“What’s wrong?” Violet asked.
Henry stepped behind a bush and motioned for his brother and sisters to follow. “Look,” he said in a hushed voice.
The others turned and saw a small, beat-up old car parked directly across the street from Lina’s house.
“Who’s that inside?” asked Benny.
“I don’t know,” said Henry. “But whoever it is, he’s wearing dark glasses — and he seems to be watching the house.”
CHAPTER 5
Long Lost Letters
“Let’s watch for a minute,” Violet said in a low voice. “Maybe he’ll drive away soon.”
“Or maybe he’s after the hidden treasure,” said Benny.
The Aldens peered at the car. Inside, the man with dark glasses sat, his head turned toward Lina’s house, his chin bobbing up and down as if in time to music.
“He must have the radio on,” Jessie whispered.
Suddenly, the man raised a camera and peered through the lens, turning his head and the camera as if the camera was a pair of binoculars.
The Aldens ducked.
When they peeked out again, the man had put the camera down.
“A spy,” breathed Benny.
Just then another car pulled up. It was newer and nicer. A woman in a suit with a puffy scarf tied around her neck got out and marched toward the first car. She tapped on the window, and the man in the car jumped in surprise. A moment later, he got out, and the two began to talk.
Mostly, she talked and he nodded. He kept nodding as he bent into the backseat, pulled out an enormous video camera, and began to fiddle with it.
The woman tossed back her thick black hair and marched toward Lina’s house.
“Come on!” said Jessie.
The Aldens jumped out of their hiding place and raced toward the woman.
“Regina, wait,” they heard the man say.
But the woman kept walking. As she reached the gate, the Aldens stepped in front of her. “Excuse me,” Jessie said politely.
The woman stopped. The man with the camera stopped.
“Do you live here?” the woman asked.
“Here? No,” Henry said.
“Do you know anything about the hidden treasure?” the woman interrupted.
Violet’s mouth dropped open.
“Hidden treasure!” exclaimed Benny. “How did you …”
“Shh, Benny,” Violet whispered, and Benny clapped one hand over his mouth.
“A hidden treasure, that’s what I heard. And I want the story!” The woman pushed past the Aldens and continued her march to the house. Before they could stop her, she was knocking on the front door.
Lina opened it.
“Regina Lott,” the woman said briskly, offering Lina her hand. “DocuNews Reports.”
“What?” said Lina.
“I’ve come to set up an exclusive interview for my feature story about this hidden treasure of yours,” Regina went on. She said over her shoulder, “Tom, camera!”
The man in the dark glasses raised his video camera.
Lina held up a hand. “Just a minute,” she said. “What is all this about?”
“Hidden treasure. Valuable antiques. Rare quilts. It’s quite a story,” said Regina.
“How did you find out?” Violet gasped.
“I have my sources,” Regina said with a smirk.
“What did Mr. Munsey tell you?” demanded Jessie.
Regina looked at Jessie blankly for a moment. “Who?” she asked. Then she turned to Lina. “Never mind. Back to the story. You’re cleaning this house you just bought, this old, abandoned house, searching for a hidden treasure, and…”
“No one in my family ever really believed that old story,” said Lina.
“… and there in a hidden drawer…” Regina continued, then paused, as if she expected someone else to finish the sentence.
“What hidden drawer?” asked Benny. “The quilts weren’t in a hidden drawer.” Then he clapped his hand over his mouth.
“Quilts,” said Regina. “Ah, yes, quilts. Are they as rare and valuable as you hoped?” As she asked the question, Regina raised a small microphone toward Lina.
“Wait a minute,” said Henry, who had just noticed that the cameraman was filming them.
“Valuable quilts. A hidden treasure,” Regina went on. “Are you going to sell the quilts to fix up this house and make it into your dream home?”
“No!” said Lina. “At least, not all of them.”
“So they are valuable!” said Regina triumphantly. “What about the other treasure? Is it jewelry? Gold?”
Looking alarmed, Lina said, “We haven’t found anything like that.”
Regina lowered the microphone. “Listen,” she said. “I’m going to do this story with your help or without it. If you help me, you can tell it the way you want it.”
Violet spoke up. “What about the yard sale? Will you put that in your story?”
Regina tossed her thick hair. It was a gesture she seemed to enjoy. “What yard sale?”
“There’s a yard sale right here on Saturday with lots of things we found in the house and attic,” Violet explained.
“Including the quilts?” asked Regina.
“Those aren’t for sale. But we found lots of other amazing stuff,” Jessie said.
“Show me some of this, er, amazing stuff, and I might give you some very good publicity for your yard sale,” said Regina. She added, “If you show me the quilts, too.”
Henry glanced at Lina.
Lina sighed. “Oh, all right. Follow me.”
She led the way to the attic.
Regina didn’t sneeze. She stalked around the attic, peering at everything.
“I’ll show you the quilts,” said Lina, “but please, don’t put them in the story about the yard sale, because they aren’t for sale.”
Regina tapped her chin with one long, painted fingernail. “Hmmm. Well, if you’ll let me take some good footage of the quilts now, I’ll do a quick report on your yard sale. We’ll just say treasures from your attic are going to be in the yard sale and leave it at that, okay?”
She talked so fast that it made Violet’s head spin.
Lina blinked, then said slowly, “Okay, that seems fair.”
Once again, Lina and the Aldens unpacked the quilts.
Tom raised the camera, Regina asked questions, and Lina answered as best she could.
Finally, Regina motioned to Tom to turn off the camera. “Not bad,” she said. “These quilts will make a good story later — once you’ve decided what to do with them.”
Just then Benny, who’d been leaning against the trunk, said, “Oh!”
At the same moment, the trunk began to tip over backward.
“Benny!” shrieked Violet.
Benny saved himself from falling by grabbing Jessie’s arm. Henry grabbed the top of the trunk right before it toppled.
There was a ripping sound.
Everyone froze.
“The quilts,” whispered Violet.
But it wasn’t a quilt that had ripped. It was the thin silk lining in the lid of the trunk.
“I’m sorry,” Henry began, then stopped. He reached down and pulled a folded sheet of paper from the tear in the silk.
He handed it to Lina. She unfolded it carefully. After a long moment she said, “It’s a letter.”
Jessie peered over Lina’s shoulder at the beautiful old-fashioned handwriting. She saw the signature at the bottom. “Robert,” she said.
“It’s one of the letters Robert wrote to Hope,” said Lina.
“Letters?” Regina tried to push forward to see the letter.
“There are more,” said Henry. One by one he carefully pulled more than a dozen letters from the torn silk lining.
“What is this?” Regina demanded.
In a dazed voice, Lina told Regina the story of Robert and Hope and the wedding that never happened.
“Now, this is shaping into a story,” Regin
a said. “What do the letters say?”
“I’ll have to read them first,” Lina said. “Later.”
“When you do,” Regina said, “it’s my story, okay?”
Lina nodded, but she hardly seemed to be paying attention. She held on to the letters all the way down the stairs and to the front door.
They all watched as Regina stopped at the bottom of the stairs, raised her microphone, and said, “So, viewers, if you want treasure, this is the place. I’ve seen an attic full of it, and it’s going to be on sale here this Saturday in Greenfield. I’m Regina Lott, DocuNews Reports.”
She switched off the microphone, and Tom lowered the camera. “Okay, I’ll be back,” she called over her shoulder as she walked outside. “Come on, Tom,” she said. A moment later, they were gone.
Lina walked back to the kitchen and sat down with the letters. She spread them out.
She looked around at the Aldens. “You helped find these letters,” she said. “So you should help read them.”
The Aldens gathered around Lina, eager to hear what the letters said. Lina read them aloud, one by one, thirteen in all.
In them, Robert described the places he saw and the people he met as he traveled. He told Hope over and over how much he missed her and looked forward to coming home.
“Listen!” Lina exclaimed. She read aloud, “ ‘And how is our Wedding Ring quilt? Is it finished yet?’ ”
“So there was a wedding quilt,” said Henry.
“We saw Wedding Ring quilts at the library,” Benny told Lina. “Pictures of them.”
As she read the next letter, Lina said, “Here’s more about the quilt, I think. It says, ‘I remember how the wedding ring matches your eyes, that rare and beautiful color. It is a shade of green that will always be my favorite.’ ”
“So green wasn’t just Hope’s favorite color,” said Lina, “it was also the color of her eyes.”
“And she made her wedding quilt to match,” Violet added.
The letters were not very long, and soon they’d come to the end of them. In the thirteenth letter, Robert mentioned that he wasn’t feeling well. It was his last letter to Hope.
The Aldens and Lina sat silently for awhile. Then Lina folded the letters. “I’m going to put these in my desk and lock it,” she said. “Thank you for finding them. It’s even better than finding those quilts.”
As they headed home, Benny said, “We solved a little mystery, didn’t we? We found the letters.”
“Yes, I guess we did,” said Henry.
“But we still don’t know who tried to break into Lina’s house,” Jessie reminded them.
Violet nodded. “Yes. And who told Regina Lott about the quilts and the hidden treasure?”
“It had to be Mr. Munsey,” said Benny.
“She didn’t seem to know who Mr. Munsey was,” Jessie said.
“Maybe she was just pretending she didn’t know him,” said Benny.
“Could be,” said Henry. “But why would Mr. Munsey tell her?”
“I don’t know,” said Jessie, frowning. “It doesn’t make sense. He was worried about the quilts being safe. If everyone knows they are in the attic, they won’t be as safe.”
“Maybe that’s why,” said Violet. “Mr. Munsey wants to convince Lina to give the quilts to the museum, so…”
“So maybe he told Regina about them and tried to make it look as if someone was breaking into Lina’s house, so she’d worry the quilts were in danger,” finished Jessie.
“Yeah!” said Benny.
“Hmm,” said Henry.
“Someone else at the museum could have told Regina about the quilts, too,” Jessie pointed out.
“True,” said Henry. He sighed. “We can do a little more investigating after the yard sale tomorrow. We’ll have more time, then.”
“And maybe more clues,” Benny added.
The next morning, the Aldens ate a quick breakfast, then went to Lina’s house to help set up the yard sale. But when Jessie knocked on the front door, nobody answered.
“Knock some more,” said Henry. “Lina’s got to be here. The yard sale starts soon.”
Jessie knocked again. Finally, Lina opened the door. “Quick! Inside,” she said.
They hurried inside the house. “What’s wrong?” Violet asked.
“Is someone trying to break in again?” asked Benny.
“No! Unless you count the people who were already here for the yard sale. They started knocking on my door practically at dawn this morning. Dawn!” said Lina.
“But the sign says the yard sale starts at nine,” said Violet.
Lina made a face. “People are excited because of Regina’s little story on the news last night. Didn’t you see it?”
The Aldens exchanged glances. “No,” said Henry.
“Well, you didn’t miss much,” said Lina. “The whole thing only lasted about fifteen seconds, but I guess that was enough to — ”
Knocking on the front door interrupted her.
“The yard sale doesn’t start until nine,” Lina said in a loud voice without opening the door. “You’ll have to wait until then.”
“We’ll start putting the tables and stuff out now,” Henry said. “If we work together, we’ll have it done in no time.”
But they didn’t have a chance to work together. No sooner had Henry set up the first table and Jessie brought out the first box than all four doors of a car parked out front flew open. People spilled out and hurried toward them. “This the yard sale? Where’s the treasure?” the man in the lead asked, looking around.
“Treasure?” Henry repeated, startled.
“We saw the story on the news last night. ‘Treasure house holds yard sale,’ the reporter said,” the man told Henry. “ ‘Hidden treasures,’ she said.”
“We’re not ready yet,” Jessie said politely. “The sale starts at nine.”
“Early bird gets the worm, right?” said the man. He reached for the box Jessie had just put down. “You don’t mind if I just go through this box a little early, do you?”
“Yes!” said Jessie. “Please stop.”
The man stopped, frowning.
Henry said, “You’d better stay with the stuff, Jessie. I’ll tell Lina, and she can come help you.”
“Good idea,” said Jessie. Keeping a sharp eye on the man, she began to unpack the box.
As Henry went back up the walk, he heard Jessie say firmly, “I’m sorry, but we’re not selling anything until nine A.M. If you want to wait, you will have to wait outside the front gate.”
Henry smiled. Jessie was in charge, and he was sure the yard sale was going to be a big success.
CHAPTER 6
Sales and Snoops
“I just sold a box of old towels,” Violet reported, handing Lina the money. Lina was sitting at one of the tables with a metal box for the money. She was the yard sale treasurer. The Aldens were walking among all the boxes, tables, chairs, lamps, and other items for sale, helping the shoppers.
“This is great!” Jessie said, coming to join them. “We’ve barely been here an hour, and just look at all these people!”
“All the signs you put up helped,” Lina said. “In fact, I couldn’t have done this without you.”
Violet blushed. “Thanks,” she said. “But it wasn’t just us. Regina Lott gets some credit, too. A lot of people saw that story she did.”
A customer came up to pay for two flowerpots, and Violet let her gaze wander around the crowded yard sale. She noticed a short, bouncy-looking man who seemed to be looking as much at Lina as at the things for sale. He picked up an old vase, looked at the bottom of it, then put it down. He looked around again, then walked toward the house and moved partway behind an overgrown bush.
Violet frowned and stood up.
The man slipped out from behind the bush, glanced over his shoulder, then disappeared from sight around the corner of the house.
What was he doing? Where was he going? Violet turned to tell Lina, but
Lina was busy helping another customer. Quickly, Violet walked toward where the man had disappeared.
Henry caught up with her. “What’s wrong?” he said.
“Someone just went around the side of the house,” Violet said.
“We should check it out,” Henry said.
With Henry leading the way, the two of them hurried after the man.
“Maybe he’s just using the shortcut back to his house,” Henry said.
“I don’t think so,” Violet said. “He acted as if he didn’t want anyone to see him.”
They saw no sign of the man in the backyard.
“Hmm,” said Henry. He turned and Violet followed as he walked up the back steps. The door to the kitchen was unlocked. Henry pushed it open.
The two Aldens slipped quietly inside and listened.
Muffled footsteps sounded on the stairs.
“Come on,” said Henry in a low voice.
Still moving as silently as they could, Henry and Violet rushed to the bottom of the staircase just as the man bounced out of sight. They heard a door open and close, more footsteps, then another door open.
Henry and Violet tiptoed up the stairs. The door at the end of the hall stood ajar.
Violet ran to the door and pushed through it just as the bouncy man was opening a closet door to peer inside.
“What are you doing?” asked Henry.
“Oh!” cried the man. He jumped, letting the door slam, then turned to face them.
He was dressed in an old navy jacket, neat khakis, and a pale blue shirt with a little animal stitched on the pocket. He was wearing very white, very clean sneakers.
The man gave Violet and Henry a hurt look. “You scared me,” he said.
“We’re sorry we scared you, but what are you doing in Lina’s house?” asked Violet.
The man sighed. “It’s a nice house,” he said.
“But you have no right to be in here,” said Henry.
“I’m… looking for the bathroom,” the man said.
“It’s downstairs, right past where you came in,” Violet said. “The door was open. You couldn’t miss it.”
The man’s eyebrows went up. He reached out, picked up a small mirror on a nearby table, and turned it over to look at it. “Was it?” he said, putting the mirror down. “I must have missed it.”
Finders Keepers Mystery Page 3