Rock 'n' Roll Mystery by Gertrude Chandler Warner Read Free Book Online

solve.
    The mood in the Greenfield Four’s rehearsal studio wasn’t much better. The Aldens had stopped by to listen to the band’s last rehearsal before their big performance at the festival. The band had borrowed enough instruments to play their songs, but the sound still wasn’t quite the same.
    â€œLet’s just try to do the best we can tonight,” Amy told the others after they finished the last song. “That’s what’s really important.”
    Jessie nodded and turned to smile at her sister and brothers. Even though they hadn’t found the thief, they were doing the best that they could, too. Henry, Violet, and Benny smiled back.
    The band took a break—Dave got up to stretch his legs, and Amy and Alan sat at the folding table to go over their sheet music. Karen went to the piano and played around with a new song the band had written. And the Aldens began to look through Jessie’s notebook to make sure there weren’t any clues they had missed.
    Jessie went over the list of everyone they had talked to. “Raymond the roadie, Danny Duellman, Tim from the music store, Zoey from the studio, the carpenter, and Barbara at Drive-It-Yours elf. I think they’ve told us everything they know,” she said.
    â€œYes,” Henry said. “Wait, what’s this?” He pointed to two numbers Jessie had written down: 463534 and 463535. “I remember that first number—that’s the security code for the studio. But what about the second number?”
    â€œThat’s the old code,” Jessie said. “The one that Raymond said he’d changed to 463534—GRNFLD4. Wow, I forgot I’d asked him for the old number, too. It didn’t seem very important at the time.”
    Henry looked thoughtful. “Hmm. If the code they’re using now spells out ‘GRNFLD4,’ then the old code spells out—”
    â€œâ€˜GRNFLD5!’” Benny finished.
    â€œFor the Greenfield Five,” said Jessie. “Their old band name.”
    â€œMaybe Raymond changed the code to go with the new name,” Henry said. But he wondered— was that the only reason?
    Violet had noticed a colorful binder on top of the piano. It said “Greenfield Four Photo Album” on the cover.
    â€œHey, that’s neat. Can I take a look?” Violet asked Karen.
    Inside were dozens of photographs, newspaper clippings, and old flyers, all carefully organized and set behind plastic sheets. Violet could follow the history of the band page by page.
    When she was near the middle of the book, she stopped with a gasp. “Oh my goodness!” she said. The children gathered around.
    Violet pointed to one of the flyers. The Greenfield Five in Concert, it read. There was a photograph of the band below the headline. The children knew all of the faces in the photo—except one.
    â€œLook at this person right here!” Violet said, pointing to the stranger.
    â€œWhat about him?” Henry asked.
    â€œDoesn’t he look familiar?”
    â€œNo,” Jessie replied, shaking her head. “Not really.”
    Violet picked up a pencil and started scribbling on the man’s face. The others couldn’t really see what she was doing. Then she pulled her hand out of the way. She had added a beard, a mustache, a pair of glasses, and a beret.
    â€œI can’t believe it,” Jessie whispered. “That’s the man we saw yesterday. Now we know what he really looks like!”
    â€œAnd now we know who he is,” said Henry. “He used to be in the band!”

CHAPTER 9
The Angry Man
    The children showed the Greenfield Four the flyer with Violet’s drawing. One by one, Alan, Amy, Karen, and Dave passed it around. They didn’t speak for a moment.
    Finally, Alan Keller said, “His name is Jon Emmott. And yes, I think he’s the thief.” The other band members nodded. “Jon was part of the group for about a