Mystery Bookstore by Charles Tang

Author:Charles Tang [Warner, Gertrude Chandler]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4532-1338-4
Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company
Published: 2011-09-18T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

A Suspect Turns Up

“Wake up sleepyheads!” Jessie said the next morning. Jessie tickled Violet’s and Benny’s feet.

“Stop it, Watch,” Violet mumbled. Still dreaming, she thought she was back in Greenfield where the family dog, Watch, liked to wake up the children one by one.

Jessie laughed. “It’s me, not Watch, silly. No wonder you’re both so tired. I heard one of you get up during the night.”

Violet finally opened her eyes. She pulled the covers over her head to keep out the light. “That was Benny who got up.”

“Did not,” Benny protested.

“Did too,” Violet said.

Violet sat up on her cot. “Then I guess you were sleepwalking. I heard you.”

Benny had no idea what Violet was talking about. “I didn’t get up. But I think I heard somebody, too. Maybe it was Henry.”

“It wasn’t me,” Henry said. “I slept like a rock last night.”

“We better hurry up and get ready,” Jessie said. “Mr. Bindry will arrive any minute to finish pricing the books. And the painters are coming today.”

“Can we go down to the shop right now?” Benny asked. “Maybe somebody left footprints or fingerprints in the baby powder or dropped some of those pieces of paper we hid all over the place.”

Henry said, “I’ve already checked the shop. If anybody was snooping there last night, they didn’t walk on the floor or touch anything. The only prints down there now are the ones we made last night.”

“Darn!” Benny said.

Henry had another idea. “Don’t be too disappointed, we can try some other detective tricks. How would you like to shadow any suspicious people we see today?”

Benny liked this new idea very much. “Like they do in Miss Chase’s books? Goody!”

Jessie laughed. “That’s if we can find someone to follow, Benny. Now shadow me out to the kitchen for breakfast.”

Jessie and Benny played a tracking game, but it didn’t go very well. Benny tried to follow his sister down the long apartment hallway. But whenever Jessie turned around, Benny bumped smack into her!

“What are you children laughing about so early in the morning?” Miss Chase asked.

Jessie could hardly stop giggling. “Benny’s trying to shadow me, but he keeps bumping into me instead.”

“Well, shadows are attached to people, so that’s why I stayed close to Jessie,” Benny said. “Anyway, we’re going to follow any suspicious people we see. Maybe one of them is the person who ran down the street last night!”

Miss Chase loved Benny’s plan. “Well, let me give you a few tracking tips. First off, you don’t want to stay so close to the person that you bump into them! Just tiptoe a few feet behind or nearby, not too close and not too far.”

“What if the suspect sees me?” Benny wanted to know.

“You can pretend to be doing something else,” Jessie said. “Tying your shoe or something like that.”

Miss Chase looked very pleased. “You children seem to know my books inside out. I’m sure if anyone is up to something around the Aldens, he or she won’t get away with it for long.

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