Mystery of the Traveling Tomatoes by Gertrude Chandler Warner

it into an armored car. Then we found the van. We just don’t know who the thief is.”
    Jessie twirled a lock of her hair. She thought about the van in the scrap yard. She twirled and twirled her … hair! “Wigs!” she cried, jumping up. “The thief wore wigs!”
    “So?” said Benny.
    But Jessie was already running down the block. “And he wore a uniform,” she called to the others. “He wore wigs and a uniform. But we didn’t see wigs or a uniform in Duffy’s Garage or in the van.”
    Suddenly, her feet flew out from under her. Her right leg went east and her left leg went west. She landed with a thud. “I’m okay I’m okay,” she called, getting up. She’d slipped on some tomatoes!
    “They’re Cesar’s tomatoes,” said Benny. It was true. Ripe tomatoes littered the ground. They fell from the plants growing all down the block.
    “Come on!” yelled Jessie, waving to the others as she disappeared inside Cora’s Costumes.
    This time, Cora was dressed like a rock star in a sparkly sequin dress and a spiky wig.
    Jessie told her what they were looking for. “We need to look up someone who rented two wigs,” she said.
    “Two wigs,” Cora repeated. She typed wigs into her computer. A list came up. She clicked on Cheerleader. “That’s what I call our ponytail wig,” she explained. She printed out all the names of people who had rented a cheerleader wig in the past two months. Then she typed Elvis wig into the computer. “That’s our black wig with sideburns,” she said. She printed out another list of names. The children compared the two lists. One name appeared on both.
    “Mr. Malfrat rented both wigs the same day,” said Jessie. “Did he rent anything else?”
    Cora typed Malfrat into the computer. “Yes, here, Mr. Malfrat, size large, rented two wigs and a blue policeman’s uniform for four days.” The date of his order was two days before the robbery. “We were so busy with the circus costumes that I honestly can’t remember a thing about him. Wait, what’s this?” She scrolled down the screen. “Ah, here. I made a note that after he returned the costume I had to repair the police patch on the sleeve. It looked like it came off and someone tried to sew it back on. Hold on, I’ll get it for you.”
    Cora returned carrying the uniform. It was the same blue as the AAA Armored Car driver’s uniform. Violet ran her hand over the police patch on the sleeve. “The thief could have clipped this off, robbed the bank, then sewed it back before returning the costume.”
    Henry borrowed Cora’s computer to search the Greenfield phone directory.
    “There’s no Mr. Malfrat listed,” he said. “And the address is fake.”
    “Another dead end,” said Jessie.
    The Aldens left the costume store and walked down the block, careful to step around the squished tomatoes that littered the sidewalk. Looking at the tomatoes made Benny hungry. But he didn’t want a tomato. He wanted something sweet. He was about to ask if they could stop for ice cream when Violet spoke up.
    “Why would a bank robber return the rented uniform and wigs?” Violet asked. “Why not just steal those, too? He could have thrown them into the river or buried them or burned them. But he returned them.”
    “I think this proves that the thief lives right here in town!” Henry said.
    “It does?” asked Jessie.
    “Sure,” said Henry. “If he’d left town after the robbery he wouldn’t care what happened to the uniform and wigs. But if he was here in Greenfield, he couldn’t risk making Cora suspicious. She might connect the missing rented uniform with the uniform worn at the robbery.”
    Benny was tired of talking about costumes. “Could we get ice cream?” he asked.
    “We’ll stop at the ice cream parlor,” said Jessie.
    Benny pulled a crumpled dollar bill out of his pocket. “Wait, I don’t have enough money,” he said sadly.
    “Well,” said Jessie, “it might not be enough for an ice cream. But it’s