At the police station, Jon Emmott confessed everything.
“I had to do it,” he said. “I had to get even with them. I didn’t want them to be so successful without me. Then, when I heard about the festival and the man from the record company, I wanted to ruin it for them.”
“So you broke into their rehearsal studio,” Henry said. “You guessed the security code.”
Jon Emmott smiled bitterly. “You figured out I did that, didn’t you? Yes, I was lucky that the new code wasn’t very different from the old code.
“At first I wasn’t going to sell the stolen instruments,” Jon went on. “My only plan was to ruin the show.”
“Well, you didn’t ruin it,” Jessie said. “They’re still going to do their best and play tonight.”
Jon’s eyes narrowed. “I knew it wouldn’t be enough to stop them.” He chuckled.
The children looked at each other. They couldn’t help but think there was something Jon Emmott wasn’t telling them.
“Wait a minute,” Henry spoke up. “What were you working on at the festival yesterday?”
Jon paused for a moment, then said stiffly, “I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”
“You were working on something while the stage was being built.” Jessie insisted. “Something with wires and cables.”
“Aren’t you an electrician?” Violet asked.
“Come on, Jon,” Raymond said sharply. “It’s over. You’ll just get yourself into more trouble if you don’t tell us.”
All eyes were on Jon. He looked at Officer Weiss. Finally he said, “I set up a timer under the stage so that the electricity would go off during the Greenfield Four’s show.”
The children looked at each other in disbelief.
“When is it supposed to go off?” Jessie asked.
“Eight-thirty,” Jon replied. The Aldens checked their watches—that was less than an hour from now!
“Where did you put the timer?” Henry asked.
“In the back, by the right side of the stage,” Jon told them.
“We’d better get over there,” Violet said.
“And fast!” Benny added.
By the time Raymond and the Aldens got to the festival, the Greenfield Four had just gone onstage. The children could see a man in the front row wearing a white suit and a wide hat. He didn’t look happy, but he didn’t look unhappy, either. He was paying close attention to the show.
“That must be the man from the record company,” Violet said.
“We need to hurry,” said Jessie. “That timer might go off any minute now!”
They rushed to the back of the stage. The crawl space underneath the stage was covered by a dark curtain. Henry flipped it up and peered underneath. Raymond had brought two flashlights and handed him one.
“Be very careful, Henry,” Violet said. “Those wires and cables can be dangerous!”
“I wouldn’t touch one if you gave me a million dollars,” Henry told her, looking at the cables as if they were live snakes. “I just want to find the timer and stop it.” He checked his watch. It read eight-twenty-five.
Henry and Raymond turned on their flashlights and crawled in. The noise coming from the stage above them was tremendous. Henry could feel the drums beating. They crawled around cardboard boxes, instrument cases, and packing crates. Henry and Raymond pointed their flashlights everywhere.
“Henry?” Raymond asked. “Did you find it?”
“No, not yet,” Henry answered.
Then Henry pushed aside a large box and he saw glowing red numbers underneath.
The timer. And there were less than three minutes left!
“Here it is!” he called out. Raymond, on his hands and knees, crawled over as fast as he could.
The timer was a simple metal box. There were four small buttons, but they weren’t marked. Henry watched as the red numbers counted down. 2:00 … 1:59 … 1:58 …
Henry reached out slowly and pushed the first button. Nothing happened. He pushed the second button, and nothing happened again. The timer kept going down—1:33 … 1:32 … 1:31 …
He tried the third button.
Still nothing. 1:10 … 1:09 … 1:08 …
Henry’s heart was pounding like mad now. Only one button left. He pressed it.
And then something happened.
“Uh-oh,” Henry said.
The red numbers vanished for a moment. Then they reappeared. Now they said “0:10.” Ten seconds!
Raymond saw this. “Jon set the timer up so it would go into a fast countdown if someone tried to shut it off!” he cried.
Henry didn’t say anything. He just watched with a helpless feeling as the numbers counted down.
0:03 … 0:02 … 0:01 …
Suddenly, there was a loud CLICK!
Everything went dark.
There was a loud gasp from the crowd. Suddenly, it was pitch black on the stage, and the entire festival was lit only by the glow of the full moon.
The members of the Greenfield Four turned around and looked at the three Alden children who were standing by the stage. For a moment they all stared at each other, frozen.
Then Violet had an idea.
“Play that new song of yours,” she called to Karen, “with the acoustic guitars.”
Benny wanted to asked what “acoustic” meant, but then he remembered—an acoustic instrument was one that didn’t need any power in order to make sound.
“Good idea,” Alan said with a nod.
Alan turned back to the crowd. “Well, it looks like someone forgot to pay the electric bill this month,” he said. Everyone laughed. “So, until we can get the problem fixed, the band would like to play a nice little song that we wrote a few months ago with some instruments that don’t need any electricity.”
Dave came out from behind his drum set and tapped his sticks together. Amy and Karen picked up their acoustic guitars. Then Alan led the band down the steps at the side of the stage and onto the ground. They walked into the middle of the crowd, and the four of them began to play. Within minutes the audience was singing and clapping along to the beautiful song.
When they finished, the crowd gave them thunderous applause. Then, suddenly, all the lights came on, and the audience clapped again for Raymond and the rest of the crew who had fixed the electricity. A night that could have been a disaster had turned into something magical instead.
After the show, behind the stage, Alan Keller patted Henry on the back.
“You did it, my friend.”
“Not fast enough,” Henry said, frowning. Karen waved her hand to show that this was a silly idea. “We covered it up pretty well with that acoustic song.”
“And that was Violet’s brilliant idea,” Amy pointed out. Violet blushed.
“That’s my sister,” Jessie said, putting her arm around her.
Then the man in the white walked towards them. It was the man who owned the record company.
“I have to tell you, I was very impressed by the way you handled that power failure,” he said. “It takes a band with a lot of smarts and experience to do that. You made sure to keep the crowd’s attention. You knew exactly how to make sure the show went on.”
“Thank you,” Amy Keller replied.
“A band with that kind of talent is exactly the type of band I’d like to have making music for me,” he told them, putting his hand out so Alan could shake it. “Congratulations, I’d like the Greenfield Four to record an album for me.”
The members of the band were speechless. Then, finally, Alan Keller said, “Well, we’d like to take all the credit for tonight’s show, but we had a little help. In fact, we had a lot,” he said, looking at the Aldens.
“Oh?”
“That’s right,” Karen continued. “These kids solve mysteries as well as we make music—maybe even better.”
“I don’t know that’s true,” said Violet.
“Now, don’t be modest,” Alan replied. “If it weren’t for the four of you, we would’ve sounded awful tonight.” Alan quickly explained the whole story. “In fact, we’ve talked it over and decided to write a song about it. We’ll call it ‘The Ballad of the Aldens.’”
The children didn’t know what to say, but the man from the record company did. “Sounds like your first big hit,” he said.
“The first of many,” Violet added.
Then Benny, dazzled by the thought of being mentioned in a song, said, “Wow, I’ll be famous!”
Everyone laughed. “Too famous to go on solving mysteries?” Henry asked him.
Benny smiled. “No,” he replied. “I’ll never stop doing that. Ever!” |