Detective Camp by Ron Roy Read Free Book Online

this signature.”
    She held up a second finger. “Next, the length of the signature. Each time we sign our name, our signature is almost exactly the same length. Try itsometime. But forged signatures are often shorter or longer than the actual signature.”
    She went on to describe how a forger will lift his pen off the paper as he studies the signature he’s trying to copy. When the forger puts his pen back on the paper, he leaves a tiny space. Sometimes, she went on, there will be a space and a tiny ink blot if the forger is using a ballpoint pen.
    Mademoiselle Musée held up her fourth finger. “Most forgers are nervous,” she said with a little smile. “Their hand trembles as they are forging a name. Experts can spot signs of these hand tremors.”
    She told Detective Robb that she had work to do. The kids all clapped, and she disappeared into the house.
    “How would you like to see if you can all pick out a forged signature?” Detective Robb asked the kids.

    “Cool!” one of the Bear Cabin boys said.
    Detective Robb passed out a sheet of paper and a pencil to everyone. Each sheet was covered with signatures.
    “In each row of three signatures, two are real and one is a forgery,” Detective Robb said. “Circle the one you think is fake.”
    Dink glanced down at his paper. He saw
George Washington, Elvis Presley
, and a bunch of other famous names. He looked for spaces between letters and tiny blots of ink. In the George Washington row, he circled the one signature that was shorter than the other two.
    After five minutes, Detective Robb asked the kids to stop. “Now I’d like you to try forging a signature. Pick any name on your paper and try to copy it exactly. I think you’ll find it’s pretty difficult.”
    Detective Robb walked around and looked at the kids’ papers. “Say, that’s an excellent replica of Abe Lincoln’s signature,” he said as he walked past Josh. “I’ll bet you draw or paint, am I right?”
    Josh nodded. “I like to draw a lot,” he said.
    “I thought so,” Detective Robb said. “You’d make a good forger!”
    “Hey, Josh, forge me a check for a million dollars!” Brendan called out.
    Everyone laughed except Dink. He put his pencil down next to his paper. The thought that had been buzzing in his brain like a bee in a bottle finally surfaced.
    “It’s almost eleven-thirty,” Detective Robb called out. “We have to stop now. Tomorrow I’ll show you how to find and lift fingerprints.”
    “Don’t leave yet,” Dink said quietly to Josh and Ruth Rose.
    The three of them stayed seated while the rest of the kids wandered toward the cabins. Detective Robb picked up his coffee mug and went into the kitchen.
    Josh looked at Dink. “What’s going on? You look like you sat on a tack.”
    “I figured out how Mademoiselle Musée is stealing the paintings,” Dink said very quietly. “I think she’s making copies of them and keeping the real ones.”
    Josh and Ruth Rose just stared at him.
    “What do you mean? How do you know?” asked Ruth Rose.
    “I can’t prove it, but listen,” Dink said. He started by telling Josh and Ruth Rose about the yellow paint he’d gotten on his pajama sleeve.
    “When we snuck in to return the ring last night, I looked at the paintingshe left under the towel. I must have dragged my sleeve across it,” Dink said. “The paint was still wet! We thought that was the real Grandma Moses painting. But I think it was a copy that Mademoiselle Musée painted. I think she hid the real one inside the hollow door on the trunk. We just saw it there!”
    “So where’s the copy?” Josh asked.
    Dink remembered the stack of framed paintings on the sofa.
    “I think it’s in the great room, waiting to be hung on the wall,” he said. “When the Darbys see it, they’ll think it’s the real one.”
    “They’d never even know the difference!” Ruth Rose said. “They’d just think she did an excellent job of cleaning it.”
    Dink nodded.