Radio Mystery (8 page)

“And you’re supposed to be in the control booth,” Benny said. “But instead you’re playing ghost.”

At that moment, the overhead lights flickered back on. Grandfather, Jocelyn, and Earl rushed down the hall.

“Where is that tape playing from?” Jocelyn asked, as the screaming echoed throughout the station. “We’ve got to find it.”

Gwen burst through the soundstage door.

“I know where it is!” she said. She dashed into the control booth. Jocelyn and Benny followed.

“What are you doing?” Avery asked, setting his duffel bag inside the cubby instead of its usual corner.

Gwen pushed aside Avery’s box of half-eaten doughnuts, which was sitting on the console. A tiny cassette player, no bigger than a sandwich, was wedged between the box and the wall. Gwen hit the STOP button and the screaming ended. Now, only the voices of Henry, Violet, and Jessie came clearly over the speakers.

“Where did that come from?” Avery asked, sounding surprised.

“I’ve got to finish the show,” Gwen said. “Don’t let him leave!” She ran back to the soundstage.

Frances’s voice told the listening audience she hoped they had enjoyed the program.

Gwen’s music signaled the show was over.

“Excuse me,” Avery said, reaching past Jocelyn to press buttons. “I have to cue up the commercial.”

“Put on a prerecorded program next,” Jocelyn told him. “We need to talk.”

Avery searched through his CDs, then popped one into the CD player. An interview with a television star blasted through the speakers. Flipping a switch, Avery muted the sound in the studio.

When he looked up, Jessie, Henry, Benny, Violet, and Gwen were standing in the doorway, watching him.

“Well, Avery,” Jocelyn began, “would you like to explain why you are ‘haunting’ the radio station?”

“That’s ridiculous!” Avery said defensively. “I work here — why would I do anything to ruin my job?”

Frances leaned against the wall. “You tell us.”

Avery crossed his arms and said nothing.

“When I saw you running last night,” Gwen told Avery, “I remembered something.” She walked over to the cubby and pushed back the curtain. Two empty hangers hung on the pole. The duffel bag sat on the floor.

“That’s where you hang your clothes when you go running,” Violet said. “You bring your running clothes and shoes in the duffel bag to the station every day.”

“I change my clothes at the station after I run,” Avery said. “What’s so unusual about that?”

“When we saw you wearing your running clothes, you were also carrying the duffel bag,” Henry said. “If your work clothes were here at the station, what were you carrying out of the station in the duffel bag?”

A short silence followed Henry’s words.

“You use the duffel bag to take stuff
out
of the station,” Benny concluded. “The stuff you were stealing.”

Gwen spoke up. “And I bet it’s also where you keep your ghostly sound effects tapes.”

“You used the bag to smuggle out the microphone, which you took apart,” Henry said to Avery. “The bag is big enough to hold that turntable, too. You put the turntable in the Dumpster outside, then went back later to get it.”

“And you were in the station the other night to mess up Gwen’s sound effects,” Benny added. “We saw your flashlight through the windows. You switched the labels on her tapes. And yesterday, you stole Frances’s script. That’s what you were carrying in the duffel bag when we saw you running last night.”

Avery was silent.

“Will you open your duffel bag?” Henry asked.

Avery hesitated, then retrieved his bag from the cubby. He unzipped it. Inside, under his running clothes, were several cassette tapes and the extra set of headphones.

Jessie stepped forward to read the labels on the cassettes. “SCREAMING. GHOSTLY MOANING. Pretty strange music.”

Jocelyn took one of the tapes and popped it into the microcassette player. Loud moaning quavered through the speakers throughout the station. She pushed the STOP button. Then she found a thin wire. “I suppose this goes to the speakers.”

“Those are very good explanations,” Avery said levelly. “But you’ve forgotten one thing — why would I do it? What’s my motive?”

“To be a star,” Violet said.

Avery laughed. “A star! Where did you get that crazy idea?”

“From the man you’ve been meeting in the Route 11 Diner,” Jessie said. “He promised to make you a star DJ if you forced Jocelyn to sell the station. He wants to buy it.”

Now Avery didn’t look so confident. His shoulders sagged with defeat.

“Is this true?” Jocelyn demanded.

“Yes,” he confessed. “The kids are right. A representative from MegaHits Corporation contacted me a few months ago. They still want to buy WCXZ.”

“And turn it into an all-hits, all-the-time station?” Jocelyn guessed.

Avery nodded. “This guy wasn’t the same man who tried to buy the station from Luther. But it’s the same company. If I helped them, they promised me a DJ job at their big station in the city. Do you know how many people would hear me then? Millions!”

“A lot more than in Deer Crossing,” Jocelyn said wryly.” So you sold out. But why did you have to steal from me?”

“Because you wouldn’t give up the station, Gran,” Gwen explained. “Avery’s only hope was that, if you had to keep replacing expensive equipment, you’d eventually
have
to sell.”

“But why pretend a ghost is doing it?” Frances asked. “Why not just come into the station and steal stuff at night?”

“I could have,” Avery said. “But I always liked that old story about Daphne Owens. I decided to make it look like she had come back. I never realized the mystery program cast would get so spooked they’d quit! When that happened, I thought I might be close to my goal … until the Aldens stepped in.”

“So you also never realized that the real Daphne Owens was a member of the cast,” Henry said.

“What?” Avery looked shocked. So did Frances and Jocelyn.

“Daphne Owens got married and became DeeDee Rhoads,” Violet explained. “She moved back to Deer Crossing, but kept her old identity a secret.”

“I can’t believe it!” Jocelyn said. “DeeDee is Daphne Owens!”

“DeeDee helped us,” Jessie added. “She told us about the man that Avery met in the diner.”

“You’re not going to sell the station, are you, Gran?” Gwen asked.

“Of course not.” Jocelyn turned to Avery. “You’re fired. I ought to press charges, but I won’t because Luther liked you. Pay me back for the equipment you stole and get out.”

“I’m sorry,” said Avery. “You and Luther have been so nice to me. But I got carried away with my dream. I’ll be out by the end of the day. But who will run the station?”

“I will,” said Jocelyn. “I’ll be the DJ. I’m going to add some programs. Gwen will help me.”

“I’d like to sponsor the morning show, too,” Earl offered. “If that’s okay.”

“Of course you can help, Earl. What about you?” Jocelyn asked Frances. “Are you staying with us?”

Frances shook her head. “Now that I have a really great script idea, I think it’s time for me to start my movie-writing career. Plus, I really like writing for kids. I’d like to write a kids’ movie, too. But I’m sure DeeDee Rhoads will jump at the chance to be the writer. She’ll bring the cast back, too.”

Jocelyn smiled at the Aldens. “Your grandfather was right. You are great detectives!”

Jessie smiled. “We couldn’t have done it without Gwen!”

“I liked being a detective for a little while,” said Gwen, “but I like working in Gran’s station even better. I want to be a DJ.”

“If you change your mind, you can join us,” said Benny. “We’ll be detectives forever!”

G
ERTRUDE
C
HANDLER
W
ARNER
discovered when she was teaching that many readers who like an exciting story could find no books that were both easy and fun to read. She decided to try to meet this need, and her first book,
The Boxcar Children,
quickly proved she had succeeded.

Miss Warner drew on her own experiences to write the mystery. As a child she spent hours watching trains go by on the tracks opposite her family home. She often dreamed about what it would be like to set up housekeeping in a caboose or freight car — the situation the Alden children find themselves in.

When Miss Warner received requests for more adventures involving Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny Alden, she began additional stories. In each, she chose a special setting and introduced unusual or eccentric characters who liked the unpredictable.

While the mystery element is central to each of Miss Warner’s books, she never thought of them as strictly juvenile mysteries. She liked to stress the Aldens’ independence and resourcefulness and their solid New England devotion to using up and making do. The Aldens go about most of their adventures with as little adult supervision as possible — something else that delights young readers.

Miss Warner lived in Putnam, Connecticut, until her death in 1979. During her lifetime, she received hundreds of letters from girls and boys telling her how much they liked her books.

The Boxcar Children Mysteries

T
HE
B
OXCAR
C
HILDREN

S
URPRISE
I
SLAND

T
HE
Y
ELLOW
H
OUSE
M
YSTERY

M
YSTERY
R
ANCH

M
IKE’S
M
YSTERY

B
LUE
B
AY
M
YSTERY

T
HE
W
OODSHED
M
YSTERY

T
HE
L
IGHTHOUSE
M
YSTERY

M
OUNTAIN
T
OP
M
YSTERY

S
CHOOLHOUSE
M
YSTERY

C
ABOOSE
M
YSTERY

H
OUSEBOAT
M
YSTERY

S
NOWBOUND
M
YSTERY

T
REE
H
OUSE
M
YSTERY

B
ICYCLE
M
YSTERY

M
YSTERY IN THE
S
AND

M
YSTERY
B
EHIND
THE
W
ALL

B
US
S
TATION
M
YSTERY

B
ENNY
U
NCOVERS
A
M
YSTERY

T
HE
H
AUNTED
C
ABIN
M
YSTERY

T
HE
D
ESERTED
L
IBRARY
M
YSTERY

T
HE
A
NIMAL
S
HELTER
M
YSTERY

T
HE
O
LD
M
OTEL
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
H
IDDEN
P
AINTING

T
HE
A
MUSEMENT
P
ARK
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
M
IXED
-U
P
Z
OO

T
HE
C
AMP
-O
UT
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY
G
IRL

T
HE
M
YSTERY
C
RUISE

T
HE
D
ISAPPEARING
F
RIEND
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
S
INGING
G
HOST

M
YSTERY IN THE
S
NOW

T
HE
P
IZZA
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY
H
ORSE

T
HE
M
YSTERY AT THE
D
OG
S
HOW

T
HE
C
ASTLE
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
L
OST
V
ILLAGE

T
HE
M
YSTERY ON THE
I
CE

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
P
URPLE
P
OOL

T
HE
G
HOST
S
HIP
M
YSTERY