The Doughnut Whodunit

by Gertrude Chandler Warner

  As they walked down Main Street toward Delilah’s, they stopped to see how The Donut Dispensary was doing. The shop had just opened for the day. Already, there was a short line out front.

  “I’m glad this shop is doing well,” said Violet. “I think Hilda’s nice. I just wish she’d stop selling copies of The Twisty.”

  “Look at the new sign on the window,” said Benny. He read it out loud. “‘Coming Soon! The Mashup—Our New Potato Donut!’”

  “That sounds familiar,” said Jessie. “I wonder what that Mashup looks like.”

  “Look at this sign,” said Violet. She pointed to a chalkboard shaped like a tent on the sidewalk. “The new doughnut is square, just like a Masher!”

  “This is really odd,” said Henry. “First there’s the copycat Twisty, and now it’s a Masher. I wonder if they have paper menus inside. We could get one to show to Steve and Dawn. They might recognize the names of other copied doughnuts.”

  Everyone agreed. Henry stepped around the line and came back out with a paper menu.

  Down the street, Delilah’s was open again, with the usual morning crowd having doughnuts and coffee.

  “I’m glad you’re all here to help,” Dawn told the Aldens after ringing up a customer. “It’s been busy!”

  “We have something we picked up for you and Steve,” said Jessie. “It might be important.”

  “Okay,” said Dawn. “Do you mind asking Steve if he needs help in the kitchen first?”

  The Aldens pitched in during the morning rush. At last, when it got quiet, Steve, Dawn, and the children all sat down with the menu from The Donut Dispensary. Jessie pulled out her notebook and pencil.

  Steve scratched his head as he read. “Potato doughnuts,” he muttered. “Square potato doughnuts, called Mashups. This just gets more and more troubling!”

  “Maybe Hilda tried your doughnuts and made up her own recipe,” suggested Violet. “That’s not really stealing, is it?”

  “No, that wouldn’t be stealing,” Steve said. “But I don’t think that’s what’s going on here. This doughnut has the same ingredients! My parents worked for months to get The Masher to come out correctly. They tried and failed a lot of times until they got it right. It’s a difficult recipe to make. It would be impossible to copy a Masher just by tasting one.”

  Dawn looked at the menu. “There are The Twisters,” she said. “I wonder what ‘Soldier’s Specials’ are. We have Special Soldier’s Doughnuts for Armed Forces Day, Memorial Day, and July Fourth. They’re a kind of jelly doughnut. We fill them with raspberry jelly, cover them with powdered sugar, and put blueberries on top.”

  “Are any of those days coming up?” Benny licked his lips.

  “You’ll have to wait until a little later this spring, Benny,” said Jessie.

  Dawn sighed. “But if The Donut Dispensary offers them all the time, we’ll have to think of a different doughnut to offer.”

  Steve picked up the menu. “So, that makes three doughnuts that are like the ones my parents made. All three have similar names to ours. And at least one is a definite copy. Who can be doing this—and why?” He sounded really worried.

  “Why don’t we talk to Melinda?” asked Dawn. “She just came in for her coffee.” Dawn waved to a police officer who had walked into the shop. In the meantime, Steve went back to the counter to help customers.

  Dawn got the officer a cup of coffee and brought her to the table.

  “Officer Washington, these are my assistants, the Aldens,” said Dawn. “We’re wondering if you could help us out with something.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, Officer,” said Henry. “Some weird things are going on. They might be coincidences, but we don’t think so.”

  “I heard about the break-in,” said Officer Washington. “Does this have anything to do with that?”

  “We’re not sure,” said Jessie.

  “What was taken in the break-in?” asked the officer.

  “Some doughnuts,” said Benny. “Special ones.”

  “Just doughnuts?” the officer asked.

  “That may not sound very important,” said Dawn. “But there’s more to the story.”

  Steve returned from helping customers. “We think someone’s stealing our recipes, Melinda,” he said. “Several kinds of Delilah’s doughnuts were copied by the new doughnut shop. Even their names are practically the same.”

  “So, your recipes were taken, then?” asked the officer.

  “That’s the oddest part,” said Steve. “No one could have taken the recipes. They’ve never been written down, so there aren’t any copies of them.”

  “So, let me get this straight,” said Officer Washington, “you can’t show that you’re missing copies of the recipes, and you can’t prove the recipes were taken. I’m sorry, but I don’t think there’s anything that can be done.”

  “I see what you mean,” said Steve, rubbing his chin. “I just don’t know how anyone else could have those recipes.”

  “I wish I could help,” said Officer Washington. “Please get in touch with me if you learn anything more.”

  After the officer left, Steve and Dawn went back to helping customers.

  “It looks like we’re going to need to solve this mystery ourselves,” said Henry.

  “I think you’re right, Henry,” said Jessie. “And we might save Delilah’s in the process.”

  Suspects

  The afternoon had turned sunny and warm. The Alden children decided to eat lunch on a wooden bench in front of the store. The Aldens unzipped their jackets, and Jessie handed out sandwiches from home. The children ate quietly, enjoying the sunshine.

  “I wish we could have more warm days for the rest of our spring break,” said Violet. “This weather makes me feel good.”

  “This weather helps me think,” said Henry. “And we’ve got a lot to think about.”

  As soon as Jessie finished her sandwich, she got out her notebook and pencil. “I made up a list of people who might be copying the recipes,” she said. “We need to figure out who’s doing that. And also, who might have broken into the shop. It could be the same person, or it might be someone else. The first person on my list is Nathan, Steve and Dawn’s apprentice.”

  Henry crumpled up his sandwich wrappers. Benny threw his into the nearby trash can and then decided to run in circles around the bin.

  “Nathan sounds like a good person to have on the list,” Henry said. “He watched Steve make his recipes. He might remember them.”

  “But Dawn did say Nathan was bad at remembering the recipes,” said Violet. “Steve wouldn’t let him write them down.”

  “And Steve said it had been a while since he had made The Twisties,” said Jessie. “Nathan would have to have planned taking the recipes for a long time.”

  Benny stopped running. “What if he wrote the recipes down in secret?” he asked.

  The other children thought about that. Benny started running again.

  Violet said, “Nathan might have taken notes and then hidden them somewhere in the bakery.”

  “He could have been looking for them that time I surprised him in the back room,” said Jessie. “He said he came to get his rolling pin, but what if he was looking for his notes?”

  Violet said, “What if you stopped Nathan before he found the notes? That would explain why he had to break into the shop that night!”

  Henry nodded. “Okay, it all fits together. Except…whoever broke in probably used a key. Nathan gave Steve his key when he quit.”

  “He might have made an extra key, like Steve said,” suggested Violet.

  The children thought about this for a moment.

  “But why would Nathan steal things from Steve and Dawn?” asked Henry. “They helped him learn to be a baker. They even wanted him to take over Delilah’s when they retired.”

  “Let’s not rule him out yet,” said Jessie. She looked over her notes. “The next person on my list is Charlie, the delivery man.”

&nbs
p; “He isn’t very nice,” said Benny.

  “And he has a key to the shop,” said Jessie.

  “That’s right,” said Violet. “But Steve and Dawn say that Charlie wouldn’t do anything to hurt the shop. They’ve known Charlie for a long time. If they trust him, we should too.”

  “Maybe,” said Henry. “But remember how he knew about the break-in the same morning that it happened? And then there was that potato sack. Why would Charlie put it into his van instead of throwing it away?”

  “It does seem like an odd thing to do,” said Violet. “Maybe he decided to save it to carry things.” She finished up her sandwich.

  Benny stopped running again. “All this thinking makes me hungry,” he said. “I’m ready for dessert.”

  “Not just yet, Benny,” Jessie said. “I have one more person on my list.”

  “Who could that be?” asked Violet. “I can’t think of anyone else.”

  “It’s Hilda Ramirez,” Jessie said. “She seems really nice. Still, she might have been tempted to copy ideas that belonged to Delilah’s.”

  “Charlie did say she was talking about the break-in after it happened,” said Henry.

  “I don’t think it could be her,” said Violet. “Hilda and Dawn are friends. They taught each other things. Hilda wouldn’t do anything sneaky like that.”

  “But why are all those doughnut names almost the same?” asked Benny.

  Henry shrugged. “Maybe Hilda is the person who stole the recipes, and she didn’t think anyone would notice.”

  “We noticed,” said Violet.

  Henry stood up. “We don’t know enough to solve this mystery yet,” he said. “We can’t prove that anyone stole the recipes. Officer Washington told us that we would need proof that there were written recipes to show they had been taken.”

  “That’s true,” said Jessie. “Is it possible that the recipes exist on paper somewhere?”

  “Steve says they don’t,” said Violet.

  Jessie shut her notebook. “But what if Steve is wrong?” She stood up. “There might be a way to find out. Come on. We need to do some investigating.”

  The Aldens decided to go to the library. Jessie thought there might be information there that wasn’t anywhere else.

  “If there is any more we can find out about Delilah’s, it could be in old newspaper stories,” Jessie told the others.

  “I don’t see how we can learn anything about what’s happening now,” said Benny as they stepped inside the library. “There’s only old stuff in here.”

  “You’ll see, Benny,” Jessie told him.

  They went to the reference desk for help. The librarian, Ms. Hester, wore a big button that said “Please Interrupt Me.”

  Benny read the button. “Wow, this is the only place I’ve ever been asked to be rude!”

  Ms. Hester laughed. Then she listened to Jessie’s questions. She showed the children how to find old newspapers in online sources that the library had.

  “You can type in a subject search term here,” Ms. Hester told them. She pointed to a spot on-screen. “That will give you all the articles that mention your subject.”

  “Let’s look for Delilah’s Doughnut Shop,” said Henry.

  Jessie keyed in the search terms Delilah’s Doughnut Shop. But only a couple articles came up. Then she tried putting in just Doughnuts.

  “That’s better!” said Violet. “There are more articles, and some of them are old.”

  The children read the articles. They learned about women like Delilah, who had gone to faraway places to make doughnuts for American soldiers during wartime—to give a sense of home. They learned that all the good feelings about doughnuts during wartime made them even more popular back in the United States. That was when shops like Delilah’s opened up across the country.

  But there wasn’t much information about Delilah’s.

  “Why don’t we start over?” said Henry. “We could just type in Delilah’s. Or Delilah Berg.”

  “How about Fred Berg and Delilah Berg?” asked Jessie.

  “That’s okay,” said Henry. “I think you have to put a plus sign instead of and because it’s a search term.”

  Jessie typed in Fred Berg + Delilah Berg.

  Several articles came up. “I don’t think we’ve seen these before,” said Violet.

  “Look!” said Benny when Jessie had opened up the first article. “Is that a menu in that photo? I think it has doughnut names on it.”

  The children read a menu written on a chalk-board that Fred Berg proudly displayed.

  “I found The Twisty!” said Benny, pointing to the screen.

  “And there’s The Masher…and Special Soldier’s Doughnuts,” said Violet. “Just what Steve said. The old names from Delilah’s are practically the same as the new ones from The Donut Dispensary!”

  “That might be important evidence,” said Henry. “We should get a copy of the article.” Jessie asked Ms. Hester to help her print a copy.

  The children kept searching. A few minutes later, they found another article that looked interesting. A reporter had written about his interview of Fred Berg, Steve’s father. At the time of the article, Fred and Delilah still owned the shop.

  “Listen to this,” said Jessie. She read aloud:

  Greenfield News Reporter: Mr. Berg, you and your wife have been in business here for years. You must have made up a lot of your own recipes by now.

  Fred Berg: Yes! We’ve both come up with our own special ones. Customers are always eager to find out what new doughnut will be next.

  Reporter: Maybe you’ll write a cookbook some day!

  Fred Berg: Oh no. We won’t ever do that. We’ve decided just to keep our recipes in the family. My wife doesn’t even write down her recipes. She’s good at keeping them in her head.

  Reporter: What about you? I’m aware you are in charge of some of the stranger inventions that Delilah’s is known for. Do you write them down?

  Fred Berg: Yes, to tell you the truth, I have to keep my crazy ideas on paper. Otherwise I won’t be able to duplicate them. They’re all in a little sugar tin that I call my Vault.

  A Night Prowler

  The Aldens made a copy of the interview and left the library. They talked on their way back to the shop, where Grandfather would be picking them up. Long shadows on Main Street made the walk a bit strange. Benny tried jumping on his own giant shadow as the children talked.

  Violet huddled into her jacket. “So, now we know that some of the recipes were written down!” she said. “It’s funny that Steve didn’t know his dad was keeping notes all those years.”

  Jessie nodded. “Steve didn’t know about the sugar tin either,” she said. “It’s too bad the shop is closed for the day. I want to find out what Steve and Dawn think about this news.”

  “I hope they have some ideas about where the tin could be,” said Henry.

  Jessie tied her scarf on tight. “I hope so too,” she said. “I knew people kept lots of food in metal tins a long time ago. But I have no clue what an old sugar tin looks like. For all we know, it’s hidden in the shop somewhere. Come here, Benny. I’ll tie your scarf.”

  “Thanks,” said Benny. “I’m all shivery.”

  Though it was only early evening, it was starting to get dark. The streetlights of Greenfield blinked on. An evening breeze made the Aldens walk fast.

  “Why is there a light in Delilah’s?” asked Benny. “You said it was closed.”

  The other Aldens looked. The front of the shop was very dark, but a light seemed to be on in the back room.

  “Maybe Steve and Dawn are working late,” said Jessie. “We can tell them about Fred’s sugar tin.”

  Jessie tried the door and found that it was unlocked. The Aldens walked into the dark room. They could barely see the outlines of chairs and tables. The bells on the door jingled, startling everyone. Benny grabbed Violet’s hand.

  Sounds of movement came from the back. Jessie led the others forward quietly.


  “Steve? Dawn?” Henry whispered. “We found some information…”

  The sounds from the back room continued. The children crept closer to the kitchen door. Could it be Steve or Dawn—or was it someone else, someone who wasn’t supposed to be there?

  Jessie reached the doorway first and peered inside. She gasped. “What are you doing here?”

  It was Nathan. He stood at the big center table in the kitchen. Mixing bowls, utensils, and ingredients were on the table. He went pale with surprise.

  “Wow! You people scared me,” he said. He put down the spoon he was holding and took a deep breath. “It’s no big deal. I wasn’t doing anything wrong.”

  The Aldens came into the kitchen.

  “What do you mean?” asked Violet. “What are you doing back here?”

  “You must be the person who’s stealing Steve’s recipes!” said Benny. “We caught you.”

  “Stealing recipes?” said Nathan.

  Jessie explained about the copied doughnuts at the other doughnut shop. “We know someone’s been making the exact same doughnuts as Delilah’s.”

  “Well, it isn’t me,” said Nathan. “That’s terrible. Why would anyone do that?” Nathan pounded the table with his fist. “I’d like to catch whoever stole those recipes myself.”

  “Then why are you here when the shop is closed?” asked Violet.

  Nathan sat down on a stool. “Look,” he said, “I know I don’t work here. And I’m sorry I made you worry. It’s just that no matter how hard I try, I can’t remember how to make Steve’s chocolate icing. I was trying to remember what to do.”

  “Were you looking for his secret recipe?” asked Jessie.

  “It’s not a secret recipe,” said Nathan. “It’s just a really good one. I wanted to remember it. I tried to make it at The Donut Dispensary, but my mind went blank every time. I thought if I made the icing in this kitchen again, the recipe might come back to me.”

  “I guess that seems reasonable,” said Henry. “But did you tell Steve or Dawn you were coming?”

  Nathan shook his head. “I know it looks weird. But I just couldn’t tell them. I didn’t think they’d want me in their kitchen anymore.”