The Aldens raced out the front door and across the parking lot. But the noise they were making alerted the intruder, and he dashed away in the opposite direction.
All they could see was that he was tall and thin and wore jeans and a jacket. He ran around behind the mall. The children hurried after him. But when they reached the back alley, they found it deserted.
“Where did he go?” Henry asked, glancing left, then right.
The intruder was nowhere in sight.
“Where do all these doors go?” Benny asked. “Could he have gone inside one of them?”
“I think those doors all lead to the different stores in the mall,” Jessie said as she rested against the brick building. “He could have gone inside one of them.”
Henry tried the door closest to them. “It’s locked,” he said.
The children continued down the alley, trying each door along the way. But they were all locked.
There was a fence at the end of the alley. The intruder may have climbed the fence, or, if he had a key, he may have gone inside one of the doors. Either way, he was gone.
Disappointed, the Aldens turned around and walked back around to the front of the mall.
“Did anyone get a good look at him?” Jessie asked.
“No. It was too dark,” Violet said.
Queenie was pacing back and forth on the sidewalk. “My goodness,” she said when she saw the children. “I heard you all go running out of the store, but I didn’t know where you went. I was worried.”
“We’re sorry,” Violet said. “We didn’t mean to worry you. But we saw somebody pulling letters off that sign. We wanted to see if we could catch him.”
“And did you catch him?” Queenie asked hopefully.
Benny shook his head. “He was too fast.”
“Which letters did he take this time?” Jessie asked.
The group walked over so they could read the sign. The children remembered that the sign was supposed to say STOP IN AND SAY HELLO TO QUEENIE AT THE GAME SPOT. Now it said STOP IN AND SAY HEL_O TO _ _EENIE AT THE GA_E SPOT.
“There’s an L, a Q, a U, and an M missing,” Violet said.
“Hey, what’s this?” Benny reached for a piece of brown cloth that was stuck to a thorn on one of the rosebushes in front of the sign.
“Looks like part of a pocket,” Jessie said as she fingered the cloth.
“Do you suppose our intruder could have lost it in his rush to get out of here?” Henry asked.
“Maybe,” Violet said.
Benny handed the cloth to Henry, and he put it in his pocket.
The next day, when the Aldens arrived at the Game Spot to finish up the painting, they were greeted with more bad news.
“The jewelry store was broken into last night,” Raina told the children.
“Oh, no,” Jessie groaned. “Not another robbery!” She noticed Queenie and Carter standing off to the side talking with George. She moved closer to hear what they were saying.
“Why is this thief targeting my mall?” George demanded as he banged his fist on the table. “There haven’t been any other robberies in town. All the robberies have been here.”
“And they’ve all involved safes,” Carter pointed out. “I wonder if there’s something wrong with these safes? Maybe we should get Tony to come out here and take a look.”
“Was there anything else taken from the jewelry store?” Henry asked.
“No,” Queenie replied. “It was just like the robbery here and the one at the Java Café. There was no forced entry. Nothing else out of place. The store owner came in this morning and found the safe door standing wide open and its contents emptied.”
“It sounds like whoever the thief is, he’s good at picking locks,” Jessie said. “He was able to get into the stores, and then he was able to get into the safes.”
“Well, he may not have had to pick locks to get into the stores,” Queenie said. “He may have been able to get in with keys. Remember, I told you I was missing that key? It turns out Sandra next door was also missing a spare key. She kept it on her desk. But she noticed yesterday that it was missing. And then last night her store was broken into.”
“That’s interesting,” Jessie said. “Was there a spare key missing from the Java Café?” she asked Raina.
Raina blinked. “I-I really don’t know,” she stammered. “I don’t know where Chip kept his spare key.”
Just then a young couple walked into the store.
“I’ll go see if they need some help,” Raina said as she hurried over to them.
“Why don’t we go down to the Java Café and ask Chip whether he’s missing any keys,” Violet suggested.
“Yes, let’s,” Benny said.
So the Aldens walked down to the Java Café at the end of the mall. There was a businessman reading a newspaper while Chip mixed a coffee drink.
“Here you go,” Chip said as he handed the paper cup to the businessman.
“Thanks.” The man nodded at Chip, then picked up his drink and went to sit down.
The children stepped up to the counter.
“Can I help you kids?” Chip asked, as he started wiping the counter.
“Did you know there were keys missing both at the Game Spot and at Lake’s Jewelry Store before they were robbed?” Violet asked.
Chip stopped wiping. “No, I didn’t.”
“We were just wondering whether there were any keys missing here before this store was robbed?” Henry asked.
Chip frowned. “There were a couple of them missing,” he said. “Raina Holt only worked for me for ten days, but in that time she managed to lose two keys.”
“Are you sure she lost them?” Henry asked. “They didn’t just disappear?”
“No, she’s the one who lost them,” Chip insisted. “I had to get new keys made twice.”
“I wonder why she didn’t mention that when we asked her about missing keys,” Jessie said.
“Maybe she was embarrassed?” Violet suggested.
“Or maybe she’s the thief,” Chip said.
“The police don’t think so,” Jessie said. “She was out of town when the Game Spot was robbed.”
“She had a key to this place and she had a key to the Game Spot,” Henry said. “But she wouldn’t have had a key to the jewelry store.”
“Maybe she managed to get one,” Chip said. “She’s a smooth one. She’s got you all fooled. But I’m warning you. As long as that girl continues to work in this mall, there will continue to be robberies here. You mark my words.”
The Aldens took their time walking back to the Game Spot.
“No matter what anyone tells him, Chip just will not believe that Raina is innocent,” Violet said.
“Well, she was in the jewelry store yesterday,” Jessie pointed out. “Remember? She bought herself that necklace. But that doesn’t mean she stole a key to the store.”
The children stopped just outside the
Game Spot door. “Lots of people were probably in there yesterday,” Violet said. “Including Carter. But I agree with you. I don’t know how either of them could have gotten the key from the back room.”
“Unless they snuck back there when no one was looking,” Benny said.
“That’s certainly possible,” Violet said.
“Hey Jessie,” Henry said. “Are you still keeping track of the letters that are missing from that sign?”
“Yes. I have the list right here.” She patted her pocket.
“Why don’t we go inside and take a look at it,” Henry suggested. “Maybe there’s a clue in those letters?”
So they went inside the Game Spot and sat down at the main table. Jessie took out her list of letters and added the new ones to the list. Violet went to get some paper, a pencil and a pair of scissors. Then the children copied down all the letters onto four sheets of paper:
L A K E R Y S E R E M N
P O E A E P E I L Q U M
Then they cut out the letters and each of them took a set.
“Let’s see how many words we can find in these letters,” Jessie said as she started moving the letters around in front of her.
Benny found PLAY and ME. Violet found PLEASE. Jessie found SAME and MAPLE. Henry found MERRY and MARRY.
“Hey, I see Queenie’s name,” Violet squealed. She pulled out the Q U E E N I E and the P O L K and lined them up in front of her.
“What are you kids doing?” Carter asked, his jaw set tight.
Jessie jumped. She hadn’t realized he was standing over her shoulder.
“We’re trying to make words,” Benny said.
“These are all the letters that have been taken from the sign out front,” Jessie explained. “We’re looking to see if there’s a message in here.”
Carter’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t you kids have work to do?”
“Well … ,” Violet glanced nervously at the others. Carter was right; they were supposed to be painting. That was why they were here.
Carter reached across the table and scooped up all their letter scraps into his hand. “You promised to paint the Kids’ Korner today,” he said, squeezing the scraps of paper in his fist. “So I think Queenie would really appreciate it if you got to work.”
“Sure. Okay,” the children said as they stood up.
Carter sprinkled the scraps of paper into the trash can, then went to the back room.
“Why is Carter so mad at us?” Benny asked. “We’re just trying to help.”
“You’re right, Benny,” Jessie said as she put a protective arm around her brother. “I don’t know why he got so mad.”
Was he really worried about them keeping their promise to Queenie or was there another reason he was upset? |