A to Z Mysteries: The Empty Envelope Read online

  is for Enemy…

  The kids peered over the hedge. A man and a woman got out of the car. The man was short and was wearing a green suit and a purple tie.

  “That’s him!” Josh whispered. “The guy who was following us before!”

  The kids watched the man and the woman talk for a few minutes, then get back into the car. But they didn’t drive away.

  “What the heck are they doing?” Josh asked.

  Dink gulped. He put his hand over the envelope hidden under his shirt.

  “They’re waiting for me,” he said.

  The A to Z MysTeries ™ series!

  The Absent Author

  The Bald Bandit

  The Canary Caper

  The Deadly Dungeon

  The Empty Envelope

  This one is for Jim Thomas

  — R.R.

  To my neighbor, Jake

  — J.S.G.

  “I got it! I got it!” Josh yelled as he raced across Dink’s backyard. He leaped into the air, missed the volleyball, and fell in a heap.

  Dink laughed. “You got it, all right!”

  “Way to go, Natie!” Ruth Rose cried. She gave her four-year-old brother, Nate, a high five. “You just scored us another point!”

  Nate blushed and smiled shyly at his big sister.

  Josh got up and grinned. “Okay, I’m through foolin’ around! From now on, Josh and Dink will rule!”

  Just then they heard a beep. “It’s Ruby with the mail,” Ruth Rose said.

  Josh dropped the volleyball. “I wonder if you’ll get another blue envelope,” he said to Dink. “I can’t wait to read what Mother has to say today!”

  Dink ran to the front just as Ruby waved from her truck and drove away. He opened the mailbox and reached in.

  He pulled out two bills for his parents and a letter in a blue envelope for him.

  In the past week, Dink had received four other letters in blue envelopes. This was the fifth. Each envelope was addressed to D. Duncan, Green Lawn, CO 06040. But the notes inside were to someone named Doris—from her mother!

  Dink returned to his backyard. He held the letter up. ’Another one,” he said.

  “Well, open it,” Josh said.

  Dink ripped open the envelope and felt inside for the note.

  “There’s nothing in here,” he said. “It’s empty.”

  Ruth Rose peered into the envelope. “Why would Mother send an empty envelope?” she asked.

  Dink shrugged. “Let’s go in the house. I want to check out the other letters again.”

  The kids trooped into Dink’s kitchen. A covered plate sat on the counter.

  “My mom made us some sandwiches,” Dink said.

  Nate reached for the plate, but his sister stopped him. “Look at those hands! Let’s wash up at the sink, Nate.”

  Dink pulled the other four envelopes from a drawer and laid them on the table side by side. They all looked the same.

  “Can I get some juice?” Josh opened the fridge before Dink could answer.

  Dink just nodded as he sat and stared at the envelopes. The return address on each was O. Bird, 10 Carroll St., Brooklyn, NY 11234. “I don’t know anyone in Brooklyn,” he said, “let alone someone named O. Bird.”

  Dink dropped his eyes to the middle of one of the envelopes. “Hey, look at this!” he said suddenly. He pointed to the CO in his address. “Isn’t CO the abbreviation for Colorado?”

  Josh and Ruth Rose each grabbed an envelope.

  “Yeah, you’re right,” Josh said. “Connecticut is CT, not CO.”

  Dink looked at his friends. “The zip code is right, but the state is wrong!”

  “Or maybe it’s the state that’s right and the zip code that’s wrong,” Ruth Rose suggested.

  “What do you mean?” Josh asked.

  “Maybe these letters were supposed to go to some D. Duncan in Green Lawn, Colorado,” Ruth Rose said. “Whoever O. Bird is just wrote down the wrong zip code.”

  “I know how to find out,” Dink said.

  He walked over to the phone and dialed information. He asked the long-distance operator for O. Bird’s number.

  “There isn’t?” he said. “Okay, thanks anyway.” Dink hung up. “There’s no O. Bird listed in Brooklyn.”

  “Well,” Josh said, grabbing a sandwich, “you’re the only D. Duncan in Green Lawn.”

  “In Green Lawn, Connecticut,” Dink said.

  Josh sighed. “Anyway, let’s eat.”

  They wolfed down the peanut butter and grape jam sandwiches.

  “Read the notes again, Dink,” Ruth Rose said after a few minutes. “Maybe there’s a clue about who they’re really meant for.”

  Dink opened the envelopes, pulled out the four notes, and laid them side by side.

  Josh picked up the fifth envelope. He turned it upside down and shook it. “Maybe someone stole the last letter,” he whispered. He made mysterious eyes at Dink.

  “Maybe spies are watching your mail,” he said in a creepy voice. “Maybe they’re alien kidnappers from Neptune and…”

  Just then the phone rang.

  Dink answered the phone.

  “Is this D. Duncan?” a woman’s voice asked.

  “I’m Donald Duncan,” Dink said. “But my friends call me Dink.”

  “Well, Dink,” the voice said, “I’m Doris Duncan from Colorado. I think you may have some letters that belong to me.”

  Dink covered the phone and turned to Josh and Ruth Rose. “It’s some woman from Colorado asking for the letters!” he whispered excitedly.

  “Hello? Are you still there?” the woman asked. “Don’t hang up!”

  Dink spoke into the phone again. “Um…I got five blue envelopes this week.”

  “Well, those letters are mine. They’re very important,” Doris Duncan said. “When can I get them back?”

  Dink glanced across the kitchen. “They’re right here on the table,” he told Doris Duncan. “Do you want me to send them to you?”

  “No!” the woman snapped. “Don’t send them anywhere! I’m at the Shangri-la Hotel right now. How do I find you?”

  “Well, I guess you could come to my house,” Dink said. He gave her directions to 22 Woody Street and hung up.

  “What was that all about?” Ruth Rose asked.

  Dink sat at the table again. “That was Doris Duncan. The letters are hers, and she’s coming right over to get them.”

  “From Colorado?” Josh said.

  “No, she’s at the Shangri-la. She should be here in a few minutes.”

  “She’s in Connecticut?” Ruth Rose said. “That’s weird.”

  Dink nodded. “Yeah, and another thing. She sounded mad, like I took the letters on purpose.”

  “This is so lame,” Josh said, yawning. “You got the letters by mistake, and some woman is coming over to get them.” He stood up and stretched. “Let’s go finish the game.”

  Dink slipped the notes back inside their envelopes, then stood them between the salt and pepper shakers.

  Ruth Rose poked the envelopes. “Don’t you guys think it’s weird that she came all the way to Connecticut just for some notes from her mom?”

  “Maybe Dink can ask her when she gets here,” Josh said. “Now can we please play volleyball?”

  Ruth Rose stood up. “What could be so important about these letters?” she wondered out loud.

  Ten minutes later, Dink heard someone calling, “You there, young man!”

  Dink ran to the side yard and saw a tall woman walking up his sidewalk. He jogged out front to meet her.

  “Hi. Are you Mrs. Duncan?”

  The woman towered over Dink. “I’m Ms. Duncan. Are you Dink?” />
  Dink had to bend his head backward to see the tall woman’s face. She had black hair and dark, squinty eyes. She was clutching a purse in her large, strong-looking hand.

  “Well, are you the boy I talked to or not?” the woman demanded.

  Dink gulped. “Yes, ma’am. I’ll get the letters,” he said.

  “Thank you,” the woman said. Suddenly she sounded almost nice. “They’re from my mother, Bessie Duncan. She died last month. These were her last letters to me.”

  Dink went inside to the kitchen. He walked over to the table to get the letters. But they were gone!

  Dink looked around the kitchen. The letters weren’t on the counter, the fridge, or the stove.

  Dink looked on the floor under the table. He saw a few crumbs from lunch, but no blue envelopes.

  “What’s the matter?” Ruth Rose said. She and Josh were peering through the back screen door.

  “I can’t find the letters!” Dink told his friends. “Didn’t I leave them on the table after we ate lunch?”

  Ruth Rose pushed open the door and came in. “I think so.”

  She looked behind the toaster, the coffee maker, and the microwave.

  “Help us look, Josh,” Dink said. “That lady is waiting! The letters are from her mom, and she died last month!”

  Josh stepped inside, and the kids searched the kitchen. The letters had vanished.

  “Guess I’d better go tell her,” Dink muttered, shaking his head. “I know I left them on the table!”

  He walked through the living room and opened the front door. Doris Duncan was standing where he’d left her.

  Dink swallowed. “I…um, I’m real sorry, but I can’t find the letters.”

  The woman glared down at him. “What do you mean?” she said. “When I called, you said you had them. Where are they?”

  Dink felt his face turn red. “I don’t know,” he mumbled. “They were on the kitchen table, and now they’re not. My friends even helped me look.”

  The woman stared over Dink’s shoulder. She looked as if she wanted to barge past him and search the house herself.

  “I’ll ask my mom to help when she gets home,” Dink said. “Can you come back later?”

  Doris Duncan tapped her fingers on her purse. “I’ll be back at six o’clock sharp,” she said. “I’ll expect my letters then, young man!”

  “Don’t worry we’ll find them,” Dink assured her. “My mom can find anything. She’s a real neat Nelly!”

  The woman sniffed, then stomped down the sidewalk toward the street.

  Dink watched her go, then turned around and bumped into Josh.

  “I’m telling your mom you called her a neat Nelly,” Josh said, grinning.

  “It’s not polite to listen to people’s conversations, Joshua,” Dink said. He headed back to the kitchen.

  “Guys, look at this,” Ruth Rose said. She was pointing at a small purple hand print on the kitchen table. “I thought I wiped the table.”

  Josh bent over and sniffed the purple print. “It’s grape jam.”

  Ruth Rose grinned. “I think I know who took the envelopes,” she said.

  The kids marched next door to Ruth Rose’s house. They found Nate in the living room watching a video. His fingers and mouth were stained purple.

  “Natie, did you take Dink’s letters?” Ruth Rose asked.

  Nate looked at his sister with big blue eyes. He shook his head. “Nope.”

  Ruth Rose glanced at Dink and Josh. She rolled her eyes. “Okay then who took them? We found your jammy fingerprints.”

  Nate hid his hands under his T-shirt. “Steggy did,” he said softly.

  Dink knelt down next to Nate. “Where did Steggy put the envelopes?” he asked.

  Nate shrugged, watching two dancing dinosaurs on TV.

  “Who the heck is Steggy?” Josh asked.

  “His favorite dinosaur,” Ruth Rose said. She turned off the TV. “Natie, Dink really needs his letters. Can you show us where Steggy put them?”

  Nate let out a big sigh. He got up and walked into the kitchen. The kids followed.

  Nate pulled open the refrigerator door. A stuffed stegosaur sat on a shelf next to a bowl of strawberry Jell-O.

  Steggy had five blue envelopes in his mouth.

  Josh laughed. “Yo, Nate, don’t you know dinosaurs hate the cold?”

  Nate pulled Steggy off the shelf and shut the door. “Steggy’s playing mailman. It’s hot outside,” he said.

  Ruth Rose handed the envelopes to Dink. “It’s not nice to take things without asking,” she told her brother.

  “It’s okay, Natie,” Dink said, examining the envelopes for purple smudges. He wanted the letters to look perfect for Doris Duncan.

  Dink found a few splotches of grape jam and wiped them off on his pants. When he looked for more purple stains, he noticed the return address again.

  “This is weird,” he said.

  Dink showed the return address to Josh and Ruth Rose. “Doris Duncan’s mother’s name is Bessie Duncan. So why are the letters from O. Bird?”

  “Maybe O. Bird mailed the notes for her after she died,” Josh said.

  Dink laid the envelopes in a row on the kitchen table. He pulled out the notes and placed them next to their envelopes.

  “But what about this?” Dink said. “The letters are all dated last week. But Doris Duncan told me her mom died last month!”

  “Mind if I get us all some milk?” Josh asked.

  “Go ahead,” Ruth Rose said, picking up the empty envelope. “And why would anyone send her own daughter an envelope with nothing in it?”

  Dink nodded. “It doesn’t make any sense,” he said, “unless these letters aren’t really from her mother.”

  “But why would Doris tell us a story like that?” Ruth Rose wondered.

  Josh picked up one of the letters. He read it quickly. Then he carefully spilled a small puddle of milk on the writing.

  “What’re you doing!” Dink yelled. “Doris Duncan will kill me!”

  “Wait a sec.” Josh smeared the milk around with his finger. “I read in a spy comic that if you pour milk on invisible ink, you can read it,” he said. “Maybe there’s a secret message!”

  They all hunched over the letter. No hidden writing appeared. But now there was a wet, milky blotch over some of the words.

  “Thanks a lot, Josh,” Dink said. “Wait till Doris Duncan sees this!”

  Ruth Rose blotted the letter with a paper napkin. “Don’t worry, it’ll dry,” she said. She waved the letter in the air, then held it up to the sunny window.

  “It’d better,” Dink said, giving Josh an “or you’ll be sorry!” look.

  “Guys, look at this!” Ruth Rose said. “There are two pinholes in the paper. The holes go right through the letters H and D!”

  Josh grabbed another letter. He held it next to Ruth Rose’s at the window. “This one has a hole too!” he said. “There’s a tiny one right through the letter J!”

  Dink jumped up and looked at the pinholes. Then he stared at his friends. “Maybe there really is a secret message!” he said.

  The kids examined the other two notes. They found pinholes through the letters O, F, and E.

  “H, D, J, O, F, and E all have holes through them,” Dink said, writing the letters on a pad.

  “Maybe the letters spell a secret message,” Ruth Rose said. “Let’s try to make words out of them.” She grabbed the pad.

  “I get hoe, Joe, doe, foe, and fed,” she said after a minute.

  “How about of, Ed, oh, and he,” Dink suggested.

  “Those words don’t make any sense,” Josh said. “Maybe each letter stands for a word. You know, like SCUBA.”

  Dink and Ruth Rose just stared at him.

  “You know, SCUBA? S, C, U, B, and A? The letters stand for ‘self-contained underwater breathing apparatus.’”

  Dink grinned. “Josh, how come you look so dumb, but you’re really so smart?”

  Josh gr
inned right back. “How come you look so dumb, and you really are?”

  “Guys, stop fooling around,” Ruth Rose said. “Let’s figure out what these letters mean.”

  The kids spent ten minutes trying to make a message out of the letters J, H, D, O, F, and E.

  “I give up,” Dink said finally.

  “Wait a minute,” Josh said. “Maybe Mother’s already shown us the secret words.” He picked up one of the notes and peered at the pinholes. “Look,” he said. “This hole is in the first E in envelope. Maybe it’s the word envelope that’s part of the code!”

  Dink and Ruth Rose arranged the four notes by date. Then they looked at the words next to the pinholes.

  Dink wrote down six words: Jenny, hid, den, on, fifth, envelope.

  Ruth Rose started to read them out loud, then suddenly grinned. “Listen, guys. ’Jenny hidden on fifth envelope.”’

  “Awesome!” Josh said, giving Ruth Rose a big grin.

  “The one that came today is the fifth envelope,” Dink said, holding it up. “But who—or what—is Jenny?”

  “The message says Jenny is on the envelope,” Josh said. “But all I see are the stamps.”

  “Don’t forget the ink and glue,” Dink said.

  “What about looking for the letters J, E, N, N, and Y in the addresses?” Ruth Rose suggested.

  “E, N, N, and Y are there,” Josh said after a minute. “But there’s no J.”

  “That leaves the stamps,” Dink said. The stamps were pictures of big yellow sunflowers. “I don’t see any Jenny there.”

  “Guys, look,” Ruth Rose said. She grabbed the other envelopes. “The first four envelopes have just one stamp each. But the one that came today has three.”

  “You’re right,” Dink said. “I wonder why.” He rubbed his fingers across the three sunflower stamps. “I feel something under there!” he said.

  Dink held the envelope up to the window. “There’s something dark under those stamps,” he said. “I can see an outline!”

  “I’m going to boil some water,” Ruth Rose said. “My grandfather used to collect stamps. He showed me how to steam ’em off envelopes.”