Midnight Mystery Read Online Free

similar ones in the library of the house,” Isabel said. “Follow me.”
    Isabel led everyone into the house and to a cabinet in the library. She pulled out a large, flat book with a black leather cover. “Well, Aldens, if you’re going to look for Grandma Alice’s plan book, here’s what one looks like. They’re fall of drawings and notes that Grandma Alice wrote down. She numbered each one. Number nine is the one that’s missing. We think it contains many of her clock designs. Grandma Alice had so many places in the house where she stored things, the plan book could be anywhere. We’ve found all kinds of notes and riddles she wrote to herself about where she squirreled away things.”
    “I do that, too,” Violet said, “so I’ll remember where I’ve hidden presents. Once I forgot to write down where I hid some wool mittens I made for Benny’s birthday. By the time I found them under my mattress, Benny was too big to wear them! Now I write down my hiding places in my notebook.”
    Isabel chuckled. “Grandma Alice was the same way. A few years ago, I even found a diary that mentioned a windup doll she meant to give me when I was little. She wrote a riddle about the hiding place. It took me years to figure out that she’d hidden the toy in an unused breadbox in the pantry! I do wish she’d left some hints about where that missing plan book might be.”
    Isabel put the book of drawings and notes back in the cabinet with the others. “You’re welcome to look through these if you have the time,” she said to Martha and the Aldens. “Just help yourselves.”
    “Are you going to search for the missing plan book, too?” Jessie asked Martha.
    “I’ve never stopped searching for it,” Martha answered.

CHAPTER 3
The Mystery Riddle
    The next morning when Mr. Alden and Isabel came over to the garage, the children were already at work.
    Grandfather looked on as his grandchildren worked. “You look like a colony of busy ants,” he said proudly.
    “We are!” Henry said as he and Jessie carefully set a large birdcage onto the pushcart they were using to move the inventions into the house.
    Violet was checking that each entry included the inventor’s drawings and directions. Benny was trying out a shoe polisher that worked with a pedal.
    Isabel pointed to Grandfather’s empty car in the driveway. “We just came over to say good-bye. When we come back in a few days, that car is going to be filled with Grandma Alice’s inventions and artworks that collectors are lending us for the convention.”
    “Aren’t you ever going to take off your flashlight hat?” Grandfather asked Benny when he came over for a good-bye hug. “You don’t want to wear it out before the convention even starts.”
    Benny patted his hat. “I need it to see in back of me and in dark places, even when I’m busy.”
    “By the time we return, I may not even need Mr. Percy,” Isabel joked. “You children are awfully clever at figuring out how all these gadgets work.” She checked her watch. “We’d better head out now. I left sandwich fixings and fruit in the refrigerator, bread in the breadbox, and homemade cookies in the cookie jar in Grandma Alice’s house. If you need anything else, just ask Martha. So long, now.”
    “So long!” the children called out.
    “Okay let’s get these pieces into the house,” Jessie told Henry. “I’ll hold things steady while you push the cart.” She admired the large birdcage, which was designed to look like a little theater. It even had a flowered cloth that lowered down like a stage curtain. “This will look pretty in the library.”
    Henry and Jessie balanced the birdcage carefully. They didn’t want to disturb any of its moving parts. Violet and Benny ran ahead and held open all the doors. The older children rolled the cart into the house without bumping into any walls or doorways.
    “There,” Henry said when they finally had set down the birdcage. “That looks as nice as one of