“No dessert?” Grandfather Alden sounded surprised. “Not even you, Benny?” The Aldens had just finished dinner together. Grandfather knew that Benny always had room for dessert.
“I had ice cream this afternoon,” Benny said. “Two free scoops.”
“Big ones,” said Henry. “We all had ice cream this afternoon —although none of us had quite as much as Benny did.”
“I thought none of you seemed very hungry,” said Grandfather, a twinkle in his eye.
“We got paid in ice cream,” Violet explained. “For delivering fliers and putting up posters.”
“You told me about putting up the posters, but not about the ice-cream payment,” Grandfather said.
“We didn’t think you’d think it was such a good idea to eat ice cream so close to dinner,” explained Benny.
“Noooo, I don’t. But I guess you won’t do it again,” Grandfather said.
“No,” said Violet. “Not even to solve the mystery.”
Grandfather nodded. His four grandchildren had told him all about what had happened at the Ice Cream Barn. He knew if anybody could find out who had placed the fake order, it was them.
“Will you be going to the Ice Cream Barn tomorrow?” he asked.
“Probably,” said Henry. “Then we can look for more clues.”
“But I don’t think we’re going to eat as much ice cream,” said Jessie. “Even Benny has had enough for a while!”
But the Aldens didn’t go to the Ice Cream Barn the next morning. Instead they did a few errands for Grandfather and Mrs. McGregor. They mailed letters for Grandfather. They took Mrs. McGregor’s books back to the library. Then they stopped by the bike shop to put air in Benny’s bicycle tires.
That was when Violet noticed that the poster she had put up in the front of the bike shop wasn’t there.
She stopped. She looked at Henry. “Didn’t we put a poster up right over there, yesterday afternoon?” she asked.
Benny looked, too. “Yes,” he said. “Where is it?”
“It isn’t there,” said Jessie.
“Maybe the owner of the store took it down,” said Henry.
“But he said we could put it up,” Violet reminded him.
They went inside. As soon as he saw them, Louis, one of the store’s owners, smiled and said, “More posters today?”
“No. I mean, yes, maybe,” said Jessie. “Because the poster we put up yesterday isn’t there. Did you take it down?”
“No,” said Louis in surprise. He called over his shoulder to a woman repairing a bicycle. “Thelma, did you take that ice-cream shop poster down?”
“Nope,” Thelma answered.
“Okay, thanks,” said Jessie. They turned to go. Then Jessie turned back. “If we bring another poster, may we put it up in the window?” she asked. “On the inside?”
“Sure,” said Louis. “No problem.”
But there was a problem, the Aldens soon realized. Most of the posters they’d put up the day before had been taken down. Only the shops where they’d put posters on the insides of the windows still had posters up. And many of the places where they’d left stacks of fliers had no fliers left, either.
None of the store owners knew what had happened to the posters or the fliers. No one had seen them disappear.
“Maybe different people picked up all the fliers one at a time,” said Violet doubtfully.
“I don’t think so,” said Henry. “We put out too many fliers to be taken in one day. I think whoever took all the posters got rid of all the fliers they could find, too.”
“Someone who doesn’t like the ice-cream shop,” Benny said.
Jessie nodded in agreement. “And we need to find out who.”
“But now we’d better put up more posters,” Violet said. She added, “And put out more fliers.”
“Good idea. Let’s go,” said Henry. “And while we’re at the Ice Cream Barn, I think we need to talk to Brianna.”
“Why?” asked Benny.
“Because she knows something she’s not telling us. It might be a clue,” said Henry.
“Back for more ice cream today?” Katy called cheerfully as the Aldens came through the front door of the shop. She was serving a double scoop to one of two boys, while a familiar-looking thin blonde woman in sunglasses was poking at an ice-cream sundae in the corner. As Jessie glanced over, the woman slid a small notebook out from under her napkin and wrote something on it before hiding it under her napkin again.
“Not yet,” said Henry. “We thought we’d put up a few more posters and hand out some more fliers.”
“Great,” said Katy. “We have another big boxful out in the barn. Brianna’s out there. She can show you.”
The Aldens found Brianna outside the barn. She had a paintbrush in her hand and was studying something she had set on a small table covered with newspaper. Butterscotch watched sleepily from the shade of a nearby tree.
“What’s that?” asked Benny, skipping up to the table.
“Oh, hi. This? It’s a suggestion box. I just painted it. When it’s dry, I’m going to put it inside the shop. Customers can write down their ideas and opinions and stick them inside,” Brianna explained.
Violet bent forward to study the small wooden box. “It looks like the ice-cream wagon!” she said.
“It does? Good. It’s supposed to,” Brianna said. “What’s happening?”
“Well,” said Jessie. “We have a problem.”
“Someone took all our posters!” blurted Benny.
“And most of the fliers, too,” added Violet.
“What?” Brianna said, her voice going up.
“We came to get more to put up,” said Henry. “And we need to ask you a few questions.”
“Good grief,” said Brianna. She paused, thinking hard, then asked, “What questions?”
“There are at least two people we know about who don’t like the Ice Cream Barn. One is our neighbor, Mr. Bush,” Jessie said.
Brianna nodded.
“The other is Preston, Katy’s old assistant,” Henry said.
“Why would Preston hate the Ice Cream Barn?” Brianna said, looking very surprised. “He loved working with Granna Katy.”
“We met him yesterday when we were putting up fliers,” Violet said. “He was very upset about losing his job.”
“But it is only temporary, until we can pay him again!” Brianna protested. “You don’t think—do you think Preston made that fake order? And stole the posters?”
“Maybe,” said Violet.
“No! No, that’s not possible. I know Preston is upset, but he’d never do something like that,” said Brianna. “And Mr. Bush is just worried about having the wagon in the neighborhood. When he sees how well behaved Butterscotch is, he’ll get over it.”
“If Preston and Mr. Bush didn’t do it, who did?” asked Henry.
“At first I wondered if another ice-cream company might be trying to put the Ice Cream Barn out of business. National Sugar Shop Corporation has been asking Granna Katy to sell them the Ice Cream Barn so they can set up their own ice-cream shop in Greenfield,” said Brianna. “But then I realized that was silly. A big company wouldn’t bother trying to hurt a small business like ours.”
“Anyone else?” asked Jessie. She looked toward the Ice Cream Barn. A white truck with a bright blue stripe all the way around it had pulled up to the front of the shop. The door of the truck read, MARTINE BLUE RIBBON ICE CREAM VENDOR AND RESTAURANT SUPPLY COMPANY. “How big is Marcos’ company? Could he be the one trying to hurt the Ice Cream Barn?”
“Martine Supply is not very big. Marcos is one of three partners there,” Brianna said. “But he’d never, ever try to harm the Barn’s business. We’re old customers of his. Katy’s known him for years.” She nodded toward the truck. “In fact, I have a meeting with Marcos and Katy in about five minutes.”
“We need to get the fliers,” Henry reminded her.
“Oh, right. In the stall next to Butterscotch’s in a big box on a bench. You can’t miss them.” Brianna carefully picked up the almost dry suggestion box. “Well, I’d better get to that meeting.”
As soon as she’d left, the Aldens loaded up with fliers and posters. Then Jessie said, “Come on. Let’s go meet Marcos!”
Inside, the store was quiet. The ice-cream sundae the blonde woman had been eating was melting on the small table by the front window. Katy and Brianna were sitting at a larger table with a stocky man with black and silver hair who had thick horn-rimmed glasses. He was wearing a white shirt with a blue stripe that matched the truck outside.
“Hi,” said Jessie. “We found the posters and fliers, Katy.”
“Good,” said Katy. “The more you put up, the better it is for business.”
“Would you like one?” Benny asked, handing a flier to the man.
“What’s this?” the man said, examining the flier.
“Advertising,” Brianna replied.
“And this is your advertising staff?” the man said, grinning.
Brianna grinned back, then introduced everyone. “As you know, we buy our basic flavors—vanilla, chocolate, strawberry —from Marcos,” she explained to the Aldens.
“He also provides some, of our ice-cream treats, such as ice-cream sandwiches.”
“If your business grows like you want it to, you’re going to need more than basic flavors from me,” Marcos said. “You’ll never have time to make all the special flavors you do now.”
“Someone was just saying that to me a few days ago,” Katy commented. “She had lots of ideas to make us into a big business. If we hired her to run things, she said, we’d be ice-cream kings.”
“Good thing she didn’t convince you,” Brianna said. “We don’t want to be ice-cream kings, or queens, or anything like that. We just want to make the best ice cream around.”
“You do!” said Benny.
“I have to admit, it tastes very, very good. But you could give your flavor recipes to my company and we could make batches for you, you know,” Marcos said.
“No,” said Katy firmly. “And I’m not going to change my mind, no matter what you say.”
Holding up his hands, Marcos said, “Okay, okay. Maybe you’re not going to change your mind...yet.”
“Make a note and put it in our new suggestion box,” Brianna said with a wink.
Marcos laughed. “See you next week,” he said, and got up.
“Don’t forget our order forms,” Brianna said, handing him several sheets of paper.
Marcos tucked the papers into a folder. “If you want to change your order, you know where to reach me,” he said. He waved and headed out the door.
“The suggestion box looks good,” Violet said admiringly.
“It does, doesn’t it?” Katy said in a pleased voice. “I hired the right business manager and partner when I hired my granddaughter.”
Brianna blushed, but she looked pleased, too.
“I have a suggestion,” Henry said briskly. “I suggest we get to work putting up these posters and handing out these fliers.”
“Tell you what,” Brianna said. “When you’re finished, stop back by here and I’ll give you a ride on the ice-cream wagon.”
“Hooray!” said Benny.
“We’ll be back,” Jessie promised. |