The Great Circus Train Robbery by Nancy Means Wright Read Free Book Online

about his cello playing. About his habit of tum-tumming, like he was always carrying the music around with him in his head.
    “They pay any special interest to the baggage car?”
    “Not that I saw. You think one of them took it?”
    “Just asking. Nobody else came by?”
    Spence scratched his head. His hair, she noticed, was down to his shoulders. His mother wanted him to cut it and his musician dad liked it long. Zoe wanted her own father to grow a ponytail, but he said it would get caught in the apple branches.
    “Just the UPS man,” Spence said. “He came around back ’cause he needed something signed and no one answered the front door. The plumber saw them—we had a leak and Dad doesn’t do leaks. Let’s see, who else...”
    “The Bagley Sisters.”
    “They wouldn’t want my train!”
    “No, but here they come. With a pot of soup.” Spence got up to take the steaming pot from the old ladies. The sisters took homemade soup and muffins around the neighborhood once or twice a month. And daily if you were sick in bed.
    “Pea soup?” said Spence, making a face.
    “No, dear,” said Miss Maud, the shorter and older of the two. She was wearing a purple sundress, the hem was dragging a little on the ground. “It’s cream of spinach with a touch of basil and thyme.”
    “And a squiggle of petunia,” said Miss Gertie, trotting up in her saggy dungarees with the red plaid suspenders. “We crush it into the soup and it gives a nice tangy flavor. Can you take this pot in to your mom, Spence? I can hear the piano. Is it Mozart?”
    “Bing bang boing” echoed through the back window where Mrs. Riley was giving a music lesson. Zoe could see a small girl sitting on the piano stool with her tongue lolling out.
    “We came to see the train, too.” Miss Maud said. “We always took the train when we wanted to go to Rutland or Burlington, didn’t we, Gertie? It was called the Rutland Rocket in those days, just like your shirt says, Spence. We’d get on where the Auto Parts building is now. Such a shame everybody drives cars these days. We don’t get out much since Gertie ran into the back of Officer Plouffe’s car.”
    Zoe told the sisters about the missing baggage car and they cried out: “Who would do such a terrible thing!” (Miss Maud) “Steal a boy’s birthday train!” (Miss Gertie)
    “That’s what we want to find out,” Zoe said. “Have you seen any strangers coming over here? I mean, while you were sitting on your front porch?” Miss Maud’s vision, at least, was still quite sharp. And Miss Gertie had a nose for strange men and dogs. She liked to know what was going on in the neighborhood.
    “Wee-ll,” said Miss Maud, “there is that man who bought the Shady Sisters’ house.  We tried to bring him soup and he wouldn’t even answer the door. And he was in there, oh yes. We didn’t see him go out.”
    “We know about him,” said Zoe. “Anybody else you’ve seen? Any cars stopping at night? Like last night maybe?”
    “We’re in bed by ten,” said Miss Gertie, sticking her fingers under her suspenders. “But I get up at least once in the night for—well, you know. Sometimes twice even. And last night I was up, oh, midnight maybe, or later, and yes, there was something. It was, um, what was it I told you about, Maud?”
    “A light,” said Maud. “Somebody moving about with a light. That’s what you said. You woke me up to tell me. And I said ‘Go back to sleep.’“
    “And so I did,” said Gertie. “But I couldn’t sleep. So I got up to drink a glass of milk. Milk helps you sleep, you know.”
    “Mmm,” said Zoe, feeling a tremor of excitement in her chest. “So where was the light? Could you see who was carrying it?”
    “Let me finish, please, Zoe.” Miss Gertie gave her the stern look she’d used when Zoe was in second grade. “So I drank the milk and for some reason I went back to the window. I like to look out in the dark—sometimes I hear a wild animal running