Ice Cream Mystery (7 page)

“I’m glad to hear it,” said Marcos. “Because I have an idea for the Ice Cream Barn. I was describing your ice cream to a friend who is the chef of a small restaurant and he is very interested in it.”

“Interested?” repeated Katy.

“Yes. He’d like to order some of your special flavors for his dessert menu. I told him you were a small company and I didn’t know how much extra you could make, but I think you could handle this.”

“Sure we could,” said Brianna, who somehow could serve the customers and listen to Marcos and Katy at the same time. “If I’m not going to be driving the ice-cream wagon...” She paused, then went on, “I could make the extra batches of ice cream.”

“Or when you get your horse back, you could hire extra help,” Marcos said.

“Yes,” said Brianna. But she sounded no more convinced than Katy about Butterscotch’s return.

Benny had wandered over to stare at the ice cream in the freezer, but Violet, Henry, and Jessie had settled at a table near Katy and Marcos. Now they looked at one another. Marcos didn’t sound like a man who had stolen a horse—or one who wanted the Ice Cream Barn to go out of business.

“I like that idea, Marcos,” said Katy. “It’s nice of you to think of us.”

Marcos grinned. “You’d need to order more supplies from me to make the extra ice cream,” he added. “So it would be good for
my
business, too. And, of course, I’d want to be the one who delivers the ice cream to the restaurant.”

Brianna grinned.

“It would take some planning,” said Katy. She paused. “Let me give you our order for next week, then we’ll talk this over more.”

The shop bell jingled as a customer walked in.

Katy looked up for a second and frowned slightly.

“May I help you?” Brianna asked.

“It’s her,” Violet said in her quiet voice.

“Who?” asked Benny. He looked, then said, “Oh! She’s the customer who never eats her ice cream.”

“I’d like to try your Haystack Sundae,” the woman said, reading from the menu board behind the counter.

“Coming right up,” said Brianna.

“Mmm,” said Benny as the customer walked out of the shop a few minutes later with a scoop of butter pecan ice cream drizzled with caramel and smothered with slivered almonds.

Benny kept watching as the woman stopped at the curb to taste the sundae. She slid into her car and took another bite and then another. Then she rolled down her window and dumped the rest of the sundae into the trash can.

Benny gasped. “Look,” he said to Violet. “She threw away her Haystack!”

Jessie and Henry looked, too. As the woman’s white car pulled away from the curb, Jessie leaned forward to get an even better look.

Then she ran toward the door.

“Jessie, where are you going?” Henry asked.

Jessie didn’t slow down. “Come on, grab your bikes,” she said. “We have to follow that car!”

The four Aldens followed the white car through Greenfield. They stayed as far behind it as they could while still keeping it in sight. The driver didn’t seem to notice that her car was being followed.

At last the car turned into a driveway on Walnut Street in a neighborhood on the other side of Greenfield.

“Oh, good,” Benny panted. “I was getting
tired
.”

Jessie braked to a stop on the sidewalk a short distance from the house.

“What are we doing? Why are we following that customer?” Henry asked.

Jessie nodded toward the house. “That white car looked familiar,” she explained. “Remember that time when we got to the Ice Cream Barn early and a white car was outside? The one that drove away so fast?”

“That’s the same car?” Benny asked.

“I think so,” said Jessie.

“What is the name on the mailbox?” Benny asked. “I can’t read it.”

Violet read the name aloud softly.

They all stared at the mailbox. Henry let out his breath. “We’ve heard that name before,” he said.

“Johnston...Isn’t that the name of the person who keeps calling the Ice Cream Barn?”

Jessie nodded. “The one who wants Katy to hire her to make the Ice Cream Barn a big business.”

“Is Butterscotch here?” Benny asked.

“There’s no place to hide a horse here,” Henry said. “She must be keeping Butterscotch someplace else.”

“Then how will we find her?” demanded Benny.

Jessie’s eyes had begun to dance. “I think I know how,” she said. “I think what we need to do is deliver a fake order.”

“A fake order? Of ice cream?” asked Benny.

“No, not ice cream, Benny. Oats,” said Jessie.

The Aldens biked home as fast as they could go. They ran into the house and went straight to the phone in the kitchen.

Violet took out the phone book and found the number they needed. “Ready?” she asked.

“Ready,” said the others.

Violet crossed her fingers, then dialed the number. She handed the phone to Henry.

“Hello, I’m calling to confirm a delivery for Jean Johnston,” Henry said, speaking into the receiver.

“What?” the woman who had answered replied.

“Forty pounds of oats,” Henry said. “To be delivered to 53 Walnut Street.”

“No. Not for me! Bring it to the Three-Mile Farm. That’s where all these deliveries are supposed to go,” the woman said.

“That’s not the address I was given,” Henry said.

“I’m the one who pays the bills, not the one who eats the oats,” she said impatiently. “You’ve got it all mixed up. Take it to Three-Mile Farm. Honestly! What am I going to do with forty pounds of oats? I’ll be there tomorrow to meet the delivery.”

And with that, Jean Johnston slammed down the phone.

Henry placed the receiver back in its cradle, then turned to his siblings and smiled.

“Three-Mile Farm,” said Henry. “I think we’ve found Butterscotch.”

“Let’s go get her,” Benny urged.

“Not tonight, Benny. We’ll go get her tomorrow—and we’ll also get the thief,” Henry promised. “Now let’s call Brianna.”

The big old barn at Three-Mile Farm was very quiet in the middle of the day. But in the field nearby, Mack, the owner, drove his tractor next to the rows of potato plants. Chickens scratched in the barnyard. A sleek cat sunned on a bale of hay, purring loudly.

“It’s a good thing we didn’t bring Watch,” Benny whispered. “He might have wanted to chase the cat.”

Benny was crouched next to Violet behind a bale of hay. Across the barn, Henry was hiding behind a stall door. Jessie and Brianna stood near the front of the barn behind some sacks of feed.

“Here comes the car,” Jessie called softly. They all crouched down a little lower and listened as a car pulled up to the front of the barn.

Benny wrinkled his nose. “I need to sneeze,” he whispered.

“Don’t sneeze,” Violet told him.

Benny pinched his nose to keep from sneezing.

A car door slammed.

Footsteps pounded through the front of the barn, then halted.

“Hello?” Jean Johnston called.

Everyone held their breath—everyone except Butterscotch, who was standing in her stall, chewing on a wisp of hay.

Jean Johnston walked down the short row of stalls until she reached Butterscotch. “Well,” she said crossly. “Why am I here? I’m paying good money for someone to take care of you, and it’s his job to meet the feed truck, not mine. You are turning out to be more trouble than it’s worth.”

Jessie stepped out into the barn behind Jean Johnston, followed by Violet, Henry, Benny, and Brianna. “The only trouble with Butterscotch,” Jessie said in a loud voice, “is that you stole her.”

Jean Johnston spun around. Her blond hair seemed to almost stand on end. Her black eyebrows shot up.

“No!” she said. Then she saw Brianna and her face grew pale. “Oh, no!” she moaned. “What are you doing here?”

Brianna folded her arms. “Catching a thief who tried very hard to help put the Ice Cream Barn out of business.”

“You don’t understand,” said Jean Johnston. “I just wanted to help you!”

Brianna’s eyes widened in amazement. “Help us? You call fake deliveries and ‘Out of Business’ signs helping us, Jean?”

“Don’t forget the suggestion box and the stolen posters,” said Jessie.

“And the stolen horse,” said Violet. She had gone over to Butterscotch. The big horse had heard voices and put her head over the stall door. Now she lowered it to let Violet scratch her silky ears.

Jean Johnston looked around as if she wanted to escape. But there was no way out. She took a step back, then sank down onto a bale of hay.

“Why don’t you tell us about it,” said Brianna in a more gentle tone of voice.

Jean looked up. “I wanted to be the manager of the Ice Cream Barn. I knew I could make it great. With a few changes and the right approach, you could have become a big chain.”

“Like the Sugar Shop?” asked Jessie.

“Yes. But Katy kept saying no. I had to do something to make her change her mind,” Jean went on. She looked at Brianna. “I thought if Katy started losing money, she would see that she needs me to help run things.”

“Is that when you started playing tricks on the Ice Cream Barn?” asked Violet.

“Yes,” admitted Jean. “But it wasn’t working. Then I heard the National Sugar Shop Corporation was interested in getting into the ice-cream business in Greenfield. I thought if I took Butterscotch, I could upset business enough so that Katy would want to sell the Ice Cream Barn. Then maybe the National Sugar Shop Corporation would hire me,” Jean said.

“You kept coming to the shop and eating ice cream,” said Benny.

“Sampling the new flavors, taking notes,” said Jean.

“Spying,” said Henry.

“Companies do that all the time. It’s how business works,” said Jean.

“Not at the Ice Cream Barn,” said Brianna.

“We saw you meeting with Mr. Smithers at the new Sugar Shop in Silver City,” said Jessie.

Brianna said, “To apply for the manager’s job there.”

“Yes. From that job, I could move up in the corporation— especially if I could put the Ice Cream Barn out of business,” Jean explained. “That’s when I thought up the plan to hide Butterscotch for a little while—right after the interview.”

“You know, you didn’t have to do all these awful things,” Brianna said. “Your business plan and your ideas were very good. I’m sure the Sugar Shop would have hired you just because of that.”

“I didn’t think good ideas were enough,” said Jean bitterly. “Sometimes you’ve got to be ruthless to get ahead.”

“I’m sorry,” said Brianna, “but I don’t think your terrible behavior got you anywhere.”

Then Jean said, “What are you going to do now? Are you going to call the police?”

Brianna shook her head slowly. “No. Not this time. But I am going to call Mr. Smithers to tell him what you did.”

“What you did was wrong,” said Violet.

“I know,” Jean said softly. She wouldn’t meet their eyes.

“Don’t come back to the Ice Cream Barn,” said Brianna.

Jean stood up. “All right,” she said, and walked slowly out of the barn. At the door, she stopped and turned. “I’m sorry,” she said.

“If you’re really sorry,” said Violet, “you’ll never do anything like this again.”

Without answering, Jean went out to her car. A minute later they heard it drive away.

Brianna let out a long breath. “Well,” she said. “That’s that.”

Shortly after that, the farmer came into the barn. “Well,” he said, “do you and the horse need a ride?”

Brianna smiled broadly. “Yes, thank you. Butterscotch is going home.”

The Aldens were sprawled in the grass in the shade outside their big old white house. Playing soccer had made them hot and tired. Watch had rolled over on his back with all four feet in the air and was panting in his sleep.

Suddenly Benny sat up. “Did you hear that?” he said.

“What?”

Watch woke up and rolled to his feet. He gave a quick bark.

“That!” said Benny, jumping to his feet, too. “The ice-cream wagon.”

“It is!” said Violet.

“Oh, good,” said Jessie. “I could use some ice cream right now.”

“Me, too!” said Henry.

Butterscotch and the ice-cream wagon came into sight and all four Aldens waved enthusiastically.

Brianna waved back and guided the wagon into the driveway.

“Look who is with her! It’s Preston!” said Jessie.

Preston jumped down from the driver’s seat to tie up Butterscotch. He grabbed the bucket from the side of the wagon.

“You can fill it up from the hose over at the side of the house,” offered Henry.

“Thanks,” said Preston with a big grin.

“Who wants ice cream?” asked Brianna, flinging the window of the wagon open.

“I do!” said Benny, hopping up and down. He wasn’t hot and tired any longer.

Preston came back and set the bucket down. “I heard you were the ones who found Butterscotch,” he said admiringly. “That was great! How did you figure it out?”

“Jessie did, mostly,” said Violet.

“No, we all did,” said Jessie. “We’d eliminated all our suspects and I’d just about given up. Then I remembered a clue and it all came together.”

“The thief kept buying ice cream and not eating it,” said Benny disapprovingly.