Shelby attached the hamburger pin to the stuffed clown's suspenders, and scanned the others in the collection of her father’s failures. A silver bow tie from the Wearable Art Museum. A smiling Snoopy from The Cartoon Collection. A rhinestone-studded cockroach from the Museum of Creepy Critters. On his suspenders, Clown wore a pin from nearly every third-rate museum in the city.

Shelby wished there was something she could do to help her dad. Even she knew a creepy walking sandwich wasn’t going to save the food museum. But what could she do?

She reached into the backpack lying next to her on the bed and pulled out Mrs. Chernikova’s card. Maybe it wasn’t a clue, like Ally said, but maybe it was. Anyway, she’d rather think about the mysterious Russian letters than a life-sized pastrami on rye.

-- excerpted from The Tsar's Golden Slippers