The Midnight Mystery

by Gertrude Chandler Warner

  “That business card must have come from the man Martha was at the diner with,” Jessie said. “He sure sounded like an invention expert.”

  Benny frowned. “I hope nobody else invented my flashlight hat. Maybe I should show it to Mr. Marshall so nobody copies it from me.”

  Henry looked over Violet’s shoulder to read the card. “You know, we just passed the street where this lawyer’s office is. Maybe we could go ask him if he knows if there are any other flashlight hats out there.”

  When the Aldens reached the building on the business card, they were surprised.

  “Hmm,” Henry said as he pushed hard on the heavy oak office door. “I thought it would be a small, pokey office. This is pretty fancy.”

  The woman at the front desk looked surprised to see four children standing there. She smiled at Benny’s hat, which was beaming right at her face. “May I help you?” she asked. “And might I ask you to turn off your hat, young man? Otherwise, I’ll have to put on my sunglasses.”

  Benny whipped off his hat and kept it off. “Oops, sorry.”

  “We’re here to see Robert Marshall,” Jessie said to the woman. “My brother has a question about an invention.”

  The woman studied the Aldens’ hopeful faces. “Oh, dear. I’m afraid Mr. Marshall isn’t available today. He just returned from a lunch appointment. Now he has meetings with inventors all afternoon. This is a very busy week. The invention convention begins tomorrow.”

  In her nicest voice, Jessie tried again. “Would we be able to come back later when Mr. Marshall doesn’t have an appointment? We have a special invention to show him.”

  Behind his back, Benny crossed his fingers.

  Now the woman looked disappointed as well. “I’m very sorry. Wait. Here’s a thought. Mr. Marshall will be a judge at the invention convention. Perhaps you can catch him there and show him your creation. He probably wouldn’t charge his usual fee if you just chatted with him.”

  “Thank you,” Jessie said quietly. “We’ll look for him.” She hoped she didn’t look as let down as she felt. When she noticed some brochures on a table, she took one. “Maybe if we use our birthday money, we can afford a real appointment to show Mr. Marshall what we have.” A buzzer on a small intercom interrupted her.

  “Excuse me,” the woman said. “I have to answer this. It’s Mr. Marshall.”

  A man’s voice boomed out of the intercom. “Give Martha Carver a call, will you, Mrs. Page? She’s called me twice since I left her just a half hour ago. Tell her I’m busy all afternoon and I’ll get back to her. I can’t just drop everything to figure out riddles.”

  Mrs. Page pressed the button and coughed several times. “I have several people out here, Mr. Marshall. I hope you don’t want me to say all that to Martha when I call her.”

  “Not that last part, of course,” the voice boomed back.

  “Anything else?” Mrs. Page asked.

  Mr. Marshall boomed back. “Yes. Tell her I’ll need more evidence. Alice Putter’s actual plan book would help me a lot more than a book of riddles.”

  “I’ll mention that when she calls again,” Mrs. Page said. “Oh, Brad Smithy left another message for you. He said be sure to pay special attention to his entry in the invention convention.”

  “Brad Smithy!” Mr. Marshall yelled. “Every year he pesters me about his latest invention. He’s not even a client. Some days I think I should retire and raise chickens instead of dealing with these inventors.”

  Mrs. Page laughed after she turned off the intercom. “Please excuse the interruption. Mr. Marshall gets a bit frazzled at invention convention time. I’m sorry we couldn’t help you.”

  “We’re sorry, too,” Violet said. “But thank you.”

  “So long,” Mrs. Page said.

  “Mr. Marshall is pretty popular,” Henry said when the Aldens had left the lawyer’s office. “What do you suppose Brad’s special entry is?”

  “The crate!” Benny said before the other children could gather their thoughts. “I bet he’s keeping his invention in there. That’s what he was nailing shut in the kitchen. He sure didn’t want us to see what was sticking out of the crate, either.”

  “I wonder if his invention is the surprise we heard him mention on the phone,” Jessie said.

  “Maybe,” Henry said. “Brad wouldn’t let me get near that crate. It could have been anything.”

  Violet stopped in front of a barbershop to put up a flier. “Mr. Percy and Brad both tried to hide things from us that were in boxes. What I can’t figure out is if it has anything to do with the missing plan book.”

  Henry frowned. “Martha’s the one I wonder about — more than the other two. She gave Mr. Marshall the riddle book. She clearly doesn’t trust Ms. Putter. Plus, we’ve seen her wandering near the grandfather clock a couple times now at noon and at midnight. The question is, why?”

  CHAPTER 8

  Henry’s New Invention

  When the Aldens returned to the Putter house, they saw three parked cars in the driveway. They checked the garage, but no one was there. From a porch window, they saw Martha in the library room pulling books from the bottom shelves.

  “Hi, Martha,” Jessie called through the open window. “Need some help in there?”

  Martha quickly stood up. “Wait, I’ll be out in a second.”

  “Guess what.” Benny said when Martha came out to the porch. “Your friend dropped his card at the Red Rooster. The waitress asked us to give it to you.”

  Martha looked down at Benny, then at the other children. “The Red Rooster?” She looked a bit alarmed. “Were you there?”

  Jessie stepped forward and handed Martha the business card. “We were sitting behind you. You left before we could say hello.”

  Martha quickly snatched the card but said nothing about it. “Brad, Mr. Percy and I are working indoors this afternoon. I have some outdoor work for all of you.” She pointed out some large cartons and folded tables stacked on the lawn. “The rental company dropped off the tent canopies and display tables. That’s where we’ll put the inventions we don’t have room for in the house. I need you to set up the canopies and tables.”

  “See what I mean?” Jessie said after Martha went back inside. “Why is she poking around in the house? There’s so much paperwork to do with the inventions in the garage.”

  The children unpacked the display tents. They had done a lot of camping, so they knew how to put the poles together.

  As the Aldens put together the tents, Henry thought of something. “These poles just gave me a fan idea! Remember that periscope I made in science class a couple years ago? I could make a few more out of these cardboard tubes that the tent poles came in. We can use them to see around corners.”

  Right away, Benny wanted one. “How about a periscope to go on my hat?”

  Henry laughed. “You won’t even be able to lift your head if you put anything else on your hat. I’m going to get our toolbox from the kitchen. I’ll be right back.”

  “Go in the side way,” Jessie advised, “Martha told us to stay out here. I don’t want her to get upset with us.”

  Martha didn’t concern Henry much. “I’ll just tell her I had to run inside to get something I needed.”

  As he ran up the side steps, Henry heard tapping and banging sounds coming from the house. “Hey, Brad/’ he said when he stepped inside.

  Brad looked up. “I thought you kids would be outside all day,” he said. “Don’t expect to work in here. I’ve got nails and my electric equipment going. No place for kids.”

  Henry grabbed Grandfather’s toolbox from the counter. “We just needed some tools and materials. We’re still working on our inventions.”

  More tapping started up in the entryway.

  Curious about the sounds, Henry took a few steps toward the swinging door.

  “Go out the way you came in,” Brad advised. “Martha’s in a bad mood about something she lost. Better not get in her way.”

  Henry hesit
ated. “Oh, I don’t think that’s Martha. She was working in the library just a little while ago. It’s probably Mr. Percy. I saw his car in the driveway.”

  “Well, never mind,” Brad said. “Just get yourself back outside. Martha’s going to have somebody’s head if those tents and tables don’t go up this afternoon.”

  Henry returned to his brother and sisters. They had set up the tables already. “Here’s the toolbox. Boy, people can’t get us out of that house fast enough today.”

  Henry wasn’t one to stay in a grouchy mood, not when he had a plan. Soon he was busy searching through Mr. Alden’s toolbox. “Aha!” he said, and pulled out just what he was looking for — a tangled bunch of old eyeglasses. He spread them on one of the tables.

  Henry didn’t waste time. He carefully cut one of the long cardboard tubes into four shorter lengths. Then he cut a hole in the side of each tube. “This is the end I’ll look into,” he explained to Benny, pointing at the opening at the end of one tube. “But this” he pointed to the hole he had just cut in the side, “is what I’ll see out of.”

  “How can you look in the end and see out the side?” asked Benny.

  “By putting mirrors inside,” Henry explained. “Watch.”

  Henry reached back into the toolbox and pulled out several small old mirrors. “Perfect,” he said.

  “Thank goodness I didn’t throw out the glass cutter that came with the crafts kit Aunt Jane gave me for my birthday,” Violet said.

  “Mrs. McGregor always says we never throw away anything,” Benny said proudly.

  This was true. The Aldens were savers. Good thing Grandfather had a huge cellar and garage, plus the old boxcar for storing all the things the children had to save.

  Henry carefully measured and cut the old mirrors and fitted them inside the cardboard tubes.

  “Done!” he announced and handed a periscope to each of his siblings.

  Jessie squinted into hers. “I kind of see ... oh, wait. I do see something. The dogs are on the porch.”

  Benny could spot Ruff and Tumble without the help of the periscope, but he still wanted to try Henry’s contraption. “Wow!” he said, peering through. “Hey, if I hold it this way, I can see things up high.”

  Periscopes in hand, the Aldens set off to explore.

  Since Benny was the shortest Alden, Henry had given him the longest periscope. He immediately discovered a bird’s nest under some porch shingles. “Everybody’s flown away,” he said to himself as he peered into the empty nest. He decided against looking any closer at a hornet’s nest poking from behind some shutters. “No way.”

  Benny walked along the side of the house, turning his periscope this way and that to see what else he could discover. He decided to look through one of the tall first-floor windows. Balancing the periscope carefully, he gazed through the hole. The view he saw was a little wavy. It looked like the bottom half of a person. If only he were a little taller.

  Benny ran over to Henry, who was using his periscope to look around a corner of the house. “Can you put me on your shoulders? I’m looking in a high-up window over here, but I can only see half a person.”

  “Maybe whoever it is lost her head!” Henry joked.

  Benny giggled. “I can’t tell if it’s a him or a her. I need you to boost me up.”

  “Ugh,” Henry said as he lifted Benny. “Next time we do this, let’s try it before lunch, not afterward. You feel as if you have stones in your pocket.”

  “I do,” Benny said. “For skipping stones on the pond. I can throw them out if I’m too heavy.”

  Henry grunted. “Nope. I can hold you,” he said. He carefully carried Benny over to the side of the house.

  Benny held the periscope to the window. “It’s Mr. Percy,” he whispered to Henry. “He’s tapping on walls. Uh-oh. He just went out to the entryway. I can’t see him anymore. Okay, you can let me down. I thought we could see if somebody was sneaking around.”

  Henry laughed. “Somebody was. You! I wonder what Mr. Percy is up to.”

  Jessie and Violet walked over, holding empty dog bowls. Ruff and Tumble trailed happily behind.

  “I spotted these empty water bowls on the porch using my periscope,” Violet announced.

  “We can fill them from the outside faucet near the entryway,” Jessie said.

  “Good idea,” Henry said. “You know, I like to see things with my own eyes. They’re a lot sharper than my periscope.”

  The Aldens went to the side of the house, but the garden faucet didn’t work.

  Henry grinned. “Now we have to get water from the house.”

  “Let’s just go in,” Jessie suggested. “We can come right out as soon as we get the water.” She walked over to the front door, pushed it open, and stood there, staring. “Mr. Percy!”

  The Aldens couldn’t believe their eyes. Mr. Percy was trying to pry open the front of the grandfather clock with a screwdriver!

  Violet stepped forward. “What are you doing to the clock, Mr. Percy?”

  “Please don’t break it,” Jessie said. It looked as if Mr. Percy was trying to force the panel open. “It’s one of Alice Putter’s most beautiful clocks.”

  Mr. Percy faced the Aldens. “Break one of Alice Putter’s clocks? I’m here to fix them, not break them. But this one has stumped me since the day I laid eyeson it. Every time I’m in the house, I puzzle over it.”

  “You do?” Violet asked. “I thought you knew about all of Alice Putter’s inventions.”

  Mr. Percy pushed down his glasses and looked at Violet. “Well, you see, that’s the great thing about Alice Putter’s inventions, especially her clocks. Nobody knows everything about them, not even me. What keeps me going in circles with this grandfather clock is how to get inside the wood panel. It’s locked tight — I can’t get to the gears to clean them! I’ve tried tapping the walls behind it in case Alice somehow built it against an opening in the wall. I even wondered if there were a secret space or some such thing behind it. Can you kids figure the thing?”

  Benny looked up. “Not yet. We’re too afraid to touch it.”

  Mr. Percy packed up his screwdriver. “Well, if you think of anything, let me know. And good luck with your inventions.”

  “Thanks, you, too!” Jessie said.

  Mr. Percy stared at Jessie. “Me, too? I’m not an inventor!”

  “Oh,” Henry said. “We just thought you might be inventing something, too, since you seemed so interested in the other inventions coming in.”

  “And since you didn’t want us to look in your box,” Benny added.

  “I like to check out everything that comes in — I’m always interested in new gadgets and ideas,” Mr. Percy said. “But I’m not an inventor myself—I’m a Mr. Fix-it.”

  “What about Brad?” Henry asked. “Is he an inventor?”

  Mr. Percy sighed. “He’d like to be. I don’t know that he can come up with anything original and make it work. But good luck to him.” Mr. Percy looked up at the grandfather clock again. “Now there’s an invention to beat! Alice Putter’s last puzzle.”

  “Or riddle,” Henry said after Mr. Percy went out the front door.

  CHAPTER 9

  The Search Goes On

  The day of the invention convention was getting close. Thanks to Mr. Percy, Alice Putter’s clocks ticked and tocked along. Soon Grandfather and Ms. Putter would be back. The children could hardly wait to show them the new inventions and ask Ms. Putter about the riddle book they’d found. They still had one more big job to do — finding Alice Putter’s plan book. They kept on searching as they finished up their last-minute chores.

  Jessie sent Violet and Benny out to gather wildflowers to brighten up the house. She and Henry discovered a broom closet full of cleaning tools Alice Putter had designed. Jessie chose a feather duster shaped like a bird and soared around the house, dusting pictures, lamp shades, and Alice’s many sculptures and clocks. Henry grabbed a dust mop that looked like an upside-down creature with a wild he
ad of hair. He roamed through the rooms, mopping up dust and dustballs wherever he found them. Housecleaning had never been so much fun.

  The hubbub was too much for poor Midnight. She moved out to the toolshed with the spiders. Martha didn’t want Ruff and Tumble underfoot during all the preparations. She shooed them into a fenced area near their doghouse.

  In between visiting the penned dogs and finishing their housekeeping, the Aldens did some final tinkering on their own inventions, which they had moved out to the garage.

  “How will I show off my rainy-day backpack if the sun’s blazing away?” Henry asked. The sunnier the weather forecast got, the cloudier he became. “I should have invented a hat with drop-down sunglasses or a shower that sprays suntan lotion.”

  “Maybe you should call it a sunny-day backpack,” Jessie teased.

  Henry began to laugh. “Okay, okay. No more teasing from younger sisters.”

  Thanks to Mr. Percy, Violet had decided to enter her jewelry arm instead of the crayon saver. He had given her an old music box part, then showed her how to connect it to the wooden hand. Now it played a little tune as it slowly turned, displaying the jewelry from all sides.

  “Thank goodness Mr. Percy saves old things, too,” Violet said. “Now I’m completely happy with my invention. Maybe I’ll work on my crayon saver and enter it next year.”

  “I’m sticking with my hat,” Benny said. “Mr. Percy said it’s just right.”

  Jessie was oiling the wheels of her recycling wagon. To show how it worked, she had filled each of the compartments with old newspapers, cans, and bottles. “Yes, Mr. Percy turned out to be nice after all.” She looked at her wristwatch. “I wish we had more time to search for Alice Putter’s plan book. Maybe if we found it, Martha and Ms. Putter would get along better.”

  “Where should we look next?” Henry asked.

  “In the kitchen,” Benny said. “I want to eat my leftover egg salad sandwich. And from there, we can keep an eye on the grandfather clock when it strikes twelve. Maybe something will happen to help us solve the riddle.”