Sarah Tops / by Isaac Asimov

Read the following text.

Enjoy reading 🙂

I came out of the Museum of Natural History and was crossing the street on my way to the subway. Suddenly, I saw the crowd and the police cars. I could hear the siren of an ambulance.

At first, I wanted to stop and find out what was going on. However, I walked on. The crowds just get in the way of policemen trying to do their job. My dad is a detective and he complains about the crowds all the time. I did not want to add to the problem myself.

I just kept my mind on the paper I had to write for my seventh-grade class. I thought about the notes I had taken at the museum. After dinner, I asked Dad about the incident at the museum. Dad knew all about it. A man had been murdered outside the museum!

“I was working on my paper. I was there all morning,” I said.

Mom looked worried. “Was there a shooting in the museum?” she asked. “Well, no, there wasn’t,” Dad said. “This man tried to hide in the museum, but he didn’t succeed.”

“Oh, it would be easy to hide in there,” I said. “I know the museum, every inch.” Dad looked at me. “Boasting^{מתרברב/מתגאה} again, Larry?” he said. Then he continued: “The men who were after him didn’t let him get away. They caught up with him outside. Then they knifed him and got away.” “How terrible!” Mom said.

“We’ll catch them though,” Dad said. “We know who they are. They are part of the gang that broke into the jewelry store two weeks ago. We got the jewels back, but we did not catch all the men. And not all the jewels either. One diamond is still missing. A big one – worth $30,000.”

Maybe that’s what the killers were after,” I said.

Dad nodded. “Yes, the dead man probably tried to cheat the other two. I think he wanted to keep that diamond for himself. They turned out his pockets and ripped his clothes after they knifed him.”

“Did they get the diamond?” I asked.

“We don’t know. The woman who found him heard him say three words, very slowly: ‘Try…Sarah…Tops.’ Then he died.”

Is there a Sarah Tops in the phone book?” I asked. Dad said, “Do you think we didn’t look? No, there isn’t a Sarah Tops. There is nothing in our files. There is nothing in the F.B.I. files, either.”

Mom said, “Maybe it’s not a person. Maybe it is a company. Sarah Top’s Cakes or something like that.”

“Could be,” said Dad.

Suddenly I had an idea. “Listen, maybe it’s a thing. Maybe the woman did not hear ‘Sarah Tops’, but Sarah’s top^סביבון – you know, a top that you spin^מסובב. If the dead man had a daughter named Sarah, maybe, he made a hole in her toy top and hid the diamond inside….”

Dad smiled. “Very good, Larry,” he said. “A nice idea. But he doesn’t have a daughter named Sarah or any relative by that name, as far as we know. And why did he say ‘Try’?”

Suddenly it hit me. “Dad, can we get into the museum at this time of evening?”

“On police business? Sure.”

“Dad, I’ve got a silly idea. I.. I..”

Dad likes me to have my own ideas. He thinks that maybe I’ll be a detective too someday. He said, “All right. Let’s go.” He called the museum. We took a taxi and got there a few minutes later. A guard let us in.

I have never been in the museum when it was dark. It looked like a big cave^מערה. The guard’s flashlight made things even darker and more mysterious. We took the elevator up to the fourth floor. The guard put on the light. Suddenly I felt at home. I knew them all. Some were in glass cases. But the big ones were in the middle of the large room. Bones, teeth and skeletons of dinosaurs that ruled the earth hundreds of millions of years ago.

“I want to take a close look at that one,” I said.

I looked at the skeleton. It was fantastic.

“What’s this?” I said. I picked up something sticky.

“Chewing gum,” said the guard. “I don’t understand.”

“I can explain,” I said. “The guy tried to get away. He had an idea. He wanted to keep the diamond away from the gang…”

Before I could finish my sentence, Dad took the gum from me. Something inside caught the light and flashed. Dad put it in an envelope.

“How did you know?” he asked me.

“Well, look at the name of the dinosaur,” I said.

Dad looked. On the nameplate it was written: “TRICERATOPS.”