The Aldens dropped Bobby off at his room. He couldn’t wait to tell his parents all about his trip to the Empire State Building — and the adventure in the elevator, too.
After waving good-bye to his new friend, Benny turned to his brother and sisters. “So, are we still going to the pool?”
“Sure,” said Henry. “Why don’t we have lunch first, and then we’ll go up to the pool.”
The children had put the leftovers from the day before in the refrigerator, and there was enough for lunch. When they had finished eating, they went up to the roof deck, dressed in T-shirts and shorts with their bathing suits underneath.
“Hello!” called Mike as the Aldens approached his desk.
“We’re here to swim!” called Benny. “What color is the pool today?”
“I’m sorry. You can’t swim in it just yet. We had to drain it and scrub it, and it hasn’t been refilled. But maybe you’d like to try out our exercise room,” Mike suggested.
“That sounds like fun,” said Violet.
In the exercise room, there was something for everyone.
Henry went over to look at the rack of loose weights. Selecting one small barbell for each hand, he began curling his arms up and down.
Meanwhile, Benny had wandered over to a machine that had a sort of television screen on it. “What’s this?” he asked.
“That’s a rowing machine,” Mike said. “I’ll be over there to help you in a second. Let me just get your sisters started.”
Jessie and Violet had gotten on the exercise bicycles.
“Do you girls like to ride?” Mike asked.
“Yes,” said Jessie quietly. Being around Mike seemed to make her nervous.
“We go all over Greenfield on our bicycles,” Violet added. “I wish we could have brought them with us — but I’d be scared to ride my bicycle around New York City.”
“A lot of people do it,” Mike said. “But it can be pretty dangerous with all the cars. You’ll like these bikes — you don’t have to worry about traffic.” Mike grinned. “And you can make it easier or harder to pedal just by pushing this button, depending on how hard a workout you want. First, you have to start pedaling.”
Jessie began pedaling, and Mike pushed a button on the panel at the front of her bike. “There, try that,” Mike said. “That’s like riding on flat ground.”
Jessie pedaled very fast.
“Too easy?” he asked. He pushed another button. “How about hilly countryside?”
Jessie pedaled harder.
“Still too easy?” Mike pushed another button. “This is mountain terrain.”
By now Jessie was getting out of breath. “Okay, okay!” she said, laughing. “How do you stop this thing?”
Mike laughed, too, and pushed another button. “Better?” he asked.
“Yes,” Jessie said. Now she was pedaling at a slow, easy pace, as if she were riding along the roads of Greenfield. “Thank you.”
“Glad to help you,” Mike said with a smile, adjusting Violet’s bike to the same level.
As he walked away, Violet turned to her older sister. “I think he likes you,” she whispered with a big smile.
Jessie looked straight ahead, as if she was concentrating on pedaling. But Violet thought she could see a small smile tugging at the corners of her sister’s mouth, and she was sure her cheeks weren’t pink just from riding.
Meanwhile, Mike was helping Benny with the rowing machine. “Sit in the little seat,” he told Benny. The seat was on the ground, facing what looked like a TV screen. Mike strapped Benny’s feet securely into place, so that his legs were bent up in front of him. Then Mike showed Benny how to “row” by pulling a small bar toward him while pushing back with his legs.
“This is hard to pull,” Benny said.
Mike pushed some buttons on the side of the machine. “There, that ought to be easier.”
As Benny pushed with his legs, the seat slid backward. When he had pushed the seat nearly all the way back, his legs were straight out in front of him. Then he bent his legs and let the tension on the bar pull him forward again.
“Now pull on the bar and push back with your legs again,” Mike explained. “Back and forth. You can watch the little boat moving across the screen to see how fast you’re going.”
“Neat!” cried Benny. “But this is hard work!”
“That’s the point,” Mike said, smiling.
After he had gotten each of them going on their exercises, Mike headed back out to the front desk. “Yell if you need anything,” he called over his shoulder.
When Mike was gone, Henry turned to his sisters and brother. “We’ve got to solve this mystery,” he said, panting slightly as he lifted a barbell to his chest and brought it back down.
“We can add the broken elevator to the list of strange things that have happened here,” Jessie remarked.
“I can’t believe how many things have gone wrong or gotten mixed up!” Violet said.
“They could be accidents, couldn’t they? Maybe this is just a bad hotel,” Benny said.
“Grandfather wouldn’t stay here if it weren’t a good hotel,” Violet pointed out. “And anyway, most of the things that have happened couldn’t have been accidents. Remember the purple pool?”
“And the sugar and salt mix-up?” added Jessie.
“Yeah, you’re right,” Benny admitted. “But why would someone do all those things?”
“Could someone not like this hotel?” Jessie asked. “And want it to close down?”
“But who? And why?” asked Benny.
Jessie shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“That’s what makes it a mystery,” Henry said.
“Who are our suspects?” asked Jessie.
“There’s Lucille, the maid,” Henry said. “Remember how angry she was that the hotel had fired Malcolm? She said she was doing something about it, and he warned her not to get fired. She’d certainly be fired for dyeing the pool purple and turning off the elevator switch. Maybe this is what they were talking about.”
“And she knows her way around the hotel. In her uniform, she could get into lots of places other people couldn’t,” Jessie added.
“Remember when we first got here?” Benny asked, pushing back and forth. “The man down the hall complained to her about his room not being cleaned up? She said she was sorry, but maybe she wasn’t. Maybe she didn’t clean it on purpose!”
“You know who else was listening to that conversation?” Violet asked. “Karen Walsh. She always seems to be around when there are problems.”
“Karen was in the coffee shop during the salt and sugar mix-up, too,” Jessie recalled. “She was one of the only people who didn’t seem bothered. It was almost as if she expected it.”
“When I went over to talk to her that morning, she was afraid I’d see what she was writing in her notebook,” Benny reminded them. He had grown tired and had stopped rowing. “I thought that was pretty mysterious.”
“And she was very curious to hear about the purple pool. A little too curious, I thought,” Jessie said.
“But why would she want to hurt the hotel?” Benny asked.
“Maybe she works for another hotel that’s trying to put this one out of business,” Henry suggested, putting his weights back on the rack.
“I just thought of another suspect,” Jessie said. “Remember we saw one person up here, besides Mike, the day the pool was dyed?”
“That mysterious man!” said Benny. “I’ll bet you anything it’s him. He always looks as if he’s just done something wrong and doesn’t want anyone to catch him.”
“And I saw his name on the pool sign-in sheet,” Henry remembered. “John Smith. Doesn’t that sound like a made-up name?”
“Sure does,” Violet agreed. She had gotten off her bike and gone to get a drink at the water fountain near the door.
“So we’ve got some suspects. Now what? We have no proof that any of them did anything wrong,” said Jessie.
The children all sat quietly thinking, tired from their exercising.
“I think we should follow each one of them,” Benny said. “That’s what a real detective would do. Maybe then we’ll get some proof!”
“I like that idea, Benny,” said Jessie. “Let’s do it!”
“Shhhh!” said Violet, who was still standing near the door. In a loud whisper she said, “Look who’s out there talking to Mike!”
The Aldens crowded around their sister, trying to see. It was Karen Walsh, carrying her notebook as always.
“Are you sure I’ll be able to use the pool tomorrow?” Karen was asking Mike.
“Yes, ma’am. We’re working as quickly as we can,” he answered.
“And how do you know someone won’t dye it orange tomorrow?” Karen asked.
“Orange?” Mike said. “Well, I certainly hope that won’t happen — ”
“Yes, I’ll bet you do,” Karen said. “But you can’t be sure, can you?” And with that, she turned on her heel, and headed for the elevator.
“This is our chance!” Benny whispered. “We should follow her!”
“What about the other suspects?” Violet asked.
“Violet, you come with me,” said Jessie, grabbing her sister’s arm. “Benny and Henry, you two try to find out more about Lucille and the mysterious man.”
Violet and Jessie waited until Karen had gotten on the elevator and the doors had shut behind her. Then they hurried out and looked up at the panel over the elevator, which showed what floor the elevator was on. It stopped when it got to nine.
“What’s she doing on the ninth floor?” Violet asked. “Her room’s on the fifth floor, like ours.”
“I don’t know, but we’re about to find out,” said Jessie. “Come on!” Jessie headed for the door to the stairs. “We’ll walk down. Waiting for the elevator will take too long.”
“Hey, girls, how’d you like the exercise bikes?” Mike called out just then.
“They were fun,” Jessie said, turning around to talk to him.
“Sorry we have to run, but we’re on an important mission,” Violet explained. “Come on, Jessie.”
“Well, have fun!” Mike said with a grin. |