Vanishing Passenger (2 page)

As the man turned, the children noticed for the first time that his uniform was all wet.

“Wow!” Benny said, unable to help it.

The conductor smiled. “Oh, that. There was a storm up north. I only stepped off for a moment, and I got soaked.”

“Must’ve been bad,” Violet said.

“It was. One of the worst I’ve seen this year. Anyway, what can I do for you kids?”

Henry took a copy of one of Finch’s books from his back pocket. It was the one he told Mr. Finch he would hold in the air when Finch got off the train so he would be able to find the Aldens quickly.

“Did you notice anyone during the trip who looked like this?” He turned the book around to show the back cover. There was a small photo of Finch, smiling. He was a handsome older man, with wavy brown hair and lively eyes that had a hint of mischief in them.

“He was supposed to meet us here this morning,” Jessie told him.

“He’s visiting our library,” Violet said.

“And his books are really good!” Benny added helpfully.

The conductor laughed. “I have a boy your age at home, so I’ll have to remember that.” He took the book from Henry and studied the photo.

“No, I’m afraid not. There was no one in my car who looked like this. You should speak to the other conductors.” He pointed towards the station.

“Great, thanks,” Henry told him. “Come on everyone.”

The Aldens went into the tiny station house, which was very old and beautiful. It had a dry, dusty smell, like an antique store. The children always enjoyed coming down here.

They found the other two conductors sitting together. They were filling out paperwork. Their uniforms were also soaked by the rain.

“That was some storm,” one of them said. “I couldn’t see anything out the window.”

“If my dog heard all that thunder and lightning, he would’ve hidden under the seats and stayed there, shaking,” said the other man. Benny remembered how much their dog, Watch, hated storms, too.

“Excuse me,” Jessie said. She explained about Finch. When Henry handed them the book, they all took a long look at the picture.

“Sounds like an interesting story,” said one of the conductors. He studied the photo carefully, then shook his head. “I’m sorry, but I don’t recall anyone who looked like that.”

“Me, neither,” said the other conductor.

“Okay,” Jessie said. “Thanks, anyway.”

They stepped back outside, closing the station door behind them.

“But he got on the train,” Jessie said. “Remember, when he called the library earlier this morning?”

“That’s right,” Henry told them, nodding. “He called from the station and told us he was getting on right then. He wanted to let us know that the train was on time so we could be here to meet him.”

“So what happened to him?” Benny wondered.

Henry took a deep breath and let it out again. “Well,” he said with his hands on his hips, “that’s what we have to find out.”

“We should start by searching the train,” Violet suggested. “Remember what Mr. Finch wrote in
The Crown Jewels of London
when that professor disappeared? The first thing the little boy and girl did was go to the place where the professor was last seen, which was his office at the university.”

“That’s right, Violet,” Henry said. “Good idea. Let’s go have a look at the train.”

The train had been switched off the main track into a rail yard. There were dozens of other trains there, too.

“It looks like a train parking lot!” Violet said.

“Which is the one we want?” Benny wondered. “There are so many!”

“Number sixteen,” Henry reminded them, and soon they found it.

A heavyset man with a bucket and a mop was washing the outside of one of the passenger cars. “Hi there,” he said. “You didn’t get off at the wrong stop, did you?”

Henry said, “No, we live here in Greenfield. We were just wondering if we could take a quick look through this train.”

The man put down his mop and leaned against it. “Did you lose something?” He took a handkerchief from the back pocket of his overalls and patted his sweaty face.

“Yes,” Benny said. “A whole person!”

Henry explained the situation. When he was finished, he said, “So we’d like to search the train for clues, and we thought we should ask if it was okay first.”

“Well, it’s fine with me, I guess,” the man said. “I’m just about to clean it out.”

“We could help,” Violet suggested.

“Since we have to go through it, anyway,” Jessie added.

“Sure, that’s fine with me. My name’s Pete, by the way.” He shook hands with all the Aldens, who introduced themselves in turn. “Sure, I’ll take any help I can get! Here.” He leaned down and grabbed four plastic garbage bags. “One bag for each of you. Have fun.”

“Thanks, Pete,” Henry said.

The children stepped onto the first of the four passenger cars. The deserted train was a bit eerie inside, even with the sunlight slanting in. Through the door at the other end they could see clear through to the next car, and then the one after that.

“Kind of creepy,” Violet commented.

“Yeah,” Henry agreed. “You never imagine a train being empty. Anyway, let’s get on with our search. Jessie and I will look high, you and Benny look low. We’ll go one seat at a time.”

The Aldens went slowly and carefully. In the first two cars, they found abandoned newspapers, soda cans, pens, and candy wrappers. It wasn’t until they reached the back of the third car that they came across something that might be considered a clue—a copy of
The Secret of the Pyramids.
It was Gilbert Finch’s fifth book, set in the ancient ruins of Egypt.

“Wow, look at this!” Benny cried out when he spotted it hidden underneath the very last seat. He handed it to Jessie, who examined it.

“Would he actually read a copy of his own book?” she wondered.

“Maybe he was planning to talk about it at the library,” Violet suggested.

Jessie pulled the cover back and saw something scrawled at the top of the very first page:
Property of Mrs. Alice Blake.

“Alice Blake?” Henry said. “Why does that name sound familiar?”

“She lives two blocks from us,” Violet replied. “Remember? She’s that nice woman who always gives out great candy on Halloween.”

“I remember her!” Benny said quickly.

Jessie shook her head. “Of course you do. When there’s food involved, you never forget, do you?”

“Never!” Benny said proudly.

“I’ve heard that a lot of adults like Mr. Finch’s books, too,” Henry said. “That must be why she was reading this.”

Jessie sighed. “So I guess this isn’t much of a clue after all.”

“No, I guess not,” Henry told her. “But we should return it to Mrs. Blake.”

“Okay, we’ll stop by her house later.” She slipped the book into the back pocket of her jeans. “Let’s go to the next car.”

They opened the door to the fourth car, which was also the last. Unlike the other cars, this one was very dark because the shades were drawn. And there was an unusual odor in the air.

“What’s that smell?” Violet said. “It’s like some kind of medicine …”

Jessie sniffed. “Hmm … you know something? It’s kind of familiar.”

“It is?” Violet replied.

“Uh-huh. It’s …” She sniffed again. “Oh, I can’t remember! But I’m sure I’ve smelled it before.”

Henry said, “I was thinking the same thing, Jessie. Let’s search the car and see if we can find out where the smell is coming from.”

Violet slid a few of the shades back to let in more light. As she did, the children noticed something else unusual.

“Hey, there’s no trash in here,” Benny said. “It looks as if someone already cleaned this car.”

“Could Pete have done it?” Violet wondered. “Maybe he was in here before.”

“We’ll ask when we’re done.” Jessie said.

Henry saw something lying in the first seat. He reached over and grabbed it.

“If someone did clean out this car already, they missed this.” He held up a shiny silver wrapper. “It’s from a granola bar.” He slipped it into his trash bag.

The Aldens went through the rest of the seats one by one, but the remainder of the car was just as Benny had suggested—spotlessly clean. They did notice, however, that the peculiar odor they smelled earlier became a little bit stronger as they moved towards the back.

“I don’t see anything else in here,” Jessie said, “We should go.”

They stepped back outside and found Pete again. He had moved to another train and was giving it a good wash. The children set down their trash bags. Each was about half full and neatly knotted.

“Thanks so much,” said Pete. “Did you find any clues?”

Jessie took the book from her pocket and held it up. “We found one of Mr. Finch’s books. But it looks as though it belongs to one of our neighbors. Her name is written inside.”

“That doesn’t sound like much of a clue,” Pete commented.

“No,” Henry said, “that’s what we thought. And there wasn’t even any litter in the fourth car.”

“That’s because it was closed during the trip,” Pete told him.

“Closed?” Jessie asked.

“There weren’t enough passengers. Sometimes the conductors will do that—if they don’t have enough passengers to fill all the cars, they’ll close some of them. It’s easier for them. It also makes it easier for me because I have fewer cars to clean afterwards!”

“Is there any reason there’d be an odd smell in the fourth car?” Henry asked. Then he described the strange odor.

Pete thought for a moment before shaking his head. “Nope. But I’ll have to check it out if it’s that bad.”

Henry looked at the others, then said, “Okay, well, thanks very much for your help, Pete.”

“And for letting us search the train,” Jessie added.

“No problem,” Pete said, shaking all their hands again. “If I can do anything else, just let me know.”

As they began walking back to the library, Jessie said, “Based on what we found, it doesn’t seem as though Mr. Finch was on the train.”

“But we
know
he was on it.” Violet pointed out. “Remember he called the library to say he was getting on the train?”

“So where’d he go?” Benny wondered.

No one had an answer.

“This is just terrible,” Ms. Connally said when the Aldens gave her the bad news. “I’ve never had this happen before. An author no-show! I hope he’s okay.”

“We’ll find out what happened to him,” Jessie said confidently.

“If you can’t, I’ll have to call Mr. Van Buren,” Ms. Connally said.

“He’s the man who was here before, right?” Violet asked.

Ms. Connally nodded. “Right. He was the one yelling by the front desk before he stomped out. He doesn’t seem to like Gilbert Finch or his books.”

Henry said, “You should’ve seen what he did to that display of Mr. Finch’s books we put together yesterday.” He told her the story.

“Why would he do something like that?” Benny asked.

Ms. Connally shrugged. “I have no idea, Benny.”

“I’ve never heard of any of Mr. Van Buren’s books,” Violet said.

“They’re very good, actually,” Ms. Connally said. “But they’re for older children. Henry, you might like them.”

“Maybe he had something to do with Mr. Finch’s disappearance,” Jessie said.

“We should keep him in mind,” Violet said.

Jessie checked her watch again. “Okay, let’s finish eating and get back to this mystery.”

“Right,” Henry said. “We don’t have much time.”

“Thanks very much for looking into this, kids,” Ms. Connally told them. “I appreciate your efforts, but if Mr. Finch doesn’t show up by, say, tomorrow morning, I’m going to have to plan for Mr. Van Buren to be here instead.”

“A lot of people will be disappointed if Mr. Finch doesn’t make it,” Jessie said as they walked along one of Greenfield’s sunny sidewalks. There were big, beautiful homes on either side of the street. “And I don’t think Mr. Van Buren will draw as big of a crowd. He’s such a grouch.”

The Aldens stopped at the house of Mrs. Blake, the woman who left behind the copy of
The Secret of the Pyramids
they had found on the train. There was a swing on the porch that could hold two people, and a sign by the front door that read, “All Friends Welcome.”

The Aldens rang the bell and waited. The door swung back to reveal an elderly woman in a floral dress. The Aldens smiled, and Mrs. Blake smiled back.

“Well, it’s so nice of you to visit me on this lovely day. Is your grandfather with you?” Mrs. Blake said.

“No, ma’am,” Jessie said. “Not today.”

“Probably snoozing in his easy chair,” she said with a playful look in her eye, “when he should be in the backyard cutting the lawn or something.”

The children laughed. They always loved the way Mrs. Blake joked about their grandfather.

Jessie took Finch’s book out of her back pocket. “Mrs. Blake, I think you left this on the train this morning.”

Her face changed from happy to surprised. “Yes, I did! I was wondering where it went!” She opened the screen door and motioned for them to come inside. As they stepped in, Jessie handed her the book. “I was reading it during my trip, and then I thought I put it in my bag. I didn’t realize I’d lost it until I got home.” She looked at it fondly. “Oh, thank you so much.”