CHAPTER 4

A Mystery Afoot

“A space suit?” Amal said. “Why would there be a space suit at the American History Museum instead of here?”

“It’s part of a special exhibit,” Raining explained. His father, Mr. Aarik Sam, was the head of education programs at the museum, so it wasn’t actually his museum, but he worked there. “It’s only there for a couple of months, part of the Famous Astronauts of the Twentieth Century exhibit.”

As Raining explained, the four friends moved toward the middle of the Space Mission Timeline.

“Ooh, I want to see it,” Clementine said. “Why haven’t we seen it?”

“Because it hasn’t even opened yet,” Raining said, taking a seat on the gleaming steel bench near the center of the room. The bench faced the museum’s own collection of space suits. “It was supposed to open this weekend, but I don’t know what they’ll do now.”

“What was so special about the space suit?” Amal asked, confused. After all, the Air and Space Museum had lots of space suits in their collection. Why would a thief decide to grab one from the American History Museum?

“It was Sally Ride’s,” Raining said. “She was —”

“One of the first women in space!” Amal interrupted. “After Valentina Tereshkova, I mean. I can’t believe her space suit is going to be on display at your museum next week and you didn’t tell me? How could you not tell me?”

“Take it easy!” Raining said, edging away from her to hide behind Wilson. “I was going to tell you. But it’s not going to be on display next week, remember? It got stolen.”

Amal took a deep breath and straightened herself. “Okay,” she said. “We’ll have to get it back.”

Clementine wrapped an arm around her friend’s shoulder. “I know you’re upset,” she said, “but don’t you think a theft like this is sort of out of our league?”

“Yeah,” Wilson agreed. “We should let the police handle this. It’s a big deal. It’ll be all over the national news, I bet.”

“But isn’t it weird?” Amal said, staring at the Air and Space Museum’s collection of suits. “I mean, look around — Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, Alan Bean, Frank Borman, Charles Duke … it goes on and on. We have almost twenty space suits here. Why take that one?”

Amal looked at her friends, but they seemed as stumped as she was.

“Maybe it was easier to get at,” Raining suggested. “It wasn’t on the floor and on display yet.”

“Maybe,” Wilson said. “But Amal is right. It is strange.”

“Then it’s settled,” Amal said, grinning. “We go to Raining’s museum, pronto, and investigate.”

“But what about your weird sounds?” Clementine asked. “Don’t we already have a mystery to solve here?”

Amal ignored Raining’s and Wilson’s confused looks. “Forget about that,” she said. “It sounds like the real mystery is going on over there.”