“What does that door lead to?” Jessie asked, pointing to a door off the sitting room.
“That door?” Mrs. Blackwell said. “Oh, that’s my —” She suddenly stopped, as if she’d changed her mind about what she was going to say. “Don’t worry about that. There won’t be any boxes for that room. I’ve already put them all away.”
Jessie and Violet exchanged glances. Why was Mrs. Blackwell so secretive?
When Mrs. Blackwell had shown them the whole house, she led them back to the front hall. “I appreciate your help. If you need me, I’ll be unpacking in my room,” Mrs. Blackwell said, going up the stairs.
The Aldens looked around at the many boxes, wondering where to begin. Jessie spoke first. She was always very organized. “Henry and I will move the largest boxes. Violet can take the medium-sized ones, and Benny the small ones.”
Benny frowned. “I can carry big boxes, too! I’m strong!”
Jessie smiled. “Yes, you are, Benny. But this way, we have a system.”
Each of the Aldens picked up a box. “Library,” said Henry, reading the label on the top of his box.
“Mine goes in the office,” Jessie said, heading upstairs.
Violet and Benny each picked up a box for the living room.
The children worked steadily. It was hard work but they enjoyed it. Sometimes two of the Aldens would carry an especially heavy box together. As they moved the boxes, they made a game of guessing what might be inside each one.
“This box must be full of books,” said Jessie, picking up a heavy box labeled Library.
“And this one must be full of rocks!” said Benny, groaning as he lifted another.
Jessie came to a box with a red mark on it. “What did Mrs. Blackwell say about these?”
“She said to be very careful with them,” Violet reminded her. “They have something to do with Mr. Blackwell’s work and they go in the back hallway.”
“What do you think that red mark means?” Benny wondered.
“It looks like an hourglass,” said Jessie.
“An hourglass is an old-fashioned clock,” Violet said, noticing Benny’s puzzled face. “Maybe Mr. Blackwell works on old clocks and that’s what’s in these boxes.”
“That would explain why we need to be careful with them,” said Jessie. “Old clocks and hourglasses can be fragile.”
Henry had been standing silently, staring at the red marking.
“What is it, Henry?” Violet asked.
“I don’t know,” Henry said. “But that red hourglass reminds me of something. I wish I could remember what.”
While they were talking, the telephone rang. Mrs. Blackwell came down the stairs quickly. “Now where did I plug in the phone?” she said to herself, looking around the piles of boxes and wads of crumpled paper.
They could all hear the insistent ringing, but the phone was nowhere to be seen.
“Here it is,” Violet said, pulling the phone from behind a box.
“Thanks,” Mrs. Blackwell said. “Hello?” she said into the receiver. She walked into the living room, away from the kids.
The Aldens went back to their work.
Benny didn’t intend to eavesdrop on Mrs. Blackwell’s conversation, but as he carried a box to the dining room, he couldn’t help hearing her words. “I’m on the trail, but I haven’t tracked them down yet,” she said into the phone.
Mrs. Blackwell stopped talking and listened to the person on the other end. She seemed to be getting upset. Her face was turning red and when she spoke, her voice was loud and angry. Now all the children heard what she was saying. “I know, I know! Time is running out. But I have to set it up just right … They can’t know I’m there.”
There was silence again as Mrs. Blackwell listened to the caller. She seemed calmer when she spoke again. “Don’t worry. I’ll be sure to catch them in the act.”
Benny was paying so much attention to what Mrs. Blackwell was saying that he dropped the box he was holding. Mrs. Blackwell turned around and saw him staring at her. She quickly spoke into the receiver. “I can’t talk right now — I’ll call you back later.” She hung up the phone.
Embarrassed, Benny and the others quickly got busy, picking up boxes and reading their labels. Mrs. Blackwell headed back up the stairs.
Once she was gone, the Aldens clustered together in the hallway. “What was she talking about?” asked Benny in a hushed voice.
“When she said she had a unique job,” Jessie said, “I didn’t realize she meant one that involves secretly tracking people down!”
“And catching them ‘in the act,’” Violet added. “What do you think that means?”
“Maybe she’s a police officer and she needs to catch some suspects while they’re committing a crime,” said Henry.
“She could be a detective,” suggested Jessie.
“Or a spy!” said Benny, his eyes wide. “A secret agent! That would explain why she seems so mysterious!”
“That also might explain why she has those high walls all around the house and how she always knows we’re coming before we even ring the bell,” Henry added. “Maybe she has some kind of hidden cameras posted at the front walk.”
“I sure felt like I was being watched,” Benny said, sounding excited.
“Maybe that red hourglass has something to do with it,” Violet said. “Maybe her husband is a spy, too, and they keep their special equipment in those boxes.”
“Yeah, the red hourglass could be their secret code,” said Jessie.
“We should definitely keep our eyes and ears open while we’re here,” said Henry. “Neighbors who might be secret agents — now that’s worth investigating!”
After the children had been working for about an hour, Mrs. Blackwell came back downstairs. “My goodness!” she said. “You’ve cleared out all the boxes down here! You are good workers, just as you said.”
“We like to work hard,” said Henry.
“I hadn’t realized you’d be done with those boxes so quickly,” Mrs. Blackwell said. “I think I can handle the rest on my own.”
The Aldens looked at one another. If they left now, they’d never find out if the Blackwells were spies.
“There must be something else we can help with,” said Henry.
“Well, if you’re sure you don’t mind …” Mrs. Blackwell thought for a minute and then began walking toward the library. “You could help shelve the books.”
The library was a dark room at the back of the house. The walls were lined with bookcases reaching from floor to ceiling. The floor was cluttered with large stacks of boxes — some the children had carried in that morning, others had been brought in earlier.
“We have so many books,” Mrs. Blackwell said.
“You sure do,” Benny said, looking around at all the boxes.
“I have an idea!” Jessie said. “We could organize the books — you know, like at the library. We’ll divide them into different categories, like fiction or nonfiction. Then we’ll shelve them in alphabetical order.”
A smile spread across Mrs. Blackwell’s face. “That sounds wonderful.”
Now it was Jessie’s turn to smile. “Great! We’ll get right to work.”
As soon as Mrs. Blackwell had left, Jessie came up with a plan. “We’ll put the books in piles, depending on what they’re about. Then we’ll alphabetize them and put them on the shelves.” She opened a box and pulled out a book. “Top Secret Spies from Around the Globe,” she read from the cover.
“Really?” asked Benny. “A book about spies?”
“Here’s another one,” said Violet. “The World’s Greatest Spies.”
“I’ve got one in this box, too,” said Henry, holding up a book. “A Secret Agent’s Guide to Gadgets and Tools.”
Violet dug through the box of books in front of her. “Looks like a lot of the books in this box are spy books,” she said.
“Just like I said!” Benny cried. “The Blackwells are spies!”
“I
think you’re jumping to conclusions,” Henry said. “Although they certainly do have a lot of spy books.”
Benny opened another box. “This doesn’t look like a spy book,” he said, looking at the book on top. “This one has a spider on the cover.” He pulled out the book underneath. “That’s weird,” he said. “Another one about spiders.”
Henry looked over Benny’s shoulder and read the book’s title aloud. “The Complete Book of Spiders.” He opened another box. “This one has some spider books, too!”
“We’d better stop talking and start sorting,” said Jessie. “Otherwise we’ll never get done in here. This pile over here will be for spy books, and this one for spider books.”
“Spies and spiders. The Blackwells sure are interested in some unusual things,” said Henry.
CHAPTER 3
The Red Glow
The Aldens spent the rest of the morning unpacking books and putting them in piles. When they had emptied a box, they unfolded it and stacked the flattened cardboard in a pile in the corner.
They had just unpacked the last box of books when Violet looked up and saw Mrs. Blackwell standing in the doorway, watching them.
“Oh!” Violet said, surprised. “I didn’t hear you come in. How long have you been standing there?”
Mrs. Blackwell raised an eyebrow. “A little while. I came in quietly.”
That’s for sure, thought Violet. Mrs. Blackwell hadn’t made a sound.
“Why don’t you take a break?” Mrs. Blackwell suggested.
Jessie looked at the piles of books all around them. “But we aren’t done.…” She hated to leave a job incomplete.
“That’s okay, you can finish this later,” Mrs. Blackwell said.
“I am getting kind of hungry,” Henry said.
“Me, too!” cried Benny.
“That’s no surprise,” said Violet. Their little brother was always ready to eat.
“We’ll come back after lunch,” Jessie said.
“See you then,” said Mrs. Blackwell. She turned quickly and disappeared down the dark hallway, leaving the Aldens alone.
The Aldens let themselves out of the Blackwells’ house. They were happy to be outside in the bright sunshine. “It’s so dark in there,” Violet said as she led the way down the driveway.
“And that’s not even the strangest thing,” Jessie said. “Those things Mrs. Blackwell was saying on the telephone … the way she appeared so silently in the library … all those books about spiders and secret agents.”
“I think it’s cool,” said Benny. “We’ve never had neighbors who were spies before.”
“Do you really think they’re spies?” Violet asked.
“I suppose they could be,” said Henry. “Mrs. Blackwell said she and her husband have unique jobs. But spies …” His voice trailed off doubtfully.
Benny, however, was sure. “I wonder what their secret mission is!” he said. “Maybe there are bad guys right here in Greenfield. Maybe they’re out to take over the world!”
The others smiled as Benny became more and more carried away. “Maybe the Blackwells are going to catch the bad guys and —”
Suddenly Benny stopped talking. He’d spotted something strange. A man was sitting in a dark blue car parked on the side of the road, across from the Blackwells’ front gate. As the Aldens walked up the street, he turned his head to watch them go by.
“Hey, you guys,” Benny whispered. “The man in that car is watching us!”
“Uh-oh,” Jessie said, opening her eyes wide and smiling at her brother. “Is he another spy?”
Henry laughed. “An international spy ring is taking over Greenfield!”
Benny frowned. “No, really, he’s watching us!”
Henry put his arm around his brother. “I think you’re getting a little carried away.”
Benny shrugged off his brother’s arm. “I am not!”
Violet had turned to study the man in the blue car. The man noticed her looking at him. He started the car and drove off down the street. Violet gasped. “Henry, wait! The man’s license plate — it says SPIDER2!”
“No way!” said Jessie. “What a strange license plate!”
“Spiders on the gates and spiders on the plates,” Henry rhymed. Violet and Jessie laughed.
Benny cracked a smile. Maybe Henry was right. Maybe he was taking the spy idea too seriously. “Last one home gets spiders for lunch!” he shouted and raced off down the sidewalk.
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 t
o 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 Black Widow Spider Mystery Page 2
