The Aldens paid for their ice cream and sat down at a small table by the window. Benny wasted no time removing the cookie, breaking it open, and pulling out the little white slip of paper.
“Will you read it, Jessie?” he said, handing her the fortune.
Jessie studied it for a moment, then she frowned.
“Is it a clue?” Benny asked her.
“I’m not sure,” she said.
“Don’t keep us in the dark, Jessie,” Henry pleaded. “What does it say?”
Jessie tucked her hair behind her ears and read aloud:
“Twenty-four plus two,
Will give you a clue.”
Benny crinkled his brow. “What does that mean?”
Jessie shrugged. Benny looked at Henry and then at Violet. They didn’t seem to have any answers, either.
“Do the i’s have little hearts over them?” Violet couldn’t help asking. “Like the last fortune, I mean.”
Jessie nodded. “And it’s neatly printed by hand in blue ink.”
Violet felt a shiver go up her spine. This was getting more and more mysterious.
“Is there a message on the other side?” Henry wanted to know.
Jessie hadn’t thought of that. She turned the fortune over. Instead of a message, there were numbers grouped together. Jessie read them aloud:
“6-9-14-4 4-18-21-13 11-5-12-12-5-18 9-14 20-8-5 3-5-12-12-1-18.”
“Wow!” Benny was so interested in the latest fortune, he had forgotten all about his ice-cream cone. “I bet it’s a secret code!” he said, his voice rising in excitement.
Jessie looked around and realized that Martin and Lucy were staring at them. “We can’t really talk here,” she said quietly.
Henry nodded. “Let’s go.”
Dottie suddenly called out to the children. “Nothing mysterious in my fortune cookie.” She was sitting at a corner table with Martin and Lucy. “How about yours?”
The Aldens all looked at each other, not sure what to say. “A bunch of numbers,” Jessie said at last.
Dottie nodded. “Lucky numbers, no doubt.” She looked disappointed.
On their way out, Jessie stopped at the counter. “I was just wondering, Angela,” she said. “Where do you get your fortune cookies?”
Angela waved the question off. “Oh, most grocery stores carry them. Anybody can buy boxes of fortune cookies. Why do you ask, Jessie?”
“Oh, no reason,” Jessie said with a shrug. When she turned around, she noticed that Martin was watching them closely, his eyes narrowed.
“Do you think Dottie’s right?” Benny asked as they went outside. “About lucky numbers, I mean.”
“No,” Henry said firmly. “I think you’re right, Benny. It’s definitely some kind of code.”
As they finished their ice cream and walked to their bikes, Jessie looked back over her shoulder. She couldn’t shake the feeling that they were being watched. Was it just her imagination, or was somebody following them?
“What is it, Jessie?” Henry asked. He could see that something was troubling her.
“Nothing really,” said Jessie, keeping her voice low. She didn’t want to frighten Violet and Benny, who were walking ahead. “I just feel like we’re being watched.”
Henry stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and looked behind him. “I don’t see anyone.”
Jessie looked back down the street also. She saw only shoppers coming and going, the same as always. Licking a drop of strawberry ice cream from the back of her hand, she said, “It’s probably nothing.” But there was a small part of her that didn’t believe it for a minute.
CHAPTER 6
A Clue in the Soup
The Aldens puzzled and puzzled over the strange coded message. But the next afternoon, they were still stumped. None of them had seen a code like this before. Even Aunt Jane, who had been eager to see the latest fortune, couldn’t come up with any answers.
“How are we going to figure out this clue?” said Violet. She turned down the heat under the alphabet soup. The four children were busy making lunch. While they worked, they discussed the case.
“Why don’t we go over what we know about the mystery,” suggested Henry, who was squeezing lemons to make lemonade.
“Which one?” Benny set the soup bowls on the table. “The mystery we found inside the fortune cookie? Or the mystery of who put it there and why?”
“And don’t forget the third mystery,” Henry added. “Somebody has a secret identity!”
Jessie was buttering the bread for sandwiches. “At least that’s what Angela and Lucy think.”
Benny suddenly frowned. “But ... what exactly is a secret identity?”
Henry added water and sugar to the lemon juice. “It means there’s more to somebody than meets the eye,” he told his brother. “A person with a secret identity sometimes goes by another name. An alias.” He stirred the lemonade with a big wooden spoon.
“Do you think that somebody in Elmford has a secret identity?” Jessie wondered.
“Could be,” said Violet. “Martin was talking on the phone about something fishy going on, remember?”
“And he mentioned somebody named Drum Keller,” Henry recalled. He thought about this for a minute, then he got out Aunt Jane’s phone book and began thumbing through the white pages. Finally, he turned to the others. “Just as I suspected. There’s no listing in Elmford for Drum Keller.”
Jessie raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure?” she said, walking over.
“It ought to be right here.” Henry had the phone book opened on the counter. He placed his finger halfway down the page.
“Drum Keller might be new in town,” offered Violet. “Maybe his or her phone isn’t connected yet. Or maybe Drum Keller is just a nickname.”
“Maybe,” said Henry. But he didn’t sound as if he believed it. “Or ... maybe somebody in town used to go by that name but doesn’t anymore.”
“You think Drum Keller is somebody’s secret identity?” Benny’s eyes were huge.
“Could be,” said Henry.
Violet looked over at Henry as she stirred the soup. “Why would someone in Elmford need a secret identity?”
Putting the phone book away, Henry shrugged a little. “I have no idea,” he answered. “Maybe there’s somebody here who wants to hide something from his past.”
Benny placed the soup bowls on the table. “Dottie didn’t want to talk about her past,” he reminded them. “Remember?”
“Oh, Benny!” cried Violet. “You don’t really think Dottie has a secret identity, do you?”
Benny thought a bit. “Well, she didn’t want to talk about her hometown,” he argued. “She said the past was best forgotten.”
“That’s because it made her sad to think about her husband,” put in Violet. “That’s all it was.”
Jessie frowned as she brought over the egg salad sandwiches. She thought there was more to it than that. But she didn’t say anything.
“I still wonder what the man in the bookstore meant,” said Henry. “About a mysterious disappearance, I mean.” He poured lemonade into Benny’s pink cup. Benny had found the cracked pink cup when they were living in the boxcar. He always brought it with him when they traveled.
“Just one mystery at a time, remember?” Violet said as they sat down at the table. “If we put our heads together, maybe we can figure out the fortune cookie mystery.” And the others agreed.
Benny helped himself to a sandwich. “One thing’s for sure, somebody in Elmford knows we’re detectives.”
“What makes you say that, Benny?” Violet wanted to know.
“Well, why else would we keep getting those mysterious fortunes?” he said.
“We can’t be certain, Benny,” said Henry. “But it does seem like those fortunes were meant just for us.”
Jessie agreed. “Nobody else seems to be getting any weird messages — and we got two.”
“That means Angela’s fortune cookies didn’t come from the
grocery store,” Benny pointed out. “I wonder why she lied to us.”
Jessie thought about this. “Angela didn’t actually say that’s where she got them, Benny.”
Benny looked confused.
“When I asked about the fortune cookies,” Jessie went on, “Angela said anybody can buy them at the grocery store.”
“You’re right, Jessie,” Violet realized. “She didn’t actually say that’s where she got hers.” She swallowed a spoonful of alphabet soup. “Maybe Angela and Auntie Two put the weird messages in the fortune cookies.”
The others had to admit it was possible. After all, Angela had invented Fortune Cookie Delight as the Mystery Flavor of the Week. And weren’t Angela and Auntie Two both trying to drum up business? What could be a better sales gimmick than hiding clues inside fortune cookies?
“I still think our best suspect is Lucy,” Benny insisted. He drained the last of his lemonade. “We never got any weird fortunes at the Kowloon Restaurant until she started working for Auntie Two.”
“It was kind of funny that she was at the ice cream parlor,” Henry said after a moment’s thought, “just when Benny got another strange fortune.”
“Dottie was there, too.” Jessie poured more lemonade. “And she seems to be taking quite an interest in the mystery.”
Benny nodded. “She wanted to sniff out clues.”
“We’re forgetting a suspect,” Violet said. “Martin.”
Henry put down his soup spoon. “Martin’s up to something, all right. I’m just not sure it has anything to do with the fortune cookie mystery.”
“Unless ... ” Violet began and then stopped herself.
“Are you wondering if the whole town is in on this?” Jessie asked. Then she quickly added, “I don’t blame you, Violet. I’ve wondered about that myself.”
“Perhaps we shouldn’t mention the mystery to anyone,” Violet suggested. “I think we should figure out a few things on our own first.”
Henry nodded. “And we’ll keep a close eye on all of them — Martin, Dottie, Lucy, Angela, and Auntie Two.”
“If only we could figure out what the numbers mean.” Benny took a bite of his sandwich while he thought about it. Then he pulled the fortune from his shirt pocket. “Twenty-four plus two,/ Will give you a clue,” he mumbled because his mouth was full. “Twenty-four plus two makes twenty-six.” He scratched his head. “The number twenty-six isn’t much to go on.”
Henry stared at Benny. A funny look came over his face.
“Is anything wrong, Henry?” asked Jessie.
Henry didn’t answer. As he looked down at his bowl of steaming soup, an idea began to form in his mind. Then he slapped his forehead with the palm of his hand. “Of course!” he suddenly said, more to himself than anyone else. “We should have known.”
“Henry?” Jessie asked. “Tell us what you’re thinking.”
Henry was smiling. “The answer to the code is right here!” he told them. He sounded excited.
“Where?” Benny sat up straighter and stopped eating.
“Right here in this bowl,” answered Henry, stirring the soup a little with his spoon. The alphabet noodles swirled around and around.
The others stared at Henry. They looked totally confused. What on earth did alphabet soup have to do with the mysterious code?
“When Benny mentioned the number twenty-six,” said Henry, “something just clicked. That’s exactly how many letters are in the alphabet!” Henry paused to look at his brother and sisters, hoping they would understand what he was driving at. Seeing their puzzled expressions, he explained, “It suddenly hit me, what if each number stands for a different letter in the alphabet?”
Henry stood up and went to get a piece of paper and a pencil. When he sat down again, he printed the alphabet. Then under each letter, he carefully printed a number.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26
Violet gasped. “Oh, I see what you mean!”
“We can match the letters with the numbers in the code!” Jessie added, catching on at the same time.
No one dared breathe as Henry matched up the letters with the numbers.
6 - 9 - 14 - 4 4 - 18 - 21 - 13 11 - 5 - 12 - 12 - 5 - 18
F - I - N - D D - R - U - M K - E - L - L - E - R
9 - 14 20 - 8 - 5 3 - 5 - 12 - 12 - 1 - 18
I - N T - H - E C - E - L - L - A - R
Who in the world was Drum Keller? And what was he doing in a cellar?
CHAPTER 7
In the Cellar
“This fortune cookie mystery is getting weirder and weirder,” Violet said as they cleared the table after lunch.
“I’ll tell you what’s weird,” Benny said, putting the placemats away. “That name! Drum Keller, I mean.”
Jessie filled the sink with warm, soapy water. “I was thinking that, too,” she said. There was something oddly familiar about the name Drum Keller, but Jessie couldn’t quite put her finger on what it was. She tucked the thought in the back of her mind for the time being.
“So, what’s next?” Violet reached for a dish towel.
Henry was ready with an answer. “If you ask me, we should take another bike ride into town.” He stacked the soup bowls on the counter. “It’s time to find Drum Keller in — ”
“The cellar,” said Jessie, finishing her older brother’s sentence. “The problem is, we don’t have a clue what cellar he’s in.
“And why on earth is he in a cellar?” put in Violet. “What’s that all about?”
“It’s a mystery,” said Henry. “That’s for sure.”
“We can handle it,” Benny insisted. As he dried his pink cup, he had a thought. “Maybe we should look in Albert’s Fruit and Vegetable Cellar!”
“Good idea, Benny!” Henry said as he wiped the counters. “Drum Keller would make a great name for a clown.”
“Yeah,” said Benny, getting excited.
“And that would explain why he’s in a cellar!” added Violet, who sounded just as excited as Benny.
After putting away the dishes and writing a note for Aunt Jane, the Aldens hopped on their bikes and pedaled as fast as they could into Elmford. Parking their bikes in the lot again, they quickly made their way to Albert’s Fruit and Vegetable Cellar.
Benny walked up to the man in the red rubber nose. “Excuse me.” He tugged on the clown’s polka-dotted sleeve. “Are you Drum Keller?”
“No, sirree!” The man handing out balloons shook his head. “You’re looking at the one and only Buttons the Clown.”
Benny was disappointed, but he wasn’t giving up so easily. He hurried over to the store owner, who was standing near the counter. “Excuse me, Mr. Albert,” Benny said. “I was wondering if there’s a Drum Keller around here.”
“A Drum Keller?” Mr. Albert was polishing an apple. He blinked in surprise. “What’s that?” he wanted to know. “Some new kind of onion?”
Benny sighed heavily. “No, Drum Keller’s not an onion. At least, I don’t think so. Thanks anyway.”
As they walked away Henry said, “Well, I guess that rules out Albert’s Fruit and Vegetable Cellar.”
Halfway down the block, Jessie suddenly directed their attention to a sign in the window of Wiggins Department Store. “Look. There’s a two-for-one sale!”
“But, Jessie,” said Violet, sounding puzzled, “we didn’t bring money to buy any — ”
Jessie broke in before Violet could finish. “The two-for-one sale is in Wiggins’ bargain basement!”
“And a basement is just like a cellar!” Henry was impressed. “Good thinking, Jessie.”
Benny’s frown disappeared. “Maybe this is where Drum Keller works!” he said, holding the door open for the others. “Let’s find out.”
“Yes, let’s,” Jessie agreed, quickening her step.
Downstairs, a smiling young woman asked them, “Are yo
u looking for anything in particular?”
“We sure are,” Benny answered. “We’re looking for Drum Keller.”
“Drum Keller?” The young saleswoman looked puzzled. “Is that a new line of designer jeans?”
Violet had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. “No, we’re not looking for jeans,” she explained. “Drum Keller’s a person.”
Jessie added, “At least, that’s what we think.”
“Does anyone by that name work here?” Henry asked.
The salesclerk shook her head. “I’m afraid not.”
On the way out, Violet said, “How do you like that! First, Mr. Albert thinks Drum Keller’s an onion. Then the saleswoman thinks Drum Keller’s a new line of designer jeans.” She paused. “Maybe Drum Keller isn’t a person. Maybe Drum Keller’s a thing.”
“Maybe.” Benny sighed. “I wonder if we’ll ever get to the bottom of this.”
“I’m sure we will.” Jessie sounded positive. Inside, though, she wasn’t sure they’d ever find Drum Keller.
Violet noticed that Henry had been very quiet. “Thinking about something, Henry?” she asked.
“What?” Henry had been deep in his own thoughts. “Oh, it’s just that something occurred to me,” he said slowly. “A cellar’s under the ground. Right?”
The others nodded. “Right.”
“Well — ” Henry began to say, but Jessie interrupted.
“The Underground Bookstore!” she cried. “That’s what you’re thinking, isn’t it, Henry?”
Henry nodded. “It’s worth checking out.”
Inside the bookstore, they found Dottie sorting through a pile of dusty old books.
“Hi, kids!” She smiled over at them. Then she pointed to the framed photograph hanging on the wall. “Thanks again for such a wonderful gift,” she said. “By the way, are you still on the case?”
Benny nodded. “We figured out the — ”
Henry poked him. Then Benny remembered they were not supposed to tell anyone about the mystery.
Dottie was instantly curious. “You figured out a clue?”
The children looked at one another. They didn’t want to lie, but they also knew it was best not to discuss the mystery just yet. Not until they’d figured a few things out on their own.