Disappearing Staircase Mystery (3 page)

“Twenty-six dollars,” George said to the crowd. “Going once, going twice…” He banged down the auction hammer. “Sold to the boy in the third row.”

“That’s me!” Benny said happily. “I won the train.” He couldn’t wait to see what the next item for sale would be. “There’s the music box Violet wanted,” he said.

George Gardiner wound up the dancing bear music box. The crowd quieted down to hear the pretty tinkling sound of “The Teddy Bears’ Picnic.”

“Who will start the bidding on this fine old music box?” George asked the crowd.

Violet could hardly sit still.

Grandfather leaned down to tell her something. “It’s a good idea to wait for someone else to get the bidding started,” he advised. “That way you’re not running up the price too fast. Plus you get to see who else is bidding.”

“Thank you, Grandfather,” Violet whispered. She clasped her hands on her lap. “I’m so nervous.”

A child in the front row called out a bid: “Three dollars.”

Violet held her hands even tighter. “Should I bid now, Grandfather?”

“Not just yet.”

“Three-fifty,” a grown-up’s voice said down the Aldens’ row.

Pretty soon three more bidders called out bids for the music box. The bids went all the way up to seven dollars and fifty cents.

Violet still sat there patiently.

When no other bidders spoke up, George Gardiner called out, “I have seven dollars and fifty cents. Do I hear eight?” He waited, but no one said a thing.

“Going once,” George began, “going twice…”

Grandfather gently poked Violet’s elbow. “Now.”

“Eight dollars!” Violet called out, loud and clear.

George nodded at Violet. “We have a new bidder in the third row at eight dollars. Do I hear eight-fifty?”

“Eight-fifty!” said the girl who had started the bidding. Soon she and Violet bid against each other all the way up to ten dollars and fifty cents. They were the only two bidders left.

“I have eleven dollars from the dark-haired girl in the third row,” George called out after Violet’s last bid. “Going once, going twice…” He raised his auction hammer in the air then banged it down on the table.

“Twelve dollars!” a man’s voice in back yelled out.

The Aldens turned around. The man’s voice belonged to Brian Carpenter.

“Too late, Brian. I already brought the hammer down. That’s the rule,” George yelled back. “Violet Alden is the high bidder for the music box. Sold for eleven dollars!”

After Brian heard that, he turned and left the stable.

Violet bit her lip. “Oh, dear. I hope Brian isn’t too upset, Grandfather. I’m glad I won the box. I just wish he didn’t want it, too.”

“Not to worry,” Grandfather told Violet. “That’s how auctions are. It’s a contest. I wonder why a big fellow like that wants a child’s music box.”

The Aldens went back to enjoying the auction. At the end of it, they each had won something they wanted.

“I’d been looking for another sturdy rake for a long time,” Grandfather said as he and the children went to pay for their items. “Now I have one.”

Soo Lee tugged on Jessie’s arm. “Did I win my dolly?”

Jessie smiled down. “You sure did, Soo Lee. And I won a beautiful antique photo album that I can put pictures in. Let’s go out to the storage area where we have to pay. Then you can pick up your doll.”

Henry was pleased with his purchase, too. “Now I have a penknife to carve things with.”

“I’m glad I won the dancing bear music box,” Violet said. “That was close. I just hope Brian doesn’t mind too much that I won it instead of him.”

The Aldens strolled out to the storage area at the front of the stable. All the auction items people had bid on had stickers showing the final bid prices. The Gardiners seated themselves behind a table where the successful bidders lined up to pay.

“But it can’t be the end of the auction,” the Aldens heard a man say to Louella Gardiner. “I drove all the way from Maplewood to bid on Mr. Bugbee’s collection of rare books. Why weren’t they in the sale?”

“All you had for sale was fake jewelry,” someone else complained. “My great-aunt told me Mrs. Bugbee had inherited some valuable jewels from her family. But this was just junk.”

Several other people in the crowd murmured that the auction wasn’t what they had expected.

The Gardiners waited for everyone to calm down.

Finally George spoke up loudly. “We put up everything that was left in the Bugbee House. You’ll recall that the house was sold to another owner. Anything could have happened to the Bugbees’ collection. We only had a few days to get everything organized. We did our best. We’ve raised a great deal of money for the House and Hands group today.”

After the crowd scattered, the Aldens paid for their items. Some of the fun of the auction was gone.

“At least I got my train set,” Benny said.

“Louella,” Violet asked. “Did you see the music box I bid on? I came to pay for it.”

“Which music box?” Louella asked sharply. “There were several in the sale. I can’t be expected to keep track of everything. Look where the toys are.”

Violet checked the shelves. There wasn’t a single music box on it. She swallowed hard. The dancing bear box was nowhere to be seen.

“Maybe somebody stole it,” Benny said. Now that the auction was over, he was ready for more excitement.

“Nonsense!” George Gardiner told Benny. “That box was barely worth what your sister bid on it. Thousands of those boxes were made years ago.”

“It was worth more than money to me,” Violet whispered, but the Gardiners didn’t hear her. “I love the tune it played.”

Soo Lee held out her new toy. “You can play with my doll, Violet.”

“We’ll keep an eye out for that box,” Henry told Violet after he and the other children left the stable.

Violet looked back. Maybe someone would come running out with her music box after all. But the auction was over. Mr. Gardiner was pulling the doors closed. He and Louella were inside. There was no chance now that they would come out with Violet’s music box.

“I think there’s something strange about those two,” Jessie said. “You’d think they would be interested in finding out more about the Bugbee collections from people who grew up here. They didn’t even ask any questions.”

“Maybe we should look around and see if there’s anything in the house that should have been in the auction,” Henry said.

“And maybe we’ll find Violet’s music box, too, in case somebody stole it,” Benny said, still hoping for an adventure.

“Well, let’s look around when we’re working in the big house,” Jessie suggested. “We always find things when we’re doing jobs.”

The next morning Jessie woke up with cold feet. She was used to Watch sleeping at the end of her bed and warming her feet. Only now Watch was at home while Jessie was in her sleeping bag in the Bugbee playhouse.

Soon everyone else’s eyes were opening, too. It took a few minutes for the children to figure out where they were.

“It’s so cozy in here now,” Violet told Jessie as she stretched her arms out of her sleeping bag. “I like the way we fixed up this playhouse with the little table and our camp lamp. Maybe tonight Soo Lee can stay here, too.”

The playhouse soon filled with sounds of sleeping bag zippers being unzipped and clothes being zipped,

“Brrr,” Henry said. “It’s always hard to get out of my sleeping bag. Let’s hurry to the main house. Brian told Nan that they got the furnace working yesterday.”

“I hope they got the hot chocolate working, too,” Benny added.

The Aldens got dressed and hurried from the playhouse to the main house. It was cold and damp outside.

When they arrived, the kitchen table was piled high with good things to eat and drink for breakfast.

“Help yourselves to whatever you want,” Mabel told the volunteers. “Don’t be shy.”

“We won’t be,” Benny said when he came to the table. “Yum, these look just like Mrs. McGregor’s corn muffins.”

“Those
are
Mrs. McGregor’s muffins,” Grandfather said with a laugh. “I brought them with me along with Soo Lee this morning. Mrs. McGregor and Watch miss you.”

“Finish up, everyone,” Mabel called out. “You’ll find our job assignments on the work list.” She turned to the Alden children. “I have a special job for all of you.”

“What is it?” Benny and Soo Lee asked.

“I saw what a tidy job you did in the playhouse. Now I need helpers on the top floor of the nursery wing,” Mabel said. “There are odds and ends to clear out before the electricians get to work. The third-floor nursery rooms are small. You children are just the right size for the job.”

Soo Lee stood on her tiptoes. “But I’m big. My mommy said so.”

Mabel smiled. “Yes, you are just the kind of big girl I need as a helper. Here are some cleaning supplies and a vacuum cleaner. Now off you go.”

The Aldens were just gathering up everything when Nan came over.

“Did I hear you say the Aldens are to clean out the nursery wing?” Nan asked Mabel.

Mabel nodded.

Nan’s mouth tightened into a frown. “But, but I heard the Gardiners say they need help outside.”

“Fine,” Mabel said. “The children will help them after the nursery rooms are cleaned. See you later, Aldens.”

The children climbed several sets of creaky, winding stairs before they finally reached the third floor. Each of the small nursery rooms was decorated with painted figures on the walls, though most of them were faded away. Some broken pieces of child-sized furniture stood in the corner along with a few torn children’s books yellowed with age. Everything lay under a thick coat of dust.

The children spent the next couple hours sweeping, scrubbing, and gathering the odds and ends scattered about.

“It must have been so pretty when the Bugbee children lived here,” Violet said as she swept some paper scraps into a dustbin. “Someone hand-painted all these clowns and animals on the walls. Now it’s all going to be covered over. Let’s save the different things we’ve found just in case the Bugbee children come back someday.”

“Even if they did,” Henry told Violet, “they’d be all grown up by now.”

Jessie swept some cobwebs from the ceiling with a broom. “But guess what. Mabel told Grandfather that these will be kept as playrooms. When children come to visit their grandparents after House and Hands fixes up the house, they can play up here and in the playhouse.”

“I hope so,” Violet said. “Grandfather kept rooms for us at his house.”

The children were quiet as they gathered up some items they had found. They searched around for Violet’s music box with the dancing bear but didn’t find it. As they quietly went about their work, the Aldens heard something. Footsteps!

“What’s that?” Benny looked up. “Is somebody walking on the roof? I hope that ceiling is good and strong.”

Henry walked over to a window. “Ugh. These windows are hard to open. Oh, good, I got it. Anybody on the roof?” he yelled.

The footsteps stopped, but no one answered.

“That’s weird,” Henry said. “It sounds as if somebody was around here somewhere. But I don’t see anyone.” He banged the window down. “I’ll go check the other rooms.”

“Well, we’re finished in here anyway.” Jessie put away the cleaning supplies. “When Henry comes back, let’s go downstairs.”

“Nobody seems to be in the other rooms, either,” Henry said when he returned. “I could have sworn someone was walking around up here.”

With Henry leading the way, the children stepped into the hallway.

Henry saw a red-and-blue blur disappear down the stairs. “Hey!” he called out, before running ahead to the staircase. He looked down the winding banister all the way to the ground floor. “Brian! Wait up.”

When Brian looked back up, five heads stared back.

The Aldens raced downstairs and caught up with Brian.

“You were rushing so fast,” Henry said to Brian. “Were you working on the roof? We heard footsteps.”

“No, I … uh … just came up to see how you were doing,” Brian told the Aldens.

“But why did you rush off?” Henry asked. “If you were looking for us, I mean?”

Again, Brian’s face got nearly as red as his shirt. “I … uh … heard my walkie-talkie. One of the volunteers needed me, that’s all.”

The Aldens thought this was odd, but none of them said anything until Soo Lee piped up. “There was a ghost on the roof walking around. My cousin Henry chased him away.”

“It was probably some big blackbirds walking around up there,” Brian said. “The roof tiles are kind of thin. You can hear birds and squirrels walking back and forth.”

Jessie wasn’t so sure. “These sounds were heavier than that. Is there another room near the nursery where somebody might be working?”

Now Brian really looked impatient with the Aldens. “You know, I really haven’t got time to answer all these questions. Now that your work is finished up here, why don’t you find the Gardiners? They must have some outdoor work that needs doing.” With that, Brian pointed outside, where the Gardiners were carrying empty boxes into the garage.

“If you say so,” Jessie told Brian before he went back upstairs.

“I feel as if Brian is always trying to get rid of us,” Jessie said when the children stepped outside.

“Not just him—Nan and the Gardiners, too,” Henry added. “They’re always shooing us away. It seems like everyone is trying to keep us from poking around the house too much.”

“Or from finding them poking around,” Jessie added. “First the Gardiners didn’t want us to help on the auction. Nan just disappears all the time. And Brian gets annoyed every time we find him here and there and everywhere. It’s all very mysterious.”

“I know,” Henry said. “Let’s go see if the Gardiners want us around or not.”

The children met up with George and Louella outside the garage.

“Hi, George,” Jessie said. “Brian thought you could use some help outside.”

George stared at the children. “Not right now.”

Louella pointed to the garden shed. “Well, I’ve got something for you children to do. Gather the branches your grandfather had the volunteers cut down. Then stack them near the shed. A tree company is sending over a wood chipper at the end of the week.”