The Mystery in the Mall Read online

  Janet looked cross. “Put that down. They’re not ready to be sold yet. I have to check them first. Take some of those carved wooden boxes for the pushcart instead.”

  Jessie and Violet looked at each other.

  Finally Jessie spoke up. “But ... but Penny said—”

  “Never mind what Penny said,” Janet interrupted. “I’ll explain to her about these later. Take the wooden boxes.”

  Jessie and Violet obeyed. Quietly they stocked the pushcart with wooden boxes, some souvenir pot holders, and some gift mugs. They pushed the cart into the mall area.

  “I wonder why she was staring into all those snow globes,” Violet said to Jessie.

  Jessie sighed. “It doesn’t matter. It’s not worth arguing with Janet.”

  The girls were soon too busy to think about Janet. Inside the store, Benny filled up caramel corn boxes. When he was done, he went over to help Henry with the pirate photos.

  “Go back and ask Janet to give you some film from the storeroom. There’s none left here,” Henry told Benny.

  Janet didn’t like being interrupted. “What are you doing here?” she asked Benny when he entered the storeroom. “I thought Penny wanted you to fill up the popcorn boxes.”

  Benny gulped. He never seemed to say the right thing around this young woman. “I finished that already. Henry said to ask you something.” He took a deep breath but no words came out.

  Janet shoved some boxes onto a shelf. “Well, what do you want? I’m very busy.”

  “Henry says he needs film,” Benny said quickly. “There’s no more in the camera.”

  “Well, tell him he’ll have to go to Fast Photo to pick up some more film.”

  At that moment, the back door to the storeroom opened. The young crewman from the docks stood there looking at Benny, then at Janet.

  “I ... uh ... guess I came in the wrong way again,” the young man said. “I’ll go around and come in the front way.”

  Janet stood up. “Never mind. You can go through here.”

  The crewman stepped over the boxes in the storeroom. Janet and Benny trailed after him into the shop.

  Janet went straight over to Henry. “I need the four of you to run errands for me. First, get some film from Fast Photo. Just charge it to the shop.”

  Jessie decided to speak up. “Are you sure all four of us have to go, Janet? Penny asked us to help sell things from the pushcart. You’ll be the only one in the store.”

  Janet put her hands on her hips. “I’ve done it before. In fact, covering the shop by myself is easier than supervising new people. If you really want to help out, then please pick up what I need.” With that, Janet turned away from the children.

  “Those two seem to know each other,” Violet whispered to Jessie, “but they act like strangers when we’re around.”

  “Know what?” Benny asked, whispering. “That man came in the storeroom again by mistake.”

  “I noticed that,” Jessie said. “Customers aren’t supposed to use the back entrance. I wonder how he got in. You need a key to the back staircase.”

  When Janet saw the children whispering, she came over to them again. “If all you’re doing is standing around talking, then do it during the errands I asked you to do.”

  “First, I’m going down to the warehouse to pick up those boxes Penny told me about,” Henry said.

  “What boxes?” Janet demanded.

  “Hap told Penny there were deliveries for the shop that arrived,” Henry explained. “I was going to pick them up now, then go on your errands.”

  Janet wasn’t having any of this. “I’m afraid my errands are more urgent. I’ll make other arrangements for someone to pick up those boxes. Now, all of you, please get going.”

  “Whew, I wish people would make up their minds,” Henry said after the children left the store. “Penny tells us one thing, then when she’s gone, Janet wants something else.”

  Jessie frowned. “You know what I’ve noticed? Janet never wants Henry to pick up shipments when she’s around.”

  Henry shrugged. “Well, she’s in charge whenever Penny’s gone, so I guess we should do what she says.”

  Before he left with Henry and his sisters, Benny remembered something. “Well, I’m bringing my monkey with me. I don’t want to leave it here anymore.”

  Benny went to fetch his monkey from under the counter.

  “I thought you left,” Janet said.

  Benny scooted past the young woman. “I forgot something.”

  Jessie followed Benny behind the counter. Bending down, Jessie slid her hand back and forth over the shelf where she and Benny had hidden the bag. “Benny, you didn’t move the bag this morning, did you?”

  Now Benny scooted behind the counter. “Don’t worry, Jessie. It’s behind a box. I know it’s there. I’ll get it.”

  But when Benny moved the box, he discovered the space behind it was totally empty.

  CHAPTER 8

  Locked Out

  “Well, don’t look at me. I don’t know why you leave things lying around if they’re so important.” Janet thumbed through some sales slips as if nothing had happened. “Anyway I need you to do those errands if you’re going to be working tonight,” Janet said as she walked into the storeroom.

  “Why don’t you and Benny stay here,” Henry suggested to Jessie, “while Violet and I do the errands. We’ll get back lickety-split to help you look for your monkey.”

  After Violet and Henry left, Jessie and Benny searched Penny’s shop high and low. The only monkey they found was a little one hanging from a plastic tree.

  “I know I put it under the counter,” Benny said. “It couldn’t just walk away.” Benny crinkled his forehead. “Penny told Mrs. Frye she likes it when I make people laugh with my monkey faces while Henry takes pirate pictures.”

  “Which we can’t do until your brother and sister get back with the film, by the way,” Janet said as she approached Jessie. “Well, as long as you’re here, cover the shop for a while. You’ll have to hunt for Benny’s toy later. Right now, I have to pick up those shipments Penny mentioned.”

  Several customers came into the store. There was no more time to be upset or to hunt for a lost coconut monkey.

  About twenty minutes later, Janet returned.

  Benny tiptoed over to the storeroom to see what she was up to. “Janet locked some boxes in the closet,” he whispered to Jessie when he returned. “What if it’s those coconuts Penny ordered?”

  Jessie hated to see the disappointment on Benny’s face. “Maybe Penny can set aside one of them for you if yours doesn’t turn up. We’ll ask Penny about it when she gets back. I don’t want to bother Janet anymore.”

  An hour later Violet and Henry returned.

  “Did you find Benny’s lost monkey?” Violet asked.

  Benny shook his head. “It’s missing, not lost. We put it under the counter. Now it’s not there.”

  Then Benny had an idea. “You know how Henry threw out my monkey at the picnic area? Maybe this one got thrown out by mistake, too. Don’t some of the cleaning people come by after the store closes?”

  The older children weren’t too sure about this. Still, it couldn’t hurt to look through the trash.

  “I told Penny I’d take some empty cardboard boxes down to the recycling bins,” Henry said. “Right before closing time, why don’t we all go to the recycling area and search down there for Benny’s monkey.”

  Penny called half an hour before closing time. “Penny says you can leave,” Janet told the children after she hung up the phone. “She was delayed and asked me to close up the shop.”

  “Sure thing,” Henry said. “We’re going to the recycling room to dump all these empty cardboard boxes. Is that okay?”

  Janet didn’t answer right away. “I guess so. I’ll help you out.”

  “That’s okay. They’re easy to carry,” Henry said.

  Janet followed the Aldens out anyway. She didn’t go back to the shop until the elevat
or doors closed.

  When the elevator doors opened again, the Aldens stepped into the large, empty recycling room.

  “Hello!” Henry yelled.

  “Hello!” Henry’s voice echoed right back.

  “It’s kind of creepy down here,” Benny said. “Can we look real fast, then go?”

  “Let’s stick together,” Henry said. “We’ll dump these boxes into this cardboard recycling bin, then do a quick look around for your monkey.”

  After the children dumped their boxes, Jessie pointed to another bin ahead. “Look, that one says ‘P.E.’ That must be where the paper trash from Penny’s Emporium goes.”

  Henry and Jessie got to work. Both of them carefully lifted out sales slips, wrappings, and other kinds of paper. Jessie and Henry reached the bottom of the bin.

  “There are lots of papers and empty bags, but no shopping bag with a coconut monkey inside,” Henry told Benny.

  Jessie slowly put the wastepaper from Penny’s shop back into the bin again. The last bunch of papers she picked up was a thick stack of forms that looked clean and smooth.

  “Hey, wait!” she said. “I don’t think these shipping orders belong here. Penny saves all of them to match up with the bills that come in with her shipments.”

  Shipping orders in hand, the Aldens walked over to the elevator. They watched the floor numbers above the doors. None of them lit up.

  “What’s wrong, Henry?” Benny asked. “How come it’s taking so long to come down here?”

  “Maybe the freight elevator doesn’t run after the mall closes,” Henry said. “I didn’t realize it was so late. We’d better try the stairs.”

  But when the children climbed the stairs, they found that all the doors leading to the mall were locked.

  The stairwell was dark. Only the glow of the exit signs gave off any light at all.

  “Hello! Hello!” Jessie called out.

  “Hello! Hello!” her voice echoed back.

  “Let’s at least get up to the level where Penny’s shop is. Maybe we can get the attention of the security people by banging on the door. They’re bound to go by sooner or later.”

  Jessie and Henry took turns looking out the small window on the stairwell door. A couple of times, they saw security people go by on their motorcarts. But they were too far away to hear or see the children.

  A very long time went by. To pass the time, Violet told the story of Corduroy the toy bear in a department store.

  Just when Jessie wondered if anyone would come by she spotted someone approaching.

  “It’s Hap,” she said. “He’s coming out of Penny’s shop. Isn’t that odd? The store is closed now. Why would he be in there?”

  Jessie banged on the door and yelled, “Hap! Hap!”

  Hap heard the banging and looked around. He couldn’t tell where the noise was coming from. He boarded his motor-cart and started to drive away.

  Jessie banged again, louder this time. Hap stopped the cart and got off. Jessie waved in the small window of the heavy metal door. She banged and banged again to get Hap’s attention.

  “He heard me!” she told her brothers and sister.

  Hap unlocked the door and found the children on the other side of it.

  “Thank goodness you heard us,” Jessie told Hap. “We got locked in the recycling room after hours. The only way we could get out was up the stairs. But these doors were locked.”

  Hap was not as glad to see the Aldens as they were to see him. In fact, Hap looked downright angry. “The doors are locked to keep people out of the mall after hours.”

  The children looked down at their feet. They knew they didn’t belong in the mall after it closed. Why did they always seem like such nuisances around Hap?

  “We’re sorry,” Jessie said. “We were looking for something Benny lost.”

  “Not that blasted monkey?” Hap asked.

  “We found some missing papers.” Henry held up Penny’s shipping orders.

  “I’ll take those,” Hap said, taking the papers from Henry. “What was Mr. Bolt thinking when he invited kids to work like they were grown-ups? Well, it’s a wonder this mall runs at all.”

  Hap walked the children to an exit door that led outside. “Now, go home. No dillydallying.”

  The children stepped into the cool night air. There were still tourists walking around on the docks, having a good time. But tonight the Aldens didn’t feel like carefree tourists, just very tired children who needed to go home.

  CHAPTER 9

  Benny Sneezes

  When the children came down to breakfast the next day, they were sleepier than usual. They were quieter than usual, too.

  Mrs. Frye tried to perk them up. “Have some of my famous blueberry pancakes. Those will wake you up.”

  Henry dug into a stack of pancakes. “These are delicious. We sometimes make these when Mrs. McGregor, our housekeeper, has a day off.”

  Mrs. Frye refilled the milk pitcher. “And when will you children get a day off to be plain old slugabeds?”

  Henry poured himself another glass of milk. “Maybe when Grandfather gets back. Penny needs us today. It’s Janet Trainor’s day off. We won’t be seeing her today.”

  When the children arrived at the mall, they had some extra time to go window-shopping. They strolled through the far end of the mall, where they hadn’t visited before.

  Benny finally visited the train store. Henry and Jessie stopped to check out tents at a camping store. Violet browsed through a shop that sold nothing but beads. She bought a small bag of them along with some cord to make a necklace for Mrs. Frye.

  As he strolled along, Benny stared up at the huge round skylight at the top of the mall. “This mall is humongous,” he said.

  “It sure is.” Jessie took hold of Benny’s hand. She didn’t want him to bump into anyone while he was staring at the ceiling.

  “We’ve only seen about half the shops, too.”

  The children stopped in front of the South Seas Shop.

  “Maybe they sell things from Hawaii,” Violet said.

  Jessie looked closely in the window. “They do, but only expensive things, like fabrics and jewelry and antiques from the Pacific Islands.”

  This made Benny think about his missing coconut monkey. Even though the South Seas Shop didn’t look like the kind of store that sold anything like that, he peeked in anyway.

  Jessie followed Benny and also peeked in. There, standing at the cash register, was Janet Trainor.

  “Hi, Janet,” Jessie said, stepping into the store. “You work here, too?”

  Janet’s face turned almost as pink as the hot pink fabric on display behind her. “Uh, well, yes. I do work here part-time on my days off. I’m ... uh ... saving money to go back to college, so I need two jobs.”

  Henry wondered about this. “Wouldn’t Penny give you more hours if you wanted them? We’re going back to Greenfield soon, so there will be a lot of work to do.”

  Janet said nothing. At that moment, a man came up to the cash register to pay for a Hawaiian shirt. Janet turned away from the Aldens and didn’t speak to them again.

  “Should we mention to Penny that Janet works here?” Henry asked his brother and sisters when they left the store.

  Jessie thought about this. “Why not? If Penny knew Janet needed money for school, she might offer her more hours to work.”

  By this time, the Aldens were in front of Penny’s Emporium. Penny waved the children over. She held up the stack of shipping orders the children had found the night before. “Hap dropped these shipping orders off with a note. He said you children found them in the recycling center. Did you throw them away by mistake?”

  Henry shook his head. “No, we were looking for Benny’s monkey—it’s missing again. We wondered whether it might have gone out with the trash by mistake. While we were looking for it, we found the slips in the recycling bin. Hap took them from us. I guess he didn’t trust that we’d give them to you.”

  Penny smiled. �
�Don’t be afraid of Hap. He’s always poking around here to fix problems. I wish he could fix the problem I have now, though.”

  “What is it?” Jessie asked.

  “For the life of me, I can’t locate the shipments that go with these slips. They’re for the coconut monkeys.” Penny scratched her head. “Well, I’ll have to ask Janet when she comes back to work. She’s never around when I need her—always up to something else instead of what needs doing.”

  “Like working in another shop,” Benny blurted out. When he saw Jessie’s eyes open like saucers, he covered his mouth. “Oops.”

  Penny stared at Benny. “Janet is working in another shop? Which one?”

  “The South Seas Shop,” Henry answered. “She said she needed another job to save money for school.”

  Penny looked totally confused now. “I’ve offered her more hours, but she told me she didn’t have time.” Penny bit her lip. “Perhaps she doesn’t like working for me.”

  The Aldens looked at one another. What could be more fun than working for Penny?

  Penny picked up the shipping orders. “Well, I’ve got to track down the shipments that go with these slips. I’m going to double-check the storeroom one last time.”

  That’s when Benny almost jumped up and down. “Know what? Know what?” he asked Penny. “Janet put some boxes in the closet and locked it. We saw her, didn’t we, Jessie?”

  Jessie nodded. “Good for you, Benny. I forgot about that. Maybe the missing monkeys are in the boxes!”

  The children followed Penny into the storeroom. Penny took out the keys she carried around on her belt loop. She unlocked the closet, hoping to find her missing shipments. But when she opened the door, the shelves were completely empty.

  “Where did those boxes go?” Penny asked, looking at Benny. “You actually saw her put them in there, right?”

  “Lots of boxes,” Benny said, very sure of himself.

  Penny shut the door. “No point in locking the closet. The shipments aren’t there. Now, why on earth did Janet lock those monkeys anyway? She knew I wanted to put them out in the store right away.”