Mystery of the Suspicious Spices

by Harper Paris

  The twins followed Deepak and Sani back into the store. Deepak sank into a chair and put his head in his hands. Sani made coffee on a tiny stove. Out in the alley, the hustle and bustle of the marketplace continued.

  “I think you have a mystery on your hands,” Ella told Deepak. “Ethan and I can help you. We’re good at solving mysteries!”

  Deepak glanced up with a puzzled expression. “But you are just children!”

  “When we were in Venice, we found a missing gondola,” Ethan said.

  “When we were in Paris, we found a stolen painting,” Ella added. “We’ve solved mysteries in other places, too.”

  “Perhaps you can help me, then,” Deepak admitted. “But . . . where do we start?”

  Ella pulled her purple notebook out of her bag. “First, we need to ask you some questions. Like, what could have made your spices taste different? Do spices ever go bad?”

  “Yes, eventually. But all my spices are very new and fresh,” Deepak replied.

  Ella wrote down this information.

  “Could animals have gotten into them? Or bugs?” Ethan piped up.

  Deepak shook his head. “No. No animals. No bugs. I cover the spices carefully every night.”

  Sani handed Deepak a cup of coffee. She also passed around a plate of bread. “You detectives cannot solve a mystery on an empty stomach,” she said, smiling at the twins. “I made these paratha this morning. They have cinnamon in them. I remember you said you like cinnamon.”

  “Thank you!” Ethan said, grabbing a piece of the bread.

  He bit into it—and almost gagged.

  The bread tasted awful!

  Chapter 7

  Colorful Clues

  Ella stared at Ethan, confused. Her brother’s face was all scrunched up, as though he had swallowed a fly.

  “Hey, what’s wrong, Ethan?” she whispered.

  “Uh . . . taste . . . the . . . bread,” he whispered back.

  Ella took a small bite. Yuck!

  Sani was making more coffee at the stove. “So how do you like the cinnamon paratha, children?” she called out cheerfully.

  “It’s great!” Ethan fibbed.

  “Yum!” Ella added politely.

  Deepak set down his coffee cup and frowned at the twins. “Are you sure? You both look a little pale.”

  Ella and Ethan squirmed. They didn’t know what to do. Should they tell the truth? They didn’t want to be rude.

  Deepak picked up a piece of the paratha and took a bite.

  “Sakala!” Deepak cried out. He spit out the bread and wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve.

  Sani whirled around. “Deepak! Why are you calling my paratha ‘gross’?”

  “Sani, this paratha is very, very salty. Did you accidentally use salt instead of cinnamon?” Deepak asked.

  “What? No, of course not!” Sani replied.

  She came over and tasted the bread. “Sakala! It is very salty. But how can that be?”

  Deepak and Sani began speaking to each other in Hindi. While they were talking, Ethan inched closer to the stove.

  He spotted the glass jar of cinnamon from before. He dipped a finger inside.

  “Ethan! What are you doing?” Ella hissed.

  “Just trust me,” Ethan replied.

  Ethan licked his finger to taste the cinnamon. He gasped.

  “This isn’t cinnamon. It’s salt!” Ethan announced.

  Deepak and Sani stopped talking. “What?” they exclaimed.

  “Maybe you accidentally switched the labels on the cinnamon jar and the salt jar,” Ethan said to Deepak.

  “That is impossible! I am very careful. Besides, salt is white. Cinnamon is brown. The spice inside the jar labeled ‘cinnamon’ is brown,” Deepak pointed out.

  This gave Ella an idea. “Deepak, where is the spice that you sold to Mrs. Gupta? And where is the spice that you sold to the man with the beard?”

  Deepak pointed to a couple of jars on the shelves. “The one on the left is the saffron. I sold some to Mrs. Gupta the day before yesterday. The one on the right is the turmeric. I sold some to the man with the beard yesterday.”

  Ella got the jars from the shelves. She then flipped through her notebook until she found the page about the spices.

  Saffron: Very valuable. Honey flavor. The spice is red, but it turns foods yellow.

  Turmeric: Slightly bitter. Golden-orange color.

  Ella read over her notes. Then she compared them to the spices in the jars. The saffron was red, just like it was supposed to be. And the turmeric was golden-orange.

  Ella scooped out samples of the two spices. She tasted each one. They were both really salty!

  Then she noticed something else. The saffron and turmeric had left stains on her fingers. They looked almost like dye stains.

  “I think I know what happened!” Ella announced.

  Chapter 8

  He’s Getting Away!

  Ella held up both her hands for the others to see. She fluttered her red-and orange-stained fingers.

  “I think someone dyed salt with food coloring to make it look like saffron, turmeric, and cinnamon. Then they replaced the real spices with the dyed salt!” Ella explained.

  “What?” Deepak burst out. Sani looked shocked.

  Ethan nodded, then started checking out the other spices. “This one is salty,” he said, sampling from a jar labeled “coriander.” “So is this one. But this isn’t salty at all. And neither is this one.”

  The four of them went around tasting samples from the other jars. Eventually, they figured out that half of the spices had been replaced by dyed salt. The other half were okay.

  “Do you know anyone who would have replaced your spices with salt?” Ethan asked Deepak.

  Deepak shook his head. “No. There is no one!”

  Ella went through her notebook again and reread her entries. “Who else works at Singh and Sons? Grandpa Harry said you have a brother named Tufan. Does he work here too?”

  “Tufan used to work here, when our father owned the store,” Deepak replied. “When our father retired and left me in charge of the store, Tufan was upset. He quit and opened another spice store in this market.”

  Ethan raised his eyebrows at Ella. Ella frowned. They were both thinking the same thing. Could Tufan have tampered with Deepak’s spices?

  “I think we should go talk to your brother,” Ethan said to Deepak.

  Ethan and Ella followed Deepak through the Kamala Market. It was even busier than when they had first arrived. Fortunately, they didn’t run into their parents. After all, they had promised not to leave Singh & Sons.

  As the twins trailed behind Deepak, they passed lots of interesting-looking stores and stalls. Ella noticed a used-book stand. A rack of soccer jerseys caught Ethan’s eye. But there was no time to browse or shop. They had to find Tufan!

  “There!” Deepak said suddenly.

  He pointed to a small store at the end of the alley. The sign on it said: SPICE PALACE.

  A huge line had formed out front. A man stood in the entryway. He smiled smugly as he handed out bags of spices and stuffed wads of money into his pockets. With his dark hair and big eyes, he looked like a younger version of Deepak.

  “Tufan!” Deepak called out.

  Tufan glanced up. His smile fell when he saw his brother.

  “I am sorry, everyone. Spice Palace is closed for the rest of the day!” Tufan announced.

  With that, he turned around and disappeared into the crowd.

  “He’s getting away!” Ethan shouted.

  Chapter 9

  The Two Detectives

  Ethan stood on his tiptoes to see where Tufan had gone. He saw a flash of yellow near the rack of soccer jerseys.

  Ethan took off running. He darted this way and that to avoid bumping into anyone.

  Soon he was just a few feet behind Tufan. Thinking quickly, he yelled, “Look out for the cow!”

  Tufan stopped in his tracks and peered around in
confusion. It was just enough time for Ethan to catch up to him—and Deepak and Ella, too.

  Deepak grabbed his brother’s arm. “You cannot escape, Tufan. I know what you did!”

  “What are you talking about, Deepak? I didn’t do anything!” Tufan yelled.

  “You replaced my spices with salt and tried to steal my customers,” Deepak stated. “Of course, I never would have figured it out without these two young detectives!”

  Ethan and Ella stood up very straight.

  Tufan looked defeated. “This is our father’s fault for leaving Singh and Sons to you. It should have been my store!”

  “I know you were unhappy with our father’s decision, Tufan. But you should have talked to me. We could have worked this out. You should not have tried to destroy our family’s store,” Deepak told him.

  “Yes, you are right,” Tufan said, hanging his head. “I am sorry, Deepak. Will you ever forgive me?”

  Deepak held out his hand. Tufan clasped it. The two brothers shook hands.

  * * *

  When Mr. and Mrs. Briar walked into Singh & Sons, the twins were helping Deepak and Sani throw out the dyed salts. Tufan had returned to his own store to retrieve all the spices that he had taken from Deepak’s store.

  Mrs. Briar apologized to the Singhs. “I’m sorry we were gone for so long. I managed to get lots of material for my article!”

  “And I bought a couple of terrific antique maps,” Mr. Briar said, patting his shopping bag. “So! What did we miss?”

  “Well, let’s see. We had some drama earlier. Someone had been meddling with my spices,” Deepak replied.

  “Really? How on earth did you figure that out?” Mrs. Briar asked, surprised.

  Ethan caught Deepak’s eye and held his finger to his lips. He didn’t want their parents to know that they had left the store.

  Deepak grinned and nodded. “I consulted some detective friends of mine,” he said to Mr. and Mrs. Briar.

  Mr. Briar whistled. “Wow! They sound like very good friends to have!”

  “Indeed!” Deepak said merrily. He winked at Ethan and Ella. They winked back at him.

  Sani held out several small packages. “These are for you,” she told the twins.

  Ethan and Ella opened their packages. Ethan’s contained a jar of cinnamon that had been engraved with a bird. Ella’s contained a jar of saffron that had been engraved with a flower.

  “Thank you!” they said excitedly. They admired the engravings.

  “You’re welcome. But we are the ones who should be thanking you,” Sani replied.

  “For helping us around the store this morning,” Deepak added quickly.

  “Sounds like you kids have become quite the spice experts,” Mr. Briar remarked.

  “We sure have!” Ethan said, elbowing Ella.

  The twins exchanged a secret smile.

  Ethan Briar peered over the edge of the rocky cliff. “Whoa! That’s a big drop!” he exclaimed. The roaring river down below now looked like a skinny ribbon.

  “I believe you,” said his twin sister, Ella, nervously. She kept her gaze straight ahead and clutched Butterscotch’s reins. “Butterscotch” was the nickname she had given her Peruvian Paso horse. Ethan called his horse “Keeper” because he liked soccer.

  Ella, Ethan, and their parents, Andy and Josephine, were horseback riding through the Sacred Valley in Peru. The guide, Fernando, led their tour group along a dirt path that went steeply uphill. Towering mountains, lush, green grass, and colorful flowers surrounded them.

  The Sacred Valley was the Briars’ second stop in Peru. Their first stop had been the capital city of Lima. In Lima, they explored catacombs—ancient passageways underground—and swam in the Pacific Ocean. It was the same ocean they swam in when they’d visited their family friends in California the year before!

  The Briar family was taking a big trip around the world. Mrs. Briar was writing about their trip for the Brookeston Times, which was their hometown newspaper. The family had already been to Italy, France, China, Kenya, and India since leaving Brookeston several months ago.

  “Kids, check it out!” Mr. Briar said, pointing.

  The twins gasped. Up ahead was a sight that was both totally awesome and totally confusing at the same time! Wide terraces had been carved into the side of a mountain. Along those terraces were little pools. Hundreds of white patches covered the pools, like snow.

  Except that it wasn’t snow.

  “We have arrived at the salineras de Maras, or the salt mines of Maras,” Fernando, the guide, explained. “The people of this area have harvested salt here since before the time of the Incas. There is natural salt water inside this mountain. The people let the salt water collect into pools. They wait for the water to evaporate, or dry up, in the sun. What remains are those white patches of salt you see before you.”

  “Cool!” Ethan said. He and Ella knew about evaporation from their dad’s science lessons. He was homeschooling the second graders.

  “What are Incas?” Ella whispered to Mr. Briar.

  “The Incas were a civilization of people who used to live here more than five hundred years ago,” Mr. Briar whispered back.

  “Can we walk around?” Mrs. Briar asked Fernando as she tucked her blond hair under her helmet.

  “Sí. We will tether our horses and explore the mines on foot,” Fernando replied. “We will even be able to taste some of the salt.”

  People from the tour group began tying their horses to posts.

  As Ella tied up her horse, she noticed a little boy nearby. A blue toy snake was draped across his shoulders.

  “Isn’t this great, Slither?” the little boy said to his snake.

  Standing next to him was a teenaged girl. She didn’t look very happy.

  Ella wondered who they were. But before she could find out, it was time to begin the tour of the salt mines.

  HARPER PARIS

  loves to travel. Her favorite cities in the world are Paris (like her name!) and New York City. She has collected many souvenirs on her travels, including a good-luck coin from Japan and a reindeer-horn pendant from Sweden. She also loves mysteries. When she was a kid, she read Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books after bedtime with a flashlight. She now lives with her family (including two cats and a bunny, who are not good travelers) in Ithaca, New York.

  MARCOS CALO

  has worked as a professional artist for more than fourteen years. He has worked in different fields: illustration, animation, and comic books. He lives with his wife and daughter in A Coruña, a small Spanish town by the seaside.

  Little Simon

  Simon & Schuster • New York

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  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  LITTLE SIMON

  An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division • 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020 • www.SimonandSchuster.com • First Little Simon paperback edition December 2014 •

  Copyright © 2014 by Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. LITTLE SIMON is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc., and associated colophon is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc. The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com. Designed by John Daly. The text of this book is set in ITC Stone Informal.

  Jacket design by John Daly

  Jacket illustrations by Marcos Calo

  Jack
et illustrations copyright © 2014 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Paris, Harper. The mystery of the suspicious spices / by Harper Paris ; illustrated by Marcos Calo. — First edition. pages cm. — (Greetings from somewhere ; #6) Summary: In a Mumbai market, twin detectives Ethan and Ella investigate why a spice seller’s spices have suddenly gone bad. [1. Mumbai (India)—Fiction. 2. India—Fiction.

  3. Spices—Fiction. 4. Brothers and sisters—Fiction. 5. Twins—Fiction. 6. Mystery and detective stories.] I. Calo, Marcos, illustrator. II. Title. PZ7.P21748Mze 2014 [Fic]—dc23 2014000351

  ISBN 978-1-4814-1468-5 (hc)

  ISBN 978-1-4814-1467-8 (pbk)

  ISBN 978-1-4814-1469-2 (eBook)