Movie Star Mystery

by Charles Tang

  The silver-haired man gestured and the two men looked warily around. The man who called himself George Smith nodded and pointed down the street, and the man in the new jeans walked on.

  “Is he a bank robber, too?” Benny asked.

  “I think he was just asking directions, Benny. Don’t let them see us,” said Henry, and pulled his sisters and brother back to stand in the shadow of a doorway.

  As the Boxcar Children watched, George raised a camera and took a photograph of the building. Today he didn’t have the big camera he had had the day before, but a small silver one. Harpo appeared to be talking to his own left hand.

  “Harpo has a tape recorder,” Violet said. “In his left hand. I wonder what he is recording.”

  As Harpo talked and George took photographs, they both kept glancing nervously up and down the street.

  “Do you think they’re planning to rob the bank?” Benny asked. “Maybe we should call the police!”

  But before the Aldens could do anything, Harpo glanced down the street and seemed to freeze for a moment. Then he said something to George.

  In response, George grabbed Harpo by the arm and pulled him into a blue van parked on the street near the bank. Then George jumped in the van himself, started it, and drove quickly away.

  “Look! That must be what frightened George and Harpo,” Violet said.

  A police car had just turned the corner and was heading down Main Street toward the bank.

  Instantly, Jessie jumped out onto the sidewalk and threw up her hand to flag the police car.

  The officer rolled down her window and said, “Well, hello. What can I do for you?”

  “We just saw bank robbers!” Benny blurted out.

  Startled, the officer looked toward the bank.

  “We didn’t see anyone robbing the bank,” Henry explained quickly. “We think we saw someone who is planning to rob the bank.”

  The Aldens told the officer what they’d seen and heard the day before and that morning in front of the bank. When they had finished, the officer smiled and nodded. “Thanks for the tip,” she said. “We’ll keep an eye on the bank.”

  Then she looked in the rearview mirror. “I’m holding up traffic here. I’d better move on.” The officer pulled away from the curb.

  Jessie put her hands on her hips. “She didn’t believe us!” she exclaimed.

  “No, I don’t think she did,” Henry agreed.

  Violet didn’t say anything. She was watching the dark brown car behind the police car. The woman in the car had wild red hair tied back with an emerald-green scarf. Slashes of green eye shadow above her eyes matched the scarf.

  As she drove by, she glared out her window at the Aldens, her face red with fury.

  “Why is she so angry?” Violet said softly. “Why is she angry at us?”

  “Who?” asked Henry.

  “Her. The lady in the brown car,” Violet said. But the brown car had already passed by and the other Aldens didn’t see the angry woman in the green scarf.

  Jessie turned toward Benny. “How did you recognize George and Harpo so quickly, Benny?” she asked.

  “Harpo’s feet,” said Benny.

  “You recognized his feet?” Henry asked.

  “He had on the same shoes. Silver high-tops,” said Benny.

  “Oh.” Jessie thought for a moment, then said, “You’re right, Benny. That’s very observant of you.”

  “I’m a detective,” said Benny.

  “You sure are,” Henry agreed. “And it’s a good thing, too. Because if the police don’t believe us, we may have to catch the bank robbers ourselves.”

  “We can do it,” Benny said.

  “I hope so,” Jessie said. “And I hope we can do it before they rob another bank.”

  “Let’s go to the post office to look at wanted posters,” Violet said.

  “And then we can get some ice cream,” Benny suggested.

  “After we go to the post office,” agreed Henry.

  The Aldens went to the post office. But they didn’t see George Smith’s picture on any of the wanted posters, or Harpo’s, either—even in disguise.

  CHAPTER 3

  Ice Cream and a Fire Alarm

  This is good ice cream,” said Benny. “The best ice cream in the whole world.”

  “You always say that when we come to the ice-cream parlor,” Violet said, smiling at Benny.

  The Aldens were sitting at one of the little tables inside the shop eating ice-cream cones.

  Just then, a tall boy walked into the ice-cream parlor. He was wearing a baseball cap pulled low on his forehead and he had on dark glasses.

  “Lots of people are wearing dark glasses today,” observed Henry. “And it’s not even very sunny.”

  “The bank robbers had them on for disguises,” said Jessie. She stopped eating her ice-cream cone. She stared at the boy in the baseball cap as he walked up to the counter.

  A man stopped in the doorway of the shop. “Ta . . . Jonathan,” he said. “We should be going.”

  “In a minute,” said the boy. “Do you want some ice cream?”

  “It’s the man with the silver hair. The one we saw earlier,” Violet said in a low voice.

  The man patted his trim stomach. “No, thanks. Have to watch my weight.”

  “Okay,” said the boy called Jonathan. “I’ll be right out.”

  The man nodded. “Courtney’s gone to get the Jeep,” he said, and disappeared.

  Jessie kept staring at the boy. Her ice cream began to melt and drip down on her hand, but she didn’t even seem to notice.

  “Jessie,” Henry said. “What is it?”

  “I’m not sure,” Jessie answered, without taking her gaze off the boy. He turned to look around the shop as he waited for his ice-cream cone. He gave them a little half smile, ducking his head and turning away again at the same time.

  “He acts like he doesn’t want us to look at him,” Benny said. “And Jessie is staring. Grandfather says it is rude to stare.”

  Reluctantly Jessie turned her gaze away from the boy. “You’re right, Benny,” she said. “It’s just that—”

  But Jessie didn’t get to finish her sentence.

  A shattering alarm went off right over their heads.

  “Fire!” the girl behind the ice-cream counter shouted. “Fire!” She turned and ran toward the back of the shop. At the same moment, a billow of black smoke poured into the front door of the ice-cream shop.

  “The exit is in the back.” Henry jumped to his feet and caught Benny by the hand. “This way!” he shouted. “Jessie, grab Benny’s hand. Violet, hold on to Jessie.”

  Henry quickly led the way to the back of the shop. A bright red EXIT sign could be seen through the smoke.

  The boy stood frozen by the counter. As they went by, Violet reached out with her free hand and grabbed his arm. “Come on!” she said.

  A moment later, they had followed the counter girl out of the back of the shop into the alley.

  “Is everyone okay?” Henry asked.

  “We’re fine,” said Jessie. “And we were the only ones in the shop.”

  “It’s a good thing,” said the counter girl. “If it had been busier, it could have been a disaster.”

  They were standing in the alley. “Fire trucks are coming,” said Benny. “Listen.”

  They ran along the alley toward the street. As they reached the sidewalk, a woman with bright red hair ran forward. “Where is he?” she demanded.

  “Who?” asked Jessie.

  But the woman didn’t answer. She pushed past the Aldens, muttering under her breath.

  “Jessie,” said Violet. “That was the same woman who was behind the police officer before.” Then Violet remembered the boy in the baseball cap. She looked around, too. But he was nowhere in sight.

  Nearby, a firefighter was squirting foam on a trash can while a small crowd stood and watched.

  “What happened?” asked Benny.

  “A fire in
the trash can,” the firefighter said. She shook her head. “We’re not sure how it happened, but it looks like someone tried to create a lot of smoke deliberately.”

  Another firefighter emerged from the ice-cream parlor. “Everything’s okay inside,” he said. “No fire there. But the trash can shouldn’t have been so near the door. Someone must have moved it. The smoke is what set off the alarm.”

  “If I didn’t know better,” the first firefighter said, “I’d say someone was trying to smoke out the people in the ice-cream parlor.”

  The counter girl said, “I told everybody to leave the moment the alarm went off. We left by the rear exit.”

  “She didn’t tell us to leave,” Benny said indignantly. “She just ran out!”

  But the firefighter didn’t hear Benny’s protest. She was nodding at the girl approvingly. “That’s what you should do,” said the firefighter. “When there is a fire alarm, don’t wait. Leave as quickly and calmly as possible.”

  Henry saw a photographer from the local newspaper begin to take pictures of the firefighters and the front of the ice-cream shop. As he did, the reporter who was with him stepped up to speak to the girl who worked there. “Yes,” the Aldens heard her say. “The moment I heard the alarm, I showed everybody the way to the exit and told them to leave. That’s what you’re supposed to do. I guess that makes me a hero.”

  “You’re the hero, Henry,” said Jessie. “You helped us all get out of the ice-cream parlor.”

  “Well, I guess it’s time for us to go home, anyway,” Henry said.

  They got their bicycles and began to walk down Main Street toward home.

  Violet stopped and pointed. “There he is. The boy who was in the ice-cream shop.”

  They stood and watched as a red Jeep turned the corner ahead. A young woman with her hair in a long dark braid was driving. The man with the silver hair sat in the backseat. And the boy in the baseball cap was slumped down in the front seat.

  He looked unhappy.

  “That woman,” said Henry. “Don’t you recognize her?”

  “Yes!” cried Jessie. “She’s the woman who was so rude to us at the old Radley place yesterday!”

  CHAPTER 4

  A New Friend for Watch

  Do any bank robbers live in Greenfield, Grandfather?” Benny asked at dinner that night.

  James Alden finished putting mashed potatoes on his plate. Then he passed the potatoes to Henry. He looked at his youngest grandchild. “Not that I know of,” he said. “Why do you ask?”

  “Because we saw some bank robbers today,” Benny said. “Outside the bank.”

  “You had an exciting day,” said Grandfather. “First a smoke alarm in the ice-cream shop. And then bank robbers. Were they robbing the bank?” His eyes began to twinkle.

  “No. We’re not exactly sure they are bank robbers,” Violet said.

  “But they had disguises on,” Jessie said. “And they were acting very suspiciously.”

  “How did you know they were in disguise?” Grandfather asked.

  “Because we saw them yesterday too, when we were hiking in the woods,” Henry said.

  He went on to tell Grandfather Alden everything that had happened. When Henry finished, Grandfather said, “It sounds as if you’ve got a mystery on your hands.”

  “And a haunted house, too, maybe,” said Benny.

  “A haunted house?” Grandfather said.

  “The Radley house out on Old Farm Road,” Henry said. “We saw a moving van drive up to it. The lawn has been cut and the house has been painted, too.”

  Benny added, “And we met a mean lady, too. She made us go away.”

  “The Radley mansion’s been abandoned for years and years,” Grandfather said. “Old Mr. Radley’s only child, Estella, left home when she was just a teenager. Even that was over twenty years ago. Mr. Radley died a few years after that, but no one ever came back to live in the house. I wonder if Estella finally sold it.”

  “I wonder if that was Estella who told us to go away,” Jessie said.

  “Could be,” Grandfather said. “After she left, I don’t remember that she ever became the famous movie star she’d dreamed of being. Maybe she’s come home at last.”

  “Let’s go visit tomorrow and find out,” Benny said.

  “Maybe we will, Benny,” said Henry.

  The next morning, the Aldens got on their bikes and rode out of town toward Old Farm Road. They pedaled slowly so that Watch could keep up with them. Henry held Watch’s leash as they rode.

  When they reached the Radley place, they stopped and stared. The gates were closed today. A big sign hung on one of the gates. It said, NO TRESPASSING.

  “How are we going to find out if Estella Radley is back now?” Violet said.

  Just then, Watch ran around to the other side of the bicycle and got his leash tangled around Henry’s bike pedal. Bending over, Henry unclipped Watch’s leash so he could unwind it.

  Watch ran straight up the driveway toward the gate.

  “Watch, stop!” Jessie cried. “No trespassing!”

  But Watch couldn’t read the sign. He kept running. He wriggled through the iron bars of the gate and disappeared around the curve of the driveway beyond the gate.

  “Oh, no!” said Henry. The Aldens quickly propped their bikes against some nearby trees and hurried after Watch.

  “Watch, come back!” Violet called through the gate.

  “Here, Watch. Here, boy!” Henry called.

  Jessie whistled loudly.

  Watch didn’t come back.

  Benny pushed the gate open and walked right through.

  “Benny! What are you doing?” Violet exclaimed.

  “The gate wasn’t locked,” Benny said. “I’m going to get Watch.”

  He, too, disappeared around the curve of the long driveway.

  “Come on, then,” Henry said, and led the way as they all followed Benny. As they rounded the bend in the driveway, they heard the sound of laughter.

  “Look,” said Jessie.

  Watch was tugging on a stick. At the other end of the stick was an enormous shaggy brown dog. A boy not much older than Henry stood nearby, grinning.

  When he saw the Aldens, he waved. “Is this your dog?” he called.

  “Yes,” Henry answered.

  “His name’s Watch,” said Benny. “What’s your dog’s name?”

  “Her name is Greta,” the boy said. “Greta Garbo, after the movie star.”

  “Oh,” said Benny. He didn’t know who the boy was talking about. “She’s a pretty dog.”

  “I found her when I was in Sweden working on a . . . visiting, I mean. Greta Garbo was from Sweden, too,” the boy said.

  “Oh,” said Benny again, still not sure who Greta Garbo was.

  Suddenly Watch jerked the stick free from Greta and ran with it. Greta gave a short, surprised bark, then raced after Watch.

  “They really like each other,” the boy observed. By now the Aldens had gotten close enough to see him clearly.

  Violet said, “You’re the boy from the ice-cream shop!” She put one hand over her mouth in surprise.

  The boy raised his eyebrows. He wasn’t wearing his cap and dark glasses today. They could see that he was older than he had looked at first. He had black hair and blue eyes and long black eyelashes. He was wearing baggy jeans and an old sweatshirt.

  “And you’re my rescuers,” the boy said. “I wanted to stay and thank you, but I had to leave. My name is, uh, Jonathan.”

  “We’re the Aldens,” Henry said, and introduced everyone.

  “Is your last name Radley? Have you moved here?” Benny asked.

  “Not exactly,” Jonathan said vaguely. “Do you guys live near here?”

  “We live in Greenfield,” Jessie said.

  “That’s the nearest town, right?” Jonathan said.

  “What are you children doing here?” a voice demanded sharply.

  They all looked up to see the same young woman they had s
een two days before. She had her hands on her hips and she was frowning ferociously.

  “It’s okay, Courtney,” Jonathan said quickly.

  “How did you get in?” Courtney demanded.

  “Through the gate,” Violet said. “Our dog wiggled through the bars and we came after him.”

  “I know you didn’t wiggle through, too, so I guess it wasn’t locked,” Jonathan said.

  Just then, Watch and Greta ran back toward them. Greta had the stick now. She raced up to Jonathan and dropped the stick at his feet.

  Jonathan picked it up and Greta danced around him.

  “She wants you to throw the stick,” Jessie said.

  “I know,” said Jonathan, grinning. “I can speak dog, too.”

  Courtney came down the stairs and walked toward the Aldens. She was wearing a one-piece jumpsuit over a turtleneck sweater. She looked strong and almost menacing.

  “It’s okay,” Jonathan said, sounding a little impatient. To the Aldens he said, “This is Courtney Foote. She’s a little . . . protective.”

  “It’s my job,” Courtney said, her eyes never leaving the Aldens. To the Aldens she said, “I’ll walk you back to the gate.”

  “Greta and I will come, too,” said Jonathan. He seemed to be trying to make up for Courtney’s rudeness.

  “That’s not necessary,” Courtney said.

  Jonathan gave her a sweet smile. Jessie stared at him. “Yes, it is,” he said. He talked politely to the Aldens as he walked with them to the gate, but Courtney didn’t say a word.

  She opened the gate and stepped back, motioning for the Aldens to go through it. Henry bent down and clipped the leash back on Watch’s collar.

  “Come see me and Greta again,” Jonathan said.

  “We will,” agreed Henry.

  Courtney clanged the gate shut. She said in a loud voice, “We’re having a lock installed on that gate this afternoon. We’ve had enough trouble.”

  Jonathan winked at the Aldens. “I’ll know when I see Watch that you’re here,” he said.

  “You should go back to the house,” said Courtney. “For your own safety.”

  Jonathan shrugged and rolled his eyes. But he didn’t argue. He and Greta began to walk up the driveway.