Radio Mystery (2 page)

The next morning, Gwen greeted the Alden children with glasses of fresh orange juice. “Good morning,” she said, with no trace of the night before’s unpleasantness.

Grandfather was finishing his breakfast. “If I eat another waffle, I won’t be able to move!”

“Great,” said Benny. “That leaves more for me.”

When they had eaten, the four Aldens and Gwen stacked their dishes in the sink. “The station is right in town,” Gwen told them. “It’s a short walk.”

She led the way down Main Street. They passed the Route 11 Diner, which was across from a small park with a fountain and jogging paths. Next was Earl’s Auto Sales, then a small one-story building with WCXZ on the front door.

The kids walked into a tiny lobby facing a glass-walled room. A slender, blond man wearing headphones waved at them. Then he punched some buttons, took off his headphones, and came out, smiling. Music played from speakers mounted near the lobby ceiling.

“You must be the Alden kids,” he said. “Jocelyn told me you were coming. I’m Avery Drake.”

“Avery is the DJ and engineer,” Gwen added.

“Ever been in a radio control booth before?” Avery asked. “Come on in.”

The Aldens eagerly followed him inside.

“What’s that?” Benny asked, pointing to rows of buttons and dials built into a desk. A box of doughnuts sat on top, next to a green plastic sports water bottle.

“That’s called a console,” Avery said. “These buttons and switches control the sound, music selections, and commercials that you hear on the radio.”

“Nice turntable,” Henry commented. “Our grandfather has a record player at home.”

“We still play records.” Avery held up a large plastic disk. “Before cassettes and CDs, people played records on record players. We have a CD changer, too, but Luther kept his turntables. Some of his records are valuable.”

“We heard a set of records was stolen,” Jessie said.

Avery’s face darkened. “I hope you kids can get to the bottom of this ghost business. Jocelyn Hawley has had a hard time since Luther died.”

“Have you ever seen the ghost?” Benny asked.

“I’m not sure,” Avery replied, frowning. “The day the records were stolen, I thought I saw someone — or something — slip out the side door. But when I looked outside, no one was there.”

“Who could it have been?” Henry asked.

Avery shook his head. “I have no idea. I only caught a glimpse. The culprit hasn’t been leaving any clues behind. I’m almost starting to believe that it really
could
be a ghost.”

“Are you the only DJ?” Violet asked.

Avery nodded. “The station airs from nine in the morning until eight at night. It’s off the air overnight. If I need a break, like now, I put on a long record. I play preprogrammed shows from six to eight in the evening, so I can go to dinner. I usually go running then, too.”

Jessie noticed a blue duffel bag in the corner. A cubby with a curtain drawn halfway revealed hangers and a mirror.

“May I talk into your microphone?” Benny asked.

“Benny!” said Violet.

Avery laughed. “Not this time, Benny. But you can listen on the headset while I cue up a commercial.” He slipped the earphones on Benny’s head and punched a few buttons on the console. Benny heard the song end and a jingle for Earl’s Auto Sales warbled through the headphones.

“It’s almost time for the live mystery show,” Gwen said, glancing at the clock. “I need to check my tapes and props. Why don’t you look around the rest of the station yourselves and meet me in the soundstage in a few minutes?”

The soundstage was another glass-walled room that faced one side of Avery’s booth.

Two women and a young man were standing in the center of the soundstage, reading aloud from yellow-covered notebooks. A third woman, with spiky black hair, arranged standing microphones in front of the three readers.

Before Gwen went into the soundstage, she said, “That’s DeeDee, Gayle, and Sean. They are our actors this week. Workers at the diner take turns being on the show.”

“Let’s go down here,” Jessie suggested, motioning toward a narrow hallway. The hallway divided the soundstage and control booth. At one end was a door marked EXIT.

“This must be the side door that Avery saw the ghost slip out of,” Violet said. “I guess it leads outside.”

Benny was examining a gray metal box built into the wall next to the door. “What is this?” asked Benny, pointing to the box.

“It’s probably a fuse box,” Jessie replied. “We have one that looks like that in our basement. It controls the electric lights and the power.”

Off the hall, the Aldens found a small room. Plastic chairs were pulled up around a scarred table in the center of the room. A soda machine stood next to a counter that held a tiny microwave.

“This must be the room where people take breaks,” Henry guessed.

Jessie peered into a display cabinet opposite the soda machine. “Look at all the trophies and plaques the station got for being a local sports sponsor.”

Violet noticed a framed black-and-white picture showing two football players and a cheerleader in old-fashioned uniforms. Other photos showed groups of people talking into microphones. A pretty girl with a ponytail was in nearly every picture.

“I wonder if these are people who used to work at the radio station,” she said.

Gwen stuck her head in the room. “We just finished the run-through,” she said.

“What’s that?” asked Violet.

“It’s when we read through the script with the sound effects and everything,” Gwen answered. “A rehearsal. We’re about to broadcast the show. You’d better come watch, since you’re supposed to be detectives. Be ready for anything,” she added.

“Gwen acts like we’re the enemy,” Jessie whispered to Henry as they left the break-room. “I’d like to know why.”

The spiky-haired woman who had been setting up microphones frowned when the Aldens came through the soundstage door with Gwen.

“I’m not crazy about extra kids on the set,” she said.

Gwen ignored her. “These are the Aldens,” she announced to everyone in the room. “They’re visiting.”

The actors smiled in the Aldens’ direction. The spiky-haired woman kept frowning.

“This is Frances St. Clair,” said Gwen, introducing the woman. “She writes the mystery show script and the commercials.”

“But I don’t plan to stick around Deer Crossing forever writing jingles,” Frances said.

“Where are you going?” Benny asked.

“Hollywood,” she said. “Just as soon as I finish my movie script. It’ll be made into a big movie, and I’ll be rich and famous.”

“Wow!” Benny was impressed.

“But until then, I have to write these silly radio plays.” She handed Henry a yellow-covered notebook. “This is today’s show. It’s the first episode of a story that will run twenty minutes a day for the rest of the week.” Frances lowered her voice so the other people in the room wouldn’t hear. “I just hope the actors have all studied their lines. Of course, for amateurs, they aren’t half bad, especially the new lady over there.” She nodded toward an older woman with iron-gray hair and a pink apron.

“That’s DeeDee,” Gwen told the Aldens. “She just moved to town and started working at the diner and on our show.”

“Why is she wearing an apron?” Benny asked. “Is that part of a costume?”

Gwen smiled. “The actors don’t wear costumes for radio plays, Benny. Nobody can
see
them, remember? DeeDee probably has on that apron because she came directly from her shift at the diner, or she’ll go right to work when this is over.”

Frances clapped her hands. “All right, people, the run-through went fine. We’re on the air in two minutes. Places, please. Gwen, are you ready?”

Gwen stood behind her own microphone, which was set back from the actors. A tape recorder and a box were propped on a stool beside her. She smiled. “Ready!”

“Then let’s do it,” said Frances. She left the soundstage. Just then, Grandfather and Jocelyn entered the station. They stood in the hall with Frances.

The kids heard the fading notes of a commercial. Then Frances counted down and brought down her arm in a signal. In the hall, a red light that said ON AIR flashed on.

The older woman named DeeDee turned to a young brown-haired actress and said, in a British accent, “Muriel, my dear. Would you like a spot of tea?”

The woman playing Muriel opened her mouth to reply.

But before she spoke, the lights went out.

The ON AIR sign glowed like an eerie red eye as a horrible scream filled the station.

Violet clapped her hands over her ears. The screaming sound was awful! It sounded as if it came from every direction at once and it seemed to go on forever. Worst of all, it was painfully loud.

Sean clicked on a flashlight. The wavering light flashed across the pale, frightened faces of the other actors huddled in the darkened soundstage.

Suddenly the screeching noise stopped. Avery pushed buttons on the console and music came from the speakers. The lights flickered back on.

DeeDee yelled, “The ghost is back!”

The other actors nodded grimly.

Frances rushed into the soundstage. “Thank heavens I got the lights back on. It wasn’t a power outage — some joker just turned them off. And then the ghost came.”

Henry said, “That was no ghost. It was obviously a tape of someone screaming.”

Avery tapped on the window of his booth, pointing toward the clock.

“We need to get back on the air,” Frances said. “Everything’s all right now. Actors — Gwen — take your places. Let’s start again.”

“I can’t,” said Gwen from her corner.

“What’s wrong?” Henry asked, twisting around. Like the actors, the Alden children had frozen in their spots when the lights went out.

Gwen’s hand passed through the empty air in front of her. “My microphone is gone. Somebody stole it!”

Jocelyn had just stepped into the room. She put her hand to her forehead. “Not another one!”

The Aldens ran over to Gwen.

“Did you hear anything?” Benny asked.

Gwen shook her head. “Who could hear anything over that racket?”

“Did you see anything when Sean turned on the flashlight?” Jessie said.

Gwen shook her head. “The thief must have slipped in while the lights were off,” she said.

“He — or she — was really quick,” Henry concluded.

“Ghosts
are
quick,” DeeDee said.

Gwen checked the items in her box. “At least none of my props are missing. But this is the second standing mike that’s been stolen.” She looked up at her grandmother. “What will we do, Gran?”

Jocelyn stood straighter. Her face looked determined. “We covered the delay with some music,” she said. “Now we must go on with the show. For today, you can share a microphone with DeeDee.”

“You can have the whole thing,” said DeeDee. “I quit. I’m not working in a haunted radio station!”

“All right, we’ll recast DeeDee’s role,” said Frances. “Gayle, could you read both your part and DeeDee’s today?”

“I don’t think so, Frances,” said Gayle. She turned to Jocelyn and smiled apologetically. “I don’t want to work at a haunted radio station, either.”

“It’s not worth the trouble,” Sean added. “We do the radio show because it’s fun. But it’s not fun anymore with everything going wrong. I’m sorry, Jocelyn.”

Jocelyn threw up her hands. “Are you
all
quitting?”

“Yes,” said DeeDee, speaking for the group. “As long as strange things keep happening in this station, we won’t be back.”

With that, the entire cast walked out of the soundstage.

Jaunty music poured from the speakers. Avery Drake came in. “Where is everyone going?”

“They quit,” said Frances. “Which is what I ought to do, too.”

“Earl Biggs of Earl’s Auto Sales just called,” said Avery. “He’s furious. He said he’s not paying top advertising dollars for us to play music during the Mystery Theater time slot.”

“You’ll have to cancel the show,” Frances said, turning to Jocelyn. “We can’t put on a radio drama without a cast. And you can’t afford to hire actors.”

Henry said, “If we find the fake ghost, do you think the cast will come back?”

Jocelyn nodded. “I think they will. They really like doing the show. If we can keep the program going somehow until then.”

Violet had an idea. She whispered something to her sister and brothers. They nodded.

“What about us?” Violet said.

Jocelyn stared at her. “What do you mean?”

“We’ll act in a play,” Violet explained. “Frances could write a mystery show with us in it this week.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Frances snorted. “You’re kids.”

“I think it’s a good idea,” Grandfather said. “You could do a mystery program for kids!”

They all looked at Jocelyn. “Violet, that’s a terrific idea, thank you. I’m all for it — it might save the station.”

“Well you can get another writer,” Frances said. “I only write adult scripts.”

“Please? This will be fun,” Benny said.

“I’m not writing a kids’ program!” Frances insisted.

Jessie and Henry glanced at each other and she knew they were thinking the same thing. Why didn’t Frances want to write a kids’ show? Was she hoping this would be the end of the station?

“Your contract says you must write five programs a week,” Jocelyn reminded Frances firmly. Then she turned to the Aldens. “Looks like you children are going to be radio stars!”

That afternoon, Gwen told the Aldens everything they’d need to know about the live radio show.

“First you read your scripts. Then we do a rehearsal,” she explained. “While you’re learning your lines, I come up with ideas for sound effects. Then we’re ready for the live broadcast.”

“What do you do with all this stuff?” Benny asked, looking through Gwen’s box. Inside there were spoons, aluminum foil, rocks, paper, wooden blocks, a hammer, and even a pair of men’s shoes.

“That’s the stuff I use to make sound effects,” Gwen replied. “I use tapes for sounds like creaking doors and barking dogs. But a lot of the noises, I make myself, just like they used to on the old radio shows, before they had tape players. It’s fun.”