The Mystery of the Tiger's Eye (5 page)

Dorsey viewed the sight next. “How many birds are in that flock? It seems endless.”

“Thousands,” his great-uncle replied. “As they fly south, they pick up more bands of birds along the way.”

After a few minutes in the frosty air, everyone was ready to go back inside. Edward and Grandfather made hot chocolate, which they served in the parlor.

“That was neat,” said Jessie, dunking her marshmallow with her spoon. “I never knew birds were so smart.”

“I wonder if the birds think they are going home when they fly south,” Dorsey mused. “Or if they think they are leaving home. Where is home for them?”

Violet looked at Dorsey. Maybe he was feeling homeless, too.

Just then the phone rang. Edward got up to answer it.

“Hello,” he said. “Yes, this is Mr. Singleton. Yes, I'll make sure Dorsey has the right school supplies. I did receive your list.”

Jessie watched Dorsey's face during this conversation. He put down his mug, suddenly looking downcast.

When Edward hung up, Dorsey asked, “That was the boarding school, wasn't it?”

Edward nodded. “They were just checking on last-minute details. You leave in a few days, you know.”

Dorsey jumped up, knocking a cushion to the floor. “And I can't wait to get out of this crazy house!”

He stomped upstairs without saying good night.

“That boy is so moody,” Edward said. “He was fine when we were outside watching the birds.”

“Maybe he just misses his parents,” Grandfather said reassuringly.

Edward nodded. “Or maybe he's just tired after a long day. It's been a long day for all of us. I think we should turn in.”

On the way to their rooms, the Alden children paused to discuss the latest events.

“Why do you think Dorsey is acting so strangely?” Henry wanted to know. “Mr. Singleton was right — he was fine out on the deck. He changed when his uncle got that phone call.”

“I don't know why he's so anxious to leave Cliffwalk Manor,” Jessie put in. “If I were Dorsey, I'd want to stay.”

“Well, we have enough to handle trying to solve this mystery,” said Violet. “Who else could have made the rabbit appear in the bread basket besides Iona?”

“Dorsey could have done it,” Benny mentioned. “He had on a sweater with big pockets. He could have put the rabbit in one of the pockets.”

“Benny's right,” said Jessie. “Dorsey didn't go with us today, but he and Melanie could have driven to town. One of them could have bought the rabbit in the pet store next to Iona's shop.”

“Actually, Melanie could have gotten the rabbit anytime,” said Violet. “Her college is on the hill right above Heron's Bay.”

“But why?” Henry asked. “Iona is Edward's good friend and Melanie is working for him. What would either of them gain by causing trouble?”

They had reached Dorsey's bedroom. The door was firmly shut.

“Maybe Dorsey figures he can get away with pulling pranks,” Henry said. “He's good with gadgets. He could be making the fortune-teller move and other stuff.”

“That's a good point,” Jessie agreed. “I feel kind of sorry for him. It seems like he shuts himself in his room a lot.”

“We can't do any more tonight,” said Henry.

The boys said good night and went down the hall to their own room.

Before Violet closed their bedroom door, she thought she heard muffled sobs across the hall. But a moment later, music came on and drowned them out.

Down the hall Benny switched off the lamp in the boys' room, then he plumped his pillow and tried to go to sleep. But he kept seeing a light flickering on the opposite wall.

“What is that light?” he asked his brother.

Henry tossed back the quilt. “Let's go see.”

Benny followed Henry to the window.

“Down there.” Henry pointed to barges on the bay. “I bet those running lights from the barges are reflecting in our room.”

Benny wasn't so sure. The light he saw flickered like a candle. Or a flashlight.

They went back to bed.

As Benny drifted to sleep, he thought he heard faint bumps and scrapes like he had their first night in Cliffwalk Manor. But now the noises seemed to be coming from
downstairs.

When he opened his eyes, it was morning. Golden sunshine dappled the wall where he'd seen flickering lights the night before.

He and Henry dressed and met the girls in the hall.

Downstairs, they heard Grandfather's and Edward's voices. The two men were staring into Edward's office.

“It can't be!” Edward said unbelievingly. “It just can't be!”

“W
hat is it?” Asked Jessie, hurrying forward.

“These rooms have been switched!” Edward declared.

“Switched?” Benny was puzzled. “What do you mean?”

Edward swept his arm in a wide gesture. “All the things from my office are now in the parlor across the hall. And everything from the parlor is now in here! Only the heaviest furniture is still where it belongs.”

He was right. Knickknacks and tea tables were in Edward's office. Rugs, pictures, objects, even the chairs had been reversed. A dainty Queen Anne chair looked funny pulled up to his businesslike desk.

In the parlor, Edward's papers were stacked on the grand piano. Files and notebooks sat on the burgundy sofa. Framed documents from Edward's office hung on the rose-sprigged wallpaper.

Dorsey came up behind Benny. “What's going on?”

“The rooms are backward,” Benny replied.

“Weird,” Dorsey pronounced, shaking his head. “Haven't I said all along this place is weird?”

“Somebody made this happen,” his great-uncle said. “Those things didn't walk across the hall.”

“Who could have done it?” asked Violet. “We were all in bed last night.”

Or were we?
she added to herself. Had Dorsey gotten up in the night to switch rooms?

“We don't know the answer to that now,” Grandfather said reasonably. “Let's have breakfast before we move Edward's things back where they belong.”

While they were eating, Iona came into the dining room.

“How did you get in?” Benny asked her. The doorbell hadn't rung. No one had gone to the door.

“Edward keeps a key hidden under a rock in the garden. Today my shop is closed and I thought I'd come by,” she said. “Why the long faces?”

“We'll show you,” Henry offered.

When Iona saw the “backward rooms,” she clucked her tongue.

“I've said it before: This house is too much for Edward.” Her eyes showed concern. “He really needs to get rid of this place before anything worse happens.”

“Like what?” Henry asked her.

Iona picked up a toy merry-go-round from Edward's file cabinet. “I don't know. But the pranks are getting more serious. It's one thing to find a stray playing card in the kitchen sink. It's quite another to find someone has moved all your things overnight.”

Jessie had been thinking. “Maybe this is some sort of a message. Somebody could be warning Mr. Singleton about something. But what?”

At that moment, the front door opened. Melanie came in, fastening her key ring to the loop on her backpack. When she saw Iona and the Alden children in the entry, she looked nervous.

“What's wrong?” she asked, tugging her braid over one shoulder.

Benny showed her the backward rooms. Melanie put her hand over her mouth.

“Oh, my!” she gasped.

Jessie noticed Melanie's key ring.

“Do you have a key?” she asked Melanie.

The student nodded. “Mr. Singleton gave me one. I work from eight to six, five days a week. He figured I should have my own key, in case he wasn't here.”

Melanie's green eyes were round and innocent behind her glasses. She seemed as upset as Iona had been over the switched rooms. Still, Jessie didn't think anyone could be ruled out as a suspect. Not yet anyway.

Everyone pitched in to switch the rooms back. The men and Henry insisted on carrying the heavier items, but Iona protested.

“I can lift,” she said. “I do it all the time in my shop.”

To prove it, she hefted a case of books with apparent ease. Then she saw a sprinkling of dust on the baseboard. “Honestly. Edward needs someone around to keep this place cleaner.”

Henry noticed her strength. Whoever had moved the things the night before had to be strong enough to lift the old-fashioned tables and chairs, which were made of solid wood.

He noticed that Dorsey was fairly strong, too, for his age. Only Melanie seemed frail in her baggy sweatpants and sweatshirt. But she carried many of the small objects.

Trotting across the hall with the toy merry-go-round, Benny felt eyes on his back. He looked up. The carved tiger glared down from its perch on the huge cabinet in the entryway.

Nothing in the entryway had been touched. Of course, the massive cabinet was too heavy to budge and the tiger was too high to reach. But the eyes of the tiger made Benny scurry into the parlor. That thing gave him the creeps!

When the rooms were back to normal, Iona went to the parlor window and looked out.

“The morning fog has burned off. It looks quite nice outside. Let's have a picnic down on the beach.”

“Great idea!” Edward agreed.

“I need to get to work,” Melanie said, heading to her office on the second floor.

While the children fed Houdini, Iona put together a fast lunch.

Bundled up in windbreakers, everyone climbed down the steps to the beach below. The grown-ups spread a red plaid blanket on the sand, out of the wind.

The children darted among frothy waves. It was too cold to go wading, but they had fun chasing one another. Even Dorsey ran till he was out of breath and his pale cheeks were pink.

Then Dorsey helped his great-uncle and Iona unpack the big wicker hamper.

The Alden kids walked along the beach and discussed the mystery.

“Who do you think switched those rooms?” Violet asked.

“My guess is Iona,” said Henry. “She's plenty strong and she knows where Mr. Singleton keeps the key.”

“But why would she pull a stunt on her good friend?” Jessie asked.

Henry shrugged. “Maybe to get him to sell Cliffwalk Manor. She says it's too big for him.”

“I think Iona likes Mr. Singleton,” Violet said.

“Sure, she likes him,” Benny said. “They're friends.”

Jessie smiled. “Violet means Iona likes Mr. Singleton
a lot
.”

“She could even be a little jealous,” Violet went on. “You know, because Mr. Singleton spends so much time with his collections.”

“Good thinking,” Jessie remarked. “That gives Iona a motive. But it could have been Melanie, too. She has a key. She could have come back last night after we were all in bed and switched the rooms.”

“But what is her motive?” Henry argued. “She seems happy enough cataloging Mr. Singleton's collections.”

“I think Dorsey did it,” stated Benny.

“So do I,” Violet said. “Dorsey acts like he can't wait to get away from Cliffwalk Manor. Maybe he's trying to make his great-uncle send him to that school sooner!”

Henry shook his head. “We're no closer to an answer, I'm afraid. Grandfather is waving. Time to eat!”

They raced one another back to the picnic spot. Iona had made thick tuna salad sandwiches. Tortilla chips, bean soup, and rosy pears rounded out the noonday meal.

Edward entertained them by telling corny knock-knock jokes. Dorsey laughed so hard, he got the hiccups.

Violet wondered if he
really
wanted to go to Green Acres School. He was having such a good time — why would he want to leave?

Later that afternoon, the phone rang. This time Dorsey answered it in his great-uncle's office.

The Aldens were in the parlor across the hall looking at old postcards that Melanie had arranged neatly in albums. Dorsey didn't close the door; they could hear his end of the conversation.