Mystery in the Mall (4 page)

“It’s not for sale,” Benny said.

“I’m expecting a shipment in a few days,” Penny told all the customers who wanted coconut monkeys. “Make sure to come back.”

“You children have worked enough today,” Penny said later on. “Didn’t you tell me you had some shopping to do at the mall? The stores close soon, so why don’t you leave now?”

Jessie and Violet finished wrapping last-minute souvenirs for several senior citizens who had to get back to their bus.

“Grandfather gave us money to get new jeans before we go back to school,” Jessie told Penny. “That jeans shop next door has a lot of them. I guess this is a good time to go shopping.”

It was never a good time for Benny to go clothes shopping. He wanted to go to the store that sold nothing but train models. Or go window-shopping at the store that had puppies in the window. Or stay at Penny’s and show off his monkey Anything but clothes shopping.

“Come on, Benny” Jessie said. “We might as well get it over with. You’re growing like a tree all the time. Look how short your jeans are.”

Benny looked down. About two inches of his socks showed between the bottom of his jeans and the top of his sneakers. “I like short jeans,” he told Jessie.

“Well, either you get new jeans or those jeans will soon look like shorts, not pants,” Henry said, half joking. “Same with mine. I’m not much of a shopper, either, but sooner or later we all need new jeans.”

The children walked over to the store next door. The Jeans Warehouse carried denim pants, jackets, shirts, and shorts. There were jeans stacked to the ceiling.

“How will we ever decide on jeans?” Violet asked. “The jeans store in Greenfield only has a few kinds.”

“I’ll help you,” a smiling young woman told Violet when she overheard her. “Tell me your sizes.”

“We all need jeans,” Jessie announced. “Here’s a list of our sizes.”

“Sure thing,” the young woman said. “Why don’t you each find a dressing room in back. I’ll bring in some jeans for each of you.”

The children found several empty dressing rooms and waited for the saleswoman. In a few minutes she came back with piles of jeans for the Aldens to try on. Jessie and Violet each found a pair right away.

“We’re going to go pay for our jeans,” Jessie told Henry as she stood outside his dressing room. “We’ll be browsing around in the shops nearby. See you in a while.”

Benny also decided on a pair quickly, the very first pair he tried. Jeans were jeans, and he wasn’t going to try on any other pairs. He sat down in his dressing room to wait for Henry. He played with his coconut monkey and made funny faces in the dressing room mirror. “Next time, save your old jeans for me, okay?” he called over to Henry in the next dressing room. “Then I won’t have to go shopping again.”

The boys stopped talking while Henry changed back into his regular clothes. That’s how the boys happened to overhear two people talking just a ways down.

“I told you I don’t want to get involved in this even to help you out,” the young saleswoman said. “My boss said I can’t hire anyone while she’s away.”

Henry and Benny heard the door to another dressing room bang shut. “I could work in the storeroom. I’m used to heavy lifting from my job on the boat.”

“Sorry,” the saleswoman said. “I’ll let you know as soon as my boss comes back about whether we can hire you. Why don’t you try some of the other stores.”

“I ... uh ... well, I like this store, that’s all,” the man said.

Henry and Benny didn’t hear anything else. They gathered up their new jeans and carried them to the cash register. While he waited to pay, Henry looked around the store. “That man’s voice sounded familiar.”

“Did you see who it was?” Benny asked.

“No, and now it’s going to drive me bananas all day.”

As they left the store, Benny suddenly felt empty-handed. “Uh-oh.”

Henry looked down. “What’s that
uh-oh
about?”

Benny’s ears turned pink. He didn’t want to tell Henry what had happened.

“My new coconut monkey! I think I left it in the dressing room when I was talking to you,” Benny said.

“No problem. Just run back inside the store and get it,” Henry said. “I’ll wait right here.”

When Benny came back, he was empty-handed again.

“What happened? Wasn’t the monkey there?” Henry asked.

Benny swallowed hard. He wasn’t going to cry, but he was upset with himself. After all, Henry had gone out and found him another monkey. Now it was lost again.

Henry went back inside to a clerk at the counter. “Did someone find a monkey in the dressing room?”

The clerk shook his head. “What an odd question! A monkey in the dressing room? How would a monkey get in there?”

The saleswoman came out of the dressing room area. She held up the coconut monkey. “Yip! Yip!” she said.

Benny ran toward the young woman. “Phew, I thought I lost this. Thank you.”

“I saw you come in with it before, so I put it away when I found it. I knew you would come back,” the woman said. “And the funny thing was, a man saw it and said it was his, but I didn’t let him have it.”

“Good thing,” Henry said. “The one I bought at that other store was the last one in stock. Now, Benny, you’d better keep that next to you wherever you go.”

Benny hugged his monkey. “I’ll be really careful this time.” With that, he put the coconut deep in his shopping bag. “Now nobody can see it.”

After the boys met up with Jessie and Violet, they strolled along the glass balcony that overlooked the indoor food court in the mall.

Violet peeked over, then pulled back. “It makes me dizzy to look down.”

“If I had my binoculars I could tell what everybody’s eating from up here,” Benny said, not dizzy at all. “This is a good spying spot.”

Jessie laughed. “Well, I spy a soft-ice cream stand down there. How about some ice cream before we go home? If we go right now, we should have just enough time to get some before the mall closes.”

Benny raced over to the mall’s glass elevator and pressed the button to go down. “Come on. Hurry up.”

Moments later, the elevator glided to the ground floor and opened up onto the food court.

The children put their shopping bags down next to an empty table.

“I’ll watch our stuff while you three get some ice cream,” Henry said. “Would you bring me back a dish of chocolate?”

“Sure thing,” Jessie said. “We’ll be right back.”

After Benny, Jessie, and Violet went off, Henry waited at their table and kept an eye on their belongings. Finally, he saw his brother and sisters carrying trays of ice cream dishes. When the three children got closer, Henry ran up to help carry the trays back. “I’ll get some napkins, too,” Henry said.

Right then, a janitor pushed a cleaning cart near the Aldens’ table. The man checked all the nearby tables, picking up hats, bags, and items that people had left behind. At the very next table, he spotted one of the Aldens’ shopping bags that had slipped onto the floor. The man picked it up and put it with all the other Lost and Found items on his cart.

The children returned with their ice cream and dug in.

A few minutes later, a voice interrupted them. “Attention, shoppers. The mall will be closing in fifteen minutes. Repeat. The mall will be closing in fifteen minutes.”

The Aldens gathered their belongings. They brought their trays and empty dishes to the large garbage cans nearby.

“Now we can go home,” Benny said. That’s when he noticed that he was the only one without a shopping bag. “Do you have my jeans bag, Jessie?”

“No, there are only three bags,” Jessie answered. “Where’s yours?”

Benny pointed to the cleaning cart the worker had parked a few tables ahead.

“There it is, on top of that cart. I bet that cleaning man thought I left: it behind, but I didn’t.” Benny ran ahead and tried to get the worker’s attention. “That’s my bag on your cart. I think you picked it up by mistake.”

When the tall man turned around, Benny had a big surprise. “Mr. Merchant! Uh, that’s my bag.”

“Humph,” Hap Merchant said when he saw Benny. “I can’t just hand this over. These things are going to Lost and Found unless you can tell me what’s inside.”

“That’s easy. My new jeans,” Benny answered.

Hap opened the bag and checked inside. “Sorry,” he said. “This bag must belong to someone else.”

“Oh, right!” Benny added. “My coconut monkey, too.”

Hap waited. Benny started to worry. “Isn’t that what’s inside? It’s under the jeans.”

“Humph,” Hap repeated. Finally he handed the bag over to Benny.

“At least I didn’t lose it this time,” Benny said when he caught up with his brother and sisters. “Hap Merchant put it with all the other stuff people lost.”

Jessie wondered about this. “Why would Hap be pushing around a cleaning cart? He manages the whole mall.”

“He doesn’t trust people, remember?” Violet said. “Martin Bolt told us he likes to do everything himself. He even does jobs for Penny’s shop instead of letting us do them.”

“He doesn’t seem to want us working here, that’s for sure,” Henry said.

“He’s always around when I have my monkey,” Benny added. “Even when it’s in a shopping bag.”

Jessie took Benny’s new jeans from his shopping bag and put them in another bag. “You know what? Let’s take your monkey in this bag and put it away in Penny’s store. That way you’ll have it tomorrow when you and Henry take pirate pictures. We’ll meet you by the exit door, okay?” Jessie said to Violet and Henry.

Shoppers scurried from the stores in the last few minutes. Jessie and Benny heard their footsteps echoing on the tile floors of the mall.

When the two children showed up at Penny’s shop, Janet was in the back of the store, turning out the lights. “I thought you two were gone for the day.”

“We were,” Jessie said. “But I wanted to drop off something that we need tomorrow. Is that okay?”

Janet looked at her watch. “I guess so.”

The children scooted over to the front of the store. Jessie found an empty shelf beneath the counter. She stuffed Benny’s shopping bag behind a box on the shelf.

“Attention. The mall is closing in five minutes,” Jessie and Benny heard on the loudspeaker.

“Let’s hurry,” Benny said. “I don’t want to get locked in here by mistake.”

“We’ll take the glass elevator. It will take less time. ’Bye, Janet,” Jessie called out.

No one answered.

“Janet?” Jessie said, louder this time.

Still no answer.

Benny took Jessie’s outstretched hand. The store lights were going off all over the mall. Even Penny’s Emporium was nearly dark, but the front door was still unlocked.

Jessie held Benny’s hand tighter. “We can’t leave until Janet gets back. The store’s not locked. The gate isn’t down. All the customers and shopkeepers are supposed to be gone by now. That’s the rule. She must have gone down to the recycling room out back.”

Jessie and Benny tiptoed to the back of the darkened store. There was no Janet. They looked in the storeroom. Still no Janet.

“I’ll check the hallway behind the storeroom.” Jessie stuck her head out the rear door of the storeroom. “I don’t see or hear her. We can’t go out this door because it will lock behind us.”

“Should we call somebody?” Benny said.

“Let’s go out into the mall,” Jessie suggested. “Someone from the security staff is bound to come by.”

The two children made their way through the darkened store. Benny bumped into a box.

Shkkk, shkkk, shkkk,
the children heard next.

“What’s that?” Benny gripped his sister’s hand.

Jessie took a step and nearly fell down. “Popcorn!” she said, laughing a little. “That box you bumped into was full of popcorn kernels. They’re all over the floor. I’ll go get a broom and dustpan so no one else trips. Wait here.”

“Can I come with you?” Benny asked.

Jessie took Benny’s hand again. She didn’t let go until they came back to sweep up the mess. “There. Let’s put the broom and dustpan away and get out of here.”

Benny and Jessie walked carefully now. They didn’t want to knock over any more boxes or hear any more funny sounds.

When they reached the front of the store, they had another surprise, and not a popcorn surprise, either.

“The doors are locked!” Benny said.

Jessie tried to push the glass doors apart. “It’s no use. Even if I force the doors open, the security gate is locked, too.”

“Who locked us in?” Benny asked.

Jessie tugged at the door handles. “Janet must have still been in another part of the store, not in back. She probably didn’t know we were inside, so she locked up.”

Benny looked up at Jessie. “What are we going to do, Jessie?”

Before Jessie could answer, another unexpected sound startled the children.

“The phone’s ringing!” Jessie said, relieved to hear the familiar sound. “Of course! We’ll call security or Penny or somebody to come unlock us. But let me answer this call first.”

Jessie picked up the phone. “Hello?”

“I’m on my way,” a man’s voice said.

The next sound Jessie heard was a click.

“Who was that?” Benny asked. “Is someone coming to get us?”