Disappearing Staircase Mystery (6 page)

Jessie bent down to touch the floor. She slipped out of her shoes so she could feel the floor. “Let’s follow these wet spots,” Jessie whispered. “Somebody must have come up here from the outside. If we follow these footprints, maybe we can figure out where the person went.”

“Good thinking,” Henry said to Jessie. “Lead the way.”

Jessie and Soo Lee tracked the wet footprints to the third-floor hallway.

When the footprints stopped, so did the Aldens. They found themselves directly under the ceiling panel they had discovered the morning before.

Henry aimed his flashlight upward. “Who wants a boost up on my shoulders?” Henry whispered. “I need Soo Lee or Benny to tug the knob.”

Before Benny or Soo Lee could decide, the children heard a creak coming from the ceiling. The panel started to open right where the Aldens were standing!

Jessie motioned to the nearby bathroom and opened the door. The other children squeezed in behind her. They climbed into the claw-footed tub and hid themselves behind an old shower curtain. Jessie put her finger up to her lips so no one would speak.

A couple of minutes later, the children heard a springy sound, followed by a faint thud, then another springy sound. Some footsteps came close to the bathroom where the children were hiding. The door opened. A dim light swept over the bathroom.

The Aldens could barely breathe. What if the person found them huddled behind the shower curtain? The children stood as still as statues. Eventually they heard footsteps going downstairs. They waited in the tub for several minutes. Finally they felt safe enough to climb out.

“I think whoever that was is gone now,” Henry whispered. He stuck his head out and checked the dark hallway. “Which way, guys? Follow the person down the regular staircase or go up the disappearing staircase?”

The other children looked at one another.

“We might not get another chance to go up there alone,” Jessie pointed out.

Violet looked up at the staircase panel in the ceiling. “Maybe my music box is up there.”

“And who knows what else we might find?” Henry said. “After we get a look around, we can keep a watch out for anyone else we find up here.”

“Let’s go,” Benny said, following the beam of Henry’s flashlight down the dark hall.

The Aldens tiptoed into the hallway behind Henry. They stood under the secret ceiling panel.

Jessie beamed her flashlight upward. “Hey look. Whoever was up here didn’t close the panel all the way. It’s hanging open partway. I think we can reach it from the stepladder. Bring it over.”

Jessie was right. Even though she was two inches shorter than Henry, she easily reached the knob from the top of the stepladder. The panel made a springy sound and came down a couple of feet. “All I have to do is unfold the steps the rest of the way,” Jessie said, doing just that.

Henry caught the steps before they landed on the floor. He didn’t want to make any extra noise.

The disappearing staircase filled the hallway. The Aldens got in line, eager to go up.

“I’ll stay down here to keep a lookout in case that person comes back,” Henry said. “We could solve two mysteries at the same time—finding some missing treasures and whoever knows about them. Good luck.”

As Henry stood by, the other children carefully climbed the wooden steps.

“I hope this attic is filled with treasures,” Violet whispered when she reached the top step.

Violet wasn’t disappointed. “There’s another playroom above the nursery! Only smaller,” she said in a whisper.

The children flashed their flashlights around the room. The child-sized space had low ceilings and shelves. Everywhere their flashlight beams landed, the children saw toys—heaps of them. Beautiful old dolls and stuffed animals stared back at the Aldens from the shelves. Toy trucks, wagons, old-fashioned roller skates, and even a train track filled another side of the room.

“Wow, that train set is huge!” Benny said in a loud whisper. “Too bad the electricity isn’t on to make all those train cars go around.”

Jessie opened the doors of a cabinet. “Look! More old trucks—lots of them,” she said.

Violet and Soo Lee went over to a large dollhouse displayed on its own special table.

“It’s a miniature model of the Bugbee House,” Violet said in her soft voice, “only the way it must have looked when the Bugbee children lived here. It even has a secret playroom just like the one we’re standing in.”

The Aldens gathered around the dollhouse. It was completely furnished right down to many of the very toys the children could see in the actual playroom. For a few seconds, no one spoke. The dollhouse, all furnished and complete with a family of little plastic people, looked like such a happy place. To the Aldens, the real Bugbee House now seemed empty and sad.

Jessie noticed something else about the dollhouse. “Look. There’s a tiny skylight just like the one we saw where the tree branch fell down.”

The children looked up at the playroom ceiling.

“But there’s no skylight in here,” Violet said. “In the dollhouse, the skylight is in a different space—in a room that’s behind the third-floor bathroom.”

“You’re right, Violet,” Jessie said. “But I didn’t notice any other entrances in the bathroom before. We’d better go back and check.”

“Oh, dear, one other thing.” Violet pointed to something else in the dollhouse. “Look, there’s a miniature music box in the dollhouse playroom with a tiny bear on it! Maybe that means…” She turned around to face the actual shelf in the actual playroom.

“My music box!” she said in an excited whisper. She picked it up. “It’s the very one I bid on. There’s even a price sticker on it.”

“Then take it,” said Jessie. “We’ll tell Mabel we found it after all, then you can pay for it. We have to let her know about this room and all these valuable old toys. Whoever was up here is keeping it a secret, so it’s up to us to tell her.”

Violet picked up the music box with the dancing bear. “I won’t play it right now. Someone might hear the music just like we did. I wonder who was up here.”

“That’s what we need to find out.”

The children took one last look around the hidden playroom. Then, one by one, they climbed down the disappearing staircase to the bottom, where Henry was still keeping a lookout.

“Okay,” he said after everyone was back down in the hallway again. “Let’s push these stairs back up into the ceiling. Benny and Soo Lee, you two be my lookouts in case anyone comes up here.” Henry folded the steps, then gave the panel a firm push. “Abracadabra. Staircase, disappear.” And so it did!

“Violet has something special to show you,” Jessie whispered to Henry.

“The attic up there is really a secret playroom full of old toys,” Violet explained to Henry. “Somebody hid my music box there.”

“Wow!” Henry said. “So it was stolen.”

“Just like I said,” Benny cried, excited about that idea.

The children examined the music box but didn’t play it. They weren’t taking any chances.

“It must be valuable,” Jessie said. “Otherwise, why did someone go to all the bother of hiding it up in the hidden playroom?”

“What I wonder is, who knows about that playroom?” Henry asked.

“A person with big, wet feet,” Soo Lee answered.

The children tried not to laugh too hard.

“That could be a lot of people in this house tonight. If I get a chance, I’d like to go up there and look around another time,” Henry said. “Well, at least we figured out where the skylight is.”

Jessie smacked her forehead. “Wait! We were so excited about finding Violet’s music box, we almost forgot to tell you: The skylight isn’t in the playroom at all. We think there’s a hidden space behind the bathroom.”

Henry couldn’t get over this. “Wow! Well, I guess you’re too tired to go looking around for it, right, guys?” he asked Soo Lee and Benny.

“I’m not too tired,” Benny whispered right back.

Henry laughed. “Just kidding. Let’s go.”

By now the Aldens knew where all the squeaky parts of the floor were. They reached the bathroom without so much as a creak.

“There’s the linen closet,” Jessie said. “I don’t see any openings or anything in here, though.”

“Maybe the secret room was blocked off a long time ago.” Henry pushed hard on the wall behind the shelves. Nothing budged. “Hey, Soo Lee, what are you doing?”

Soo Lee, the shortest Alden, saw something the other children had missed. Looking straight ahead, she pointed below the shelf right at her eye level. “Look, Henry. There’s a little door under this shelf. You have to be little like me and Benny to see it.”

Henry crouched down. “Good job, Soo Lee.” He lifted the two bottom shelves. “They aren’t attached. Now we can get through that door easier, even though it’s only about three feet tall. Ready?”

By this time, Benny planted himself right by Soo Lee. “Can I look—I mean, after Soo Lee gets her turn?”

Soo Lee backed away. “You can go first, Benny. Then me.”

Benny had to stoop down a little to open the door. He pushed it gently just a crack.

“What do you see?” Henry asked.

“There’s a room full of boxes and stuff,” he said. “And it’s got a skylight, just like in the dollhouse. Uh-oh.” He backed out suddenly.

Benny put his finger to his lips. “Shhh.” He pulled the door gently to close it. He pointed to the bathroom door.

The Aldens went into the hallway where they could talk.

“What did you see?” Jessie whispered. “Did someone come?”

“Mr. Gardiner! He’s in there,” Benny whispered. “He was putting things into cardboard boxes, but I couldn’t tell what.”

“One thing we need to find out,” Henry said, “is how George got into that room. Did you notice an exit in the dollhouse room?”

Jessie shook her head no. Then she had a thought. “Maybe the passageway came later—after someone built the dollhouse.”

“There’s another way to get into that room, and it has something to do with the garage,” Henry said. “We just haven’t figured it out yet.”

The next day, the Aldens spent the morning painting the porch of the main house. While they worked, they spoke in low whispers.

“It’s too bad Mabel is at the fund-raising breakfast right now,” Jessie said. “We have to tell her about the disappearing staircase and the hidden playroom.”

Violet touched up a spot Benny had missed on one of the railings. “I want to show her the music box.”

“I want to go exploring,” Benny said now that their work was all done.

“Painting these railings took longer than I expected,” Henry said. “I don’t think we have enough time to go exploring. Nan invited some television people to film us working, and they’re supposed to be here any minute.”

Jessie cleaned off the rim of the paint can, then hammered down the lid. “You know, we could give those reporters a real story and show them the staircase and secret rooms we found.”

“Hey, that’s a great idea,” Henry said. “Everybody will be gathered around for that. Then we’d see who gets upset about the disappearing staircase.”

“We might get to be on television,” Benny told Soo Lee as Violet cleaned off their hands with a cloth. “Maybe the camera will follow us around. We can be famous!”

Jessie chuckled. “You’re pretty famous already, Benny Alden! Well, let’s go find the Gardiners. I want to let them know we finished the painting job Nan asked us to do.”

“The Gardiners are going out,” Henry said. “See? They’re heading to their van with some boxes. Brian, too.”

Benny couldn’t believe it. “Hey,” he called out. “Don’t you want to be famous? The TV people are here!”

Minutes later, the lawn in front of the Bugbee House was covered with cables, lights, and strange equipment.

“Can you show us around a little?” one television crew person asked the Aldens.

The Aldens immediately forgot about Brian and the Gardiners. The television people needed their help.

Soon a reporter was on the lawn talking into a camera about the House and Hands project. Then he introduced Mabel, who had just arrived.

“He’s going over to interview Grandfather,” Violet whispered a few minutes later.

The children went over to watch. Grandfather was explaining to the reporter how he’d discovered some prize rosebushes hidden under some vines.

The reporter spotted Benny off to the side. He came over with the camera operator.

“Well, young man, your grandfather told us you’ve been working on the Bugbee House, too. He found some old rosebushes nobody knew were there. Did you and the other children find anything?”

“A big staircase that disappears into a ceiling,” Benny blurted out, to everyone’s amazement. “Nobody knows about it. Well, maybe somebody. We heard footsteps walking around! And a person even came down the steps. Wanna see?”

The reporter seemed eager to follow Benny into the house. “Let’s turn off the cameras for now until we find out what this boy is talking about.”

Benny led a parade of visitors and volunteers up to the third floor. The other children followed right behind.

Benny pointed to the ceiling on the third floor. “The staircase is up there. It folds out. It’s hard to see ’cause somebody hid it. But we found it! I have to get up on my brother Henry’s shoulders to pull the steps down.”