“Where are we going, Jessie?” Benny wanted to know. He held the door open for the others as they stepped outside.
Jessie grinned. “There’s a turkey wandering around Greenfield,” she told him, “and it’s time to track him down.”
Violet’s eyebrows shot up. “A turkey in Greenfield?”
“Not just an ordinary turkey,” Jessie added mysteriously. “I’m talking about a giant turkey.”
Henry gave Jessie a sideways glance. “A giant turkey by the name of Dennis Howe, you mean?”
Jessie laughed. “Well, Dennis is dressed up like a turkey”
“A giant turkey!” cried Benny. He sounded excited.
“It’s a long shot,” Jessie admitted, “but we have to check out everything.”
It took them a while, but the Aldens finally spotted Dennis in the town square. He was sitting on a bench beside the Minuteman statue.
Dennis waved as the children hurried over. “I had a hunch you’d be back,” he said, fanning his face with a flyer.
“Guess what, Dennis?” said Benny. “We listen to the Big G!”
“Ah, the magic words!” Dennis chuckled as he reached into a feathered pocket. He tugged out an envelope and handed it to the youngest Alden.
Benny’s face lit up. “We found the next clue!”
“Gobble, gobble,” said Dennis.
“Thanks, Dennis,” Henry said, laughing.
As they headed back across the brick pavement, Benny wasted no time opening the envelope. He pulled out a slip of paper and frowned.
“What is it, Benny?” Violet wanted to know.
Benny shrugged. “I’ve never seen a clue like this before.”
Benny passed the note to Violet. Violet passed it to Henry. Then Henry passed it to Jessie. But nobody could make any sense of it.
“It’s just some alphabet letters,” said Violet. “H … I … J … K … L … M … N … O.”
Jessie added, “And a picture of a slide.”
“It’s not much to go on.” Benny crinkled his brow.
“What do you make of it, Henry?” Violet asked.
Henry thought for a second. “I’m not sure what the letters mean,” he said, “but playgrounds have slides and swings.”
“Hello again!” said a voice behind them.
They turned to see Amber Madison coming over.
“Oh, hello!” Jessie quickly shoved the clue into her pocket.
Amber laughed a little. “Our paths keep crossing, don’t they? Bound to happen in a small town, I guess.” Her gaze dropped to the envelope in Benny’s hand. “Getting closer to the finish line?”
“The finish line?” Benny looked puzzled.
“I’m talking about the Great Detective Race,” Amber explained. “I have a hunch you kids are ahead. Am I right?”
“Well, we did just find another clue,” Benny said.
“No kidding!” Amber gave the Aldens a sharp look. “What kind of clue?”
Benny opened his mouth to answer, but Henry spoke first. “Actually, it doesn’t make any sense to us yet,” he said.
Jessie nodded. “It’s a bit confusing.”
“Well, let’s see what you’ve got there.” Amber held out a hand. “Maybe I can help.”
Jessie caught Henry’s eye. Why was Amber so interested in the race, they wondered.
“Thanks, anyway,” Violet said. “I know you mean well, but we have fun figuring things out on our own.” She said this as nicely as she could.
Amber frowned. “I see,” she said in an icy voice. “I have better things to do with my time anyway.” The author’s heels clicked along the brick pavement as she hurried away.
Henry let out a low whistle. “Wow,” he said. “Amber Madison sure is interested in the Great Detective Race.”
Jessie nodded. “It’s funny how we keep running into her.”
“Greenfield is a small town,” Violet pointed out.
“That’s true,” Jessie agreed. Still, she couldn’t help wondering if it wasn’t more than just a coincidence. Was Amber following them?
The next morning, Jessie made a list of all the playgrounds in Greenfield. Then they set off to check every slide in town. When they finally stopped at a concession stand for lunch, Jessie pulled her notebook from her back pocket.
“Three more playgrounds to go,” she said, glancing at their list, “and that’s all.”
“Don’t worry,” Benny said, as they made their way to an empty park bench. “We’ll find the next clue.”
“How can you be so sure, Benny?” asked Violet, sitting down beside Jessie.
“Because when you’re looking for something,” Benny explained, “it’s always in the last place you look.” He swallowed a bite of his hot dog.
Henry laughed. “That makes sense,” he said. “When you find something, you don’t bother looking anymore.”
“What I can’t figure out,” Violet said, “is what the letters of the alphabet mean.”
Jessie nodded. “I’ve been wondering about that, too.”
“What were the letters again?” asked Benny, licking mustard from the corner of his mouth.
Violet answered, “H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O.”
Jessie sipped her soda thoughtfully. “But why only H to O? That’s the part I don’t get.”
“You got me,” said Henry
“Maybe there’s another way of looking at it,” Violet said.
The others looked at her. “Such as?”
“What if we switch the letters around?” Violet reasoned. “Maybe they’ll spell out a message of some kind.”
Henry thought about this. “Anything’s possible.”
The four Aldens put their heads together and came up with a list of words using the letters in the clue. After Jessie jotted them down in her notebook, she read them aloud: MILK OINK KILN OIL HIM LIMO
“It doesn’t amount to much,” Henry remarked.
Violet agreed. “I guess it was a bit of a leap.”
Jessie looked at her watch. “Time’s ticking away,” she said, “and we still have three more playgrounds to check out.”
After tossing their napkins and empty cups into a trashcan, the children wheeled their bikes back onto the road and set off again.
They hadn’t gone very far before Jessie slowed her bike to a stop.
Henry came up beside her. “What is it, Jessie?”
“I left my notebook on the park bench,” Jessie said with a frown.
Circling back, the Aldens found the notebook right where Jessie had left it. Only, something wasn’t quite right.
“A page is missing,” Jessie pointed out. “See? Somebody tore out our list of playgrounds!”
They all looked at Jessie’s notebook in astonishment. “I can’t believe it!” said Henry.
“Who would do such a thing?” Violet wondered.
Benny had an answer. “Somebody looking for a clue,” he said. “That’s who.”
The youngest Alden had a point. It had to be somebody who was tracking down the code word. And now that person knew as much as they did.
Henry gave Jessie a quick glance. Had she been right the other day? Was somebody really following them?
“Never mind,” said Jessie. “I remember what was on the list. The next playground’s in the Morningside neighborhood.”
“Let’s go,” said Henry. “The race is on!”
When the Aldens arrived at the Morningside playground, they found children playing on the swings, on the monkey bars, and in the sandbox. But nobody was around the slide. They quickly checked it out, top to bottom. But they couldn’t find anything unusual.
“Well, let’s head for the next playground,” Henry suggested, not wanting to waste any time.
But Benny saw something the others didn’t. “What’s that?”
The others looked in the direction he was pointing. A hopscotch game had been outlined in chalk on the pavement close by. A message was scrawled in one of the squares.
Taking a closer look, the children read what it said: You will find something weerd at Potter’s Creek.
“Hooray!” Benny cheered. “We found the clue!”
“That’s odd,” Jessie said, as she jotted the message in her notebook. “The word ‘weerd’ is spelled wrong.”
Benny frowned. “It is?”
“It should be w-e-i-r-d. Not w-e-e-r-d,” Henry pointed out. “You’re right, Jessie. That is kind of strange.”
But Violet didn’t think it was strange at all. “Debra said she wasn’t a very good speller, remember?”
“It’s too late to go all the way out to Potter’s Creek today,” Henry noted, glancing at his watch.
Jessie nodded. “It’ll take at least an hour to get there. Let’s wait until the morning.”
“Hey!” Something caught Henry’s eye.
“Isn’t that the boy from the mall?”
The others looked over. A boy wearing baggy pants and a red T-shirt was zooming away on a skateboard.
“Yes, I’m sure of it,” said Jessie. “He was signing up for the Great Detective Race.”
Benny nodded. “He’s even wearing a WGFD baseball cap.”
Jessie and Henry exchanged puzzled glances. How odd that the boy was at the park the same time they were. Was he following the list of playgrounds torn from Jessie’s notebook?
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