The Niagara Falls Mystery (4 page)

Will walked over to a glass display case in the center of the room. He turned on the overhead light. “Hey! Why is this case unlocked?” he asked. “Maybe Granddad was in a rush and forgot to close it. I wouldn't want anybody to get his hands on this guest book. It's pretty valuable.”

The children came over to see what Will was talking about.

“It's just a plain old book,” Benny said, a little disappointed. The balancing pole on the ceiling was a lot more exciting.

“It's not just a plain old book, Benny,” Will began. “It's a priceless guest book from a hotel my great-great-grandparents owned. When the Prince of Wales visited Niagara Falls in 1860, he stayed at their hotel and signed this book. It's been in our family for over a hundred and thirty years.”

“Is it usually locked up?” Jessie asked.

“Always,” Will answered. “In fact, the insurance company keeps telling Granddad he should keep it in a safe or at a bank. But he won't hear of it. He wants to share these treasures with visitors who come to the shop. Granddad must have left the case unlocked by mistake. Good thing I noticed. I'll lock it up now.”

Will was walking toward a cabinet in the corner of the room when he accidentally kicked something. “Gosh! Granddad really must have been rushed. He dropped these keys. I'd better lock up the guest book case right now.” He turned the key in the lock and rechecked it twice before putting the keys into his pocket.

For the next half hour, Will showed the Aldens where things were and what to do. Everything needed a good vacuuming. Boxes needed to be unpacked. A list needed to be written to keep track of everything.

“Is that too much work?” he asked the children a while later.

“For us?” Benny asked. “Nothing's too much work!”

“Let's get going,” Jessie said.

CHAPTER 4

A Wallet Disappears

“
A
choo
!” Violet sneezed for the third time in a row while she was vacuuming. “There's an awful lot of dust in here.”

By late morning there was less dust but still quite a few boxes stacked up in the display room.

“Tomorrow we can start unpacking,” Jessie said. “When we're done, this room will be like a little museum.”

As the children worked, a few customers peeked into the display room.

“Too bad this room is closed,” one man from a tour bus said when he and his wife stepped into the display room by mistake. “We honeymooned in Niagara Falls fifty years ago. We just love looking back on how it was in the old days.”

Henry smiled at the couple. “If you come back in a couple of days, this room will be open again.”

After the couple left, the children continued with their work. Henry had just piled some empty boxes near the connecting doorway to the shop when he noticed something. “That man dropped his wallet!” Henry ran through the shop after the couple. He was too late. Their tour bus had just pulled away.

Henry stood on the sidewalk and checked inside the wallet. “Wow! There's over three hundred dollars in here. And some identification cards, too.”

Back inside, Will Lasalle was showing a young couple how to use the cash register. Before Henry had a chance to tell about the lost wallet, Will waved Henry over.

“Henry, bring Benny and your sisters out here,” Will said. “I want everyone to meet my new assistant managers.”

When the Aldens came into the shop area, Will introducd everyone. “These are the Aldens: Benny, Violet, Jessie, and Henry. Kids, I'd like you to meet Robert and Sally McKenzie.”

The children smiled at the McKenzies before glancing at each other.

“You children look as if you have a little secret,” Will said with a smile. “Come on. Let us in on it.”

Benny couldn't hold it in. “We saw you on your honeymoon at the Rainbow Inn. Only we weren't on a honeymoon — just a regular trip.”

Will chuckled. He didn't notice that the McKenzies weren't smiling at all.

Jessie poked Benny gently with her elbow. “Sorry. We weren't snooping on you at the Rainbow Inn. It's just that we were the only family there that
wasn't
on a honeymoon.”

Robert McKenzie still looked upset, but Sally McKenzie seemed to relax a bit. “It's okay. I bet it feels strange to be around so many couples when you're with your whole family.”

“Well, this family is helping me organize the display room next door. We plan to reopen it soon,” Will explained. “It's gotten pretty dusty and disorganized. I asked the Aldens to straighten things out for us. It'll be shipshape when my grandfather returns.”

Robert McKenzie didn't seem too happy to hear this. “No need for these kids to give up their vacation. Sally and I can fix up the display room in our spare time. I thought that's why you hired us — so we could take care of everything while you're working on the Maid of the Mist.”

“Oh, I'll need you in the shop and running errands for me,” Will said. “Picking up my store sign this morning was a big help already. There's more than enough work for everyone.”

Mr. McKenzie seemed about to say something until his wife gave him a funny look.

The Aldens walked back to the display room when Henry remembered something. “Oh! I almost forgot why I came out here in the first place. A couple from the tour bus dropped this wallet when they were talking to us. What should I do with it?”

Will took the wallet and put it into a drawer. “Granddad keeps lost items locked in this drawer near the cash register for a day or so in case the owner comes back. If no one does, then we take the item to the Lost and Found Department at the police station. Most times, folks figure out where they lost it and come right back.”

Henry was relieved. “I hope this couple comes back. There's a few hundred dollars in there and the man's identification cards.” He turned to the McKenzies. “Let us know if you need any help.”

Mrs. McKenzie was about to say something when her husband spoke up first. “No, we can handle everything out here, no question about that.”

Will said good-bye to the McKenzies and the Aldens. “You've got the keys to the cash register and the lost and found drawer. Lasalle's Curiosity Shop is in good hands. Now I'd better get down to the Maid of the Mist docks. The next boat departs in a half hour. So long.”

“'Bye,” the Aldens said before they went back to work.

Minutes later, Robert McKenzie appeared in the doorway. “We have to shut this door between the store and this room. It's hard to hear ourselves think with all the noise.”

Jessie blinked nervously. “Oh! Sorry. We didn't know we were so noisy. Talking makes the work go faster. We'll be quieter.”

Without another word, Mr. McKenzie slammed the door anyway.

“Gee,” Violet said, biting her lip. “For someone who just got married, he seems very cross. I guess he's upset about leaving the Rainbow Inn. Maybe he knows we overheard them talking about their money problems.”

Jessie sighed. “That's probably true, Violet. We'll just have to be as nice as we can. I don't want the McKenzies to feel unhappy around us. Still, I wish we could keep the door open. We'd get to know each other better if we worked side by side.”

Henry got curious about a long skinny box he found. He lifted the lid. Inside were several odd-looking wooden canes. “Hmm, I have no idea why these are in here. There aren't any tags or notes explaining what they are.”

Jessie came over and twirled one of the canes. “I wonder how these connect to Niagara Falls. Maybe they're part of some costumes from an old musical or something.”

“What nonsense,” a gruff voice said from the corner of the room.

Startled, the Aldens turned in the direction of the voice.

“Everybody around here knows those canes weren't used onstage,” the gruff voice said.

“Mr. Drummond!” Jessie cried. “We didn't see you. How did you get in here?”

Angus Drummond stepped from a dark corner into the middle of the room. “Same way I always get in here. Right through the back door. I've been here the whole time you were yammering out in the shop. Now hand me that cane, young lady. I'll show you what a real Niagara Falls souvenir is.”

Angus Drummond wasn't too friendly-looking. His clothes were a bit worn. His white beard hadn't been trimmed in quite a while. But now that the Aldens knew who belonged to the gruff voice, they weren't afraid of him.

Angus took the cane from Jessie and held it up. “Now, this is a fine-looking Navy Island cane. Probably fifty years old if it's a day. Even older, I reckon. And do you know where this cane was made?”

Before the Aldens could answer, Angus's voice boomed out: “Niagara Falls, that's where! These canes are made from trees on Navy Island, smack in the middle of the Niagara River. There was a time when nearly every tourist walked around with one of these.”

“Were these canes carved by hand?” Violet asked. “They look very well made.”

Angus's voice boomed again. “Of course they were made by hand, young lady. There was a workshop on the river where wood-carvers turned these canes out by the thousands. No more, though. All folks want now are a lot of T-shirts and caps and other ugly nonsense.”

“We'll put the canes in a special place,” Jessie told Angus. “I'll make a sign explaining what they are. Maybe you can come back tomorrow and tell me what the sign should say.”

Angus ran his hand over the wooden cane. “It should just say:
NAVY ISLAND CANES. HANDMADE IN NIAGARA FALLS
. And make sure you keep 'em in a case. They're worth some money. Not as much as the Prince of Wales guest book, of course. Nothing in this shop is worth as much as that. All the same, those Navy Island canes are valuable.”

Violet smiled at Angus Drummond. “Don't worry. We'll put them where everyone can see them.”

Jessie laid the canes back in the box. “I hope you can return tomorrow morning. We want to set things up like a museum. Will you be around, Mr. Drummond?”

Angus nodded. “The name's Angus. That's what folks around here call me. And I'm always around.”

“Will told us that,” Benny piped up. “And he said you have lots of stories.”

Angus nearly smiled. “I've known Willy Lasalle since he was born. Fancy that young fella thinking he can work the Maid of the Mist and run this shop at the same time. He's still wet behind the ears.”

“I'm going to be wet behind the ears, too,” Benny announced. “We're going on the Maid of the Mist boat. Everything gets wet, even your ears.”

This time, Angus Drummond really did smile. “Well, you won't get too wet. They give folks plastic raincoats nowadays, not like in the old days when folks didn't mind getting wet. No, not like the old days.”

“I like my piece of barrel from the olden days,” Benny said. He pulled his wood piece from his pocket. “See, I still have it.”

Angus nodded. “You have a real piece of history there, young fella. My Aunt Tilda went over Horseshoe Falls in 1905 in that barrel — not a scratch on her, either. I asked Will's grandfather to put the barrel on display, but he said he had two already. So I decided to give folks a real souvenir, not these things that fall apart the minute you get home.”

Benny held his barrel piece tight in his hands. “Thank you for selling it to me,” he said.

Angus smiled directly at Benny. “Thank you for buying it. Not too many folks can appreciate a souvenir like this, young fella. Someday, that will be worth a lot of money.”

With that, Angus turned and walked out the back door of the display room — the same way he had come in.

CHAPTER 5

A Face in the Tunnels

G
ood as his word, Angus Drummond appeared at the back door the next morning. Side by side with Angus, the Aldens unpacked boxes and listened to his stories.

After they'd been working together for a while, Jessie had an idea. “Would you like to come with us to Journey Behind the Falls, Angus? There are tunnels and caves right behind the falls. People stand and watch the falls crash in front of them. Can you come?” she asked.