The Clue in the Recycling Bin (5 page)

“Two people, two reasons,” said Jessie. “That makes sense to me.”

The children talked about their discovery as they walked around the last side of the recycling center. When they turned the final corner, they saw Mrs. Wickett leaning over one of the boxes people had left outsidethe center. She was wearing her bright red rubber boots.

“We're about to take all those bags and boxes inside,” Henry told her.

Benny walked up to the box Mrs. Wickett had been bending over. A bottle of raspberry Doo-Dah Tea lay on top of the box. Benny thought that Mrs. Wickett must have put it there.

Mrs. Wickett didn't say anything. She just stood there holding a brown paper bag.

“Is something wrong?” Violet asked her.

Mrs. Wickett let out a long sigh. “Yes,” she said at last, “something is wrong.”

The children waited. “What is it?” Violet asked at last.

Mrs. Wickett looked at the children. “I behaved badly yesterday morning. Violet and Henry, I'm sorry that I was rude to you. Will you accept my apology?”

Violet and Henry said yes.

“I was rude to Kayla, too,” said Mrs. Wickett, staring into the recycling center.

When it looked as if Mrs. Wickett mightstand there forever, Jessie spoke. “You would probably feel better if you apologized to Kayla,” she said.

“Will you go in with me?” Mrs. Wickett asked them.

The Aldens walked into the recycling center with Mrs. Wickett. As soon as they entered, they heard Kayla shouting.

The four children and Mrs. Wickett walked toward the main recycling bins. There was Chad, pulling plastics and glass out of the bins and throwing them on the ground again.

“Stop! Stop!” Kayla shouted at Chad. “You're supposed to put things into the bins, not take them out!”

Chad stuck his head into the plastics bin and said something.

“I can't hear you!” Kayla said.

Chad pulled his head out. “I said I lost something yesterday and I want to find it.”

Then Chad seemed to notice the Aldens and Mrs. Wickett.

“What are
you
doing here?” Chad asked Mrs. Wickett.

“Hello Chad,” she answered. “I'm here because I live across the street. You haven't been in to work since the jewel robbery. What happened?”

“I quit,” he said. “I don't want to work at a place that gets robbed.”

“Oh,” said Mrs. Wickett.

“What did you do at Jonah's Jewelry Store?” Henry asked Chad.

Chad started to answer, then stopped. “I sold jewelry to customers,” he said finally. As Chad answered, he kept looking into the glass bins and moving things around.

“You're making me nervous doing that,” Kayla told him. “If you tell me what you lost, I'll help you find it.”

“I can help, too,” said Benny.

Chad looked at everybody looking at him. “Uh,” he said, “I lost a pocket watch.”

“We'll help you find it,” said Jessie.

“I never saw you with a pocket watch,” said Mrs. Wickett.

Chad frowned. “I don't want anybody's help. Just leave me alone!” He turned back to the bins and kept on searching.

Mrs. Wickett cleared her throat. “Kayla,” she said, “I owe you an apology. Even though you shouldn't allow people to leave their trash on the outside of the fence, I shouldn't have shouted at you. I'm sorry.”

Kayla seemed to think about the apology. “That's okay,” she finally replied. “We all have bad days.”

Mrs. Wickett opened the brown paper bag she had been holding. “I brought some bottled tea as a peace offering,” she said. “Would you like some? It's cold and refreshing.”

“Sure,” said Kayla with a smile. She accepted a bottle of raspberry Doo-Dah Tea.

Next, Mrs. Wickett offered each of the children a bottle of tea. All of the bottles had red labels.

Violet and Benny said no, thank you. Henry and Jessie each took a bottle of tea and thanked Mrs. Wickett.

“Chad,” said Mrs. Wickett, “I didn't know you would be here, or I would have brought mint-flavored tea, too. I know it's your favorite. Would you like a raspberry Doo-Dah Tea?”

“No, thanks,” said Chad. He stood with his back to the Dumpster for clear glass.

Henry thought Chad looked as if he was waiting for everybody to leave.

“Hey!” said Chad suddenly, pointing at Henry's key ring. “What's that?”

Henry lifted his key ring upward. “It's my new key ring,” he said. “I bought it from Kayla yesterday.”

“I have more if you're interested,” Kayla told Chad.

“Is that a diamond inset?” asked Chad. “On a piece of scrap metal?”

“No,” said Kayla. “It's not a diamond, it's glass. And I happen to like jewelry made from scrap metal.”

“Let me see it,” said Chad, holding his hand out to Henry.

Henry thought Chad had very bad manners. He demanded the key ring instead of asking, and he didn't even say “please.”

Henry took the key ring off his belt and handed it to Chad.

And then, to Henry's surprise, and perhaps to everybody's surprise, Chad took a small magnifying glass out of his pocket. Using the magnifying glass, Chad studied the sparkling stone set in the middle of the key ring. Henry knew that jewelers used such magnifying glasses to look at precious stones more closely. Watchmakers used them, too. Henry just couldn't remember what the small tool was called.

“Yep,” said Chad. “It's glass.” He folded up his tiny magnifying glass and handed the key ring back to Henry.

“I'm surprised to see you carrying a loupe around,” Mrs. Wickett said to Chad. “If I'm not mistaken, I saw the name
Jonah's Jewelry Store
on that loupe.”

That's what it's called
, thought Henry.
A loupe
.

“So what?” challenged Chad. “I took a little something with me as a souvenir.”

Chad steals things
, thought Violet.
He took the loupe from Jonah's Jewelry Store.

“May I see your key ring?” Mrs. Wickett asked Henry.

“Sure,” he said, handing it to her.

Mrs. Wickett looked at the key ring closely. “Hmmm,” she said, handing it back to Henry. “Very nice work,” she said to Kayla.

“Thank you,” said Kayla.

Violet could tell that the praise made Kayla happy.

“All my jewelry is very affordable because I make it out of old metal and glass—things I find in these recycling bins. I like to tell people that there are treasures in recycling. Not just in reusing all our plastic and glass and paper again, but in reusing everything.”

“Jessie and I each took a treasure home from the Other Stuff bin,” said Benny proudly. “And after we each took something home, somebody else took an old chair home.”

“Really?” asked Chad, looking at Benny. “What day was that?”

“It was Monday,” said Jessie.

When Chad didn't say anything, Jessie asked him if Monday was the day he lost something.

“I'm not sure,” said Chad. “I'm just not sure.” Then he turned his back to them all and walked down the row of Dumpsters.

Mrs. Wickett turned to Kayla. “I would like to buy a piece of your inexpensive jewelry,” she said.

“Oh good!” said Kayla. “Let me show you what I have.”

The children watched as Kayla and Mrs. Wickett headed for the shed that was Kayla's studio. The last thing they heard was Mrs. Wickett saying that something had to be done about all the recycling left alongside the public sidewalk each night.

“Something has to be done about it right now,” said Jessie.

“Yes,” said Henry. “Time to haul bags and boxes into the center.”

CHAPTER 6

The Intruder

A
s the children worked, Mrs. Wickett left the recycling center and went home. Violet noticed that Mrs. Wickett was smiling.

Just as the children finished hauling the last of the boxes into the center and sorting the recycling, they heard a huge boom of thunder.

“Uh-oh,” said Jessie. “I don't think we can walk home before the rain comes.” Even as Jessie spoke, droplets of rain began to fall from the sky.

Kayla came running up to them. “Better get into my studio,” she said. “It's going to pour!”

As the children ran toward the studio with Kayla, they saw Chad running there, too.

Kayla and the Aldens ran into the small shed. Chad ducked into the studio right behind them.

In just that short time, the rain turned from droplets to a heavy downpour.

“It might rain all day,” Chad said. “I can give you kids a ride home.”

“No, thank you,” said Henry. “We'll wait for our Grandfather to get home and pick us up.”

“Oh, you shouldn't have to wait all day,” said Kayla. “I'll take you home in my van.” Kayla handed Jessie her cell phone. “Call your grandfather and tell him that Kayla Korty is giving you a ride home.”

Jessie dialed Grandfather, and Grandfather asked to speak to Kayla. Then he asked to speak to Jessie again.

“You can ride with Kayla,” said Grandfather. “I know her parents.”

Chad turned and walked out into the rain. “If you don't want a ride,” he said, “there's no sense in my hanging around. I'll go home, too.”

Jessie watched as Kayla used newspaper and cloth to cover up everything on her workbench. Jessie wondered if Kayla was hiding something.

Kayla locked the studio door, and they all ran to her van and piled in. But before Kayla could pull into the street, Chad came running up to them.

“My car won't start,” he said. “Can you give me a ride? I don't live far.”

“Sure,” said Kayla. “Hop in.”

By the time Chad squeezed into the van, he was soaked.

“Thanks,” he said to Kayla.

“Where to?” she asked him.

“Oh, you can drop the kids off first,” he said. “I'm in no hurry.”

Jessie thought that Chad had better manners when he needed something, like a ride home.

As Kayla drove the Aldens home, Chad asked them how they became interested in the recycling center. They told him they learned about recycling in school, and that with the help of their grandfather and Mrs. McGregor, they had set up recycling boxes in their garage.

“We used to have to take the newspapers to one town, and the plastics and glass to another,” said Henry. “Now we can take everything to one center here in Greenfield.”

“You take old newspapers and cans and bottles
to
the center,” said Chad, “and you take things home
from
the center.”

“Only if we want to,” said Jessie.

“We didn't know we could take things home until we saw Mrs. McGregor's big green frog,” said Benny.

“Yes,” laughed Kayla, “that is one really
big
, really
green
metal frog!” She seemed to think for a while. “I wish I hadn't given that frog away.”

“I'm already using the notebooks I took home,” said Jessie. She looked down to study Chad's boots, but the car was so crowded, she couldn't see much.

“What about you, Benny?” Chad asked. “Did you get anything good from the Other Stuff bin?”

“Yes,” said Benny. “It's a big red piñata. A bull.”

Chad looked out the window. “It's a good thing you rescued it,” he said. “The piñata would be ruined if it sat out in the rain. Did you hang the piñata in your bedroom?” he asked.

“No,” said Benny. “It's on the sunporch with Mrs. McGregor's frog.”

Chad was silent for a while.

“What about you, Chad?” Kayla asked, looking at him through the rearview mirror. “Did you find your pocket watch?”

Chad smiled. “Yes,” he said, “I found what I lost.”

Soon Kayla pulled into the Aldens' driveway. She drove as close to the house as she could because the rain was still coming down hard.

Henry showed Kayla where to stop. “We'll run in through the sunporch,” he said.

The children thanked Kayla for the ride and said good-bye to her and to Chad.

When they got in the house, Mrs. McGregor told the children to change out of their wet shoes and socks. By the time they did that, Grandfather arrived home. Soon it was time for dinner.

At dinner, the children told Grandfather about their day.

“It seems so strange that somebody is breaking into a recycling center,” said Grandfather. “They could have anything from it for free.”

“We think that two different people have broken in,” said Jessie.

“And for two different reasons,” said Henry.

Late that night, when everybody was asleep, Watch began to bark. He barked and barked, louder and louder.

Henry sat up in bed, rubbed his eyes, and listened. He heard the
thump
,
thump
,
thump
of Watch's feet.

Benny came running into Henry's room. “Watch is barking,” said Benny. “And he is growling.”

Henry and Benny ran into the hallway. Jessie and Violet were already there with Grandfather.

They heard more growling from Watch. It was coming from the sunporch.

Grandfather walked into the kitchen and switched on the outdoor lights. The children were behind him.

As soon as the lights went on, they saw somebody running away across their lawn. It looked like a man, but they couldn't be sure.

The children walked into the sunporch with Grandfather. Watch stood at the screen door, barking loudly. The running figure reached the road and disappeared.