Mystery of the Empty Safe (3 page)

“Something what?” Henry asked.

“I don’t know,” said Benny.

“Are you sure he was following us?” Jessie asked.

“Well, I guess I’m not
sure
…” Benny admitted.

“We’ll keep an eye out for him,” said Henry. “In the meantime, let’s go get our party supplies.”

Soon the children were walking into Party Time. They were happy to see that at least no one had taken down their poster there.

“Hello, Aldens,” Ms. Fox called when she saw them.

“Thanks for leaving up our poster,” said Jessie. Then she told Ms. Fox what had happened to the other ones.

“Well, sometimes posters get ripped and the store owners take them down so they won’t look messy,” Ms. Fox said. “I wouldn’t worry about it. So, what are you in here for today?”

Sara eagerly told Ms. Fox all about her coming birthday and the party the Aldens were planning.

“That’s exciting,” said Ms. Fox. She turned to the Aldens. “Are Sara’s parents the ones you met in here last week?”

“Yes, they are. Do you remember them?” Violet asked.

“I do,” said Ms. Fox.

“It’s a good thing they overheard us talking to you about our party service!” said Henry.

“Yes, it is, isn’t it?” Ms. Fox said with a smile.

“We’d better get started,” Jessie said, heading down the aisle that held art supplies.

The Aldens picked out paper and paints to make posters of the planets, and they found paper plates, napkins, and a tablecloth decorated with stars and moons.

“These are perfect!” said Sara.

For party favors, the Aldens chose little puzzles with pictures of rockets on them.

“I think we’re all set now,” said Jessie.

“Just don’t forget the birthday candles!” Violet called out, and they all laughed.

The following afternoon, the Aldens met at Sara’s house to work on the decorations. Violet traced the shapes of planets, comets, and moons on several pieces of paper, and the others painted them. Saturn was the most fun to paint, with its beautiful rings. After they’d been working for a while, Sara and Benny began to get restless.

“How about if we take a break now and go to the playground down the road?” Jessie suggested. “We can finish these later.”

“Hooray!” said Benny as they rinsed their brushes and put the tops back on the paints.

In no time, the children were walking down the road. Sara had brought along a ball so they could play soccer on the field next to the playground. “Violet!” Sara called, kicking the ball down the wide sidewalk to the older girl.

Violet stopped the ball with her foot and passed it to Henry. Henry then kicked the ball to Benny.

Benny tried to stop Henry’s pass, but the ball rolled off his foot and back down the sidewalk away from him. “I’ll get it,” Benny called over his shoulder as he ran back for the ball. He bent down to get it, and as he stood back up, he saw the man in the dark coat who’d been following them the day before. He was walking about half a block behind Benny, limping, just as Benny had noticed the day before.

But now the sun wasn’t in his eyes, and Benny immediately recognized the man. “Mr. Woodruff!” he said under his breath. He started to say hello. But before he could, Mr. Woodruff turned and went behind a truck.

“That’s strange,” Benny said to himself. If it had been someone else, Benny would have gone after him and said hello. But he was a little frightened of grouchy Mr. Woodruff.

So instead, Benny ran ahead to tell the others. But as he got closer, he began to feel funny. How could he tell Sara that her father was snooping around after them? He decided to tell Jessie or Henry and let them figure out what to do.

When Benny reached the playground, Violet and Sara were climbing on the monkey bars, and Jessie and Henry were sitting on the swings. Benny went straight over to the older children and told them whom he’d seen.

“That’s strange,” Jessie said. The children looked back down the road, but now there was nobody there.

“Where do you think he is now?” asked Henry.

“I don’t know. Maybe hiding behind a tree or bush or something,” said Benny. “But he was definitely following us.”

“And you’re sure it was Mr. Woodruff?” Henry said.

“Yes,” Benny said.

“Why would he be following us?” Henry asked.

“Two days in a row!” added Benny.

“Maybe he just wants to keep an eye on his daughter,” Jessie suggested.

“Yes, but sneaking around behind her is kind of a strange way to do it, isn’t it?” said Henry.

Just then Sara ran over with a big grin on her face and grabbed the ball away from Benny. “I thought we were going to play soccer!” She ran onto the field. “Come on!”

The others followed Sara. But before Benny began to play, he looked down the road and around the playground. There was no sign of Mr. Woodruff. Still, Benny wondered if he was hidden somewhere nearby, watching them.

That night, the Aldens had just finished a delicious dinner of crispy fried chicken, creamy mashed potatoes, and buttery biscuits when the phone rang. Mrs. McGregor answered it. She was the family’s housekeeper and the one who had made the wonderful meal. “Yes, they’re right here,” they heard her say. “Hold on just a minute—I’ll put Jessie on.”

Jessie took the call and talked for a moment before hanging up. “We’ve got another job!” she told the others excitedly.

“Really?” said Violet.

“That was a man named Mr. Grayson. He lives in the same neighborhood as the Pierces and the Woodruffs. In fact, it was Mrs. Woodruff who told him about us. He’s planning his daughter Hallie’s birthday party. It’s this Saturday, and he needs us to help him.”

“This Saturday! A rush job. I wish he’d called sooner,” Henry said.

Jessie explained, “Mr. Grayson said they were going to have a skating party, and they rented the party room at the rink to serve the cake in. But now Hallie’s broken her ankle. So they obviously can’t have a skating party anymore. But he still wants to use the party room because he doesn’t want kids running all over his house. He said he has a lot of fancy artwork and stuff there.”

“We could plan some sitting-down games that they could play in the party room,” Henry pointed out.

“That’s just what I had in mind,” said Jessie. “I told him we’d come up with some ideas and meet with them tomorrow afternoon.”

“Sounds great,” said Violet.

The children spent the evening thinking of ideas for Hallie’s party. Since she’d wanted to have a skating party they tried to keep the theme of winter sports. At last they’d come up with a bunch of fun games and interesting crafts for the kids to make.

“I think Hallie and her father will like these ideas,” said Henry.

The following afternoon, the Aldens arrived at the Graysons’ house. Mr. Grayson, a tall, thin man with a mustache, welcomed them into the living room.

“I can see why you don’t want to have the party here,” Jessie said, admiring all the beautiful sculptures and crystal vases on the tables and shelves.

“Yes, I’m an art collector and I have a lot of valuable pieces here,” Mr. Grayson said. “I couldn’t take the chance that something would get broken.”

Mr. Grayson motioned for the Aldens to sit down. “Sorry to call you on such short notice, but Hallie just broke her ankle. I happened to be chatting with Janet and Bob Woodruff, who are good friends of mine, and I told them my problem—fifteen guests invited for a party this Saturday, and no plans for entertaining them! Janet told me that you were planning Sara’s party and had some wonderful ideas. In fact, she just couldn’t say enough good things about you. So I figured I’d see if you could help us.”

“We’re glad you did,” said Jessie.

Just then a girl about Violet’s age hobbled into the room on crutches. She had a large cast on her ankle and looked very sad.

“This is my daughter, Hallie,” Mr. Grayson said.

“Hello!” said Henry.

“Too bad about your ankle,” Jessie added.

“Yeah,” said Hallie, looking at the ground. “Now my birthday will be ruined.”

“Wait until you hear the ideas we have,” Benny piped up. “You’ll
still
have a great birthday!”

Mr. Grayson couldn’t help but smile at Benny’s enthusiasm. But Hallie just slumped into a chair. She didn’t even look at the Aldens.

Henry began talking. “We figured that since you wanted to have a skating party, you must like winter sports. So we’ve planned a puppet show and a lot of sitting-down games and crafts that are about winter.”

“At least that’s better than what my dad suggested,” Hallie grumbled. “He wanted to have that magician. But we did that last year. I don’t want to have the same party again.”

Jessie wondered if Hallie was referring to Cassandra the Great, but she didn’t ask. Instead she began to tell the Graysons about their ideas. “Do you and your friends like to make things?” she asked Hallie.

“Yeah, why?” Hallie said.

“You can each make your own snow globe,” Jessie said. “You make a little scene out of clay, put it in a small glass jar, and add water and some glitter for the snow.” The night before, the Aldens had made a snow globe to show Hallie. Jessie pulled it out of her backpack.

For the first time since they’d met her, Hallie smiled. “Wow,” she said, taking the homemade snow globe from Jessie and turning it around in her hands. She watched as the glittery “snow” floated down on the little log cabin scene Violet had created inside. “We can make these ourselves?”

“You sure can,” said Violet. “It’s easy. We’ll bring all the supplies and show everyone what to do. Our neighbor has a baby, so we’ll ask her for her empty baby food jars to make them in.”

The Aldens then told her about a game they’d made up called “Melt the Ice Cube.” It was a little like “Hot Potato.” The kids would sit in a circle passing the “ice cube”—which was really a present wrapped in lots of layers of paper—in time to music. Each time the music stopped, whoever was holding the gift got to unwrap a layer. The one who tore off the last layer of wrapping paper got to keep the gift as a prize.

“That sounds like fun!” said Hallie. “And I can do it even with this stupid broken ankle!”

“You sure can,” said Violet.

“Hey, tell her about the popcorn snowmen,” said Benny.

“Popcorn snowmen?” asked Hallie.

“As a special treat to eat, all the kids can make their own popcorn snowmen,” said Henry. “We’ll start them before the party, by mixing popcorn and melted marshmallows, and rolling the mixture into balls. Then everyone can stack the popcorn balls and decorate them with candy to make them look like snowmen.”

“And then you get to eat them!” Benny added.

Mr. Grayson smiled broadly. “It sounds like you kids have put a lot of thought into this party and come up with some great ideas—on very short notice!”

He was interrupted by the sound of the phone ringing. “Excuse me,” he said, picking up the receiver.

Hallie and the Aldens talked quietly while Mr. Grayson was on the phone. She was very excited about her birthday party now that she’d heard their wonderful ideas. Benny asked Hallie about the writing he saw on her cast. Hallie explained that her friends had written little get-well messages there. Then she pulled out some colored markers, and each of the Aldens signed her cast and drew pictures, too.

As they were working, Jessie looked over at Mr. Grayson, who was still on the phone. His face was red and he looked angry. His voice sounded tense.

She looked back at her drawing and tried to focus on it. But all of a sudden Jessie overheard Mr. Grayson say, “I’m sorry if you’re angry, but I’ve already hired the Alden kids. I don’t want to discuss this anymore.” And he quickly hung up the phone.

All the children looked over when they heard the receiver bang down.

“Who was that, Dad?” asked Hallie.

“Oh, nobody,” Mr. Grayson said.

“You sounded upset,” Hallie said.

“We’ll talk about it later,” Mr. Grayson answered.

Jessie knew it was none of her business. Still, she wondered what had made Mr. Grayson so angry.

“It wasn’t that magic lady again, was it?” said Hallie.

“Magic lady?” her father said. “Oh, you mean the magician. Yes, as a matter of fact, it was.” He turned to the Aldens and explained. “When Hallie broke her ankle, I knew the skating party was out. So I quickly called the same magician we’d had last year. She changed her plans to fit us in at the last minute. But Hallie wasn’t too excited about having the same party she’d had last year.

“Then Janet Woodruff told me about you kids, so I canceled the magician. She and her manager are pretty angry now. Anyway …” Mr. Grayson seemed eager to change the subject. Looking down at Hallie’s leg, he said, “What great drawings you made on Hallie’s cast!”

“Doesn’t it look nice now?” Hallie asked.

“We’d better get going—we’ve got to go to the party store and buy supplies,” Jessie said.

“Great. Call and let me know how things are going,” said Mr. Grayson.

“See you this weekend!” Hallie called as the Aldens left.

On their way to the store, the Aldens talked about what had just happened at the Graysons’.