Mystery in the Mall by Gertrude Chandler Warner Page B

door.
    “Something odd has been going on with my shipments,” Penny said. “Before I call in the customs inspectors to look things over, I want to give you a chance to tell me why things have been missing from my shop. I’ve locked the shop for now, so we don’t have to worry about being interrupted.”
    Janet and the crewman exchanged glances.
    Janet looked up. “I guess I’ll go first. First of all, this is my brother, Robert Trainor. He’s been working on a freighter for the last six months to pay back some debts.”
    Robert Trainor looked around the room at all the upset faces. “I’d better tell this part, so my sister doesn’t get blamed for everything. I got involved with some people who were trying to smuggle some antique counting stones back from the South Seas. They’re marked pebbles people used a long time ago to figure out math problems. They are quite valuable to collectors. But they’re even more valuable to the people on those islands. They were stolen from a museum.”
    “Did you take them?” Mr. Alden asked.
    “No!” Janet interrupted. “Robert isn’t good with money but he’s not a thief.”
    The crewman shook his head. “No, I’m not a thief, but I might as well be. I guess I’m just not too smart. I got a job on a freighter and learned there were smugglers on board. They found out my sister worked at a shop in Hope Harbor where the boat was coming in. They hid the counting stones in some of the shipments that were coming here. They figured if anyone got caught, it would be Janet, not them and me. I should have reported them right away when I discovered what they were doing, but I was afraid. I just went along with everything until the ship pulled into Hope Harbor.”
    “My coconut!” Benny cried. “Were those counting stones inside my monkey?”
    For the first time, both Janet and Robert Trainor almost smiled.
    “No. But we did check all the coconut monkeys we could track down,” Janet explained. “Some just had nutshells inside to make noise. A few of them had the smuggled counting stones. But not yours, Benny, not even the one I took from under the counter.”
    Robert Trainor picked up where his sister left off. “See, the smugglers hid the stones inside some of the monkeys and some of those plastic snow globes. Janet and I tried to look through all of them so we could return them to the museum.” Robert paused and looked at Martin Bolt. “Call up Mr. Hana, the owner of the South Seas Shop. He’ll tell you how we tried to get the stones back to their rightful place. Honest.”
    “I know Mr. Hana quite well,” Martin Bolt said. “I’ll call him right now.”
    While Mr. Bolt made his phone call in the back of the store, Benny looked at his silent coconut. “What happened to the one I had that did rattle?”
    Janet lowered her eyes. “We cracked it, trying to find out what was inside. So we replaced it with another one. But we forgot to pick one that rattled. I know I wasn’t nice to you, but it was because I was afraid my brother would be arrested with the smugglers. Every time Robert and I tried to check the shipments, the four of you would show up. I even came back here the night you got locked in Penny’s shop.”
    Jessie looked at Robert. “Were you the person who called the shop that night, then hung up?”
    Robert nodded. “Yes. I thought it was Janet answering, so I came over. We returned to the mall after it was closed and waited for you to leave. I even tried to get a job at the jeans store because you kids were making it so hard for me and Janet to check shipments together. I found your monkey in the jeans store, but the saleswoman took it away.”
    Penny Block looked upset now. “Janet, I don’t understand some things. Why did you go off to work in another shop?”
    “I’m sorry,” Janet apologized. “I thought if I got to know Mr. Hana, he could help us find out how to return the counting stones to the museum. We’re not criminals.”
    By this