Ch. 10 A Match

It was an hour before they had to meet Dr. Banks. Katie and Kevin were packing up the evidence to show the scientist. They carefully placed the red pen in a plastic bag making sure their finger prints didn't contaminate the clue. Katie took her notebook just in case she needed to write down a few more details about the suspect. Kevin thought about how they would meet the scientist without their parents driving them.

Finally, he thought of an idea. "Katie! We could just tell mom and dad we're going to Lily's house! Her house is only a couple blocks away. I'm sure Mom would let us walk there," Kevin said happily.

"Great idea!!" Katie answered impressed with Kevin's cleverness. Katie and Kevin ran to the kitchen, where their mom and dad were. Katie asked their mom if they could walk to Lily's and have dinner with her family. "Sure!"  their mom agreed, glad to get her children out of the house.

Katie and Kevin walked out the door and headed toward Dr. Banks office. After fifteen minutes of walking, they reached their destination. "Hello there! Are you two kids here to see me?" Dr. Banks questioned, shocked that the children were so young. Katie and Kevin nodded. The scientist looked to be about in his early thirties. He was slender with brown, short hair and a long, white lab coat. Thick lab goggles rested on his forehead. The scientist led Katie and Kevin to a spacious room. There were a bunch of counters with microscopes and other equipment. Dr. Banks went to one of the counters. "Why don't you sit down, and tell me why you came here?" He asked, putting his goggles over his eyes.

Katie replied, "Well, we're looking for the person who stole the Mona Lisa, and we found a letter he wrote at the Louve. Their was a pen he dropped on the floor, and we think the thief's finger prints may be on it. If we identify the prints, we can find out who stole the painting."
"Wow! I can't believe that you two would try to crack this case. You should probably leave this to the adults." Dr. Banks responded.
Kevin said offended, "This is really important to us. Could you just try to identify the prints for us? We really think we're on to something."

Dr. Banks decided to humor them by testing the prints, though he still didn't believe them. Katie and Kevin watched him work not even trying to understand what he was doing. Soon the scientist actually found a print of interest.

Ch. 9 The Plan

As Katie and Kevin changed their clothes to get ready for bed, they thought about the clues they had gathered and tried to come up with a plan. Katie jumped into her bed and said to Kevin, "Let's write down the clues we collected on the notepad Mom gave us, so we don't forget anything important."
Kevin replied still changing his clothes, "Good idea! But write them in the middle of the notebook, so Mom won't find out."

Katie grabbed the notepad of her nightstand and took a pen. She scribbled down the following:

• Young Man: dressed in black trench coat, black, short, messy hair, and dirty green messenger bag 
• Note with thief's handwriting: written with red pen, messy handwriting, and pen has thief's finger prints

Kevin, reading the notes, blurted, "Looks good. Also, let's start looking for a forensic scientist before we forget." Katie got up and snatched Kevin's computer from his desk. She searched on Google for names of forensic scientists in town. Finally, Kevin glanced at the list and pointed out, "Pick the one that's closest to us. We need to get there on our own. There's NO way Mom will drive us!" 

Katie finally chose a scientist named, Dr. Joseph Banks. She quickly arranged an appointment for the next evening. Closing the computer, the two kids climbed into bed not wanting their parents to notice they were still awake.