Honeybee Mystery (5 page)

Clay said, “To tell you the truth, I honestly couldn't say. I don't really know all that much about him.”

The Aldens couldn't help noticing that Clay gave Dottie a very sheepish look. Dottie looked annoyed.

“He didn't have any references,” she told the children.

“What are ‘references'?” Benny asked.

Jessie explained, “References are people who can say what a good job you do. If you're trying to get a job, the people who might hire you will want some information about what kind of a person you are, so they talk to your references.”

“Oh, I get it,” said Benny.

Clay said, “He seemed nice enough to me, and he sure knew his way around a farm. He might not be very talkative, but he's a great worker. Strong as a bull. From watching him that first day, I could tell he'd done farm work before.”

“Where does he live?” Henry asked.

“I believe he rents a room in town.” He looked at Dottie again. “It's over the butcher shop, isn't it?”

Dottie shrugged. “I think so. It's hard to tell much about him. Like Clay said, he doesn't talk a lot. He keeps to himself. Only talks if you talk to him first. That makes me kind of nervous.”

“Well, we're going down to the meadow to look for more clues,” Henry said. “And we'll try to figure out what he was doing down there. If it looks like any of the flowers have been sprayed with anything, we'll let you know right away.”

Dottie seemed happy with this. “And are you going to talk to him?” she asked her husband.

Clay shook his head. “No.”

Dottie folded her arms. “And why not?”

“Because if he is the guilty one, I don't want him thinking we're suspicious of him. We've got to catch him red-handed. If he thinks we're on to him, he could disappear like that.” Clay snapped his fingers.

Henry nodded. “He's right, Mrs. Sherman. For now we've got to act like we don't suspect a thing.”

“But in the meantime, we'll keep a close eye on him,” Jessie said.

CHAPTER 5

Spying Eyes

T
he Aldens spent the next few hours searching for more clues, but they had no luck.

They went into the wildflowers first, hoping to figure out what Georgie Cooper had been doing back there, but they found nothing. Georgie watched them from a distance, looking worried.

Toward the end of the afternoon, as Jessie and Henry were walking back to the Shermans' house, a car pulled up to the roadside stand. It was very large and expensive-looking. The man who got out was small and roundish, and he wore a tan suit. That was about all Henry and Jessie could see from where they were. The man went up to the stand, just as Grandfather had, and read the sign posted on the front. When he was finished, he started walking down the gravel driveway toward the house.

As Henry and Jessie went up to meet him, some of his other features became clear — he was older, with a full face and steel-rimmed glasses. He had removed his suit jacket and hung it over his arm. In his left hand was a folded handkerchief, which he was using to pat his neck and forehead.

When he reached the Aldens, he smiled and said, “Hello, there. I'm Bob Carlson.” He sounded out of breath.

“Hi,” Henry said, smiling back. “I'm Henry Alden, and this is my sister Jessie.”

Mr. Carlson nodded. “Pleased to meet you both. Do you youngsters work on this farm?” He seemed very friendly, with his warm smile and easy voice.

“No, we're just visiting,” Henry told him. In spite of the man's friendliness, Henry thought it best to remain careful about what to say. There was no reason to tell a total stranger that he and his family were working on a mystery.

“Oh, I see. Well, would you happen to know what's going on with the honey? Why is it unavailable this year?”

“Do you come for it often?” Jessie asked.

He shook his head. “No, only about every six months. I have relatives not far from here, and each time I pass through, I stop by and get a jar or two.”

“Just like our grandfather,” Jessie said.

“Is that right? I'm not surprised. This honey is very good.”

Henry said, “From what we've heard, the Shermans are having trouble with their bees.”

The visitor looked puzzled. “Trouble? What kind of trouble?”

“I'm not sure. They just stopped making honey a few weeks ago. That's what we were told.”

The man put his hands on his hips and looked toward the beekeeping area. “That's a shame, it really is. They've got the best honey in the world, too. Such a shame.”

Jessie nodded. “It sure is.”

Mr. Carlson let out a long sigh. “Oh, well, maybe next time.” He removed his hat and ran his arm across his brow. “Thanks anyway. It was nice meeting you.”

“You too,” Henry told him.

Just before Mr. Carlson turned away, he looked up at the sun and said, “Boy, it sure is hot today, isn't it?” He patted his neck with the handkerchief, then unbuttoned his cuffs and began rolling his sleeves up. As he did so, Henry and Jessie saw that his arms were covered with a nasty red rash.

They looked at each other but said nothing.

Henry and Jessie rounded up Violet and Benny and went back into the house to tell the Shermans about Mr. Carlson. Mr. Sherman sighed and said he felt bad to lose customers like that. “By this time next year,” he said, “most of those customers will be buying their honey somewhere else.”

The Aldens didn't have too much cheer to add to the conversation. They reported rinding no more clues during their hot, daylong search. They stood by their bicycles in back of the house as the sun settled into the horizon behind them.

“We're sorry we didn't find more clues today,” Jessie said, restlessly twisting the grips of her handlebars.

“Yeah, we looked
everywhere
,” Benny assured them.

Dottie, standing with Clay on the back porch, smiled and nodded. “We know you did, and we're very grateful.”

“Maybe we'll have better luck tomorrow,” Violet suggested.

“Maybe,” Clay said, trying to smile but finding it hard.

“Catching George Cooper sneaking around in the meadow was very good,” Dottie said, trying to remain upbeat. “He just might be the one.”

“I guess,” Jessie said. “Then again, maybe he won't be.”

“Well, let's go,” Henry said. “It's going to be dark soon, and Grandfather will want to know what —”

“Hey, look!” Benny said sharply, pointing toward the wildflowers.

A man was standing there, crouched low and obviously spying. And it wasn't Georgie, either. In fact, it wasn't anyone they recognized.

When he realized he'd been noticed, he froze, his eyes wide.

“Hey!” Henry shouted, and the man took off running.

“Oh, my goodness!” Dottie said.

“C'mon!” Henry commanded, breaking into a sprint.

The man fell forward and disappeared for a moment. The flowers above him were waving around crazily. Then he popped back up and kept going.

“Does he look familiar to you?” Jessie asked as she caught up to her brother.

“I didn't get a good look at him,” Henry said breathlessly.

The Aldens reached the beekeeping area just as the man reached the end of the field and crossed into the pine forest. The children had to weave around the little hive towers as if they were running an obstacle course.

“What are we going to do if we catch up to him?” Jessie asked.

“Nothing,” Henry told her. “I just want to get close enough to get a better look at him.”

The Aldens entered the flower meadow and struggled through.

“He's getting away!” Violet cried.

“He won't get away,” Henry said. He wasn't sure if this was true, but he didn't want his brother and sisters getting discouraged. “We'll catch up as soon as we get to the forest.”

Unfortunately, the man had disappeared.

The Aldens came to a halt, scanning the area in every direction.

“Oh, no!” Violet cried. “We lost —”

“Shhh,” Henry said quietly, holding his hand up. He smiled at Violet and said in almost a whisper, “Don't give up that easily. Listen.”

The four of them stood with their knees bent slightly, ready to take off at any moment. Only their eyes moved.

“Where did he go?” Henry asked, still whispering.

Violet pointed to the right. “Over there.”

Henry began stepping quietly in that direction. The pine needles crunched softly under his sneakers. “C'mon,” he said softly.

They crept in a line, oldest to youngest, tallest to smallest. Benny took up the rear, searching in every direction with eyes wide open.

About fifty feet ahead of them there came a
whoosh
sound, like the swipe of a rake through a big pile of autumn leaves. Henry put his hand up to call for silence.

Another
whoosh
, and then the man leaped out from behind a tree and took off like a rabbit.

“There he is!” Benny cried.

At the front of the line now, Jessie led them through a maze of trees, shrubs, and large stones. Still no one had gotten a good look at the man.

At last they began to close the gap. From behind they could see that he was wearing faded blue jeans and a black-and-white-checkered shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He wore a black hat and had dark hair.

The man tripped over something and crashed to the forest floor. The Aldens were still a good distance away, but the man glanced back long enough for Henry to get a good look at his face. He had a thick mustache that ran all the way down to his chin and deep lines in his face. The man scrambled to his feet and kept going. The Aldens, now out of breath, slowed to a halt.

“Okay, I saw him,” Henry said.

“I think we all did,” Jessie told him.

“So now what do we do?” Violet asked.

“We go back and tell the Shermans. Maybe they know him.”

“He's
got
to have something to do with it,” Jessie said.

Henry nodded. “Yeah, most likely.”

“Hey, do you hear that?” Benny asked. They all fell silent, and then an engine started up in the distance.

“A truck?” Jessie wondered.

“It must be on that road Mr. Sherman mentioned.”

The vehicle shifted into gear, and then the sound of its engine faded into nothing.

“Okay, let's get back,” Henry said. “And this time we walk. No running, okay?”

He received no argument from the others.

CHAPTER 6

Mascots

A
t dinner that evening, the children told Grandfather about the chase in the woods. They had returned home exhausted and were glad that Grandfather had ordered take-out chicken. “No reason why you should have to chase down supper tonight,” he joked.

“You should have been in the woods with us, Watch,” said Benny as he peered under the table at their dog. “You could've caught that man for sure.”

“We didn't need to
catch
him,” reminded Henry. “We just needed to see who was sneaking around the farm and describe him to the Shermans.”

“But Mr. and Mrs. Sherman said he didn't sound familiar at all,” said Jessie glumly.

“And we don't know what to do next,” sighed Violet.

“Any news from Renee at the lab?” Henry asked Grandfather.

“No, not yet.” Grandfather shook his head. “It's certainly not a good sign. I'm afraid it's beginning to look as if we won't find a cure for what the Menadrin has done to the bees.”

Jessie looked down at her plate. “I know. I just wish we knew who sprayed it on Clay Sherman's wildflowers in the first place.”

“And
why
,” added Henry.

They went to bed early that night and returned to the Shermans' farm early the next morning. Dottie had a breakfast feast waiting for them. And, like the day before, Jessie went out to see the animals after she'd finished eating.

As she stood by the fence that outlined the cow field, she was surprised to see Georgie Cooper, once again sneaking into the flowers.

“You must be kidding,” she whispered to herself, crouching down.
He must know we're on to him
, she thought.
How could he be so careless?

She wanted to run back to the house and tell the others what was happening. But then she thought,
No, this time I'm going to follow him by myself and see what he's up to. It'll be easier for one person to trail him than four
.

Once he was out of sight, Jessie followed the cow fence until she came to the opposite side of the field. She could just see the top of Georgie Cooper's head as he moved toward the end of it. Quietly she bent low and began pushing her way through the flowers.

She reached the end and stopped. Georgie was standing in a little clearing that someone had used as a dumping ground for old farm machinery. Everything was heavily rusted and covered with twining vines and weeds. Jessie remembered searching around it the day before with Violet, but they hadn't seen anything unusual. From where she stood, Jessie had a perfect view of Georgie — she could see him clearly, but he wasn't able to see her.