Movie Star Mystery (2 page)

At the end of the curve in the driveway, they stopped.

“Look at the house,” Violet said. “It’s beautiful!”

The big old house sparkled in the afternoon sun, shiny with a fresh coat of white paint. Deep purple shutters, also newly painted, framed the windows. Purple was Violet’s favorite color.

“I wonder who’s moving in,” Jessie said.

“Why don’t we go ask,” Henry said. “We can knock on the door and welcome them to Greenfield.”

They started walking again. They didn’t get far, however. A young woman appeared on the front porch of the house as the moving crew opened the back of the truck. She nodded and pointed at the open door behind her. She was dressed in black jeans, a black turtleneck sweater, and bright red sturdy sneakers. When she gestured with her hands, her short fingernails flashed red with nail polish that matched her sneakers. Her long, shining black hair was pulled back in a single braid and she had on a baseball cap.

Then she saw the Aldens and jumped from the top of the steps. She walked very quickly toward them.

“Hi,” said Henry. “Welcome to—”

“Who are you?” the young woman demanded in an annoyed tone. “How did you get in here?”

“Through the gate. It was open,” Benny said.

“Well, you can just turn around and walk right back out,” she said. “Go on. Shoo.”

“We just wanted to welcome you to—” Henry tried to speak again.

The woman folded her arms. “Go,” she said, her brown eyes narrowing. “Now.”

Without another word, the children walked down the driveway and back out to the road, with the woman silently following them. She slammed and locked the gates behind them. Then she walked back up the driveway.

“I don’t like her,” said Benny.

“Some people just aren’t very friendly,” said Violet. “Maybe the other people in the house are nicer.”

“Maybe,” said Henry. “But somehow I don’t think we’re going to get the chance to find out.”

“Come on,” said Jessie. “Let’s go home.”

As they walked away from the gates of the old Radley mansion, Benny looked back over his shoulder and made a face. “I hope the house
is
haunted,” he said. “Then they’ll want us to come and catch the ghost and solve the mystery of where it came from.”

“Oh, Benny,” said Jessie. She laughed. “There’s no ghost and no mystery, at least not at the Radley mansion.”

But as she and the rest of the Alden family would soon find out, Jessie was wrong.

D
on’t forget my book about Jesse James,” Benny told the librarian at the Greenfield Public Library the next day. “He was a famous bank robber, you know.”

The librarian laughed. “I know. He and his brother, Frank. I used to like to read about them, too.”

Benny said, “I can’t read this book yet, at least not all of it. But Violet said she would help me.”

“I will,” said Violet. She smiled at the librarian and put the books she had just checked out into her backpack. The Aldens had come to the library early that morning to return books and check out new ones. Watch had stayed at home with the Aldens’ housekeeper, Mrs. McGregor, because dogs weren’t allowed in the library.

One of the reasons Benny wanted to go to the library was to learn more about bank robbers. “It might help me find clues,” he explained.

As they walked out of the library, Jessie said, “Let’s go to the post office.”

“Why? Do you have a letter to mail?” asked Henry.

“No. But maybe we could look at the wanted posters,” said Jessie.

Violet’s eyes widened. “Do you really think we’ll see a picture of George Smith or Harpo Woo on one of the posters?” she asked.

“We’ll see Mr. Smith and Mr. Woo,” Benny said.

“How do you know that, Benny?” asked Henry, smiling a little at his younger brother. “You haven’t read any of your books about bank robbers yet.”

Benny pointed. “Because they are right across the street by the bank.”

The four Aldens stopped and stared. They saw two men, but the men weren’t Harpo Woo and George Smith.

“Where, Benny?” asked Jessie.

“Right there,” said Benny. “Those two men. They’re in disguise.”

Violet blinked in disbelief. Then she said, “You’re right! That is George Smith and Harpo Woo.”

Sure enough, at first the two men who stood outside the bank did not look much like the two men the Aldens had met the day before, but at a second glance it was clear who they were. George had his dark glasses on and today he had a hat pulled low on his forehead. He was wearing jeans, a colorful vest, and a turtleneck sweater, and his beard was no longer brown streaked with gray but jet-black.

Harpo’s black hair had been tucked up under a broad-brimmed hat. He was wearing his dark glasses as he had the day before, but today he had a black goatee and long sideburns.

As the children watched, a short man in a windbreaker, new-looking jeans, and heavy black shoes walked briskly up to the two men. He was very tan and had silver hair slicked back. He, too, wore dark glasses. The two turned to him as he spoke.

The silver-haired man gestured and the two men looked warily around. The man who called himself George Smith nodded and pointed down the street, and the man in the new jeans walked on.

“Is he a bank robber, too?” Benny asked.

“I think he was just asking directions, Benny. Don’t let them see us,” said Henry, and pulled his sisters and brother back to stand in the shadow of a doorway.

As the Boxcar Children watched, George raised a camera and took a photograph of the building. Today he didn’t have the big camera he had had the day before, but a small silver one. Harpo appeared to be talking to his own left hand.

“Harpo has a tape recorder,” Violet said. “In his left hand. I wonder what he is recording.”

As Harpo talked and George took photographs, they both kept glancing nervously up and down the street.

“Do you think they’re planning to rob the bank?” Benny asked. “Maybe we should call the police!”

But before the Aldens could do anything, Harpo glanced down the street and seemed to freeze for a moment. Then he said something to George.

In response, George grabbed Harpo by the arm and pulled him into a blue van parked on the street near the bank. Then George jumped in the van himself, started it, and drove quickly away.

“Look! That must be what frightened George and Harpo,” Violet said.

A police car had just turned the corner and was heading down Main Street toward the bank.

Instantly, Jessie jumped out onto the sidewalk and threw up her hand to flag the police car.

The officer rolled down her window and said, “Well, hello. What can I do for you?”

“We just saw bank robbers!” Benny blurted out.

Startled, the officer looked toward the bank.

“We didn’t see anyone robbing the bank,” Henry explained quickly. “We think we saw someone who is planning to rob the bank.”

The Aldens told the officer what they’d seen and heard the day before and that morning in front of the bank. When they had finished, the officer smiled and nodded. “Thanks for the tip,” she said. “We’ll keep an eye on the bank.”

Then she looked in the rearview mirror. “I’m holding up traffic here. I’d better move on.” The officer pulled away from the curb.

Jessie put her hands on her hips. “She didn’t believe us!” she exclaimed.

“No, I don’t think she did,” Henry agreed.

Violet didn’t say anything. She was watching the dark brown car behind the police car. The woman in the car had wild red hair tied back with an emerald-green scarf. Slashes of green eye shadow above her eyes matched the scarf.

As she drove by, she glared out her window at the Aldens, her face red with fury.

“Why is she so angry?” Violet said softly. “Why is she angry at us?”

“Who?” asked Henry.

“Her. The lady in the brown car,” Violet said. But the brown car had already passed by and the other Aldens didn’t see the angry woman in the green scarf.

Jessie turned toward Benny. “How did you recognize George and Harpo so quickly, Benny?” she asked.

“Harpo’s feet,” said Benny.

“You recognized his feet?” Henry asked.

“He had on the same shoes. Silver high-tops,” said Benny.

“Oh.” Jessie thought for a moment, then said, “You’re right, Benny. That’s very observant of you.”

“I’m a detective,” said Benny.

“You sure are,” Henry agreed. “And it’s a good thing, too. Because if the police don’t believe us, we may have to catch the bank robbers ourselves.”

“We can do it,” Benny said.

“I hope so,” Jessie said. “And I hope we can do it
before
they rob another bank.”

“Let’s go to the post office to look at wanted posters,” Violet said.

“And then we can get some ice cream,” Benny suggested.

“After we go to the post office,” agreed Henry.

The Aldens went to the post office. But they didn’t see George Smith’s picture on any of the wanted posters, or Harpo’s, either—even in disguise.

T
his is good ice cream,” said Benny. “The best ice cream in the whole world.”

“You always say that when we come to the ice-cream parlor,” Violet said, smiling at Benny.

The Aldens were sitting at one of the little tables inside the shop eating ice-cream cones.

Just then, a tall boy walked into the ice-cream parlor. He was wearing a baseball cap pulled low on his forehead and he had on dark glasses.

“Lots of people are wearing dark glasses today,” observed Henry. “And it’s not even very sunny.”

“The bank robbers had them on for disguises,” said Jessie. She stopped eating her ice-cream cone. She stared at the boy in the baseball cap as he walked up to the counter.

A man stopped in the doorway of the shop. “Ta . . . Jonathan,” he said. “We should be going.”

“In a minute,” said the boy. “Do you want some ice cream?”

“It’s the man with the silver hair. The one we saw earlier,” Violet said in a low voice.

The man patted his trim stomach. “No, thanks. Have to watch my weight.”

“Okay,” said the boy called Jonathan. “I’ll be right out.”

The man nodded. “Courtney’s gone to get the Jeep,” he said, and disappeared.

Jessie kept staring at the boy. Her ice cream began to melt and drip down on her hand, but she didn’t even seem to notice.

“Jessie,” Henry said. “What is it?”

“I’m not sure,” Jessie answered, without taking her gaze off the boy. He turned to look around the shop as he waited for his ice-cream cone. He gave them a little half smile, ducking his head and turning away again at the same time.

“He acts like he doesn’t want us to look at him,” Benny said. “And Jessie is staring. Grandfather says it is rude to stare.”

Reluctantly Jessie turned her gaze away from the boy. “You’re right, Benny,” she said. “It’s just that—”

But Jessie didn’t get to finish her sentence.

A shattering alarm went off right over their heads.

“Fire!” the girl behind the ice-cream counter shouted. “Fire!” She turned and ran toward the back of the shop. At the same moment, a billow of black smoke poured into the front door of the ice-cream shop.

“The exit is in the back.” Henry jumped to his feet and caught Benny by the hand. “This way!” he shouted. “Jessie, grab Benny’s hand. Violet, hold on to Jessie.”

Henry quickly led the way to the back of the shop. A bright red EXIT sign could be seen through the smoke.

The boy stood frozen by the counter. As they went by, Violet reached out with her free hand and grabbed his arm. “Come on!” she said.

A moment later, they had followed the counter girl out of the back of the shop into the alley.

“Is everyone okay?” Henry asked.

“We’re fine,” said Jessie. “And we were the only ones in the shop.”

“It’s a good thing,” said the counter girl. “If it had been busier, it could have been a disaster.”

They were standing in the alley. “Fire trucks are coming,” said Benny. “Listen.”

They ran along the alley toward the street. As they reached the sidewalk, a woman with bright red hair ran forward. “Where is he?” she demanded.

“Who?” asked Jessie.

But the woman didn’t answer. She pushed past the Aldens, muttering under her breath.