The children stood just outside the gate to the recycling center. Ethan had gone back to work on the bags, and Kayla was in her studio.
“We know that Ethan didn’t climb the fence and tip over the Other Stuff Dumpster,” said Violet.
“Because his footprints don’t match the smaller set of footprints,” said Jessie.
“And because Ethan could jump over the fence,” said Benny. “But the person who tipped the Dumpster had to climb over.”
“We need to find out whose footprints match the second set,” said Henry. “Then we need to find out why that person tipped over the Dumpster.”
The children stood there and thought.
“We need to see the tread marks on Mrs. Wickett’s shoes, on Chad’s shoes, and even on Kayla’s shoes,” said Jessie at last.
Her brothers and sister agreed.
“Look!” said Benny, pointing across the street. “I just saw something bright red. I think it’s Mrs. Wickett’s boots!”
The Aldens crossed the street and walked into Mrs. Wickett’s yard. They walked around the back, where Benny had seen something red. There was Mrs. Wickett, kneeling in her garden. She wore an old jacket and pants and her bright red boots.
“Oh, hello,” she said when she saw them. “What a nice surprise.”
The children said hello.
Benny noticed that the bottom of Mrs. Wickett’s boots were facing out, so he bent down to look at them.
As soon as she saw what Benny was doing, Mrs. Wickett scooted around so that Benny couldn’t see her boots. Then she stood up.
“Why don’t we all go and sit on my front porch?” she said. “I’m done gardening for the day.”
Once everybody was settled on the front porch, Mrs. Wickett offered them lemonade. All four children accepted.
“This is delicious,” said Violet as she sipped her glass of lemonade.
Mrs. Wickett smiled. “Thank you,” she said. “I made it myself.”
Then Mrs. Wickett sat in a wicker chair. “Well,” she said, “what has Kayla decided to do about all the recycling that people leave alongside the sidewalk?”
“We don’t know,” said Jessie. “She hasn’t said.”
“We think Kayla should leave the center open until midnight,” said Henry. “But she won’t. She says she’s worried about people breaking into her studio.”
“Kayla makes lovely jewelry out of junk,”said Mrs. Wickett, sipping her lemonade. “She brought some of it to Jonah’s Jewelry Store and asked Mr. Jonah if he would sell it.”
“Kayla told us about that,” said Violet. “But Mr. Jonah said no.”
“That’s right,” Mrs. Wicket said. “Mr. Jonah doesn’t like jewelry made out of recycled metals and glass. I’m afraid he said some very insulting things to Kayla.”
“When was this?” asked Henry.
“Oh, a few weeks ago. A day or two before the robbery,” Mrs. Wickett answered.
The children looked at one another.
“Mrs. Wickett,” said Jessie, “do you want the recycling center to fail?”
Instead of answering, Mrs. Wickett sipped her lemonade and stared across the street at the recycling center. Finally she spoke. “Recycling is a good thing,” she said. “But bags of recycling outside the recycling center are not a good thing. I just don’t know.”
“Somebody climbed over the fence and tipped over the Other Stuff Dumpster,” saidHenry. “Did you do that?”
“My word!” exclaimed Mrs. Wickett. “You children do ask direct questions, don’t you?”
Henry waited for an answer.
“No, I did not,” Mrs. Wickett replied.
“We found footprints outside the fence, where somebody climbed over,” said Jessie. She took out her notebook. “I made a drawing of the footprints.”
Mrs. Wickett didn’t say anything.
“May we see the bottom of your red boots?” Henry asked.
Mrs. Wickett stood up. “No, you may not!” she said.
“Why won’t you let us see them?” asked Benny.
“I am innocent!” Mrs. Wickett shouted. “I don’t have to prove I’m innocent—you have to prove I’m guilty!” She marched into her house and slammed the door.
Once again, the children returned to the front gate of the recycling center.
“We are down to two suspects for the second break-in,” said Violet. “The break-in where somebody tipped over the Other Stuff Dumpster. It was either Chad or Mrs. Wickett.”
“But we have three suspects for the diamond robbery,” said Jessie. “It’s either Chad, Mrs. Wickett, or Kayla.”
“We might have two separate crimes to solve,” said Henry. “Or the two crimes might be connected.”
“I think the crimes are connected,” said Violet.
Everybody else agreed with Violet.
“That means the diamonds are hidden somewhere in the recycling center,” said Henry. “Or they were hidden there, and now they’re somewhere else.”
Benny had been thinking hard, and now he spoke up. “I think the diamonds were hidden in the Other Stuff bin,” he said.
Henry smiled at his younger brother. “Notin the bin itself,” said Henry, “but inside something that was in the bin.”
“Not inside of Mrs. McGregor’s green frog,” said Violet. “That’s made of metal and has no place to hide anything.”
“Not inside my notebooks,” said Jessie.
“Ohhhhhh,”said Benny as he figured it out. “The diamonds are hidden inside my pi?ata!” Benny thought about this for a moment. “But how did they get there?” he asked.
“I think that whoever robbed Jonah’s Jewelry Store went to Tío’s Tacos late at night,” said Henry. “And when there weren’t any other customers, the thief put the diamonds into the pi?ata.”
“But why?” asked Jessie. “Why didn’t the thief just take the jewels home?”
“I’ve been thinking about that,” said Henry. “Whoever stole the diamonds must have been afraid of being searched. Or of having their house searched.”
This made sense to Jessie. Tío’s pi?atas were all hanging from the ceiling. Nobody ever touched them. “Tío’s pi?atas are a pretty safe place to store diamonds,” she said. “They just hang from the ceiling and get old and dusty.”
“The thief didn’t know that Tío was going to replace the old pi?atas with new ones,” said Henry.
The children decided it was time to go home and make a plan. They rode their bikes home, put them away, and sat in the sunporch.
“Let’s open the pi?ata and take out the diamonds,” said Benny.
“Not yet,” said Henry. “We can look inside the pi?ata later. Let’s think first.”
Everybody looked at Henry.
“Maybe we can leave the pi?ata where it is and use it to trap the thief,” Henry said.
“How?” asked Jessie.
“I don’t know,” said Henry.
Benny looked at his red pi?ata, which was still hanging from the ceiling of the sunporch. “My bull pi?ata looks lonesome,” he said.
Violet sat right up. “Benny!” she said. “That’s it! What a brilliant idea!”
“Huh?” said Benny. “What idea?”
“Your pi?ata is lonesome, so we’ll have a party for it!” said Violet. She reached up and took the pi?ata down from the ceiling. Henry liked the way Violet was thinking. “We’ll invite Kayla and Mrs. Wickett and Chad,” he said. “One of them will really, really want the pi?ata.”
“Let’s invite Ethan, too,” said Jessie, “even though we know he didn’t steal the diamonds.”
“And let’s invite Tío,” said Violet. “That way, we can make sure that Benny’s pi?ata really is from Tío’s Tacos.”
The children went to talk to Mrs. McGregor and Grandfather, both of whom agreed a party was a good idea.
“Let’s have it tomorrow afternoon,” said Henry.
“I’ll set up the badminton,” said Jessie.
Benny liked to push croquet wickets into the ground, so he volunteered to set up the croquet game. And Violet loved putting out paper plates, cups, and napkins. And I have a perfect use for all that purple cloth, she thought.
After the children planned everything with Mrs. McGregor and Grandfather, they called Kayla to invite her to the party. Then they called Mrs. Wickett and invited her. They asked her if she would invite Chad, and she said Chad was visiting with her, so she would ask him. Finally, they called Ethan and Tío and invited them, too.
“Everything is set,” said Jessie, “Now it’s notebook time.”
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