On their way to work the next morning Benny and Henry talked about the mystery of the lockets.
Henry said, “No one could find out how the lockets got to the jewelry counter. At first it seemed as if someone was playing a joke.”
“I know,” said Benny. “It did seem funny.”
“The more Mr. Furman thought about it, the more it worried him,” Henry went on. “He called in a locksmith and had the front door lock changed yesterday afternoon. He has a new key, and he gave one to Mr. Fogg. He mailed one to the new owner in New York.”
The boys had just reported for work when Mr. Furman called Henry to his office.
“I have no one else I can ask,” he began. “I have a real problem. The man who comes to work at six o’clock is sick and won’t be here. Sam does not start to work until midnight. I need someone to sweep the floor and empty the wastebaskets. I don’t have anyone to do the work.”
Henry smiled. “If you think I can do the work, I’ll try. Just tell me what has to be done.”
“That’s fine, Henry. I hoped you would say that,” exclaimed Mr. Furman. “Some people won’t do that kind of work after they’ve been salespeople.”
As Mr. Furman finished speaking, there was a knock on the office door. “Come in,” he called.
Sam, the nightwatchman, stood in the doorway. “You wanted to talk to me?” he asked.
“Yes, Sam. Did everything go all right last night?”
“All quiet,” Sam said. “Not a bit of trouble.”
“Good,” said Mr. Furman. “Sam, tell me again about what happened the night before. We’re still trying to find out how those lockets got on the jewelry counter.”
“Don’t you mind staying alone all night?” Henry asked.
“No,” Sam said. “I’m used to it. Here’s what happened the other night,” he continued, turning to Mr. Furman. “I was making my rounds on the first floor, the way I always do. It was about one o’clock in the morning. I thought I heard a sound, like footsteps.”
“Yes?” said Mr. Furman. “Go on.”
“I listened. Everything was quiet. I flashed my light around to see if anything was going on.”
“And you didn’t see anything at all?”
“Well, no. Somebody must have been decorating the store windows. There was a dress dummy near the window by the front door. I hadn’t noticed it when I came in. But I could have missed seeing it then.”
Mr. Furman wrote a note on a pad on his desk. “Please go on,” he said to Sam.
“So everything seemed OK. I went down to the basement to check. I wasn’t down there long. I was coming up the stairs when I said to myself, ‘There’s got to be something wrong.’ I just had that feeling—something was wrong. Then I heard it. The front door clicked shut. It was soft, but I heard it. I ran over and looked out. ‘Stop!’ I yelled.”
“You saw something outside?” Henry asked.
“Naw. Not a soul. I looked both ways. Nothing.”
“Do you think perhaps you just thought you heard the door close?” Mr. Furman asked.
“I heard it. I’m sure of it,” Sam said. “I don’t make things up.”
“All right,” said Mr. Furman. “So that’s a clue we can work on. Did you look around the first floor again?”
“Sure. Everything was OK.” Suddenly Sam stopped. “Wait a minute! Something kind of bothered me, though. Now I know what it was. You know that dress dummy I saw by the front window? I don’t think I saw it again. It was gone. Come to think of it now, I’m sure it was missing. Now what do you think of that?”
“I don’t know what to think,” Mr. Furman said. “But we had the lock on the door changed yesterday afternoon. Did you see or hear anything before the store opened this morning?”
“Like I said before, everything was quiet last night,” Sam said, getting up to leave.
After the watchman had gone, Mr. Furman told Henry, “We did not want to alarm people yesterday. Someone was in the store. We’re sure of that. Toni checked out her cash register and I looked around quietly to see if anyone had been in my office.”
“Was anything missing?” Henry asked.
“Not that I could see. I asked Mr. Fogg to check on the cameras and radios. Those are sometimes stolen. Nothing had been taken. And everything was all right on the second floor.”
Henry could see that Mr. Furman was not satisfied. “I’ll keep my eyes and ears open while I work this evening,” he promised. “You can count on me.”
Mr. Furman smiled at that. “Yes, I am sure I can. Go home now and report back when the store is closing. I’ll just say you are absent today.”
Henry wondered about that, and Mr. Furman explained, “I have one idea. Somebody could hide in the store at the end of the day. When the store is empty, the person could come out and do what he wanted to do. Some big stores keep watch dogs to sniff around and catch people doing that.”
“Do you think it could be one of the store workers?” Henry asked. “It had to be somebody who knew the store well to put those price tags on the lockets.”
Mr. Furman shrugged his shoulders. “I know. It’s a puzzle.”
“How could anyone get out if the doors were locked?” Henry said. “Someone who hid in the store after working hours wouldn’t want to stay all night.”
“That part is no problem,” Mr. Furman said. “The doors can always be opened from the inside. It’s a fire safety rule. But you have to have a key to get in from the outside. Unless someone lets you in. But I trust Sam. He would not do that.”
Henry stood up. “I’ll come back ready to go to work. Will I see you before I begin?”
“Yes, report to me. I may have some special instructions for you.”
Henry went down to the basement stockroom and found Benny there. He told Benny about his special job. Then Henry went home, leaving by a back door.
Benny had a busy day. But for once he did not have a delivery to make for Miss Douglas. In fact, Miss Douglas did not come into the store at all that day. By the end of the afternoon the salespeople were wondering what had happened to her.
Benny was ready to leave when he saw Henry talking to Mr. Furman. He was wearing work clothes. Mr. Furman was showing him where the floor brushes and big trash bins were.
“Don’t worry about the second floor,” he told Henry. “I want you to spend your time on the first floor. You can turn on the lights while you’re sweeping. Check all the offices, washrooms, and the basement to be sure the building is empty. That’s important. If you see anything suspicious, phone me right away.”
“Not the police?” asked Henry.
“I don’t think we need the police,” Mr. Furman said. “No one has done anything wrong. That is what is so puzzling about this.”
The store was soon quiet. Henry checked the doors to be sure they were locked. He went up to the second floor to make sure it was empty. He switched on the lights. The dust covers on the counters made the store look different and spooky. He went back to the room where dresses and coats hung on long racks. He stooped down to make sure no one was there. Everything was all right.
Next, Henry went to the basement stockroom. Up and down the aisles of boxes he went. He stopped to listen. There was not a sound. He picked up the long floor brush and started upstairs.
He opened the door and stood still. Did he hear someone walking softly around? Something fell and Henry jumped.
Carefully, quietly, step by step, Henry slipped through the door and stood in the shadow by the water fountain.
Someone tall was walking around with a limping step, back bent, lifting the dust covers on the counters and putting them back.
Henry had to decide what to do. Should he call out “Stop!” or go down to the basement and telephone Mr. Furman? Perhaps Mr. Furman would not be at home yet. The store had not been closed long.
Henry took a step forward. Just at that moment the figure whirled around and faced him. Henry gasped.
It was Mr. Fogg!
For a second neither Henry nor Mr. Fogg spoke. Then Mr. Fogg exclaimed, “I knew it was you! But nobody would listen to me. Now I can prove it!”
“Me!” Henry said. “What do you mean? I’m doing my job, that’s all. What are you doing here? I thought everyone had gone home.”
“You thought!” said Mr. Fogg angrily. “You’re so nice, so hard working, so polite! I know what you are doing. Trying to get me into trouble, that’s all. Well, you can’t.”
By now Henry was angry, too. But he knew that he could not get anywhere by fighting Mr. Fogg.
“Wait,” Henry said. “How can I get you in trouble? You’re the first floor manager. Mr. Furman trusts you and depends on you.”
“I know what you did,” Mr. Fogg exclaimed. “Sneaking around and putting those lockets out. That was your work. Oh, yes, it was. I wouldn’t be surprised if those lockets weren’t made by some company your grandfather owns. Aldens want to run everything.”
Henry shook his head. What could he say? He was beginning to believe it was Mr. Fogg who had put the lockets on the jewelry counter—for the very purpose of getting Henry in trouble.
As quietly as he could, Henry said, “I think there’s some mistake. I never saw those lockets until Doris found them. Someone else put them there. It wasn’t my work. I thought maybe you put them there.”
“Me?” shouted Mr. Fogg. “Don’t be stupid.”
“Then why are you here after the store is closed?” asked Henry. “You have a key.”
“I’m here to catch someone like you sneaking around, that’s what.”
Talking with Mr. Fogg was getting Henry nowhere. “Shall I phone Mr. Furman and ask him to come back?” he asked. “We can settle this right away.”
Mr. Fogg shook his head. “Don’t try to fool me that way. I’m ready to leave. I’ll talk to Mr. Furman in the morning. If anything happens in the store tonight, then he will know who is to blame. Good night.”
Henry watched as the man strode with a limp to the door and let it slam loudly behind him.
Pushing the big brush over the floor and emptying the wastebaskets gave Henry time to think. Now that he had cooled off, he decided that Mr. Fogg probably had nothing to do with the lockets. It was too wild an idea to suppose he could get the Aldens in trouble that way. So, how had the lockets gotten into the store?
Henry finished sweeping. He looked around. Everything was in place. He turned off the lights, but kept his flashlight handy. Then he had an idea.
Henry ran upstairs. Mr. Furman had told him not to sweep the second floor.
He now switched on all the lights upstairs as if he was going to work there.
If anyone was watching the store from the outside, that person would think the first floor was empty.
Then Henry went back to the first floor, moving carefully and quietly in the darkness. He held his flashlight ready. Near the front door he sat down and waited.
Time passed. The store was very quiet. Outside on the sidewalk a few people stopped to look at the store windows. Cars went by in the warm summer night.
Henry looked at his watch. What a long evening! He felt like giving up, but he didn’t. Someone might still try to open the front door.
At last it was eleven o’clock. By now there was almost no traffic and no one walked by. Henry wondered how Sam could spend night after night as watchman. It wasn’t the kind of work Henry would like to do all the time.
Henry was about to yawn when he heard something. Somebody was trying to push a key in the lock. Henry could hear it scrape. But the lock did not open. The door stayed closed.
After three times, whoever it was gave up. Henry counted to ten and then moved cautiously to the door. He looked out through the glass. Away down the street he saw a short figure getting into a car. He could not make out the license number. The car was soon driven off.
There was nothing Henry could do. In the morning he could tell Mr. Furman about what he had heard. He was sure of one thing. The figure had not belonged to Mr. Fogg. And anyway, Mr. Fogg had a new key and could have opened the door with no trouble.
When Sam came, Henry was glad to say good night. At home he found Benny still awake.
“Well?” asked Benny. “What happened?”
When he had heard Henry’s story Benny said, “It’s a real mystery. Yes, sir, a real mystery. And we’ll find the answers. You’ll see.” |