The reporter stood off in the corner of the playroom and looked a little restless. “I guess we have our story, Nan. I’ll run a little piece about your great-uncle and about House and Hands fixing up the Bugaboo House.”
“Please don’t call it that,” Nan protested. “My great-uncle was a bit odd but not scary. He made this whole place into a playhouse for his family. He designed it with all kinds of hallways, secret closets, doors that don’t go anywhere, windows that open to other rooms instead of outside. But it wasn’t a scary house.”
“Fine,” the reporter said. “Well, show us around. I suppose we can get some shots of the house’s oddities.”
Benny stepped in front of Nan. “Know what? We found another secret room filled with old stuff. And know what else? George knows where it is, too.”
The reporter nodded to the camera operator. “Let’s follow this boy. Where to now, young man?”
“To the bathroom on the third floor,” Benny answered.
“The bathroom?” Mabel asked, a bit confused.
“Don’t worry, Mabel,” Jessie said. “Wait until you see what Benny and Soo Lee found.”
By this time, both children had gone down the staircase. By the time everyone had joined them, Benny and Soo Lee had already exposed the hidden door in the bathroom.
“See?” Benny said to the reporter. “This doorway goes to another room. Isn’t it neat?”
The reporter bent down to get a better look. “Are you sure this opens? It won’t budge.”
Henry came over. “Let me try.” He gave the hidden door a strong push with his feet.
Everyone heard a thud on the other side.
“It’s open!” Henry bent down and entered the hidden room. “George! Louella! So you didn’t leave.” He looked around at the heaps of old leather books, jewelry boxes, and paintings all boxed up and ready to go. “So this is where you kept all the treasures that never got into the auction. Well, now they will.”
George grabbed a box and ran out a door on the far side of the room. Louella quickly disappeared behind her husband. The door banged shut behind them with a click.
Henry pulled at the door. “It’s locked!”
Benny scooted over and put his ear up against the door. “Now I remember something. When Soo Lee and I got lost, we heard people walking and talking behind the walls and some steps, too. I forgot.”
Jessie nodded. “Yes. Well, we had a feeling the Gardiners knew there were more treasures in this house.”
“I have a hunch the passageway they used goes right to the garage,” Henry said. “Follow us.”
The Aldens scrambled out of the hidden room as fast as they could get through the opening. In a flash, they raced down several flights of stairs and out to the garage.
The Gardiners were already backing one of the old cars down the driveway.
“Stop!” Henry yelled.
Jessie spotted a big lawn mower. She raced over and pushed it into the driveway. This blocked the car from going any farther.
George turned off the engine then banged his fist on the steering wheel. He and Louella stared straight ahead. The Aldens had them trapped.
By this time, everyone else had come outside, too.
The reporter raced over and looked in the car window. “That’s the pair that made off with half the contents of the Paulding estate over in Winslow last month,” he said. “These two have quite a racket going. They show up at big estates that are about to be sold. They work there for a while and pass themselves off as auction experts—which they are. That’s how they know which stuff to steal before it ever gets to auction. They sneak out the real treasures and leave the rest for the auction.” He turned to Mabel. “I bet you everything they took is worth ten times more than what you made at the auction.”
Mabel swallowed hard and tapped her fingers against the old car. “It’s all my fault. I hired them.”
“So did a lot of smart people, Mrs. Hart,” the reporter said. “You’re not the first. But thanks to the Aldens, this is the first time they’ve been caught red-handed.”
“Oh, my,” Mabel said when she spotted some rolled-up papers in the backseat. “Those are the house blueprints I thought I lost. So that’s how they figured out where the roomful of treasures was. But the Gardiners didn’t count on the Aldens. These kids didn’t need blueprints to find the hidden rooms.”
Brian turned to Mabel. “Well,” he said, “now we can plan another auction.”
“Another auction?” Mabel said. “It’s hard to think about that right now. We’d better get the police here.”
“I’m making the call right now,” the reporter said, holding up his cell phone. “These two aren’t going anywhere.”
“Yes, they are,” Henry said. “While we’re waiting, I want them to show us how they got from the garage to the house. We knew there was a way, but George sent us out of there before we could find it.” He opened the car door for Louella.
Louella unlocked the garage door. Everyone followed her inside.
“A trapdoor!” Benny cried when he spotted a wooden door on the garage floor. “It was under the car.”
“So that’s why we kept hearing a car engine sometimes when the Gardiners were in the garage,” Henry said. He went over and pulled up the door. “There are some steps.”
“Can I look?” Benny said.
The Aldens climbed down some wooden steps to a basement under the garage. They didn’t have their flashlights, but there was enough light to see something up ahead.
“It’s a spiral staircase,” Jessie said when she went over. “It goes way, way up to the third floor.”
A few people crowded around to get a look.
Brian smacked his forehead. “Now I remember this passageway,” Brian said. “My dad mentioned that my grandfather had a chauffeur named Wolcott. He lived in a small room on the third floor near the bathroom. He complained all the time about how much he disliked going outside in bad weather to start the car. My grandfather put this staircase in an airshaft so Wolcott could go right to the garage from the bathroom. Of course, as a joke, he made it tricky for Wolcott to get to the passageway. The bathroom doorway is just a few feet high, whereas Wolcott was a very tall man. Well, what do you know?”
“I know something,” Benny said as everyone walked outside again.
“What’s that?” Grandfather asked, wondering what Benny was up to next.
“I’m hungry,” Benny said. “That’s what I know. Didn’t somebody say there was going to be a picnic after the television people left?”
Mabel came over and hugged Benny “After we settle things with the police, we’ll have our picnic and plan a new auction.”
“Know what kind of picnic?” Benny asked the crowd.
Everyone quieted down to hear what Benny was going to say next.
“A teddy bear picnic!” Benny announced. |