Chocolate Sundae Mystery (5 page)

At the counter, Benny topped a strawberry sundae with whipped cream and a cherry. “Thanks, Benny,” Jessie said as she took the sundae from her brother and placed it in front of a man in a pin-striped suit.

The man took a spoonful and made a face. “Oh, waitress,” he said. “Your whipped cream is sour!” The man pushed the sundae away from him.

“I’m very sorry. I’ll make you another one with fresh cream from the kitchen.”

“No, thank you,” the man answered. He shook his head. “I’m not hungry anymore.”

Several other customers at the counter looked at Jessie and Benny in disgust. A woman in a blue smock dress eyed her chocolate milkshake suspiciously. “I don’t think I want to taste this,” she said. “There’s whipped cream on it.”

Jessie nodded and took the drink from the woman. “Can I make you another one?”

“No, thank you. I’ll just finish my sandwich.”

By then, the customers sitting in the booths had also complained. Simone, Brian, Violet, Jessie, and Benny collected many ice cream dishes from unhappy customers. Only two people decided to reorder.

When Benny went to get more whipped cream from the kitchen, he found the other jars had spoiled as well.

“I don’t understand it,” Mr. Brown said. He frowned. “Those jars were all in the refrigerator.”

“Did the power go off last night?” Henry asked.

“I don’t think so.” Mr. Brown rummaged through the refrigerator. “If it had gone out, these cartons of ice cream would have melted. Everything is frozen solid,” he reported.

Henry frowned. “Someone must have left the cream out for a long time.”

Mr. Brown nodded. “That’s true,” he said. “That’s how it could have spoiled. Oh, Simone,” he called to the waitress as she came in to pick up her order.

“Yes,” Simone looked up. She held two plates of tuna sandwiches.

“Did you refrigerate the cream at the counter yesterday?” Mr. Brown asked.

“Of course.” Simone sounded surprised by the question. “I always do.”

“I know you do,” Mr. Brown said reassuringly. He looked at Henry and shrugged. “We kept all the other jars refrigerated the whole time we worked here yesterday.”

Henry nodded. “Did we have the refrigerator open a long time?” he asked.

“No, I don’t think so. But I’ll ask your sisters. They were in here helping me make the chocolate sauce.”

Jessie and Violet did not remember leaving the refrigerator open. Violet looked very upset. “I hope we didn’t leave the door open by mistake,” she told Mr. Brown.

“It’s possible we could have left it open when we took out the ingredients we needed, and thought it was closed,” Jessie said. She looked unhappy too.

“You have to slam it shut, don’t you?” Violet asked.

“Don’t worry, girls. I don’t think you left it open,” Mr. Brown said kindly. “I check it every so often. Now you’d better get back to your customers.”

Jessie sighed. “We’re not really that busy. A lot of customers left because they were upset about the cream.”

Mr. Brown shook his head. “Well, at least they seem to be eating lots of sandwiches.” Mr. Brown tried to sound cheerful, but Jessie and Violet could tell he was worried.

“I don’t like this,” Mr. Brown continued. “If we have more days like this, the Shoppe will lose its good reputation, and I’ll have to close it up.”

“Is something wrong?” Brian said as he came in the kitchen to refill the salt and pepper shakers. He noticed how sad everyone looked, especially Violet.

“We were just wondering how all the cream spoiled,” Mr. Brown told him.

“Oh,” Brian said. He unscrewed the tops of the salt shakers and concentrated on pouring more salt into them.

“Well, Brian, at least I don’t have to ask you any questions,” Mr. Brown said as he patted Brian on the back. “You weren’t even here yesterday.” Violet thought Brian looked a little uncomfortable.

“Soo Lee! Alice! You came!” Benny called out a few minutes later. He motioned his cousins toward the counter. Soo Lee returned Benny’s smile and climbed up on a stool.

“Well, hello Benny, where are all your customers?” Alice asked as she put her soft leather purse down on the counter. Alice remembered better days when there was a line out the door for the Shoppe’s ice cream.

“We had some trouble with our whipped cream today,” Benny explained. “It spoiled.”

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” Alice said.

“So were we,” said a man at the counter who was reading a newspaper. “I was really looking forward to an old-fashioned hot fudge sundae.”

“Couldn’t you have it without the whipped cream?” Alice suggested.

The man sipped his lemonade and turned a page of his newspaper. “No, it wouldn’t taste the same,” he said without looking up.

Alice raised her eyebrows. “What do you recommend for Soo Lee and me?” she asked Benny.

Before Benny could answer, Jessie and Violet came out of the kitchen. Benny thought they seemed upset, but their frowns faded as soon as they saw Alice and Soo Lee.

“Oh, you came to visit!” Jessie exclaimed as she hugged her cousins in turn.

“Are you hungry?” Violet asked them.

“I was just asking Benny’s advice about what we should order,” Alice answered.

“You know,” Benny said very seriously. “I’d like to make you a sundae I invented. I’ve been thinking about it all day.”

“Oh, Benny, you are becoming a real chef!” Jessie exclaimed. “May we watch?”

“Sure,” Benny said as he wiped his hands on his apron. “The best thing about this sundae is you don’t even need whipped cream.”

The man at the counter stopped reading his paper and looked up. Carefully, Benny spread fresh ripe cherries in the bottom of a sundae dish. He put a generous scoop of vanilla and chocolate ice cream on top. Then he added thick dark chocolate sauce on the vanilla, and marshmallow topping on the chocolate ice cream.

“Could you hand me the jar of chocolate sprinkles please?” Benny asked Jessie.

He sprinkled on nuts and chocolate sprinkles, placed two cherries on each mound of ice cream, and handed the dish to Alice and Soo Lee.

“Oh, Benny, that looks wonderful,” Alice exclaimed. Soo Lee had already picked up her spoon.

“It does look good,” the man with the newspaper admitted grudgingly. “May I have one, too?”

“Benny, you saved some of our lunch business with that sundae,” Mr. Brown said proudly at the end of the day. “I’m going to name it after you and have Violet list it on the menus. We’ll call it the Benny Special.”

Benny flushed with pleasure.

A
s the Aldens walked home, they saw Mrs. Saunders’ ice cream truck parked two blocks away from their house. Six children were in line for ice cream.

“Yoooo-hoooo,” Mrs. Saunders called when she saw the Aldens. “How was business today?” She handed a raspberry cone to a girl with brown pigtails.

“Not very good, I’m afraid,” Henry was forced to admit.

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” Mrs. Saunders said as she took the girl’s change. The Aldens didn’t think she looked sorry at all.

“You really should make sure your cream stays fresh,” Mrs. Saunders said as she adjusted her flowered headband.

The Aldens looked at one another. “How did you know our cream was spoiled?” Benny couldn’t help asking.

“Oh, some of my customers complained about it,” Mrs. Saunders answered. “Wouldn’t you like to try some of
my
ice cream today? It’s very fresh.”

“No, thanks, we’re not hungry,” Benny answered for all of them.

“I can’t believe how rude she is,” Jessie said angrily when the Aldens were inside their house. She was so upset she didn’t even stop to pet Watch as he came bounding over to greet her.

“Jessie, what’s the matter?” Grandfather called. He sat in the living room reading the newspaper in his big overstuffed armchair.

Grandfather listened closely while his grandchildren told him all that had happened in the parlor, including their meeting with Mrs. Saunders. “Grandfather, don’t you think Mrs. Saunders must have something to do with all that trouble in the parlor?” Jessie asked.

Grandfather shook his head. “I don’t know what to think.” Grandfather folded his paper and put it on the table beside him. “But I do know you all have been working very hard. Why don’t we take Watch for a walk in the park and forget all about the parlor this evening.”

“That sounds good to me,” Benny said happily.

“We’d better leave now so as not to be late for dinner,” Grandfather said as he put on a jacket.

As the Aldens walked to the park, they were happy to see that Mrs. Saunders’ truck had pulled away from their street.

“I’m glad we don’t have to talk to her anymore today,” Benny remarked.

When they arrived in the park, Benny unclipped Watch’s leash. Watch took off at once to chase after some squirrels. An Irish setter followed him.

“Hey, Watch! Watch! Come back!” Benny called.

Grandfather chuckled. “Oh, let him get his exercise. He’s been in the house all day,” he said.

“Look, all the cherry trees are in bloom,” Violet exclaimed.

“The park does look pretty,” Grandfather said looking at the rows of tulips along the park’s edge. The branches of the cherry trees stirred in the wind. Some petals dropped on the ground as the Aldens walked across a great lawn.

“Oh, I see Watch!” Jessie exclaimed. “He’s down by the pond.”

“Why don’t we find a stick for him?” Benny suggested. Henry followed Benny into the woods behind the pond. They had not gone very far when they heard a loud voice behind some trees.

Henry put his fingers to his lips. He was sure he’d heard that voice before. It was the voice of the angry customer who had yelled at Simone the first day.

The man was talking loudly again. “I know I could do a better job than that girl,” he was saying to someone. “I’ve been trained as a waiter. It wasn’t my fault the old man fired me so fast! I’ll show them!”

Benny looked at Henry with big round eyes. He didn’t say a word.

“Take it easy, Joe,” the man’s companion was saying. “You can’t be so mad all the time and expect places to jump at the chance to hire you.”

“But I know I’m better than most people who have those jobs!” Joe exclaimed. “I’m a professional waiter!”

Just then Benny stepped on a twig.

“What was that?” Joe cried. Benny took a few steps backward and looked helplessly at Henry. Henry shook his head as if to tell Benny not to worry. The boys were hidden from the men by thick oak trees.

“Don’t be so jumpy, Joe! It’s probably just someone walking by. This is a public park, you know.”

“You don’t have to be such a wise guy, Larry,” Joe said irritably. “I know it’s a public park.” The men’s voices faded away as they continued on their walk.

Benny and Henry waited until the men were safely out of sight before they left the woods.

“Didn’t you find a stick for Watch?” Jessie asked her brothers when she saw them come toward her empty-handed.

“Oh, Jessie, you’ll never guess what we heard!” Benny exclaimed.

“We saw that angry customer in the woods,” Henry said.

“Now boys, catch your breath and tell us exactly what happened,” Mr. Alden said. Jessie nodded and motioned everyone over to a park bench. Watch, who by that time had grown tired of chasing squirrels, came with them. He lay down by Jessie’s feet.

Quickly Henry told his family the whole conversation between Joe and his friend. “But that doesn’t prove Joe is responsible for all the trouble in the parlor,” Henry added.

“No, it doesn’t,” Jessie was forced to agree. “Do you think the Shoppe fired him?”

“If they did, it must have been Mr. Richards who let him go,” Violet suggested. “Because Mr. Brown didn’t even seem to know him.”

“That’s true, and we’ve never seen him either,” Henry said as he rolled down the sleeves of his sweater. “It’s getting colder out here,” he remarked.

“Yes, the sun is going down,” Grandfather said. “We should start home.”

“Besides,” Jessie reminded them all as they got up to leave, “how would he get in to take all the ice cream and those glasses?”

“You know, I don’t think Joe is to blame,” Henry said. “But if the parlor did fire him, that could explain why he’s so rude whenever he comes in.”

When the Aldens crossed Greenfield’s Main Street, they noticed the street cleaners were out. The cleaners carried big hoses and were washing the sidewalk. Watch tried to lick the pavement.

“You’re thirsty, aren’t you Watch,” Grandfather remarked. “We’ll be home very soon,” he assured the dog.

“The parlor looks quiet tonight. No lights are on, and everything is locked up,” Henry observed as they walked by.

“Mr. Brown must have finally gone home,” Violet said as the Aldens crossed the street.

On the way up their driveway, the Aldens decided Mrs. Saunders was still the prime suspect. “But how does she get into the parlor to take all the ice cream and glasses?” Violet asked. She unzipped her lavender windbreaker as Grandfather opened the front door.

“That’s what we have to find out,” Henry said as he stepped inside and unclipped Watch’s leash.

“I hope Simone and Brian aren’t helping her,” Jessie said. She hung up her navy blue jacket in the hall closet.