A DaVinci Co-Ed

Part 3

A man came out to see them, “Is it alright officer, I asked the man to come?” The man then looked at Arthur and said, “I am Professor Read, they call me Prof Read for short.”

“Is that Read as in red or Reed as in reed?” inquired Sid.

“It depends if the Author has finished proof reading his latest book yet or not.”

“Oh I see,” noted Arthur, “so your name is a kind of wordplay on the term proof red/proof reed.”

“I suppose it is,” said the Professor as he led them into the museum.

They walked through the early Italian Art room and into gallery 35. On the floor, in front of an open case, lay the body of a man.

“Who was he?” asked Sid.

“His name was Gordon Goofer,” replied the Professor, “he was the archivist. It seems as though he disturbed a thief and was killed for his mistake.”

“Is it a mistake to disturb a thief?” thought Arthur.

“It was in this case,” said Read.

“So what are the symbols you wanted us to look at?” wondered Arthur.

“As you can see, his body is laid out in a strange way. He is on his side with his legs and arms crouched up. He also has these two assegai spears placed over his head and a rolled up sheep’s tail near his back.”

“I know what it is,” said Sid.

Arthur looked a bit perplexed, “Hang on a minute, just let me think.”

“Come on,” jibed Sid, “it’s easy. It’s like one of those easy puzzles in the Da Vinci Code computer games.”

“Don’t rush me,” said a flustered Arthur.

“Give up?” asked Sid.

“Oh, go on then,” Arthur relented.

“He’s a rabbit.”

“What?” chimed both Arthur and the Prof.

“He looks like he’s a rabbit, he’s bunched up, the spears are the long ears and the rolled up tail is supposed to be a rabbit tale.”

Arthur looked again, “Oh very good Sid. Maybe you are a symbologist after all.”

“But why did the murderer place his victim in such a position?” inquired the inspector as he sidled up to the others.

“Shall we tell him?” Sid asked Arthur.

“I don’t know, would it be a spoiler?”

“The readers already know, so why shouldn’t we tell the police?”

“Tell the police what?” interrogated the Inspector.

“That the murderer is a six foot tall invisible white rabbit from the horror dimension.”

The inspector paled a little, “Oh. I had hoped this was going to be a sensible story. Which mental institution did you say you were from?”

“Cheek!” exclaimed Sid.

“Inspector,” glared Arthur.

“I was only joking about the mental institution bit.” He thought for a bit, “So you know about the murderer then?”

“That’s not part of the story,” whined Arthur, “and besides, the assassin is a she called Bunny Malone who is only invisible because she uses a phasic device and works for Opookah Dye.”

“That sounds like a sick Welshman,” noted the inspector but not in his notebook.