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儿童英语读物 Mystery of the Traveling Tomatoes CHAPTER 9 Hot, Hotter, Hottest

时间:2017-12-07 05:41来源:互联网 提供网友:qing   字体: [ ]
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The children stopped back at the police station on their way home.

“The detective brought back the metal panels from Duffy’s Garage,” the chief said. “Those will make great evidence once we dust them for fingerprints1. No word yet from the other detective about the van. I promise I’ll call as soon as I hear.”

None of the children liked waiting. It was always more fun to be doing something than doing nothing. But as they walked outside, they couldn’t think of what to do next.

“Well,” said Violet, “we did solve two mysteries. We know it was Cesar who propped2 up our sunflowers and cleared the poison ivy3 out of the alley4. And we also know that Mr. Dunkard dumped our compost cans searching for ‘black gold.’”

Henry laughed. “I wish I could have seen his face when all he found was garbage and a million worms. But someone else dug around our garden, and we don’t know why. We need to think harder.”

“I want to keep trying to find the bank robber,” said Jessie. She sat on the police department steps. “But I’m out of ideas.”

“Me, too,” said Violet, joining her.

“Me, three,” said Benny, plopping down between them.

But Henry was not ready to give up. “Look, we’ve learned important things. We know the thief hid his van in Duffy’s Garage while he made it into an armored car. Then we found the van. We just don’t know who the thief is.”

Jessie twirled a lock of her hair. She thought about the van in the scrap5 yard. She twirled and twirled her … hair! “Wigs7!” she cried, jumping up. “The thief wore wigs!”

“So?” said Benny.

But Jessie was already running down the block. “And he wore a uniform,” she called to the others. “He wore wigs and a uniform. But we didn’t see wigs or a uniform in Duffy’s Garage or in the van.”

Suddenly, her feet flew out from under her. Her right leg went east and her left leg went west. She landed with a thud. “I’m okay I’m okay,” she called, getting up. She’d slipped on some tomatoes!

“They’re Cesar’s tomatoes,” said Benny. It was true. Ripe tomatoes littered the ground. They fell from the plants growing all down the block.

“Come on!” yelled Jessie, waving to the others as she disappeared inside Cora’s Costumes.

This time, Cora was dressed like a rock star in a sparkly sequin dress and a spiky8 wig6.

Jessie told her what they were looking for. “We need to look up someone who rented two wigs,” she said.

“Two wigs,” Cora repeated. She typed wigs into her computer. A list came up. She clicked on Cheerleader. “That’s what I call our ponytail wig,” she explained. She printed out all the names of people who had rented a cheerleader wig in the past two months. Then she typed Elvis wig into the computer. “That’s our black wig with sideburns,” she said. She printed out another list of names. The children compared the two lists. One name appeared on both.

“Mr. Malfrat rented both wigs the same day,” said Jessie. “Did he rent anything else?”

Cora typed Malfrat into the computer. “Yes, here, Mr. Malfrat, size large, rented two wigs and a blue policeman’s uniform for four days.” The date of his order was two days before the robbery. “We were so busy with the circus costumes that I honestly can’t remember a thing about him. Wait, what’s this?” She scrolled9 down the screen. “Ah, here. I made a note that after he returned the costume I had to repair the police patch on the sleeve. It looked like it came off and someone tried to sew it back on. Hold on, I’ll get it for you.”

Cora returned carrying the uniform. It was the same blue as the AAA Armored Car driver’s uniform. Violet ran her hand over the police patch on the sleeve. “The thief could have clipped this off, robbed the bank, then sewed it back before returning the costume.”

Henry borrowed Cora’s computer to search the Greenfield phone directory.

“There’s no Mr. Malfrat listed,” he said. “And the address is fake.”

“Another dead end,” said Jessie.

The Aldens left the costume store and walked down the block, careful to step around the squished tomatoes that littered the sidewalk. Looking at the tomatoes made Benny hungry. But he didn’t want a tomato. He wanted something sweet. He was about to ask if they could stop for ice cream when Violet spoke10 up.

“Why would a bank robber return the rented uniform and wigs?” Violet asked. “Why not just steal those, too? He could have thrown them into the river or buried them or burned them. But he returned them.”

“I think this proves that the thief lives right here in town!” Henry said.

“It does?” asked Jessie.

“Sure,” said Henry. “If he’d left town after the robbery he wouldn’t care what happened to the uniform and wigs. But if he was here in Greenfield, he couldn’t risk making Cora suspicious. She might connect the missing rented uniform with the uniform worn at the robbery.”

Benny was tired of talking about costumes. “Could we get ice cream?” he asked.

“We’ll stop at the ice cream parlor,” said Jessie.

Benny pulled a crumpled11 dollar bill out of his pocket. “Wait, I don’t have enough money,” he said sadly.

“Well,” said Jessie, “it might not be enough for an ice cream. But it’s more than enough for a vending12 machine. Let’s go to that one we saw at the bank”

At the bank, Benny studied the goodies in the vending machine window. So many wonderful choices! Should he buy cookies, something salty, or something chewy? As he tried to decide, the vending machine man came and began refilling the machine.

“That’s the one!” cried Benny as the man refilled the last row with red-wrapped candy bars. “That’s the one I want to try.”

“You sure?” asked the man, closing the door.

“Yup,” said Benny. He fed his dollar into the machine and pressed C-5. Out came a Chili-Billy Bar. Benny tore off the wrapper and took a big bite. He chewed and chewed, waiting for the sweet candy to fill his mouth. He stopped chewing. His eyes grew wide. Wider. “Oh,” he said. “Ohhhhhh.” The candy was spicy13 hot!

He ran to the drinking fountain. For a long time he stood there, letting the water cool his tongue. “Yuck!” he said at last.

Violet picked up the red Chili-Billy bar Benny dropped. She recognized it at once. “This is the same red wrapper Fenster threw on the ground at the park,” she said.

“That candy is hard to find,” said the vending machine man. “Most places don’t carry it. Last week, some guy bought my entire supply. He was going on a trip and wanted to take some with him.”

Benny still had the yucky taste in his mouth when the children stopped at the police station. They told Chief Morgan about the wigs and uniform rented by a Mr. Malfrat. “Malfrat?” said the chief. His thick eyebrows14 came together. “That’s an interesting name. French, I think.”

“May I please have some water?” asked Benny.

Chief Morgan brought him a nice big cup. “Here you go, Benny.” He looked at the others. “Anyone else need some watering?”

“Watering?” gasped15 Jessie. “Oh my gosh! This is Tuesday. This is the day we water the garden.”

Watering was one of the most important garden chores. It was also the most fun. And the work would keep the children busy. Maybe, by the time they finished, they’d find out what the detectives had found in the robber’s van.


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 fingerprints 9b456c81cc868e5bdf3958245615450b     
n.指纹( fingerprint的名词复数 )v.指纹( fingerprint的第三人称单数 )
参考例句:
  • Everyone's fingerprints are unique. 每个人的指纹都是独一无二的。
  • They wore gloves so as not to leave any fingerprints behind (them). 他们戴着手套,以免留下指纹。 来自《简明英汉词典》
2 propped 557c00b5b2517b407d1d2ef6ba321b0e     
支撑,支持,维持( prop的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • He sat propped up in the bed by pillows. 他靠着枕头坐在床上。
  • This fence should be propped up. 这栅栏该用东西支一支。
3 ivy x31ys     
n.常青藤,常春藤
参考例句:
  • Her wedding bouquet consisted of roses and ivy.她的婚礼花篮包括玫瑰和长春藤。
  • The wall is covered all over with ivy.墙上爬满了常春藤。
4 alley Cx2zK     
n.小巷,胡同;小径,小路
参考例句:
  • We live in the same alley.我们住在同一条小巷里。
  • The blind alley ended in a brick wall.这条死胡同的尽头是砖墙。
5 scrap JDFzf     
n.碎片;废料;v.废弃,报废
参考例句:
  • A man comes round regularly collecting scrap.有个男人定时来收废品。
  • Sell that car for scrap.把那辆汽车当残品卖了吧。
6 wig 1gRwR     
n.假发
参考例句:
  • The actress wore a black wig over her blond hair.那个女演员戴一顶黑色假发罩住自己的金黄色头发。
  • He disguised himself with a wig and false beard.他用假发和假胡须来乔装。
7 wigs 53e7a1f0d49258e236f1a412f2313400     
n.假发,法官帽( wig的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • They say that wigs will be coming in again this year. 据说今年又要流行戴假发了。 来自辞典例句
  • Frank, we needed more wigs than we thought, and we have to do some advertising. 弗兰克,因为我们需要更多的假发,而且我们还要做点广告。 来自电影对白
8 spiky hhczrZ     
adj.长而尖的,大钉似的
参考例句:
  • Your hairbrush is too spiky for me.你的发刷,我觉得太尖了。
  • The spiky handwriting on the airmail envelope from London was obviously hers.发自伦敦的航空信封上的尖长字迹分明是她的。
9 scrolled 313315b0796120af40f9657f89e85dc9     
adj.具有涡卷装饰的v.(电脑屏幕上)从上到下移动(资料等),卷页( scroll的过去式和过去分词 );(似卷轴般)卷起;(像展开卷轴般地)将文字显示于屏幕
参考例句:
  • Wherever the drop target can possibly be scrolled offscreen, the program needs to auto-scroll. 无论拖放的目标对象是否在屏幕之外,程序都需要自动滚动。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
  • If It'still is then you've not scrolled up enough lines. 如果还在说明你向上滚动的行数不够。 来自互联网
10 spoke XryyC     
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说
参考例句:
  • They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
  • The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。
11 crumpled crumpled     
adj. 弯扭的, 变皱的 动词crumple的过去式和过去分词形式
参考例句:
  • She crumpled the letter up into a ball and threw it on the fire. 她把那封信揉成一团扔进了火里。
  • She flattened out the crumpled letter on the desk. 她在写字台上把皱巴巴的信展平。
12 vending 9e89cb67a07fe419b19a6bd5ee5210cc     
v.出售(尤指土地等财产)( vend的现在分词 );(尤指在公共场所)贩卖;发表(意见,言论);声明
参考例句:
  • Why Are You Banging on the Vending Machine? 你为什么敲打这台自动售货机? 来自朗文快捷英语教程 2
  • Coca-Cola had to adapt almost 300,000 vending machines to accept the new coins. 可口可乐公司必须使将近三十万台自动贩卖机接受新货币。 来自超越目标英语 第5册
13 spicy zhvzrC     
adj.加香料的;辛辣的,有风味的
参考例句:
  • The soup tasted mildly spicy.汤尝起来略有点辣。
  • Very spicy food doesn't suit her stomach.太辣的东西她吃了胃不舒服。
14 eyebrows a0e6fb1330e9cfecfd1c7a4d00030ed5     
眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Eyebrows stop sweat from coming down into the eyes. 眉毛挡住汗水使其不能流进眼睛。
  • His eyebrows project noticeably. 他的眉毛特别突出。
15 gasped e6af294d8a7477229d6749fa9e8f5b80     
v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 );喘息;倒抽气;很想要
参考例句:
  • She gasped at the wonderful view. 如此美景使她惊讶得屏住了呼吸。
  • People gasped with admiration at the superb skill of the gymnasts. 体操运动员的高超技艺令人赞叹。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
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