Inside the lodge, the Aldens got cups of hot chocolate and cinnamon buns and sat down by the fire.
Grandfather and Mr. Mercer came in.
“Congratulations, Henry,” Mr. Mercer said. “You skied well.”
“Thank you,” Henry said.
“And, Benny, your snow sculpture is something to see.”
Benny smiled, but Grandfather could tell something was troubling him.
“What’s wrong, Benny?” Grandfather asked.
“Someone’s trying to keep our team from winning,” Benny blurted.
Mr. Mercer’s dark eyes narrowed. “Is that so?”
“It looks that way,” Henry said.
Mr. Alden sank into a chair. “We heard there was some trouble with the snow sculptures, but…” his voice trailed off.
“And someone took Matt’s skis to keep him from doing his best,” Benny said.
Mr. Mercer shook his head. “Jimmy said something at breakfast about missing skis. He wanted me to call off the race. I thought they’d turn up — that they were just misplaced.” He paused. “Who could do such a thing?” he wondered.
“So many things have been going wrong — even the missing keys and the flat tires,” Henry said.
“But they have nothing to do with your team,” Mr. Alden said.
Henry nodded. “That’s why this mystery is so confusing.”
Just then, there was a commotion at the door. Nan and Pete were shouting at each other and tugging at something.
“Here, here. What’s going on?” Mr. Mercer called.
Nan and Pete marched over. Each had hold of one of Pete’s blue earmuffs. They were tugging so hard that the metal connecting band was stretched to its limit.
“She won’t give me my earmuffs!” Pete complained.
“He ruined our ice carving!” Nan snapped. “We were making a castle. Now, the tower’s gone.” She wiped her tears with her red scarf. “Pete did it,” she concluded. “We found his earmuffs right there in the snow.”
Pete rolled his eyes. “I didn’t do it,” he defended. “Someone took my earmuffs.”
The Aldens exchanged disbelieving glances. Now, the mischief was aimed at both teams.
Everyone trekked outside to look at the ice carving Freddy’s team had made. The entire castle tower had melted away.
“The sun didn’t do it,” Mr. Mercer decided. “It doesn’t work that fast.”
“I didn’t do it, either,” Pete said.
The Aldens thought he was telling the truth. He was too busy with his stopwatch. He wouldn’t have had the time to melt the ice.
“What happened?” Jimmy asked, walking up to the group clustered around the melted ice sculpture.
Nan told him.
“We have to call off this event,” Jimmy said. “There isn’t enough time to finish before the judging tomorrow.”
Mr. Mercer shook his head. “Don’t worry,” he said to the ice carvers. “We’ll figure out something.”
“How can we make a castle without a tower?” Nan asked.
“Make something else,” Benny suggested.
“We’d better go check our sculpture,” Violet said, and they all paraded over there. Violet’s team’s ice carving had not been damaged.
“That’s a relief,” she said.
Just then, Freddy and Beth ran to join them.
“What’s up?” Henry asked.
Freddy raised her hand. In it was Benny’s pink cup.
“Hey,” Benny said, “what’re you doing with my cup?”
“I found it at the rink, Benny,” Freddy told him.
Benny’s mouth dropped open. The last time he had seen his cup, his snow self was holding it.
“Someone’s ruined the ice,” Beth said. “Patches are chipped and broken. People trying to skate there would have trouble staying on their feet. Racing or figure skating would be impossible.”
Freddy held up a chisel. “Whoever did it used this.”
“Who could’ve done this?” Benny wondered aloud.
Beth and Freddy stared at him.
“Wait a minute,” Benny said. “You don’t think I did it?”
“Of course they don’t, Benny,” Jessie assured him.
Freddy held up the cup again. “Whoever left this here wanted us to think you did it,” she said and gave it to him.
All of a sudden, Jimmy said, “I’ll see you later. I have to talk to Mr. Mercer. Maybe he’ll call off the games.” He dashed away.
Watching him, Freddy said, “He is really acting weird. I don’t know how many times he’s said we should call off the games.”
Everyone headed toward the lodge.
“He probably just wants everything to go right,” Beth said.
“With his parents coming for the awards dinner and everything,” Jessie put in.
Freddy looked at her in disbelief. “His parents aren’t coming for dinner,” she said. “They never come for anything. They just drop him here. They don’t even pick him up until everyone else has gone home.”
“But he told us they were coming,” Benny said.
“Wishful thinking,” Freddy responded.
Matt rushed up. “My skis are back,” he told them. “I just found them in the equipment shop.”
“This is getting stranger and stranger,” Freddy commented.
After dinner, Mr. Mercer clapped for silence. “As you all know, we’ve had some trouble this year,” he said. “First the keys to the equipment shop were missing, then my tires were flat. Someone damaged the snow sculptures and one of the ice carvings.” Then, he went on, “Jimmy Phelps came to talk to me at breakfast this morning. He thought we should call off the ski race because Matt’s skis were missing.”
Henry leaned toward Jessie. “Didn’t Matt say he left the skis by the rack just before breakfast?” he whispered.
Jessie searched her memory. “I think so,” she said.
“And he didn’t know they were missing until the race?”
Jessie nodded.
“How did Jimmy know they were missing at breakfast?”
Her eyes wide, Jessie looked at her brother. Did he think Jimmy had caused all the trouble? |