Vanishing Passenger Read online

  “In this one,” Violet went on, “Mr. Finch says, ‘There are two types of books a youngster can read—good ones, and those that are like Daniel Van Buren’s.’”

  Benny said, “Wow, they don’t like each other very much, do they.”

  “Apparently not,” Jessie said. Then she noticed it was nearly eight o’clock. “We’d better get going,” she told them. “Grandfather is expecting us.”

  When the children got home, they found a surprise waiting for them.

  “I came in and saw the light blinking,” Grandfather explained as he stood by the answering machine in the kitchen. “At first I thought it was a message from all of you. I quickly realized I was wrong. Listen—”

  He hit the PLAY button, and out came one of the strangest messages the Alden family had ever heard. There was so much noise Henry turned the volume all the way up and still only a few words could be understood.

  “Let you know … had no choice but to … he jumped off … lost in Allerton … terrible storm … going to Mr. Beans … soon as possible …”

  And there the message ended.

  “It’s Mr. Finch!” Benny shouted.

  Jessie looked closely at the little screen on the answering machine.

  “The call came in at 10:32—over six hours ago!” she said.

  “And we’ve been out all day,” said Henry, “No wonder we didn’t know about it.”

  “Oh my goodness, I hope he’s all right!” Violet said.

  “Why don’t we try calling his cell phone now?” Henry suggested.

  “I thought we didn’t have the number,” Jessie pointed out.

  Henry nodded. “It should be there on the answering machine, on the caller ID.”

  Jessie looked down and saw it. “Oh yeah. Good thinking!”

  She tapped in the number and waited. Everyone else watched her, holding their breath.

  After a few moments, Henry said, “Is he answering?”

  Jessie shook her head. “No, it goes right to his voice mail.”

  “It doesn’t even ring?” Violet asked.

  “No.” Jessie let out a long sigh. “Looks like this mystery is getting thicker rather than thinner.”

  “He said he was going to a ‘Mr. Bean’s,’ didn’t he?” Jessie asked.

  “That’s what I heard,” Violet answered. “But who’s Mr. Bean?”

  No one knew.

  “And what town did he say he was in?” Henry wondered. “Allerton? That must’ve been where he jumped off. I’ve never heard of it.”

  “It’s about fifty miles up north,” Grandfather said. “It’s a nice little place. I’ve driven through it a few times. Very quiet.”

  Violet’s face lit up. “Oh my goodness! Allerton! I’ve seen that name before!”

  “You did? Where?”

  She paused for just a moment to think about it one more time and make sure she was right. Then she looked at the others.

  “I saw it in one of the articles we found at the library,” she said. “It’s where Daniel Van Buren lives!”

  CHAPTER 6

  A Smell to Remember

  The children were up bright and early the next morning, talking in the kitchen. Jessie rummaged through the cabinets in the hopes of finding something they could eat, while the other three sat around the table.

  “Maybe we should talk to Mr. Van Buren,” Violet said. “Ms. Connally probably knows how to reach him. He might know something.”

  “Or maybe Mr. Finch is going to catch another train to Greenfield today,” Henry suggested. “For all we know, he could just show up just like that—” Henry snapped his fingers, “—and the mystery would be solved.”

  “I think that ‘Mr. Bean’ person he mentioned in his message might be able to help us,” Jessie said, pulling out a box of cereal. She gave the box a shake and mumbled, “There’s not enough in here for everyone.” She sighed and looked at the others. “Until Mrs. MacGregor comes back, we’ll have to wait to eat.” Mrs. MacGregor, the housekeeper, had left about an hour earlier to do the weekly grocery shopping.

  “Or we could go down to the bakery and get some fresh bagels,” Violet suggested.

  Benny’s face lit up. “That’s a great idea! I love bagels!”

  “I think you love everything at the bakery,” Henry said.

  Benny rubbed his stomach. “I really do!”

  The Aldens filed out of the kitchen and down the hallway towards the front door. Watch, their always cheerful dog, ran up to see what was happening.

  “Bye, Watch!” Benny said, rubbing behind the dog’s furry ears. “We’ll be back shortly. Be good!”

  Violet stroked his head. “I’ll throw the ball around the backyard for you later, okay?” Watch seemed to understand and wagged his tail wildly.

  Jessie knelt down for a lick on the face. He put his front paws on her knees and reached up to give her one.

  “Ooo, you’re such a good dog.” She leaned in close to give him a quick kiss on the head.

  Then she froze.

  “Oh my goodness!”

  “What is it, Jess?” Henry asked. “What’s wrong?”

  Jessie turned to them, her eyes wide. “I remember that smell now! The one that was in the fourth car!”

  “You do?” Benny asked.

  “Yes—it’s dog shampoo!” She looked up at her older brother. “Henry, remember? That awful stuff we used on Watch a few weeks ago, after we found a few fleas on him?”

  “Hey, that’s right!” Henry knelt down and sniffed Watch, too. “Yes, this is definitely the same smell.”

  Violet and Benny were puzzled. “What dog shampoo? What bath?” Violet wondered. “Benny and I don’t remember that.”

  “You and Benny were with Grandfather that day,” Jessie said. “At the fair.”

  “Oh yeah,” Violet said. “We were having our faces painted.”

  “And we had ice cream!” Benny said. “I remember that!”

  “We decided to give Watch a bath while you guys were gone,” Jessie continued. “We went to the pet store and asked for a good shampoo for fleas and ticks. They gave us this stuff that worked really well, but it had a strong medicine smell.” Jessie sniffed Watch again. “It’s still on him, even after all this time. Ugh—awful!”

  “And that’s the same smell that was on the train?” Violet asked. She was stroking her chin and thinking. “Could that mean that a dog was in the fourth car with Mr. Finch?”

  Jessie’s eyes widened. “Possibly! Maybe it was that dog who was barking! Remember Mrs. Blake said she heard a dog barking, and that’s why she couldn’t read?”

  “That’s right,” Henry continued. “And that family we saw at the station, with the two children who were crying. Didn’t one of the children have—”

  “A leash!” Benny said.

  “Yes, a leash,” Henry told them. “But they didn’t have a dog with them. I’ll bet that’s why the children were so sad. Something must’ve happened to it.”

  “Like what?” Violet asked.

  “I have no idea,” Henry said. “But maybe someone down at the station does. Let’s go check it out.”

  When they got to the station, though, they didn’t see the conductor. But there were other faces they’d seen before.

  “Look!” said Henry. “Wasn’t that family on the train yesterday?”

  “Yes,” Violet said. “I remember the two crying children.”

  “They’re not crying now,” Benny noticed. “But they still look sad.”

  The two children were helping their father put up flyers around the station. They carefully stuck bits of tape to the corners of each flyer so that their father could hang them up. Their mother stood nearby, dabbing at her eyes with a tissue.

  “Should we talk to them?” Jessie wondered.

  “Let’s read one of these flyers, first,” said Henry. They found one posted near the front door. LOST DOG, it said in block letters across the top, above a photo of a small dog with woolly fur.


  “Poor thing,” Violet whispered.

  Below the photo was written: Just as we arrived home to Greenfield on the Saturday morning train, we discovered our dear dog, Max, missing from his carrier. We don’t know what happened and we are heartbroken! If anyone has any information that can help us find Max please contact the Taylor family. A phone number was listed at the bottom of the page.

  “We have information,” Henry said. They all nodded. They walked over to where the family was busy putting up another flyer.

  “Excuse us,” Jessie said softly. “You’re the Taylors, right?”

  They all turned. “Why, yes,” said the mother.

  “I’m Henry Alden, and these are my sisters and my brother,” said Henry. “We’re trying to solve a mystery of our own, and we think your dog might be part of it.”

  The Taylors all looked at each other, and back to the Aldens. “Go on,” said Mr. Taylor.

  Henry told them the whole story. At the end, Mr. Taylor took the copy of the Finch book that Henry brought along and studied the photo on the back. “You know something, this man does looks familiar.” He held it up so his wife could see. “Isn’t he the person who patted Max on the head as we were waiting for the train to arrive yesterday morning?”

  Mrs. Taylor only needed to take a quick look at Mr. Finch’s picture. “Yes, that’s him. He was very friendly,” she told the Aldens. “And he seemed to have an instant connection with Max. Max doesn’t always like strangers, as we said before, but he liked Mr. Finch right away.”

  “Oh, is that his name?” Jessie asked.

  “Yes, Max,” Mrs. Taylor replied.

  “We’re not surprised that he liked Mr. Finch,” Violet said. “Mr. Finch loves animals. Max must’ve sensed that.”

  “Do you know how he got off the train?” Henry asked.

  “We have no idea,” Mr. Taylor said. “That’s why we’re putting these signs up. We’re hoping maybe someone on the train saw what happened.”

  “He wasn’t with you during the trip?” Benny asked.

  “No,” Mr. Taylor replied. “He was in the last car, in a cage, by himself.”

  “The fourth car!” Violet said.

  “That’s right,” Mr. Taylor went on. “And when we went back to get him when we arrived here in Greenfield, he wasn’t there.”

  “We looked everywhere,” Mrs. Taylor added.

  “He must’ve gotten loose and jumped off somewhere,” Mr. Taylor finished, shaking his head sadly.

  “Why was Max in the last car?” Henry asked.

  “He gets nervous around strangers and tends to bark a lot,” Mrs. Taylor replied. “So we thought it best to leave him back there, alone.”

  “We were really worried when we went through the thunderstorm, though,” the father added. “Max is very afraid of loud noises.”

  “I went back to check on him during the storm,” Mrs. Taylor said, “and he seemed fine.”

  “Did you see anyone in the fourth car when you went in?” Jessie asked.

  “Oh no, I didn’t go in. I just looked through the window. If I’d gone in there, he would’ve gone crazy as soon as he saw me. He would’ve wanted me to take him out of there.”

  Henry asked, “What does he look like?”

  “He’s very small,” Mr. Taylor told them. “A miniature schnauzer. He’s mostly white, with a little black nose and a few black marks. And he’s got plenty of hair. It’s short but kind of thick, almost woolly.”

  “If he did jump off, where do you think he would go?” Jessie asked.

  “He’d be scared,” Mrs. Taylor said, “because he wouldn’t know where he was. He would hide someplace, like under a tree or a bush.”

  Jessie nodded. “We’ll keep that in mind. Thank you for your time.”

  The Taylor’s little son stepped forward. “Are you going to find Max for us?” he asked.

  Jessie knelt down in front of him. “We’re going to try our best. Okay?”

  He managed a tiny smile—probably his first smile since he learned that Max was missing.

  “Okay,” he replied.

  The Aldens finally made it to the bakery, where they sat around a small table in a quiet corner and ate their bagels.

  “All right,” Jessie said, “so now we know there was a dog on the train, and that he somehow got loose and jumped off.”

  “And we know that Mr. Finch was in the fourth car with the dog because he left his briefcase there,” Violet added. “We also know he ate a granola bar, dropped the wrapper, and jumped off the train.”

  “Do you think Mr. Finch could have taken the dog with him?” Benny wondered.

  The others shook their heads. “No, why would he do that?” Violet asked. “He’d never steal a dog.”

  Then Henry said, “Wait a minute! What about this—what if Max got loose, became scared, and jumped off the train, and Mr. Finch went after him?”

  Jessie nodded. “That makes sense. If the dog suddenly jumped off and Mr. Finch saw it, I doubt he’d just stand there and do nothing.”

  “But where?” Violet asked. “Where did they get off the train?”

  “Mr. Finch already gave us that piece of the puzzle,” Jessie told her. “In his phone message.”

  “Allerton!” Benny said.

  Jessie nodded, proud of her little brother. “That’s right, Allerton.”

  “That name again,” Henry said. “You know what? I think it’s time we went there.”

  “I agree,” said Jessie.”

  “And you know what else?” Henry continued. “I think we’re going to get lucky, too …” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out the train schedule. “The next train heading north out of Greenfield leaves in less than an hour.”

  The Aldens finished their bagels quickly and hurried out.

  CHAPTER 7

  An Old Friend

  The Aldens’ minivan pulled up to the train station. “Are you sure you kids don’t want a ride to Allerton?” said Grandfather.

  “That’s okay, Grandfather,” said Jessie. “We’re looking for clues around the train station. Why not take the train?” The other three children nodded.

  “And it’s fun!” Benny chimed in.

  “Indeed it is,” said Grandfather. He knew his grandchildren well. “Call me if you need anything,” he said as the children climbed out of the van.

  “Thank you,” they replied together.

  By the time the children had bought their tickets, the train was waiting at the station.

  “Here we go,” said Jessie, as they climbed aboard.

  When the Aldens got off the train at Allerton, they noticed signs of the thunderstorm from the day before. Wet leaves and branches were lying everywhere, and huge puddles had formed in the parking lot.

  “Wow,” Violet said. “That must’ve been quite a storm!”

  “So, if Max jumped off the train, where would he go?” Henry wondered. He took a good look around. Then he spotted the parking lot. “How about over there?”

  Jessie said, “If I was a small dog caught in a thunderstorm and scared, I’d look for the first place where I could get away from it, just like the Taylors said he would. Under a car would be easy enough.”

  “Let’s check it out,” Henry said.

  They searched from car to car, and after awhile it didn’t look as though they would find any clues. They figured Max would have gone to a car close to the tracks. But there didn’t appear to be any sign of this.

  Then Violet looked under an old red truck that was parked near the back of the lot.

  “Hey!” she called out, “I think I found a clue!”

  As the others hurried over, Violet stood up with something in her hand—another granola-bar wrapper.

  “That’s the same kind as the one we found in the fourth car yesterday!” Jessie said.

  “Except this one is all chewed up,” Violet pointed out, holding it up so they could see the little dent marks all over it. “Also, it still has some granola bar insid
e. Yuck!”

  Henry said, “You know what? I’ll bet Mr. Finch used it to lure Max from under this truck. He was probably too scared to move otherwise.”

  The others nodded. “That would explain the way this is all torn up,” Violet said. Then she tossed it into a nearby garbage can.

  “But it doesn’t explain where they are now,” Jessie added. “What do you think?”

  “Don’t forget, Mr. Finch said something in his message about going to see someone named Mr. Bean,” said Benny.

  Henry smiled. “That’s right, Benny—good job.” He pointed to a phone booth across the street. “There’s a phone book in there. Let’s see if anyone in Allerton has the last name Bean.”

  The children looked through the phone book and found two people with the last name Bean. The Aldens decided they would call them both.

  Violet picked up the phone. “There’s no dial tone,” she said.

  “The phones must still be out from the storm,” said Jessie. “Let’s see if any of the shops down the street have a phone that is working.”

  Then, suddenly, Violet started to giggle.

  “What, Violet?” Jessie asked. “What’s so funny?”

  Violet said, “Maybe the people in that shop will be able to help us.”

  “Really? Which one?” asked Henry.

  She pointed down the street.

  “That one,” she said.

  And there, standing on the corner, was a store with a big sign that read, “Mr. Bean’s Coffee Shop.”

  All four children were still giggling when they went inside. It was a charming little place, filled with the aroma of coffee and delicious baked goods like warm corn muffins and soft chocolate-chip cookies.

  The Aldens found four empty stools at the counter and sat down. A young waitress with blond hair spotted them and came over.

  “Hi, kids, what can I get for you?” The nameplate on her uniform read, ‘Jenna.’

  They each ordered milk and a small desert. Henry had a bear claw. Jessie asked for a cherry turnover. Violet got a black-and-white cookie.