The Giant Yo-Yo Mystery

by Gertrude Chandler Warner

  Jessie frowned. “Excuse me?”

  “You heard me,” the voice said. “I’m warning you, if Jeff doesn’t stop, there will be trouble.”

  “Who is this?” Jessie asked. “Hello? Hello?”

  But whoever it was had already hung up.

  “Who is it?” Jeff asked as he walked across the shop.

  Jessie hung up the phone. “I don’t know. He didn’t give a name. He said, ‘Tell Jeff to stop building that yo-yo.’ And then he said, ‘I’m warning you, if Jeff doesn’t stop, there will be trouble.’”

  Violet looked alarmed. “What kind of trouble?”

  “I don’t know,” Jessie said. “That’s all he said.”

  “Well, I don’t respond to threats,” Jeff said. “I’m not quitting this project just because someone calls up and tells me there will be trouble if I don’t.”

  “Good,” Henry said. He didn’t want Jeff to stop building the yo-yo, but still, the phone call made him a little nervous.

  CHAPTER 4

  A Trip to the Library

  “I wonder who made that phone call,” Jessie said a few minutes later. The Aldens were gathered in the small parking lot outside Jeff’s shop.

  “I don’t know,” Henry said, hoisting his backpack onto his shoulder. “But I don’t like it.”

  While they were standing there, Benny noticed a curtain moving in the front window of the little yellow house across the street. Was Mrs. Thorton watching them again? He wondered.

  “Remember, Mrs. Thorton said she’d do whatever it took to stop Jeff from building the yo-yo?” Benny asked.

  “Yes,” the others said.

  “Maybe she’s the one who made the phone call,” Benny suggested.

  “I don’t think so,” Jessie said. “The voice on the phone was definitely a man’s voice.”

  “Then maybe it was her son,” Benny said. “Jeff also said he thought her son Erik was visiting right now.”

  “Why would he call Jeff?” Henry asked. “Just because his mother thinks the yo-yo is too dangerous?”

  “I don’t know. That doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Jessie said.

  “I wonder what record Erik Thorton tried to break.” Violet said.

  “Maybe we should go over to the library and see if we can find out?” Jessie suggested.

  Jeff’s shop was only a few blocks from the library, so Henry opened his backpack and took put his cell phone. Then he called Grandfather to see if it was okay if he, Jessie, Violet, and Benny went to the library before Grandfather picked them up. Maybe they could even have lunch at the Greenfield Diner along the way.

  “That sounds like a nice idea,” Grandfather said. “Call me when you’re finished at the library.”

  So the children headed downtown. The diner was on the corner of Center Street and 4th Avenue. Bells jangled on the door when the Aldens stepped inside.

  “Have a seat anywhere,” a waitress called as she delivered an armload of plates to the people in the back booth.

  The Aldens chose a table near the front door, then opened their menus.

  The waitress poured water for each of them, then took out her pad and pen. “What’ll it be?” she asked, chomping on her gum.

  The children all ordered cheeseburgers, fries, and vanilla milkshakes. Then they sat back to wait for their order.

  “I want to get some books on yo-yos when we’re at the library,” Benny said.

  “Maybe I can find one with pictures on how to do a sleeper.”

  “I’d like to get some books on yo-yos, too,” Violet said. “Did you know that the yo-yo is the second oldest toy in history?”

  “It is?” Jessie asked.

  “Yes,” Violet said. “Yo-yos have been around for twenty-five hundred years. I read that in one of those articles that Jeff gave me.”

  “If the yo-yo is the second oldest toy, I wonder what the oldest toy is?” Benny said.

  “The doll,” Violet said. “I read that in the same article. I’d like to see what else I can find out about the history of yo-yos.”

  The waitress brought their food and the children dug in.

  “Mm!” Benny said as he wrapped his mouth around the huge burger. “I’m starving!”

  “You’re always starving, Benny,” Violet teased. She took a sip of her milkshake. As she put her glass down, she noticed a gray station wagon parked across the street.

  “I don’t believe it!” Violet said, staring out the window.

  “What?” Jessie asked. She turned around in her seat to see what Violet was looking at.

  “That same gray station wagon we saw in front of Jeff’s shop last night and this morning is now parked right out in front of this diner,” Violet said.

  “Is there anybody in it?” Henry asked, straining his neck to see.

  “No,” Violet replied. “Do you still think it’s a coincidence we keep seeing that car?”

  “I don’t know,” Henry said with concern. “The more often we see it, the more I wonder if we’re being followed.”

  “But why would anyone want to follow us?” Jessie asked.

  “I don’t know,” Violet said.

  “We’re looking for some information on Erik Thorton,” Jessie told the reference librarian.

  “What kind of information are you looking for?” the librarian asked.

  Henry let his backpack drop to the floor. “Well, we know he grew up here in Greenfield, but he doesn’t live here anymore. We heard he tried to break a world’s record a few years ago. We’d like to know what that record was.”

  “And whether he actually broke it or not,” Benny put in.

  “It sounds like you want some magazine or newspaper articles,” the librarian said. She showed them how to search magazine and newspaper databases.

  “If you find something, let me know,” the librarian said. “I’ll see if we have the actual magazine or newspaper that you’re looking for.”

  The children set their jackets and Henry’s backpack on a table, and decided to look on the Internet first. When there were no matches for Erik Thornton, they started to search the library indexes for newspaper or magazine articles.

  “Here’s one,” Violet said, sitting up a little straighter. “It’s an article from the Greenfield Gazette. ‘Local Boy Attempts World’s Record.’”

  “What’s the record for?” Benny stood on his tip-toes, trying to see. “Does it say?”

  “Oh, wow,” Jessie said, staring at the computer screen. “You’re not going to believe this.”

  “What?” Violet asked.

  “It looks like Erik Thorton tried to build the world’s largest yo-yo, too.”

  “No! Really?” Henry said.

  “There’s just one sentence that says what the article is about,” Jessie said. “If we want to know more, we have to get the whole article.”

  “Are there other articles about him besides this one?” Violet asked.

  Jessie scanned the listings on the computer screen. “It looks like there were several articles about him in the Greenfield Gazette.”

  Henry copied down the information. Then he said, “Let’s go ask the librarian if they’ve got these newspapers here.”

  The children trooped back over to the reference desk.

  “We do have that newspaper,” the librarian told them. “But it’s on microfiche. Do you know how to use the microfiche machine?”

  “No,” Jessie said. “But we’re willing to learn.”

  The librarian took the children over to a cabinet and pulled out a small box with the correct date. “This roll contains the newspaper you want,” she said. Then she led the children over to the microfiche machine, turned on the lamp, and showed them how to thread the machine.

  A page from an old Greenfield Gazette came up on the screen.

  “Cool!” Benny said.

  “Now all you have to do is turn this handle to go forward,” the librarian said, as she demonstrated. “This other handle goes backward. You just keep turn
ing the handles until you get to the article you want.”

  Jessie turned the handle and pages flew by on the screen in front of them.

  “What date are we looking for?” Violet asked.

  “October 26,” Jessie replied. Finally, she got to the right date. The article they were looking for was on page 4.

  Jessie skimmed through the article. “This one just talks about him building the yo-yo. It doesn’t say whether he actually finished it or whether it broke any records.”

  “It looks like his yo-yo was only eight feet tall,” Henry said. “Jeff’s yo-yo is going to be much bigger than that.”

  “If I were Erik Thorton, I wouldn’t be very happy about someone else trying to break my record,” Benny said.

  “We don’t even know for sure that he set a record,” Violet pointed out.

  “Maybe the next article will tell us that,” Jessie said. She turned the crank again, searching for the next article.

  “Here it is,” Jessie said, peering at the screen.

  “Oh no!” Violet gasped.

  “What?” Benny asked. He was a good reader for his age, but there were a lot of hard words in these articles.

  “It says here that they used a crane to lift the yo-yo up into the air,” Henry began.

  “That’s what Jeff’s going to do, too,” Violet said.

  “Yes, but it says here that when they raised Erik’s yo-yo, the rope broke and the yo-yo fell,” Henry said. “Some people got hurt, including Erik. He broke his arm.”

  “Oh no,” Benny said.

  “The record never made it into any record books,” Violet said. “It never counted at all.”

  “No wonder Mrs. Thortön doesn’t want Jeff to build the world’s largest yo-yo,” Jessie said. “It looks like this time she’s got a reason to be worried.”

  “Do you suppose that’s why Erik is in town right now?” Henry asked. “To put a stop to Jeff’s yo-yo?”

  “How would Erik have known Jeff was trying to build the world’s largest yo-yo?” Violet asked.

  “Maybe his mother told him,” Benny suggested.

  “He could be the person who called earlier and told me to tell Jeff to stop building the yo-yo,” Jessie suggested.

  “Could be,” Henry said. “But that doesn’t explain why he’d follow us around. What would he want with us?”

  “We don’t know for sure that he has a gray station wagon,” Violet pointed out.

  Jessie stood up. “Well, either way, I think we’re done here, aren’t we? Why don’t we go pick up our things at the table. Then we can take the microfiche back to the librarian and call Grandfather to see if he’s ready to pick us up.”

  “Sounds good,” Henry said as he led the way back to the table.

  He handed Jessie her jacket. Violet grabbed her jacket and Benny’s. Henry found his own jacket on the floor. He picked it up, then glanced around.

  “Hey, where’s my backpack?” Henry asked.

  “Did you leave it over by the microfiche machine?” Jessie asked.

  “No.” Henry shook his head. “I’m sure I left it here with the jackets.”

  But the table was empty. And Henry’s backpack was nowhere to be seen.

  CHAPTER 5

  Missing Plans

  Jessie went back to the microfiche machine. She searched all around it, but Henry’s backpack wasn’t there.

  Violet and Benny checked under all the tables and chairs while Henry paced nervously back and forth.

  “My cell phone was in there,” he moaned. “And so were our library books and the plans for Jeff’s yo-yo.”

  Violet bit her lip.

  “Any luck?” Jessie asked when she returned from the microfiche machine.

  The others all shook their heads.

  Jessie sighed. “Maybe someone picked it up by mistake?” she offered.

  “We could see if the library has a lost and found,” Violet suggested.

  So the Aldens headed back to the reference desk. Jessie turned in the microfiche film they had borrowed. Then Henry said, “Do you have a lost and found here? My backpack seems to be missing.”

  “We do,” the librarian said. “I don’t think we have any backpacks in there right now, but I can go take a look. What does yours look like?”

  “It’s green on the top and black on the sides, and it’s got two big pockets on the front,” Henry said.

  The librarian tapped her fingers on the counter. “You know, I saw a gentleman with a backpack like that just a few minutes ago. I saw him go into the men’s room. I don’t know if he’s still in the library or if he left after that.”

  “Thanks,” Jessie said to the librarian as they moved away from the desk. She turned to Henry. “Maybe you and Benny can check out the men’s room and the first floor of the library while Violet and I search the second floor.”

  “Good idea,” Henry said.

  So the four of them split up. Jessie and Violet started walking up and down the fiction aisles, searching every shelf they passed. They’d gotten through five aisles when Benny came to get them.

  “Henry found his backpack,” Benny said. “It was in the men’s room.”

  Jessie, Violet, and Benny went to meet Henry in the library lobby. They found him sitting on a bench, rifling through his backpack.

  “Is everything there?” Violet asked worriedly.

  “Everything except the plans for Jeff’s yo-yo,” Henry replied.

  “I hope Jeff has another copy of those plans,” Violet said as the children left the library.

  “I’m sure he does,” Henry said, “I can’t believe he’d give us his only copy. Still, it bothers me that we lost them. Jeff trusted us.”

  “We didn’t just lose them,” Jessie pointed out. “Somebody stole them. Somebody knew they were in your bag, Henry, and they took them out of there.”

  “Maybe it was the person who drives the gray station wagon.” Henry said. “Maybe he saw Jeff give them to me last night and that’s why he followed us.”

  “But he probably didn’t want us to know he was following us last night,” Benny said. “That’s why he kept going when Grandfather pulled over.”

  “And that’s why he’s been more careful about staying out of sight today,” Henry said. “We’ve seen the car, but we’ve never seen the person driving it.”

  “Jeff thinks the car belongs to Erik Thorton,” Violet said as they crossed Second Street. “But why would Erik want the plans for the yo-yo? He wants Jeff to quit building the yo-yo because he and his mom are afraid the yo-yo will fall and people will get hurt, right?”

  “That’s probably what Mrs. Thorton is worried about,” Jessie said. “But maybe Erik has other ideas.”

  “What do you mean, Jessie?” Benny asked.

  “Well, maybe Erik still wants to build the world’s largest yo-yo himself? Maybe he stole Jeff’s plans to see if Jeff has a better idea of how to do it than he had?”

  “That’s an interesting theory, Jessie,” Henry said.

  “In fact, maybe he took the flash card out of Jeff’s camera, too, so he could see how Jeff built the yo-yo so far,” Benny added.

  “Maybe we should go back to Jeff’s shop and ask him whether Erik has ever been in the shop,” Jessie said.

  “That’s a good idea,” Henry said. “And I should tell Jeff that the yo-yo plans are missing.”

  So the children made one more call to Grandfather, then walked back to the shop.

  “I don’t see that gray station wagon,” Violet said as they turned onto the street where Jeff’s shop was. But there was a blue truck parked in the small lot in front of Jeff’s shop.

  “I wonder whose truck that is,” Benny said.

  The Aldens walked across the parking lot and went inside Jeff’s shop.

  Emily whirled around when the door opened. She was standing at the printer. Her boyfriend Todd was spinning in Jeff’s chair.

  “What are you kids doing here?” Todd asked, glaring at them.
/>   “We came to talk to Jeff,” Violet said.

  “Well, Jeff isn’t here,” Emily said impatiently. She turned back to the printer and tugged at a piece of paper that seemed to be stuck inside.

  “Do you know when he’ll be back?” Henry asked. “Nope,” Emily said. “You can wait around for him if you want. But I’ve got everything done that I can do today, so I’m heading out. As soon as I get this paper out.” She tugged at the paper some more.

  “Looks like you’ve got a paper jam there,” Jessie said. “Maybe I can help?”

  Emily stepped aside as Jessie walked over to the printer. Jessie tried pushing the clear jam button on the printer, but that didn’t work. So she turned the printer around, opened the back panel and pulled out a crumpled sheet of paper.

  “Here you go.” Jessie started to hand the paper to Emily, but then she noticed what the first couple lines of the paper said. Dear Jeff, I’ve really enjoyed working for you these last couple of months, but the time has come for me to move on.

  Jessie looked at Emily. “Are you quitting your job?” she asked.

  Emily took the paper from Jessie. “Yes, I’m quitting. Todd is opening his own custom furniture shop. I’ll work for Jeff for two more weeks. Then I’m going to work for Todd.”

  Emily wadded up the paper in her hand and tossed it in the garbage can. “I think I better reprint this,” she said.

  Todd sighed. He checked his watch. “Well, hurry up. We need to get going.”

  Emily went to the computer, opened her document and started it printing it again.

  “Does Jeff know you’re quitting?” Henry asked. Jeff seemed to really like Emily. He wasn’t going to be happy to hear she was quitting.

  “Not yet,” Emily admitted. “But he’ll find out tomorrow when he gets this letter. I’ll talk to him about it then.”

  Todd stood up. “Are you ready to go, Emily?” Todd asked.

  “Just about,” Emily said. She stuck her safety goggles in the pocket of her work jacket, hung the jacket up, then she picked up her purse from the floor. There was a rolled-up paper sticking out of the purse. It looked like there were math formulas on the paper.

  “Hey, what’s that paper in your bag?” Benny asked. Was it the plans for the yo-yo?