The Pizza Mystery

  “What is this?” Jessie asked, puzzled.

  “What’s what?” Violet wanted to know when she saw Jessie looking closely at the placemat.

  Jessie handed the placemat to Violet. “Look at what that customer scribbled down! She copied the votes the customers wrote on the blackboard for their favorite pizzas. Now why would anyone do that?”

  Violet was just as puzzled. “Let’s show the Piccolos, Jessie. Maybe they can figure it out.”

  Mr. Piccolo’s full attention was on the pizza dough, not placemats. “A message on a placemat?” he laughed without once taking his eyes or hands off his dough. “Well, that’s for you children to figure out. Why last year, a young man wrote a love letter on the back of one of our placemats.”

  Mrs. Piccolo smiled. “Ah, yes. It was such a beautiful poem.”

  The children smiled with the Piccolos about the love-letter placemat. But this wasn’t a love letter. What was it? The Aldens meant to find out. Jessie carefully folded the placemat and put it in the pocket of her apron.

  The children went back to their jobs in the dining room. Benny checked the tables to see that each one had a menu and a full breadstick supply. He stopped at the table right by the kitchen. “Violet,” he called out, “there’s a menu missing at this table.”

  Violet came over. “I’m sure it’s here somewhere,” she told Benny. “The young woman who ate here read her order right off the menu. I’m sure I put it back in the holder. It’s got to be there.”

  Violet and Benny searched under the table and chairs for the missing menu, but it wasn’t there.

  “Come on, Benny. Let’s count up all the menus,” Violet suggested. “Maybe the missing one got mixed in with the others. You count half the tables, and I’ll count the other half. There should be twenty menus altogether.”

  “. . . six, seven, eight, nine, ten,” Benny counted.

  “. . . six, seven, eight, nine,” Violet counted at her tables. “They don’t add up to twenty. I wonder where that menu went.”

  The Piccolos told Violet not to worry about the missing menu. But she couldn’t help wondering where it had gone. Why would anyone steal a menu?

  CHAPTER 5

  The Lady in the Red Hat Comes Back

  Each day brought several new customers to Piccolos’ Pizza. The Aldens were sure many more would follow once the restaurant started serving its big pizzas again. Finally the day came when the gas company was going to fix the broken gas line to the Piccolos’ brick oven.

  Henry could hardly wait for the truck to arrive. “I wonder what’s keeping them,” he said to the Piccolos. “They were supposed to be here at eight.”

  By nine o’clock, everyone was beginning to wonder. After all, Mr. Piccolo had gone ahead and made enough dough to fill most of their large-sized pizza pans. The Aldens had even handed out flyers saying the big pizzas would be back on the menu.

  Henry picked up the phone. “I’m going to see what’s holding up that truck,” Henry said. He dialed the gas company number. “The repair truck was supposed to be here an hour ago,” Henry told someone at the other end of the line.

  “Canceled!” Henry cried out a minute later. “Of course we didn’t cancel. The Piccolos have been waiting over two weeks for the gas line to be repaired.”

  When Henry hung up, he looked confused and angry. “They said a woman called to cancel the appointment for the repairs. Can you believe it? Anyway, they finally agreed to radio the truck. It should be here in a couple of minutes.”

  No one was sure what to do next. Mr. Piccolo didn’t know whether to divide the big pans of pizza dough into small ones. Mrs. Piccolo wondered if she should put back the extra tomato sauce she had taken out of her deep freezer.

  Benny had a breadstick problem. “Should I put these extras back, Jessie?” he asked his sister. “They might get stale if we don’t get enough customers.”

  “No, don’t do that,” Jessie cried from the front door. She was on the lookout for the repair truck. “They’re here! Maybe they can get the big oven fixed before lunchtime.”

  The children ran out to the truck and waved it down.

  “Follow me,” Henry told the two workers who climbed out of the truck.

  Mr. Piccolo followed them out back, too. Now that the repair people were here, everyone wanted to make sure nothing went wrong.

  “Let’s make small pizzas, just to be on the safe side,” Jessie said. “We can keep an eye on the repairs from the upstairs kitchen. If the brick oven is fixed in time, we’ll just roll out some more dough.”

  The children and Mrs. Piccolo looked out at the backyard. They saw Mr. Irons march out from the factory building to see what was going on. Jessie opened the window so everyone could hear what was happening.

  “What are you doing on Mighty Mufflers property?” Mr. Irons asked the workers.

  One of workers pulled out a clipboard and held it up for Mr. Irons to see. “We work for the gas company and we’re here for repairs.”

  “Well, all right,” Mr. Irons said. “Just stay out of the way of my muffler workers and get off my property as soon as you’re done.” He turned on his heel and marched back to his office.

  A half hour later, one of the repair people shouted up from the backyard. “All set! Your oven should work now.”

  “None too soon, either,” Violet said. “I’ll get out more flour and run some warm water. We’ll be needing lots more dough this lunch-time.”

  By the time the noon factory horn sounded, both the apartment oven and the restaurant oven were going full blast. The little restaurant was warm and filled with good smells. Upstairs, Jessie was in charge of the Personal Pizzas. Downstairs, the rest of the Aldens helped the Piccolos make large-sized pizzas for customers with bigger appetites.

  “Something for everyone,” Mr. Piccolo said to the Aldens when they came downstairs. “From dieters to hungry folks.”

  “I’m one of the hungry folks!” Benny joked.

  The Piccolos and Aldens barely had time to talk once the lunchtime customers came in. Henry had handed out a huge pile of flyers and coupons that morning. It seemed that every person who got one decided to come in at the same time. There were so many customers, people had to wait for tables. It took a while for Jessie to notice Tom Morgan standing in line right behind The Lady in the Red Hat.

  “I guess I’ll just have to get a take-out pizza,” Tom said when Jessie finally spotted him in the crowd.

  She gave Tom a big smile. “Well, we just ordered a good supply of take-out boxes. Big ones and little ones. What size would you like, Tom?”

  “Plenty big,” Tom answered. “I’m bringing back some lunch for my helpers.”

  “Helpers,” Jessie said, out of breath. “That’s what we could use right now. For once, four Aldens aren’t enough.”

  Tom looked around the dining room. “Isn’t Nick back yet? I haven’t seen him around since he got sick. He must be better by now.”

  “I wish,” Jessie sighed. She handed Tom a take-out menu. “Mrs. Piccolo called him yesterday, but he wouldn’t say when he was coming back. If things stay as busy as they are today, we’ll definitely need an extra pair of hands around here.”

  “Not to mention your delivery service,” Tom reminded Jessie. “Henry came by the station for bike parts. He said he wanted to build a delivery box on top of the bike so he could take pizzas to people’s homes.”

  Tom pointed to the large Pizza Supreme listed on the take-out menu. “Here’s what I’d like. My mouth has been watering for one of these for weeks now,” Tom told Jessie. “Well, it looks as if you kids have already made a difference with your good ideas.”

  Jessie wanted to keep chatting with Tom, but there were onions to be chopped, cheese to be grated, and sausage to be fried. There weren’t enough Aldens and Piccolos to get everything done.

  “Boy, did that go by fast,” Benny said after the last customer had finally left two hours later.

  “Everything was a blur, but a nice
blur,” Violet said with a smile.

  She and the other children sat down with the Piccolos to take a welcome break.

  Henry checked the restaurant clock. “I guess we’d better get the dining room set up for the dinner crowd.”

  “You mean we have to do this all over again tonight?” Benny said in amazement.

  Everyone laughed so hard, they didn’t hear the bell on the front door jingle. When they finally looked up, they saw their steadiest customer, The Lady in the Red Hat, standing in the restaurant.

  Only this time, she was The Lady with No Hat. “Excuse me,” the young woman called out nervously. “Did I leave my hat here?”

  Benny ran to the Lost and Found box under the cash register! “Here it is!” he cried when he held up the woman’s red knit hat. “Now you’re The Lady in the Red Hat again!”

  This made the young woman smile. “I’m also Laurie Baker,” she told Benny. “Thank you for finding my hat.”

  “I wish I could find the menu that was at your table yesterday,” Benny said. “It’s lost.”

  The young woman’s smile instantly disappeared. She turned to leave.

  “Come back,” Mrs. Piccolo called out. “Share a cup of tea with us.”

  The woman looked pale and nervous. She didn’t seem too interested in staying.

  “Please, Miss Baker,” Mrs. Piccolo said. “It’s cold out. We’d like to thank you. You’re one of the few customers who came to the restaurant in the last few weeks when everything was so slow.”

  “Sit,” Mr. Piccolo insisted, and the young woman finally did.

  While Mr. Piccolo got up to put on the kettle, Mrs. Piccolo sat down next to the young woman. “We would have lost our business without people like you who came even when things were not so good.”

  “I see you’re busy now,” Laurie Baker said. “Today I even had to wait for a seat.”

  “Ah, yes, yes,” Mr. Piccolo said when he came back with a cup of tea for the woman. “Almost too busy.” He nodded at the Aldens. “Of course, we have the best workers in Silver Falls. But even their busy hands and feet won’t be enough if we have more hectic days like this one.”

  Miss Baker seemed to be thinking hard about something. She clinked her teaspoon nervously. “Would you be looking for someone extra to help out?” she asked the Piccolos. “My parents used to have a restaurant before it went out of business. I worked there after school and during the summers. I can cook and wait on tables.” Just then she dropped her teaspoon on the floor and bent quickly to pick it up.

  The Aldens looked at each other but didn’t say anything. They didn’t have to; they were all thinking the same thing. None of them could picture this nervous, unsteady person talking to customers or balancing heavy trays.

  The Aldens could see that the Piccolos didn’t feel any of this. The faces of the couple were full of trust. “Ah, how we could use an experienced person like you in the coming days. After all, the Aldens won’t be able to stay forever!” Mrs. Piccolo said.

  The Aldens tried to be happy for the Piccolos. They weren’t sure about Laurie Baker. But if the Piccolos liked her, then the Aldens would learn to like her too!

  CHAPTER 6

  The Mystery Orders

  It turned out that Laurie Baker was very good in the kitchen. Thanks to her, the Aldens soon had more free time. But it didn’t last long. Henry’s delivery business took up a lot of time. Then there were ads to write for the newspaper and more coupons and flyers to persuade new customers to try out Piccolos’ Pizza.

  Laurie Baker encouraged all the children’s plans for going out and getting more business. The Aldens soon found themselves spending more time away from the restaurant than in it.

  It was Benny who first noticed how much he missed being around Piccolos’. After handing out discount-pizza coupons downtown one cold morning, he finally complained. “I liked making pizza better than I like selling it.”

  “I do too,” Violet confessed. She was cold and tired from standing on the corner of Main Street. “Right now, I wish I were rolling out circles of nice, warm dough and standing next to the Piccolos’ big, toasty oven.”

  “Me, too,” Jessie said.

  “Me, three,” Henry added as he pushed along his delivery bike on the way back to the restaurant.

  Jessie handed Violet her knit scarf. “Here, Violet. You look colder than I am. It does seem funny that we spend more time away from the restaurant now that the Piccolos hired Laurie.” Jessie couldn’t keep a sad note out of her voice. “I do miss making pizzas,” she sighed. “But I guess the Piccolos are lucky Laurie Baker came along. After all, we can only help out for a while. She’ll be around a lot longer.”

  “Maybe it’s time to ask Grandfather to come back for us,” Violet said in a quiet voice.

  No one disagreed.

  “Well, let’s stick around to see Nick,” Henry said. “Mrs. Piccolo said he called and is starting tomorrow.”

  “I don’t think Laurie’s going to like that one bit,” Benny said. He kicked a piece of ice down the sidewalk. “I bet she wishes she could run Piccolos’ all by herself.”

  The children weren’t as eager as usual to get to the restaurant. Since Laurie Baker’s arrival, their only jobs were to take orders and clean up.

  The Aldens went into the restaurant kitchen the back way. When Jessie stepped inside, she saw rows of small and large pizzas already lined up next to the brick oven. Again, Laurie had done just fine without the children.

  At the work counter, Laurie was huddled over a three-ring binder. She didn’t hear the door open. “Need any help?” Jessie asked.

  Laurie jumped back and dropped some papers and notes she had been reading. “You . . . uh . . . you’re back so soon,” she told the children when she saw them standing in the doorway. “I . . . wasn’t expecting you for a few more minutes.”

  Jessie stepped back. Why did Laurie always make the Aldens feel like intruders?

  Benny scooted by everyone and began to pick up the papers that had fallen on the floor.

  “Never mind those,” Laurie said. “Just leave them. There’s plenty to do in the dining room. Go!”

  Benny felt a lump in his throat. He wasn’t used to anyone speaking to him like that. He was only trying to help.

  “Okay,” the Aldens mumbled as they trooped out.

  “Laurie Baker sure is a confusing person,” Jessie whispered to Violet and Benny. “Sometimes she likes us, then other times she treats us like pests.”

  The Piccolos beamed when the children came into the dining room. Mrs. Piccolo pointed to an empty table. “Why don’t you children sit down and have some pizza after your hard morning?”

  After they’d all eaten, Mrs. Piccolo handed Benny some napkins to fold. Napkin folding wasn’t too exciting compared with making pizza from scratch. But Benny did the job anyway.

  Violet sat down to help Benny while Jessie and the Piccolos took orders.

  “You don’t look too happy today, Benny,” Violet said.

  “Everything was more fun when it was just us helping the Piccolos,” Benny whispered. “Laurie’s always getting mad at me, like today when I tried to pick up Mrs. Piccolo’s recipes.”

  Violet looked shocked. “That notebook had Mrs. Piccolo’s recipes in it? I thought she kept it locked in that old pine cabinet by the sink.”

  “So did I,” Benny said. “But sometimes Mr. Piccolo forgets to take the key out of the cabinet. Anybody can open it.”

  “Well, it could be that Mrs. Piccolo gave Laurie the notebook, so she could help make the sauce.” Violet sounded doubtful. “And maybe Mrs. Piccolo isn’t keeping her recipes secret now that Laurie is her new helper.”

  “I don’t think so,” Benny said. “But we’ll never find out ‘cause she keeps chasing us out of the kitchen!”

  There was no time to finish this talk. Violet and Benny got busy making up delivery boxes while Jessie handled the phone orders.

  During the busiest part of the lunch hour,
something strange happened. The phone rang several times in a row. But each time Jessie greeted the caller, no one answered. After four calls like this, Jessie went over to Mrs. Piccolo.

  “Somebody keeps calling but doesn’t say anything,” Jessie said.

  Mrs. Piccolo was too busy to worry. “Maybe it’s a wrong number,” she told Jessie before disappearing into the kitchen.

  The phone rang again. This time Jessie waited for the caller to speak first.

  “Hello,” a man’s voice said. “Is your refrigerator running? Well, you’d better go catch it.”

  “Oh, for Pete’s sake!” Jessie said when she heard this old joke. “I wish whoever is fooling around on the phone wouldn’t waste our time during the lunch hour. This is making us lose real orders.”

  Luckily the fake phone calls stopped. Jessie took down two real phone orders and brought the slips back to the kitchen. She was surprised to see Henry standing there, holding three pizza boxes.

  “I thought you were still out, Henry,” Jessie said in a concerned voice. “Is something wrong?”

  Henry could hardly speak. “This is the third pizza someone ordered. But when I got to the address, no one was there. Three wasted pizzas,” he said. “Now they’re all cold.”

  “Oh, no,” Jessie said. Like all the Aldens, she hated to waste anything, especially at the restaurant where money was so tight. “Why would someone do this?” she asked.

  Before Henry could even take a guess, Violet came into the kitchen looking upset.

  “What’s the matter now?” Laurie asked when she saw that Violet was about to cry.

  “There’s a customer out there who left without paying. He ordered a large Pizza Supreme. See.” Violet showed Laurie the order she had written down just fifteen minutes before. “He said he ordered a plain pizza. Even though I’m sure he didn’t, I told him I’d get him a plain one if he could wait a bit. But he just left without paying! I couldn’t bear to tell Mr. and Mrs. Piccolo.”

  “Maybe you did get the order wrong,” Laurie said impatiently. “That’s what happened yesterday, too. We can’t keep wasting food like this. You’ll just have to be more careful. I can’t be in two places at once.”