Mystery in the Mall (2 page)

Violet stood at the window. “Hi, Benny,” she whispered. “Look, there’s a tugboat pulling a barge. Come see.”

“I saw it already,” Benny answered. “Can we go down to the docks before we go to the mall?”

“As soon as we get dressed,” Violet told Benny. “Jessie and I will meet you and Henry downstairs in ten minutes. I think Mrs. Frye already has our breakfast started. I smell bacon.”

“There you are!” a cheerful older woman said when the Alden children appeared in the kitchen doorway.

“Good morning, Mrs. Frye,” Jessie said. “We didn’t need an alarm clock to wake us up. The sun reflecting on the water came right into our room.”

“And boats tooting. That’s my alarm clock,” Benny said. “It’s hard to sleep with all that tooting going on.”

Mrs. Frye laughed as she set out breakfast for the children. “After a while you don’t notice the tooting. I’m glad there’s no phone on the top floor, or you would have been up even earlier when it rang for you.”

Henry poured milk on his cornflakes. “Did Grandfather call already? He and Mr. Bolt only left last night.”

Mrs. Frye poured herself some coffee. “Oh, the call wasn’t from Mr. Alden. It was Hap Merchant. He said to go off and have a good day and not to worry about working at the mall until he calls again.”

“Gee, I think Hap might be mixed up,” Jessie said. “He was supposed to tell us when to meet him at Penny’s Emporium. We’d better get this straightened out.”

Mrs. Frye came around with a pile of toast. “We’re just a few minutes from Hope Harbor Mall. No need to rush off. Why you children want to work when there’s so much fun to be had, I just don’t know!”

Benny reached for another piece of Mrs. Frye’s buttery toast. “We
do
know. We like jobs. That’s our fun.”

“We’d better talk with Hap in person,” Jessie said. “Then we can explore.”

The Aldens helped Mrs. Frye with the breakfast dishes. She loved their company. While the children scraped and washed and rinsed the dishes, Mrs. Frye told them all about how Mr. Bolt had brought back the wonderful seaport of Hope Harbor.

“Now that the mall is here, the boats unload a lot of freight right off the docks for all the stores in the mall. Hope Harbor Mall is different from most malls. The stores sell things from all over the world. Just last week at Penny’s Emporium I found a lovely plate from Switzerland.”

Benny seemed worried. “Does Penny’s shop just sell little china dishes and fancy kinds of stuff like that?” he asked.

Mrs. Frye laughed. “Not to worry. Penny’s is the perfect place for children to shop in or work in. You can do both. Penny’s shop has everything—candy a caramel corn machine, souvenirs, and balloons. There’s even a corner in the shop where folks stick their faces behind a pirate cutout and have their pictures taken. You’ll find toys and souvenirs from all over the world. Penny gets her goods from Asia, Europe, Hawaii.”

When Benny heard
Hawaii,
he made his silly monkey face. “I had a coconut monkey that had a face like this. It came from Hawaii, only not on a boat. I carried it all the way back on the plane.”

Mrs. Frye laughed. “Did you eat your coconut monkey?”

“Not that kind of coconut. It was a big coconut shell with a monkey face painted on it. I bought it with my own money. They had pirate coconuts, but I like monkeys. I lost it when we drove here. It went into a garbage truck by mistake.”

Mrs. Frye patted Benny’s head. “What a shame. Well, you must tell Penny Block about it when you meet her. I’ve never seen coconut monkeys in her shop, but I bet she’d know where to get one. Now off you go, children. I’ll leave a message at Penny’s shop telling her to expect you. Take your time getting there. Penny doesn’t open up her shop until ten.”

On their way to Hope Harbor Mall, the Aldens had plenty of time to walk along the waterfront. Several freighters were unloading at the docks.

“I wonder what’s on all those boats,” Henry said. “Some of those freighters come from far away. That one says ‘Tahiti’ on it. See, Benny? That’s far away, like Hawaii.”

“Hey, look! The police are checking one of the boats,” Benny said.

The other children looked up. A man and woman in blue uniforms followed a young crewman with curly black hair from crate to crate on a small freighter. They poked around, checking some of the boxes and taking notes on their clipboards.

Benny grabbed Henry’s arm. “Maybe the crewman is really a pirate! What if there are stolen jewels inside one of those boxes? Will those police put him in jail?”

Jessie laughed. “We’ve all been reading too many mysteries to you, Benny! Those aren’t regular police. They’re customs inspectors. Customs people check goods that come into the country from other countries.”

Benny noticed that the inspectors checked some boxes but not others. “Well, they’re not doing a very good job. They skipped some boxes.”

“Let’s get a little closer,” Henry told Benny. “The inspectors can’t check every single thing, or they’d never finish. They just pick boxes at random. The shippers have no idea which boxes will get checked.”

“Maybe that’s why that crewman looks so nervous,” Benny said.

“Is this the last of the shipment?” one of the inspectors asked the crewman.

The young man shifted from one foot to the other. “As far as I know, that’s all of it,” he answered. Then he dropped the screwdriver he’d been holding. When it started to roll down the gangplank, Benny raced to catch it before it fell into the water.

“Thanks,” the young man told Benny. “Good catch.”

Finally the inspectors drove off in a government car they had parked on the dock.

The young crewman watched the car pull away. He yelled down at the Aldens. “Hey, you have to leave, too. Tourists aren’t allowed on this loading dock.”

The children looked at one another. The docks were open to anyone.

“He’s not very nice to us,” Benny complained. “And I even caught his screwdriver.”

Jessie checked her watch. “I guess we should get going. It’s almost ten o’clock. I wonder if some of the shipments they just unloaded are going to the mall.”

The children started to walk away. Benny turned around to wave at the crewman. But the crewman didn’t wave back. He was busy lifting up some kind of trapdoor from under a huge coil of rope. The young man pulled out some boxes, counted them, then put them back under the trapdoor. He looked around, then threw the rope over the door. From where the Aldens were standing, there was no way of telling that the crewman had a secret hiding place. The customs inspectors had missed it completely.

“What are you sniffing, Benny?” Jessie asked when the children stepped inside the mall.

Benny kept his nose in the air and didn’t answer Jessie right away.

“I know. Benny’s sniffing for caramel corn, right?” Henry asked.

Benny made a face. “How come I don’t smell any? Yesterday I did.”

Jessie pointed to the huge clock in the middle of the food court. “It’s morning. People eat breakfast, not caramel corn, in the morning.”

“Shucks,” Benny said. “Mrs. Frye said there would be caramel corn at Penny’s shop. Let’s go look there.”

The mall wasn’t too busy yet. The shopkeepers were setting up for the day. They rolled up their security gates. Some of them set out pushcarts of small items to sell in front of their stores. Cleaning people pushed mops and brooms to make the mall spick-and-span for the day.

“Look who’s coming down the hall,” Violet said to the others.

“Uh-oh,” Henry said. “Hap Merchant doesn’t look too glad to see us here.”

Hap looked puzzled, then annoyed when he noticed the Aldens. “I thought you kids would be sightseeing today. I left a message for you with Mrs. Frye. Did you come here to shop?”

“We’re going to see Penny Block,” Henry told Hap. “Mr. Bolt wants us to work for her, remember?”

Hap didn’t look at all pleased to hear this.

“Well, I’m the mall manager, and I’m sure Mrs. Block doesn’t need a bunch of children running around like little monkeys.”

“We wouldn’t do that.” Jessie hoped Benny wasn’t going to make one of his monkey faces while she was trying to be serious.

At that moment, an older woman with wild curly red hair and wearing a bright purple blouse and funny eyeglasses came up to the children. “You’re the Aldens, right? Mr. Bolt called me last night and told me to keep an eye out for two boys and two girls. Here you are, and just in time. One of my shipments is down on the dock. I need a strong young person to bring the boxes into my storeroom.”

Hap tried to say something, but Penny Block was like a runaway train. “Anyway, if you haven’t guessed already, I’m Penny Block. We can get acquainted while we work. I have a list a mile long if you children are ready to work. Let me show you my shop.”

Before Hap could squeeze in a word, Penny rounded up the Aldens. The group went off, leaving Hap behind.

Penny’s Emporium was designed to look like a seaside shop on a boardwalk. In one corner stood a tall tank of helium for blowing up balloons. In another area, a camera was set up to take pictures of people who stuck their heads through a funny pirate cutout. A caramel popcorn machine took up another corner.

“The rest of the shop is for souvenirs,” Penny continued. “If any of you is good with your hands, I could sure use you to wrap gifts for our customers.”

Violet was too shy to say anything, but Jessie spoke up for her. “Violet is the best one in our family for wrapping presents.”

“Then you can be my chief gift wrapper, Violet,” Penny said. “I had a feeling you were the one for that.”

“What am I the one for?” Benny asked.

Penny Block laughed. “Why, our caramel machine, of course. I need a careful boy to scoop the caramel corn into boxes. Folks come in here all day for Penny’s Caramel Corn. My husband, before he died, always told me the way to bring folks into a shop is to sell something that smells good. They’ll come in for that and go out with a Hope Harbor teapot or a dish towel. And he was right.”

“Mrs. Block, have you ever seen a coconut painted like a monkey? Mrs. Frye told me you might sell them,” said Benny.

“I know just what you mean, Benny. I’ll keep an eye out for them at the gift show I’m attending this afternoon.”

“Great! Thanks a lot,” said Benny.

“What can Jessie and I do?” Henry asked.

Penny pulled out a pad of paper. “A lot, if you aren’t afraid of work. I need somebody to be in charge of taking pirate photos. They’re very popular souvenirs with tourists. Jessie, you would be good to sell souvenirs from my pushcart in the mall area. That gets people to stop in front of my store. Henry, you’re my gofer. Go for this. Go for that. Is that okay with you?”

“I’ll go for it!” Henry joked.

Penny showed Henry where to find the hand truck from the storeroom. She needed him to pick up some boxes at the warehouse.

Just as Henry headed out the back door of the shop, a young woman came in. “Where are you going with that hand truck?” she asked Henry. “That belongs to this shop.”

For a second, Henry was lost for words. “It’s ... uh ... well, Penny said I should ...”

“Who are you?” the young woman asked. “Penny didn’t tell me anyone else was working here. I’m the store manager.”

At that moment, Penny stepped into the storeroom. “Hello, Janet. I see you’ve met Henry Alden. You know how you said there was so much to do? Well, a miracle happened. Martin Bolt sent the Alden family to save the day. Henry, this is Janet Trainor.”

The young woman ignored Penny’s introduction. “Mr. Bolt sent children to work here? That’s not going to be much of a help at all. I can’t work with children underfoot.”

“Nonsense,” Penny said. “The younger ones have already started. Henry is on his way down to the warehouse to pick up a shipment that came in. You can go ahead, Henry. Now, come meet the other Aldens, Janet.”

Benny was at the popcorn machine, carefully scooping caramel corn into boxes.

“He’s going to make a mess!” Janet told Penny. “And why is that girl wrapping packages?”

Penny was very patient. “Violet Alden is wonderful with her hands. I have her wrapping some of the gift plates. You know how much time that takes. Now you’ll have more time to wait on customers.”