Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Secret UFOs (7 page)

A grateful Ziggy shared the cookies with Encyclopedia.

Solution to
The Case of the Grabbed Groceries

Rusty said he had bought the groceries hours earlier. Yet he was nervous at the thought of Encyclopedia opening a can of soda near his face. The only reason for that would be because he expected the soda to shoot out if it was opened. That would only have happened if the cans had been shaken up recently—as they would have been if Rusty had been running with them back to the clubhouse only a few minutes before.

Faced with the prospect of being sprayed with a soda from the shaken cans, Rusty confessed to taking the groceries. He returned them to Ginger.

Solution to
The Case of the Giant Shark Tooth

Unlike most animals with teeth, sharks don't keep their adult teeth for their whole life. They actually lose all their teeth every month or so when new ones grow in to replace the worn-out old ones. Therefore sharks' teeth do not get the chance to grow over time as Duke said.

When Encyclopedia confronted Duke with the facts, Duke admitted that he made the sharks' teeth himself. He had carved them out of wood and painted them white. His fake shark teeth ended up in the trash along with his dream of some quick cash.

Solution to
The Case of the Missing Medallions

Mr. Cuthbert claimed that the glass had been broken by the thief standing outside the shop. But if the glass had been broken that way, the broken pieces would have fallen inside the shop onto the display case. However all the pieces of glass were outside the shop on the sidewalk. That meant the window had been broken from the inside—and only Mr. Cuthbert himself could have done that.

Encyclopedia caught the telltale clue of the glass. Mr. Cuthbert had to confess to having faked the crime. He hadn't planned it in advance, but when Winslow showed interest in the medallions, he thought he could throw suspicion onto him. Cuthbert had hoped to collect an insurance payment and then secretly sell the medallions as well. He needed the money because business had been bad.

Solution to
The Case of the Shipwreck

It's a really hot summer day in Idaville, which lies in the Northern Hemisphere. According to Wilford, it was also a really hot day at the beach where his uncle was at the southern tip of South America, which is in the Southern Hemisphere. However, when it is summer in the Northern Hemisphere, it is winter in the Southern Hemisphere. The seasons are reversed. Thus anyone at the bottom of South America only a week earlier would be freezing in the middle of winter—not going to the beach.

When Encyclopedia pointed this out, Wilford admitted that he had made the story up. The only uncle he had lived in Nebraska.

Solution to
The Case of Mrs. Washington's Diary

As Encyclopedia knew, it would have been quite a feat for George Washington's mother to write that someday her baby boy would be president. After all, he was born in 1732. At the time, there was no president, and no United States, either. Both of these things only came to be fifty-seven years later, after the Constitution of the United States had been adopted. Washington did become the first president in 1789, and his mother lived long enough to see him inaugurated.

When Encyclopedia informed him of his error, Jack admitted he had made the diary pages himself. He apologized to Sally and offered her anything she wanted in his booth for free. Sally found a nutcracker shaped like Teddy Roosevelt's head and took that instead. Her mother was delighted.