The hours flew by. Miss Chase spent her time making business calls. The Aldens carried books from the shop out to the tables in the courtyard where the book sale would be held. And Sarah Deckle spent the morning buried in the children’s book section where she seemed to be reading every book from cover to cover.
“This is practically the hardest job I’ve ever done,” Jessie said.
“Harder than cleaning up a boxcar or working in a pizza restaurant?” Henry asked in amazement.
“These books are just so tempting,” Jessie said. “I keep wanting to stop work so I can read them. I wish we were living in the bookshop instead of above it.”
“Me, too,” Violet confessed. “Here’s a neat old book on needlepoint. It’s full of patterns I’ve never seen before.” Then Violet showed the others something else she had found. “This beautiful boxed set of fairy tales was mixed in with some stamp collecting books in the hobby box. There are four stories in the set, Tom Thumb, Goose Girl, Briar Rose, and, my favorite of all, The Little Mermaid. I’m going to show it to Miss Chase.”
Violet found Miss Chase working in the bookstore. “Look at this pretty set of fairy tales, Miss Chase. Should I put it aside? It’s got beautiful illustrations.”
Miss Chase came over and put her arm around Violet. “The books are lovely. I never noticed them in Mabel Post’s shop before, but I guess it’s because they were jumbled up with the hobby books. That Mabel. She liked to just throw everything together! Anyway, you found the set, so I’d like you to keep it, Violet.”
Violet shook her head. “No, I couldn’t, Miss Chase. What if the set is valuable? You need every penny to buy new books for the Mystery Bookstore.” Violet handed the boxed set back to Miss Chase.
“It couldn’t be that valuable if Mabel just threw it in with the hobby books. Take it as a thank-you present. You children are saving me many, many more pennies with all your help than this set could possibly be worth,” she said.
Violet ran her fingers over the beautiful fairy tale collection. “Thank you. I’ll take very good care of them.”
Violet and Miss Chase then went back out to the courtyard to see how the work was coming along.
“What else can we do, Miss Chase?” Jessie asked. “We organized all the books out here. We’ll put out the children’s books after Sarah Deckle leaves.”
“I really must get her out of the store,” Miss Chase whispered. “She just won’t budge.”
“I’ll go tell her it’s lunchtime,” Benny suggested. “Because it is!”
Miss Chase laughed. “Good idea, Benny. Nobody would keep a hungry boy from lunch.”
But Miss Chase was wrong. When Benny told Sarah Deckle it was lunchtime, the young woman tried to send him away. “Oh, no problem, little boy. Run along. I’ll just be a little while longer.”
Now Benny Alden liked just about everything, but two things he didn’t like were being called a little boy and having to wait for lunch. Those doughnuts seemed an awful long time ago.
“I meant lunchtime for everyone,” Benny said in his nicest voice.
Sarah Deckle still didn’t move.
“Closing time, closing time!” Miss Chase said in her no-nonsense voice.
“But, but, I’m not finished,” Sarah Deckle complained.
“You’ll have more than enough time this weekend when the book sale starts,” Miss Chase said. “Besides, everything is all dark and musty in here. You can hardly see a thing. By Saturday, we’ll have all these books out in the courtyard where it’s nice and bright. There, there, Miss Deckle. Now run along and enjoy a good lunch.”
“Can we have lunch now, too?” Benny asked.
“We sure can,” Miss Chase answered. “Let’s go to Mama’s Restaurant. It’s a couple of blocks away on Magazine Street. It’s one of your grandfather’s favorite lunch places.”
“Then I know it will be mine, too,” Benny said.
They were just about to leave when Sarah Deckle turned around one last time.
“I’m going, I’m going,” she began, “but I . . .” She stopped talking when she noticed Violet putting the boxed set into Jessie’s green backpack so it wouldn’t get lost. “May I just look at that set?” she asked.
Miss Chase finally ran out of patience. “Those books are not for sale, Miss Deckle. For that matter, none of these books are for sale until this weekend. Now these children must have some lunch. I suggest the same for you.”
There was no mistaking Olivia Chase this time. She held the courtyard door open until Sarah Deckle finally walked out.
“Whew! I thought it would be dinnertime before she left,” Jessie said as they walked down the street. “I could eat two lunches now.”
“I could eat two hundred!” Benny said, skipping ahead of everyone.
They were almost at Mama’s Restaurant when Miss Chase remembered something. “Henry, would you do me a big favor? Please run back to the courtyard and see if I left my notepad on one of the tables. I have to stop at the office supply store, but I can’t remember what was on my list. Here’s the key to the courtyard. We’ll save a place for you.”
“Be back in a flash,” Henry said, taking Miss Chase’s keys.
When Henry reached the courtyard door he looked down and noticed that the door was opened slightly.
“What?” he said to himself.
Henry pushed the heavy door slowly so it wouldn’t squeak. He looked around. Right away he saw that some of the plastic rain sheets on the book tables were folded back.
“Looking for someone?” a man’s voice called out.
Henry jumped.
“How did you get in here, Mr. Bindry?” Henry asked the gray-haired man.
“How did you know I was Mr. Bindry?”
“Miss Chase told us at the auction,” Henry answered. “She said you were a rare-book expert and that you had known Mrs. Post.”
“Olivia should keep her business to herself instead of talking so much to every tourist who passes through,” Mr. Bindry said angrily.
“I’m not a tourist,” Henry explained. “I mean, I am a tourist, I guess. But I’m here with my brother and two sisters to help Miss Chase get her mystery bookshop ready for business.”
“A mystery bookshop!” he shouted. “What nonsense! Olivia should stick to writing books, not selling them.”
“How did you get in here?” Henry repeated. “Do you have a key, too?”
“Don’t need a key when fool people leave the door wide open,” Mr. Bindry said. “I just walked right in.”
Henry scratched his head. He was pretty sure they’d locked the door, but he wasn’t about to argue with Mr. Bindry. Looking around, Henry spied Miss Chase’s notepad lying on one of the tables.
“This is what I came for,” Henry explained. “So I guess I’d better lock up. Miss Chase is waiting for me.”
Henry waited for Mr. Bindry to leave, but the man didn’t seem to want to go. Finally, Henry said, “We’re getting all those books ready for a big book sale on Saturday. You can buy anything you want then, Mr. Bindry.”
“Hrmph!” was all Mr. Bindry had to say before he was finally good and ready to leave.
Out on the street, Henry double-checked that the courtyard door was really locked this time. He was so busy locking up, he didn’t happen to see what Mr. Bindry had tossed in the backseat of his car.
It was a blue jacket. |