Bus Station Mystery (2 page)

His voice was pleasant now as he spoke to the Aldens. It was plain that he liked them better than the two young boys.

The Aldens folded their raincoats across the wooden bench. They all sat down.

Henry asked, “Can we buy our tickets now from you?”

“Yes, indeed,” said Frank.

“We want just one-way tickets,” Henry said quickly. “The bus driver told us we could buy our return tickets at Oakdale.”

“Right,” said Frank, handing four tickets to Henry.

Violet was looking out of a window. “Oh, dear,” she said, “I hope it doesn’t start to rain. Just the same, we’re lucky that we brought our raincoats.”

The others looked out. Dark clouds were beginning to fill the western sky. But the leaves on the trees hardly stirred.

“No need to worry about the rain,” said Frank. “This won’t last long. You can keep dry if you wait inside.”

Benny suddenly remembered the bad smell outdoors. Now he said, “Oh, we’ll wait inside for sure. The air outside smells just terrible.”

Frank’s face changed. He looked angry. “That’s my new neighbor,” he said gruffly. “New neighbors—they have no business here. I don’t have any use for neighbors of that kind.”

The Aldens were puzzled. But they did not dare ask any questions. Did the man mean the two boys or did he mean someone else?

Frank turned his back to the Aldens. They sat still on the bench and watched him.

The telephone rang. In the quiet room it sounded loud. Violet jumped.

Frank went over to the wall telephone and picked up the receiver. “Frank speaking,” he said.

Someone began to talk and Frank started to frown. “Yes, I just got your letter,” he said. “No, I haven’t opened it. I told you I wasn’t interested. You can’t offer me enough.”

Frank started to hang up, but the voice on the line didn’t give up.

“What?” Frank asked. “You’ll do what? Is that what you wrote in your letter? Well, I’d like to see you try. That’s all, I’d just like to see you try. You can’t do something like that to me. I’ll find a way to stop you.”

Frank put the receiver back in place without saying good-bye. He frowned angrily. Then his face changed. He had the saddest look that the Aldens had almost ever seen.

The Aldens looked at each other. Something was certainly going on. Here was a man who could be angry one minute and sad the next. Why was he so troubled?

Benny muttered in Henry’s ear, “A deep and dark secret.”

Frank reached up and turned on a radio. Jessie thought that Frank felt the music would be better than his silence.

No one said anything for a little while. Frank washed some cups at the sink behind the lunch counter.

Suddenly the music stopped in the middle of a song. A radio announcer’s voice broke in. “This is a National Weather Service warning. A tornado watch is in effect in York and Plain counties. High winds expected, with some thunderstorms. We will give you more information when we have it. Stay tuned to this station for up-to-date storm bulletins.”

Violet was pale. All the Aldens looked out at the day that now looked so dark and stormy.

Frank looked at Violet kindly and said, “A tornado watch only means we might have a bad storm. Now, if it were a tornado
warning
then it would be much worse.” He was trying to make Violet feel better.

Henry and Frank walked to the door and stepped outside. They saw that the wind had begun to blow the dust on the road in front of the station. The tree branches swayed in the strong wind.

Henry looked for the two boys under the tree, but they had gone.

Violet peeked outside. “Look at those black clouds, Jessie. They’re moving so fast!”

The sun had gone behind the clouds. The sky was growing darker by the minute.

Frank and Henry came back inside and shut the door. Frank turned to the Aldens. They could see he was worried.

“I have a little house on the river just a mile from here,” Frank said. “I think I left the windows open this morning. Maybe I should go back and close up the house before the storm hits. I have a small boat pulled up on the riverbank. I want to see that it is tied tightly to its post so that it won’t float off in the storm.”

“It’s all right with us if you go,” Benny said. “But is it safe for you outside?”

“Oh, don’t worry about me,” Frank said. “I’ll be safe. I have a car parked behind the building here. I can drive over to my house in just a few minutes. I can get there before the rain starts. If I get caught, I’ll stay in my house until it is over.”

“You’ll come back here, won’t you?” asked Violet.

“Oh, yes, I’ll come right back to the bus station. You’ll be all right if you stay in the station. This is a strong brick building. It doesn’t leak.”

“We’ll be fine,” Jessie said. “We won’t go outside unless the bus comes to take us to Oakdale.”

“Yes,” said Frank. “If the bus comes, you can just shut the station door as you leave. The door will lock if you shut it tight. When I come back, I can open the door with my key. I don’t expect anyone to stop at the station anyway. Everyone will see the storm coming and stay indoors. Too bad for the hobby fair. There won’t be a crowd on a day like this.”

“We’ll keep the radio on and listen for the weather bulletins,” Henry said. “I’m sure everything will be all right. Don’t worry about us.”

Frank walked to the door to go out. Then he stopped as if he had remembered something. He turned to the Aldens and really smiled. “You four might get hungry while I’m gone. You can just look in the refrigerator and take whatever you’d like.”

“Why, thank you,” said Jessie. She was surprised. “That’s very good of you.”

Benny added, “We’ll look in the refrigerator the minute you’re gone. Be sure of that.”

Frank laughed. “You can just leave the money by the cash register,” he said. “I’ll know what it is for.”

He smiled again and waved good-bye. Then he walked out and shut the door behind him.

But a moment later the door opened. There stood Frank. This time he looked angry again.

“I forgot to tell you something,” he said. “If you see two boys hanging around, don’t let them in. They are troublemakers. I don’t want to have anything to do with them.”

Then Frank turned around and went out. This time he passed the window, and in a minute or so the Aldens heard him start his car. He drove off down the road that ran close to the river.

“Well,” said Benny. “What do you make of that? First Frank is friendly and thinks we might get hungry. And then he gets angry and tells us to watch out for those boys he doesn’t like. I don’t understand what makes him act so.”

Jessie said thoughtfully, “Frank knows those boys and we don’t. Nobody would order them out of a public bus station unless they had done something very annoying.”

Benny said, “Well, so far it’s a mystery to us. We don’t understand anything about it. But I know one thing. I’m not going to ask Frank about it and get my head taken off.”

Jessie glanced quickly around the bus station. She began to see a lot of interesting things.

“Look at those beautiful pink flowers on the windowsill,” she said. “They’re on all the windowsills. Frank must love flowers.”

“Birds, too,” added Benny, looking out of the window. “Just look at the bird houses. And there are some bird feeding stations, too.”

Violet said, “A man who likes birds and flowers can’t be all bad. Just look at that woodpecker! Isn’t his red head beautiful! Oh, it’s flying away. Something must have scared it.”

Henry was looking over Violet’s shoulder. He saw the bird, too. But he saw something else as well. He was sure that something moved behind one of the trees.

Henry continued to watch. He caught sight of a red shirt. It must be one of the two boys Frank had sent out of the bus station in such a hurry.

Henry had been wondering what had become of the boys. Had one of them been spying on the Aldens? Or maybe the boys were watching Frank. That was possible, too.

Henry didn’t want to say anything to frighten Violet or Jessie. But Benny exclaimed, “Hey, I see somebody behind the station. Who is it? One of those kids! Sneaking around, that’s what. No wonder Frank is mad.”

“Wait a minute,” Jessie said. “I don’t think the boy is sneaking around. He has field glasses. He was watching the bird Violet saw.”

For a few minutes it seemed as if the storm was not going to be too bad. Perhaps the tornado watch was already over.

Then all at once the sky turned a deep purple. The wind which had died down suddenly returned with new strength. The bus station sign creaked and tree branches bent in the strong gusts. The Aldens backed away from the windows.

CHAPTER 3

No Bus in Sight

F
rank hadn’t been gone more than a few minutes, and now the wind was howling.

The four Aldens walked to the front windows of the bus station-lunchroom. The sky was darker than ever, and the dust was whirling around in the air.

“Here comes the rain,” Benny exclaimed. And sure enough, the raindrops began to fall. The big drops fell slowly at first, and Violet watched them hit the windowpanes. Then the drops began to fall faster and harder. Rain pounded on the windows.

“I wonder where those kids are,” said Henry.

Violet replied, “Well, wherever they are, they are soaking wet. I know Frank said not to let them in, but just the same, I think we ought to.”

Benny laughed. “We don’t know their names. What should we call? ‘Boys? Hey, boys!’ ‘Hello, you boys!’ Or, ‘Come here, you kids!’”

Just then there was a knocking at the door. It sounded very loud, even over the howling wind.

Benny said, “I don’t care! You can’t just leave somebody outside in a storm like this. You can’t!”

Henry went to the door and unbolted it. The wind tore it out of his hand and two very wet boys stumbled in.

The door banged and Henry struggled to pull it shut. Now he was nearly as wet as the boys who’d just come in.

Water dripped in a puddle around each boy. Their hair hung down over their eyes. Water ran from the backpacks they were wearing.

“Thanks very much,” said one of the boys. “It’s a trifle damp outside.”

“So we see,” Henry replied. “That’s why we let you in. You know we weren’t supposed to let you in. Frank didn’t want anyone to come in.”

“Yes, we know,” the boy in the blue shirt said. “But Frank is sure all mixed up about us.”

The boy in the red shirt said, “Don’t worry about us. We’ll get right out as soon as the storm is over. It won’t last long.”

Jessie said, “I wonder if Frank got to his house before the rain started.”

“Sure,” said the older boy. “He had lots of time. Anyway, his house is just as safe as the bus station.”

Benny thought to himself how queer it was that the boy didn’t sound angry at Frank. He sounded almost worried about him.

These boys were not strangers at Plainville Junction. They knew too much about Frank. They were not the new neighbors the old man on the bus had mentioned. The Aldens would just have to keep their ears open. Somehow they were sure they’d find out who Frank’s new neighbors were.

By now Benny was really curious about the boys. They seemed restless and did not sit down. The Aldens watched the older boy wander all around the bus station, even behind the counter where the refrigerator was. He seemed to glance at an envelope.

“Hey, Troy,” he said, talking to his brother. “Guess what? Frank got a letter from Pickett’s Perfect Paints. He hasn’t even opened it.”

“Why should he, Jud?” returned Troy. “Frank probably knows what is in it.”

The boys were right, Benny thought suddenly. Frank had had that telephone call. That was how he had learned what the letter was about. Now Benny was sure the call must have been from someone at the paint factory.

Rain beat against the window and Violet said, “Look at it pour. It hasn’t rained so hard in weeks. Now I know what Grandfather meant about today being a weather breeder. Bad weather.”

Off in the distance the Aldens could hear the thunder roar. The lightning made the sky bright for a moment. Then came the thunder. Benny looked at Jessie just as one bright flash came.

The thunder rumbled again.