The Skeleton Key Mystery Read online

  “I’ll say!” said Henry. “That was a close call!”

  “Your grandchildren are indeed terrific mystery solvers, James! Just as you described them.” Verónica applauded along with her daughter, Maru.

  Verónica was a friend of Grandfather’s. The Aldens were staying with her and Maru as they visited the town of Hammond Hills. It was October in the Northeast, and the rolling hills of Appalachia were alive with the bright colors of autumn. People had come from miles around to look at the brilliant leaves and enjoy fall activities.

  “I’m glad you were able to solve my escape room!” said Maru. “Were the riddles hard to figure out?”

  “The riddles were very clever,” said Jessie.

  “But we all worked together to solve them,” said Violet.

  “I was the clue reader!” said Benny, smiling proudly.

  Henry nodded.

  “We used to live in one room,” said Henry. “And we escaped from it as well!”

  The Aldens all laughed at the joke about how they had met Grandfather.

  After their parents died, the four children had run away. For a little while, they had lived in a boxcar in the woods. At the time, they thought their grandfather was mean. But when James Alden finally found them, the children discovered he wasn’t mean at all. He brought the children and their dog, Watch, to live with him in Greenfield, Connecticut. Grandfather even put the boxcar in the backyard to be the children’s playhouse.

  “Thank you, all, for being my test group,” said Maru. “I worked late nights getting that room ready. Now I need to get back to work on these decorations. I want everything to be perfect for the grand opening tomorrow.” Maru looked out the front window and then glanced at her watch. “Where is that Nick? He was supposed to be here an hour ago.”

  “Who is Nick?” asked Henry.

  “He works for me, or at least he’s supposed to,” said Maru. “He’s full of good ideas, but I am starting to think he’s not that dependable.”

  “We can help you with the decorations,” said Jessie. “We’ve decorated for Halloween lots of times!”

  The children all nodded. They liked to help.

  “That’s very kind,” said Maru. “Thank you.”

  “James and I will head to the house and see about getting dinner ready,” said Verónica.

  “Oh, good,” said Benny. “Puzzle solving makes me hungry!”

  Jessie chuckled at her always-hungry little brother.

  After Grandfather and Verónica had left, Maru said, “Let’s start by opening those boxes by the door.”

  The Skeleton Key Mystery Room was in an old house. Besides the escape room, the main floor had a living room and a dining room, which had been turned into a lobby. On the second floor was storage and Maru’s office.

  “This is a beautiful lobby,” said Violet, looking around the bright room filled with antiques.

  “Thank you,” Maru said. “When I bought this little house, there wasn’t much in it. I’ve collected furniture and other items from rummage sales and secondhand stores.”

  “What gave you the idea to turn the house into an escape room?” asked Jessie.

  “I moved back here to be closer to Mom,” said Maru. “And with so many people coming to town during the fall season, I thought a Halloween-themed business would be perfect. I’ve always loved haunted houses, but an escape room seemed like something new and different!”

  “We sure enjoyed it,” said Henry.

  “That’s right,” said Jessie. “We like solving mysteries.”

  The children helped Maru decorate. They unpacked strings of lights shaped like bones, bats, and skulls. Henry and Jessie started to string the lights across the lobby.

  “I’ll hang up these flying skeleton banners,” said Violet. She held up a plastic skeleton with a flowing black robe. “And I’ll put this one at the piano, like he’s playing.”

  “Good idea!” said Maru. She handed Violet a roll of tape.

  “I can put candy in these bowls,” said Benny. He held up a handful of wrapped candy bars.

  “Thank you, Benny,” said Maru. “But no tasting before dinner!” she added with a chuckle.

  Benny placed the candy into bowls shaped like ghosts. He imagined the wide-mouthed ghosts were hungry for candy bars and smiled.

  Benny placed a bowl on the desk by the front door and another on the table between two chairs. A third bowl went on the piano. He placed the fourth on a table next to the back door.

  The old house felt cozier with decorations. For the first time, Benny started to relax. Then he peeked out the window into the backyard. It was just getting dark, and a mist was moving in. An iron fence ran along the back of the yard, with a big iron gate in the middle. Beyond the gate, Benny saw rows of worn stones covered by twisting vines. “Is…is that a graveyard?” he asked.

  “Oh, yes. Didn’t I tell you?” Maru smirked. “Makes the Skeleton Key a little spookier, doesn’t it?”

  Benny was about to say that he was too old to be afraid of graveyards. But before he could open his mouth, the iron gate in the yard slowly began to swing open.

  CHAPTER

  A Visit in the Night

  Benny stared as two glowing yellow eyes appeared at the gate, surrounded in fog. The eyes moved closer, revealing a dark face with snarling teeth and pointed ears that looked like horns. Behind the creature a tall, pale figure appeared out of the mist, lurching forward from among the gravestones.

  “There’s a horned monster and a walking skeleton out there!” Benny yelled, running from the window and grabbing Jessie’s hand.

  Henry raced to the back door with Maru close behind.

  “Oh, Benny, that’s just Burke and his dog, Hannibal,” Maru said. “Burke is the graveyard caretaker. He lives in a little cottage on the other side of the property.”

  “Benny, I think that imagination of yours is working hard again,” said Jessie.

  “I don’t know,” said Violet, peeking shyly out the window. “Those two look pretty scary to me.”

  “Burke is a bit of a grump, but he’s harmless,” said Maru. “Same with Hannibal, his Great Dane.”

  “What is he doing here?” asked Henry.

  Maru sighed. “Probably just checking in. You see, Burke used to own this house. But he had to sell it. It was too much for him to care for anymore.”

  “That’s sad,” said Violet.

  “There weren’t many buyers for an old house with a graveyard next door,” said Maru. “But it works well for my business.”

  “I wonder why no one wanted it,” said Jessie. “A house can be fixed, and graveyards are everywhere.”

  “There were other things too…” said Maru. Her voice trailed off, and Henry wondered what it was she didn’t want to tell them.

  Just then the back door handle jiggled. “Someone’s trying to get in!” Benny cried.

  A ghostly white face with deep-set eyes appeared in the window. Maru opened the door and greeted Burke. Hannibal sat behind him, holding a large, white bone in his mouth. His yellow eyes stared at the children.

  “Oh, I didn’t expect to see you here,” Burke said to Maru. He turned to the children, who had gathered at the door. “What are these children doing here?”

  Burke had his sleeves rolled up, revealing bony, white arms and long, thin fingers. Benny tried not to stare at the man or his big dog.

  “These are friends of ours, Burke,” said Maru. “They are helping me decorate for the opening tomorrow. Is there something I can help you with?”

  “Oh no, no,” stammered Burke. “I’m just, uh, checking to make sure nobody was up to no good.” He took a step inside and scowled at the skeleton Violet had placed at the piano. He glared at the strings of lights that Henry and Jessie had put up. He grumbled when he saw the bowls of candy that Benny had set out.

  “What do you think of our decorations?” Maru asked.

  “It looks like you’ve turned my home into a tourist trap,” said Burke. “I g
uess we’ll see how that works for you. Come on, boy.”

  Without another word, Burke slammed the door and disappeared back into the mist. Hannibal followed close behind, the bone still clutched in his teeth.

  “He seemed mad,” said Violet.

  “And I don’t think he liked us being here,” said Benny.

  “Don’t mind Burke,” said Maru. “He has a bad history with children.”

  “Is that what you meant before?” said Henry. “About why no one wanted to buy the house?”

  Maru sighed. “I guess I should tell you,” she said. “When Burke lived here, people came up with all kinds of stories.”

  “What kinds of stories?” asked Violet.

  “Impossible ones,” said Maru. “They said that at night, skeletons in the graveyard came to life, and that Burke was their keeper. The stories described Hannibal as some kind of phantom, roaming the graveyard at night like a ghost.”

  Benny’s eyes got big. “Are the stories true?” he asked.

  Maru shook her head. “Of course not,” she said. “But that didn’t stop people from believing them. Children would dare each other to come up to the house at night and ring the doorbell. Then they would run away. I suppose tonight Burke thought someone might be breaking in. So it was nice of him to check.”

  For a moment everyone was quiet. Then Henry said, “Should we make sure everything is ready for tomorrow?”

  “Yes, let’s do that,” said Maru. The children followed her back to the escape room. They made sure all the riddles and other clues were in place.

  “The riddle about the stars was the hardest one,” said Benny.

  Henry nodded. “I thought the garden of blossoms was the vase with the flowers.”

  “It was fun writing those clues,” said Maru. “Nick helped. He’s very creative that way.”

  After they were done tidying up, Jessie tucked the key into the pocket of the coffin.

  “Why are they called skeleton keys, anyway?” asked Benny. “Do skeletons use them?”

  Maru smiled. “Skeleton keys got their name because the top looks like a skull,” she said. “They are special keys that can open more than one lock.”

  Maru saw the worry on Benny’s face as they walked back into the lobby. “Don’t worry,” she said. “I’m the only one with a key to this place.”

  Just then the front door burst open. A young man with purple-streaked hair entered the room. He was wearing a skull and crossbones T-shirt and black jeans.

  “Nick!” said Maru. “Where in the world have you been?”

  “I’m so sorry,” the young man said. “My band had some last-minute things to do to get ready for the Hammond Hills Town Fair.”

  Maru frowned. “The festival is not for two days,” she said. “I would think that your work here would be more important.”

  Nick hung his head. “Sorry.” He looked around. “It looks like you are about finished decorating and getting things ready for tomorrow.”

  “Yes, thank goodness the Aldens arrived to help me,” said Maru. She introduced the children to Nick.

  “I like your hair,” said Violet.

  “Thanks, Violet,” said Nick, smiling. “The decorations look really good,” he said. “Did you help with the sign out front? It’s very spooky.”

  “The welcome sign?” asked Maru. “I haven’t decorated that yet. It was the last thing to do before tomorrow.”

  “Well, someone decorated it,” said Nick.

  Everyone hurried to the front porch to see what Nick was talking about.

  “Oh my goodness,” said Maru. “It’s supposed to say, ‘Welcome to the Skeleton Key!’”

  Instead, the chalkboard had a drawing of a smirking, white-and-black skull. Underneath, in shaky red letters, were the words, You will NEVER escape!

  “That’s not a very welcoming sign,” said Henry.

  “No, it’s not,” said Maru. “I want to invite people to have fun. Not scare them.”

  “The sign was blank when we came in,” said Henry. “Someone must have written it while we were inside.”

  “Someone who wanted to scare people away,” said Violet.

  Just then Benny heard a noise coming from the cornfield across the dirt road. A tall scarecrow with a wide grin stood at the edge. Behind it, the rows of corn rippled and swayed. Was something moving through the field?

  “I like Halloween,” Benny said. “But there are lots of spooky things going on around here.”

  CHAPTER

  Strangely Similar

  “There’s a rainbow outside!” Benny said, pointing out the kitchen window. The Aldens, Verónica, and Maru were sitting around a large dining room table. There were bowls of fresh pastries, sliced apples sprinkled with cinnamon, scrambled eggs, and bacon, plus a pitcher of cold milk.

  “A rainbow?” asked Jessie. “Benny, it hasn’t rained this morning. What are you dreaming up this time?”

  “I’m not making it up,” said Benny. “Really!”

  Jessie peered out the window. Sure enough, up in the sky, the colors of the rainbow shone brightly.

  “See? I told you.” Benny grinned and reached for a pastry.

  “That is a hot-air balloon,” said Maru.

  “Farmer Dawson sells balloon rides as part of his farm festival,” said Verónica. “People go up in the balloon to see all the fall colors from above. They can also get a peek at his giant corn maze below.”

  “A corn maze?” said Jessie. “We like corn mazes.”

  “That’s right,” said Henry. “It’s like a memory game where you try and figure out which way you’ve come and which way you need to go.”

  “Can we do the corn maze?” Violet asked Grandfather.

  “You don’t want to go with Verónica and me on our leaf-peeping trip?” Grandfather asked.

  “Leaf what?” said Benny.

  “Leaf peeping,” said Verónica. “It’s a funny way of saying, ‘looking at the leaves that are changing colors this time of the year.’”

  “That sounds boring,” said Benny. “I want to go to the corn maze!”

  Jessie shushed her brother, but she had to admit she wanted to go to the corn maze too.

  Grandfather chuckled. “That’s okay, Jessie. Why don’t you children go and enjoy the corn maze? We can share all of our adventures later today.”

  “I can drop off the children,” said Maru. “The maze is just down the road from the Skeleton Key. They can come and join me when they’re done.”

  Everyone agreed. Once the dishes were done and everyone was ready, the children said goodbye to Grandfather and Verónica and went the opposite way down the country road.

  The Aldens stood with Maru at the entrance to the corn maze. Waves of cornstalks seemed to stretch forever. There were signs leading to all of the activities at Dawson’s Farm Festival, including a pumpkin patch, petting zoo, pig races, and a corn pit.

  Violet read the banner hanging over their heads: “‘New this year—solve the riddles to win the maze.’”

  “Riddles?” said Henry. “That sounds like your escape room, Maru!”

  “Interesting,” said Maru. “I don’t remember there being riddles in the past.”

  “May I help you?” A deep voice spoke from behind them.

  The children turned to find a short man wearing overalls and an orange plaid shirt. He had on a straw hat and wore muddy boots.

  “Well, hello there,” said Maru. “Children, meet Farmer Dawson. This is his farm.”

  “Nice to meet you, Farmer Dawson,” said Henry. “We would like to go through the corn maze, please.”

  “We are very good at solving riddles,” said Violet.

  “We solved a lot of riddles in Maru’s escape room!” said Benny.

  “You don’t say,” said Farmer Dawson. “Good for you.”

  The farmer turned back to Maru. “Speaking of your little business,” he continued, “are you about ready to open?”

  “Just about, thank you,” said
Maru. “I’ve got to run a couple errands this morning. But I will open at noon, just as planned!”

  “Well that’s just dandy,” said Farmer Dawson. “I hope nothing goes wrong.”

  Violet thought Mr. Dawson had a strange way of wishing Maru luck, but Maru smiled and nodded.

  “Thank you,” she said. “Now, Aldens, are you ready to try this corn maze?”

  “Ready!” the children said at once.

  “Okay, I’ll see you all later,” said Maru. “Good luck!”

  Henry paid Farmer Dawson the entry fee as Maru walked back to her cherry-red truck.

  “All right,” said the farmer. “You have one hour to complete the maze. Be sure to put the clues back where you found them.”

  Before the children could thank him, Farmer Dawson stalked off.

  “He sure seemed like he was in a hurry,” said Benny.

  “And not too friendly,” said Violet.

  “I’m sure he’s just busy with his festival,” said Jessie. “Now, let’s get to work!”

  Jessie, Violet, and Benny followed Henry into the corn maze. The voices of the other visitors faded until all the children heard was the cornstalks rustling in the breeze. Before long, the trail came to a crossroads with a bale of hay in the center.

  “Which way should we go?” said Benny.

  “Maybe there’s a clue in the hay bale,” said Henry.

  The children examined the bale, sticking their hands into the straw.

  “Oh, I feel something,” said Violet. She gently removed an envelope.

  “That must be the first riddle,” said Jessie. “Let Benny read it!”

  Violet took a piece of paper out of the envelope. She handed it to Benny.

  “‘I have no legs, but I have a head and a tail. Find where I hide, and you’ll know where to sail.’”

  “Good job, Benny,” said Jessie. “Now we have to solve the riddle!” She tucked the clue into the envelope and stuck it back in the hay bale.

  “It seems a lot like Maru’s escape room,” said Violet. “That means the answer will be somewhere in sight.”