Mystery of the Empty Safe by Gertrude Chandler Warner Read Free Book Online

she didn’t sound angry. Now her voice was calm and cool.
    Cassandra began with some small tricks, pulling silk flowers and scarves from her cape and hat. She heaped the colorful scarves and flowers on a small round table to her right. She juggled some sparkly balls and made them disappear. She poured a glass of milk into her hat, and the milk vanished. With each trick she invited the audience to help her by repeating the magic words she recited. The Aldens eagerly joined in, laughing and clapping at the tricks.
    The next trick was a card trick. A girl Cassandra had chosen from the audience had to pick cards from a deck and Cassandra guessed the numbers. Amazingly, she was right every time. After the girl sat down, Cassandra called up another volunteer—this time a boy sitting near the stage.
    Cassandra asked the boy to write his name and favorite ice cream flavor on a piece of paper. She took the paper from him.
    Everyone was very surprised by what she did next. She tore up the paper into little pieces and dropped them into her hat. Then she waved her hand over the hat and pulled out—a whole sheet of paper. The paper wasn’t even crumpled. When Cassandra turned the hat upside down, there was nothing else inside—no torn scraps. Next Cassandra held up the paper and read from it. “Mint chocolate chip,” she said. “Is that your favorite kind of ice cream?”
    The boy nodded.
    “And your name is Kevin?” Cassandra asked.
    “Yes,” said Kevin, obviously amazed. “But you just tore up what I wrote. How did you …?”
    “That’s my secret,” Cassandra said, sending Kevin back down to his seat. “And now we’re going to take a short break. But make sure you’re back in your seats for the second half of the show!” The audience began clapping, and Cassandra smiled and curtsied before the curtain fell.
    “That was great!” Benny said as the lights came back on.
    “It sure was,” Henry agreed.
    “She seems so nice,” said Violet. “It’s hard to believe she said all those mean things and might be trying to run us out of business.”
    “You’re right,” said Jessie. “She doesn’t sound anything like she did yesterday at Party Time.”
    “How about some Cokes?” Grandfather suggested. They all walked out to the lobby and enjoyed drinks and popcorn before returning to their seats.
    The second half was even more exciting than the first. Cassandra was now wearing a sparkly red outfit with a matching red top hat. She took a live dove from her top hat and placed both dove and hat on the little round table, where the dove settled comfortably on the brim of the top hat among the silk scarves and flowers. Then she blew up some long thin balloons and twisted them into animal shapes—a dog, a bird, a monkey in a tree. She threw the first two balloon animals to eager children in the audience. But the monkey she put under her cape—and when she lifted her cape, it was gone. She did several more tricks and then paused and spoke dramatically. “I need three volunteers for my last and most amazing trick,” Cassandra said.
    “Pick me, pick me!” Benny whispered under his breath as he reached his arm up as high as he could.
    “You in the blue jacket,” Cassandra said, pointing right at Benny, “and the girls on either side of you.”
    Benny, Jessie, and Violet turned around to make sure she was really pointing at them. “Us?” Benny asked.
    “Yes,” Cassandra said with a smile, “you three.”
    “Go on!” Henry said, patting each of them on the back as they slid down the row of seats and walked up the aisle to the stage.
    “What are your names?” Cassandra asked Benny.
    They each said their names in turn.
    Cassandra seemed surprised. She paused for a minute. “Did you say Alden?” she asked.
    “Yes,” Benny said.
    Then Cassandra recovered from her surprise. “Well, do you see this big box behind us that’s covered by a cloth?”
    “Yes,” they answered.
    “Benny, Violet, go pull the cloth