Pet Shop Mystery (3 page)

Henry leaned over Jessie’s shoulder. “‘
Delivery, five o’clock Thursday. One macaw and one
w
oolly’
… I can’t make out what that word is.”

“Tomorrow’s Thursday,” Jessie said, “our first day of work. So I guess we’ll find out what a woolly something-or-other is. A macaw is a parrot, the biggest kind. It’s funny Mrs. Tweedy would get a delivery when she’s going to be away.”

“Especially a parrot,” Henry said. “Didn’t she just tell us she doesn’t ever plan to sell any large birds, not even Grayfellow?”

Jessie folded the receipt in half. She put it in the bag with the turtle food. “I sure hope we find out what Mr. Fowler is up to tomorrow at five o’clock.”

The next afternoon, the Aldens zoomed through their paper route. Jessie even put Soo Lee to work so everyone could get to the Pretty Bird Pet Shop as soon as possible.

“Last one, Soo Lee,” Jessie said when they reached the end of the route. “Usually we let Watch bring a paper up to this house. He likes to play with Cody, the dog who lives here. But we have to leave him home now that we’re working at the pet store, so you can put the paper on the porch. Don’t worry. Cody’s friendly.”

Soo Lee skipped up the steps to the house. The sleepy golden retriever lying on the porch thumped her tail when she saw Soo Lee.

“Good girl!” Jessie said. “We’ll stop by this house again on the way home. I noticed on Mrs. Tweedy’s list that Cody is supposed to get a new flea collar. You can deliver that, too.”

“I like my job,” Soo Lee said.

The children turned the corner onto Main Street. An elderly woman and several children stood in front of the Pretty Bird Pet Shop. Grayfellow was back on his perch in the sunny display window so people could watch him.

“Grayfellow is a good advertisement for the shop,” Jessie said when she saw all the attention the parrot was getting. She pulled on the front door. It didn’t budge. “What’s going on? This door is stuck.”

Henry gave a pull. The door didn’t move.

“Can’t you children read?” the elderly lady said to the Aldens. “Look at the sign on the door. It says
CLOSED
.”

“Closed in the middle of the day?” Henry cried. “Mr. Fowler is supposed to keep the shop open when Mrs. Tweedy is away.”

The old woman didn’t look a bit friendly. “It’s a good thing, too, keeping all these schoolchildren out of this shop for a change.”

The Aldens were much too polite to tell the woman how much Mrs. Tweedy liked having children in her shop.

Henry whispered to his brother and sisters. “Let’s go out back. Maybe Mr. Fowler had some chores in the storage building. He probably needed to close the shop for a few minutes. Now that we’re here, we can help him out.”

The children walked down a narrow passage to a small building in back of the pet shop.

“Look, there’s a light on,” Jessie said. She stood on tiptoe to look inside. She wasn’t tall enough. She knocked at the door.

There was no answer.

“I’ll give Benny a boost up to that small window,” Henry suggested. Henry easily swung Benny up. “Can you see anything, Benny?”

“I see Mr. Fowler, and he sees me.” Benny rapped on the window. “Can we come in, Mr. Fowler?”

Henry set Benny down on the ground and gave another good knock. “It’s the Aldens,” he shouted. “We came to help with the shop. If you unlock it, we can get started.”

“What should we do?” Jessie asked when no one came out. She dragged over an old milk crate to stand on so she could see inside the storage building. “There are two large empty birdcages in there,” she whispered. “Mr. Fowler just threw a cover over them.”

At last the door opened. Mr. Fowler stepped out. “Don’t you kids have homework or that paper route to finish?”

Benny smiled up at Mr. Fowler. He did not smile back. “We did our paper route. Today we start our new jobs. That’s what Mrs. Tweedy said.”

Mr. Fowler double-locked the storage building. “Mrs. Tweedy doesn’t know everything. That’s why she hired me.”

“She told Grandfather that you go bird-watching,” Violet said in her gentle voice. “I like to watch birds, too.”

Violet’s voice seemed to quiet Mr. Fowler. “Well, as long as you’re here, you might as well get started with the list Mrs. Tweedy gave you. But mind you, that’s all you do. Don’t go snooping where you don’t belong.”

Jessie tried to stay calm. “We’ll just do the jobs she checked off, Mr. Fowler. And anything else you want done, too.”

Mr. Fowler took out his big key ring and unlocked the front and back doors to the shop. “What I want is to manage this shop in peace. That’s what I was hired for.”

The Aldens didn’t say another word. They got straight to work. No use bothering Mr. Fowler on their very first day.

Henry brought in some heavy pet food boxes from outside. He opened each one and counted what was inside.

“Young man!” Mr. Fowler demanded. “Why are you taking so long? Just put the cans up on those shelves and be done with it.”

Henry showed Mr. Fowler a sheet of paper. “I was just checking that everything listed on this slip is in the box. Two cans are missing. Mrs. Tweedy shouldn’t get charged for them. I can call the company if you want.”

Henry couldn’t tell if Mr. Fowler was mad at him or at the pet food company. “I make the phone calls around here, young man. You just unpack those boxes.”

“Yes, sir,” Henry agreed, but Mr. Fowler’s remarks bothered him. Why didn’t Mr. Fowler check the delivery? Didn’t he want to save Mrs. Tweedy money?

The other children tried not to get upset for Henry. There was so much to do.

Violet showed Soo Lee how to fold a small stack of newspapers so they would fit the canary and parakeet cages. The girls went about their jobs quietly so the birds wouldn’t get nervous.

Jessie went from cage to cage with Benny. She showed him how to refill the water bottles with fresh water and fill the food dishes with just the right amount of food.

Mr. Fowler watched everything they did until he couldn’t stand it anymore. “What are you taping to each cage, young lady?”

Jessie swallowed hard before she spoke. “I cut out pictures of each kind of food that the animals should get. I’m sticking the pictures on each cage so Benny won’t get the food mixed up.”

“If Mrs. Tweedy didn’t hire a bunch of kids, we wouldn’t have to worry about mix-ups,” Mr. Fowler said.

The Aldens said nothing, but they couldn’t help thinking. Wasn’t Mr. Fowler the one who got things mixed up?

The small brass bell over the front door rang off and on for the next hour. Customers came in, but the Aldens sent them all to Mr. Fowler. They didn’t want to upset him.

One of those customers was the elderly woman they had seen in front of the shop. “Who said you could comb that guinea pig, little boy?” the woman asked Benny while she waited for Mr. Fowler to get off the phone.

Benny stopped combing Doughnut. His ears turned red. “It’s my job,” he finally said.

The old woman came over and picked up Doughnut from Benny’s lap. “This is how you do it,” she told Benny as she combed Doughnut.

Mr. Fowler was off the phone at last. The old woman handed the guinea pig back to Benny. “Now do it the way I showed you.”

Benny sat down. Doughnut lifted his head so Benny could comb him again.

“What’s the matter?” Jessie asked when she saw Benny looking gloomy and just sitting with Doughnut.

“That lady, the one we saw outside, said I didn’t know how to groom Doughnut.” Benny made sure the old woman couldn’t hear him. “She showed me how, but it’s the same way I was doing it already.”

Jessie scratched the top of Doughnut’s head. “Just go ahead. Mrs. Tweedy thought you did fine, and she’s the boss.”

The phone rang. Mr. Fowler seemed to be busy with the elderly lady, so Jessie picked up the receiver.

Before Jessie could speak, a man started talking at the other end. “I’m on my way, Walter. So shut down the shop. I’ll meet you by the storage building in back. Five o’clock sharp.”

Puzzled, Jessie held the receiver before hanging up. Was this a wrong number? It couldn’t be. Mr. Fowler’s first name was Walter. Jessie wrote down the man’s message and took it over to Mr. Fowler. “Someone just left this message for you.”

Mr. Fowler snatched the note. “Who said you could answer the phone, young lady? That’s not on the job list.”

“I … uh … I was right by the phone, and you were busy so … I’m sorry,” Jessie apologized. “I just wanted to help.”

Mr. Fowler was really cross now. “If you want to help, get your delivery wagon loaded up. It’s about time for you kids to go home anyway. Do your deliveries like you told Mrs. Tweedy, on your way home, away from this shop.”

Jessie scooped up several orders from the counter and took them out to her brother. “These are the delivery orders,” Jessie told Henry. “Mr. Fowler wants us to make the deliveries now.”

Henry scratched his head. “What for? The store doesn’t close until six. It’s not even five o’clock yet.”

Jessie made sure all the boxes fit nice and snug in the wagon. “Let’s just do what Mr. Fowler says. He’s making Violet, Benny, and Soo Lee afraid to do anything. And that old woman keeps scolding them, too.”

“Oh, no,” Henry said. “And this is only our first day. Let’s wait until five o’clock to see if anybody shows up. I’ve been meaning to ask Mr. Fowler about the mysterious message on our receipt anyway.”

When Jessie and Henry went into the shop again, the old woman was gone. Mr. Fowler was on the phone again. “Yes, that’s right. I’m expecting them this afternoon. You can come by tomorrow after I close up the shop. Wait, never mind. Make that late Sunday after the shop closes at six. ’Bye.”

Henry and Jessie looked at each other. Did Mr. Fowler’s phone call have anything to do with the note? There was only one way to find out.

Henry reached under the counter. He pulled out the bag Cousin Joe had given the children. Henry cleared his throat to get Mr. Fowler’s attention.

“What is it now?” Mr. Fowler snapped. “My cousin Joe Alden gave me this receipt for a hamster cage Benny got from my cousins,” Henry began. “It says there’s supposed to be hamster food and a water bottle, too. But the bag only had turtle food in it.”

Mr. Fowler stared at Henry an awfully long time. “What are you talking about? Are you saying I made a mistake with this order?”

Henry shifted from one foot to the other. “Well, not exactly, sir. Maybe my Cousin Joe wanted turtle food, too. But he said he ordered hamster food and a water bottle. They weren’t in the bag, even though they’re on the slip.”

Mr. Fowler threw down his pen. “Now, how do you know this cousin of yours didn’t order just turtle food? Do you think customers don’t get plenty mixed up? If I had a dollar for every mistake customers make, I wouldn’t need this job.”

It was no use. Mr. Fowler wasn’t helping at all. Henry pulled out his wallet. He reached in for some dollar bills he’d earned from his paper route customers. “Can I pick out another water bottle and the hamster food now? I’ll pay for them.”

Henry put the sales slip on the counter. “Oh, by the way, this note was on the back,” Henry told Mr. Fowler. “I thought you might want it.”

Not looking at Henry, Mr. Fowler muttered again. “Go ahead. Pick out a water bottle. And the hamster food, too. You don’t have to pay. But hurry up about it. It’s time to close the shop. I have paperwork to do in back.”

Benny overheard this and looked up at the clock. He had just learned to tell time. “But the little hand is only near the five. Mrs. Tweedy stays open until six o’clock.”

Mr. Fowler went to the front door. He flipped over the
OPEN
sign so it said
CLOSED
. “Mrs. Tweedy isn’t here now. I decide when the shop opens and closes. Now get a move on, all of you.”

Henry held up the water bottle and hamster food he’d picked out. “Shouldn’t you ring this up so you can keep track of what I returned and what I bought?”

Mr. Fowler kept holding the door open. “Never mind that. Out. Out. Just go.”

The Aldens scooted out and heard the door bang behind them. They all turned around at the same time, only to see the shade come down over the door and the lights go out.

The Pretty Bird Pet Shop was closed for the day.

One by one, the lights went on inside the houses the Aldens passed. There was only one more delivery left.

“My stomach is growling,” Benny said. “Mrs. Tweedy didn’t tell us how hungry this job would make us.”

“Hang on, Benny,” Jessie said. She checked off all but the last order slip. “Mrs. McGregor said she’d have dinner ready for us at six-thirty. We should be done by then.”

Soo Lee put her hand in Jessie’s and looked up. “Six-thirty? Is that a long time from now?”

Jessie checked her watch. “An hour or so. But you know what? I packed some cheese and crackers. Have some now so you don’t get too hungry. Henry and I just have a delivery of diet cat food to drop off at this house.”

“Goody!” Benny lifted Jessie’s backpack from the delivery wagon. He sat down on the grass with Violet and Soo Lee.