Clue in the Corn Maze

by Gertrude Chandler Warner

  “But this kind of work is fun,” Violet said.

  Just as they were turning to leave, Benny noticed a nasty jagged cut on Kurt’s arm.

  “Kurt, what happened to your arm?” Benny asked.

  “What? Oh, that,” Kurt pushed up the sleeve of his black hooded sweatshirt and looked at the cut. “I was uh … taking out an old barbed wire fence last night. I must have cut it then.”

  “That rusty old fence down by the creek?” Ken cried.

  “That’s the one,” Kurt replied.

  “By yourself?” Ken asked.

  “Sure. Why not?” Kurt said with a shrug.

  Ken snorted. “You’re not that much younger than I am, Kurt. And apparently you’re not as smart as I am, either. What are you thinking taking on a big job like that by yourself?”

  Kurt shrugged. “I can handle it,” he said.

  “That looks like a bad cut,” Violet said with concern.

  “When was your last tetanus shot?” Ken asked.

  Kurt scowled. “Will you quit treating me like a child? I’m fine!”

  “Why don’t you let Jack come over and help you finish with that fence,” Ken suggested.

  “That won’t be necessary,” Kurt said. “The job’s done. Now if you don’t mind, I think I’ll head home. I’ve got things to do.”

  Kurt plopped his hat on his head, then headed out the back door.

  Ken just sat at the table and shook his head. “Stubborn old coot,” he muttered.

  “You and Kurt sure argue a lot,” Benny said.

  Ken looked surprised. “Yes, I guess we do,” he said. “We’ve always argued. Ever since we were little kids. We’re still at it.”

  “Why?” Violet asked.

  Ken shrugged. “I don’t know. We’re both stubborn. And I think deep down, we both like arguing.”

  The Aldens frowned. It was hard to understand why brothers would enjoy arguing!

  CHAPTER 8

  The Blue Pickup

  The Aldens worked on the maze for most of the day. Mr. Sweeney cut posts of wood, then Violet and Benny lined them up where they needed to go. Henry and Jessie stapled chicken wire fencing from post to post. And everyone attached cornstalks into the chicken wire. The maze wouldn’t be perfect, but at least it would be open in time for the festival on Saturday.

  Jessie pounded in another post, then tucked her hair behind her ear. She glanced at the cornstalks beside her. “Did you notice how thick these stalks are?”

  “They’re pretty thick,” Violet agreed as she dropped another cut post next to Henry.

  “I wonder what the person last night used to chop them down?” Jessie asked.

  Henry stapled chicken wire to Jessie’s post. “Probably a machete,” he said.

  “A machete must be pretty sharp,” Jessie said, “to cut through a plant that’s so thick.”

  “You’d get a pretty nasty cut from one if you weren’t careful,” Henry said.

  “Kurt had a pretty nasty cut,” Benny pointed out.

  “He said he got it from an old barbed wire fence,” Violet said. “Do you think he could be lying?”

  “I don’t know,” Benny said.

  Mr. Sweeney came up behind the children. “I need to go into town and get some more chicken wire,” he said. “We don’t have quite enough to finish the job.”

  “Would you like us to go with you, Mr. Sweeney?” Violet asked.

  “No. Why don’t you finish up what you’re doing. Then you can take a break until I get back,” he said.

  The Aldens used up all the chicken wire they had left, then they decided to take a walk and talk some more about the mystery.

  “Even though some of the clues point to Kurt and David, I just don’t think it’s either of them,” Violet said. “They’re Ken’s family. Family members don’t hurt each other.”

  “I hope not, Violet,” Henry said. “But think about it. Either one of them could have come over and toilet-papered the maze during the night. We know the cap with the light belongs to David. This morning, David said he was talking to his wife, but he could have been talking to Kurt. Remember, he said, ‘One more scare like this and he’ll be ready to sell.’ And now this cut of Kurt’s seems awfully suspicious.”

  The Aldens found themselves walking down the hill toward Peggy Rodman’s place. She was outside working in her vegetable garden. A wheelbarrow of zucchini stood beside her.

  “Hello, Ms. Rodman,” Violet said politely.

  Peggy looked up at the Aldens, squinting in the sun. She frowned. “You’re the kids who are staying with Ken Johnson, aren’t you?” she asked.

  “Yes,” Jessie replied.

  “Too bad about the festival on Saturday,” Peggy said as she tossed another zucchini into the wheelbarrow.

  “What do you mean?” Henry asked.

  “Well, the festival is cancelled, isn’t it?” Peggy asked. She held her hand to her forehead to shade her eyes. “I heard about the trouble up at Ken’s place last night. I heard part of the maze was completely destroyed.”

  “We’re helping to fix it,” Benny said.

  “Ken said the festival will go on as scheduled on Saturday,” Jessie added.

  “Really?” Peggy looked surprised. “Boy, Ken just doesn’t give up, does he?”

  “Nope,” Benny said.

  “Well, have a nice day,” Henry said.

  The Aldens were about to continue walking when Peggy said something that stopped them in their tracks. “Did you all hear that noisy truck that came roaring down the road during the night?”

  “You heard a truck during the night?” Jessie asked.

  “Anybody within ten miles of here had to have heard it,” Peggy declared. “Whoever it was, the cops ought to take away his driver’s license. The guy was probably driving about eighty miles an hour.”

  “What time was that?” Henry asked.

  “About three-thirty in the morning,” Peggy replied.

  That was just after the Aldens and Ken had woken up and gone outside.

  “Did you get a good look at the truck or was it too dark?” Benny asked.

  “Well, I could tell when it went under that street light over there that it was blue,” Peggy said, pointing at a street light over by the road. “And I noticed one of the headlights was out. But that’s all I saw.”

  “I wonder if the person who destroyed part of Ken’s maze got away in that truck,” Violet said.

  “Well, if you find a blue truck that’s got a headlight out, you might want to talk to the owner,” Peggy said.

  As the Aldens walked away, Benny said, “We know somebody who has a blue truck. I don’t know if they’ve got a headlight burned out. But they definitely have a blue truck.”

  “Kurt,” the others said at the same time.

  “I think we’d better pay a visit to Kurt,” Jessie said.

  Mr. Sweeney was still gone when the children returned to Ken’s. Grandfather and Ken were in the middle of a game of chess.

  “Does Kurt live very far away?” Henry asked.

  “His is the next farm up the road,” Ken replied. “It’s about a mile away. Why?”

  “We were thinking we’d like to visit him,” Jessie said. “Would that be all right?” She didn’t want to tell Ken why they wanted to visit Kurt. Not until they were sure about their suspicions.

  “That would be fine,” Ken said as he moved a pawn forward. “You might enjoy looking around his farm. Just don’t tell him I said so.” Ken winked.

  “Be back in time for supper,” Grandfather said.

  “We will,” Violet promised.

  The children set off. They trudged up one hill, then down the other side. When they came to the top of the next hill, they saw a tall white farmhouse in the valley below. It looked a lot like Ken’s house, only smaller.

  “That must be Kurt’s house,” Benny said, pointing.

  A familiar rusty blue pickup truck sat under the shade of a large maple tree. As the Aldens drew clos
er, they noticed the right headlight was smashed in.

  “Oh, no,” Violet moaned when she saw the broken headlight.

  “Let’s go talk to Kurt,” Henry said.

  As the Aldens approached the house, they heard a strange noise. It lasted a few seconds, then stopped. Then it started again.

  “What’s that noise?” Jessie asked.

  “It sounds like a machine gun,” Benny said. The noise was coming from the front porch.

  The children approached the porch very cautiously.

  “It’s Kurt!” Henry said with a short laugh. “He’s snoring.”

  Kurt was lying on his back on a padded wicker sofa. He was sound asleep.

  “Should we wake him?” Violet whispered.

  But before anyone could answer, Kurt’s eyes flew open. “What?” he said, startled. “What’s the matter?”

  “Oh, it’s you,” Kurt said when his eyes focused on the Aldens. He rubbed his eyes and smiled. “I’m afraid you caught me.”

  “Caught you?” Violet asked.

  “Caught me sleeping in the middle of the day,” Kurt said. He sat up. “But I’m awake now. What brings you kids up here on such a nice day?”

  The children climbed the porch steps and stood around in an awkward semicircle.

  “We heard a car or truck out by the road last night right after we chased the person who was trying to destroy the maze,” Henry began.

  “You heard a vehicle in the middle of the night? On our quiet little road?” Kurt looked surprised.

  “Yes,” Jessie said. “We also talked to your neighbor, Peggy Rodman.”

  Kurt scowled when Jessie mentioned Peggy’s name.

  “She heard it, too,” Jessie went on. “In fact, she said she even saw the vehicle.”

  Jessie watched Kurt carefully. “She said she saw a blue pickup truck that was missing a headlight.”

  “Hmm,” Kurt said, glancing over at his truck. “I have a blue pickup that’s missing a headlight.”

  The Aldens waited for him to say more.

  “I suppose you’re wondering whether it was my truck that Ms. Rodman saw?” Kurt asked.

  “Yes,” Jessie said.

  Kurt took a deep breath, then let it out. “Okay, I admit I was out late last night. But it’s not what you think.”

  He shifted on the sofa. “I didn’t destroy Ken’s maze. I would never do anything to hurt my brother. I was trying to help him.”

  “Help him how?” Violet asked. “What were you doing?”

  “I’m worried about Ken,” Kurt said. “Somebody really wants him to cancel the festival. Whoever it is, I’m afraid that person could be dangerous. So last night I took my truck and parked on the road next to Ken’s. Then I waited. I wanted to see if anyone came onto the property.”

  “And did you see the intruder?” Henry wanted to know.

  “Unfortunately, I fell asleep,” Kurt said. “I didn’t wake up until you folks started chasing him.”

  “That’s too bad,” Benny said.

  “Yes, but I saw him run across the road and into the cornfield across the way,” Kurt said. “Then he disappeared.”

  “Did you get a good look at him?” Henry asked.

  “Not good enough. He was wearing a dark shirt and pants. And it looked like he had a hood of some kind over his head.”

  “That was all we saw, too,” Violet said.

  “I know the road that runs on the other side of that field,” Kurt went on. “It goes behind Peggy Rodman’s place. So I took off as fast as I could, hoping I’d catch him coming out the other side. But by the time I got over there, he was gone.”

  “That’s why you were so tired this morning,” Violet said. “You really were up most of the night.”

  “Yes.”

  “So why didn’t you just tell us that’s what you’d been doing this morning?” Jessie asked.

  Kurt smiled. “I didn’t want Ken to know I’d been staking out his place like some sort of undercover detective,” he said. “He would’ve been angry. He’d have said I should mind my own business.”

  “He probably would have,” Henry agreed. “Ken likes to take care of himself.”

  Later, when the children were walking back to Ken’s, Jessie said, “Well, that explains the blue truck that Peggy saw.”

  “We aren’t any closer to solving this case than we ever were,” Benny grumbled.

  “This is a tough one,” Henry agreed. “But we’ll figure it out.”

  “At least the festival will go on,” Violet said.

  “Unless our intruder shows up again,” Jessie said.

  CHAPTER 9

  Trouble!

  When the Aldens returned to Ken’s, Mr. Sweeney was back. He was just finishing up the last of the repair work in the maze.

  “Tomorrow we paint the fence posts,” Violet said.

  “And decorate for the festival,” Benny added.

  “Can you kids help me go down all the paths right now and make sure the rest of the maze is in good shape?” asked Mr. Sweeney.

  “Sure,” the Aldens replied.

  They divided up—Mr. Sweeney, Henry, and Violet, and Jessie and Benny—and headed down different paths.

  “Everything looks good over here,” Jessie called after a little while.

  “Here, too,” Henry called back.

  “Wait a minute,” Violet said. “What’s that?”

  A round black object had caught her eye. Violet and Henry rushed down the path to see what it was.

  “A tire?” Violet said with surprise. The tire was short and fat.

  “It’s too small to have come from a car,” Henry said.

  “What else could it have come from?” Violet asked.

  “I don’t know,” Henry said as Mr. Sweeney, Jessie, and Benny came up behind them. “Maybe a wagon?”

  Mr. Sweeney picked up the tire. There was another note underneath. Henry picked it up. Like the other notes that had been found in the maze, it was written in letters cut from magazine or newspaper headlines.

  “CANCEL THE FESTIVAL OR THERE WILL BE TROUBLE,” Jessie read over Henry’s shoulder.

  “Oh, no,” Violet said.

  “What kind of trouble?” Benny asked.

  “I don’t know,” Mr. Sweeney said grimly. “But this looks like a tire from the trailer we use for hayrides. I’d better go see if the trailer is okay.”

  The children followed Mr. Sweeney through the maze and over to the barn.

  Mr. Sweeney grabbed a tire iron from a workbench in the corner, then went around and checked each tire on the trailer.

  “They’re all tight,” Mr. Sweeney said after he’d checked the last one.

  “So what does the note mean?” Benny asked.

  “Maybe it means the person hasn’t actually done anything yet, but they’re planning on doing something to the tires sometime before the festival,” Henry said.

  Violet gasped. “That sounds dangerous!”

  “We’d better show this note and tire to Ken and Grandfather,” Jessie said. She and Henry picked up the tire and trooped up to the house.

  They found Ken and Grandfather making dinner in the kitchen. Grandfather was peeling potatoes. Ken was snapping beans at the kitchen table. A beef roast rotated slowly in the rotisserie on the counter.

  Ken looked up curiously as Mr. Sweeney and the children walked in. When he saw the worried faces, he asked, “Is something the matter?”

  “We may have some more trouble,” Mr. Sweeney said, pointing to the tire.

  Ken looked at the tire. “I don’t understand,” he said.

  Henry showed him the note.

  “Th-this sounds like a threat!” Ken said angrily. He looked at the children. “Where did you get this?”

  “We found it in the maze,” Violet said. “It was down one of the dead-end paths.”

  “Do you suppose the person who was hacking down the corn put it there last night?” Jessie asked.

  “It wasn’t there this morning,�
�� Mr. Sweeney said. “I walked through the whole maze looking for damage. If this note and wheel were there then, I would’ve seen them.”

  “So somebody must have put them in there today while you were shopping for chicken wire and we were out walking or visiting Kurt. That’s the only time the maze was unguarded,” Jessie said.

  “I’m guessing it’s the same person who tried to destroy the maze last night. Now we’re being warned there’s going to be trouble if the festival goes on as planned,” Henry said.

  “Did you see anyone around, Ken?” Violet asked.

  “No,” Ken replied. “James and I were playing chess all afternoon.”

  “David stopped by for a few minutes,” Grandfather said. “I wonder if he saw anything?”

  The children exchanged looks. If David had stopped by, they wondered, could he have left the wheel and the note?

  “I’m worried,” Ken said, shaking his head. “What if this person makes good on his threat? What if he loosens one of the wheels on the trailer and the trailer tips over? People could get hurt.”

  He slumped back against his chair in defeat. “I think I’m going to have to cancel the festival,” he said sadly.

  “No!” the Aldens said together.

  “I’m sorry, kids,” Ken said. “But I don’t see any other choice. I can’t take a chance on someone getting hurt.”

  “Should I call the radio station so they can make an announcement about the festival being canceled?” Mr. Sweeney asked. “We don’t want people driving out here for nothing.”

  “It’s a little late to do that today,” Ken said. “The office is probably only open until five o’clock. But if you’d take care of that for me tomorrow, I’d appreciate it.”

  Mr. Sweeney nodded.

  “So that gives us less than twenty-four hours to solve this case,” Henry said glumly.

  “If we figure out who’s doing this, you won’t have to cancel the festival, will you, Ken?” Violet asked.

  “No,” Ken said. “But do you really think you can catch someone so quickly?”

  “We’ll sure try,” Henry said.

  “We know one thing for sure,” Jessie said after supper. The sun was going down, but the children sat on bales of hay behind the barn reviewing all the clues they had.