Mystery of the Empty Safe (5 page)

“I guess we’d better get home now,” Grandfather said when everything was put away.

“Let us know if you hear anything from the police,” said Jessie.

“We certainly will,” Mr. Grayson said. “And thank you again, for everything.”

On their way home, the Aldens talked about the burglary. “Isn’t it strange that we’ve done two parties, and each time the house was robbed?” said Henry.

“I’m sure it’s just a coincidence,” Grandfather said. “I read in the local paper that there have been several burglaries in Greenfield recently. I’m sure they have nothing to do with your parties.”

“I guess not,” said Henry. But he didn’t sound convinced.

The next day the Aldens went to the Woodruffs’ house to work on the outer space decorations for Sara’s party. They headed straight down to the basement, where they’d left the pictures of planets they’d painted several days before. Since the paint was dry, Henry got to work cutting the planets out, as Violet traced stars and rocket ships for the others to paint.

“Oh, no,” Violet muttered to herself.

“What’s the matter?” Jessie asked.

“I just thought of something we forgot to buy,” Violet said. “Glitter for the stars. I was going to mix it into the paint to make the stars sparkle.”

“Don’t we have some left from the snow globes?” Henry asked.

“No, we used it all up,” Violet said.

“Why don’t you all start painting the moons and rockets, and I’ll walk into town and get some more glitter,” Jessie suggested.

“I’ll come with you,” Benny offered.

Jessie and Benny put on their coats and walked to the store. At Party Time they walked straight to the arts and crafts aisle. Jessie picked out a large container of silvery glitter. She was just about to bring it up to the front of the store to pay for it when she overheard a man and a woman talking in the next aisle.

“Cassandra, you can’t do that!” the man was saying.

“Oh, can’t I?” a woman replied in a strong, confident voice. “If I don’t do something soon, my whole birthday party business will be ruined. And you know as well as I do that it’s a big part of my income.”

“Benny!” Jessie whispered. “That might be Cassandra the Great in the next aisle.”

Benny’s eyes opened wide. “Do you really think so?”

“Shhh!” Jessie hushed him, so she could hear what the two were saying.

“I know lately things haven’t been working out the way you’d like—” the man had been saying, but the woman named Cassandra cut him off.

“No, they haven’t—and it’s all because of them,” she said angrily. “You do agree that they’re the whole problem, don’t you?”

“Yes, it does seem that way,” the man agreed.

“If I can’t get them to do what I want, then I’ll just get rid of them,” said Cassandra.

“You wouldn’t do that, would you?” the man asked.

“Just watch me,” said Cassandra.

Jessie and Benny heard quick, strong footsteps walking up the aisle. Then they heard the bell on the store’s front door ring, and the store grew quiet. They knew that Cassandra and the man had left.

“Wow, what do you think they were talking about?” Benny asked Jessie.

“I don’t know,” Jessie replied. “But before we start trying to figure that out, let’s find out if that really was Cassandra the Great.”

“How many Cassandras could there be in Greenfield?” Benny asked.

“Probably only one, but I want to be sure,” said Jessie.

The children brought the container of glitter up to the front of the store. Ms. Fox was behind the counter as usual. “More glitter?” she asked. “Didn’t you just buy some of this a few days ago?”

“You have a good memory,” Jessie said, getting the money out of her pocket to pay. “We were wondering, did you see that woman who just left?”

“Yes,” said Patti Fox. “That’s Cassandra the Great.” She pointed to the poster on the wall. “You know, the magician. She and her manager come in every once in a while to buy supplies for her shows. Did you know she’s doing a show right here at the community theater tomorrow night?” Other customers entered the store, and Ms. Fox turned to help them. “See you kids later!” she called.

The Aldens walked out of Party Time. “So that was Cassandra the Great and her manager,” Jessie said. “Too bad we didn’t get to see what they looked like.”

“Ms. Fox said she’s doing a show tomorrow night!” Benny said. “Can we go see it? I love magic.”

Jessie was silent for a moment before she spoke. “You know, Benny, that’s not such a bad idea. It will be fun. And I think it’s about time we found out just who this Cassandra person is, and if she’s trying to put us out of business. I’ll call Grandfather from that pay phone on the corner. If he says it’s okay, we can stop at the theater and buy tickets.”

As the children walked to the phone, they talked about the conversation they’d overheard in Party Time.

“What do you think she was talking about?” Benny asked his sister. “She sounded pretty angry.”

“Yes, she did,” Jessie agreed. “She said that if she didn’t do something soon, her birthday party business would be ruined. I wonder what that meant.”

“Do you think she could have been talking about our taking some of her business?” Benny asked.

“Maybe. She also said,
‘They’re
the whole problem,’ ” Jessie reminded him.

“You mean, ‘they’ might be
us?”
Benny asked.

“Maybe,” Jessie said.

“But Jessie, don’t you remember what else she said?” Benny asked, his voice becoming anxious. “She said, ‘If I can’t get them to do what I want, then I’ll just get rid of them’!”

Jessie and Benny both stopped walking and stared at each other.

When Jessie and Benny got back to the Woodruffs’ house, they wanted to tell the others what had happened in town. But Sara was there, and they decided to wait until they were alone.

All the decorations were done except the stars. The children quickly mixed the glitter with the yellow paint and painted the stars.

As they were working, Mr. Woodruff came downstairs, as grouchy as ever.

“Are you kids here again?” he asked.

“We’ve got a lot to do if we want this party to be really great,” Henry explained.

Mr. Woodruff walked slowly around the basement, looking at all the decorations the children had painted. He was frowning the whole time. The children waited anxiously wondering what he would say about them. But he said nothing. Instead he noticed some spots on the linoleum floor. “You spilled some paint here,” he said, annoyed.

“Don’t worry Mr. Woodruff. It’s washable paint,” said Henry quickly. “We’ll clean everything up before we go.”

“Make sure you do,” Mr. Woodruff grumbled. “There are cleaning supplies in there.” He motioned to a door. “And Sara, have you cleaned your room yet?”

“No, Dad,” Sara said quietly. “I was going to do it later.”

“You’d better have it done before dinnertime,” her father said before heading upstairs.

Benny was sitting silently. He had a thoughtful look on his face.

Sara was also sitting quietly, her face red. At last she spoke softly. “I’m sorry about my dad. He’s not usually like this. It’s been a hard year. Ever since Uncle John …” She stopped, and said nothing more.

“That’s okay,” Violet said. “Sometimes people act differently when they’re feeling sad or something is bothering them.”

“Yes, I guess so,” Sara muttered.

Henry opened the door Mr. Woodruff had indicated, looking for a sponge. The door led into a large workshop. There were some large pieces of machinery and some long wooden boards propped up in a corner. The floor was covered with sawdust.

Sara followed him in. “This is my dad’s workshop,” she explained.

“Looks like he’s good with his hands,” Henry said, impressed by all the tools. “What kind of things does he make?”

“He doesn’t make things as much as fix things,” Sara said. “You know, anything that breaks—my mom’s radio, my Rollerblades. Once he even had to fix the lock on our safe when it got stuck.”

“The lock on your safe?” Henry repeated.

“Yeah, we have a safe built into a cabinet in our living room,” Sara said. “My parents keep jewelry in there, you know, expensive stuff like that.”

Henry nodded quietly, but his mind was racing. He’d had no idea that Mr. Woodruff was good at fixing things—like locks on safes. Could he be the one who’d been breaking into safes? He’d have to discuss this with the others on their way home.

Sara and Henry found cleaning supplies in a corner cabinet. They returned to the main part of the basement and wiped up the drips of paint. Violet was setting out the last few painted stars to dry.

“Well, we’re all done here. We’d better get going. We promised Mrs. McGregor we would help her with chores today,” said Jessie.

“And she’s making macaroni and cheese tonight!” Benny said excitedly.

“You wouldn’t want to miss that,” Sara said with a smile.

On the way home, Jessie said, “Wait until you hear what Benny and I overheard today at Party Time,” and she told them the whole story of Cassandra’s angry words and of the magic show she had gotten tickets for.

“Cassandra the Great?” Henry asked.

“The one and only!” Jessie said. “She’s doing the show tomorrow night at the community theater. I thought we should see who our competition is!”

“Do you really think Cassandra was talking about us in Party Time?” Violet asked.

“I don’t know,” said Jessie. “It’s possible. Right, Benny?”

But Benny didn’t answer. He hadn’t been listening.

“Benny, what’s the matter?” Jessie asked. “Is something bothering you?”

“I was just thinking about when Mr. Woodruff came down to the basement,” Benny said. “Did anyone notice how he was walking?”

“Was there something odd about the way he walked?” Henry asked.

“No,” Benny said.

Now the others were really confused.

“Benny, what are you talking about?” Jessie demanded.

“Don’t you see?” said Benny. “He walked like everybody else. Mr. Woodruff didn’t have a limp!” Benny said.

“Oh,” Jessie said, understanding at last. “But when you saw him following us, he was limping.”

“Yes,” said Benny. “I just don’t get it.”

“Maybe he only limps when he walks a long way,” Jessie said. “Or maybe he had pulled a muscle and now it’s healed.”

“Yes, or maybe it wasn’t really Mr. Woodruff you saw,” Violet suggested.

“But I was sure it was,” Benny said, looking confused. “Now I don’t know what to think!”

“Well, listen to this,” Henry said. He told the others what Sara had told him about her father fixing the lock on a safe. And then he added, “If he can fix a lock, he probably knows how to break into one.”

“I can’t find my new shoes!” Benny called.

“Can someone tie my purple hair ribbon?” Violet asked.

It was the following night and the Aldens were getting ready to go to the magic show. They were all getting dressed up in their best clothes. The boys were in slacks and jackets, and the girls wore pretty dresses. Even Grandfather was wearing a suit and his red flannel vest.

“Here are your shoes,” Henry said, pulling them out from under Benny’s bed.

“Oh, is that where they were,” said Benny. “How did you know?”

“Because that’s where I always find them when you forget to put them away in the closet, silly,” Henry said.

Meanwhile, Jessie was tying a purple satin ribbon in Violet’s hair. “There,” Jessie said, standing back and looking at her work. “You look very pretty, and the bow matches your dress perfectly.”

“Thanks,” Violet told her sister. “And you look nice, too.”

In a short while the Aldens arrived at the community theater. A large crowd filed into the auditorium. There were lots of young children, and the air was filled with the buzz of excited voices.

Jessie heard a boy next to her say, “This is the same magician that I saw at Billy’s birthday party. She was great!”

A man in front of them was telling another man, “Yes, we saw her here last year. She puts on a great show.”

As soon as the lights began to dim, the voices hushed. Music played and the lights came up on the stage. Then Cassandra appeared, dressed magnificently in a purple satin dress with a matching top hat and cape. The audience broke into applause.

Cassandra was a tall woman with long, flowing brown hair. She walked gracefully back and forth across the stage, smiling out at the audience and bowing her head slightly in thanks for the applause. As soon as she spoke, Jessie and Benny recognized the voice they’d heard in Party Time. Only now she didn’t sound angry. Now her voice was calm and cool.

Cassandra began with some small tricks, pulling silk flowers and scarves from her cape and hat. She heaped the colorful scarves and flowers on a small round table to her right. She juggled some sparkly balls and made them disappear. She poured a glass of milk into her hat, and the milk vanished. With each trick she invited the audience to help her by repeating the magic words she recited. The Aldens eagerly joined in, laughing and clapping at the tricks.

The next trick was a card trick. A girl Cassandra had chosen from the audience had to pick cards from a deck and Cassandra guessed the numbers. Amazingly, she was right every time. After the girl sat down, Cassandra called up another volunteer—this time a boy sitting near the stage.