Chocolate Sundae Mystery (3 page)

The Aldens all looked at one another. They were all thinking the same thing. “We’d love to,” Jessie finally answered for them.

Mr. Brown grinned. “Good, come by in the morning. We open around nine o’clock.” The Aldens nodded.

“And before you go, let me give you some ice cream to take home to your family — on the house,” Mr. Brown said. He pressed a gallon of freshly made peach ice cream into Henry’s arms.

“What does ‘on the house’ mean?” Benny whispered to Violet.

“It means we don’t have to pay for it,” Violet explained. “He’s giving it to us as a present.”

Benny smiled. “I like presents like that.”

“Good,” Mr. Brown said as he opened the door for the children. “See you tomorrow.”

Watch was waiting patiently outside, in the shade.

“Oh, Watch, I hope you weren’t too lonely,” Benny said as he untied the dog’s leash from the tree.

“I visited him when things got a little slow in the kitchen,” Henry said. “Lots of people stopped to pet him. He seemed to be all right.”

On the way home, Benny skipped down the sidewalk. “I can’t think of a better place to work than the Ice Cream Shoppe,” he said happily. “Wait until we tell Grandfather!”

T
hat evening, the children’s cousins Joe and Alice came for dinner. They brought their seven-year-old daughter, Soo Lee, with them. Joe and Alice had adopted Soo Lee from Korea.

“I can’t believe you’ll be working in the Ice Cream Shoppe,” Alice said as she passed the salad to Jessie. The Aldens were all seated at the long dining table. “We’ll make sure to visit you there, won’t we, Soo Lee?”

Soo Lee swallowed a bite of her meatloaf and nodded. “I like ice cream,” she answered, looking a bit sadly at the pile of green beans on her plate.

“I hope you come when I’m working behind the counter, Soo Lee,” Benny told his cousin. “I’ll put lots of sprinkles on your ice cream.” Benny knew Soo Lee liked chocolate sprinkles almost as much as he did.

Soo Lee smiled and took a bite of her green beans. She was pleased to find they didn’t taste too bad.

“There’s just one thing that worries me a little,” Grandfather said as he poured himself some lemonade from the big red pitcher.

“What’s that, Grandfather?” Henry held his fork in midair.

“Well,” Grandfather said as he handed the lemonade pitcher to Violet, “don’t you think it’s strange all the old help quit at once?”

“Well, yes,” Henry admitted. “I’m hoping we can find out why when we’re working there.”

Grandfather’s blue eyes twinkled. “I’m sure you will,” he said. Grandfather was very proud of the way his grandchildren had solved so many mysteries in the past. They had helped many people. Maybe now they could help the Ice Cream Shoppe.

The following morning, Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny were up early. They ate breakfast with their grandfather at the round table in the kitchen.

“We’ll expect you back for dinner with an appetite,” Mrs. McGregor teased the Alden children as they hurried out the front door.

“Oh, we’ll be working too hard to eat much ice cream,” Benny assured her. The others laughed.

The Aldens decided to ride their bicycles to the Shoppe.

“Spring is my favorite time of year,” Violet said to Jessie as they pedaled along the flower-lined streets. Violet’s bicycle was purple, her favorite color. It matched the lilac trees that were now in full bloom.

When the Aldens arrived at the Shoppe, they entered through the kitchen. “Boy, am I happy to see you,” Mr. Brown greeted them.

Henry grabbed an apron from the big hook in the kitchen. The others did the same.

“Brian couldn’t come in today, and we’ve already had some customers. They’ve been buying out my fresh peach ice cream.” Mr. Brown sounded tired.

“How did people know about it?” Benny asked.

“Oh, I made a sign for it this morning,” Mr. Brown explained. He sighed and mopped his brow with a clean white handkerchief. “You know, I don’t think I’ve stopped working since I bought the parlor.”

“I could make signs for you,” Violet volunteered.

“No one draws better than Violet.” Benny sounded proud.

“Oh, could you?” Mr. Brown looked at Violet with relief. “Here, you can do today’s menus. That would save me some time. I keep some colored pencils over there.” Mr. Brown pointed to a large drawer under the kitchen counter.

“Where’s Simone?” Jessie asked.

“Oh, she’ll be a little late this morning. She had some errands to do.”

Jessie looked at Henry, but she didn’t say anything. She thought Mr. Brown had a lot to do all by himself.

Violet set right to work at a little table in the corner of the kitchen. Jessie served ice cream at the counter, and Benny helped Henry prepare the sandwiches.

Simone finally came in just before lunch. She was wearing a pink T-shirt that said
I am not a litterbug.

“That’s a nice shirt,” Jessie remarked.

“Thank you,” Simone said, turning so Jessie could see the design on the back — a cartoon of a dog carrying his bone to the garbage can.

“I just love American T-shirts,” Simone said as she reluctantly tied on her apron. “I just bought three new ones this morning.” She pointed to her big shopping bag.

Jessie wondered why Simone had spent the morning shopping when Mr. Brown seemed so busy. But she didn’t have time to think about Simone for very long.

It was lunchtime and the parlor was busier. For the next hour, Jessie, Benny, and Simone took turns waiting on tables or serving people at the counter. Jessie and Simone prepared most of the counter orders.

The first few customers ordered chocolate floats. Jessie scooped out the ice cream with the parlor’s pink scooper. She saw there wasn’t much chocolate ice cream left in the container.

“Oh, Benny, would you please run to the kitchen and get some more chocolate ice cream? We’re running out.” Jessie scooped out all the chocolate ice cream she could, then handed Benny the metal container.

Benny opened the swinging door to the kitchen. Violet sat at the table mixing a big bowl of tuna salad. Mr. Brown was heating some cream on the stove.

Benny tried with all his might to open the freezer door.

“Oh, let me help you with that, Benny,” Mr. Brown said as he took his big pot off the stove.

“I didn’t know you had to cook ice cream.” Benny sounded puzzled.

Mr. Brown chuckled and moved his chef’s hat further up on his head. “You don’t. You just have to heat the cream, sugar, and vanilla together before you put it in the ice cream maker,” he explained as he tugged open the freezer door. “Now, what did you need in here, Benny?”

“More chocolate ice cream.” Benny held out the metal container.

Mr. Brown seemed puzzled. “I just refilled that container last night. I thought there was enough to last a week,” he said as he grabbed another big carton from the freezer. But when he looked inside, he saw it was empty!

Mr. Brown looked at Benny with raised eyebrows. He rummaged through the other cartons in the freezer, but he couldn’t find any more chocolate ice cream.

“I don’t know what happened to it,” he told Benny. “Maybe business has been better than I thought.”

Benny and Mr. Brown came back to the counter empty-handed. “Jessie, I can make more chocolate ice cream, but it won’t be ready for a couple of hours,” Mr. Brown said.

“Oh, dear,” Simone groaned. “Everyone is asking for chocolate today, and the lunch rush is just beginning.”

“We’ll just have to talk people into ordering the fresh peach ice cream. There’s lots of that,” Benny said. He hurried away to wait on two teenagers with blond ponytails.

Mr. Brown shook his head. “I know I filled that container of chocolate ice cream last night. Did you get a lot of customers earlier this morning?”

“No,” Jessie answered. “I didn’t even notice it was low until I got my first order.” She wiped some marshmallow sauce off the counter. “Oh, by the way, do we have more chocolate sauce?”

“Are we out of that, too?” Mr. Brown sounded surprised. He pushed on the spigot from the large jar holding the sauce. “You’re right, we are low,” he said shaking his head. “I’ll have to make more. Once the rush is over, could one of you please help me in the kitchen?”

Jessie nodded. “I’d love to,” she volunteered. Jessie had always wanted to see how the Shoppe made its creamy chocolate sauce.

“This is a mystery,” Simone told Jessie when Mr. Brown had left. Her blue eyes twinkled. “We can call it, ‘The Mystery of the Missing Ice Cream.’ ”

Even though she was worried, Jessie giggled. But she wondered why Simone didn’t seem more upset.

Simone topped a strawberry sundae with some cherries. “Well, at least we’re not out of cherries,” she remarked.

“Or peach ice cream,” Jessie added as she turned on the blender to mix a peach milkshake.

“Jessie, what’s a parfait?” Benny asked loudly above the whir of the blender.

“It’s layers of ice cream and different toppings in a tall glass,” Jessie answered. “Why?”

“Well, those girls want to split a strawberry parfait.” Benny nodded toward the two girls with ponytails.

“Okay, I’ll get a tall glass. I saw some here yesterday,” Jessie said as she looked under the counter. The pretty tall glasses were missing!

“Maybe they’re in the kitchen being washed,” she told Benny. “Let’s check.”

Benny and Jessie looked and looked. So did Violet and Mr. Brown, but no one could find the tall parfait glasses. “Let’s wait and look some more after the rush is over,” Mr. Brown suggested.

“I can’t understand it,” Jessie told them. “I saw six of those glasses under the counter yesterday afternoon.”

Mr. Brown shrugged his shoulders. “We have more,” he said. “I’m just not sure where they are.”

“What should I tell those girls?” Benny asked.

“Why don’t you offer to give them a strawberry sundae on the house,” Mr. Brown suggested.

“Okay,” Benny said. Mr. Brown really likes giving things away on the house, Benny thought to himself. He even
acts
just like Santa Claus.

S
imone and Jessie tried their best to convince their customers to have the fresh peach or strawberry ice cream.

“When you have your heart set on chocolate, it’s hard to change your mind,” a young woman grumbled.

“I know what you mean,” echoed a police officer. He looked at the menu again but couldn’t find anything else he wanted. “I just don’t like ice cream with fruit in it,” he said handing the menu back to Jessie.

“What about vanilla?” Jessie suggested.

“No, thanks. I think I’ll just go to the donut shop.”

“I’d have vanilla,” said a woman in a straw hat. “But you don’t even have any chocolate sauce to put on it, isn’t that right?”

Jessie was forced to agree.

“What’s happened to this place since Mr. Richards retired?” the woman in the hat shook her head. “Let’s go, Delores,” she said to her companion. “Maybe we can find that new ice cream truck. They must have chocolate.”

Simone looked at Jessie and rolled her eyes.

Jessie felt very sorry for Mr. Brown. She knew that if he was at the counter, he’d be offering to give everyone free ice cream.

After the rush, Jessie went to the kitchen to help Mr. Brown make more sauces. She left Simone deep in conversation with a red-haired young man. Jessie wondered why they were whispering.

“Oh, there you are,” the owner said when he saw Jessie. “I have a fresh batch of chocolate in the ice cream maker.”

Jessie nodded. She didn’t have the heart to tell Mr. Brown about all the customers they’d lost at lunchtime.

For the next hour Jessie and Violet measured out chocolate, butter, sugar, milk, and vanilla extract for the sauce. Then they heated the mixture over the stove, stirring it constantly with a big wooden spoon.

“Oh, this smells wonderful,” Violet said as she stirred the large saucepan.

“It makes me want to lick the spoon,” Jessie answered.

“I’m glad I’m not the one making it,” Benny observed. “Or I would only be licking the spoon and not cooking.” His sisters laughed.