Read Online The Pizza Mystery by Gertrude Chandler Warner - Free Book Online Page A

got to the door, Nick had disappeared.
    Violet didn’t tell anyone about Nick. When she came into the kitchen, she could see how tired the Piccolos were. They had enough trouble already. They didn’t need to find out that Nick wasn’t really sick.
    Mrs. Piccolo put on her glasses and read the order Violet handed her. “Another pizza. I’ll get this one ready.” While she worked, Mrs. Piccolo wondered whether someone really was trying to hurt their business. “Why? Why would anyone do such a thing? And to get children involved! I can’t believe this could happen,” she muttered.
    By the time the last child left after seven o’clock, the restaurant had gone through six cases of soda. The Aldens rinsed all the cans and put them in the recycling barrel.
    After everything was cleaned up, Laurie and the Aldens shooed the Piccolos out the door. “Time to go home and rest,” Laurie told them. “We can take care of things and close up.”
    Jessie turned off the neon sign in the window and locked the front door. “Come on, Henry. I want to go over to the factory and see if they had anything to do with this. Do you want to come too, Violet?” she asked her sister.
    Violet stared out at the front porch of the restaurant. It almost seemed as if she could see Nick’s face still looking in.
    â€œWhat’s the matter, Violet?” Henry asked when he saw her standing so still. “You look as if you just saw a ghost.”
    Violet shook her head sadly. “Not a ghost, Henry. About an hour ago when I was taking an order, I saw Nick looking through the window. But when I went out to talk to him, he was gone.”
    Jessie didn’t want to believe this. “Are you sure, Violet? There were so many people going in and out. We had to turn some old customers away. Maybe one of them looked inside and decided not to come in.”
    Violet wanted to believe this too, but she couldn’t. The face in the window was Nick’s. Had he been the one to hand out the coupons? Had he come by to see if this terrible plan had worked? Violet shivered. Then she put on her jacket. She wanted to go to the factory with Henry and Jessie. Maybe they would find out something that would explain what was going on with Nick.
    â€œWe’ll be back in a while,” Jessie told Laurie and Benny as they stacked up dishes next to the sink.
    When Jessie, Violet, and Henry reached the front gate of the factory, Henry said: “It’s almost time for the night shift to come in. Maybe we can blend in with the crowd then look around for Nick.”
    But Henry didn’t need to go inside the factory to find Nick. Just as the children reached the front gate, they spotted the young man. He wasn’t alone. He was walking out of the building with a young woman and someone else. As they got closer, the children recognized the third person—Mr. Irons, the factory manager.
    The Aldens stepped away from the streetlight into the shadows of the parking lot so they wouldn’t be spotted. Mr. Irons, Nick, and the young woman headed toward Mr. Irons’ fancy car.
    â€œI have to go out and check on a few things,” Mr. Irons told Nick and the woman. “I’ll drop you both off. Don’t keep my secretary out too late. She has to be at work first thing tomorrow morning.”
    Even in the dark, the Aldens could see that Nick and the young woman didn’t look too happy when they heard this. But they got in the car with Mr. Irons anyway.
    The children didn’t say anything. After Mr. Irons drove off, they walked back to the restaurant slowly. Seeing Nick with Mr. Irons upset them more than anything else that had happened.
    Finally Violet spoke up. “I guess I was wrong about Nick. Maybe Nick isn’t just working on mufflers. Maybe Mr. Irons hired him because he knows all about Piccolos’ Pizza.”
    â€œThere’s one thing about Piccolos’ Pizza he