Free The 100-Year-Old Secret by Tracy Barrett Page B

smiled, and friendly-looking crinkles appeared around her eyes. She stood up and opened a file cabinet, rummaging around among papers.
    â€œWell, I don't know anything about the whereabouts of the real Girl in a Purple Hat ,” she said. “I wish I did! I'm just making these copies to sell at the Batheson exhibit that opens on Friday. You know, as souvenirs.” She pulled out a letter from the cabinet and handed it to Xander. It had an impressive-looking seal at the top with the Victoria and Albert Museum logo.
    Xander scanned the letter. “So you have permission to make copies of it?” he asked.
    The woman nodded. “I make sure to change some details so that nobody can be fooled into thinking it's the real thing. See, my girl hasbrown eyes instead of green. My niece, Sarah, is the model.”
    â€œOh,” Xena said. “But how come we've seen her all over this neighborhood wearing the costume?”
    â€œI use a photograph of the picture to paint the background,” the artist went on. “But I need a live model for the expression. I still don't think I have it just right, but it's better. Sarah lives nearby, so she comes here after school most days. She puts on the costume before she comes to get used to wearing it.”
    â€œThe dress is scratchy,” Sarah chimed in, “and the wig is hot.”
    â€œYes, dear,” her aunt said patiently, as though she'd heard it all many times before. She turned back to Xena and Xander. “Anyway, I expect that's why you've seen her before.”
    Refusing the offer of tea, Xena and Xander left the gallery. It had stopped raining, but that didn't help their mood any. They went by the tea room to pick up their things and then headed for home.
    â€œWell, that was a dead end,” Xander grumbled, kicking at a soggy piece of newspaper on the sidewalk. It clung to his boot and he hopped on the other foot, pulling the paper offand dropping it in a trash can. “We're never going to find the painting. We only have two days left!”
    â€œCome on,” Xena said, trying to look on the bright side. “At least we know that the girl in the purple hat has nothing to do with the missing painting, right?”
    Xander nodded. “Right.”
    â€œSo now that we've eliminated her we can stop being distracted and concentrate on getting other clues,” Xena went on. “There's that dragon drawing in the casebook. We still don't know if it's just a weird doodle or if it means something. Let's see if we can track it down.”
    Back at home Xena picked up the casebook. As she flipped through the pages looking for the drawing of the dragon, something caught her eye. She turned the book sideways.
    â€œRead Batheson's letters,” said the words near the edge of the page. She looked at Xander. “Okay,” she said. “It's almost like he's telling us what to do next.”
    The following day they were dying to get to the library down the road from their school to look for Batheson's letters. But Xena had to research migratory habits of birds in northern Europe fora report before she could work on the mystery. Their parents had been firm. “School first,” they said. “Everything else can wait.”

    So it was up to Xander. While Xena looked for books in the ornithology section, he sat down at the computer nearest to her and typed “Batheson” into the “author” blank on the library page.
    Only one name came up. It was “Nigel et al.”
    â€œXena?”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œWhat does ‘et al.’ mean?”
    â€œIt's short for ‘and others’ in Latin.”
    â€œLook at this,” he said, and she came and peered over his shoulder at the screen. She tapped a few keys and more information came up.
    â€œThe letters!” she breathed.
    â€œThey're on microfilm,” Xander said. “What's that?”
    â€œI don't know,” Xena said. She was