The Black Widow Spider Mystery (4 page)

After a delicious meal of Mrs. MacGregor's tuna casserole, the Aldens went back to the Blackwells'. They stood among the piles of books in the library. The largest pile held books about spiders and insects. Next to that was a large stack of books about secret agents and spies. There was also a whole collection of mystery novels.

“The Blackwells like mysteries, just like us!” said Benny as he stacked up the novels.

“Look at all these dictionaries,” Violet said, pulling a German dictionary from under a French one. “The Blackwells must speak a lot of languages.”

“You have to know a lot of languages if you're a spy,” Benny said.

“Not that again,” said Jessie. “We've got a job to do here — we can't keep talking about spies.”

“And we wouldn't want Mrs. Blackwell to come in and hear us talking about that,” Violet added.

“About what?” said Mrs. Blackwell. Again she had appeared in the door silently.

The Aldens didn't know what to say.

Mrs. Blackwell looked at them, waiting for an answer.

“Oh, um …” Jessie stammered.

Mrs. Blackwell stared at them for several more seconds. At last she spoke. “Never mind. I just came to say that I have some important work to do this afternoon and it is important that I not be disturbed. Do you think you'll be able to finish all these books today?”

“Oh, yes,” said Violet. “I'm sure we can.”

Mrs. Blackwell smiled. “Then I'll count on it. It will be a great relief to be able to use my library again. When you're done just let yourselves out the front door, and I'll see you tomorrow.”

“Okay,” said Henry as Mrs. Blackwell headed back upstairs.

“She sure does come in unexpectedly,” said Violet.

“You have to be able to sneak around when you're a spy,” Benny said.

Jessie gave her little brother a scolding look. “Which is exactly why we'd better watch what we talk about while we're here.”

She bent and picked up several dictionaries. “I'm going to put these right near the desk. That way they're easy to reach if you need to look something up.” As Jessie lined up one dictionary after another, she said, “You know it's true, you
would
need to know a lot of languages if you were an international secret agent.”

“There are other explanations for knowing lots of languages,” Henry pointed out. “Maybe they own an international business.”

“Or maybe they like to travel,” added Violet.

“Speaking of travel, look at this,” said Jessie. She had just picked up a large, wellworn book. The other children crowded around her.

“What is it?” asked Henry.

“It's an atlas — a book of maps. Look at all the pages that have been tagged,” Jessie said, flipping the pages. Several pages were marked with small yellow tags. Notes were scribbled on some of the tags, but the handwriting was messy and hard to read.

“Maybe those tags show where the Blackwells have traveled,” Violet suggested.

“Or the locations of their international factories,” said Henry.

“Or maybe those are the places where they've gone on secret missions!” Benny said.

Jessie looked more closely at one of the tags stuck on a map of the United States. Slowly she sounded out the words. “This tag says
Lactrodectus hesperus.
And there's another one that says
Lactrodectus mactans.
” She frowned. “What in the world do those words mean?”

“Sounds like the code name for a secret mission to me!” Benny said.

Henry and Violet chuckled and went back to work. But Jessie looked thoughtful. She took a pen and a small piece of paper from Mrs. Blackwell's desk and copied the words written on the tags. She put the atlas on the bookshelf.

Next, Jessie looked at the dictionaries. Finding a regular English dictionary, she pulled it out and flipped the pages of words that start with L to where
Lactrodectus
would appear. She ran her finger down the page, looking for the definition of Lactrodectus. She was disappointed to see that the word wasn't there. Next she looked up
hesperus.
That wasn't in the dictionary either. Neither was
mactans.
Puzzled, Jessie returned the dictionary to the shelf.

“What are you doing, Jessie?” Violet asked.

“I was hoping to find out what these words mean,” Jessie said. “But they aren't in the dictionary.”

Violet looked thoughtfully at the shelf of dictionaries. Suddenly, she had an idea. She pulled a French dictionary from the shelf. “Did you look in this one, Jessie? Maybe those words are in a foreign language.”

Jessie smiled. “Good thinking, Violet!”

The girls set to work looking up the words in the foreign dictionaries. They weren't in the French dictionary. Jessie pulled out the German dictionary, then the Italian one. “No luck,” she said.

They went through one dictionary after another but the mysterious words were nowhere to be found.

Putting the last dictionary back on the shelf, Jessie sighed.

“That's weird,” said Violet.

“Yeah,” Jessie said. She shrugged and tucked the scrap of paper with the mystery words in her backpack. “Let's get back to work.”

By mid-afternoon, the Aldens had filled the four bottom shelves of each bookcase with neatly arranged books. But even Henry was having trouble reaching the higher shelves.

“I'll go ask Mrs. Blackwell if she has a stepladder,” said Jessie, starting out the door.

“Remember, she said not to bother her,” Violet called.

Jessie stopped in her tracks. “That's right.”

“If we look around, I'm sure we can find a stool somewhere or a box sturdy enough to stand on,” Henry said.

The Aldens walked all around the downstairs. There were no stools or stepladders in sight. The chairs they found were either too large to move or too delicate to stand on.

The children returned to the library and looked at the stacks of books they still had to shelve. “We can't just leave them like this,” said Jessie.

“Maybe we
should
find Mrs. Blackwell,” said Benny.

“No, she said it was important not to bother her,” Henry said firmly.

“What can we do?” asked Violet. “She also said she's counting on us to finish this today.”

The Aldens stood silently for a moment, thinking. Then Jessie spoke. “I'll go upstairs and take a quick peek around. Maybe there's a stool up there. I won't bother Mrs. Blackwell.”

Jessie went quickly up the stairs while the others waited in the library. “Hello?” she called softly. She didn't want to bother Mrs. Blackwell, but she also didn't want to intrude on her without warning. It was eerily silent upstairs. “That's strange,” Jessie muttered to herself. “It feels so empty up here.” She quickened her pace.

Jessie peeked cautiously into the study. There was no sign of Mrs. Blackwell. As she turned to leave the room, Jessie spotted a small stepstool in the corner. “That's what we need,” she said to herself. She picked up the stool and was about to go back downstairs when she noticed a strange light coming from the sitting room. It looked as if something inside the room was giving off a red glow. Jessie walked slowly into the room.

Off the sitting room was a tightly closed door. Above the door was a single bare lightbulb. The light was glowing red.

Was that there before?
Jessie wondered.
No
, she told herself.
Or if it was, it wasn't turned on. I would have remembered that strange glow.
Jessie
did
remember the door the light was over. She had asked about the door when Mrs. Blackwell gave them the tour of the house that morning. Mrs. Blackwell hadn't answered the question about what was behind it.

Jessie picked up the stool and hurried out of the room. She was suddenly anxious to be back downstairs with her sister and brothers.

“You found one!” Violet said when Jessie returned with the stepstool.

“Yes,” said Jessie, putting it down. She felt calmer now that she was back in the library.

“Did you see Mrs. Blackwell?” Henry asked.

“No, I didn't see or hear her anywhere,” said Jessie. “But I did see something else.”

“What?” Benny asked, instantly curious.

“Remember that door off the sitting room?” Jessie asked.

“You mean the one that Mrs. Blackwell didn't show us because she'd already put the boxes away?” Henry said.

“Exactly. That door was still closed and there was a weird red light over it,” Jessie told them.

“Huh,” said Henry, shrugging. “I guess they like colored lights.” He picked up the stool, placed it close to the bookshelves, and climbed the two steps. Violet carried over some books and began handing them up to him.

“I don't think that's it,” said Jessie. “There aren't colored lights anywhere else in the house. That light was weird. It seemed almost like a warning light.”

“A warning about what?” asked Benny.

“I don't know,” Jessie answered. “A warning not to enter that room, I guess.”

“Maybe that's her office,” Violet suggested. “She did say she had work to do and didn't want to be bothered.”

“But have you ever seen an office with a warning light outside?” Jessie asked.

“It is a little unusual,” Henry agreed. “But it wouldn't be the first unusual thing we've found here.”

The others went back to shelving books, but Jessie just stood there, lost in thought.

It was close to dinnertime when the Aldens finished with the library. They stood back to admire the shelves and shelves of neatly arranged books.

“Looks great,” said Henry, “if I do say so myself.”

The children left the stepstool in the library and let themselves out, as Mrs. Blackwell had instructed. The house was dark and silent. Henry pulled the front door shut behind them.

As they walked down the driveway, the Aldens noticed a man standing near the street. He had brown hair and was wearing a brown leather jacket. He was staring at the Blackwells' house as if deep in thought.

“Hello,” called Henry. “May we help you?”

The man seemed startled to see the Aldens. He looked at them without saying a word, then began walking quickly down the street toward a car parked at the curb.

The Aldens reached the end of the driveway. “Is there anything —” Henry called out, but the man was already in his car, closing the door. A moment later, he had driven away.

“That was strange,” said Henry, looking up the street in the direction the car had gone. “He hurried away the minute he saw us.”

“Without even saying hello,” Violet added.

“He seemed very interested in the Blackwells' house,” Jessie said.

“And you know what's even stranger?” Benny said. “That was the same man we saw at lunchtime, the one who was watching us from his car.”

“Are you sure?” Violet asked.

“Yes,” said Benny. “SPIDER2.”

CHAPTER 4

Lights at Night

O
ver dinner that night, the children told Grandfather all about the mysterious Blackwells and the mystery man. When they reached the end of their story, Benny started to giggle.

“What's so funny?” Jessie wanted to know.

“The Blackwells are spies,” said Benny. “And now someone's spying on them!”

“I can't help wondering if that man has anything to do with what Mrs. Blackwell said on the phone,” said Jessie. “Could he be the one Mrs. Blackwell is tracking?”

“We don't know for sure that Mrs. Blackwell is tracking someone,” Violet pointed out.

“Violet is right,” Grandfather agreed. “Mrs. Blackwell's phone call does sound surprising, but I'm sure there's a simple explanation.”

“Really?” Benny asked. “Like what?”

Grandfather thought for a moment. “I'm not sure,” he admitted. “But I wouldn't worry about it. Hearing one side of a telephone conversation always sounds odd.”

The Aldens finished their dinner, then Henry and Violet cleared the table and Jessie and Benny washed the dishes. When the kitchen was clean, the children joined Grandfather in the living room. They played checkers and read books until it was time for bed. Saying good night, they each headed into their own rooms.

Henry walked over to the windows in his room to pull down his shades when something outside caught his eye. From the window next to his bed, Henry could see the side of the Blackwells' house. Because Henry's bedroom was on the second floor, he could see over the tall stone wall that surrounded the Blackwells' property.

Henry studied the side of the house. On the first floor was a long row of windows. “That must be the room down the hallway where Mr. Blackwell works,” he said to himself. The shades on the windows were drawn, but the lights inside were on. Henry could see the shadow of someone moving around inside.

Henry looked at his clock. It was nine o'clock and Mr. Blackwell was still at work. That seemed unusual. Grandfather sometimes worked late, but he was usually finished before nine. “I wonder what kind of work Mr. Blackwell does,” Henry wondered aloud. He pulled the shade down firmly.

Henry put on his pajamas and brushed his teeth. Checking the window again, he saw that Mr. Blackwell's light was still on. He slid into bed and picked up his book. After reading a chapter, Henry sat up and peeked out the window. The light was still shining. Henry closed his book and turned off his lamp. “Tomorrow we'll go back to the Blackwells',” he murmured sleepily. “Tomorrow we'll find some answers.”

Several hours later, Henry woke up with a jolt. A noise outside had awakened him. It came again — a long, mournful howl.

Henry gasped as his bedroom door suddenly swung open. Then he relaxed. It was Violet.

“Did you hear that noise outside?” Violet asked softly.

Henry nodded. The howl came again. “I think it's a cat,” he said.