Mystery of the Hot Air Balloon (6 page)

S
ky’s jaw dropped. “We never canceled the ad,” she told Hollis.

“Well, someone did,” Hollis said.

“When?” Matt asked.

“Last night. My assistant took the phone message.”

The Aldens exchanged glances. Each of them was remembering what Benny had overheard: “Drop it,” Barbara had said. Had she phoned the newspaper to cancel the ad?

“It was so late, I had nothing to fill the space,” Hollis was saying. “The only thing I could do was enlarge The Landing’s Inn ad.”

Don Fister rushed up to them. “Are we going to fly today or not?” he asked.

“Yes, yes,” Sky answered. “Is everyone ready?”

“We’re all waiting for you,” he said.

She handed him another map. “Do you have a compass?” she asked.

He nodded. “I borrowed one.”

The morning’s event was a time—“distance race. Each pilot and crew would begin to inflate their balloons on cue. They would then lift off, go as far as possible, and land within an hour’s time. Whoever went the farthest would win.

Sky and Matt were going to participate in this event. Matt took Sky’s arm. “Let’s get ready,” he said, and led her and the Aldens to their spot on the field. “I’m crew chief,” Matt told the Aldens. “Just follow my orders.”

With the Aldens’ help, Sky and Matt spread out their red-white-and-blue nylon covering. Other members of the crew grabbed propane tanks and secured them inside the basket. They tipped the basket on its side and placed the burner and instruments. Next, they sorted out the cables and ropes and attached them to the proper places.

Matt started the fan. He told everyone to grab hold of the lines to steady the balloon. They promptly obeyed.

“Benny! Step to one side! You’re in the way of the fan!” Sky instructed.

The fan had whipped Benny’s hair into a mass of untidy curls.

“It looks like you combed your hair with an eggbeater,” Henry teased.

Busy with his assigned job, Benny ignored him.

Sky checked the inside of the balloon. “It looks okay,” she said. “Now, let’s give it some heat.” She reached for the blast valve. Her hand stopped in midair. “Turn off the fan,” she shouted.

Matt did so. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

“One of the propane tanks is missing,” Sky told him.

Matt looked inside the basket. “They were all out here earlier. I lined up all the equipment myself.”

Sky threw up her hands. “We can’t go up.”

Benny glanced at the tanks. They were big. They must hold lots of propane gas. “Can’t you go up with what you have?”

Sky shook her head. “It’d be taking a chance,” she explained. “And a good pilot doesn’t take chances.”

“Can’t you get another tank?” Violet asked.

Matt shook his head. “No time,” he said.

Pete had already announced the start of the race over the loudspeaker and some of the balloons had left the ground.

Mary, Hollis, and Pete came over to see what was going on.

Henry told them what had happened.

“Oh, my, more trouble,” Mary commented.

She sounded as though she had expected it.

“Well, I’m certainly not going to sit here feeling sorry for myself,” Sky said. She turned to Pete. “Does everyone have a chase crew?”

“I’m it for Don,” he answered. “He did so much complaining most of his crew quit.”

“All right,” Sky said. “We’ll go with you.”

“Take our van,” Matt suggested. “There’s more room.”

“Let’s move,” Pete urged. “Don’s already airborne!”

Sky, Matt, Pete, and the Aldens dashed for the van. Matt climbed in the driver’s side.

Sky handed Benny and Jessie maps. “You be the navigators,” she said. “The rest of us will keep Don in sight.”

That was easier said than done. Don’s yellow, orange, and green balloon disappeared now and then — behind the tree line, over a ridge. No one spoke as the van moved up one country road and down another. Periodically, the walkie-talkie Pete held squawked. Don’s voice would come through, broken by static.

Benny followed their course on the map. “This is hard,” he said.

Jessie compared her readings with his. “What’s hard is that we’re down here and he’s up there.”

“But it’s exciting,” Soo Lee commented.

Everyone agreed with that.

“The hour’s almost up,” Violet said, looking at her watch.

“I wonder whose balloon went the farthest?” Benny asked.

Next Don’s voice came over the walkie-talkie and said that he’d found a landing spot and would soon come down.

Jessie and Benny located the spot on the map and directed Matt toward it. Near the landing site, Matt eased the van to the side of the road and stopped.

“Everybody out,” Sky directed.

They piled out of the van and ran up an embankment and across an open field. Above them, Don was slowly coming down. He threw out a tow rope. Matt grabbed it. As the basket touched down, the others grabbed the ropes on the side. The basket bounced and toppled.

Don crawled out, smiling. “You’re looking at a winner!” he said confidently.

He didn’t seem a bit surprised to see Sky and Matt. How could he possibly know that they had not gone up in their own balloon?

They packed up the balloon and headed back to the field to see how the other balloonists had done.

Sure enough: Don was the winner. He had flown several miles beyond Brad Golder, who came in second.

The Aldens overheard Brad complain to Sky. “Don should be disqualified from the next event,” he said. “He wins everything.”

Sky shrugged. “He is an excellent balloonist.”

Pete brought the picnic basket to the Aldens. “I thought you might be hungry after that chase,” he told them.

“Are we ever!” Benny said.

“Are you going to eat with us?” Jessie asked.

Pete shook his head. “I’m going to go back to the inn — see if Barbara needs help with anything. I’ll see you later.”

The children headed for the oak tree.

“I wonder if Don would have won if Sky and Matt had been in the race,” Henry commented.

“And why wasn’t he surprised to see Matt and Sky when they were supposed to be in the race?” Violet asked.

“Maybe he was so excited about winning he didn’t notice,” Soo Lee suggested.

“Do you think Don took the propane tank?” Jessie asked him.

Henry shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“He had more reason than Pete or Barbara,” Violet said.

“And he could have done the other things,” Soo Lee added.

“But what about Sky’s ad?” Benny asked. “Barbara was the one who called Mr. McKnight.”

“We don’t know that for sure, Benny,” Jessie said. “She could have been phoning . . . anybody.”

“I think Pete did it,” Benny said. “Pete and Barbara. Or maybe Barbara and . . . Mary.”

Henry let out a surprised breath. “Barbara and Mary? They don’t even like each other.”

Benny shrugged. “Maybe they’re just pretending.”

Violet didn’t think so. “They don’t like each other — that’s for sure.”

Jessie opened the picnic basket. “Look at this!” She pulled out a small blue tablecloth.

“And look here!” Benny extracted a cup. “It isn’t cracked like mine, but it’s pink!”

Soo Lee said, “How nice of Barbara.”

“She is really thoughtful,” Violet said.

“Too thoughtful to be mixed up in all this,” Henry decided.

Benny nodded. “I guess you’re right,” he said.

P
ete arrived and crossed the field to the oak tree. “I left the back of the station wagon open,” he told the Aldens. “Just put the picnic basket inside when you’re finished.”

Squinting toward the station wagon, Henry asked, “Did Barbara come back with you?”

“Yes,” Pete answered. “She wanted to see for herself what this ballooning is all about.”

They finished lunch and headed across the field.

“Where’d Barbara go?” Jessie wondered aloud. “I’d like to thank her.”

“I see her!” Benny said. “She’s over by the shed with everyone else.”

“Jessie, why don’t you and Henry go talk to her,” Violet suggested. “We’ll take the things to the wagon.”

“We’ll meet you by the shed,” Henry said as he and Jessie started toward it.

Pete’s station wagon was parked between Sky’s van and Mary’s car. As they hoisted the picnic basket into it, Soo Lee noticed something.

“What are you looking at?” Benny asked her.

Soo Lee moved closer to Mary’s car. “Something is sticking out of Mary’s car trunk,” she said.

Benny came up beside her. “Let me see what it is.”

Violet said, “It looks like . . .”

“. . . a bandanna!” all three exclaimed.

“A blue-and-white bandanna,” Soo Lee said.

Benny tugged at it. It slipped out easily.

“Look in the corner,” Violet told him.

Benny held the scarf so that they could all see the letters
B. G.
inked there. “Brad Golder’s other bandanna!”

“We’d better get Jessie and Henry,” Violet said.

“I’ll find them,” Soo Lee volunteered and ran off.

Benny shook his head in disbelief. “Do you think Mary England is doing all this?” he asked.

Violet was thinking the same thing.

Henry was the first to reach them. “What’s up?” he asked.

At his heels, Jessie said, “Soo Lee said you found an important clue.”

Benny held up the bandanna. “It’s important all right.”

“Where did you find that?” Henry asked.

“Sticking out of Mary’s car,” Violet answered.

“Mary England?” Jessie said.

“It’s hard to believe one person could have done all this,” Henry said.

“Maybe Mary found the bandanna,” Soo Lee suggested.

“Pete said he found the red one,” Benny reminded them.

“And Mary told us she saw Pete on Mill Road,” Violet reminded them. “She could have found this bandanna where Pete found the other one.”

“If she did, why didn’t she mention it?” Jessie wanted to know.

No one could answer that. Mary had been there when Brad discovered the red bandanna in Pete’s pocket. If she had found one, too, she would have spoken up.

“Maybe she did the other things,” Soo Lee said, “but she couldn’t have launched the balloon alone.”

They all agreed that seemed unlikely.

“Maybe the whole town is in on this,” Benny said.

That was certainly a possibility. No one seemed to welcome the balloonists and their business.

They fell silent, thinking.

Suddenly, Jessie remembered something. “Mary launched Brad’s balloon all right,” she said with certainty.

“What makes you so sure?” Henry asked her.

“Her hair,” Jessie answered.

For several seconds, no one understood what she meant.

Then, Benny spoke up. “I’ve got it!” he said. “That day her hair was all messed up!”

“And there was no wind,” Soo Lee remembered.

“And,” Violet added, “she never opens her car windows.”

“The fan messed up her hair just like it messed up mine!” Benny concluded.

“I think you’re right,” Jessie said.

“But who helped her?” Violet asked.

No one responded.

“What about Sky’s ad?” Benny asked. “Barbara canceled that.”

“We don’t know who Barbara was talking to,” Jessie said. “We already decided that.”

“Mary did have the chance to steal Don’s map and compass,” Soo Lee said.

“That’s right,” Benny said. “She helped his crew hold the basket down.”

“She probably took Sky’s gas tank, too,” Soo Lee decided.

Henry said, “I think it’s time we talk to Mary.”

The Aldens walked toward the shed. Henry held the blue-and-white bandanna. It fluttered in the breeze like a flag.

Brad Golder was the first to notice it. “My bandanna!” he said as the children approached. “Where did you find it?”

“Right in Mary England’s trunk,” Benny blurted.

Mary’s mouth dropped open and her eyes grew big. “My trunk?!” she sputtered. “What — ? Why — ? How — ?”

Brad Golder turned on her. “So it was you!”

Sky’s bright face darkened. “I should have known,” she said.

Mary backed away. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I had nothing to do with your balloon, Brad. I had nothing to do with any of this.”