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Before the evening was over James managed to reach
Kath and Sue and tell them both about the Harker mystery.
The museum theft was another possible case that all
three of them had thought of, and Kath had discovered
a story about an executive who disappeared with almost
ten million dollars of his firm's money. The reward
for recovering that much sounded appealing.
So, the following morning, James and Kath took the
train into the city and found Sue already in the office
with a stack of newspapers and a pair of scissors. She
had clipped whole stories and then cut them into paragraphs,
many of which she had dissected even further. The scraps
of paper were arranged across the desk and she studied
them, shifting parts around thoughtfully.
James laughed. "What are you doing?"
"Reading," explained Sue, as if it was obvious.
She glanced hungrily at the brown paper bag in Kath's
hand.
"Do you always do that?"
"Do what?"
"Most people don't read with scissors."
"Oh." She wondered why so many people thought
she was strange. She wished they'd stop it. "I
like to put things in the proper order and throw out
all the padding."
"Do you do that with books?"
James saw a hint of regret in her expression. "Books
are annoying."
Kath opened the package. Inside there were three large
containers of fruit salad, cottage cheese and jello.
"Why annoying?"
"You can only see one page at a time."
There was an inescapable logic to her eccentricity
that James found delightful.
"You cut up everything you read?"
She shrugged. "Not library books."
Kath was intrigued too. "Is that why you're so
good at passing exams?"
"I guess," Sue said, thoughtfully. "It's
just easier to understand things when you change the
order around."
"Found anything interesting?" Kath asked.
"Not yet. But I think we should spend the day
looking around. Maybe you and James could go to the
museum while I check out the Harker Building."
"That sounds like a plan," agreed James,
knowing that Sue would work better alone and that Kath
would welcome his company and report back to Debbie
that he and Sue had spent the day apart.
"What do we look for?" Now that the time
had come to do some real detective work James realized
he wasn't at all sure how to go about it. The truth,
though he could not explain it to Kath, was that Sue
was supposed to do all the snooping. James and Kath
were there for backup and administration. Fortunately
Sue read his concerns.
"Oh, just take a look around, look at the room
where the stuff was stolen from, find out as much as
you can. I'll look for myself this afternoon, as long
as I have time."
Sue reached across to take some fruit salad. Then she
glanced out of the window, screamed and threw herself
under the desk.
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