Lena Jones - Murder at the Museum

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2019

Published in this ebook edition in 2019

HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd,

HarperCollins Publishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

The HarperCollins Children’s Books website address is

www.harpercollins.co.uk

Text copyright © Tibor Jones 2019

Cover design copyright © HarperCollins Publishers 2019

Cover illustration by Alba Filella

Tibor Jones asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008211899

Ebook Edition © March 2019 ISBN: 9780008211905

Version: 2018-12-12

For Lizzie and Hannah

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2019 Published in this ebook edition in 2019 HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF The HarperCollins Children’s Books website address is www.harpercollins.co.uk Text copyright © Tibor Jones 2019 Cover design copyright © HarperCollins Publishers 2019 Cover illustration by Alba Filella Tibor Jones asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins. Source ISBN: 9780008211899 Ebook Edition © March 2019 ISBN: 9780008211905 Version: 2018-12-12

Dedication For Lizzie and Hannah

1. Rule Breaker

2. Work Placement

3. Crawl Space

4. The Black Bamboo

5. The Sinkhole

6. The Forgotten Underground

7. New Girl

8. Homework

9. Smugglers’ Dock

10. Found Out

11. Running out of Time

12. Land of Gold

13. A Cold Dip

14. A Sweatshirt in the Works

15. Rescued!

16. Epilogue

Onomatopoeic Cipher

Acknowledgements

Keep Reading …

Read all the Agatha Oddly adventures

About the Publisher

‘That film was crazy!’ says Liam with satisfaction as we step out of the Odeon.

The evening air is pleasantly warm and there are still hordes of people milling around in Leicester Square. We navigate through them. Liam turns his phone back on, while I fish out the last scraps of popcorn from my box. We’ve just seen the latest crime thriller – Midnight Delivery – and can’t wait to point out all its plot holes.

‘I knew it was the window cleaner,’ I say. ‘He was far too nosy. And as for the detective – he was soooo slow.’ I laugh. ‘Brianna would’ve had a field day! Why did she say she couldn’t come?’ Liam is my best friend, but Brianna is a close second. The three of us hang out together a lot .

‘Oh … I think she had homework,’ he says.

I chuckle. ‘That figures. One full day left of the holidays and she’s finally getting round to it.’ Liam and I always get our schoolwork done at the start of the holidays, but Brianna likes to leave it until the last possible minute. I once saw her writing in an exercise book while she was walking down the street to school.

Liam’s too busy looking at something on his phone to reply, so I wander over to a bin and dump my empty popcorn box. On a pavement board close by is a poster, with the words LORD MAYOR’S FIREWORKS! in big letters at the top . I scan the details. The extravaganza – with ‘over 15,000 fireworks!’ – will take place beside the Thames, on Sunday.

‘Isn’t September a bit early for the Lord Mayor’s fireworks?’ I say as Liam comes over. ‘Don’t they usually do them in November – around Guy Fawkes Night?’ I think some more. ‘And I’m sure they’re usually on a Saturday.’

He doesn’t answer my question, but says, ‘Check this out,’ and he holds out his phone, so I can see the screen. It’s a news alert:

BREAKING NEWS: Murder at British Museum

I stare at the red letters for a moment, feeling a familiar excitement. It’s been five weeks since I solved the case of the red slime that had polluted London’s water supply, and I’m itching to get going again. Things have been too quiet with no cases to solve, so I haven’t been enjoying my summer holidays as much as usual.

I take his phone and click on the link. There’s not much information to go on yet:

A member of staff has been stabbed to death shortly after closing time this evening at the British Museum. Police have yet to release the name of the staff member, who is believed to be an attendant who may have disturbed an intruder. A museum exhibit is said to be missing from a display case.

I feel a surge of happiness. ‘Finally, an actual case!’ I catch Liam’s eye as I hand back his phone. ‘Come on – we need to investigate!’

He scrutinises me. ‘Agatha, tell me you’re not actually pleased that someone’s been murdered …?’

My cheeks turn red; hopefully he won’t have noticed. ‘Of course not.’ I study my nails: currently black with silver stars. I’m especially pleased with the stars, which have come out just right.

‘Anyway,’ he continues, ‘it’s a murder investigation – you won’t be able to just wander in there.’

This is the type of challenge I live for. ‘Of course I will. “No Case Too Odd”, remember?’ I say, reciting the Oddlow Agency’s motto. I’d got sick of people making fun of my surname, Oddlow (Oddly … Oddball … Oddbod … Odd Socks …) so I’d decided to put a positive spin on it.

‘But this doesn’t even seem especially odd …’ he says doubtfully.

Not wanting to waste time, I grab him by the arm and start to stride through the Leicester Square crowds, in the direction of the Tube. Liam stumbles after me, reading the report on his phone.