Pet Shop Mystery (8 page)

“After I left a message at your house, I called my neighbor over. My neighbor remembered a newspaper article that said the monkey was missing from the Pretty Bird Pet Shop, so I called there next. Wasn’t that the right thing to do?” the woman asked.

Jessie didn’t want the woman to feel bad. “It’s okay. As long as George is safe, I guess he’ll be fine. Thank you for calling us.”

The children said good-bye to the woman, when a surprise visitor appeared on the front lawn.

“Arthur!” Jessie said when she saw her classmate standing by the bicycles. “What are you doing here?”

Arthur was out of breath from bicycling. “Can you come to the pet shop with me? It’s important. Mr. Fowler chased me away. I heard him tell somebody to meet him in the storage building. He told the person he knew where the monkey was. Then he closed the shop and left. I didn’t know what to do, so I called your house. Your grandfather said you would be here. We have to go. And fast.”

“Good job, Arthur,” Henry said. “Let’s get over there quick.”

The children didn’t take long to get to the pet shop. The
CLOSED
sign still hung on the front door.

“Let’s see if anyone shows up in the parking lot,” Jessie said. “We’ll hide behind the Dumpster in back. We can keep an eye on the storage building from there.”

The children rolled their bikes down the alleyway. They huddled behind the Dumpster.

“There’s a light on in the storage building,” Jessie whispered. “The milk crate is still under the window. I’ll see what Mr. Fowler is up to.”

Standing on her tiptoes, Jessie peeked through the window. She could see Mr. Fowler walking back and forth and checking his watch. George huddled behind the bars of a small cage. Rainbow was perched in another cage.

“Poor things,” Jessie whispered when she returned. “George and Rainbow look so miserable. Shhh, there’s a car coming.”

The children heard a car door slam. A woman’s high heels clicked along the pavement. There was a knock at the door.

“It’s Mrs. Ransome,” a woman called out. “I came for the animals Mr. Badham told me about.”

The Aldens saw a streak of light spread across the alleyway when Mr. Fowler opened the door.

“The animals are in here,” he told the woman.

“In this drafty old building?” the woman wanted to know. “Mr. Badham said they would be in the pet shop. I’ve always heard this shop had lovely, healthy animals. I wouldn’t buy anything less for my grandchildren.”

“He
is
going to sell Rainbow and George!” Violet said in alarm. “They’re not going to a zoo.”

“These are healthy animals,” Mr. Fowler said. “They’re out here because I just got these new cages. Now we’d better complete the sale. The owner is due back from a trip in a while. I told her everything was all set with George and Rainbow.”

“Why, this can’t be the macaw Mr. Badham told me about!” the woman interrupted. “What’s the matter with this bird? It has so little color. I’m sure you don’t mean this is the bird Mr. Badham arranged for me to buy for my grandchildren. This won’t do at all.”

The Aldens heard Mr. Fowler clear his throat a few times. What was he going to say next? “Well, it’s, uh … the shedding season.”

Benny poked Jessie with his elbow. “That’s not true, is it?”

“Anyway, Rainbow and George together are two thousand dollars,” Mr. Fowler said, not at all worried about Rainbow’s feathers anymore.

The woman didn’t say anything.

Violet whispered to Henry. “Do you think she’ll notice how sad George and Rainbow are?”

Mr. Fowler was impatient now. “If you don’t want them, I’ve got a waiting list of customers. It’s not every day you get a macaw and a monkey in a small shop like this. As I said, my boss is coming back. I need to wind up this sale to make room for more animals.”

“Very well,” the children heard the woman answer. “Here’s my check for both.”

Jessie felt another elbow poke. This time it was Arthur. “Can’t you stop him? He’s not helping tropical animals, he’s selling them.”

Henry scrambled to his feet. “I’m going to find a pay phone. I’ll call Grandfather and Mrs. Tweedy. Mrs. Tweedy might be home by now. Stall them as long as you can.”

Jessie led the children to the storage building. They were too late. Mr. Fowler had the woman’s check. The woman had the animals and was on her way out the door.

Jessie stepped in front of the woman. “You can’t take this monkey or this bird. They don’t belong to this shop.”

George reached out from his cage and grabbed Violet’s jacket. “Yip, yip,” he said.

The woman clutched the cages. “Who are you, young lady? And what are you talking about? The manager of this shop just sold these animals to me for two thousand dollars. Now I’ll be on my way.”

Mr. Fowler hurried over to Jessie and the woman. “What are you doing here?” he asked Jessie. “This is none of your concern.”

“But it is
my
concern, Mr. Fowler,” a woman’s voice said.

Everyone turned around. Mrs. Tweedy stood there, her suitcase at her side, and Grandfather Alden and Henry behind her. “I had the airport taxi drop me here so I could visit all my critters. When I arrived, I ran into Henry Alden and his grandfather, who was passing by. They told me what’s been going on.”

Mr. Fowler put on a false smile. “All I’ve been up to is making plenty of money, all for your shop. I got two thousand dollars for this bird and this monkey. You should be pleased.”

“I want no part of your side business, Mr. Fowler,” said Mrs. Tweedy angrily.

Mrs. Ransome put down the cages and stood in front of Mr. Fowler. “I don’t know what this is all about, but it seems awfully fishy. Return my money. Right this minute.”

Mr. Fowler fumbled in his pocket. He pulled out the wrinkled check. “Take it.”

“And Mr. Fowler, I believe you’ll need to speak to the authorities about what’s been going on while I’ve been away,” said Mrs. Tweedy. “Please go wait in the shed until they get here.”

“You could have a big business here instead of this poky pet shop. And these kids were nothing but trouble. Even mixing up orders and getting guard dogs after them couldn’t get rid of them,” he said before slamming the door behind him.

“We weren’t scared of those big dogs, Mrs. Tweedy, not a bit,” Benny said. “And we like this poky pet shop.”

Mrs. Tweedy looked tired and upset. “I’m sorry I left you and my animals with Mr. Fowler. I knew he was disorganized, but he turned out to be a criminal, too. As for George and Rainbow, we’ll have to find good homes for them.”

Grandfather Alden didn’t look as upset as everyone else. In fact, he was almost smiling. “You’ll be happy to know that I’ve contacted an old friend about Rainbow and George. Augustus Smith, who is the director of the Habitat Zoo in California, would welcome these two animals.”

“Can we visit them someday, Grandfather?” Violet asked.

“Of course,” Mr. Alden said, patting Violet’s hand.

Mrs. Tweedy was a changed person now that Rainbow and George had a new home lined up. “Let’s get these two animals inside the pet shop where it’s warm. They can go into bigger cages and stay there until we complete the zoo arrangements. Now I want to hear all about how you found Rainbow and George.”

Arthur, who hadn’t said anything all this time, spoke up first. “It was me. I was the one who saved, uh … George and R-R-Rainbow and Grayfellow, too.”

Everyone stared at Arthur. What was he talking about?

“Grayfellow?” Mrs. Tweedy asked, puzzled. “He wasn’t missing this weekend, too, was he?”

Arthur nodded his head. “Not this weekend but the other two times. Remember? I saved him once, then tried to save him the second time, but …”

Arthur had said too much.

“You said you were looking for your cat,” Benny reminded Arthur. “We found Grayfellow and George. Mrs. Doolittle was the one who found Rainbow and called the fire department.”

Arthur looked miserable. “I only wanted to help.”

Mrs. Tweedy came over to Arthur. She lifted his chin so he could look at her. “Did you let Grayfellow out both times? Just tell me if you did.”

Arthur didn’t want to look at Mrs. Tweedy, but he couldn’t really get away. He looked at the Aldens, too, especially Jessie. “All I wanted was to be a helper in the shop, but nobody asked me. If I saved Grayfellow, I thought you would notice me and let me work here. Grayfellow was my friend, so I took him out. The Aldens almost caught me the other day when I was about to take him out again. I put on my jacket so they wouldn’t figure out it was me. I would never hurt Grayfellow. I knew I could always get him back with food.”

“Food! Food!” Grayfellow squawked when he heard Arthur.

No one laughed, but they did smile a little.

“So that’s why you had sunflower seeds the day you were in the bushes,” Benny said. “I have them at my house if you want them back.”

Arthur looked at Benny. “Keep them. I don’t need bird food anymore.”

Mrs. Tweedy put her arm around Arthur. “Of course you do. I want you to help the Aldens once in a while until I get a new manager. You can start today.”

Suddenly there was a crash over by the guinea pig cages.

“My goodness, who else is in the shop?” Mrs. Tweedy cried.

There was no answer.

Mrs. Tweedy walked over to the next aisle. “Mrs. Doolittle! What are you doing here at this hour?”

Immediately, Mrs. Doolittle put Doughnut back into his cage. “He was lonely. So are all these other animals on Sundays. You really shouldn’t leave them alone so much,” she said in her crabby way. “Since you gave me a set of keys and there was no one to visit the animals today, I dropped by.”

Suddenly Mrs. Doolittle didn’t seem crabby, just lonely.

That gave Benny one of his good ideas. “You should be our helper, too—me and Arthur, Soo Lee and my brother, and my sisters. We have to go to school sometimes, so we can’t always come to the pet shop. You could teach me all about the animals.”

The Aldens saw Mrs. Doolittle smile at them for the first time. “Well, young fellow, perhaps you don’t know that guinea pigs like to rub noses with each other, and with people, too. And that if you’re going to train a parrot to talk, you can only teach it one word at a time.”

“Can we teach Grayfellow a new word?”

Mrs. Doolittle smiled and stood next to Grayfellow. “What word would you like to teach him, Benny?”

“Benny!” Grayfellow squawked.

“Benny!” Rainbow repeated.

“Benny!” everyone shouted.

G
ERTRUDE
C
HANDLER
W
ARNER
discovered when she was teaching that many readers who like an exciting story could find no books that were both easy and fun to read. She decided to try to meet this need, and her first book,
The Boxcar Children,
quickly proved she had succeeded.

Miss Warner drew on her own experiences to write the mystery. As a child she spent hours watching trains go by on the tracks opposite her family home. She often dreamed about what it would be like to set up housekeeping in a caboose or freight car — the situation the Alden children find themselves in.

When Miss Warner received requests for more adventures involving Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny Alden, she began additional stories. In each, she chose a special setting and introduced unusual or eccentric characters who liked the unpredictable.

While the mystery element is central to each of Miss Warner’s books, she never thought of them as strictly juvenile mysteries. She liked to stress the Aldens’ independence and resourcefulness and their solid New England devotion to using up and making do. The Aldens go about most of their adventures with as little adult supervision as possible — something else that delights young readers.

Miss Warner lived in Putnam, Connecticut, until her death in 1979. During her lifetime, she received hundreds of letters from girls and boys telling her how much they liked her books.

The Boxcar Children Mysteries

T
HE
B
OXCAR
C
HILDREN

S
URPRISE
I
SLAND

T
HE
Y
ELLOW
H
OUSE
M
YSTERY

M
YSTERY
R
ANCH

M
IKE’S
M
YSTERY

B
LUE
B
AY
M
YSTERY

T
HE
W
OODSHED
M
YSTERY

T
HE
L
IGHTHOUSE
M
YSTERY

M
OUNTAIN
T
OP
M
YSTERY

S
CHOOLHOUSE
M
YSTERY

C
ABOOSE
M
YSTERY

H
OUSEBOAT
M
YSTERY

S
NOWBOUND
M
YSTERY

T
REE
H
OUSE
M
YSTERY

B
ICYCLE
M
YSTERY

M
YSTERY IN THE
S
AND

M
YSTERY
B
EHIND
THE
W
ALL

B
US
S
TATION
M
YSTERY

B
ENNY
U
NCOVERS
A
M
YSTERY

T
HE
H
AUNTED
C
ABIN
M
YSTERY

T
HE
D
ESERTED
L
IBRARY
M
YSTERY

T
HE
A
NIMAL
S
HELTER
M
YSTERY

T
HE
O
LD
M
OTEL
M
YSTERY

T
HE
M
YSTERY OF THE
H
IDDEN
P
AINTING