“It’s all my fault.” A sorrowful Mrs. McGregor sat on the sofa. “I let Watch out in the yard for a bit of exercise while I relaxed inside. I did hear him barking. But he’d been barking all day, what with so many strangers coming and going. And, well, I just thought he was barking at some old squirrel. I mean, any other time I would have gone out and checked. But,” she looked sadder than ever, “I was watching “What a WackyWorld.” It was, the children knew, her favorite TV show. “And tonight was the final contest to see who would be voted the wackiest. By the time I went to check on Watch, he’d gotten out.”
“He can’t get out of the yard by himself,” said Henry.
Mrs. McGregor shrugged. “All I know is, I found Watch in the alley. He was chewing on a box and looking very pleased with himself.”
“Was there a mask in the box?” asked Benny.
“Mask? No, nothing like that. Just bits of chewed cardboard. And popcorn. Oh, Watch was having a regular picnic. I had to drag him back into the yard and brush popcorn crumbs from his whiskers.”
“Maybe he ate the mask, too,” said Benny. The children looked at Watch. Watch looked at the children, tilting his head to one side. Benny knew that even Watch couldn’t eat a wooden mask.
“Was the garage door open?” asked Jessie.
“I didn’t notice,” Mrs. McGregor said. “I was so upset about Watch getting out of the yard that all I thought about was getting him home and cleaning him up.”
Jessie patted Mrs. McGregor’s shoulder. “It’s all right,” she said. “We’re all to blame. We were so excited about going to miniature golf that we forgot to lock the garage.”
“Do you think,” Violet said softly, “we should call the police?”
Mrs. McGregor scrunched her brow, thinking. “Perhaps,” she said, “you should call your grandfather’s friend Tom Morgan. He’s a retired policeman with a good head and a good heart. He’ll know what to do.”
Officer Morgan didn’t give the children much hope. “It sounds like there’s not much we can do,” he said. Henry put the call on speaker phone so all the children could listen at once. “The garage door was left open, so anyone could have walked in. And you left a can of money on a tree stump, anyone could have walked off with that as well.”
“Can’t you find my mask?” asked Benny
Officer Morgan was quiet a moment. “I don’t expect we’ll find many clues,” he said. “But I’ll send a policeman over to take a look around and file a report. I’d come myself except I’m helping friends over at Pleasant Valley Park. But I promise I’ll stop by tomorrow.”
Henry hung up the phone. “I’m not sure Officer Morgan is right,” he said. “We do have one clue. Whoever broke into the garage left the tackle box full of money behind.”
“Why would they do that?” asked Benny.
“Maybe they didn’t come looking for money. Maybe they came looking for the mask.”
Jessie looked puzzled. “If you’re right, and they didn’t come to steal money, why did they take the Crispy Crackers can with the homeless shelter donations?”
They all fell silent, thinking. But none of them could think of an answer. Finally, Henry said, “We need to go back where this all began. We need to go back to 332 Locust and look for more clues.”
“That house will be empty,” said Violet, who still thought the old house looked creepy. “The man with the moving truck said the people were moving to Minnesota.”
Henry nodded. “Let’s just bike over and take a look around. At least we’ll be doing something.”
Jessie tried to cheer them up by setting out a plate of leftover cookies. Henry poured everyone a glass of milk. The snack did help them feel a little better.
Still, after they went to bed, it was a long time before anyone fell asleep.
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