Animal Shelter Mystery by Gertrude Chandler Warner Page B

buy the land from the state when the fifty-year anniversary of Jacob Kisco’s death has passed.”
    The Aldens didn’t speak the rest of the way down the winding stairs. No one had to. They were all thinking the same thing. Where was Miss Newcombe? She just had to be found.

CHAPTER 8
    Lost and Found
    T he Aldens spent the next two days searching everywhere in Greenfield for Miss Newcombe.
    On Monday, as everyone walked to the Greenfield Animal Shelter to help out and pick up supplies, Violet said, “Maybe she just didn’t come back from the capital after she talked to Mr. Tully. Surely someone in town would have seen her by now if she had returned.”
    Henry, Jessie, and Benny didn’t want to say out loud what they were thinking. Violet was probably right. Miss Newcombe didn’t know they had the deed to her land. Maybe she was too discouraged or frightened to return to Greenfield.
    Jessie spoke quietly. “I guess we’ll just have to tell Dr. Scott today that we haven’t had any luck so far.”
    They didn’t have to tell Dr. Scott anything. She could see by everyone’s faces they hadn’t found Miss Newcombe.
    â€œThere’s still the rest of today,” Dr. Scott told Jessie, Violet, and Benny when they arrived at the shelter.
    But Dr. Scott was upset, too. While the Aldens had to find Miss Newcombe, Dr. Scott still hadn’t located the shelter’s founder. Like the Aldens, she had very little time left. The two weeks were almost up.
    Violet and Jessie spent the morning making phone calls to see if anyone in Greenfield wanted to adopt any animals from the shelter.
    â€œWe only found two homes,” Jessie told Dr. Scott when she came back later to check on their progress.
    â€œWhy don’t you girls make the rest of the calls from home? I have some volunteers coming in this afternoon,” Dr. Scott told Jessie and Violet.
    Just then, Henry came by. They could see by his excited face that he had some news.
    â€œMr. Knapp, the taxi driver, came into the store today,” he began. “He said Miss Newcombe came in on the train just this morning. He dropped her off at the gate to her house! Let’s go there right now.”
    â€œThat’s wonderful news, Henry,” Dr. Scott said. She picked up the phone and dialed a number. After a long time, she hung up. “No answer. I thought I might find her home at last, but no one answered the phone.”
    â€œThat’s not going to stop us,” Jessie said. “We’ll go to Miss Newcombe’s anyway.”
    â€œGood luck!” Dr. Scott said when the Aldens left the shelter. “Give me a call later on and let me know what happens.”
    The Aldens walked as quickly as they could to Fox Den Road. Henry broke into a run when they neared the Newcombe house. When the others caught up, they found Henry shaking the locked gate.
    â€œOpen up! Open up!” he called through the bars.
    â€œIt’s no use, Henry,” Jessie said. “No one’s there. The truck is gone. All the windows are closed.”
    â€œDid Mr. Knapp say if he drove Miss Newcombe right up to the house?” Violet asked. “Did he see her go inside?”
    Henry shook his head. “He told me she didn’t want to keep him waiting while she unlocked the gate. He drove off before she opened it.”
    Jessie looked down at the ground. “Maybe she never got inside the gate.”
    Everyone walked the rest of the way home without saying a word. This was the closest they’d come to finding Miss Newcombe. But they had missed her.
    Mrs. McGregor’s good chicken dinner and Grandfather’s encouraging words didn’t help the children feel any better. This looked like one mystery that the Aldens weren’t going to solve after all.
    After dinner, they went about their boxcar chores in silence. Jessie cleaned the cages while Violet moved the cats and dogs into the boxcar for the