Candy Factory Mystery (5 page)

Jessie frowned. “And when he was here this morning, he acted as if he didn't want to see us.”

After the Aldens finished lunch, they went to get the broken part from Meg. They heard her voice coming from Mrs. Winkles's office.

“Mr. Boxer, you really shouldn't be in here,” the Aldens overheard Meg say to someone else in the office. “I was just locking up.”

“After all, Meg, I am Mrs. Winkles's shipper,” the man said. “I just need to check some old shipping bills. I'll only be a few minutes.”

Meg sounded a little worried. “But why are you looking at—”

“Oh, never mind,” the man said impatiently. “Since you and I worked together, Meg, I'm really not sure why you're such a fussbudget about my being here. Remember, I did help you get this job. We're supposed to be helping each other.”

Meg noticed the Aldens standing nearby. For a change, she seemed relieved to see them. “Oh, I'm glad you're all here. I have that broken machine part Mrs. Winkles called about,” she said. “This is Mr. Boxer. He's my old boss from the shipping company where I used to work. He ships all our packages.”

The man didn't seem a bit interested in meeting the Aldens. He barely turned around from the file cabinet he was trying to open. “Humph,” was his way of saying hello. “It's no use,” he muttered. “It's locked.” With that, he brushed by the Aldens without another word.

The children still didn't feel comfortable around Meg. But now she looked so worried, they almost felt sorry for her.

“What's the matter?” Violet asked.

“Oh, nothing,” Meg said softly. She gathered up all the papers the man had scattered on Mrs. Winkles's desk.

“I bet Mrs. Winkles is a nicer boss than that man was,” Benny told Meg.

“Benny,” Jessie whispered. “That's not our business.”

Meg started to say something else but stopped. Finally, she held out the broken machine part. “Here it is. Don't forget to tell them that we need it fixed as soon as possible. I'll see you later.”

When the children turned to leave, Tom appeared in front of them as if he had come out of nowhere.

“Tom!” Jessie said. “We were waiting for you to come back.”

Tom looked away from the Aldens. “What do you mean, come back? I just got here.”

Jessie scrunched her eyebrows. What did Tom mean by that? “Weren't you here really early this morning? We saw you in the parking lot. We all waved down at you.”

Tom waited a long time before speaking. “Wasn't me. You must have seen someone else. I was home all morning.”

Now Henry was confused, too. “But I called you there. Your answering machine was on.”

“I must have been in the shower,” Tom said.

“Guess what,” Soo Lee said, looking up at Tom. “Mrs. Winkles's chick machine broke. We're getting it fixed.”

Now it was Tom's turn to look startled. “That's why I came by. Mrs. Winkles also left a message on my machine. I'm the one who goes to the toolmaker's to make sure he does the job right. It's not an errand for kids.”

Jessie looked up at Tom. “Mrs. Winkles told us to go,” she said in a firm voice. “We just talked to her. See you later.” Jessie led the children out before Tom could say another word.

The Aldens didn't have to go far to find the tool repair shop. It was just a few blocks away.

Jessie looked down at the scrap of paper with the toolmaker's address on it. “There's the place—
All-Tool Casting
. Let's see if they can help us.”

The children entered the small shop, which was filled with all kinds of metal parts.

A man in blue overalls came out to greet the Aldens. “May I help you?”

Jessie put the broken machine part on the counter. “We're from the Winkles Candy Factory. Mrs. Winkles asked us to get this fixed.”

“Her candy chick machine broke again,” Soo Lee told the man.

“That sounds like an emergency,” the man said with a friendly twinkle in his eye.

“It is an emergency!” Benny said. “A candy emergency. But Mrs. Winkles said you fixed it before when Tom came here. Now it's broken again.”

“Before?” the man asked in a puzzled voice. “I haven't worked on this broken part before.”

Now it was the Aldens' turn to be confused.

“Are you sure?” Henry asked. “Don't you know Tom Chipley? He works for Mrs. Winkles sometimes. He told her he's been in here a few times with this broken part.”

“Never met him,” the man said. He could see Benny on his tiptoes, trying to see all the machines in the back of his shop. “I am glad to meet you kids, though. Sorry I can't let you back there — safety and all, you know. I make machine parts for candy machines plus candy molds and design stamps for a lot of the candy factories in the area. There's a lot of stuff back there that could be dangerous for kids.”

The man took a close look at the broken machine part. “Hmmm, I see the problem here. I can have it ready day after tomorrow. Hope that's okay.”

“It'll have to be,” Henry said. “Thanks for getting it done so quickly.”

“See you in a couple days,” the man said. “Oh, help yourself to some candy from that basket over by those packages on the counter. I get lots of free samples from my customers who order parts for their candy-making equipment.”

Benny and Soo Lee didn't need to be coaxed to help themselves. Benny reached in and grabbed a handful. He recited the names of all the candy he wanted to try: “Taffy Pulls, Choco Chewies,
Stay Out!”

“Stay out of where?” Henry asked. “What are you talking about?”

Benny held up a candy heart. “That's what it says. It's like one of the hearts Mrs. Winkles gave us.”

While the children were talking, a man in a brown uniform pushed a hand truck into the shop. “Hi, kids. I see you found the free candy they keep around here. This is one of my favorite stops.”

When the deliveryman went over to the counter to pick up a pile of boxes, Henry followed him. “I'll give you a hand. There are an awful lot of packages.”

“Thanks,” the man said. “I can't let you handle the packages. But you can hold my hand truck steady while I pile the shipments on it. Let's see.” The man began to read the labels:
“Sturgis, Wilder, Boxer”

“Boxer!”
the Aldens all cried at the same time.

“I sure don't want to forget this one,” the deliveryman said. “He's a tough customer. And he got me in some trouble with a few of my customers. Blamed me for mixing up some of my deliveries.” The man stopped. “I can't really discuss this. Let's just say there have been a few mix-ups with that guy.”

“Candy mix-ups?” Jessie asked.

The man pushed his hand truck out the door. “I guess you could say that.”

CHAPTER 7

The Aldens See a Ghost

T
he next morning, the Aldens had no problem getting into the candy kitchen. Meg had left a message in big letters on the Aldens' door the night before:
Get to work early. We need everybody to help fill the eggs by hand
.

“How long did you say it would take to fix the part?” Meg asked again as she let the children inside. “Mrs. Winkles called a few times to make sure I'm keeping up the work.”

“The tool man said a couple of days,” Jessie answered Meg. “I guess it's good that we came to visit Mrs. Winkles. Now you'll have lots of helpers until the machine gets fixed.”

Meg wasn't quite so sure of that. “It doesn't matter how many people you have. Doing things by hand is always slower. I guess it's better than nothing. I want to show Mrs. Winkles I can manage the candy factory even when she's not here.”

Meg led the children past the first cooling room where the sugar chick machine was usually running. “Tom offered to pick up two containers of sugar chicks from Mr. Boxer's. He didn't want to lose time waiting for Mr. Boxer to deliver them.”

Benny and Soo Lee looked with big eyes at the huge, plastic jars filled with blue and yellow candies.

“Anyway, the containers are opened already. You can just start dropping the chicks into the eggs,” Meg continued. “I'll run the conveyor belt at the slowest speed. Be very careful.”

Jessie nodded. “We'll be extra careful. I know we can work fast and not make mistakes.”

Meg's cheeks grew pink. “What is that supposed to mean? That I make mistakes and you don't?”

Jessie swallowed hard. “No, no. I didn't mean it that way — just that everybody makes mistakes.”

“She's so touchy,” Henry whispered after Meg finally left.

“And a little careless,” Jessie added. “But at least that would be better than if she's harming Mrs. Winkles's business on purpose.”

The Aldens weren't at all careless when it came to work. They lined themselves up in a row to make sure that if one person missed an egg, someone else filled it.

“Okay, everybody. Ready?” Henry asked.

A soft hum filled the spotless white room. Slowly the conveyor belt began to move a row of chocolate eggs through an opening in the wall, toward the Aldens.

“Here goes.” Henry reached into the metal container of candy chicks and took one out. “I'll start.”

Filling the eggs was simple, but Henry did miss a few at first. Jessie and Violet caught them all.

“Do Soo Lee and I get a turn?” Benny asked.

“Sure,” Henry said. “Now that we've got a good system going, you and Soo Lee scoot in front of me and you fill them, okay?”

This worked so well that the children were ahead of the machine every few minutes.

Then Benny's sharp eyes spotted something different when he reached into the container. Instead of a sugar chick, he saw a ghost instead! “Look at this. It's a candy ghost, not a chick!”

Violet recognized the little white ghosts. “Those are the ghosts Mrs. Winkles puts in her chocolate Halloween pumpkins. How did they get mixed up with the chicks?”

Henry saw that a couple empty eggs were about to pass by Benny. “I don't know, but I'm glad Benny has a good eye for candy. Set it aside for now. I'll fill these two eggs.”

“Let's not talk until the conveyor belt stops,” Jessie said. “The last thing we need is to get distracted. It's bad enough that Meg doesn't pay attention to her job half the time. Now this. I don't think customers would like seeing a ghost inside a chocolate egg when it isn't Halloween.”

“Hey, everything is slowing down,” Soo Lee noticed a few minutes later. “See, it stopped.”

“Before Meg comes in here or calls us, let's check these containers real fast,” Jessie suggested. “We'd better find out if any other candy ghosts got mixed in.”

The children sorted through the containers. They found a dozen or so candy ghosts in each one.

“Should we tell Meg?” Violet asked.

Henry and Jessie looked at each other.

“Not yet,” Henry said. “First, we need to find out who did this. Don't forget, when she gave us these containers, they were already opened. Let's just keep an eye on her for now.”

Violet didn't like to think that people they knew would make any trouble. “Maybe Meg opened the containers but didn't know what was inside.”

“I hate to say this, but what about Tom?” Henry asked. “He said he wasn't anywhere near the factory this morning, but we saw him. He's also the one who gave Meg the candy chick containers.”

Benny looked a little upset. “He didn't wave at us the other morning.”

Jessie put her arm around Benny and smiled. “Well, it's not a crime not to wave at people, Benny.”

“I know,” Benny said. “But first he was nice and gave everybody candy and showed us stuff. Then he stopped being so nice.”

A ringing phone interrupted the children.

“Meg said the inspector just drove up,” Jessie told the others after she picked up the phone. “She needs us to come to the candy kitchen. Hurry!”