Mystery in San Francisco (7 page)

“Well, then, let’s get some,” Benny suggested.

“We’ll start right here,” Henry said. He began walking along Charlie’s and Joe’s dock. “Look for anything strange,” he directed the others. “Anything that looks out of place.”

Jessie and Violet stepped onto
Charlie’s Chum.
They poked in boxes and peered under seats. On the pier, Henry moved alongside the boat, his eyes downcast. He found nothing but the glass fragment he had seen that morning.

Across from him, Benny examined Joe’s side of the dock. “There’s nothing here,” Benny said at last. Then he noticed something inside a coil of rope. “Oh, wait.” He pulled the rope aside. “Forget it,” he said. “It’s just an old lantern like the one we use when we go camping.”

“Let’s walk along the wharf,” Jessie suggested. “We might find some clue there.” But they found nothing.

Finally Henry said, “Proof or no proof, I think we have to tell Charlie what we think.”

“But you said he won’t believe us,” Violet reminded him.

“Well have to convince him,” Henry said.

“Maybe he can put the puzzle together,” Jessie added.

Thinking Charlie might have returned to the boat, they doubled back. He wasn’t there.

“Let’s go get some lunch. We can talk more about what we know,” Henry said. They decided to go to Pier 39.

When they were nearly there, they stopped short. Ahead of them, at the pier entrance, two men stood talking.

One of the men was Charlie. The other was the mysterious man! The Aldens ducked around a corner so Charlie wouldn’t see them.

“What could Charlie be talking to that man about?” Benny wondered aloud.

“Maybe he found out the man has something to do with all the trouble,” Violet suggested, “and he’s telling him to stop.”

“That’s possible,” Henry said.

“It’s also possible that Charlie is
part
of the problem,” Jessie said.

“Charlie?” Violet sounded surprised. “But most of the bad things have been happening to
him.
”

No one could deny that.

“Well, one thing is sure,” Henry said. “We can’t tell Charlie what we suspect. Not now. Not until we know more.”

“We’ll keep looking for proof after we eat,” Jessie said.

They ordered pizza in one of the many pier restaurants. Waiting for their order, each Alden was silent, thinking.

“I wonder where Tony was,” Jessie said at last.

“When?” Henry asked.

“Just now when we came back to shore.”

“He’s probably still out fishing,” Violet suggested.

“But every other time there was trouble, he was there,” Jessie reminded them. “Joe, Vito, Tony — they were all there.”

Benny’s eyes widened. “Maybe he cut the nets, and he didn’t want to be around when Charlie found out.”

“But if he did it to get Vito’s business, he’d want to be there when Vito came along,” Jessie said.

“That’s right,” Violet said. “Joe was there, so he got the business.”

The pizza arrived. For a while, they were too busy eating to talk. When they had nearly finished, Henry said, “We should stop thinking and talking about the trouble on the wharf.”

“Why?” Benny wanted to know.

“You can think about something too hard,” Henry explained. “Sometimes, if you put a problem in the back of your mind, the answer just . . . pops up.”

“Oh, I get it,” Benny said. “It’s there all the time, but you can’t see it.”

They all thought Henry might be right.

“But if we don’t talk about the mystery,” Benny said, “what should we talk about?”

“About the things we still want to see,” Henry answered. He pulled the rolled guidebook from his back pocket. “There are so many interesting places in San Francisco. We’ve only been to a few.”

“Golden Gate Park is something we should see,” Jessie said.

Henry agreed. “That’s one I’ve marked. Especially the Academy of Sciences. There’s a planetarium there and an aquarium.”

“More
fish
?” Benny said. “Haven’t we seen enough of those?”

“They have a Touch Tide Pool, Benny, where you can actually hold starfish and sea urchins.” He opened the book and read aloud from it.

“The Japanese Tea Gardens sound interesting,” Violet said.

“We could spend the whole day in the park,” Jessie said. “There’s so much to see. We’ll make a list and give it to Uncle Andy,” she decided.

W
hen they returned to the docks, the Aldens met Kate.

“I’ve been looking for you,” she said. “Your aunt phoned. She and your uncle will be late. They don’t expect to get here until dinnertime. I wish I had time to take you sightseeing, but with Charlie and all . . .” Her voice trailed off.

“We’ll find plenty to do,” Jessie assured her.

“How
is
Charlie?” Henry asked.

Kate shrugged. “He wanted to be alone,” she said. Her green eyes were sad.

“Alone?” Benny repeated. “But we just saw him with — ”

Jessie gave him a poke.

“It’s not at all like him,” Kate continued. “I’m going to find him now and try to talk to him. See you later,” she said, and started away.

Kate could not be involved in the trouble. She was too nice, too concerned about other people. The person they had seen in Chinatown, Sausalito, and on Joe Martin’s boat wasn’t Kate. Violet was sure of it.

“She didn’t do it,” Violet murmured.

Benny didn’t like to see Violet upset. To make her feel better, he said, “If Kate did do it, she probably had a really good reason.”

But it didn’t work. “You all think she’s guilty,” Violet said. “And now you think Charlie’s in on it, too.”

“We don’t know for sure,” Jessie said. “We’re just trying to figure it out.”

Henry put an arm around Violet’s shoulders. “We hope Kate and Charlie have nothing to do with all this,” he said. “We hope nobody we know is involved.”

“Yes,” Jessie added. “Joe and Tony — they’re good people, too. It’s hard to believe either of them could be guilty.”

Even Violet had to agree that was true.

“If we knew more about the mysterious man,” Henry said, “we might be able to solve this puzzle.”

They decided to look for the man.

“What will we do if we find him?” Benny asked.

“We’ll decide that when the time comes,” Jessie answered.

The time never came. They looked all over the piers, but they could not find the mysterious man.

Just before sunset, they gathered on the wharf. Charlie was himself again, friendly and positive. He and Kate were repairing the torn nets.

The Aldens wondered if his good mood might have had something to do with his meeting with the mysterious man earlier in the day.

Tony Gregor was helping Kate and Charlie.
If he had cut the nets, why would he help repair them?
Henry wondered.

“Has anyone seen Joe?” Tony asked.

Charlie shrugged. “Not since he brought in his catch.”

“Perfect timing, too,” Kate added, “with Vito ready to buy.”

“Here comes Joe,” Benny said.

Joe Martin sauntered toward them, a big smile on his face.

Looking at him, the Aldens thought it was hard to believe that he had anything to do with the trouble on the wharf. He had helped Tony rescue his boat; he had brought the Aldens to shore when they were stranded; and he had returned to the
Chum
with fuel. And, even today, when he sold Vito his catch, he had said, “Maybe I could help out until Charlie gets back on his feet.” That didn’t sound like a man who was trying to steal Charlie’s business.

“Hey, there,” Joe said. “This looks like a party.”

“It’s a repair-the-torn-net party,” Charlie said. “Want to help?”

Joe’s smile faded. “Wish I could,” he said, “but I have some work of my own.” He went down the dock to his boat and disappeared inside. A few minutes later, he was back. “Charlie, do you have a lantern I could borrow? It’s getting too dark to work without one, and I can’t find mine.”

Benny remembered the lantern in the coil of rope. He said, “But we saw — ”

Henry remembered the lantern, too. “I’ll get you a light,” he interrupted, and dashed away.

“Do you know where my lantern is?” Charlie called after Henry.

“Don’t worry, Charlie,” Benny said. “He’ll find a light.”

Henry was back in a flash, carrying a lantern.

“That’s not my lantern,” Charlie said.

“I think Joe knows who owns it,” Henry said. He held up a piece of broken glass.

“And I think he knows who owns this, too.” He turned the lantern to reveal a hole the shape of the broken glass.

Joe’s smile froze. “I . . . uh . . . ”

“We heard glass breaking out on the dock last night,” Violet said.

Charlie glared at Joe. “So you were the one who ripped these nets.”

Joe backed away. “No, no. Not me. I didn’t do it.”

“And you siphoned off our fuel and broke the radio,” Kate said.

“No, listen,” Joe pleaded. “I didn’t do any of those things. I
did
break my lantern. I came back here last night to check on my boat. I tripped over something and the lantern fell.”

Jessie said, “But you said you couldn’t find your lantern.”

Joe seemed to be searching for a reply. Finally he said, “I . . . uh . . . I was embarrassed. What kind of fisherman breaks his lantern?”

“A greedy fisherman.” The words came from behind them.

The Aldens whirled around.

The voice belonged to Kate!

That couldn’t be. Kate was beside them. Yet the faces were the same; the red hair was the same. But this woman wore a yellow slicker.

“Two Kates!” Benny exclaimed.

Kate was no less surprised. “Kim!” she cried. “What are you doing here?”

The other woman said, “Before I tell you that, let me introduce Sam Goodall.” She gestured toward the man beside her.

The mysterious man!

“He’s an investigator,” Kim continued.

Sam Goodall stepped forward. “Some of the fishermen hired me to find out who was causing the trouble on the wharf,” he explained. “I suspected you, Joe, from the beginning, but I could never find the proof.” He turned to the Aldens. “The lantern is just what I needed to close this case, and I have you kids to thank for that.”

Joe Martin raised his arms into the air. “All right,” he said. “I did it. I didn’t mean to ruin anyone’s business. I just wanted to show that I could be as good as the other fishermen. But how could I compete with men like Charlie and Tony?”

“It takes years of practice,” Kate told him. “You’ve only just started.”

Sam Goodall glanced at Charlie and Tony. “What do you want to do about this?”

“Joe should pay for what he’s done,” Tony said.

Charlie thought about that. “Joe has the makings of a good fisherman,” he said. “But he has to learn to have patience. If he works for us for a while, we can teach him. And he’ll be making up for our losses at the same time. What do you think, Tony?”

“Great idea, Charlie,” Tony answered. “I think the other fishermen will agree.”

Then Sam took Joe aside to ask him a few more questions.

Now only one mystery remained: Who was the young woman in the yellow slicker?

Kate answered that question. “This is my twin sister, Kim,” she said. “She’s studying to be a private investigator.”

“I’m very happy to meet you, Kim,” Violet said, and then she looked at her brothers and sister. Her expression said, I
told you so
.

“She’ll have to tell you what she’s doing here,” Kate continued, “because I haven’t the slightest idea.”

“Sam asked me to help out,” Kim explained. “I took a job delivering fish for Joe. That way I could keep an eye on him.”

“But why didn’t you tell me?” Kate asked.

“I asked her not to,” Sam answered. “The fewer people who knew, the better.”

“Believe me, Kate,” Kim said, “it wasn’t easy. I
wanted
to tell you. Talk about patience!”

“But Joe must’ve known you were Kate’s twin,” Charlie said. “And he never mentioned it.”

“I asked him not to,” Kim explained. “I told him Kate and I were having some problems and she’d be upset if she knew I was working down here.”

“Were you delivering fish in Chinatown? “ Henry asked.

Kim nodded. “Joe has been supplying one of the restaurants there.”

“What about Sausalito?” Violet asked.

Kim looked surprised. “You saw me in Sausalito?”

“Yes,” Benny answered. “But we thought you were Kate.”

“
I
didn’t think so,” Violet said.

Kim nodded. “I was delivering fish there, too.”

“We saw
you
there, too,” Benny told Sam.

“I decided to go along,” Sam said. “It gave us the chance to exchange information. We couldn’t risk being seen together. We figured no one would see us there.”

“But you were wrong,” Benny piped up.

Sam laughed. “We didn’t know you were such good detectives.”

“We’ve had lots of practice,” Benny said. Vito Marino came running toward them. “I just heard about Joe. Is it true?”

Charlie explained what had happened. Vito was upset. “What are we going to do about this?” he asked.

“We’re going to teach Joe the importance of honesty,” Tony said.