Vampire Mystery (6 page)

Benny ran from the room and quickly returned with a magnifying glass that he had gotten as a gift on his last birthday. “This will help!” he cried.

“Thanks, Benny.” Henry held the magnifying glass over the faded writing. It helped the children see the faded ink. Slowly, the Aldens puzzled out each letter.

“‘Charles!’” Jessie exclaimed. “The first word is “‘Charles!’”

“Mr. Hudson’s first name is Charles,” Violet remembered.

“A … n … d,” Benny read. “‘And!’ I know that word.”

Violet smiled. “Good job, Benny.”

The last word was the most faded. Before long, though, the Aldens had spelled “F-r-a-n-c-i-s.”

“Francis must be Mr. Hudson’s younger brother,” Jessie said.

Henry was paging through
The Legend of the Vampire
, checking to see if any more pictures could be stuck between its pages. He did not find any. He paused at the dedication page. “Look at this.”

Jessie read aloud: “‘This book is dedicated to my dear brother, Francis.’”

“We didn’t even have to read the book to find clues in it!” Benny exclaimed.

Henry set the book back on the table with the picture carefully placed inside. “We’ll have a lot to tell Mr. Hudson when we see him tomorrow morning.”

The next morning after a quick breakfast of cereal and fruit, the Aldens jumped on their bikes and quickly rode to Mr. Hudson’s house. But there was a police car in front! It was just driving away as the children walked up the front steps.

Jessie knocked on the front door.

“Come on in, kids,” Mr. Hudson called from the living room. He was sitting on the couch, his suitcase dumped on the floor beside the coffee table. His hair was uncombed and there were dark circles under his eyes.

Josh stood in the corner with his hands thrust deeply into his pockets.

“Is everything all right?” Jessie asked. “We just saw the police car.”

“The police were here looking for fingerprints,” Mr. Hudson said. “Someone has broken into my home!”

Josh stepped forward. “No locks or windows were broken,” he said. He stared at the Aldens. “Someone must have left the door unlocked. And it wasn’t me!”

Mr. Hudson looked at the children. “I don’t blame you,” he said. “I even forget to lock the door sometimes. I know you meant well.”

“But we
did
lock the door!” Jessie insisted. “We are very responsible. The person who broke into your home knew where the key was hidden. He took it from the shed and let himself in. We found the key last night on the kitchen counter.”

Mr. Hudson looked up sharply.

“You must have told some of your friends where that key was,” Josh said accusingly. “Who else could know where the key was hidden?”

“I can promise you that we did not tell anyone,” Jessie answered.

Mr. Hudson ran his hands through his hair. “Someone was in the shed,” he said. “My plane came in very early this morning. When I got home, I heard noises coming from the shed. I called the police right away. The person in the shed ran away through the cemetery when the police arrived. The officers chased him. I don’t know if they caught him yet or not. Perhaps he found the key by accident and let himself in when I was away.”

The Aldens looked at each other.

“Was the person who ran from the shed as tall as the vampire that you have been seeing in the cemetery lately?” asked Henry.

“What?” Mr. Hudson sat up very straight. “The vampire? Josh, have you been telling stories?”

“It’s not just a story,” Josh answered. “You told me yourself that you saw something strange in the cemetery at night.”

“I saw a person,” Mr. Hudson explained to the children. “He dressed and acted like the vampire from my book,
The Legend of the Vampire.
Whenever I tried to call out to him or to catch him, he ran away.”

“Do you think the person in the shed could have been the one who acted like the vampire?” Henry asked.

“I suppose so,” Mr. Hudson answered. “He was about the same height. But who would want to do such a thing? I don’t understand.”

Jessie put her hand on Mr. Hudson’s shoulder. “Mr. Hudson, was there anyone at all besides you who knew where you hid the spare key?”

Mr. Hudson was quiet for some time. “Besides you four children, there might be one other person,” he said. “But it couldn’t have been him.”

The Aldens weren’t so sure. “Mr. Hudson,” Henry said. “We think it may have been your brother Francis who took the spare key and let himself into your home.”

“Francis? What? How do you know that name?” Mr. Hudson’s eyes were wide with surprise.

Benny took the folded photo from the pages of the book and handed it to Mr. Hudson.

Mr. Hudson drew in his breath sharply. He cradled the photo gently in his hands. “Where did you get this?” he finally asked.

“We found it,” Benny replied, “stuck between the pages of
The Legend of the Vampire
.”

“This is a picture of my brother and me!” Mr. Hudson cried.

Just then there were heavy footsteps on the front porch. Two police officers opened the screen door and brought in a man in handcuffs. He was dirty and disheveled. He looked almost exactly like Mr. Hudson.

Mr. Hudson jumped to his feet. “Francis!” he cried. He threw his arms around his brother.

The officers looked confused.

“Please, officer,” Mr. Hudson asked. “Take those handcuffs off. This has all been a big misunderstanding. This is my brother.”

“You’re not going to press charges?” asked the officer. “He has already admitted that he broke into your home.”

“No, no, of course I’m not going to prosecute,” Mr. Hudson said hurriedly. “There has been no crime here. My brother is welcome in this house at any time.”

The officer shook his head disapprovingly, but he removed the cuffs. Mr. Hudson thanked the police for all their help and showed them to the door.

After Francis was comfortably seated in a chair with a glass of lemonade and a clean shirt borrowed from his brother, the Aldens explained what they knew.

“While you were away,” Henry said, “Benny ran into a man at the library fair who looked exactly like you.”

“I thought it was you at first, Mr. Hudson,” Benny said. “But then I realized that the man was too …” Benny paused.

“Messy.” Francis finished the sentence.

“Yes,” Benny agreed, his face coloring. “Mr. Hudson is always dressed so neatly.”

“We may look alike,” Francis said, “but other than that we are as different as brothers can be.”

“We are very different,” Mr. Hudson agreed. “And I’m sorry to say that it led to quite a few fights when we were younger.”

“I’m sorry about those fights, Charles,” Francis said.

“I am, too.” Mr. Hudson looked at the Aldens. “Francis and I loved each other, but we disagreed about many things.”

“Charles was fussy and neat,” Francis said. “His half of the room was always clean and organized. I was a lot a messier and I drove him crazy sometimes.”

Mr. Hudson smiled. “And Francis was a great athlete, but I couldn’t even run without tripping over my own two feet. Francis liked to go sleep early, especially before big games, while I liked to stay up late reading. He used to be so annoyed with me for keeping the light on.”

Both brothers laughed at the memories.

“After our parents died, we fought a lot more often,” Francis said.

“I wanted you to stay in school and get a good education,” Mr. Hudson remembered.

Francis nodded. “And I wanted to quit school and work in my friend’s carpentry shop. One day, after a particularly big fight, I got very angry and I left home without a word. Since then, I’ve traveled all around the country. I’ve lived and worked in many different states. My life has been very interesting. But throughout all those years, I always missed my home and my brother.”

“Why didn’t you call or write?” asked Mr. Hudson. “I always wondered where you were.”

“I thought you might not want me back,” Francis explained. “I know that I was quite a troublemaker. I was afraid that we would just start fighting again. Then, a few months ago, I finally decided to take the risk and come back and see you. The older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve realized how much my family and my old home mean to me. I was going to surprise you. But when I saw the sign on the lawn that said that the house was for sale, I became angry. You weren’t ever supposed to sell this house, Charles. Our parents wanted us to keep it in the family as long as we were alive. But I had been gone for so long. I knew I couldn’t demand anything from you.”

“So you decided to scare away the people who came to buy the house?” Henry asked.

“Yes.” Francis hung his head. “I admit it. I pretended to haunt the graveyard at night. I wore a cape and I even sprinkled fake blood on tombstones and people’s back porches. I tried to do all the things that the vampire did in the stories you used to tell me when we were growing up. I knew it would start people talking and word would get around. I thought that no one would want to buy a house with a vampire in the backyard.”

Henry pulled a small vial from his pocket. “Was this the blood that you used?”

“Yes!” Francis exclaimed. “But it is only colored water. Where did you find that?”

“You dropped it when we bumped into each other at the library fair,” Benny explained. “I tried to catch you to give it back, but you ran away.”

“I was worried when you called me ‘Mr. Hudson’,” Francis said. “I thought you might know who I was. I didn’t want Charles to know I was in town until I had finished scaring away all the buyers for the house.”

“Did you take
The Legend of the Vampire
from my backpack?” asked Benny.

“I did,” Francis said. “I saw you put it in there on that first day that you met my brother. I needed more ideas for my vampire haunting. I knew I could find them in the book.”

“And then you left the picture in the book,” Jessie added.

“Yes. I was so surprised to see young Benny there at the diner, that I jumped up and left, leaving the book behind. Imagine how surprised I was to find the book on the kitchen table later that night.”

“That’s because I left it there by accident.” Benny sighed.

“I figured as much,” Francis said. “The flowers were replanted and the porch was scrubbed. I knew you kids had been here.”

“You wrote those terrible words in ink on our front porch?” Charles asked. “How could you do that?”

Francis looked sheepish. “I’m very sorry, Charles. I promise to repaint the porch for you. I was only trying to be a good vampire. But I suppose I didn’t do a very good job of it. The Aldens came back to the house at night. I thought they would be too frightened for that.”

“We were looking for the book,” Benny explained.

“I knew Charles had gone out of town and so I took the key from under the pot. We always kept it there, even when we were children. I was having a nice sandwich and reading by flashlight when you children surprised me. I rushed into the basement. When I heard footsteps on the stairs I had to quickly sneak out the back door. I circled around to the front. I thought I could get back in to get the rest of my sandwich and the book, but these two kids where standing by the door.” Francis pointed at Violet and Benny.

“You tried to scare us with a bat,” Benny said.

Francis chuckled. He put his two hands together and flapped his fingers as though they were wings. “Remember this, Charles? We used to make all kinds of animal shapes in the shadows at night. I was quite good at it.”

“You still are!” Violet said. “It looked very much like a real bat. We were frightened.”

Mr. Hudson shook his head. “Francis, I wish you hadn’t done all these things. I wish you had just come and talked to me.”

Francis sighed. “I know that now. And I’m sorry.” Francis turned to Violet. “I apologize for frightening you.”

“And where did you put all the ‘For Sale’ signs that you stole?” asked Mr. Hudson.

“You have to return them to Josh. You upset him as well.”

Francis looked confused.

“Your brother didn’t steal the ‘For Sale’ signs,” Violet said. “Josh did that.”

“What?” Mr. Hudson turned to look at his realtor. “Why would Josh steal his own signs? That doesn’t make any sense. He wants to sell the house. It’s his job.”

Josh stuck his hands even deeper into his pockets. He seemed to be trying to find something to say.

“Josh has a friend who wants your house, Mr. Hudson,” Violet explained. “Only he can’t afford to buy it unless you lower the price. Josh didn’t start the vampire rumors, but he helped them along. He thought that if buyers were frightened away, you would be happy to sell the house for a lot less money to his friend. I saw the missing ‘For Sale’ signs in the back of Josh’s car and I overheard him on the phone with his friend.”

Josh’s face was bright red. “You should know that it is not right to eavesdrop!” he shouted at Violet.

“I was not eavesdropping!” Violet crossed her arms and stood her ground. “I was working in the garden when you made a call near the front porch. I couldn’t help but hear what you said.”

“And you should know that you were supposed to be working for me and not for your friend,” Mr. Hudson added. “You’re fired as my realtor, Josh.”