The Skeleton Key Mystery Read online

  “That’s right,” said Henry. “Let’s look around.”

  The children scoured the area around the bale of hay. Before long, Benny lost his patience and plopped down.

  “This is a hard clue,” he said, swinging his feet back and forth. Then Benny jumped off the hay bale and squatted down in the dirt. “Hey, it’s my lucky day! I found a coin!”

  Henry came over to look. “Yes it is, Benny. Because a penny has a head and a tail.”

  “But no legs!” said Jessie.

  “Benny, you solved the riddle!” said Violet.

  “I did?” said Benny. “So it means we go this way on the path where I found the penny?”

  “I think so,” said Henry. “Let’s go!”

  Benny carefully planted the penny back in the dirt, and the children walked through the maze until they reached a Y in the path. This time there was a scarecrow on a stand in the middle of the path.

  “There’s a piece of paper hanging from its sleeve,” said Jessie. She removed the piece of paper and handed it to Benny. “What does this one tell us?” she asked.

  “‘A house with no windows, nor doors to behold. Crack me open. Inside, I’m gold,’” Benny read. “What kind of house do you crack open?” he asked. He handed the paper back to Jessie, who clipped it back onto the scarecrow’s sleeve.

  “Maybe a doll house?” said Violet.

  “Or a safe,” said Henry. “They don’t have windows, and they are full of gold.”

  “Those are good ideas,” said Jessie. “Let’s look around.”

  The children searched, but all they found was the scarecrow.

  “This is a hard riddle to solve,” said Benny. “I’d rather walk around and try to find the way on my own.”

  “The only thing I can think of that we crack open is an egg,” said Jessie. “I cracked open a lot of them this morning for our breakfast, fresh from the chicken coop.”

  “But an egg is not a house,” said Benny.

  “It is for a baby chicken!” said Violet.

  “Yes, that must be the answer,” said Jessie. “Let’s see if we can find an egg.”

  “Look,” said Benny. “There’s a nest on the scarecrow’s hat!”

  “Maybe there is an egg inside,” said Henry. He had Benny sit on his shoulders, just like they had done the night before at the escape room. Benny reached in and pulled out a plastic egg from the nest in the scarecrow’s hat. He pulled apart the halves, and a plastic letter L dropped to the ground. Violet picked it up.

  “What does L mean?” she asked.

  “Maybe it’s like the arrow from last night,” said Jessie. “It’s telling us which way to go.”

  “We can go left or right,” said Henry. “That must mean we go to the left.” Henry handed the egg back to Benny, who returned it to the nest.

  The children riddled their way past spooky ghouls and a gruesome mummy. They even made their way through a giant spiderweb.

  “This is a creepy maze!” said Violet. “I’m glad there are the four of us!”

  “It reminds me more and more of the Skeleton Key,” said Jessie.

  “Yes it does,” agreed Henry. “And the riddles are a new part of the maze this year. Isn’t it strange that Farmer Dawson started doing that at the same time Maru opened her escape room?”

  When the children arrived at the end of the maze, a grinning skeleton suddenly dropped down from the exit sign, jiggling its bones.

  “Ah!” cried Benny. “A living skeleton!”

  “It’s not,” Jessie assured her little brother. “It’s just another fun prop for the maze.”

  Benny watched the skeleton move in the breeze, its dry bones rattling. He looked at the smirk on its face. It looked like more than just another fun prop to him. It reminded him of the creepy skull they had found on the welcome sign the night before.

  “You made it in less than one hour,” said Farmer Dawson, waiting at the exit. “I guess you win.” He handed them a ticket. “You can use this to pay for your pumpkin.”

  “Thank you!” said Violet. “Where are the pumpkins?”

  “Just follow the signs to the pumpkin patch,” said Farmer Dawson. “I’ll meet you over there in a few minutes.”

  The children walked to the pumpkin patch and picked out their free pumpkin. They waited for Farmer Dawson so they could give him the ticket.

  “Look, it’s the rainbow balloon!” said Violet. She pointed up at the hot-air balloon as it slowly lowered to the ground in an open part of the field. A crew of people surrounded it as it landed.

  “It’s beautiful,” said Jessie. “Just like a rainbow, like Benny said. I wonder how much it costs to go for a ride.”

  “I could take some pretty photos from up there,” said Violet.

  “There’s a sign here,” said Henry. “Oh my. It’s very expensive.”

  “But it says here you can win a free ride,” said Jessie.

  “How?” Benny asked. He looked at the sign. There were too many words for him to read.

  “It says the winner of the jack-o’-lantern carving competition at the Hammond Hills Town Fair will get a free ride for four people,” said Jessie.

  “Oh!” cried Violet. “We can carve our pumpkin and enter it in the contest!”

  “And win a free balloon ride!” said Benny.

  “Let’s buy three more pumpkins so we each can enter,” said Henry. “That will give us a better chance of winning.”

  “Good idea,” said Benny. “I have a perfect idea for a spooky jack-o’-lantern.”

  The children found three more pumpkins to go with their prize.

  “These pumpkins are expensive too,” said Henry. “It’s a good thing that we got the first one for free.”

  “Who do we pay?” asked Jessie. “Farmer Dawson said he’d be here in a few minutes. But that was a long time ago.”

  “I don’t see him anywhere,” said Violet. “Maybe he forgot.”

  As the children waited to pay for their pumpkins, they watched the hot-air balloon crew tie it down. “Maybe the pilot can take our money for the pumpkins,” said Henry.

  They strode across the field to the balloon. A young woman greeted them. She was wearing jeans and a black T-shirt with a skull and crossbones on it.

  “Hi, I’m Zoey,” she said.

  “Hi, Zoey,” said Violet. “You have on the same tee shirt as Nick, Maru’s helper.”

  “Cool,” said Zoey. “You can pay me for those pumpkins, please.”

  “We thought Farmer Dawson would be here,” said Jessie, handing her the money.

  “Dad had to run an errand,” said Zoey. “He texted me that you would be at the pumpkin patch.”

  “That’s funny,” said Benny. “Maru is also doing errands. She’s getting things ready for her escape room.”

  “What else could she possibly need?” asked Zoey. “It’s all set up and decorated, ready to open this afternoon.”

  Jessie thought it was odd that Zoey seemed to know all about the Skeleton Key, since it hadn’t opened yet. “Just some last-minute things,” she said.

  “Whatever,” said Zoey. “Here’s your change. I have to get back to work now.” Zoey handed the coins to Jessie and marched back to the hot-air balloon.

  “Let’s go see how things are going at the Skeleton Key,” said Henry, looking at his watch. “It opened just a little while ago.”

  The children took the short walk down the road to the Skeleton Key. As they approached, Benny looked at the scarecrow that had glowed the night before. In the light of day, it didn’t seem nearly as spooky. Benny was starting to think that Jessie was right. Maybe he had been letting his imagination get the best of him.

  Just then, a scream came from inside the Skeleton Key.

  CHAPTER

  A Not-So-Grand Opening

  The Aldens ran up to the porch just as a family of four was storming out. A man and a woman and two young children scrambled down the stairs.

  “This was supposed to be a fun ad
venture!” the man said. “Not a house of horrors!”

  “We were frightened out of our wits! The kids are very upset,” said the woman.

  “That skeleton tried to grab me!” cried one of the children.

  “Then there was a message…it looked like it was written in blood!” cried the other. The family raced toward Dawson’s Farm Festival.

  “It sounds like something terrible happened,” said Henry.

  “Let’s go find Maru,” said Jessie. The children raced inside.

  Maru was in the escape room with Nick. The Aldens stared into the room in wonder. Maru looked very upset.

  “What happened in here, Nick?” she asked. “Everything was set up last evening!”

  “I don’t know,” said Nick. “I didn’t have time to check it before you let those people inside.”

  The room was completely different from how it was the night before. The skull clock had pumpkin guts oozing out of the mouth. The vase of flowers was shattered, and the flowers were scattered on the floor. Inside the coffin, the skeleton decoration Violet had placed on the piano bench was standing upright.

  Benny reached for Jessie’s hand. “How…how did the skeleton get there?”

  “Oh! Look at the mirror,” said Violet. On the large, dusty mirror, someone had drawn a shaky-looking skeleton.

  “It’s just like the skeleton on the welcome sign last night!” said Henry.

  At the top of the mirror, someone had written a message in red letters. “‘You will never escape!’” read Benny. The spooky words made him reach for Jessie’s hand.

  “That’s exactly what was written on the welcome sign,” said Violet.

  “At first the family figured it was just part of the puzzle,” said Maru.

  “What happened to scare them so much?” asked Henry. “Was it the skeleton in the coffin?”

  Maru shook her head. “They said they heard a scratching noise on the window,” she said. “It sounded to them like fingertips on the glass.”

  “Yikes,” said Violet. “That would sure scare me!”

  “It did scare them,” said Maru. “They banged on the door to be released. I opened the door, and they ran out. I still haven’t found the key.”

  “Wow, scratching on the window—that’s a nice touch,” said Nick. “I wish I’d thought of it!”

  Maru scowled at her employee. “None of these things were supposed to be part of my escape room. The purpose is to have fun, not to scare people!”

  Nick hung his head. “I just wanted to cheer you up,” he said. “I guess I should set the room back to how it should be?”

  “Yes, please do that,” said Maru. “And I will help you make sure it’s done right.”

  The Aldens left Maru and Nick to tidy up, while they searched for clues.

  “It looks like what happened to those customers really scared people,” said Henry. “I don’t see anyone else coming to try the escape room.”

  “I wouldn’t want to be trapped in a room haunted by a skeleton either,” said Benny.

  “Oh, Benny,” said Jessie. “That’s just your imagination talking again.”

  The Aldens scanned the lobby to see if anything else was out of place. Then Violet heard a noise coming from the back of the house.

  “Did anyone else hear that?” she asked. The children were quiet as they listened.

  The sound was soft but clear. Scritch, scratch. Scritch, scratch.

  “See?” Benny whispered. “I told you. It’s that sound that scared away those people!”

  Jessie knew that there was no such thing as living skeletons, but even she had to admit the noise sounded like a bony finger scratching across glass.

  “It’s coming from out back,” said Henry. “By the graveyard.”

  Jessie took a deep breath. “There must be an explanation,” she said. “Let’s go and look.”

  She led the way to the back door and turned the handle. Quietly, the children headed outside. Benny stayed close to Henry.

  “I don’t hear the noise,” said Jessie. “Let’s go check the window outside the escape room. Maybe a tree branch was making that sound.”

  The children crept along behind the house and peeked around the corner. To Benny’s relief, there was nothing by the window.

  “No branches,” said Jessie. “I wonder where that noise was coming from.”

  “Maybe mice were scratching on the window,” said Violet.

  “That’s a good idea, Violet,” said Henry. “But I don’t think a mouse could climb up to the window.”

  “Are there any footprints?” asked Jessie. She looked around the leaf-covered ground in front of the window.

  “There won’t be footprints in the dry leaves,” said Henry. “But look! There are scratches in the paint on the window.”

  “Someone was definitely here,” said Violet.

  Scritch, scratch. Scritch, scratch.

  This time, it was clear the noise was coming from the backyard. The Aldens made their way back around the corner of the house.

  Scritch, scratch. Scritch, scratch.

  Beyond the gate, they found the source of the sound. Burke was in the graveyard, raking leaves. The children walked up to him.

  “What do you kids want?” he asked.

  “We heard scratching noises,” said Henry. “We were wondering where they came from.”

  “Well, I’m raking leaves,” said Burke, holding his rake out toward them. “Is that a problem for you?”

  Violet noticed the rake shook as Burke held it. Could the shaky handwriting on the chalkboard have been from him?

  “We think somebody was trying to scare people away from the Skeleton Key,” said Jessie. “Did you see anyone back here?”

  “What happens in that tourist trap is no longer my concern,” Burke replied. “I warned Maru that the old house came with problems. They are her problems now.”

  Henry noticed that Burke had not answered the question. But without another word, the old man turned and headed away into the graveyard, grumbling.

  “Let’s go back into the house,” said Henry. “Maybe we can find more clues about what happened there.”

  As the children walked back to the house, Violet paused to take a picture. The night before, the graveyard had looked scary. But now there was something beautiful about the well-kept grounds and the large trees in their fall colors.

  When she was done taking pictures, Violet turned back to the house. In the grass next to the door, she noticed something shiny and picked it up. It was long and thin and made of metal. The object reminded her of the tools she used in art class to carve shapes into clay. What was it doing outside?

  The wind blew and gave Violet a chill. Without thinking twice, she slipped the object into her workbag and went inside.

  The children explored the living room. They looked inside the piano and behind the furniture. They investigated the light strings and the fake spiderwebs. Besides the skeleton moving from the piano to the escape room, everything was just as they’d left it, even the bowls of candy. Then Violet checked the desk by the front door.

  “Look!” she cried. She held up the skeleton key. “It was underneath a pile of papers on the desk!”

  “Wow,” said Jessie. “That means that poor family really was locked inside the escape room!”

  “That’s scary,” said Benny. “No wonder they were so upset.”

  Maru and Nick appeared.

  “Everything is back together now,” said Maru. “But the key is still missing.”

  Violet handed the key to Maru. “We found it under a pile of papers on the desk,” she said.

  Maru stared at the key and then handed it to Nick. “Put this in its place, please,” she said. “Then you may go back to your band practice.”

  Nick replaced the key and left the house, not saying a word. Maru sat down at the desk and stared out the window.

  “It looks like nobody else is coming to my grand opening,” she said with a sigh.

&
nbsp; “Are you closing the Skeleton Key?” asked Violet.

  “I think I will close for now,” said Maru. “I’m tired. I will open again tomorrow for the town fair.”

  “Who would do something like this?” asked Jessie. “Do you have any idea?”

  “I sure don’t,” said Maru. “I am shocked that someone seems to want to hurt my new business.”

  When Maru said these words, wind rattled the little window inside the escape room.

  “Did you find any clues outside?” she asked.

  “We found scratches on the window,” said Henry. “Someone had been there, all right.”

  “Burke was raking leaves,” said Jessie. “But he didn’t seem to want to talk to us.”

  Maru sighed again and sat down at the reception desk. “Maybe Burke was right to sell this place. Maybe it’s more trouble than it’s worth.”

  “You said Nick was here when you got to the house this morning?” Henry asked.

  “No,” said Maru. “Nick showed up after I arrived. He was late, as usual.”

  “Could he have changed things when you were out running errands?” said Jessie.

  “He did seem pretty uncaring about how bad the opening went,” said Violet.

  “And he thought that creepy scratching was a good idea!” added Benny.

  Maru shook her head. “Nick isn’t the most reliable employee, but I don’t think he would do something like that.”

  “That means someone must have changed things before you got here,” said Henry.

  “How could someone have gotten in?” said Maru. “I know I locked up before we left last night. And I have the only key.”

  “Maybe someone does have a key,” said Benny. “A key that can open any lock—a skeleton key!”

  “Oh, Benny,” said Jessie. “You and your imagination!” But Jessie had to admit that even she did not have a better explanation for what was going on.

  CHAPTER

  Carving and a Clue

  “We should carve our pumpkins after we’re done,” said Violet. The children were back at Verónica’s house and had just finished a late lunch.