The Mystery of the Red-Brick House Read online

  “She’s a tomboy,” Ricky explained to Neil.

  Liz dropped to the ground and followed her brothers into the orchard, where they lost themselves in the pretense of a wild, untamed forest where lions and tigers and bears roamed. Liz was still in her Tarzan mode and yelling loudly, “Whe-e-e. I’m Tarzan of the Apes. Whe-e-e.”

  Upstairs, on the third floor, a curtain fluttered. Behind it Miss Briggs stood silently fuming as she watched the carefree antics of children running, playing make-believe and having fun.

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  Chapter 14: The Water-Soaked Note

  When their mother heard about Liz’s behavior from Miss Briggs, she confined her to her bedroom the next day. “But Mother--,” Liz began, attempting to explain her conduct.

  “No Liz,” her mother interrupted. “I will not listen to any excuses.”

  The next morning, Liz poked her head into her mother’s room, and asked sweetly, “Can I have a cup of coffee, please?”

  Her mother was still too angry with Liz to participate in their morning ritual about coffee and Vitamin C. She replied with a loud ‘No.’ Seeing that her mother was still upset, she went back to bed and laid there until she heard her mother leave for the farm.

  Liz got out of bed, tip-toed down the hall past the bathroom, and entered Neil’s room. She shook her brother roughly. “Hey, stop that,” he mumbled in his sleep, not sure who or what it was.

  “Neil, wake up,” she ordered. “This is your big day. Remember?”

  “Huh?” He was barely awake. “My birthday?”

  “No, Dopey,” she said and laughed. “It’s your day to be bad. Get up and drive Miss Briggs nutty.”

  “She’s already nutty,” he responded, pulling the sheet over his head.

  “Get up,” she ordered again.

  “I don’t want to be bad,” he said. “She scares me.”

  “You don’t have to be bad, Neil,” she answered. “Just be real, real happy all day long, like it’s really your birthday.”

  “Will you stay with me?”

  “No. I can’t. I’m grounded all day.”

  “Gee whiz, Liz. All day?”

  “You can sneak in and see me later,” she replied. When she left, he rolled over and went back to sleep.

  Jeanie and Ann came in a few minutes later and shook him awake again. “Wake up, Neil. This is your day to shine.”

  “Huh?”

  “Don’t rub your eyes like that,” said Ann. “Come on. Get up.”

  “I’m up. I’m up.”

  Ricky wandered in from the adjoining room. He was wide awake. “Hi,” he greeted his sisters and brother.

  “Get Neil up,” Jeanie told him. “He won‘t budge.”

  “He’s not my problem,” Ricky answered, as he lumbered slowly across the room.

  “Aren’t you your brother’s keeper?” asked Jeanie.

  “Aren’t you?” he answered.

  “Oh hush. Let’s don’t argue,” said Ann impatiently. “Come on, Neil. Be a good boy. Do it for big sister.”

  They went downstairs together. When they entered the dining room, they heard Miss Briggs humming in the kitchen. She had a lavish breakfast of sausage, eggs, biscuits and fruit juice ready. She even smiled when she handed a tray to Jeanie. “Take this up to Liz. She’s on house arrest today.” She turned and went back to the kitchen smiling.

  Jeanie raised an eyebrow. House arrest?

  Ann nudged Neil with her elbow. “You’re on, Neil. Get started.”

  “Not now,” he begged.

  “You’re procrastinating,” she answered.

  “What’s that?”

  “Stalling,” said Ricky, who couldn’t pronounce the word, but knew what it meant.

  “What you’re doing right now,” Ann added.

  “I’m eating,” Neil replied, taking a big bite of his biscuit.

  After breakfast, Miss Briggs assigned chores to Jeanie and Ann, and asked the boys to burn a stack of papers in the furnace. They eagerly agreed and headed down the stairs to the cellar. The coal wasn’t burning, so they emptied the dry ashes on the floor and dug for treasures. Neil found three rubber bands and a handful of nails.

  “Hey, Neil,” Ricky called. “Look at that pile of wood. Let’s build something.”

  “Oh boy, Ricky. Just what we need, a toolbox,” replied Neil.

  Miss Briggs called down the stairs, “Ricky, I want you to run an errand.”

  “Coming,” he answered, reluctantly climbing the stairs and hoping one of his sisters was nearby. His knees knocked together whenever he was alone with Miss Briggs.

  .“Yes’m,” he said when he got upstairs. He glanced around for Jeanie or Ann. He didn’t see either one and began to tremble.

  “Here’s a list of groceries. Charge it to your mother’s account.”

  He reached for the list with shaking hands, and when he left, forgot to close the front door until he heard it slam as he hurried down the walk. When he reached the street, he relaxed and skipped all the way to the store. With a morning breeze blowing across his face, he felt free, like school had been let out for summer vacation.

  In the meantime, Neil was unaware he was alone in the cellar, and began taking tools out of the rusty box--a wrench, a hammer, and a hacksaw. It was the latter tool, the hacksaw, that fascinated him. He looked around for something to cut and spotted a stack of small tree limbs. He decided to try his hacksaw out on them.

  When he got bored, he looked for something else to cut. The water pipes behind the furnace looked interesting. He wondered if his hacksaw could cut through a pipe.

  He began sawing, and just when he didn’t think it would work, water spurted out from a small gash on the side. It splashed on his shoes, then ran out in a slow, steady stream onto the concrete floor.

  “Oh, boy,“ he said out loud as he looked around for something stop the water. He saw an old rag nearby, picked it up, and tied it around the pipe over the slash. Then he hurried up the stairs leading outside and ran to the orchard to hide.

  When Ricky returned from the store, Neil hissed at him, “Psst-t, Ricky. Come here.” But Ricky just waved and continued into the house. A few minutes later, Ricky reappeared, and ran to the orchard. Neil was crouched behind an apple tree.

  “Who are you hiding from?” Ricky asked.

  “Everything,” he answered. He peeked around the edge of the tree, and stared at the red-brick house, looming in the distance. “That house. I’m hiding from that house. It’s haunted,” he answered.

  “I know it,” Ricky answered nonchalantly. “So what?”

  “Did you know a pipe broke in the cellar?” he asked.

  “A pipe?” repeated Ricky. “What kind of pipe?”

  “Come on. I’ll show you.” Neil darted from tree to tree until they were close to the house, and there were no more trees to hide behind. “You ready?” he asked Ricky, turning around and eyeing his brother.

  “Anytime,” Ricky answered.

  Neil dashed across the yard to the outside basement stairs, and headed down to the cellar. When he stepped off the bottom step, water splashed around his ankles. He turned to Ricky. “The floor is full of water,” he said.

  “My gosh, it is,” said Ricky. “What happened?”

  “The pipe broke, like I told you,” responded Neil. “Can you make a sailboat?”

  “Right now?” Ricky asked. Then considering the idea, he added, “Yeah, I ‘spose so. Let’s take off our shoes.” He sat down and began untying his shoe strings. Neil sat next to him and jerked his off, one at a time.

  “Put them on the top step,” said Ricky as he handed his to Neil.

  They stepped into the cool water. It touched their ankles, and the bottom of their jeans got wet before they thought to roll them up.

  “Here’s a stick for my boat,” said Neil as he reached for a piece of bark floating by.

  “That could be a canoe,” suggested Ricky. He spotted a flat board and waded over to get it. “All I need no
w is a stick and something for a sail.”

  “Here’s a wire,” said Neil, lifting one out of his pocket.

  “Oh, boy. Just what I need, said Ricky. “See that piece of paper over there, b the furnace. Can you reach it?” Ricky asked. He loved to build things, and his excitement was showing.

  Neil noticed and smiled at his older brother. “This is fun.”

  They waded back to the steps and sat down. Ricky hooked the wire around his board, then punctured two small holes in the paper and pushed the wire through the paper. “Look at that,” he said proudly, holding up the crude-looking sailboat for his brother’s admiration.

  “I like canoes,” responded Neil, ignoring his brother’s handicraft, and pushing his out into the water. “Watch it go.”

  Ricky placed his sailboat in the water and gave it a slight shove. It floated away very slowly. “There’s no wind for my sails,” he explained.

  “Canoes don’t need wind,” said Neil. His bark caught a current of water that swept it around in a circle. “Watch it, Ricky.”

  Ricky nudged his sailboat toward the current and it began spinning in a circle, too. “Wow, look at mine.”

  When they heard Miss Briggs call that lunch was ready, they went up the outside stairs, and entered the side door into the dining room. Luckily Jeanie saw them first, and rushed them upstairs to put on dry clothes. After they finished dressing, Jeanie put her hand on Neil’s shoulder. “Neil, this is your big day. Remember? Where’ve you been?”

  “She scares me,” said Neil, looking up at his oldest sister, his eyes pleading with her not to make him do it.

  She recognized he was too frightened to perform and replied, “Never mind. You don’t have to.”

  His face brightened immediately. “You want to see my canoe?” he asked, his eyes twinkling with excitement.

  “I’d love to see your canoe. We‘ll go right after we eat,” she answered, as they went down to the dining room together.

  After lunch, Jeanie and Ricky followed Neil as he hurried down to the cellar. But half-way down the basement stairs, Neil felt the cool water lapping at his bare feet, and watched in terror at the rising water. He turned around and looked up at Jeanie and Ricky. “The water is getting deeper,” he said.

  “Where’s your canoe?” Jeanie asked, not understanding the problem.

  Neil wished his sister would just go away. He shouldn’t have mentioned his canoe. He stood quietly as she stepped down into the whirling water and let out a yell, “My gosh, Neil, what happened?”

  He didn’t say anything. That was better than telling a lie. And he sure wasn’t going to tell the truth.

  Ricky answered instead, still unaware that Neil had cut the pipe. “That pipe has a hole.” He pointed to the place where water was streaming out in a steady flow.

  Jeanie immediately assumed the worse--that something sinister had taken place. Her pupils dilated and butterflies fluttered in her stomach. “Let’s get out of here,” she said.

  “Can I get my sailboat?” asked Ricky, reaching for it and grabbing Neil‘s canoe at the same time..

  “May I get my sailboat?” Jeanie said, correcting his grammar.

  Jeanie herded them quietly up the back stairs to her bedroom. By luck, they didn’t run into Miss Briggs when they came upstairs. But they could feel her watching and peering around corners, with those beady, watery eyes.

  Ann was seated on their bedroom floor Yogi-style, reading a comic book when Jeanie and her brothers came in, barely cognizant of their entrance. Jeanie closed the door before she spoke. “Ann, guess what?”

  Ann remained in her stiff-backed pose, turning a page with feigned boredom. Jeanie placed a hand on each hip and glared at her sister. The least she could do was acknowledge their presence.

  Ricky and Neil plopped down on their bed. “Hey, you guys. Get off that bed. Sit over there,” yelled Jeanie. She pointed to some floor cushions. “Hey, Beatnik,” she addressed her zombie-like sister. “Get with it.”

  “Don’t bother me,” said Ann. “I’m practicing my yoga.”

  “I didn’t know Yogi read comics,” Jeanie said facetiously.

  Ann slammed her book down, dashed from the room, and nearly collided with Miss Briggs as she was ascending the stairs. Ann was so startled, she twirled around on the top step and rushed back to the security of her bedroom.

  “Well, what brought you back?” asked Jeanie sarcastically, just as she heard the door slam shut next door. She smiled knowingly, and smirked at her sister.

  Ann shrugged and sat down on the corner of her bed.

  “Did you know the boys made boats all by themselves?” asked Jeanie sweetly as she turned to her brothers. “Show Ann your boats.”

  Ann was willing to be friendly without losing face. “Oh, how nice. How did you do this?” she asked her brothers pleasantly. She turned to her sister. “They’re really nice boats, aren’t they?”

  Ricky and Neil held up their boats for another inspection. “Ricky’s sail is burnt,” Neil observed critically and looked at his canoe with pride.

  “Mine’s not burnt,” Ricky said defensively.

  “Oh, Ricky, don’t worry. I have lots of paper in my desk. Let’s just make you a new sail.” Ann pulled out some blank stationary. Ricky removed the old sail, dropped it on the floor, and replaced it with new paper.

  “Hey, none of that,” Jeanie said, chiding him for messing up her clean floor. She reached down for the scrap, adding, “That’s what trash cans are for.”

  When she picked it up, Jeanie noticed some splotched print. She rushed to the nearest window and held it up to the light. She scrutinized it closely and recognized the word ‘midnight’ and what appeared to be a signature that looked like Blacky.. The rest of the ink was too smeared to read.

  Ann rushed to her sister. “What is it?”

  “It’s a note,” answered Jeanie. “I can only make out two words.”

  Ann grabbed the paper. “Midnight. Blacky,” she read out loud. “What could it mean?”

  Jeanie turned to the two boys, who were watching with open-mouthed curiosity. “Where did you get this?”

  “In the cellar. It was floating on the water,” Ricky answered.

  “By the furnace,” Neil added.

  Jeanie turned to her sister. “Any ideas?” she asked.

  “No-o-o,” answered Ann. “Not off-hand.” She stood poised in deep thought, her finger in her mouth. This was her thinking pose.

  “Miss Briggs is in the next room. We can’t talk here,” whispered Jeanie. “Let’s go to Liz’s room and have a storm session.”

  “I don’t like storms. They scare me,” Neil replied.

  “Just a family discussion, Neil. Not a thunderstorm,” Jeanie answered.

  “Like business people do,” Ann added.

  When they joined Liz in her room, she was ecstatic for the company and listened intently.

  As they questioned the boys for every detail, Jeanie finally pieced together what may have happened. “Ricky and Neil loosened the note when they were digging around in the ashes,” she announced proudly.

  Ann interrupted her, adding, “It got wet when the floor flooded.”

  “That’s right,“ said Jeanie as she continued with her hypothesis. “By the time Ricky put it on his sailboat, most of the writing had already washed away.”

  “Do you recall that night we were in the cellar talking and Miss Briggs showed up and we had to hide?” Ann asked. “Remember. She threw something in the furnace.”

  “Yes. Yes,” Jeanie said, her eyes wide with excitement. “It had to be this very note. From someone named Blacky.”

  “If we only knew what it said,” Ann lamented.

  They continued to conjecture about the note, and what Miss Briggs and this Blacky person could possibly be writing about.

  Liz and the boys listened quietly, wide-eyed and excited, and a little apprehensive. Liz finally found her voice and said, “Maybe Blacky is the person I heard talking to
Miss Briggs about a job.”

  Jeanie and Ann stopped talking and looked at Liz. Maybe she was on to something, but what?

  They heard their mother drive up and they all dashed downstairs together to greet her

  ####

  Chapter 15: Blacky Appears

  A big, red-faced plumber came early the following morning to fix the broken pipe. Miss Briggs called him right after breakfast, and he arrived almost immediately. She took him down into the flooded basement and pointed out the pipe to be replaced. Then she sat down on the steps and watched him work.

  “Poor guy,” said Jeanie, who was washing dishes while Ann wiped.

  “Who?” asked Ann.

  “That plumber. Miss Briggs is down there supervising his work.”

  “He’ll just double his price,” answered Ann. “Feel sorry for Mother.”

  “Come on, Ann,” Jeanie said, beckoning her sister to follow. They put their heads against the door leading to the cellar.

  “I can’t hear a thing,” whispered Ann, after a moment.

  “Sh-h-h,” answered Jeanie, as she opened the door a crack just in time to hear Miss Briggs arguing.

  “I’m telling you I can’t stand another day with these brats,” she shouted to the plumber.

  “What do you want me to do about it?” he replied impatiently.

  “Let’s do the job now, Blacky” she answered. “They’re literally driving me crazy.”

  “Shut up, Harriet,” he replied. “And stop your nagging.”

  Jeanie closed the door quietly and rushed back to finish the dishes. A moment later, Miss Briggs came upstairs and poked her head in the kitchen. “Aren’t you through with those dishes yet?” she asked.

  “No ma’am,” answered Jeanie pleasantly. Her hands were shaking so bad she could barely hold on to the plate she was rinsing. When Miss Briggs left, Ann whispered, “You’re white as a ghost. What’s wrong?”

  “She called the plumber Blacky,” she answered nervously.

  “She called the plumber Blacky?” Ann asked in response and disbelief.

  “That’s right,” Jeanie replied. “Blacky. The name on that note the boys found.”

  “They must be partners. What’re we gonna do?“

  “Ann. We gotta get rid of Miss Briggs, and today is your day to aggravate her.”

  Ann took a deep breath and looked at her sister. It was up to her now. She turned and left the room before she lost her nerve. She saw Miss Briggs climbing the front staircase and rushed up behind her. She began singing off-key, in a high, shrill voice as she stomped on each step.