The Day of the Dead Mystery

  “There it is!” Henry said when the gold letters on the Greenfield Jewelers sign came into view. He was riding in front and pulled his bike to the curb. The others followed and locked their bikes to the rack on the sidewalk, catching their breath before they went inside the small shop.

  “We’ll let you do the talking, Gloria,” Jessie said. “But we’re here to help if you need us.”

  Gloria nodded. She opened the door, and a little bell jangled as the children filed inside.

  “Good morning,” said a tall man with gold wire glasses. He was standing behind the glass case at the back of the shop, which was filled with sparkling gemstone rings, watches, and necklaces and bracelets of many colors. Soft violin music played over the speakers.

  “Good morning,” Gloria said, using her most grown-up voice. She glanced nervously at Violet.

  Violet gave her a thumbs-up and whispered, “You can do it.”

  Gloria nodded. She unzipped her backpack and took out the framed picture. Then she set it carefully on top of the glass case.

  “How can I help you, young lady?” the man said.

  Gloria pointed to her great-grandmother’s wrist. “The bracelet in this picture belongs to my family, but it has gone missing,” Gloria said. “I don’t know if it was stolen. But if it was, I thought, maybe, that the person would have brought it here to find out how much it is worth.”

  The jeweler took a closer look at the photo. Then he nodded. “I do recognize this—in fact, I just saw it yesterday. I am so sorry to hear that it has gone missing.” He looked up at Gloria. “Did you know that it is worth quite a bit of money?”

  Gloria’s eyes widened. “No, I didn’t know that. We’ve never cared about the money part. My great-grandmother actually made this bracelet herself. She was known as a very skilled artisan all across the region, and people would come from miles away to buy her creations as gifts for their loved ones. We are very proud of her work, and that makes this bracelet priceless to us, no matter how much it is worth.”

  The jeweler nodded kindly. “I understand what you mean. I became a jeweler because my father and grandfather were jewelers too, back in Poland. Family traditions are very important. If you’ll excuse me for a moment, I’ll go into the back and check the records to see who brought the bracelet in.”

  Gloria nodded, and the jeweler went through a curtain into the back room. The Aldens came to stand beside their friend, who was looking very anxious.

  Benny took a small chocolate bar left over from Halloween from his pocket and put it in Gloria’s hand. “You look like you could use this,” Benny said. “Don’t worry. I just know we’re going to get to the bottom of this.”

  “Thanks, Benny,” Gloria said.

  The jeweler came back to the counter holding a record book. He ran his finger down the page until he came to an entry for the previous day. “This says a man named Martín Hidalgo brought the bracelet in yesterday.”

  Gloria’s face went pale. “Martín Hidalgo?” she said. “But…that’s my father.”

  “Oh, dear,” the jeweler said. “How strange.”

  Gloria thought for a moment, trying to decide what question to ask next. “When he brought it in, did he tell you he wanted to sell it?”

  “No,” the jeweler said. “He did ask me to appraise the piece, which is how I knew when you showed me the picture that it is considered very valuable. Mr. Hidalgo listened to what I told him, then said thank you and put the bracelet back in his pocket. I wish I could give you more information, but that’s all I have to tell you about what happened.”

  “Thank you,” Gloria said. “That’s very helpful.”

  “Good luck,” the jeweler said. “I hope you find it.”

  “Me too,” Gloria said.

  “You kids have a nice afternoon,” the jeweler said as the kids waved good-bye. Back on the sidewalk, Henry knelt down and unlocked the bikes one by one from the metal rack.

  “I don’t understand it,” Gloria said, pulling nervously on the end of her long braid. “My dad took the bracelet? Why would he even think about selling it?”

  Violet thought back to the previous night when the children had returned from trick-or-treating. Mr. Hidalgo had been so kind, making the hot cider for them and joking about their candy. He just didn’t seem like the kind of person who would take the bracelet without asking his family first. “There has to be an explanation,” Violet said. “Is it possible your dad still has it, or that he gave it to your mom to wear?”

  Gloria shrugged. “I guess so, but it isn’t really her style.”

  “Either way,” Jessie said, “I think you should ask them about it. Tell them that you noticed it was gone from the altar and that you’ve been worried about it.”

  Gloria looked uncertain, but finally she nodded. “You’re probably right,” she said as she threw her leg over her bike. “Let’s head back to my house.”

  The children began pedaling back up Main Street toward their neighborhood. The sidewalk was getting crowded with shoppers and people going to the movies or out to lunch at the Greenfield Diner. Thinking of lunch made Benny’s stomach growl so loud that Violet, who was pedaling next to him, heard it and giggled. On the next block they passed Superdog. It was Benny’s favorite hot dog stand because you could choose from four kinds of mustard and three kinds of relish. Now his mouth was really watering.

  “Is anybody else hungry?” Benny asked.

  Gloria looked at him over her shoulder, and her face brightened. “You read my mind, Benny,” she said. “But I’ve got something better than hot dogs for you. My mom is making tamales!”

  “What are tamales?” Benny said.

  “You had tamales once at a party,” Jessie told her brother. “But you might have been too young to remember. They have cheese or meat or vegetables wrapped in dough, and they are cooked inside a corn husk.”

  “The dough is made from corn flour, or masa,” Gloria added. “You are in for a treat. My mom’s tamales are the best!”

  Just thinking about trying the new food made Benny pedal faster, and soon the children were pulling into Gloria’s driveway. They piled their bikes next to the garage and climbed the stairs to the back porch, where Gloria had set up the altar.

  The tamales had gotten Gloria excited, but seeing the empty place on the altar made her shoulders fall. The Aldens could see that she was worried about how to ask her parents about the bracelet. She unzipped her backpack and pulled out her great-grandmother Luisa’s picture, gently placing it back in its spot. She also picked up the empty jewelry box to put it back where it belonged, but when she did the lid came open, and she heard a jingling sound.

  “I can’t believe it!” Gloria said. “The bracelet is back!”

  The children crowded closer to Gloria to see. Henry was the first one to notice that Gloria wasn’t quite right. “That is a bracelet,” he started to say.

  Gloria finished the thought. “But this bracelet is not my great-grandmother’s!”

  Little to Go On

  Just then, Henry noticed that Mateo was standing in the doorway between the kitchen and the back porch. “Oh, hi, Mateo,” Henry said. “I didn’t see you there.”

  Mateo nodded but didn’t say anything.

  “When did you get home?” Gloria asked him. She wasn’t sure whether to tell him about the missing bracelet or ask him about this mysterious new one that had shown up in the box. Mateo had been acting very strangely lately, disappearing with his friend and not helping out with Day of the Dead preparations. As Gloria was deciding what to say next, Mrs. Hidalgo called the children inside.

  Gloria closed the jewelry box and left it on the altar. The children crowded into the kitchen as Mrs. Hidalgo removed the lid from a large pot, releasing a big cloud of steam.

  “Hello!” she said. “In a few minutes it’s going to be time for Mateo and Gloria to say good-bye for now. We have friends coming over for dinner this evening. But first I need some volunteers to taste test the tamales.?
??

  Benny’s hand shot up, and Mrs. Hidalgo smiled at him. “Benny, I thought you might be interested in these.” She used a pair of tongs to pull the tamales from the steamer basket and placed them on two plates.

  “These smell delicious,” Jessie said.

  “This kind has pork and red pepper,” Gloria said, pointing at the first plate. “And this one is just cheese.”

  Gloria served a tamal to each of her friends. Then she looked around. “Now where did Mateo go this time?” She sounded frustrated.

  “Over here,” Mateo said. He was still standing in the doorway looking at the altar. Gloria and Jessie shared a glance. Both of them thought it was odd that he still hadn’t joined them at the table.

  “Do you want a tamal, Mateo?” Gloria asked.

  “No, thank you,” Mateo said. Without another word, he walked back out to the porch. They heard the back door open and close.

  Benny whispered so that Mrs. Hidalgo would not be able to hear him. “Does anyone else think Mateo is acting strange?”

  “Yes!” the children whispered back in unison.

  Mrs. Hidalgo came over to the table. “Well?” she said. “What do you think?”

  “Five stars!” Benny said, his mouth full of pork and masa.

  “So tasty!” Violet said.

  Mrs. Hidalgo grinned. “Well, someday when we have more time, you should join us for a full meal. We love to eat around here, don’t we, Gloria?”

  Gloria smiled back at her mother. But she was still thinking about the bracelet they had found. Why would someone—her dad?—take the real bracelet and put another one in its place? And where had he gotten the new one?

  “And now it’s time to say good-bye,” Mrs. Hidalgo said. “I need Gloria’s help to get the table ready. Uncle Jorge and your father will be home in an hour!”

  The Aldens carried their dishes to the sink and thanked Mrs. Hidalgo again for the food. Gloria walked them to the back door. As they passed the altar, she took down the jewelry box and handed it to them.

  “Take this with you,” Gloria said. “Maybe you can keep investigating where the new bracelet came from.”

  Jessie nodded and took the box. She put it in the pocket of her jacket, and Gloria went back inside and closed the door. The Aldens walked their bikes down to the sidewalk, but as they were about to ride off for home, they saw Mateo and a girl with curly red hair and white high-tops walking slowly toward them on the sidewalk. The two children were looking down at the ground and in the grass as they moved. They would have run straight into the front wheel of Henry’s bike if he hadn’t said, “Hey, careful!”

  “Oh, hi,” Mateo said. He turned to his friend. “Tina, these are the new friends I was telling you about, the Aldens. They live down the block. Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny, this is Tina.”

  Tina smiled and waved. “It’s nice to meet you,” she said.

  “You too,” Jessie said in her usual friendly voice. But she was a little distracted by what she remembered Gloria telling them about Tina. She was the daughter of the woman who had been watching them through the upstairs window of the house next door. And Tina and Mateo never played at Tina’s house. Something about that just seemed funny. Jessie wondered if it might be a clue to what had happened to the bracelet.

  “Are you looking for something?” Violet asked.

  “We—um—thought we might be able to find some candy on the sidewalk that trick-or-treaters dropped,” Mateo said.

  “But didn’t you eat enough candy last night?” Benny asked. “You had such a bad stomachache.” Benny knew all about those kinds of stomachaches, and he wanted to help Mateo avoid getting one all over again.

  Mateo looked surprised for a second, as if he had forgotten about feeling sick the night before. “Well, that won’t be a problem,” he said to Benny, “because we haven’t found any candy.”

  “All right,” Henry said, looking a little confused. “Well, good luck. It’s almost time for dinner, so we are heading home. I think Gloria and your mother are looking for you.”

  Mateo nodded. “Okay, I’d better go inside. I’ll see you later.”

  The Aldens pedaled home and put their bikes in the garage. Watch heard them coming and ran to the back door and barked, so Henry let him out. The sun was going down, and the sky was striped with peach and pink light. Mrs. McGregor called out the kitchen window that they had ten minutes before it was time to wash up and come inside for the evening. The Aldens knew they didn’t have a moment to waste. They rushed across the backyard to their boxcar. It was their favorite place to hold meetings when they were investigating a mystery.

  Inside, the children sat in a circle on the floor. Benny sat next to Watch and rubbed the dog’s head, which made Watch’s tail thump quietly on the floor. Jessie brought a camping lantern over and set it in the center of the circle. Then she took the jewelry box from her coat pocket and removed the bracelet.

  “I want to take a closer look at this bracelet,” Jessie said.

  It was hard to see in the dim light, but even still it was clear this bracelet was not the same as Gloria’s great-grandmother’s. It was a charm bracelet, like the first one, but this one had charms that looked like coins—gold, silver, and bronze. It was hard to make out the designs on the charms. The new bracelet also had a different style of clasp—a long, flat rectangle.

  Benny lifted the bracelet in his palm and turned it over. “Hey,” he said, “this has writing on it!”

  He passed the bracelet to Henry. “You’re right, Benny. There’s something engraved on the back of the clasp, but the words are too tiny to see.”

  “I have an idea!” Violet said. She got up from the circle and went to the shelves where the Aldens stored some of the toys and games they kept in the boxcar. Inside one of the baskets was an old-fashioned magnifying glass. “This should help,” she said.

  Henry took the magnifying glass and held it above the bracelet. “Good thinking, Violet,” he said. He leaned as close as he could to the weak light coming from the lantern. “It says, ‘Thank you for all you do.’ And then there’s a name. ‘G.S. Banks.’”

  Henry sat back and looked at the others. “What do you think it means?”

  Jessie shook her head. “I have no idea,” she said. “But whoever put this bracelet on the altar is probably the owner. So if we can figure out who G.S. Banks is, maybe that will lead us to him. Or her.”

  “That’s right,” Henry said. “The owner of the bracelet is probably a woman, but the person who gave it to her could be a woman or a man.”

  Violet shook her head. “I still have so many questions. We know that Gloria’s father took the first bracelet to the jeweler. But he didn’t leave it there—he took it with him. So what did he do with it? Put it back on the altar?”

  “If he did,” Henry said, “that could mean someone else took it and put this bracelet in its place. What I don’t know is why someone would do that.”

  Just then they heard Mrs. McGregor calling from the back door. “Children, time to come inside!”

  Henry grabbed the magnifying glass and the bracelet, and the children traipsed through the back door of the Alden house. They washed up at the sink, and Benny and Henry went into the dining room to set the table. Jessie poured fresh water and food into Watch’s bowls, but Watch wasn’t so interested in dog food. Like always, he positioned himself where he was most likely to catch delicious people food—next to Benny’s chair.

  As Mrs. McGregor served the children helpings of her famous vegetarian lasagna and garlic bread, Grandfather asked about their day.

  “I bumped into Mrs. Hidalgo at the grocery store,” Grandfather said. “She told me that you helped Gloria and Mateo get ready for Day of the Dead. It sounds like they have quite the celebration planned.”

  Violet nodded. “And Gloria invited us to join them for it tomorrow. Is it okay if we go?”

  “I think that would be very nice,” Grandfather said.

  Jessie and Henry s
hared a glance. They were worried that it wouldn’t feel much like a celebration if the bracelet were still missing.

  The children were hungry from their busy day, and each of them ate two helpings of lasagna. Then they cleared the table without being asked and even put on the kettle to make a cup of tea for Mrs. McGregor.

  “Well!” she said. “I like these new friendships you’ve made with Gloria and Mateo. I think they are having a good influence on you!”

  She smiled and rose to help Henry rinse the plates and load the dishwasher. Violet and Benny wiped the table, and Jessie pulled the heavy trash bag out of the can. When Grandfather took it outside to the bin, Jessie got an idea: the name on the bracelet could be the name of someone who lived in Greenfield! She went into Grandfather Alden’s study and took the phone book down from his bookshelf.

  Settled together on the floor of the living room, Henry, Violet, and Benny listened to Jessie’s plan for tracking down the bracelet’s owner. She showed them the phone book.

  “If we can find the person in this book, maybe we can talk to them,” Jessie said. “What’s the name again?”

  “G.S. Banks,” Henry said, peering through the magnifying glass.

  Jessie flipped through the book until she came to the B section. “Bader, Baelstrom…here it is—Banks.” She trailed her finger down the column of names. There were a lot of people with the last name Banks in the Greenfield region. “There is a Frances, a Frederick, and a Herbert. But no G.S. Banks.”

  “How strange,” Violet said. “I guess the bracelet could have been a gift from someone in another city.”

  “In which case we’ll never find the person this way,” Henry said. “We only have a phone book for Greenfield.”

  “Hang on,” Benny said. He carefully took the bracelet from Henry and looked at it through the magnifying glass. “There’s more writing here on one of the charms. This charm says ‘fifteen years’ on it. Could it be for a wedding anniversary?”