-0-8234-2782-6 (ebook)w

  ISBN 978-0-8234-2781-9 (ebook)r

  Library of Congress cataloging-in-publication data

  Freeman, Martha, 1956-

  The case of the missing dinosaur egg / by Martha Freeman. — 1st ed.

  p. cm. — (First kids mystery ; #5)

  Summary: Seven-year-old Tessa and ten-year-old Cammie, daughters of the first female president, and their dog Hooligan, investigate when an ostrich egg is substituted for a rare dinosaur egg on loan from another country.

  ISBN 978-0-8234-2523-5

  1. White House (Washington, D.C.)—Juvenile fiction. [1. White House (Washington, D.C.) —Fiction. 2. Presidents— Family—Fiction. 3. Sisters—Fiction. 4. Dogs—Fiction. 5. Lost and found possessions—Fiction. 6. Washington (D.C.) —Fiction. 7. Mystery and detective stories.] I. Title.

  PZ7.F87496Cap 2013

  [Fic]—dc23

  2012033735

  For Professor Ann Marie Major, in gratitude for her friendship, her expertise and her students.

  CHARACTERS

  Cameron Parks (Cammie), our narrator, is the ten-year-old daughter of U.S. president Marilee Parks and her husband, Rick. Since Cameron’s mom was inaugurated in January, she has lived in the White House with her extended family.

  Tessa Parks, Cameron’s sister, is seven years old and a drama queen.

  Nathan Leone (Nate) is Cameron and Tessa’s cousin, the only child of their aunt Jen. Nate was born in Korea. Aunt Jen adopted him as an infant and brought him to live with her in San Diego. Now he and Aunt Jen live with Tessa and Cameron’s family in the White House.

  Jennifer Maclaren Leone (Aunt Jen) is Cameron and Tessa’s aunt and Nate’s mom. A widow, she lives with Nate in an apartment on the third floor of the White House and acts as First Lady in President Parks’s administration. President Parks is her younger sister.

  Jeremy, Charlotte and Malik are Secret Service agents who help keep the First Family safe.

  Mr. Morgan and Mr. Webb are security officers with the Smithsonian Institution. Previously, they helped Tessa, Cameron and Nate solve the Case of the Ruby Slippers.

  Barbara Maclaren (Granny, aka Judge Maclaren) is Cameron, Tessa and Nate’s grandmother. She used to be a judge in California, and before that a district attorney, and before that a police officer. When Cameron and Tessa’s mom won the presidential election, Granny agreed to come to Washington to help take care of Cameron, Tessa and Nate.

  Willis Bryant is Granny’s special friend. He used to run the White House elevator but now works for Cameron’s family, taking care of their too-energetic dog, Hooligan, on weekdays.

  Jan and Larry (she’s blond, he’s not) are popular local newscasters in Greater Metropolitan Washington.

  Marilee Maclaren Parks (Mom) is Cameron and Tessa’s mom and, since January, the president of the United States. She’s a lawyer, and she used to be a senator from California.

  Rick Parks (Dad) is Cameron and Tessa’s dad. He has a job building airplanes in California, so he is usually in Washington only on weekends. He used to be an air force pilot.

  Mr. Brackbill is the librarian at Cameron, Tessa and Nate’s school.

  Evgenia is in Cameron and Nate’s fifth-grade class. She is very smart and quiet.

  Hooligan is Cameron and Tessa’s dog. He looks like a Dr. Seuss version of an Afghan hound. “Hooligan” is a word that means rowdy, but Hooligan is not really bad. He just has too much energy.

  Ms. Ann Major is a deputy assistant press secretary in the office of President Parks. Her beagle, Pickles, has playdates with First Dog Hooligan.

  Antonia Alfredo-Chin (Toni) is a friend of Cameron, Tessa and Nate’s who also happens to be the niece of the president of a certain nearby nation and the daughter of its ambassador to the United States. She lives in Washington, D.C. Her dog, Ozzabelle, was a gift from Tessa and Cameron.

  CHAPTER ONE

  My little sister, Tessa, leaned over and whispered in my ear, “That is the biggest egg I ever saw.”

  True, it was a really big egg. But we were in the audience at a talk at a museum, and we were supposed to be quiet. I shushed my sister, but she ignored me.

  “It makes sense, though, doesn’t it, Cammie?” Tessa said. “Dinosaurs were big. So their babies were big. A big baby needs a big egg.”

  Now my cousin Nate joined in. “They’re called hatchlings, not babies, Tessa.” Nate is ten like me. Tessa is seven.

  Nate’s mom looked over at us, put her finger to her lips and nodded at the man who was talking. On the table in front of him was the gleaming, cream-colored egg.

  I pointed at myself and shrugged, meaning Me? I didn’t do anything!, which made Nate’s mom—my aunt Jen—frown.

  Oh, fine.

  It was a Saturday afternoon in April, the week before Easter. Outside, it was a beautiful day. We live in Washington, D.C., and down by the Tidal Basin the cherry trees were blossoming. What I really wanted to do was go play outside with my dog, but instead I was cooped up with a bunch of ancient bones and grown-ups at the National Museum of Natural History.

  Don’t get me wrong. I like the museum, and I like dinosaurs. But when you’re the kid of the president of the United States, like I am, you spend a little too much time being quiet and polite.

  With no choice, I shook the wiggles out of my shoulders, resettled my posterior into the chair and tried to listen. The speaker’s name was Professor Cordell Bohn, and he was a paleontologist—pronounced “pay-lee-un-TALL-uh-jist”—which is a person who studies long-ago plants and animals, like dinosaurs.

  “Most people are surprised to learn that fossilized dinosaur eggs are reasonably common in many locations around the world,” Professor Bohn was saying. “What’s unique in this case, uh . . . unique—”

  Professor Bohn stopped, looked down at the egg and raised his eyebrows. Was he listening to something?

  A few seconds passed, nothing happened and Professor Bohn tried again.

  “As I was saying, this find may help us better understand the link between dinosaurs and modern-day birds. We are hoping to study the shell—”

  He stopped again, and this time everybody heard it—rata-tap-tap-tap coming from the egg.

  What the heck?

  Somebody gasped; other people whispered and pointed. Professor Bohn himself took a step backward but at the same time said, “There is no cause for alarm.”

  Meanwhile, my little sister leaned over. “Cammie? Is it going to hatch?”

  Nate answered before I could. “Don’t be ridiculous. Dinosaurs have been extinct for sixty-five million years.”

  Extinct or not, the rata-tap continued, and now the egg began to wobble!

  To the left of me, a man wearing an untucked white shirt and black dress pants jumped up, ready to run. Next thing, the people beside him did the same; then . . . rata-tata-tap . . . rata-tata-TAP . . . rata-tata-CRACK! The eggshell broke and—right before our eyes—something damp, gray and funny-looking started to bust out!

  CHAPTER TWO

  “Gangway!” someone
shouted, and a lot of people headed for the exits.

  Meanwhile, a lady from the museum cried, “Ladies and gentlemen! Please exit in an orderly manner!”

  Exit? Who wanted to exit? I wanted to see what was in that egg! But then my little sister sprang up, and of course I had to comfort her. “Don’t worry, Tessa. It’s much too small to hurt us.”

  “I know that—duh. I just want a closer look!” And—before Aunt Jen or the Secret Service could stop her—Tessa started climbing over chairs to get to the front of the room.

  Aunt Jen sputtered, “Oh, for Pete’s sake!” and climbed after Tessa, except Aunt Jen was wearing a narrow skirt and high heels, so navigating chairs was maybe not her most graceful maneuver. Nate and I tried not to laugh as she tripped and stumbled forward, but in the confusion, I was pretty sure no one else even noticed.

  Meanwhile, I wished I could see what the egg was doing, but there were too many bodies in front of me.

  “Jeremy!” I looked around for the tallest Secret Service agent. “Can you see?”

  Jeremy stood on tiptoes. “Looks like the little fella’s making progress,” he said. “There’s part of its head and maybe a shoulder . . . er, if it’s even got shoulders.”

  “Does it have a crest—can you see?” Nate wanted to know. “Like a velociraptor?”

  “What about huge, deadly teeth?” I asked. “Like T. rex?”

  Jeremy shook his head. “Hard to tell from here. But if I had to guess, I’d say it had a beak and damp little feathers.”

  Nate nodded. “That makes sense. The latest research indicates many dinosaurs did have feathers.”

  I said, “Wait—I thought according to you it couldn’t be a dinosaur.”

  My cousin shrugged. “It’s a dinosaur egg, isn’t it?”

  Over all the noise in the room, I heard something new—laughter, which turned out to be Professor Bohn’s.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, “if I can reclaim your attention? I’m afraid those of you hoping for something prehistoric are going to be disappointed. On the other hand, you could call this chick a modern-day dinosaur.”

  Nate grabbed my arm. “Come on. Let’s get closer to the action.”

  Jeremy followed us as we made our way through the crowd. Soon we could see the chick’s busy beak, chipping away at its prison, and pieces of white shell littering the floor and table.

  “Hey,” I said when I finally got a good look. “I’ve got a book about birds at home. Isn’t that an ostrich?”

  Professor Bohn heard me and nodded. “Very good, Cameron.”

  “I knew that,” said Nate quickly.

  Tessa shook her head. “Wow—nature is sure awesome! Who’d’ve thought an ostrich could come out of a dinosaur egg?”

  Professor Bohn made a face that meant he was trying not to smile. “Well, actually, Tessa, the truth is this egg never belonged to a dinosaur. Dinosaur eggs, as you’ll see when you tour the rest of the exhibit, are fossilized and look like rocks.”

  Aunt Jen said, “In that case, you must have known this egg belonged to a bird. Why didn’t you say anything?”

  Professor Bohn looked down at his shoes. “My bad.” Then he looked up, and I noticed there were lots of laugh crinkles around his eyes. “I have a soft spot for pranks, and it was obvious to me that’s what this was. I didn’t want to spoil the fun, so I’m afraid I asked the museum staff if we could wait and see how it played out.”

  My aunt does not have what you’d call a big sense of humor. Without smiling, she nodded and said, “Ah.”

  Meanwhile, Nate asked, “Where’s the real dinosaur egg?”

  Professor Bohn started to answer, but the lady from the museum beat him to it. “Nothing to worry about. We have the case well in hand.”

  “Case?” Tessa perked up. “Are you saying there’s a mystery?”

  “Oh, no, no, no.” The lady shook her head. “It’s not a mystery at all. The egg has, uh . . . just been misplaced. I’m sure it will turn up soon.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  Tessa folded her arms across her chest and frowned. “Well, that’s disappointing.” The other grown-ups all looked super serious, but Professor Bohn laughed.

  I was beginning to think I liked Professor Bohn.

  Also, I knew what Tessa was thinking. She wanted a new mystery for us to solve! Since January, when Mom got to be president and our family moved into the White House, Nate, Tessa and I have investigated four different cases—and we’ve even been on the news.

  By now we could see the ostrich chick’s head—big beady eyes and a fierce-looking beak at the top of a long spotted neck. Honestly? It was ugly. But I remembered one time we had chicken eggs hatch in my class at school. The chicks started off disgusting, but then they dried off, fluffed up and got cute.

  Tessa must have had the same idea, because she said, trying to sound casual about it, “So, who gets to keep the ostrich?”

  “Oh, no.” Aunt Jen shook her head. “Unh-unh, Tessa. Not happening.”

  Tessa said, “Ple-e-ease,” Aunt Jen said, “No-o-o,” and finally a guy in a blue shirt explained it would take the chick hours to get out of its egg, and then it would need to be washed in special soap to kill germs, and after that it would have to live in a special kind of electric box for a few days while it got used to life in the world.

  “As it’s growing up, it needs a pen and the company of other chicks,” he said. “Plus there’s one more thing. About half of ostrich chicks die . . . even if you do everything right.”

  My sister looked horrified.

  Aunt Jen said, “You seem to know a lot about ostriches.”

  The man smiled and said he worked at the National Zoo. “We don’t have ostriches,” he said, “but we have rheas and emus, which are also ratites—big birds that don’t fly.”

  Aunt Jen looked at Tessa. “Since the zoo has the equipment to raise a chick, why don’t we let them take care of this guy? Then when he’s bigger, you can go visit.”

  Tessa sighed. “I guess, but can we name him, at least?”

  “What did you have in mind?” Aunt Jen asked.

  “Uh . . .” Tessa looked at me. “Cammie, you do it.”

  I grinned. “Isn’t it obvious? Dino!”

  By this time, almost everyone had left the lecture room. Some of them were probably still running for their lives, but the rest were looking at the dinosaur egg exhibit, which was down a hallway. Professor Bohn said he didn’t mind losing his audience. Nothing he had been planning to say was as exciting as watching a dinosaur egg hatch.

  “Since we’re finished here, would you kids like to take a quick tour of the exhibit?” Professor Bohn asked us.

  We kids never had a chance to answer. Aunt Jen did it for us: “They would love to.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Professor Bohn led us to the exhibit hall, where a sign over the doorway read: CRACKING UP: THE INNER LIVES OF DINOSAUR EGGS.

  We went in. Along one wall there were windows looking onto 3-D scenes of mama dinosaurs taking care of eggs and hatchlings. In the middle of the room were glass cases containing real fossilized eggs and the fossils of young dinosaurs. A few contained fossils of broken eggs with the bones of never-hatched hatchlings inside.

  Poor hatchlings.

  The reason the fossils look like rocks, Professor Bohn explained, is simple: They are rocks. An egg fossil is made when an egg gets buried in sand and the sand gets flooded with water. Over millions of years, minerals in the water mix with minerals in the eggshell and form rock.

  Here are some more things I learned about dinosaur eggs that day:

  • Dinosaur nests have been found at more than two hundred sites around the world.

  • In Montana, a whole lot have been found that were made by a kind of dinosaur that took really good care of its hatchlings.

  • Most dinosaurs buried their eggs in leaves, grass or dirt to keep them warm and safe.

  • The biggest dinosaur eggs are about two feet long, and
the smallest are about the size of goose eggs.

  It’s true I started the afternoon with a bad attitude, but the stuff Professor Bohn told us was pretty cool—especially what he told us last.

  “The more we learn about dinosaurs, the more we find out how much they’re like birds,” he said. “They apparently had feathers—”

  “I knew that,” Nate said.

  “—and their eggs and bodily structure are also avian, which means birdlike. In fact, some scientists believe birds and dinosaurs are the same type of animals and shouldn’t be considered separate at all.”

  By then it was time for us to leave the museum.

  “What did you think of the exhibit, kids?” a reporter called as we walked through the rotunda. That’s the big round room at the front where there’s a huge stuffed African bull elephant.

  Nate and I smiled, gave thumbs-up signs and kept walking.

  But Tessa stopped, which—as usual—caused all the photographers in the room to go crazy snapping pictures. “We saw a dinosaur hatch,” she said. “It was so-o-o cool!”

  The reporter scribbled something, and a lot of people laughed. Aunt Jen said, “A dinosaur, Tessa? Or an ostrich?”

  “Same thing!” Tessa said. “That’s what Professor Bohn told us.”

  This led to more questions, and Tessa would happily have stayed all day, explaining and having her picture taken, but Aunt Jen thanked the news guys and shooed us forward. Meanwhile, Professor Bohn and the woman from the museum hung back and took questions. The woman was a paleontologist, too: Professor Teresa Rexington. She and Professor Bohn and a team of scientists from a certain nearby nation had found the dinosaur egg fossil that was now missing.

  Our van was parked outside at the curb. We were about to climb in for the short ride home when I noticed two familiar men on their way up the steps to the museum. Among all those people wearing jeans and T-shirts, they stood out because they were wearing suits.