Who Broke Lincoln's Thumb? (4 page)

“My pleasure, Mr. President. Are those the samples, sir?” Ms. Pierce asked, nodding toward the paper towel.

“Yes,” said the president. “Please compare them with the red mark KC saw on Lincoln's left hand. Let me know what you find immediately!”

“Yes, sir!” Ms. Pierce hurried away with the samples.

“How long will it take her to find out?” Marshall asked.

“Probably not long at all, once she compares them,” the president said. “I have other FBI staff watching Fiona and the two college boys and the man on stilts. As soon as we get the word from Ms. Pierce, an arrest will be made.”

They were all in the library eating brownies when the phone rang twenty minutes later. The president put down his milk to answer it. “Yes, I see. Thank you very much, Ms. Pierce,” he said before hanging up.

Everyone stared at the president.

“Which one is it?” KC asked.

“That red mark did not come from nail polish or Frisbee plastic or a painted stilt,” the president said. “It was made by something else entirely.”

“What was it?” his wife asked.

“Ms. Pierce said the mark is some kind of red paper with glue on one side,” the president said. “She'll do a more thorough study in her lab. But I'm afraid we won't get the thumb back in time for the celebration.”

Everyone looked up at the clock.

The ceremony would begin in two hours.

“I'll go change my speech,” the president said, shaking his head in disgust. “The Lincoln statue will never be the same.”

Just then Mary Kincaid burst into the room. “Sir, I just received this!” she blurted. She was holding a piece of paper and an envelope.

“Mary, what's the matter?” the president asked.

She passed him the paper. “It's a ransom note,” she said. “For Lincoln's thumb!”

The president placed the paper on the coffee table.

Everyone read the note silently.

WE HAVE THE THUMB. YOU CAN HAVE IT BACK FOR $100,000. PUT THE MONEY IN A GARBAGE BAG. LEAVE THE BAG IN THE TRASH CAN ON THE SOUTHEAST CORNER OF THE REFLECTING POOL. MAKE THE DROP AT EXACTLY FOUR O'CLOCK! WE'LL BE WATCHING. IF YOU SEND COPS, THE THUMB DISAPPEARS FOREVER!

“I can't believe this is happening!” President Thornton shouted. “Whoever heard of holding a thumb hostage?”

“Why four o'clock?” Marshall asked.

“These thieves are smart,” the president said. “They picked a time when there would be thousands of tourists around the Reflecting Pool. No one will notice them pick up the money.”

“What are you going to do, Zachary?” Lois asked quietly.

The president shook his head. “Pay the ransom. I don't have a choice,” he mumbled as he left the room.

Mary Kincaid picked up the ransom note by its edges. “Maybe they left fingerprints,” she said, then followed the president.

KC's mom let out a sigh. “What are you kids going to do?” she asked, walking to the door. “I have to be with Zachary.”

“Finish these brownies,” Marshall said, reaching for one.

“We'll be fine, Mom,” KC said. Her mother nodded and went to find the president.

KC began pacing in front of Marshall. “Did you notice that the ransom note said
‘we'?” she asked. “So it wasn't just one person who stole the thumb.”

“Maybe it was that man with his wife and kid,” Marshall said. “Remember, he was taking pictures when we first got there this morning.”

“Marsh, he's the one who told
us
the thumb was missing,” KC said.

She reached for the snapshot of Stub on the ladder at 10:07. Lincoln still had his thumb.

KC's picture, taken a half hour later, showed no thumb.

KC tapped the snapshot of Stub standing on the black ladder. “Whoever broke Lincoln's thumb off had to climb these ladders,” she reasoned.

Marsh was busy swallowing, so he just nodded.

“And the only time it could have been done was when Stub and Ralphie were taking their coffee break,” KC went on. She tapped the photo again. “This picture proves the thumb was on Lincoln's hand before their break.”

Marshall swiped his tongue across his chocolatey lips. “So?”

“So maybe Stub and Ralphie saw the thieves walk between the columns but thought they were just tourists,” KC said. “It would take only a few minutes for someone to climb the ladders and smack off the thumb!”

KC's eyes sparkled. “Let's go find Stub and Ralphie,” she said. “If they saw the thieves, they'll be heroes!”

KC called D.C. information and learned that the National Park Service had a building where they kept the maintenance equipment. It was located behind the National Museum of Natural History.

The kids trekked down Pennsylvania Avenue, then cut across a wide lawn shaded by tall trees.

The Park Service structure looked like a huge barn. It was as tall as the trees that grew around it and was built of faded bricks and thick timbers. The only entrance was a high, wide door made of wood, large enough for trucks to drive in
and out. But cut into this giant-sized opening was a small, human-sized door. It, too, was closed.

Just as KC reached to knock on the door, it swung open. Two young women came out, both in gray Park Service uniforms. They each carried backpacks. “Have a good weekend, Judy,” one of the women said to her friend. “See you Monday.”

The women smiled at KC and Marshall. “Can we help you?” the one called Judy asked.

“We're looking for Stub and Ralphie,” Marshall said.

The other woman pointed back over her shoulder. “They're in the back room,” she said. “But you'd better hurry. They're getting ready to quit for the day.”

KC and Marshall thanked the women and hurried inside. The floor was concrete and the room deeply shadowed. A few small light bulbs cast a dim glow from the high ceiling. The only windows were at the very top, and they were so dirty that almost no daylight came through.

The cavelike place smelled like dirt and rotting leaves. Peering into the shadows, the kids could make out large equipment for taking care of lawns and gardens. The tractors and mowers looked like sleeping monsters.

“This place is creepy,” Marshall whispered. “Where are we going, anyway?”

KC pointed straight ahead at a light shining through a small door. They heard sounds coming from a radio or TV set.

When the kids reached the door, they
peeked inside. It was another massive room, but at least this one was well lit. A dusty rug lay on the concrete floor under some furniture and a TV set. On one wall, KC saw a sink. Lined up against the wall were pails, brooms, plastic buckets of soap, and a basket filled with cleaning rags.

Ralphie was sprawled on a sofa in front of the TV, eating potato chips.

Stub stood in a corner next to a ladder that leaned against the wall. High over his head, more ladders hung from a rack suspended from the ceiling.

Stub pushed a button on the wall, and a loud clanking sound drowned out the sound of the TV. The entire rack holding the ladders slowly lowered until it was level with Stub's head. When Stub
released the button, the rack stopped.

“Hi,” KC said. “It's KC and Marshall, remember us?”

Both men turned toward the door.

Stub blinked, then took a step toward the kids. “Oh, hi,” he said. “The president's kid, right?”

KC nodded. “Well, not really, but he's my mom's husband,” she said.

Ralphie sat up on the sofa.

“We're helping the president find Lincoln's thumb,” KC went on. “We think it was stolen during your coffee break.”

“You do?” Ralphie asked. He turned off the TV.

“It had to be then,” Marshall said. He explained about the times that the two pictures were taken. “The thumb was still there when you had your picture taken at
10:07, but it was gone a half hour later.”

“Yeah, you're right,” Stub said. He hung the ladder on the rack, then walked over and sat in a chair.

“So is that when you went for your break?” Marshall continued.

Stub nodded. “It must've been right around then,” he said. “Yeah, now I remember. That tourist who snapped my picture? I remember, we went for our break right after the guy gave Ralphie the Polaroid.”

“Where were you when you drank your coffee?” KC asked. “I mean, could you see if anyone went near the statue?”

“We sat in the truck,” Ralphie said.

“Yeah, but it was raining like crazy,” Stub said. “I remember saying to Ralphie, ‘Gee, I can't see nothing out of these
windows!' So we couldn't see if anyone went near the statue or not.”

“Rats!” KC said. She started pacing back and forth. She glanced at the clock on the wall. “It's almost three-thirty. The president is going to drop off the ransom in a half hour!”

“He is?” Stub asked, sitting up straighter.

“Yes, it's the only way we can get the thumb back,” KC said, pacing again.

She stopped next to the rack of ladders. Behind her, she heard Marshall telling Stub and Ralphie about the ransom note.

KC had never seen so many ladders in her life. They hung straight down from the rack, like giant icicles. On the bottom rung of each ladder, there was a yellow
label telling the ladder's length. Next to the yellow labels were smaller red ones with the words DANGER! KEEP AWAY FROM ELECTRIC WIRES! printed in bold black letters.

KC thought of the red mark she had seen on the stub of Lincoln's thumb. FBI scientist Pierce had told the president that the mark was some kind of red paper with glue on the back.

These labels are glued on
, KC said to herself.

KC's mind raced back to ten-thirty. She and Marshall were at the statue. One of the ladders was lying on the floor where anyone could have tripped over it. Why wasn't it leaning against the statue, like the other ladder?

In her mind, she saw Stub and Ralphie
climbing the steps in front of the monument, coming from their coffee break. It was still windy, but the rain had stopped. The sun was shining.

So was Stub lying when he said it was raining during their coffee break? Why would he lie about that? Unless … and suddenly it all made sense to KC.

The ladder she had seen lying on the floor had knocked off the thumb. Maybe the wind had blown the ladder into the statue. When the ladder hit the thumb, part of the label scraped off, leaving the red mark.

KC felt her stomach dive toward her feet. Praying she wasn't being watched, she tried to peel off part of a red label.

“KC,” she heard Marshall say.

Then she felt a hand on her shoulder.

It was Stub, and she didn't like the look on his face.

Behind Stub, Marshall looked at KC with a question in his eyes.

KC tried her best to send a silent message to Marshall:
RUN!

Stub put a finger on the wall button. With a tremendous clatter, the ladder rack began heading toward the ceiling.

Stub turned KC toward Marshall and Ralphie. “Go have a seat next to your pal, missy,” he said. “Nice and slow. Ralphie, lock the door.”

KC had no choice but to do as Stub told her. Her legs were shaking so hard she wasn't sure she could make it to the sofa.

“What's going on?” Marshall asked as he watched Ralphie snap the lock on the door. “Hey, why are you—”

“They
took the thumb, Marsh,” KC said. Even her voice was shaking. “These are the crooks!”

“When did you figure it out?” Stub asked, plopping into his chair.

“Just now,” KC said. “When I saw those red labels on all the ladders. You left both
ladders standing against the statue when you took your break. You lied about it being rainy, but it was real windy. One of the ladders blew against Lincoln's hand and busted the thumb off. The red label left the red mark.”

Ralphie came and sat next to Stub. “We didn't mean to break the thing off,” he said. “After it happened, we didn't know what to do, so we hid it.”