Stuffed Bear Mystery (6 page)

“What about Professor Tweedy?” Violet asked from inside her Mama Bear costume. “If we see him, we don’t want him to know it’s us.”

“I’m not sure where the professor went,” Peggy said, “but he left an hour ago. Don’t worry about being in costume. It’s our secret. I’ll drop you off just outside town, so no one sees that we’re together. Oh, here comes Henry on Doc’s old bike.”

Benny rolled down the window with one paw to talk to Henry. “Make sure Mister B. waves to people watching the parade.”

“I will.” Henry settled Mister B. into a basket on the handlebars. “Mister B. and I will both wave. Since you guys are in costume, make sure to look for me if you see anything suspicious going on, okay?”

“We will,” the three bears said before Peggy pulled away.

A few minutes later, Peggy dropped the children off a couple blocks from the Old Mills Town Hall. Minutes after that, Henry rolled by on the bike. He squeezed the squawky bike horn. The three bears waved back but didn’t say anything. They didn’t want anyone to know that they had a human brother.

Old Mills looked like a bear town, not a people town. There seemed to be more bear marchers lined in the parade than parade watchers on the sidewalks. Some of the marchers showed off their bears on handmade floats or carts. Others borrowed strollers and wagons to display their favorite bears.

Henry joined the bike marchers. While he waited for the parade to start, he kept an eye on his brother and sisters in their bear costumes. They were surrounded by children who wanted to have their pictures taken with the Three Bears.

Soon a television crew from a news station came by. Jessie, Violet, and Benny were going to be on television. Of course, no one would know who they were, but Henry knew they wouldn’t mind!

With crowds surrounding them, the younger Aldens didn’t see Mrs. Keppel slip away from the crowd. She stopped to speak to someone standing beside her cart of Woodland Bears. After quickly looking around, she stepped inside the Town Hall.

Henry couldn’t believe it. Didn’t she know the parade was about to start? He had no choice. He tied up his bike and grabbed Mister B. At the edge of the crowd, he waved his arms at Jessie.

Jessie knew right away that Henry needed her. She whispered to Violet and went off to see what Henry wanted.

“What’s the matter, Henry?” Jessie whispered from under her Papa Bear head. She kept on nodding to the crowds while she waited for Henry’s answer.

Henry handed her a piece of paper and a pencil. “Could you autograph this for my little brother?” he said. “He likes the story of
Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
”

When Jessie looked down, she saw that Henry had written a message to her:

Mrs. Keppel went into the Town Hall. Let’s follow her.

Jessie quickly returned to Benny and Violet. “Stay here,” she whispered. “Henry and I have to follow Mrs. Keppel. I’ll be back in a while.”

Benny wanted to come, but so many children crowded around, he and Violet couldn’t get away.

By the time Jessie caught up with Henry, he was already in the lobby. Mrs. Keppel was about ten feet ahead, clicking her thick heels along the marble floors. Tiptoeing behind Mrs. Keppel, Henry and Jessie tried not to sneeze or cough or bump into anything.

Mrs. Keppel turned around a couple times. When she did, the children hid behind the pillars, which were just barely wide enough to hide Jessie’s bear head.

Mrs. Keppel entered the main hall, which was dark.

Tiptoeing behind, Henry and Jessie could barely see Mrs. Keppel.

Henry guessed she was headed for her booth. Taking a chance, he signaled to Jessie to scoot around in another direction.

Jessie made a loop around the other aisles. She and Henry just had to get to Peggy’s booth before Mrs. Keppel got to hers.

“I’m glad we wore sneakers,” Jessie whispered when they got to Peggy’s booth ahead of Mrs. Keppel. She pulled the curtain slightly, just enough to see into Mrs. Keppel’s booth. Soon they heard her footsteps. They were afraid to breathe.

Mrs. Keppel turned on the small spotlight in her booth. She took out a key and opened a small wooden cabinet. She pulled out a bag—the very one Benny and Henry had seen. The ears were still sticking out of the bag.

A minute later, the whole bear was sticking out. In fact, an entire Herr Bear was sticking out! Mrs. Keppel picked him up and hugged him. She turned off the light, then left the hall.

“Violet is going to be so upset,” Jessie whispered to Henry, feeling upset herself.

“So the thief turned out to be Mrs. Keppel after all. I wonder if she’s going to march in the parade with the Herr Bear.”

Henry thought about this as he made his way with Jessie through the dark hall. “How can she do that? Doc could have her arrested for theft. Something doesn’t make sense.”

The children squinted when they came out into the sunlight again. The Teddy Bear Parade was under way. That’s when Henry and Jessie noticed two furry marchers going the wrong way.

“You won’t believe what we saw!” Jessie said when she and Henry joined Violet and Benny. She forgot all about pretending to be a bear.

Mama Bear’s head drooped when she heard what Jessie had to say. “It
was
Mrs. Keppel who took Herr Bear,” Violet said. Her Mama Bear costume had a happy bear face, but the voice inside it sounded sad. “I can’t believe she was the thief.”

“I know,” Jessie said. “Look. The parade just stopped so the oompah band can play a song in front of the mayor. Let’s catch up with Mrs. Keppel.”

Henry took Mister B. back to his bike while the younger children ran ahead like a trio of bears running through the woods.

“There’s the Woodland Bears cart,” Violet said when she saw the pretty painted cart a few feet ahead.

The Three Bears surrounded the cart.

“Hello, bears,” Mrs. Keppel said cheerfully. “Come meet my bear.”

By this time Henry had rolled up on his bike and stopped in front of Mrs. Keppel, too.

“We already met your bear,” he said firmly. “Only it’s not your bear. That’s the Herr Bear that was in Doc Firman’s Toy Hospital.”

Mrs. Keppel’s mouth opened, but nothing came out right away. Finally she found her voice. “You know nothing about this bear. Go find Doctor Firman. I can prove that this bear belongs to me. Can he and the owner say the same about their Herr Bear?”

At that moment, a tuba sounded, and the parade began to move ahead quickly. Mrs. Keppel put her bear over her shoulder and pushed her cart forward. The Aldens dropped back from the marchers.

“I’m really confused,” Jessie said. “She made it sound as if that Herr Bear is different than the one we saw at Doc’s. Peggy and Doc should be marching by soon.”

“There they are!” Benny shouted when he saw the Firmans pushing the Woolly Farm wheelbarrow full of Peggy’s fleecy bears. Tucked in back was the basket of fleece from Shepherd’s Cottage. “Smudge is in the parade. See?”

Indeed, Smudge was nibbling away on a flowerpot filled with brand-new shoots of green grass.

“Here we are!” Jessie called out before she and the other children stepped into the parade with the Firmans.

“Don’t you children look wonderful!” Peggy declared. “We were searching all over for you.”

“We were searching all over for your Herr Bear,” Henry announced. “And we found him!”

Doc stopped in place, nearly toppling the wheelbarrow. “What do you mean?”

“Mrs. Keppel took him,” Jessie said. “See, up ahead?”

Doc squinted. Mrs. Keppel’s bear flopped over her shoulder just like a baby. “It’s the Herr Bear, all right,” Doc said. “Let’s not let them out of our sight. The parade is swinging around to the Town Hall again. Let’s stop Mrs. Keppel and get to the bottom of this.”

When the Teddy Bear Parade finally broke up, Mrs. Keppel didn’t seem surprised to see the Aldens or the Firmans.

Doc stepped in front of Mrs. Keppel. “I need to take a look at the bear you’re holding. I have reason to believe it may be the one that disappeared from my toy hospital earlier this week.”

The children were surprised that Mrs. Keppel didn’t try to get away. In fact, she willingly turned her bear around so Doc could get a better look at it.

Now it was Doc’s turn to look surprised. “Your bear has golden eyes, not blue. It’s Fraulein Bear.”

Mrs. Keppel smiled, but she did not look happy. “Yes, and I possess her birth certificate. Can you say the same for Herr Bear, Doctor Firman?”

The tubas stopped playing, the marchers stopped marching. But the Aldens didn’t stop looking for Herr Bear.

“I’m sad Herr Bear is still missing,” Violet said when the doors to the Old Mills Town Hall opened to the public. “But I’m glad Mrs. Keppel didn’t take him.”

Jessie wasn’t quite so sure. “She does have the birth certificate for her Fraulein Bear, but she wouldn’t tell Doc anything else. I still think she’s hiding something. I just have a feeling she’s connected to Herr Bear somehow.”

Henry was used to talking to bears now, but he wasn’t used to constantly sharing his sisters and brother. Wherever they went in their Three Bears costumes, people followed them.

“I thought we were supposed to follow people, not the other way around,” Benny said when he was alone for a minute with Henry. “I like being a bear, but I like being a detective better.”

As the children decided what to do next, they heard a familiar voice.

“Ugh, I hear Chatter Bear’s voice in the next aisle!” Jessie said. “He’s so loud, he drowns out ‘The Teddy Bears’ Picnic’ song. I suppose we ought to visit Miss Sayer’s booth. I wonder whether she’s having any success with her talking bear.”

So the Three Bears, along with their human brother, Henry, followed the sound of Chatter Bear’s voice until they came to Miss Sayer’s booth.

“What’s her bear saying, anyway?” Benny asked. “It’s different than before.”

As the children drew closer, they made out the words of Chatter Bear’s new message: “Come see Sayer’s All-Natural Cubs. Come see Sayer’s All-Natural Cubs.”

Miss Sayer’s booth was packed with people who had answered Chatter Bear’s invitation.

Henry whispered to the younger children. “Listen, I’ll be in the next booth. Since Miss Sayer doesn’t know who you are, one of you can ask her a lot of questions while the other two of you look around. Peggy said she’s always copying other bears. Maybe the Herr Bear will turn up in Miss Sayer’s booth.”

Jessie looked at Henry through the eye openings of her costume. “I’d also like to find out if she took all that nice fleece that disappeared from the Firmans’ barn. Okay, bears, let’s go.” She took hold of Benny’s paw in one hand and Violet’s in the other.

“Oh, no!” Jessie said when she finally got a good look at Miss Sayer’s booth.

Violet touched Jessie’s arm with her paw. “What’s the matter?”

Jessie held out her paw. “Look! Those are copies of Peggy Bears.”

The Three Bears stared at the many bears on the shelves. Sure enough, there was a row of stuffed bears that looked almost the same as Peggy’s.

“They’re not as nice,” Violet whispered to Jessie. “Some of the stitching is loose. They’re not as plump, either.”

Jessie was mad. “So this is why she kept snooping around Doc Firman’s Toy Hospital and Woolly Farm!” she whispered to Benny and Violet. “I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to find the Herr Bear here. Maybe she plans to copy him, too.”

“Oh, hello, bears,” Miss Sayer cried in her own chirpy voice. “Please come visit my cubs—and my Chatter Bear, of course. I’ll take your picture with him.”

The Three Bears posed in front of Chatter Bear. Their bear faces were smiling, but their real faces were frowning underneath.

“I’ve never seen your bears before,” Jessie said in a deep voice she hoped Miss Sayer wouldn’t recognize. “Are they new?”

Miss Sayer brought over one of the fleecy bears, whose stuffing wasn’t quite tucked in. “Yes, they’re my new line of bears—the old-fashioned kind that don’t talk like my Chatter Bear here. Would you like to hold this one? It’s stuffed with real fleece from real sheep.”

Violet decided to learn more about Chatter Bear’s new voice. “I heard your talking bear when he was in Doctor Firman’s Toy Hospital. Didn’t he say a different message a few days ago?”