Mystery in the Mall by Gertrude Chandler Warner Read Free Book Online

banging and looked around. He couldn’t tell where the noise was coming from. He boarded his motor-cart and started to drive away.
    Jessie banged again, louder this time. Hap stopped the cart and got off. Jessie waved in the small window of the heavy metal door. She banged and banged again to get Hap’s attention.
    “He heard me!” she told her brothers and sister.
    Hap unlocked the door and found the children on the other side of it.
    “Thank goodness you heard us,” Jessie told Hap. “We got locked in the recycling room after hours. The only way we could get out was up the stairs. But these doors were locked.”
    Hap was not as glad to see the Aldens as they were to see him. In fact, Hap looked downright angry. “The doors are locked to keep people out of the mall after hours.”
    The children looked down at their feet. They knew they didn’t belong in the mall after it closed. Why did they always seem like such nuisances around Hap?
    “We’re sorry,” Jessie said. “We were looking for something Benny lost.”
    “Not that blasted monkey?” Hap asked.
    “We found some missing papers.” Henry held up Penny’s shipping orders.
    “I’ll take those,” Hap said, taking the papers from Henry. “What was Mr. Bolt thinking when he invited kids to work like they were grown-ups? Well, it’s a wonder this mall runs at all.”
    Hap walked the children to an exit door that led outside. “Now, go home. No dillydallying.”
    The children stepped into the cool night air. There were still tourists walking around on the docks, having a good time. But tonight the Aldens didn’t feel like carefree tourists, just very tired children who needed to go home.

CHAPTER 9
Benny Sneezes
    When the children came down to breakfast the next day, they were sleepier than usual. They were quieter than usual, too.
    Mrs. Frye tried to perk them up. “Have some of my famous blueberry pancakes. Those will wake you up.”
    Henry dug into a stack of pancakes. “These are delicious. We sometimes make these when Mrs. McGregor, our housekeeper, has a day off.”
    Mrs. Frye refilled the milk pitcher. “And when will you children get a day off to be plain old slugabeds?”
    Henry poured himself another glass of milk. “Maybe when Grandfather gets back. Penny needs us today. It’s Janet Trainor’s day off. We won’t be seeing her today.”
    When the children arrived at the mall, they had some extra time to go window-shopping. They strolled through the far end of the mall, where they hadn’t visited before.
    Benny finally visited the train store. Henry and Jessie stopped to check out tents at a camping store. Violet browsed through a shop that sold nothing but beads. She bought a small bag of them along with some cord to make a necklace for Mrs. Frye.
    As he strolled along, Benny stared up at the huge round skylight at the top of the mall. “This mall is humongous,” he said.
    “It sure is.” Jessie took hold of Benny’s hand. She didn’t want him to bump into anyone while he was staring at the ceiling.
    “We’ve only seen about half the shops, too.”
    The children stopped in front of the South Seas Shop.
    “Maybe they sell things from Hawaii,” Violet said.
    Jessie looked closely in the window. “They do, but only expensive things, like fabrics and jewelry and antiques from the Pacific Islands.”
    This made Benny think about his missing coconut monkey. Even though the South Seas Shop didn’t look like the kind of store that sold anything like that, he peeked in anyway.
    Jessie followed Benny and also peeked in. There, standing at the cash register, was Janet Trainor.
    “Hi, Janet,” Jessie said, stepping into the store. “You work here, too?”
    Janet’s face turned almost as pink as the hot pink fabric on display behind her. “Uh, well, yes. I do work here part-time on my days off. I’m ... uh ... saving money to go back to college, so I need two jobs.”
    Henry wondered about this. “Wouldn’t Penny give you more