The Day of the Dead Mystery Read online

  The other children shrugged. They couldn’t say for sure, but a wedding anniversary didn’t seem quite right. The inscription didn’t say anything about love or marriage. Next Benny showed them some of the symbols on the backs of the other charms.

  Grandfather came in to read his paper by the fireplace, his favorite evening activity. “What are you up to, kids?”

  Henry decided it was time to tell their grandfather the whole story. Maybe he could help them figure out where the bracelet had come from. So the children filled Grandfather in on everything to do with Day of the Dead, the Hidalgo family’s altar, and of course the missing bracelet and the new one that had shown up in its place.

  Grandfather listened carefully. A slight smile came over his face. “Well, if anyone can solve this mystery, it’s my grandchildren,” he said. He glanced at the clock on the mantel. “Though it’s getting pretty late. Maybe you should get a good night’s sleep and start fresh in the morning.”

  Henry nodded. “I think Grandfather might be right,” he said.

  Grandfather stood up and folded the paper under his arm. The children were surprised because he hadn’t even begun to read it, but he seemed distracted by something. “Now, I’m sorry to leave you,” Grandfather said, “but there’s something I’ve got to take care of.”

  Breakfast Breakthrough

  The Aldens took their grandfather’s advice and went to bed early, but the next morning they weren’t feeling any closer to understanding what had happened with the bracelet.

  Benny rubbed his eyes as he stood at the foot of Jessie’s bed and waited for her to put on her slippers. “I thought for sure it would come to me in a dream,” he said.

  Jessie laughed. “I’m afraid solving mysteries doesn’t quite work that way, Benny. We just don’t have enough information to make any progress yet.”

  “Well, we aren’t going to find any more up here,” Henry said, coming into the girls’ room. He was already dressed.

  Violet got out of bed and combed her hair into pigtails. “Let’s get moving,” she said.

  Benny, Violet, and Jessie went down to breakfast, but they were surprised to find that the house was quiet. Watch was snoozing on the living room floor. Mrs. McGregor was gone to her League of Women Voters meeting, and Grandfather was not in his study. As they stood in the kitchen, wondering where to begin, Violet noticed a blue piece of paper on the table. There was some money attached with a paper clip.

  Kids,

  I’m sorry to miss you this morning. You have been working so hard on your case. Why don’t you take this money and treat yourselves to breakfast in town. Have fun today, but be sure to be home by 5:30 p.m. I have a surprise for you.

  Love,

  Grandfather

  “Well, this should be fun!” Violet said, showing the note to her brothers and sister. “Where should we go?”

  “How about the Crispy Biscuit?” Benny asked, his eyes growing big. He recited their slogan from the radio. “‘The best breakfast in Greenfield!’”

  “Sounds good to me,” Henry agreed. “I’m so hungry I think I’ll order the Lumberjack Breakfast.”

  “I want waffles,” Violet said, “with berries and whipped cream. What about you, Jessie?”

  “Hmm,” Jessie said, “I think I will have to look at the menu.” Jessie always liked to have all the information before she made a decision.

  The three older Aldens looked at Benny. “No one has to ask me what I’m going to order,” Benny said with a smile. “You know it will be chocolate chip pancakes every time!”

  The children laughed, and Jessie and Violet, still in their pajamas, ran upstairs to get dressed. Then the Aldens put on their jackets and grabbed their bikes from the garage. It was a cloudy day but a little warmer than it had been the day before, with no rain in the forecast. Perfect bike-riding weather. As the children pedaled toward Main Street, they passed Greenfield Cemetery. It was at the top of a hill, full of tall trees and surrounded by a wrought iron fence.

  Jessie was the first to notice that the usually gray and quiet cemetery was full of activity. “Look!” she called to her brothers and sister. “I guess Day of the Dead has already started.”

  The Aldens slowed their bikes and turned in the direction she was pointing. Several families were gathered throughout the rows of headstones. Some were setting up folding chairs. Others were hanging brightly colored decorations from the branches of the trees. Though they were in a place that Jessie had always thought of as sad—a cemetery full of people who had died—the families did not look upset. Instead, they laughed and hugged one another, clearly happy to be together to celebrate the special day.

  Henry, Jessie, and Violet picked up speed again, but Benny fell behind. He wasn’t looking at the cemetery but at a sign for a business across the street. Next to the words was a symbol he recognized from somewhere, but he couldn’t quite remember where.

  “Come on, Benny!” Jessie called. “Your pancakes are waiting!”

  Benny smiled and pedaled harder to catch up with his siblings.

  As usual, a show tune was playing on the sound system when the Aldens walked in to the Crispy Biscuit and found a table by the window. The owner, Chef Ralph, was a big fan of musicals, and he sometimes played “Name That Tune” with customers, promising a discount on their breakfast if they could identify the song he played. Mrs. McGregor was very good at this game—she guessed right every time—but the children didn’t always know the older songs. Still, they loved the jolly atmosphere of the restaurant.

  The dining room was filled with the delicious scent of bacon and pancakes. When Chef Ralph saw the Aldens come in, he scurried out to their table to say hello.

  “Hi, kids! Did you put your listening ears on before you came? I just hit play on one I know you will get.”

  Ralph waited, his spatula in the air, while the children closed their eyes and strained to hear the lyrics. A man was singing about an impossible dream and an unreachable star. After a minute, Chef Ralph said, “Well?”

  The Aldens looked at each other and shrugged. “I’m sorry,” Henry said, “but we don’t know this one.”

  “Ah, well,” Ralph said, “if this one ever comes to the Greenfield Playhouse, you have to go. Man of La Mancha is inspired by the story of Don Quixote, a man who never gave up hope.”

  “I think I would like that story,” Violet said with a smile. “It has a good message for us today.” The other children nodded—they knew they could not give up hope of finding the bracelet.

  “Now to breakfast,” Ralph said. “What can I get you?”

  Henry, Violet, and Benny ordered the dishes they’d chosen, and Jessie finally settled on pigs in a blanket. Chef Ralph headed back to the kitchen, and they leaned in so they could hear each other over the sounds of silverware and the crooning singer.

  Jessie took her notebook out of her bag and opened it on the table. “Let’s make a list of what we actually know,” she said.

  “Good idea,” Henry said. “The first thing is, whoever took the bracelet knew where it was. Nothing else in the house was disturbed, so it’s not as if just any thief broke in.”

  Jessie nodded and wrote down, “Thief knew about bracelet.”

  “That’s right,” Violet said. “So who knew? Gloria’s dad, Mr. Hidalgo. And we know he took it to be appraised at the jeweler.”

  “Gloria’s Uncle Jorge knew the bracelet was there too,” added Jessie. She wrote down their names.

  Benny nodded. “And what about the neighbor who was watching us from her window? Tina’s mother, Mrs. Hayes? She could see the altar from there, and if there was enough light, she might have been able to see the bracelet when Gloria put it there.”

  Henry nodded, thinking about this. “It would have been pretty hard to see from that distance, but it’s possible.”

  “And the back gate was open,” Benny added.

  Jessie added Mrs. Hayes to the list as well.

  “True,” Violet said, “but the
only thing that happened with Mrs. Hayes was that she gave us a strange look. I don’t think that’s much to go on at all.”

  The food arrived, and the children dug in, still thinking. Jessie dipped a bite of sausage wrapped in pancake into the syrup and popped it in her mouth. Then her eyes widened. She finished chewing and said, “Maybe we’re asking the wrong question. It doesn’t matter so much who knew about the bracelet as who put this new bracelet in place of Gloria’s great-grandmother’s.”

  Jessie took the jewelry box out of her coat pocket and opened it in the center of the table. The Aldens leaned in to look it over once more, this time in much better light.

  Benny wiped the melted chocolate from his fingertips and picked up the bracelet to examine it more closely. He looked up in surprise at his siblings. “I thought I recognized this!” he said. Benny pointed to a symbol on one of the charms. “When we were riding our bikes by the cemetery on the way here, I saw a sign across the street that had this same symbol on it.”

  Jessie thought back to their bike ride. Benny had slowed down near the local bank. “That’s right!” she exclaimed. “That’s the symbol for Greenfield Savings Banks!”

  “G.S. Banks,” said Henry, putting the pieces together. “Nice work, Benny.”

  The children asked a waitress for the check, and Violet ate her last strawberry and finished her juice. “That means the bracelet was not a gift from a person,” Violet said. “It was a gift from the bank. Maybe the owner of the bracelet works there!”

  Jessie snapped her fingers. “Of course! The ‘fifteen years’ is the number of years the person who got this worked at the bank.”

  Another Theft?

  Outside the Crispy Biscuit, the children unlocked their bikes and rode to the main branch of Greenfield Savings Banks, a brick building on the other end of Main Street. A man on his way out held the fancy wooden door open for them as they walked in. At the teller window, Jessie took out the jewelry box.

  “Good morning,” said the teller. She was a tall woman wearing round red glasses and a name tag that said Andrea. “How may I help you?”

  Jessie pushed the bracelet across the counter. “We were wondering if you could help us figure out where this bracelet came from. See right here?” Jessie pointed at the charm Benny had noticed. “It has the bank’s logo on it.”

  Andrea took a closer look. “I haven’t seen this particular one, but you’re right about the logo. This does look like a work anniversary gift. The bank gives one out to female employees who have been here for fifteen years. The only women who have worked at this branch that long are Shelly Simms down there”—the teller pointed to the woman a few windows down—“Maureen Traister, who works in the back office, and Helena Hayes. She’s off today.”

  Jessie looked at her siblings. All of their eyes were wide as moons. Helena Hayes was Mrs. Hayes—Tina’s mother and the neighbor who had been watching them from her window.

  “Thank you,” Jessie called to the teller as the children raced outside and hopped on their bikes, heading for their neighborhood. They couldn’t wait to tell Gloria and Mateo what they had learned.

  At the Hidalgos’ house, Violet rang the doorbell. When the door opened, she jumped back in surprise. “Wow!” Violet said.

  “Yikes!” said Benny.

  Gloria and Mateo laughed and opened the door for the Aldens to come inside. Their faces were painted white with black outlines and designs around their eyes and mouths that made them look like skulls.

  “How do you like our Catrina makeup?” Mateo asked.

  “It’s another tradition for Day of the Dead,” Gloria said. “People paint their faces this way to help us honor and connect with the dead. I’m sorry if I startled you. It’s not supposed to be scary.”

  “I’m not scared,” Benny said, sheepishly. “Just surprised.”

  “I don’t think it’s scary at all,” Jessie said. She noticed the delicate swooping lines and shapes painted across Gloria’s forehead and said, “I think it’s beautiful.”

  “It helps when your mom is an artist,” Gloria said. “Our Catrina makeup is always the best—right, Mateo?”

  “Right!” he said. Mateo had an elaborate spider web across one side of his face, and dark blue rings painted around his eyes. “I’m going to show it to Tina,” he said before he ran out through the kitchen. Gloria watched him go and rolled her eyes. “So much for Mateo,” she said. “But I’m happy to see you. Does this mean you have some new information for us about the bracelet?”

  The Aldens explained what they’d learned about the connection between the replacement bracelet and Greenfield Savings Banks. And the information about Mrs. Hayes.

  Gloria’s black-painted mouth dropped open in shock. “I can’t believe Mrs. Hayes would steal my great-grandmother’s bracelet! Do you still have it with you?”

  Jessie nodded and showed Gloria the jewelry box.

  “Well, I say we go over there right now and ask her,” Gloria said. “This has gone on long enough.”

  Henry thought for a moment. “I think we should do that too, but let’s be careful. It’s pretty serious to accuse someone of stealing unless you’re absolutely sure they did it. There still might be another explanation.”

  “I hope you’re right,” Gloria said.

  The children tromped back out across the lawn to the front door of the Hayes house.

  Gloria rang the doorbell. After a moment, the door opened, and the woman inside cried out, “Oh, goodness!”

  Once again, Gloria had forgotten that her Catrina makeup might come as a surprise. “I am sorry if I startled you, Mrs. Hayes. I’m dressed up for the celebration today. Day of the Dead.”

  Mrs. Hayes gave Gloria a weak smile and nodded. “Yes, I’ve heard about that,” she said. She still looked a little worried about the makeup though.

  Gloria took the bracelet out of the jewelry box. She showed it to Mrs. Hayes. “We’ve been wondering—is this your bracelet?”

  Mrs. Hayes stepped out into the daylight on the porch. “Why, yes. That does look just like my bracelet. I got it as a gift for my service to the bank. But I hardly ever wear it.” She looked up at Gloria, confused. “How did it get from my house to yours?”

  “That’s what we came to ask you,” Gloria said. “This jewelry box used to contain a very special bracelet that belonged to my great-grandmother. We only take it out this time of year, at Day of the Dead, in order to put it on our altar in her honor. Yesterday, that bracelet went missing. A while later, this bracelet showed up in its place.”

  “I don’t understand,” Mrs. Hayes said.

  “We saw you watching us from the window yesterday,” Violet said, trying to sound as friendly as she could. “We thought maybe…you saw the bracelet and decided to take it?”

  Mrs. Hayes’s eyes went wide. “Steal it? I would never do that.” She took a deep breath. “I’m sorry your family’s heirloom went missing,” she said to Gloria. “And I’m sorry if you felt I was staring at you. It’s just that I don’t know very much about Day of the Dead, and I was curious about all the things your family has been doing to celebrate.”

  “Oh,” Gloria said, surprised. She looked quickly at the others and could tell they were thinking the same thing: Mrs. Hayes really did seem confused. She was not the one who had taken the bracelet. “Well, if you are free this afternoon, you should join us at Greenfield Park for our big celebration. There will be lots of music and food. And that way you can learn more about our traditions.”

  Mrs. Hayes smiled and nodded. “I’d like that,” she said. “One thing I’ve always loved about this neighborhood is all the different kinds of people who live here. We’re so lucky to be in a place where we can learn things from each other.”

  “Life would be pretty boring if everyone was the same, wouldn’t it?” Gloria said.

  “Yes, it would,” Mrs. Hayes said. “Well, good luck with your search, and I’ll look forward to seeing you at the party.”

  Gloria n
odded. She was about to give the bracelet back then paused. “Mrs. Hayes,” she said. “Do you mind if we hold on to your bracelet just a little longer? I think it might help us solve our mystery.”

  “Yes, of course,” Mrs. Hayes said. “I didn’t even know it was missing until you brought it back to me. If you think it will help you solve your mystery, go ahead and hang on to it.”

  The children thanked Mrs. Hayes and then walked back across the lawn to the Hidalgos’ house. Along the way, they talked things over.

  “Why would someone steal a bracelet from your porch, and then steal a bracelet from the house next door and put it where the first one was?”

  Henry asked. “It seems like we know even less now than we did before!”

  “Yeah,” Benny said, “now we have two stolen things and zero culprits!”

  “But we do know something,” Jessie said, “which is that Mrs. Hayes wasn’t the one to take the first bracelet.”

  “She was very surprised when we showed her the bracelet from the bank,” said Violet. “She doesn’t seem to have anything to hide.”

  Jessie nodded. “I think we can cross her off our suspect list.”

  Gloria, who had been walking quietly, finally spoke up. “I think I know exactly who we should talk to next.”

  A Sweet Surprise

  The Alden children followed Gloria up her driveway, past the pile of bikes, and into the backyard, where Mateo and Tina were playing on a tire swing hanging from the maple tree. Tina sat on the swing, and Mateo turned her around and around until the rope was tangled up on itself. Then he let go, and Tina spun faster and faster. Both of them laughed with glee.

  But when Mateo saw the look on his sister’s face, his laugh died away. “Hi, Gloria,” he said nervously.

  Gloria held out the bracelet so both Mateo and Tina could see it. “It’s time for you to tell me the truth, Mateo,” Gloria said. “The whole truth.”