Read The Great Circus Train Robbery Online

Authors: Nancy Means Wright

Tags: #Juvenile/Young Adult Mystery

The Great Circus Train Robbery (13 page)

BOOK: The Great Circus Train Robbery
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Zoe wasn’t listening; she was reading the second bit of paper. She was holding it close to her nose like she couldn’t believe her eyes. He waited.

“It’s a sort of will,” she said. “I mean, nothing official, no fancy stamp or anything—it’s just written on the back of a lunch menu for Land’s End Nursing Home. It says,
Being in my right mind no matter what they say, I bequeath all the money in my account in the Federated Bank of Boston

cash and CDs

to my son Hackberry; also the old trains and anything else stored in the trunk he’s kept for me. My son Juniper, who rarely comes to see me or writes, may have the black leather chair he coveted, the oak desk, and the rack of antique guns his father bought, or any other objects that belonged to his father. May this paper supersede the will earlier drawn up. Signed
Willow Jones Boomer
, age 82 and stuck in this nursing home Juniper put me in. May 7, 2008. So be it.”

Spence whistled. His heart was running a marathon. “But now Hackberry’s gone missing. He doesn’t know we found these things he saved in the train his wife sold.”

So he had to find Hackberry before Boomer did. He had to return the ring and papers and warn about Boomer. He screwed the roof back on the passenger car and worked out a plan in his head. The dwarf said Hackberry never missed a performance, no matter what. So Spence would ride his bike to the circus grounds a few hours before the show. He’d let Chuckie ride the bike around with the red car in the basket—to entice Hackberry out of hiding.

“You’ll have to think of a way to get these papers to Hackberry,” Zoe said. “I’ve got to zip Tulip into her new costume.”

“I already know what I’m going to do. But you wear the ring, okay? And flash it around when you can. Or put it on Tulip’s finger?”

“It’ll never fit,” Zoe said. “I’ll have to wear it. If Boomer comes, I’ll make sure he sees it.”

“Sounds dangerous, though. Maybe we should tell the police about it? Have a cop there in the crowd?”

“Why? Nobody’s been killed.”

“But someone might be—you’re the one who’s been saying that! I’m gonna call the police. Anonymous, you know, the way they do when somebody witnesses somebody. Like on
Law and Order?
I mean, just in case. Anyway, stay close to Tulip, okay?”

“And go out in the show ring myself?”

“Only if you have to. Just be careful.”

“What a sweet kid you are,” Zoe said. “Worrying about
me!”
She leaned over to give him a sloppy kiss on the cheek.

“Wild woman! He-elp-pp!!” he hollered, and he leapt out of the tree hut with the red car under his arm. Then he kicked up his heels and ran tum-tumming into the house. “See ya!” The screen door banged shut behind him.

 

25

 

A RING ON A PINK RIBBON

 

“I’m so excited to see this show,” said Ms. Delores as she and Zoe climbed the steps to Tulip’s RV. “And you were so dear to make that lovely costume for her. She’ll be one thrilled lady.”

“It should be a thrilling show all right,” Zoe agreed. Ms. Delores didn’t know what
thrills
might occur that would out-thrill even the tightrope walkers.

“Welcome, lovely ladies!” Tulip gushed as they entered. There she was in her pink bra and bloomers, slathering clown makeup on her plump cheeks, her nose and chin already raspberry-red. When Zoe held out the new costume she gave a shriek and grabbed Zoe in a bear hug that left the girl breathless. “You darling, you absolute dar-ling.”

“It was Mother did most of it,” Zoe admitted, but Tulip wouldn’t listen. Zoe was “wonderful, adorable, sainted.” Zoe felt like a kitten full of cream.

“Ooh, look at that ring.” Tulip said, grabbing Zoe’s hand. “That ru-by—I’ve never seen one so bril-liant!  Or have I?” She frowned in thought. “I could swear I’ve seen it before. Or one like it. Those little diamonds on either side...”

“On Hackberry’s mother’s finger?” Zoe said. “When she came to see him perform?”

“Why, four or five years ago, yes! Yes. I recall now. Hackberry brought her here from the nursing home. How did you know about his mother?”

Zoe began her story about finding the ring and papers the clown had hid in his red passenger car. She felt she should warn Tulip. Then realizing Ms. Delores was listening, she paused.

“It’s all right, dear,” the librarian said. “I love a little excitement now and then. Nothing much happens in the library, you know, everyone tiptoeing around.”

So Zoe told the full story: how she and Spence had found the advertising car in Boomer’s cellar and had now told the police but not her parents—“not yet.” How today they were going to try and lure Hackberry back into the show and let Boomer see the train and the ring.

Ms. Delores was surprised, even shocked, to hear about the children’s daring to enter Boomer’s cellar (they didn’t tell her about going upstairs). She was worried, too, about Hackberry. “Suppose he tries to harm his brother. What then? That’s not the kind of excitement I’d like to see.” She wrinkled her forehead.

“Oh, we have a backup. You see, Spence just called the police and told about the buried car.
We
didn’t want any fighting or shooting in the circus ring either.” She put a hand to her throat and swallowed. The thought of the unknown was making her throat dry.

“I know a nice young officer,” said Ms. Delores. “A science fiction fan.  Comes in once a week for a new novel.  I just might give him a jingle. And there’s a lawyer who might be interested in this scribbled will. To see if it’s legal, you know. We can take it to him.”

“Would you? Thanks!” said Zoe. “Oh, and Tulip, could you wear the ring?” Just for today? So Hackberry will see it when he comes and know it’s safe?” She worried that Boomer might see it, too. But she’d stick close to Tulip, in case.

Tulip spread her fingers. Each one looked like a small sausage. “Wear it around your neck, I mean,” Zoe said. “We can tie it onto that pink ribbon.”

“Ooh, pretty, pretty,” Tulip said, fingering the ring, then biting it with her teeth to see if it was real gold. And evidently it was.

“Well, you be careful, dear,” said Ms. Delores. “You, too, Tulip, love. We don’t want any rips in that pretty new costume!”

“Zoe will see that I’m zipped, not ripped.” Tulip laughed her belly laugh and gave her aunt a hug. And then hugged Zoe, who felt her T-shirt strain at the buttons as the clown’s brown arms held her close.

But when Tulip let go, she was shivering. Anything could happen this afternoon. Anything at all.

 

26

 

SPENCE SETS HIS PLAN IN MOTION

 

Chuckie clapped his hands when Spence wheeled up to his tent with the red passenger car.

“I’ll give it a try,” he said when Spence described the plan.

“But don’t let him take it from you,” Spence said. “He might run away with it and not do his act at all. Bring the rail car back and I’ll keep it backstage. Then Zoe will send Tulip out in the ring with it.”

“Who’s Zoe?”

“My—my partner,” Spence said, and blushed. But that’s what she was. Not his boss or a casual friend. He and she were partners. They were pals. They were, like, teammates. The thought sent gooseberries zinging down his spine. “She’s helping to zip Tulip up.”

“Good luck with that,” said the dwarf. He grinned, and sped off on Spencer’s bicycle, his short body rising and falling in order to turn the wheels. The rail car stood on its head in the wire basket. “Back in time for the big show,” the dwarf hollered. Spence held up two fingers for luck and ran over to Hackberry’s school bus.

“Out, you dummy. Out, clown!” the parrot screeched when Spence entered with Sweet Gum on his back. He fed the parrot and covered the cage to quiet him, then shrugged off the monkey. The beast scampered back to the bed. The trunk, Spence saw, was still shut tight. Was it his imagination or was the bus neater, cleaner, than when he was last here? He was actually able to walk through the narrow space without tripping over something.

The bed looked inviting though, and there was still an hour and a half until circus time, so he thought he might lie back and read a magazine. There was a
Model Railroader
on the night stand and a folder of typed papers labeled
HISTORY OF.
History of what, he wondered. He thought of his train essay, due in two weeks. But he was too sleepy to concentrate on anything serious. He’d never really caught up on his sleep since the nighttime adventure inside Boomer’s house.

He lay back on the pillow and began an article in
Model Railroader
entitled
Trains of Thought: How to make Cereal Box Trains.
Did he want to do that? When he had a real train to fool around with?

He’d only read a few paragraphs when his eyes began to close...

 

Bang! He woke up with a start. Someone was at the door hollering “Hackberry! Get over to the big tent. We got a full house in there. Hackberry!” Another bang on the door and the footsteps crunched off.

Had Hackberry heard? He hoped so! Spence piled three of the beat-up trains into the basket, gobbled the granola bar he’d brought, and hurried off to the backstage area. Zoe was already there, trying to zip Tulip’s costume. She was having a hard time—Tulip was humming and wiggling her hips and jerking her arms in the air like she was in a disco dance hall.

“Pul-ease, Tulip! Pul-ease stand still,” Zoe kept saying. Finally Tulip gave one last hoot, heaved in a breath, and Zoe yanked on the back zipper. “Hooray!” Tulip shouted as it zipped all the way up. Spence wondered what would happen when she let out that breath. But she kept on breathing and the zipper held.

He saw she had the ruby ring on a ribbon around her neck. “Good thinking,” he told Zoe.  He felt for the papers in his pocket. Still there, and the pocket buttoned shut. He told Zoe about the red passenger car on the bike. But where was Chuckie? He’d promised to come back when the show began. And where was Hackberry? Already the music was starting up inside the ring. The crowd was beginning to hush. The loudspeaker crackled and boomed, welcoming everyone to the “Gr-reat North Country Quir-kus Cirr-rr-cus!”

The drumroll that followed deafened his ears. He peered out through the beaded curtain. And saw Boomer. The fellow was sitting in the second row, directly across from the performers’ entrance. He was wearing the fake mustache and black tie and the black hat pulled down over his eyebrows, but this time Spence recognized him by the deep dimple in his chin. He was holding something in his hands—something red. The spotlights glinted off the bright metal and shot scarlet rays up and down the row.

Jeezum! It was the red passenger car—in Boomer’s lap! So Spence’s plan had backfired. How did Boomer get it? Did he knock the dwarf off his bicycle?

Where
was
the dwarf? And
where
was Hackberry? And where was his bicycle—for he suddenly saw a familiar face. It was his father! His father, who hadn’t planned to come but was here anyway. And only five rows above Boomer. Would his father look down and see the passenger car in Boomer’s lap? And if he did, what then?

 

27

 

THE SHOW DOWN

 

“He’s here! Just as we hoped,” Zoe said when Spence pointed out Boomer. “Good work.”

Spence nodded. Boomer had come on his own, but Spence took the credit anyway. “Look what he’s got in his lap.”

“What? Oh no—your red car! How’d he get that?”

“He must’ve swiped it out of the bike basket.”

“A thrill a minute all right,” said Zoe, who’d just spotted her parents in the row to the left of the row where Boomer sat. They were sitting with the Bagley Sisters, all four fanning themselves with their programs—there was no air conditioning in the tent. Kelby and Butch sat in the row below, enveloped in pink clouds of cotton candy. Zoe would have one of those for a reward, she decided, when—if—the afternoon went as planned.

Or unplanned, she thought, for people never behaved the way you expected them to. She’d learned that in her twelve years of life.

“I want one of those. Real bad,” Spence said when Zoe pointed out the cotton candy that was slowly creeping over the boys’ faces.

“We’ll both have one when this is over. When Hackberry’s back. And the police find your red baggage car.”

“You really think it’s in his cellar? I hope at least he buried it in a box. There
are
scratches on my advertising car. I don’t know why he buried it like that.”

“To keep the police from finding it if they went in to search? Or Hackberry?”

“Maybe so. But I wish he’d hid it in a closet or drawer.”

There was an earsplitting drum roll, an explosion of red, blue, green and yellow balloons, and three high-wire ladies dashed on in sparkling purple tights. They leapt onto a trio of high-swinging trapezes and hung by their heels like monkeys. Then they stood up on the narrow rungs while the crowd gasped; then dove off, legs scissoring in the air, to exchange trapezes. One flew onto a trapeze so high that Zoe had to stretch her neck way back to see—she felt giddy, watching. The music soared. The spectators oohed and cheered.

A breeze cooled her neck as the tent flap opened and a white-faced figure in black came stumbling through to grab Spence’s arm. Now it was Zoe’s heart doing a drum roll.

“Where’s the red car?” Hackberry demanded. “It was in Chuckie’s basket and I want it back.” He rummaged through the basket of trains and came up empty. He stuck his painted face into Spence’s. “Chuckie said you found it. Then he took off and I couldn’t catch him. He said he’d bring it here.”

“I know. But it’s safe,” Spence told him. At least he hoped it was safe.

“Nothing’s safe,” said the clown, and folded his arms gloomily about his thin chest. “Nothing in this world. Not you, not me. You have to keep looking around you, every minute. You never know what’s out there. It might be a man with a bomb. It might be—”

“Your brother?” Spence said. “We know about Juniper.”

“What? No-oo-o.” The clown dropped to the floor; he folded his body up into a ball of misery. “Juniper doesn’t like me. Never did. He doesn’t know I don’t want the money. I don’t want anything Mummy left me. I just want my train back. My beautiful one-of-a-kind-train Mummy bought me and my wife sold. Sold on me—it was so, so cruel!”

BOOK: The Great Circus Train Robbery
10.75Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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