The Giant Yo-Yo Mystery

by Gertrude Chandler Warner

  The man in the doorway stared back at Jeff. The toothpick in his mouth fell to the floor, but he didn’t even notice. He slowly backed up—right into the door. Then he spun around, whipped the door open, and left.

  “Sir?” The waitress peered nervously at Jeff. “Are you all right?”

  “What?” Jeff turned to the waitress in confusion. “Oh yes. Yes, I’m fine. Thank you.”

  The waitress left and Jeff slid the pizza closer to Henry. “You kids help yourselves,” he said as craned his neck to see out the door.

  Henry dished up slices of steaming pizza and put them on all the plates.

  “Who was that man, Jeff?” Violet asked.

  Jeff was still staring at the door. He turned to Violet. “That was my former partner, Gary Richmond.”

  A couple minutes later, Jessie noticed the gray station wagon go by again.

  “Jeff, does Gary drive a gray station wagon?” Jessie asked.

  “Did you see that car again, Jessie?” Henry asked.

  “Yes. It just went by again,” Jessie replied. “But this time it was going in the opposite direction it was going in before.”

  Jeff thought for a minute. “Gary used to drive a red pick-up. But it’s been so long since we’ve seen each other that I honestly don’t know what he drives now. I have to say, I haven’t seen his pick-up around town in quite a while, though. I used to see it all the time. So it’s certainly possible he’s gotten something else by now.”

  “Do you think he’s the one who’s been following us?” Benny asked as he took a bite of his pizza.

  “I don’t know,” Jessie replied. “He didn’t act like someone who’d been following us when he came in here. He seemed surprised to see us.”

  “Or surprised to see me,” Jeff said.

  He and the Aldens finished their food, then Jeff strolled over to the cash register to pay. When he came back, he told the Aldens, “I’m expecting another load of lumber tomorrow, so maybe you can come back late tomorrow afternoon and we’ll see what we can salvage of that yo-yo.”

  “Sure,” Henry said. “We’ll be there.”

  CHAPTER 8

  An Old Friend

  “I’d sure like to know whether Gary’s the one who’s been following us,” Jessie said.

  “And I’d like to find out whether he’s the one who took the plans out of my backpack,” Henry said. “Remember, he and Jeff were originally going to build the yo-yo together. Maybe Gary heard that Jeff was starting on it by himself and he didn’t like that. So maybe he wanted to see whether Jeff was using the plans they’d made together.”

  “That would explain why he’d want the plans, all right,” Violet said.

  “He’s probably still got a key to Jeff’s shop,” Jessie said. “He could’ve broken into the shop when no one was there and stolen the flash card out of Jeff’s camera. That way Jeff wouldn’t be able to prove he built the yo-yo and get credit for the record.”

  “That’s a good point,” Henry said. “He probably doesn’t want Jeff to get credit for building the world’s largest yo-yo without him.”

  “This all sounds very logical,” Violet said. “But there’s still one problem.”

  “What’s that?” Benny asked.

  “We don’t know for sure that Gary drives a gray station wagon,” Violet said.

  “Yes, but we can find out pretty easily,” Henry said. “All we have to do is find out where he lives. Then we can go over to his house and see if there’s a gray station wagon parked out front or in his garage.”

  “We could go over to the library and look up his address in the phone book,” Benny suggested.

  “Yes, let’s do that,” Jessie said. “I think it’s time we paid Gary a visit.”

  “If he drives a gray station wagon, he’ll have some explaining to do,” Henry said.

  So the Aldens hurried over to the library.

  “I know where the phone books are,” Benny said as soon as they stepped inside. “Follow me.” He rushed ahead of the others.

  Henry, Jessie and Violet followed Benny past the reference desk and over to a low shelf by the windows.

  “Ta da!” Benny said, gesturing toward the shelf. It was filled with phone books from all over the United States.

  Jessie found the Greenfield, Connecticut phone book on the second shelf. She pulled it out and started rifling through it, looking for Richmond, Gary. The others gathered around her and scanned the pages, too.

  “Here it is,” Jessie said, running her finger down the list of Richmonds. “Gary Richmond. 2440 Highland Drive.”

  “That’s, only a few blocks from here,” Henry said.

  “Let’s go!” Benny said.

  Jessie put the phone book back and the Aldens set out for 2440 Highland Drive.

  The houses in this part of town were old, two-story homes that had been restored slowly over time. Many did not have garages.

  The Aldens walked along Highland Drive until they came to 2440. A white picket fence surrounded the house. Flowers lined the front walk. And a gray station wagon was parked next to the back door.

  “Looks like we solved the mystery of who owns the gray station wagon,” Henry said.

  “Gary Richmond,” Violet said.

  “But we still don’t know whether Gary’s really been following us or if it’s just been a coincidence that we’ve seen his car everywhere we’ve been,” Jessie said.

  “Well, it looks like he’s home,” Benny said, opening the white gate that blocked the front walk. “Let’s go talk to him.”

  The Aldens went up the walk, clattered up the wood steps and rang the bell.

  The door opened and the Aldens stood face-to-face with the man they’d just seen at the Leaning Tower of Pizza. His mouth opened in surprise when he saw the Aldens standing on his front porch.

  “Hello, Mr. Richmond,” Jessie said politely. “Do you know who we are?”

  “I don’t know your names, but I know who you are,” Gary said coolly. “You’re friends of my former business partner, Jeff Naylor.” His right eye twitched when he said Jeff’s name.

  “That’s right,” Henry said. “Could we speak with you, Mr. Richmond?”

  He hesitated for a few seconds, then opened the door. “Please, call me Gary,” he said as he stepped outside.

  “Now, what’s this all about?” Gary asked.

  “We want to know if you’ve been following us,” Benny blurted.

  “Benny.” Jessie nudged him. That was indeed what they wanted to know, but Jessie wouldn’t have asked quite so bluntly.

  “That’s okay,” Gary said. “I can see why you’d think that. We’ve been ending up in a lot of the same places lately.”

  “Yes. Why is that?” Henry asked. “Do you know?”

  “Well, I didn’t know you all were going to be at the Leaning Tower of Pizza today. And I certainly didn’t know Jeff Naylor was going to be there,” Gary said. “Believe me, if I had known, I never would’ve gone in there.”

  “What about all the other times?” Jessie asked. “Did you mean to follow us home from Jeff’s shop the other night? Did you follow us to the library?”

  “Did you take some papers out of my backpack?” Henry asked.

  Gary let out a breath of air, then slumped back against the doorframe. “Yes, I did,” he admitted. “But it’s not what you think. I helped design those plans. They were half mine!”

  “We know you helped design them,” Violet said.

  “You do?” Gary asked. “How do you know that?”

  “Jeff told us,” Benny said. “He said you and he were going to build the yo-yo together.”

  “That’s what we’d always planned,” Gary said, rubbing his forehead. “But then we had that falling out a few months ago. I thought the yo-yo was as finished as our friendship. We certainly can’t build a yo-yo together if we’re not speaking, can we?”

  Violet bit her tongue. She wanted to ask Gary why he didn’t just make up with Jeff, but she didn�
��t want to interrupt Gary.

  “About a week ago, I heard people talking in town,” Gary went on. “They said Jeff was working on something really amazing. They said he was building the world’s largest yo-yo.”

  “Well, Jeff never told me he was continuing with the project,” Gary said. “So I had to see it for myself. I snuck into the shop one night after he and that woman he’s got working for him left. I still had a key from when I worked there. I saw the yo-yo. Or, I saw the start of it, anyway. It was just like we’d planned.

  “What I really wanted was to get my hands on the plans for the yo-yo. I tried booting up Jeff’s computer. I figured he had to have the plans on there somewhere. But he’d changed his password since I worked with him. I couldn’t get into the computer. I came back the next night, thinking I’d search the shop once everybody went home. But then I saw Jeff come out and give the plans to you. That’s why I started following you. I thought it would be easier to get the plans from you than it would be to find another copy in Jeff’s shop.”

  “So you did follow us to the library and you did take them out of my backpack,” Henry said.

  Gary looked down at the ground. “Yes,” he admitted. “But I just wanted to see whether he was using the plans we’d made together or whether he’d come up with a whole new set of plans.”

  That was exactly what the Aldens had suspected.

  “Did you take Jeff’s flash card out of his camera, too?” Jessie asked.

  Gary’s eyebrows scrunched together.

  “Flash card? What’s a flash card?”

  “You don’t know what a flash card is?” Benny asked, surprised.

  “No.”

  “It’s a little card that’s used to store data,” Henry explained. “Jeff had a flash card in his digital video camera. He said he needed to record all the steps in building the yo-yo if he wanted to get credit for breaking the record.”

  “That’s right,” Gary nodded. “You have to prove you really broke the record. Are you saying Jeff had a recording of what he’d done so far, but the recording is now missing?”

  “Yes,” Violet said.

  Gary scratched his neck. “I admit I took the plans, but I didn’t take anything out of his camera. And I didn’t vandalize the yo-yo, either. I wouldn’t do something like that. I was hurt that Jeff ever even thought I would. The police came to talk to me, you know.”

  “Yes, we know,” Henry said. “But they said there was no forced entry that night, so they wanted to talk to everyone who had a key to Jeff’s shop.”

  “Jeff told the police that even though you’d had a falling out, he didn’t think you’d really come in and damage the yo-yo like that.”

  “He did?” Gary seemed surprised.

  “Yes,” the children answered in unison.

  “What did you think of Jeff’s plans for the yo-yo?” Henry asked. “Were they pretty similar to what you two had planned together?”

  “Yes and no,” Gary replied. “It looks to me as though he used our original plans to start with, but he’s also made some modifications.” Gary walked over to a small writing desk across the room. He opened the top drawer and brought out some papers. The plans for the yo-yo!

  He came back and spread them out on the coffee table in front of the children. “See here?” he pointed at one of the sketches of a yo-yo half. “It was my idea to build it in layers like this. I told Jeff that was the only way to keep the yo-yo light enough for us for us manage.”

  Gary pointed to one of the other drawings. “But these layers here are different. I don’t know why Jeff would build the thirteenth and fourteenth layers like this.”

  “Is there something wrong with the way he’s doing it?” Violet asked.

  “Is it unsafe?” Benny asked.

  “Well, his way is going to make the yo-yo heavier,” Gary said as he sat back down. “He’s using some of the strongest cable available for the string, so it should still be fine. But I don’t know why he wouldn’t want to build the yo-yo as light as possible. Lighter is always better.”

  “Have you asked Jeff why he is doing it this way?” Violet asked.

  “Oh no,” Gary shook his head. “Like I said, we had a falling out. We haven’t spoken in more than six months.”

  “Would you like to speak again?” Benny asked. “Would you like to make up?”

  Gary sighed. “Sure, I’d like to. But I don’t think Jeff wants that.”

  “How do you know?” Violet asked.

  “Have you asked him?”

  “Well, no. But …” Gary’s voice trailed off.

  “But what?” Henry asked.

  Gary shrugged. He didn’t say anything more.

  The Aldens all glanced at one another. Jeff always seemed a little sad when he talked about Gary. And now Gary had come right out and said he’d like to make up with Jeff. There had to be a way to get the two of them together.

  “Did you know that Emily, the woman you saw at Jeff’s shop, is quitting?” Jessie asked suddenly.

  “No, I didn’t,” Gary said.

  “I wonder what would happen if you went to Jeff and asked for your old job back?” Jessie asked.

  “Oh, I couldn’t do that,” Gary said right away.

  “Why not?” the children asked.

  At first Gary didn’t say anything. He just looked from one Alden to the next. “Do you all think I should go over there and talk to Jeff?”

  “Yes. Of course. Absolutely,” the Aldens responded.

  “You don’t think he’ll tell me to go away?” Gary looked worried.

  “Well, there’s only one way to find out,” Jessie said. “You’re already not speaking to each other,” Henry pointed out. “So if he does send you away, you won’t be any worse off than you are now.”

  “But I don’t think he’ll send you away,” Violet said.

  “You’re right,” Gary said, slapping his legs and rising to his feet. “Let’s go.”

  CHAPTER 9

  Making Up

  Jeff’s eyes narrowed when he saw Gary. “What are you doing here?”

  “He came here to make up with you, Jeff,” Violet said right away.

  “He wants his old job back,” Benny put in.

  Jeff glanced curiously over at Gary. His expression softened. “Is that true?”

  “Maybe,” Gary said carefully. “We have some things to work out first.”

  Jeff nodded. “I’d like to do that. I’ve known you my whole life, Gary. So many times I’ve wanted to just pick up the phone and call you.”

  “Me, too,” Gary said as the two of them walked over to a corner to talk.

  “Do you think they’ll make up?” Violet asked.

  “I think so,” Jessie said. “They’re talking, aren’t they?”

  “Should we wait for them to finish or should we just go home?” Henry asked.

  “I don’t want to interrupt them,” Jessie said. “And I don’t want to leave without saying goodbye. So let’s wait.”

  “I’m glad Gary isn’t the one who damaged the yo-yo,” Violet said.

  “I’m glad, too,” Benny said. “But if it wasn’t him, who was it?”

  “It had to be someone who had a key to this shop,” Henry said. “But the only other person besides Jeff and Gary who has a key is Emily.”

  “But why would Emily vandalize the yo-yo?” Jessie asked. “She’s helped work on it.”

  “Maybe it wasn’t Emily. Maybe it was her boyfriend.” Benny suggested.

  “Maybe,” Jessie agreed. “But why would he vandalize it?”

  “I don’t know,” Violet said with a sigh. “It’s a mystery, all right.”

  Everyone seemed to be lost in their own thoughts, so Benny took out his yo-yo to help pass the time.

  “Hey, have you learned how to throw a sleeper yet, Benny?” Violet asked.

  “Not yet,” Benny said. “But I have learned another trick. Watch this. This is called monkey on a string.”

  Benny let out the
string on the yo-yo, then held the string by left index finger so the yo-yo hung about three inches below his finger. He threaded the string into the side of the yo-yo, then pulled down with his right hand so the yo-yo moved up the string. When it got to the top, Benny slipped his left finger out and the yo-yo went back down to his right hand.

  “Wow,” Jessie said.

  Violet clapped her hands. “That was awesome, Benny!”

  “Thanks,” Benny said. “But I still wish I could do a sleeper. Once I learn that, there are tons of other tricks I’ll be able to do.”

  “You’ll get it,” Henry said. “If you just—”

  “Keep practicing,” Benny said along with Henry.

  The others laughed.

  “That’s what everybody always says,” Benny said. “But I’ve been practicing a lot. And I just can’t get it.”

  Benny tried to practice his sleeper some more. He tried flicking his wrist the way Grandfather showed him, but it just didn’t work. Still, one way or another, Benny was determined to learn that trick.

  “Hey, look!” Violet pointed. “Jeff and Gary are over by the yo-yo.”

  It looked like their conversation was over. And it looked like they’d made up.

  “I think we can still salvage some of this,” Gary was telling Jeff. “Most of the mess is confined to the top two layers here. If we pull those boards off, we can probably wipe up what’s spilled inside.”

  Jeff walked slowly around the yo-yo, surveying the damage.

  “Then all we have to do is rebuild these two layers,” Gary went on. “It shouldn’t take that long if we work together. And I’ll bet these kids would be willing to help.” He glanced up at the Aldens.

  “Oh yes,” Jessie said eagerly. “We sure would.”

  “I suppose it’s worth a try,” Jeff said.

  He grabbed his electric screwdriver and started loosening the screws on one side of the yo-yo. Gary grabbed another screwdriver and started loosening screws on the other side of the yo-yo.

  “Maybe you kids should grab some safety goggles,” Jeff said as he pulled out one of the damaged boards and tossed it in a barrel.

  The children looked around. There were three pairs of safety goggles on the shelf above the coat rack, but they needed four.