As I gazed around the park, I noticed a figure hurrying down the path, towards the statue. I groaned silently. Chris had been watching me, and now he looked in the same direction.

  “Is that the butler guy?”

  “Yes, it’s Stenway.”

  Chris Blue frowned. “Wonder what he’s doing here.” He looked at me.

  “I guess I’ll go find out, then.” I hurried away from the group, crossing paths with Clive, who gave me an odd look.

  “Oh, hi, Tyler. What are you doing here?” Stenway’s mind was clearly somewhere else as he greeted me.

  “Why are you down here?”

  “I got a call about the statue. Actually, Mr. Left got the call, but since he’s not around, obviously I’m the one to handle it.” Stenway peered around the crowd of people. “What happened?”

  “From what we can tell, a branch came down and knocked the top of the statue off.”

  Stenway nodded. “That was a pretty nasty storm. A couple of branches came down as I was on my way over.”

  I nodded. “One almost hit us in the woods.” He gave me an odd look but before he could ask any questions, I rushed on. “The top half of the statue is missing.”

  “What?” Stenway stared at me. “What do you mean?”

  I shrugged. “Like, it’s not there. Nobody could find it. We even poked around in the branch that fell down to see if it was in there. It’s just gone.”

  “Really.” Stenway took off in earnest this time, elbowing through the crowd to make his way to the front. He actually didn’t need to do too much elbowing, people started to recognize him, and made way.

  I hurried back under the gazebo, to find the fellows ready to head back to our hideout in the woods. Chris Blue raised an eyebrow at me, but I shook my head. “Nothing important. He got a phone call.”

  Chris nodded. “Clive says it’s hollow.”

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  Digesting this, we walked back in silence. Clive checked around to make sure no one was watching, then one by one we slipped into the woods, and finally ducked into the cover of our little building.

  Chris Blue motioned to Peach, who flipped out his notebook and licked the end of a pencil. “Right. Let’s get started.”

  “How in the heck did the top of a statue vanish so fast?” Donny burst out, frowning.

  “And more importantly, why?” Chris folded his arms. “T.J., you get on that. Try to find out from the butler what might have happened to it. Did he have any reaction to the whole thing?” He waved a hand.

  “No, he seemed really preoccupied.” I frowned, trying to remember. But nothing stood out.

  “Well, it is what it is. We can’t get lucky every day.” He turned to face Clive. “Did you see anyone today?”

  “Nope, nothing. Just some birds on top of the gazebo.”

  “Peach?”

  “I didn’t see anything either.” Peach frowned, trying to remember. “I was very interested in the statue, so I might have missed something, or someone, but I really don’t think anyone was around.”

  “And yet, in ten minutes, the top of that thing vanished into thin air.” Chris looked down at his fingers, counting, then gave up and looked to Peach. “Any idea how much that thing might weigh?”

  Peach flipped back to his notes from when we first looked in to the statue. “Well, assuming it is marble (which I really don’t see how it can be if it’s hollow,) probably about a quarter ton. So for the top half of it, no less than 250 pounds. But really, the thing is hollow.”

  “So it can’t be marble?” Donny frowned.

  “Guys, we’re getting away from the point. Somebody moved that thing, with a lot of help, and also might I add, without leaving any marks from it.” That was something funny that I’d noticed; no drag marks on the ground, not even a dent from where the thing fell. This statue kept getting stranger and stranger.

  Chris sighed. “Really all we can do is research, and more research. We don’t know what happened to it, so we need to look back and see what we can dig up.” He brightened and sat up a bit. “Clive, you got anything going on today?” Clive shook his head. “Want to hang out here all day and watch that gazebo? See if anything funny happens to that statue?”

  Clive grinned and nodded. “Easy.”

  “Right. Peach, you’re for the library. Donny, go with him. T.J., you’re on the butler. Now, what else do we have today?”

  “This.” Peach slapped something down on the ground in the very center of the group. We all gasped and leaned forward, only for Donny to whoop “It’s here!” and snatch up the comic book. I leaned back and sighed. That was probably all we were going to get done today, then. I started to get antsy; I needed to feed the cats and check on Sydney.

  Chris Blue glanced up at me. “We’ll meet at the drugstore on Wednesday. Good luck.” Donny glanced up and waved at me as I left, crossing back across the park. Stenway was gone; good. So I was headed to the Left mansion.