Chocolate Sundae Mystery (6 page)

“I just can’t believe they would be.” Violet sounded sad.

Henry sighed. “We have to suspect everyone in the parlor, I’m afraid,” he said as he went to wash his hands before dinner.

Before they went to bed that evening, the Aldens met in Benny’s room to think of a plan. They decided Jessie and Violet would report to work at the parlor the next morning. Henry and Benny would ask for the day off to trail Mrs. Saunders’ pink ice cream truck on their bicycles.

“Does that mean we have to eat her ice cream?” Benny asked as he leaned back against his red pillows.

“Well, no,” Henry said thoughtfully. “I don’t think we should draw attention to ourselves. We should just spend a day watching her to see what she does.”

“Are you going to tell Mr. Brown why you want the day off?” Violet wondered.

The others shook their heads. “No, I think for now it’s best not to worry him,” Henry decided.

T
he Aldens left for work early the next morning with Watch. “Henry and I can take him for a walk after we talk to Mr. Brown,” Benny explained.

“But won’t he keep you from your detective work?” Jessie asked. “You know how Mrs. Saunders dislikes dogs.”

“Oh, we’ll drop him off at home when we come to pick up our bicycles,” Henry said. Watch wagged his tail and nuzzled Henry’s knee. He loved it when the Aldens took him for a morning walk.

As soon as the Aldens were down the street from the Shoppe, they knew something was wrong. Mr. Brown and two police officers were roping off the entrance to the Shoppe.

“What happened?” Benny cried as he ran toward the entrance. The others soon caught up with him. At once they could see the parlor’s big picture window had been smashed. Pieces of glass lay all over the sidewalk.

“Watch your step. Don’t cut yourself on the glass,” one of the police officers warned them. “And keep that dog away from here,” the other one said.

Mr. Brown greeted the Aldens with a grim face. “Good morning,” he said. “As you can see, we’ve had some excitement here.”

“When did this happen?” Henry asked.

“I don’t know,” Mr. Brown answered shaking his head. “I found it like this when I arrived early this morning. I think I’m going to have to close the parlor today. I put Brian and Simone to work in the kitchen making ice cream.”

“Oh, could Violet and I stay to help them?” Jessie suggested politely.

“Well, if you insist, I won’t say no,” Mr. Brown answered. He looked at Jessie kindly, but Jessie could tell his mind was still on the broken window. As if reading the children’s thoughts, Mr. Brown added, “But I won’t be needing all of you. We won’t have any customers today.”

Henry looked at Benny. “That’s fine Mr. Brown,” Henry said. “Benny and I can just take the day off.”

Mr. Brown nodded absentmindedly. “Very well, I’ll see you boys tomorrow then.”

Henry turned to Watch. “And now you can get your morning walk, Watch. Would you like that?”

Watch was not paying any attention. He strained at his leash and sniffed the ground, trying to go closer to the broken window.

“Watch, what’s the matter?” Henry asked.

“There’s some strawberry ice cream that dripped onto the street. It’s by the broken glass. He probably wants to lick it,” one of the police officers suggested. Henry looked down and saw that a trail of strawberry ice cream led down the street.

“Do you know how the window got broken?” Henry asked the officer.

“That’s the strange thing,” Mr. Brown answered for everyone. “The police seem to think it was broken from the inside because the glass is all
outside
,on the sidewalk. But I can’t believe it. I left the parlor securely locked last night and there’s no sign of a break-in.”

“Was anything taken from the parlor?” Henry asked. “Like more ice cream?”

“No, not that I noticed,” Mr. Brown answered, but he sounded a little unsure. The Aldens looked at one another.

“I’ll check the container of strawberry ice cream,” Jessie muttered to Henry as she waved good-bye to her brothers and Watch.

“Do you know how far this trail of strawberry ice cream goes?” Benny asked the police.

“Oh, that,” one of the officers answered. “There’s bound to be ice cream dripped on the ground near an ice cream parlor,” she said. “I wouldn’t pay too much attention to it.”

Benny looked at Henry. “Why don’t we follow it,” he suggested. Henry shrugged and nodded. He had to tug Watch’s leash very hard before the dog finally budged.

When Watch saw there was more ice cream down the street, he wagged his tail and finally started walking. “Don’t lick it, Watch!” Henry protested as Watch sat down at the street corner where there seemed to be a lot of ice cream.

“Whoever it was must have stopped to wait for a red light,” Benny suggested. Henry nodded.

The boys followed Watch and the ice cream trail all the way down the next block. There was much less ice cream on the street now, and Watch soon lost interest.

“You know, Benny, we may very well be on a wild goose chase,” Henry told his brother. “Lots of people walk down these streets with their cones or cartons of ice cream dripping. Anyone could have spilled part of their cone, just like the police said.”

Watch had now stopped to look at a cat. The cat climbed further up into the branches of one of the oak trees that lined Greenfield’s Main Street.

“I know.” Benny sounded a little disappointed. “But don’t you think it’s strange that only strawberry ice cream is on the sidewalk this morning? And it looks pretty fresh,” he added.

“That’s true,” Henry said thoughtfully. “We did sell lots of other flavors yesterday.” Henry paused to tell Watch to stop barking at the cat. Suddenly, his eyes lit up.

“Benny, don’t you remember they were cleaning the streets last night!” Henry exclaimed.

Benny nodded excitedly. “Yes! That proves this ice cream was spilled
after
the Shoppe closed. And it leads right from the broken glass. I’m sure this is a good clue.” Benny couldn’t wait to ask Jessie if she’d noticed any missing strawberry ice cream.

“We might as well keep following this trail and see where it goes,” Henry suggested. The boys continued down the street with Watch. The trail of ice cream led them toward an alleyway.

Benny looked closely at the ground. He could see a spot or two of pink ice cream.

The boys followed the trail through the alley and down a side street. When they thought they had reached a dead end, Henry found smudged pink fingerprints on the fender of a car and on a store window. So, off they went again. The trail skirted the side streets and led down another alley.

“I’m really glad this person was a slow eater,” Benny said as he hurried to keep up with Henry and Watch.

“A slow and messy eater,” Henry said, “judging from all the fingerprints we’ve seen so far.” Soon the boys were in a very rundown section of Greenfield.

“This is where the old textile mill used to be,” Henry said. Henry and Benny could see old abandoned buildings in the distance. Garbage littered the sidewalk. They walked by small houses with broken windows and overgrown yards, where junked cars had been left to rust outside.

“You know, I think we’ve come to the end of the trail,” Henry said. The boys stood in the front yard of a small house that was badly in need of repair. The porch steps sagged. The paint was peeling, and the yard was overgrown with weeds and dandelions.

Just then a woman came out of one of the houses down the street. “Are you boys looking for someone?” she asked.

“Uh, we were just walking our dog,” Benny explained.

Henry cleared his throat. “You know, we were looking for some ice cream,” he said.

“Ice cream?” The woman gave Henry a blank look.

“Yes, ice cream,” Henry repeated. “You don’t know of anyone around here who brought home a lot of strawberry ice cream last night, do you?”

The woman smiled. “Sorry,” she answered shaking her head. “I know lots of people who would like ice cream, but the children around here can’t afford to buy much.”

Henry and Benny nodded.

“Well, you’d best be going on home now,” the woman advised. “Do you know where you’re going?”

“Yes,” Henry said tugging at Watch’s leash. The boys turned around and walked up the street. They didn’t look back. If they had, they would have seen the woman staring after them. When Henry and Benny turned the corner, she walked up to one of the houses and knocked on the door.

Jessie and Violet spent their morning in the Shoppe’s kitchen. As soon as she could, Jessie checked the supply of strawberry ice cream at the counter. She opened the glass case, which always had steam on it because the ice cream was so cold.

She picked up the container of strawberry ice cream and looked at it closely. It didn’t have a small layer of frost on it like the others did. She was almost sure the container looked emptier than it had yesterday.

“Well, at least no one cleaned us out,” she thought to herself. But it looked as if someone had taken enough to make a few cones. Jessie decided she would count the number of cones and cartons in the supply closet before she left.

Jessie and Simone spent the day preparing salads for the next day’s lunch. Jessie washed lettuce and cut up tomatoes. Simone made a big bowl of chicken salad.

Around noon, Mr. Brown told Simone she had a visitor. Simone went out to speak to him and left Jessie cutting up celery.

Jessie quickly excused herself and went outside. Without being too obvious, Jessie followed Simone and her friend down the street. When they stopped at the corner, Jessie popped into the drugstore across the street so she could still watch them.

“May I help you?” the woman at the counter asked Jessie. Jessie bought a small package of tissues and continued to look out the window.

Simone and her friend talked without ever looking up. Jessie looked at Simone’s companion more closely. She knew she had seen him before. He was the red-haired customer who often talked to Simone at the counter.

Simone and her friend kept talking. The sales clerk in the drugstore gave Jessie a strange look. Jessie wished there was some way she could hear what Simone was saying.

After a few minutes, though it seemed much longer to Jessie, Simone waved good-bye and started walking back to the Shoppe. She never noticed Jessie following her across the street.

Meanwhile, Violet helped Brian and Mr. Brown make more ice cream toppings. Brian worked very hard all day. He didn’t talk much. And Violet didn’t see him doing anything at all suspicious.

Henry and Benny decided to have a snack when they got home with Watch. As they ate the peanut butter sandwiches Mrs. McGregor prepared, they told her all about their morning.

“Do I have to eat that?” Benny asked pointing to the plate of salad Mrs. McGregor had placed in front of him.

“Yes,” Mrs. McGregor said smiling. “It will give you energy while you bicycle after that ice cream truck.”

“We better leave soon,” Henry said as he looked at his watch. “I think she starts making her rounds before noon so she can get the lunch crowd.”

Benny swallowed some salad. “I’m ready,” he said.

Henry and Benny found Mrs. Saunders’ truck parked near the Ice Cream Shoppe. There was a long line of customers. Henry and Benny hid themselves and their bikes behind some bushes across the street near the drugstore.

When at last Mrs. Saunders’ truck moved on, the boys were ready. They followed her all over Greenfield. Everywhere they went, it was the same. Mrs. Saunders received customers, handed out cones or ice cream bars, and took her customers’ change.

“This is boring,” Benny said as he put his bicycle on the ground and crouched behind yet another tree trunk.

“I’ll say,” Henry agreed. “She’s so busy she’s not talking to her customers.”

It was almost dark when Mrs. Saunders began to count up all her money. She closed the windows of the truck and took her menu down. The boys followed her as she parked the truck in a lot near the school, then walked to a house nearby. They watched her go in her front door and turn on the light.

“I’m afraid we’re not going to have too much to tell Jessie and Violet about Mrs. Saunders,” Henry said as the boys pedaled home. Benny nodded wearily.

“But you know, Mrs. Saunders locks up her truck almost the same time as the Shoppe closes,” Henry observed. He looked at Benny. Benny looked too tired to talk.

“So,” Henry continued as he turned his bicycle at the corner, “she
could
be the one who breaks into the parlor late at night.”

“Maybe, but right now I’m too tired to think about it,” Benny moaned.

“But not too tired to eat dinner, I hope,” Henry teased.

Benny laughed and shook his head.

T
hat night at dinner, Jessie lost no time telling her family about the missing strawberry ice cream.

“Why didn’t Mr. Brown notice it was missing?” Benny wondered aloud.

“There was still lots of ice cream in the container, just not as much as yesterday,” Jessie replied as she passed the meatloaf to Henry.

“Whoever is taking ice cream is being more careful now,” Violet observed as she poured herself some water. “They’re making sure to leave some so we won’t notice it’s missing.”