Gertrude Warner - Mystery in New York

Benny had said this before about other mysteries, and he had been right before. But Mr. Pound didn’t know that. He smiled at Benny. “That’s very kind of you, young man. But leave solving mysteries to the police.”

He wiped his face one last time, then smoothed his handkerchief out and folded it up and tucked it into his pocket. He stood up. “Thank you again for all your help. And for the delicious dinner.”

“Of course,” said Mrs. Teague.

She and Grandfather Alden walked with Mr. Pound to the front door. The children gathered up the plates and saucers and teacups and took them into the kitchen to wash them.

“I don’t think Mr. Pound believed me when I told him we could solve the mystery,” Benny said. He put a teacup carefully on the counter.

“I don’t think he did, either, Benny,” agreed Jessie.

“It’s going to be a hard mystery to solve,” said Violet. “The Elizabeth Star was in a room without windows and only one door. No one went in or out until we got there. And no one went in or out of the building except residents and their guests, according to the doorman.”

“But someone did go into that locked room without setting off the alarm. And whoever it was took the diamond. We’ll have a lot of work to do, to figure this mystery out,” Henry said.

“We will,” said Jessie confidently. “We’ll start first thing tomorrow morning.”

“Mr. Leed,” said Jessie the next morning when the Aldens came downstairs after breakfast. “May we ask you some questions?”

“Do you need directions to somewhere in the city?” asked Mr. Leed. He had a fresh newspaper spread out in front of him and was doing the crossword puzzle.

“No. We’re working on the mystery,” said Benny.

“Mystery?” said Mr. Leed. “What mystery?”

“That one,” said Henry, pointing at the headline of the newspaper. It said, TWINKLE, TWINKLE, ELIZABETH STAR, WE ALL WONDER WHERE YOU ARE.

“Oh,” said Mr. Leed. “Interesting.”

“Yes. It is. We were in Mr. Pound’s penthouse when the diamond was stolen,” said Benny.

“You were?” Mr. Leed looked startled.

“Not exactly,” Jessie said quickly. “We were there when Mr. Pound discovered it had been stolen. And we want to help him get it back. So we were wondering if we could look at your logbook. You know, the book where everyone who doesn’t live here and isn’t a guest has to sign in and out.”

For a long moment, Mr. Leed looked at them. Then he pushed the logbook toward them, flipped the pages back, and said, “Here’s the log from yesterday.”

“We want to look at who signed in and signed out last night,” Jessie said. “Between six-thirty and eight o’clock. That’s when the robbery happened.”

“Go ahead,” said Mr. Leed. “I don’t know what you expect to find.”

“You never know,” said Jessie. They bent over the logbook.

Running her finger down the page, Violet said, “Someone delivered pizza to Apartment 6E at six-thirty and signed out at six-forty-five.”

Henry took a notebook out of his pocket and wrote it down. Jessie said, “And Lydia was here at six-forty-five. She took the dogs out for Apartment 3W at six-fifty. She came back at seven-twenty, but didn’t sign out again until seven-fifty.”

“That’s a long time,” said Violet as Henry wrote this down, too. “Thirty minutes. Hmmm.”

“And then no one else,” said Jessie.

“Sounds like a quiet night. Saunders was lucky,” said Mr. Leed.

The Aldens looked amazed. “A quiet night!” cried Benny. “But the diamond got stolen.”

“Oh,” said Mr. Leed. “Right.”

Henry had one more question. “If you leave the desk, can anyone come in the door?”

“Of course not!” Now Mr. Leed looked indignant. “We lock the door if we have to leave the front desk. And we’re never gone more than five minutes.”

“Thank you,” said Jessie. She turned and led the way back to the elevator.

“Where are we going?” Violet whispered as the elevator doors closed behind them.

“Benny and I are going to 6E to see if pizza really was delivered there last night. Because if it wasn’t, maybe it was just a trick to get into the building to steal the diamond.”

“Right,” said Henry. “And Violet and I can go to 3W and see if Lydia walked the dogs last night — and why it took her so long to leave. She could have taken the diamond then.”

“We’ll meet out front in twenty minutes,” said Jessie as the elevator doors opened on the third floor.

“Okay,” said Henry.

Henry and Violet walked to 3W and knocked on the door. A moment later, they heard small bodies thumping against the door and the muffled sound of barking. But no one answered.

Henry knocked again, harder. The barking grew louder. But still no one answered.

“I guess whoever lives there has gone to work,” said Henry. “We’ll have to come back later to ask about Lydia.”

Meanwhile, Jessie and Benny had found someone home in Apartment 6E. A sleepy-looking man with shaving cream on half his face opened the door. He yawned when he saw them and said, “What is this? Halloween trick or treat?”

“No,” said Jessie. “We’re visiting Mrs. Teague on the ninth floor.”

“Congratulations,” said the man. He yawned again and started to close the door.

“Wait,” said Benny. “We want to ask you a question.”

“Ah,” said the man. “Trick or question . Okay, ask your question.”

“Did you order pizza last night?”

“I did. Everything, hold-the-anchovies. My usual from the corner pizza. Why?” Now he didn’t look quite so sleepy.

Jessie explained about the missing diamond. “We’re trying to help Mr. Pound find out who took it,” she said. “And we wanted to make sure that someone really delivered pizza to your apartment.”

“He sure did. Leo. He’s been delivering pizza to me for a few years now. Paying his way through college. He had to wait while I found money to pay for it. That’s why it took him so long,” the man said.

“Thank you,” Jessie said.

“You’re welcome,” the man said, and closed the door.

Downstairs, Jessie and Benny found Henry and Violet sitting on the low wall around one of the flower beds outside the building.

“The pizza man didn’t do it,” said Benny. “He’s a real pizza man, not a diamond thief.”

“No one was home where the French bulldogs live,” reported Henry. “So we couldn’t find out if Lyd—”

“Shhh,” said Jessie. She waved. “Hi, Lydia,” she said.

They all looked up and saw Lydia striding down the sidewalk.

“Good morning,” said Lydia. “Can’t stop to talk. The dogs are waiting.” She hurried by.

When she passed, Henry said, “I know what we should do. Let’s follow Lydia after she walks the dogs. Maybe she will act suspicious.”

“Let’s go across the street to the park,” suggested Violet. “We can watch for Lydia there and she won’t see us.”

So that is what they did. They waited until Lydia had returned from walking the five French bulldogs. Then they followed her as she left Mrs. Teague’s building.

The Aldens trailed after Lydia as she strolled along the park. At the bottom of the park she turned left. She walked across to Fifth Avenue and turned right, heading downtown. A few blocks later she stopped to stare into a window.

“Tiffany’s,” said Jessie. “It’s a very famous jewelry store.”

Sure enough, even from where they stood, hiding behind a mailbox and lamppost, the Aldens could see lots and lots of diamonds and pearls and all kinds of precious jewels on display in the windows of the store.