Great Bicycle Race Mystery (2 page)

“I bet we
do
find a mystery to solve,” said Benny. “Just wait and see!”

A tanned boy with shaggy brown hair had just stopped at the lemonade stand as Henry, Benny and Jessie arrived. He’d loosened the straps of his blue bicycle helmet and had it pushed back. He was wearing dark glasses and shiny black bicycling shorts.

“Hi,” said Henry.

The boy scowled at them.

“Have some lemonade,” suggested Jessie. “You look like you could use it.”

“I changed my mind. I’m not thirsty,” he said.

“It’s for a good cause,” Soo Lee said. “Did you see our sign?”

“I
know
about the ride,” the young man said.

“We’re all going to be in it,” said Benny. “Even our grandfather.”

But the young man wasn’t paying attention to Benny. He was eyeing Henry. He pointed. “Is that your bike?” he asked.

“Yes,” said Henry proudly. He’d bought the bicycle at a yard sale. It had been rusty and dented and missing its chain. Henry had repaired the bike. He’d given it a new chain, fixed the gears, and then he’d scrubbed away all the rust and painted the bike fire-engine red.

“What a hunk of junk!” the young man said.

Henry’s face reddened.

“It’s a beautiful bike!” declared Jessie, with her hands on her hips.

“Ha,” said the boy. “You’ll be lucky if you finish the first day of the race.”

With that, he swung his leg back over his own sleek, shiny bicycle and pedaled away.

For a moment, everyone was too stunned to speak. Then Jessie said, “That’s two rude people in one day.”

“What else happened?” asked Soo Lee.

“When we were collecting money, we had one man who is a friend of May Whatney’s practically throw us out of his store,” Jessie explained.

“Grrr,” said Watch.

“That’s how I felt, too,” said Benny, patting Watch.

“But he wasn’t the only one you talked to, right?” Soo Lee said. “Did you raise any money?”

“We did,” said Jessie. “Everybody else was pretty nice. What about you?”

“We almost sold out,” Violet said proudly. “We have just enough lemonade left to give everybody a free glass.” She poured out the lemonade and handed it around.

Benny finished his in one long gulp. “I’m hungry,” he announced. “I need dessert.”

That made Henry laugh. “Okay, Benny,” he said. “You can have dessert. But first you have to eat lunch!”

After lunch, the Aldens counted their money. “We’re getting closer to our goal, the entrance fees plus one dollar a mile,” said Jessie, “but we still have a ways to go.”

“I have an idea to raise more money,” suggested Benny. “Let’s have a car wash.”

“It’s worked in the past,” agreed Henry. “It should work again.”

The Aldens gathered sponges and buckets and soap. They took the lemonade sign and turned it over and wrote on the back, HELP SAVE EAGLE MOUNTAIN. HAVE YOUR CAR WASHED AND MAKE A DONATION.

They went out to the end of the driveway by the street. At first no cars stopped. Then a pickup truck pulled into the car wash. “I’ll give you a big donation if you can get the back of my pickup truck clean,” the woman inside said. “I’ve been hauling manure for my garden.”

Violet wrinkled her nose. The truck smelled like manure.

But the smell didn’t stop Henry. “You’ve got a deal,” he said. The Aldens went to work.

Soon the whole truck was sparkling clean—and all of the Aldens were soaking wet. Even Watch, who wasn’t very fond of baths, had somehow gotten wet.

“Good job,” said the woman as Henry gave a side mirror a last polish with a dry cloth. She reached into her hip pocket, pulled out her wallet, and took out several bills. She handed the money to Violet and Violet gasped.

“Thank you!” Violet said. “That’s the biggest donation we’ve had so far.”

“A clean truck and a good cause,” the woman said with a smile. “It’s worth it.” She waved as she drove away.

After that the Aldens washed a blue van, an old maroon Chevy, another pickup truck, and a station wagon.

Then a long black car pulled up to the curb. The window hummed down and a thin-faced man peered out from the driver’s side of the car.

“How sweet,” said the man. “But do you really think your little car wash is going to prevent people from taking Eagle Mountain to its full financial and developmental potential?”

“Well ...” said Benny. He wasn’t sure what the man had just said.

The man jerked his head in the direction of the bicycles propped against the front porch of the Aldens’ house. “And I suppose those are the vehicles you plan to use in this bike race that’s being talked about?”

“Those are our bikes,” said Benny.

“We may not finish first, but every little bit helps,” Jessie put in cheerfully. “Would you like us to wash your car?”

The man seemed to shudder as he answered, “I don’t think so.”

From the backseat, a woman leaned forward. The Aldens caught a glimpse of smartly cut brown hair streaked with blond and gray, and a pair of half glasses perched on the end of an upturned nose. “Ronald, that will do,” the woman said.

“You don’t want to make a donation, either?” Soo Lee asked.

The man called Ronald gave a snort. “Certainly not,” he snapped. “Although it looks as if you could use one for those pathetic machines you call bicycles.”

“That’s enough. Drive on,” the woman’s voice commanded and she leaned back, disappearing from view.

“Yes, Ms. Whatney,” Ronald said.

He rolled up the window and the car purred away.

“Ms. Whatney!” exclaimed Jessie, staring after the car. “So that’s the developer who is trying to buy Eagle Mountain.”

“And that man named Ronald must be her chauffeur,” said Henry.

Violet said, “I guess she’s very,
very
rich. She can probably pay lots of money for Eagle Mountain. How can we ever raise enough to stop her?”

She sounded unhappy. Henry patted her shoulder. “Don’t worry, Violet. She’s only one person and there are lots and lots of us who are raising money. And if we can show how many people want the mountain saved, the governor might help, too. We’ll be able to do it.”

“I hope so,” said Violet.

Just then, another car pulled up to the car wash, and the Aldens had to get back to work.

At the end of the day, they sat, tired and content, on the front steps of the house. “We can work on raising more money tomorrow,” said Henry. “Maybe we can ride over to Silver City and see if we can get some donations there.”

“That’ll be fun. But I have to go home now,” said Soo Lee. “I’ll be back first thing tomorrow morning to help.”

The Aldens worked hard for the next few weeks raising money and practicing for the ride. In the mornings they would ride their bikes, going farther and farther each day to get used to riding long distances.

Grandfather rented a bicycle from Greenfield Wheels and practiced with them often. Sometimes Soo Lee, Aunt Alice, and Uncle Joe came along, too. Jessie put a special basket on the back of her bicycle so even Watch could come along. His legs were too short for him to run alongside during the long bike rides.

In the afternoons, the Aldens collected donations and held car washes and did chores for people in the neighborhood. They walked dogs and pulled weeds. They watered plants for people who went on vacation. They spent two days cleaning out a garage for a family that was moving.

Finally, two days before the race began, they sat on the front porch to count their money. “We did it!” said Jessie. “We have enough money for all of us, even Grandfather: entrance fees and one dollar per mile each.”

Soo Lee sighed with relief. “Good. I was beginning to get worried.”

“I knew we’d make it,” Benny boasted.

“We even have a little extra,” Jessie went on.

“The more money we have to help save Eagle Mountain, the better,” said Violet.

Henry stood up. “Let’s put the money away and go do some riding.”

“Good idea,” said Jessie.

“Not too far,” Soo Lee warned. “Remember what Thelma told us. Right before the race we’re just supposed to take short rides.”

“We’ll go to the park and back,” said Henry.

“And tomorrow, we pack and get ready for the race,” said Benny. “I can hardly wait. Then it will only be one more day. Isn’t it great, Watch?”

Watch, who was standing beside Jessie’s bicycle, wagged his tail. He was ready to go for a ride, too.

The Aldens pedaled away, with Watch hanging out of Jessie’s basket, his ears flying.

“Eagle Mountain, here we come!” shouted Benny.

“Come on, Henry,” Benny said the next morning. “We have to practice for the race one more time!”

But Henry didn’t come out of the garage next to the house where the Aldens kept their bicycles.

“Henry?” Jessie called.

“I can’t find it!” Henry said. His voice was muffled.

“Find what?” asked Violet. She leaned her bike against a tree and started toward the garage.

Just then, Henry burst out of the garage door. His eyes were wide. “I can’t find it. I can’t find my bicycle!” he cried.

“Isn’t it in the garage?” asked Jessie. “I saw you put it there last night. You leaned it against the ladder.”

Propping her own bike against Violet’s, Jessie hurried toward the garage. Benny, Soo Lee, and Watch quickly followed. As soon as they walked into the old garage, Watch growled softly.

“What is it, boy?” asked Benny.

But Watch couldn’t answer. He could only growl.

Jessie looked at the ladder in the corner where she’d last seen her older brother’s bike. It wasn’t there.

She glanced around the garage. She didn’t see Henry’s bicycle anywhere. She peered behind an old trunk. She raised the edge of a tarp, but found only spiders, dust, and a broken lawn mower beneath it.

The dust made her sneeze.

“It’s not here,” reported Violet, who’d been making a search of her own.

“Maybe you didn’t leave it in the garage. Maybe we got yesterday mixed up with some other day. Maybe you forgot to put it away and left it out by the boxcar,” Jessie said.

But as she spoke, Henry shook his head. “I’m sure I put it here last night,” he said. “I never took it out to the boxcar.”

“Then someone must have sneaked into the garage last night and taken it,” said Violet. “But why?”

Henry shook his head. “I don’t know. It wasn’t worth much — except to me.”

“We’ll find your bike,” said Jessie.

Suddenly she squatted down. “Look.” She pointed to the track of a wheel through a patch of old motor oil on the floor of the garage.

“Any one of us could have made that track,” Violet objected. “It’s not the only one.”

“But look how clear it is,” Jessie said.

Henry bent forward. “You’re right. That’s the track of a new tire. You can see every ridge. All the other tracks are much smoother, with many fewer tread marks.”

“You’re the only one of us who has a brand-new tire,” said Soo Lee.

“And look at this!” Violet’s voice rose in excitement as she pointed to the tracks leading from the garage.

The Aldens followed the tire track out of the garage. It curved suddenly and went off into the grass.

“The track leads out of the garage onto the grass at one side of the driveway and I know Henry always goes straight up or down the middle of the driveway,” Violet concluded.

“Why would someone ride your bike in the grass?” Benny wanted to know. “It’s not a mountain bike. Is it?”

“No, it isn’t,” Henry said.

“Here’s a streak of grease on the grass,” Violet said from around the corner of the garage.

“That’s funny,” said Jessie. “It looks as if whoever took the bike wasn’t taking it out to the road to ride away. He or she was going in the opposite direction.”

“Then that’s where we’ll start looking,” said Henry.

The five of them and Watch spread out and searched all around the big old white house. Henry checked the basement door just in case someone had moved the bike in there for a joke. But the door was locked from the inside, just as it always was.

Soo Lee suddenly cried, “Look!” She pointed to a slash of red on a large rock near the edge of the woods behind the Aldens’ house.