The Absent Author Read online

  “What’re these for?” Dink asked.

  “Josh made me think of something Wallis Wallace wrote in The Mystery in the Museum,” Ruth Rose said. “He said the more you know about the victim, the easier it is to figure out who did the crime.”

  She turned to the back cover of her book. “So let’s try to find out more about our victim. Listen to this.” She started reading out loud. “‘When not writing, the author likes to work in the garden. Naturally, Wallis Wallace’s favorite color is green.’”

  “Fine,” said Josh, “but how does knowing his favorite color help us find him, Ruth Rose?”

  “I don’t know, but maybe if we read more about him, we’ll discover some clues,” Ruth Rose said. “What does it say on the back of your book?”

  Josh flipped the book over and began reading. “‘Wallis Wallace lives in a castle called Moose Manor.’” He looked up. “We already knew he lived in a castle. I don’t see any clues yet, you guys.”

  Ruth Rose stared at Josh. “You know, something is bugging me, but I can’t figure out what it is. Something someone said today maybe.” She shook her head. “Anyway read yours, Dink.”

  Dink read from the back cover of his book. “‘Wallis Wallace gives money from writing books to help preserve the wild animals that live in Maine.’”

  “Okay he gives money away to save animals, lives in a castle, and grows a bunch of green stuff,” Josh said, counting on his fingers. “Still no clues.”

  Josh took another cookie. “But I just thought of something.” He began slowly munching on the cookie.

  Dink raised his eyebrows. “Are you going to tell us, Josh?”

  “Well, I was thinking about Room 302. Remember, someone signed the register right after Wallis Wallace checked into Room 303? And the signature was all smudged? And then Olivia Nugent—”

  “—told us that Room 302 had a Do Not Disturb sign on it!” Ruth Rose interrupted. “Livvy never went into that room at all!”

  Just then Dink’s mother drove up the driveway. She got out of the car, waved, and started walking toward the picnic table.

  “Oh, no!” Dink said. “If Mom finds out I’m trying to find a kidnapper, she won’t let me out of the house! Don’t say anything, okay?”

  “Can’t I even say hi?” Josh asked.

  Dink threw a potato chip at Josh. “Say hi, then shut up about you-know-what!”

  “Hi, Mrs. Duncan!” Josh said, sliding a look at Dink.

  “Hi, kids. How was the book signing? Tell me all about Wallis Wallace, Dink. Is he as wonderful as you expected?”

  Dink stared at his mother. He didn’t want to lie. But if he told her the truth, she wouldn’t let him keep looking for Wallis Wallace. And Dink had a sudden feeling that they were very close to finding him.

  We can’t stop now! he thought. He looked at his mother and grinned stupidly.

  “Dink? Honey? Why is your mouth open?”

  He closed his mouth. Think, Dink! he ordered himself.

  Suddenly Josh knocked over his lemonade glass. The sticky cold liquid spilled into Dink’s lap.

  Dink let out a yowl and jumped up.

  “Gee, sorry!” said Josh.

  “Paper towels to the rescue!” Dink’s mother ran toward the house.

  “Good thinking, Josh,” Dink said, wiping at his wet jeans. “But did you have to spill it on me? You had the whole yard!”

  Josh grinned. “Some people are never satisfied. I got you out of hot water, didn’t I?”

  “Right into cold lemonade,” Ruth Rose said.

  Dink blotted his jeans with a handful of paper napkins. “Come on. Let’s go meet Mavis before my mom comes back. There’s something weird happening on the third floor of the Shangri-la!”

  Dink’s jeans were nearly dry by the time they reached the hotel. Mavis was waiting out front.

  “How was your lunch?” she asked timidly.

  “Fine, thanks,” Dink said. “We talked it over, and we think there’s something fishy going on on the third floor of this hotel.”

  Suddenly Mavis began coughing. She held up her scarf in front of her mouth.

  Dink noticed that the letters on the scarf were tiny M’s. “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “Should I run in and get you some water?” asked Josh.

  Mavis took off her glasses and shook her head. “No, I’m fine, thank you. Dear me, I don’t know what happened! Now, what were you saying about the third floor?”

  “We think Wallis Wallace may be up there,” Ruth Rose said. She reminded Mavis about the smudged signature for Room 302 and the Do Not Disturb sign on the door.

  Mavis replaced her eyeglasses. “Mercy! What do you think we should do?”

  “Follow me!” Dink said. For the second time, they all trooped into the hotel lobby.

  Mr. Linkletter watched them from behind the counter.

  “Hi,” Dink said. “Remember us?”

  “Vividly,” Mr. Linkletter said.

  “Wallis Wallace checked into Room 303, right?”

  “That is correct,” said Mr. Linkletter.

  “Well, we talked to the maid who cleaned that room,” Dink went on. “She told us no one slept in it.”

  “You spoke to Olivia Nugent? When? How?”

  “We have our ways,” Josh said.

  “So,” Dink went on, “we think Wallis Wallace disappeared right here in this hotel.”

  “And Wallis Wallace is a very famous writer,” Ruth Rose reminded Mr. Linkletter. “Millions of kids are waiting to read his next book,” she added sweetly.

  Mr. Linkletter’s sad eyes grew large. He swallowed and his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. He rubbed his forehead as though he had a headache.

  Then Dink told Mr. Linkletter about Room 302. “Miss Nugent said there was a Do Not Disturb sign on the door.”

  Ruth Rose pointed to the register. “See? The signature is all smudged!”

  “We think the kidnappers are hiding Wallis Wallace in that room!” Josh said.

  At the word “kidnappers,” Mr. Linkletter closed his eyes. He opened a drawer, took out a bottle of headache pills, and put one on his tongue.

  “Just to be on the safe side, perhaps we should check both rooms, Mr. Linkletter,” Mavis said quietly.

  “It’ll just take a minute,” Dink said.

  Mr. Linkletter let out a big sigh. “Very well, but this is most unusual. Things run very smoothly at the Shangrila.”

  They all got into the elevator. No one spoke. Dink watched Mr. Linkletter jiggling his bunch of keys. Mr. Linkletter kept his eyes on the little arrow telling them which floor they were on.

  The elevator door opened on the third floor. Mr. Linkletter unlocked Room 303. “Most unusual,” he muttered.

  The room was empty and spotlessly clean. “Strange, very strange,” Mr. Linkletter said.

  They moved to Room 302, where a Do Not Disturb sign still hung on the doorknob.

  Mr. Linkletter knocked. They all leaned toward the door.

  “Listen, I hear a voice!” Josh said.

  “What’s it saying?” Ruth Rose asked.

  Then they all heard it.

  The voice was muffled, but it was definitely yelling, “HELP!”

  Mr. Linkletter unlocked the door and shoved it open.

  A man with curly blond hair stared back at them. He was sitting in a chair with his feet tied in front of him. His arms were tied behind his back. A towel was wrapped around his mouth.

  “Oh, my goodness!” Mr. Linkletter cried.

  Everyone rushed into the room.

  Dink ran behind the chair to untie the man’s hands while Josh untied his feet.

  Mavis unwrapped the towel from around his face.

  “Thank goodness you got here!” the man said. “I’m Wallis Wallace. Someone knocked on my door last night. A voice said he was from room service. When I opened the door, two men dragged me in here and tied me up.”

  He looked at Dink. “You’re Dink Duncan! I recognize yo
u from the picture you sent. How did you find me?”

  “We followed your itinerary” Dink said. He showed Mr. Wallace the sheet of paper. “We got it from Mr. Paskey and used it as a trail. The trail led us to this room!”

  “I’m so sorry I missed the book signing,” Wallis Wallace said. “As you can see, I was a bit tied up.”

  He smiled. Then he rubbed his jaw. “My mouth is sore from that towel. I can’t believe I was kidnapped! And I can’t wait to get back to my safe little cottage in Maine.”

  “Can you describe the two guys who kidnapped you?” Dink asked. “We should tell Officer Fallon so he can try to find them.”

  Wallis Wallace stared at Dink. “The two guys? Oh…well, urn, I don’t think I’ll-”

  “HEY!” Ruth Rose suddenly yelled.

  Everyone looked at her.

  “What’s the matter?” asked Dink. “You look funny, Ruth Rose.”

  Ruth Rose was staring at the red scarf draped around Mavis’s neck. She pointed at the man who’d been tied up. “You’re not Wallis Wallace!”

  Then she looked at Mavis Green. “You are,” she said quietly.

  “Ruth Rose, what are you talking about?” Josh said.

  Dink didn’t know what to think, except that he was getting a headache.

  “What makes you think I’m Wallis Wallace?” Mavis asked.

  Ruth Rose walked over to Mavis. “May I borrow your scarf?” she said.

  Ruth Rose held the scarf up so everyone could see it. “When I first saw this scarf, I thought these little black letters were M’s,” she said. “M for Mavis.”

  She looked at Mavis Green. “But they’re not M’s, are they?”

  She turned the scarf completely upside down. “What do they look like now?”

  Dink stepped closer. “They’re little W’s now!”

  “Right. Double-U, double-U for Wallis Wallace!” Ruth Rose pointed at the man. “You just said you live in a little cottage. But Wallis Wallace lives in a big castle in Maine. It says so on the cover of The Silent Swamp.”

  Ruth Rose pointed at Mavis’s book bag. “Seeing your bag again made me remember something I thought of today. Josh read that your castle was called Moose Manor. There’s a picture of a moose on the side of your bag.”

  Ruth Rose handed the scarf back to Mavis. “And we read that Wallis Wallace’s favorite color is green. You like green ice cream, and you chose Mavis Green for your fake name.”

  Everyone was staring at Ruth Rose, except for the man they had untied. He started laughing.

  “The cat’s out of the bag now, sis,” he said.

  Then Mavis laughed and gave Ruth Rose a hug.

  “Yes, Ruth Rose,” Mavis said. “I really am Wallis Wallace.” She put her hand on the man’s shoulder. “And this is my brother, Walker Wallace. We’ve been planning my ‘kidnapping’ for weeks!”

  Dink stared at Mavis, or whoever she was. “You mean Wallis Wallace is a woman?” he said.

  “Yes, Dink, I’m a woman, and I’m definitely Wallis Wallace.” She winked at him. “Honest!”

  Mavis, the real Wallis Wallace, sat on the bed. She took off her glasses and pulled the barrettes out of her hair. She shook her hair until it puffed out in a mass of wild curls.

  “Thank goodness I can be myself now!” she said. “All day I’ve had to act like timid Mavis Green. I can’t wait to get out of this fuddy-duddy dress and into my jeans again!”

  She kicked off her shoes and wiggled her toes in the air. “Boy, does that feel good!”

  Dink blinked and shook his head. Mavis Green was really Wallis Wallace? He couldn’t believe it. “But why did you pretend to be kidnapped?” he asked.

  The real Wallis Wallace grinned at the kids’ surprised faces. “I owe you an explanation,” she said.

  “My new book is about a children’s mystery writer who gets kidnapped. In my book, some children rescue the writer. I wanted to find out how real kids might solve the mystery,” she explained.

  She smiled at Dink. “Then your letter came, inviting me to Green Lawn. That’s what gave me the idea to fake my own kidnapping. I’d become Mavis Green and watch what happened.”

  “Oh, yeah!” Dink said. “In your letter, you said you were doing some research in Connecticut.”

  She nodded. “Yes, and I mentioned the word ‘kidnap’ in the letter to get you thinking along those lines.” She smiled at the three kids. “I thought I’d have to give you more clues, but you solved the mystery all by yourselves!”

  Dink laughed. “You recognized me in the bookstore from my picture,” he said. “And you didn’t send me a picture so I wouldn’t recognize you!”

  “Then my nutty sister dragged me into her plan,” Walker Wallace said. “I should be home checking my lobster pots.”

  “While you were eating lunch, Walker and I ate ours up here,” Wallis said. “Then, just before two o’clock, I tied him in the chair and ran down-stairs to meet you out front as Mavis.”

  Wallis Wallace threw back her head and laughed. “Do you remember downstairs when Dink said there was something fishy on the third floor?”

  She got up and stood next to her brother. “Well, I’m always teasing Walker about smelling fishy from handling his lobster bait. So when you said something was fishy in the hotel, I had to pretend to cough so you wouldn’t know I was really laughing!”

  “Boy, did you have us fooled,” Dink said.

  Wallis Wallace grinned. “Mr. Paskey was in on it. I had to tell him the truth. As you saw this morning at the Book Nook, my little scheme made him very nervous. I’ve promised him I’ll come back and do a real book signing soon. But I’ll be in disguise, so be prepared for anything!”

  Dink shook his head. “I was so disappointed because I couldn’t meet my favorite author this morning,” he said. “And I’ve been with you all day and didn’t even know it!”

  She looked at Dink. “I’m so sorry I tricked you. Will you forgive me?”

  Dink blushed. “Sure.”

  “I have a question,” Josh said. “Where did you really sleep last night?”

  “Right here in Room 302. A few weeks ago, I telephoned to reserve two rooms next to each other. Last night, I checked into Room 303 as Wallis Wallace, the man. Up in Room 303, I took off the hat and coat and sunglasses. Then I sneaked back down to the lobby wearing a blond wig. I checked in again, this time into Room 302.”

  “Did you smudge the signature?” Ruth Rose asked.

  “Oh, you noticed that!” Wallis said. “I’m so used to signing my real name in books, I started to write Wallis. So I ‘accidentally’ smudged it.”

  “I have a question, Mavis, I mean Miss Wallace…what should we call you?” Dink asked.

  “My friends call me Wallis,” she said.

  “Well, the taxi driver told us you were smiling in the taxi. What were you smiling about?”

  Wallis Wallace was smiling now. “Oh, about a lot of things. First, I was wearing a man’s disguise, and that made me feel pretty silly. And I knew I was going to meet you, one of my biggest fans. And I was happy because I knew whatever happened, the next day would be fun!”

  “I sure had fun,” Josh said, grinning. “Poor Mr. Paskey, having to lie to everyone with a straight face!”

  “Boy, did I have a hard time pretending to be Mavis all day,” Wallis said. “But my plan worked. I met three brilliant detectives. You helped me to see how real kids would investigate a kidnapping. Now I can go back to Maine and finish my book.”

  “How come your book jackets never say that you’re a woman?” Ruth Rose asked.

  Wallis Wallace smiled. “Because of my name, most people assume that I’m a man,” she explained. “I let them think that so I can do my research easier. I’ve learned that people clam up if they know I’m Wallis Wallace. So out in public I pretend I’m Mavis Green, just a regular person, not a mystery writer.”

  “I get it!” Dink said. “You don’t have your picture on your books so people can’t recognize
you.”

  “Right. And I hope you’ll keep my secret.”

  “We will. Right, guys?” Ruth Rose said.

  “Thank you! Any more questions?” Wallis asked.

  “Yeah,” Walker said, giving his sister a look. “When do we leave? I’ve got lobsters waiting for me.”

  “I have a question, too,” Dink said. “Will you send me your picture now?”

  “Yes, but I’ll do better than that,” Wallis said. “I’ll dedicate my next book to my three new friends!”

  Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose did a triple high five.

  “Excuse me,” Mr. Linkletter said from the door where he had been standing.

  They all looked at him.

  “It’s nearly checkout time.”

  Everyone laughed.

  Mr. Linkletter smiled, but just a little.

  Text copyright © 1997 by Ron Roy.

  Illustrations copyright © 1997 by John Steven Gurney.

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.

  Published in the United States by Random House, Inc., New York.

  http://www.randomhouse.com/

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Roy, Ron-The absent author / by Ron Roy; illustrated by John Gurney.

  p. cm. — (A to Z mysteries) ‘A Stepping Stone book.”

  SUMMARY: Dink Duncan and his two friends investigate the apparent kidnapping of

  famous mystery author Wallis Wallace.

  eISBN: 978-0-307-51012-9

  [1. Mystery and detective stories.] I. Gurney, John, ill. II. Title.

  III. Series: Roy, Ron. A to Z mysteries.

  PZ7.R8139Ab 1997 [Fic]-dc21 97-2030

  v3.0

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Preface

  Dedication

  Title Page

  Map

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Copyright