Candy Factory Mystery (8 page)

Mrs. Winkles looked right at Meg. “That's how you learn, Meg — by watching, asking questions, and paying close attention. You didn't have to pretend you knew things you didn't know. That just made your job much harder.”

Meg looked miserable. “I was worried you'd fire me and give Tom my job. He seemed to know everything.”

“Why did you talk to Mr. Boxer on the phone so much?” Jessie asked.

Now it was Meg's turn to look angry. She turned to Mr. Boxer. “You kept calling me all the time as if you were still my boss. Sometimes I couldn't think straight — I even forgot to put my gloves on when the inspector came. You made it so hard for me to keep my mind on my work.”

Mr. Boxer didn't look a bit sorry anymore, just impatient to get rid of everybody.

No one budged until Henry noticed someone was missing. “Where's Tom in all this?” he asked.

“Outside,” Violet said. “He just left. Where are you going, Tom?” Violet called out the door.

Henry moved toward the door as well. “If Meg isn't the one who helped Mr. Boxer, then Tom must have something to do with all the problems.”

“Not Tom,” Violet and Mrs. Winkles said at the same time.

“That guy?” Mr. Boxer said. “He's just a snoop, always checking around here until I told him to stay away. Don't worry, he doesn't work for me. I could've used a smart guy like that, too. But he only wanted to work at Winkles — like it belonged to his family or something.”

“The briefcase!” Jessie smacked her forehead. “The initials on Tom's briefcase said:
T.W
. Remember?”

“Let's get out of here and go find Tom,” Henry said, glaring at Mr. Boxer. “We've done what we came here to do.”

“You're right,” said Mrs. Winkles. “I don't think Mr. Boxer will be causing any more trouble.”

The Aldens caught up to Tom out in the parking lot.

Tom turned away from everyone. “Leave me be,” he said. “Not that I blame you for looking at me like that — like I hurt Mrs. Winkles's business on purpose.”

“Did you?” Violet asked. “Somebody put candy hearts with scary messages into Mrs. Winkles's shipments. And mixed in Halloween ghosts with the sugar chicks.”

“And somebody squished the little chocolate mice,” Soo Lee added.

Tom looked completely confused. “I wasn't that somebody.”

Meg's eyes widened. “It must have been Mr. Boxer again! One time I found him with some open boxes from other candy factories. He said the deliveryman dropped some shipments and candy fell out. But he was the only one who could have mixed up the Halloween candies with the candy hearts and eggs.”

“And he must have been the one who put the hearts with scary message into Mrs. Winkles's shipments,” said Henry.

Violet smiled at Tom. “I knew it wasn't you.”

Violet's words didn't seem to make Tom feel any better. “I didn't lie about the candy, but I wasn't completely honest about something else,” Tom said miserably.

“You'd better explain what you mean by that,” Henry said.

“I've often had the feeling you were holding something back, Tom,” Mrs. Winkles said. “What was it?”

“And who's
T.W
. anyway?” Benny asked. “Jessie saw that on your briefcase, but you're
T.C.
I know how to read.”

The Aldens thought they saw Tom smile a little bit.

“I guess I never should have come to Mrs. Winkles's factory,” Tom said when he saw everyone waiting for an answer. “I'd better come clean about who I am and who I'm not.”

“You're not Tom Chipley?” Violet asked.

Jessie's jaw dropped, and before Tom could answer, she said: “The
W
on your briefcase stands for
Winkles
, doesn't it? I've been wondering and wondering about that ever since we saw you in Mrs. Winkles's office with her candy recipes.”

“They're family recipes,” Tom said. “
My
family's recipes as well as yours, Mrs. Winkles. I'm Tom Winkles, Junior.”

Mrs. Winkles took a deep breath. “What do you mean?”

“My dad and my aunt are Seth Winkles's brother and sister. We all live in Lititz now,” Tom began. “They went into the baking business after Uncle Seth left the candy factory to you and not them. I started to tell you that's what I did, but when you thought I said
banker
, not
baker
, it made it easier than telling you who I really was. I'm so sorry.”

“Your father and aunt always told Seth they didn't want the business. That's why he left it to me.” Mrs. Winkles looked more upset than the Aldens had ever seen her. “I even wrote to them saying I wouldn't mind sharing some of the old family recipes and such. But they never answered my letters.”

Tom put his hand on Mrs. Winkles's arm. “The two of them are too darn stubborn and proud. But once the factory was gone, they decided they wanted it after all. Go figure.”

“I told my daddy I didn't want my red wagon, but when he gave it away, I did want it,” Soo Lee announced.

“Oh, yes,” Mrs. Winkles said. “That's the way these things often go. What I don't understand, Tom, is why you didn't just tell me who you were — why you were so secretive. And why you turned up now, after so many years.”

Henry answered before Tom. “I have a feeling I know. It's like when Grandfather tried to find us. We wanted to stick together with each other — to be our own family.”

“That's exactly right,” Tom agreed. “My dad and Aunt Millie are getting older now. They depend on me. They'd be upset if they knew I was here. I gave myself six months to learn all about candy making. I just thought I could find some of the old recipes and add some new items to our line of baked goods. I want to make a success of our business for them — expand it.”

The Aldens believed Tom, but they still had a question.

“What about the broken part on the chick machine?” Jessie asked. “And not talking to us the morning we saw you?”

Tom looked down at his shoes. “I'm sorry about that, Jessie. Like Meg, I wanted to handle any problems myself. I guess I was hoping if Meg left, Mrs. Winkles would hire me to manage the factory, and I'd get around to telling her the truth.”

“It gets harder to do that the longer the lie goes on, doesn't it?” James Alden said.

“It sure does,” Tom answered. “I went back early in the morning to try to fix the machine, but I didn't have enough time. I was hoping to get away before anybody saw me. But you Aldens were too quick.”

“And Mr. Boxer was too quick getting away from us,” Jessie said. “I'd like to find him and get him to admit all the things he did.”

“I don't want to see him again,” Mrs. Winkles said. “It doesn't matter to me what Mr. Boxer says or does from now on. Now I know why Meg was so nervous around the factory. With Mr. Boxer out of the picture, I know she'll do a great job. The most important thing is I found my nephew, Tom.”

“And I found you, Mrs. Winkles,” Tom said.

“You mean Aunt Rose, don't you?” Mrs. Winkles asked. “You'd better start calling me that if you want to work in the family business — maybe even open a Winkles Candy Factory branch in Lititz.”

“Okay, Mrs. — I mean, Aunt Rose,” Tom said. “I know that with you, me, Meg, and the Aldens here, Mr. Boxer won't have a chance with that school contract.”

The Aldens laughed and clapped.

Benny sniffed the sugary air. “Well, I'm glad that mystery is all figured out. I'm hungry.”

Mrs. Winkles reached into her purse and pulled out a box of Winkles candy hearts. “Here, have some of these.”

Benny flipped open the box top, took out a heart, and read what it said. Then he held up the candy box with one hand and made talking motions with his other hand.

“Do you want us to guess the message on the candy heart?” Violet asked.

Benny nodded.

“Sugar,”
Henry guessed.

“Chatterbox,”
Soo Lee said.

“Talk to Me,”
guessed Jessie.

“I've got it!” Violet said.
“Sweet Talk.”

Benny grinned. “Violet guessed right. My candy heart says,
Sweet Talk
. Now that we solved our candy mysteries, that's all we'll hear at Winkles Candy Factory.”

G
ERTRUDE
C
HANDLER
W
ARNER
discovered when she was teaching that many readers who like an exciting story could find no books that were both easy and fun to read. She decided to try to meet this need, and her first book,
The Boxcar Children
, quickly proved she had succeeded.

Miss Warner drew on her own experiences to write the mystery. As a child she spent hours watching trains go by on the tracks opposite her family home. She often dreamed about what it would be like to set up housekeeping in a caboose or freight car — the situation the Alden children find themselves in.

When Miss Warner received requests for more adventures involving Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny Alden, she began additional stories. In each, she chose a special setting and introduced unusual or eccentric characters who liked the unpredictable.

While the mystery element is central to each of Miss Warner's books, she never thought of them as strictly juvenile mysteries. She liked to stress the Aldens' independence and resourcefulness and their solid New England devotion to using up and making do. The Aldens go about most of their adventures with as little adult supervision as possible — something else that delights young readers.

Miss Warner lived in Putnam, Connecticut, until her death in 1979. During her lifetime, she received hundreds of letters from girls and boys telling her how much they liked her books.

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2002 by Albert Whitman & Company

Albert Whitman & Company

250 South Northwest Highway, Suite 320

Park Ridge, Illinois 60068

www.albertwhitman.com

Distributed by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

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FROM ALBERT WHITMAN & COMPANY
AND OPEN ROAD MEDIA