Windy City Mystery (4 page)

Violet shuffled through the pamphlets. She held up a white envelope. “What's this?”

Jessie took it from her. “I don't know,” she said. “There's no writing on it.” Jessie opened it and took out a folded piece of paper. “It's another clue!” She read it aloud:

CLUE #2

When you hear

Two lions roar
,

You are at

The proper door
.

Go inside
,

Walk around
,

Find tiny rooms

On the ground
.

Jessie looked up from the paper. “I must have gotten this at the Water Tower,” she said.

“But I looked everywhere,” Henry said. “There was nothing.”

“You dropped some stuff, Jessie,” Benny reminded her. “I picked it up. Maybe the clue was mixed in with that.”

“Or it could have been with the things Grandfather picked up,” Violet said.

Jessie reexamined the envelope. “But our name isn't on this,” she said.

“Whoever put it there was sure we'd find it,” Henry decided.

“Who knew we were going to be there?” Violet asked.

They could all answer that: Chad and Grandfather.

“Grandfather certainly didn't do it,” Jessie said.

Henry nodded. “Chad's behind this.”

“Or maybe Willard,” Benny piped up. “He said he knows everything about the people in this building.”

“We know one thing for sure,” Violet said. “The Water Tower is definitely the answer to the first clue.”

“How about this one?” Benny asked. “What's the answer to it?”

Jessie read the clue to them again. Then she sighed. “This one is really hard.”

“Let's take it one line at a time,” Henry suggested.

“The first is about lions roaring,” Benny said.

“Zoos have lions,” Violet put in.

“But do they have doors?” Jessie asked.

“Not the zoo itself,” Henry said, “but the lion house would have doors.”

“What about the little rooms?” Benny asked.

“
Tiny
rooms,” Jessie corrected. “The clue says ‘tiny rooms/ On the ground.'”

“Ants make tiny rooms,” Benny said.

“Most of an anthill is
under
the ground,” Henry said.

They heard Grandfather's voice in the bedroom. He was talking on the telephone.

Jessie piled the clue with the brochures and put them aside. “We'll get back to this later,” she said.

Mr. Alden came into the room. “How about a picnic supper?”

Everyone thought that was a wonderful idea.

“Why don't you make sandwiches,” he suggested. “I'll go downstairs to get a newspaper.”

Jessie got out the bread, cold cuts, lettuce, and pickles. Benny got out the peanut butter and jelly. Violet took apples from the crisper and bananas from a bowl on the counter. Henry found paper plates and napkins.

“We can use my backpack to carry everything,” Jessie said as she wrapped the last sandwich.

“Are there picnic tables where we're going?” Violet wondered aloud.

“We'll have to ask Grandfather,” Henry said.

Benny went to the door and looked out into the hall. No Grandfather. “What's taking him so long?”

Mr. Alden
had
been gone a long time. Jessie wondered if something had happened to him. She did not want to alarm the others. “Let's look at the brochures while we wait,” she said. “We haven't decided what we want to see tomorrow.”

They had just sat down at the table when Grandfather came in.

“Where
were
you so long?” Benny asked.

Mr. Alden smiled. “I stopped to talk with Willard,” he explained.

“We're ready to go,” Violet told him.

“We'll need something to sit on.” Grandfather looked around the apartment. In the hall closet, he found a blanket with a note taped to it. It said: FOR PICNICS.

“The Pipers thought of everything,” Henry commented.

“Enjoy the concert,” Willard said as they went out the door.

“We're going to a concert?” Violet asked. She loved music and played the violin.

“That we are,” Mr. Alden answered.

“With a picnic supper?” Benny said. He couldn't imagine eating in a concert hall.

“This is a very special concert,” Grandfather told him.

They walked along Michigan Avenue. Most of the shops and offices were closed now, but still the sidewalks were bustling with people.

Mr. Alden and Henry, who carried Jessie's backpack, were in the lead. Jessie, Violet, and Benny followed close behind. They approached a building fronted by a broad stairway.

“Look!” Benny said. “Lions!” He stopped abruptly.

Jessie and Violet stopped, too. They stared at the two large bronze lions on either side of the staircase. Each of the children was thinking the same thing: Could this building be the destination hinted at in Clue #2?

“We found it!” Benny said.

“But these lions don't roar,” Jessie said.

“They
look
like they could,” Benny answered.

Violet agreed. “They seem so real,” she said. “I can almost hear them roar, too.”

Thinking of the clue, Jessie said, “The place has doors.”

“And an inside,” Violet said.

“But what about the tiny rooms?” Benny asked.

Henry called to them.

“Coming!” Jessie responded. To Violet and Benny, she said, “We'll have to ask Chad about this building.”

They followed Grandfather and Henry into Grant Park. Ahead were several rows of seats. Beyond those was a covered stage.

“A band shell,” Violet said. “It's an outdoor concert!”

“It won't start for a while,” Grandfather said. “We'll have our picnic while we wait.”

They found a spot on the lawn and spread out the blanket. Jessie began unpacking her backpack.

Grandfather pointed to a concession stand. “We can buy drinks here,” he said. “Come on, Violet.”

When they had gone, Jessie asked Henry, “Did you see those lions in front of that building?”

Henry nodded. “What about them?”

“The clue!” Benny said.

Henry's eyes opened wide. “Oh,” he said. “I didn't think about that.” He added, “But those lions — they aren't real.”

Benny laughed. He imagined those two big greenish lions roaming the streets of Chicago. “I'm glad they're not,” he said. He ran over to help carry the drinks.

Jessie handed the sandwiches around, and everyone took an apple or a banana.

It was a beautiful evening. They ate their supper and talked and joked. No thought of the mystery entered their minds.

The concert started just before dark. Benny lay back on the blanket. Before long, he was asleep.

The other Aldens listened to the music. “The blues,” Grandfather called it.

Overhead, the sky was clear and star-filled. Surrounded by the music and the twinkling lights, the Aldens felt as though they were in a magical city.

But eventually the concert ended, and they joined the streams of people reluctantly leaving the park.

Rubbing his eyes, Benny asked, “Are we going home now?”

“There's just one more stop,” Grandfather said, and he led them to a large fountain.

“This is Buckingham Fountain,” Grandfather said. “It's a real treasure.”

The word
treasure
reminded them of the mystery. Each of the Alden children thought about the same words in the first note: “And when you've seen/ All the rest,/ You'll find the treasure/ That is best.” Everything they had seen that day was interesting. Each was a treasure in its own way. How would they ever know when they had discovered the best?

CHAPTER 5

Two Lions and Tiny Rooms

C
had arrived the next morning just as they were finishing breakfast. After the children told him what they had done the day before, Chad asked, “And what do you want to do today?”

Jessie held up the brochures. “These should help us decide,” she said.

Grandfather came into the living room. He said, “Good morning, Chad.” Adding, “See you later. I have a meeting with Cob Piper,” he went out the door.

Chad thumbed through the pamphlets. “Museums, historic places, theaters — you name it.”

“Is there a zoo?” Henry asked.

“The Lincoln Park Zoo isn't too far,” Chad answered. “We could take a bus.”

“Do they have lions?” Benny asked.

Chad nodded. “Last time I was there, there were two,” he answered.

The Aldens exchanged glances.
Two
lions! The zoo could be the answer to the second clue.

“How about tiny rooms?” Benny asked.

Chad looked puzzled. “Tiny rooms?”

Violet put a finger to her lips. Benny understood. He had almost told Chad about the clue. Jessie changed the subject. “We passed a building last night on the way to the concert,” she said. “There were lions in front of it.”

Chad beamed. “The Art Institute. I go to school there.”

“We'd like to go there,” Henry said.

“Great!” Chad responded. “I was going to suggest it. I thought Violet might be interested.”

“We're all interested,” Jessie said.

Henry stood up. “Let's go,” he urged.

Downstairs, Willard held the doors for them. “So the Aldens are off on another adventure,” he said. As they walked away, he called, “I hope you find what you're looking for.”

Jessie whispered, “Did you hear that?”

All of the Aldens had heard it. Willard must know they were looking for the answer to the clue. If not, why would he say anything about finding what they were looking for?

Chad, who was a few steps ahead, stopped and turned. “Hear what?” he asked.

“Oh, nothing,” Benny said. This time he remembered not to say anything that would give them away.

Then Henry surprised him by saying, “Willard said he hopes we find what we're looking for. We wonder what he means.” He watched Chad closely. If he and Willard were in this together, he might give himself away.

Chad shrugged. “He means what he says. You
are
looking for something, aren't you?”

Amazed, the Aldens stared at him.

“People come to a new place for a reason,” Chad said. “They're looking for something — to learn or to have fun or to find … something. When I go to a new place, I try to find an object or a person that would make a good painting. Whenever my father goes someplace, he looks for something about his hobby.”

Again Jessie wondered what Mr. Piper's hobby might be, but suddenly Benny exclaimed, “Look at the bridge!”

Ahead, traffic was stopped. The Michigan Avenue Bridge was angling up into the air.

“How will we get around it?” Henry asked.

“We'll just wait,” Chad said. “It'll go down soon.”

He led them to the side of the bridge. Below them, boats with tall masts moved along.

Jessie saw something else. “What's down there?”

“Lots,” Chad said. “You're looking at a tour boat landing. But there's a lower level, under the main streets.”

“You mean with roads and everything?” Benny asked.

Chad nodded. “In some places there are train tracks and stores and restaurants.”

“Like a double-decker city,” Henry said.

The bridge moved back into place. The gates lifted. Traffic once again streamed over the bridge.

Before long, they came to the bronze lions. Violet was the first up the long stairway and through the revolving doors. The others were close behind her.

Behind the polished wood information center, a marble stairway went up to the sunlit floor above.

“This place is big,” Benny said. “Where do we go first?” He was wondering where they might find tiny rooms.

Chad led them downstairs. “I thought you might like to start on the lower level,” he said. “We'll pick up a brochure. But I'll have to meet you later. I have work to do.”

They agreed to meet later in the lobby. “Or, if I finish quickly, I'll look for you,” Chad said as he hurried off.

Henry studied the brochure. The Aldens wandered around the museum, stopping along the way to admire displays of armor, an Egyptian mummy case, and ancient jewelry. But there were no tiny rooms.

“Where are the tiny rooms?” Jessie asked.

“We're in the wrong place,” Benny said. “We have to go to the zoo.”

It was nearly time to meet Chad. The Aldens headed toward the lobby.

Henry hung back. He looked at the map again. “Wait a minute!” he said.

At the same moment, Jessie stopped short. “Look!” She pointed to a sign over a doorway.

Together, she and Henry said, “The Thorne Miniature Rooms.”

Inside this gallery they found tiny room after tiny room. Each represented a different time and a different place. Each held furniture and articles of the period.