儿童英语读物 The Mystery of the Haunted Boxcar CHAPTER 4 The Main Suspects

“Oh my goodness!” said Jessie. “What happened here?”



“A ghost!” Benny cried.



Henry shined the flashlight all around the inside of the boxcar. Aside from the fallen chair and the mess of games, everything else was in its proper place. “These seem to be the only things that were touched. It doesn’t look like we were robbed.”



“Do you think whoever did this is still around?” asked Violet.



“No,” said Henry. “Watch would be barking if anyone else were in the yard. Right, Watch?”



Watch’s ears were up, alert. He was sniffing 1 around curiously 2, but he stayed silent.



“Can we go back inside the house?” Violet asked, her voice shaky.



“Sure,” said Jessie. She picked up the chair that had been knocked over and set it upright. “We’ll clean up the games tomorrow, in the light.”



The children took one last look around the boxcar and then stepped out. It was still raining. Jessie carefully shut the door, then followed the others back across their yard. Violet felt relieved as their comfortable house appeared in the flashlight’s glow.



Once inside, Henry turned off the flashlight. They all removed their wet raincoats.



“How about some hot cocoa?” Jessie offered.



“Good idea,” said Benny.



A few minutes later, the Aldens were gathered around the kitchen table with steaming mugs of cocoa in front of them.



“Mmmmm … ” said Benny as he took a sip 3 from his mug. A thin layer of chocolate coated his upper lip.



“Do you think we should wake up Mrs. McGregor?” Violet asked.



“And tell her what?” said Henry. “We don’t even know what happened.”



“Well, we know someone was in there,” said Jessie.



“Or something,” said Henry. “It might not have been a person.”



“That’s just what I was thinking,” said Benny. “It might have been a ghost!”



Henry smiled. “That wasn’t exactly what I was thinking, Benny. I meant it might have been an animal.”



“How would an animal have opened the door?” Violet asked. “I’m sure I shut it before we came in for dinner.”



Everyone was silent for a moment.



“Then it must have been a person,” Henry said at last.



“But Professor Murray said — ” Benny started to protest.



“You know it wasn’t a ghost,” Jessie said, interrupting.



“I guess not,” Benny said, reluctantly. He swirled 4 his cocoa in his cup.



“All right, so we agree it was a person,” said Henry. “Who? Why would someone go in our boxcar in the middle of the night?”



“There’s nothing valuable to steal,” Jessie pointed 5 out.



“Do you think someone was trying to wreck 6 it?” asked Henry.



Jessie thought for a moment before she answered. “I don’t think so. I think the mess might have been an accident. Maybe whoever was in there saw the lights go on in the house and got scared. When they ran out of there, they might have just knocked over the chair and games.”



Violet yawned. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m ready to go back to bed.”



“Me too,” said Jessie.



The Aldens rinsed 7 their cocoa mugs and put them in the sink. Then they headed up to their rooms.



Jessie tucked Benny in for the second time that night. “See you in the morning,” she said.



“Good night,” said Benny. This time he had no trouble falling asleep.



The next morning when Benny awoke, he jumped to his window and looked outside. The rain had stopped and sunlight was sparkling on the wet grass.



He looked over at the boxcar. As far as Benny could tell, it was just as they had left it. He pulled on some clothes and hurried downstairs to the kitchen, where Mrs. McGregor was getting breakfast ready. Henry, Jessie, and Violet were already there, telling Mrs. McGregor what had happened the night before.



“Are you sure you didn’t just leave the door to the boxcar open?” Mrs. McGregor asked as she flipped 8 their pancakes. “It could have been a raccoon or a stray dog that went in and knocked things over.”



“I’m sure I shut it,” said Violet.



“I’ve encountered some pretty smart raccoons,” said Mrs. McGregor, turning to face the children. “Since they can open garbage cans, they can probably open that boxcar door.”



“But what about the light I saw?” Benny asked.



“It could have just been a reflection of something,’ their housekeeper 9 said.



“I guess. … ” Benny said.



“Was anything broken or missing?” asked Mrs. McGregor.



“No,” said Jessie.



“Then I wouldn’t worry about it.” Mrs. McGregor turned back to the griddle, humming softly.



“I want to take a look at the boxcar in the daylight,” Jessie said. “Maybe we’ll find some clues.”



“I’ll come, too,” said Benny. They all followed Jessie out the door.



“Hurry back, the pancakes are almost ready,” Mrs. McGregor called after them.



Violet couldn’t believe how scared she’d felt walking across the yard the night before. In the daylight, it wasn’t frightening at all.



Inside the boxcar, the Aldens looked around carefully. They saw no footprints or pawprints or any other clues to help them figure out who had been in the boxcar the night before.



Benny, Violet, Jessie, and Henry knelt to clean up the game pieces that had spilled, then put the boxes back into a neat pile.



There were still a lot of unanswered questions. But at least now the boxcar was back in order.



When the children returned to the sunny kitchen, the pancakes were waiting.



“Everything okay out there?” Mrs. McGregor asked.



“All straightened up,” said Jessie.



“That’s good,” said Mrs. McGregor. “Could you kids walk into town and pick up some groceries after breakfast?”



“Sure,” said Violet.



“The list’s on the table,” Mrs. McGregor said.



A short while later the Aldens were on their way to town, pulling a small red wagon 10 for the groceries.



“I just can’t believe that someone sneaked 11 into our boxcar last night,” said Violet.



“Maybe Mrs. McGregor was right,” said Jessie. “Maybe it was just a raccoon.”



Henry shook his head. “Maybe,” he said, “but something tells me it was a person.”



“But what was a person doing in our boxcar in the middle of the night?” asked Benny.



“I don’t know,” said Henry. “I don’t know why anyone would be there. But someone was.”



“Professor Murray and Amelia and Claire all seemed really interested in the boxcar,” Violet pointed out. “Maybe one of them came back to look at it again.”



“In the middle of the night?” Benny said. “Why not just wait until daytime?”



“It does seem pretty unlikely,” Violet admitted.



“Unless … ” Jessie began. “Unless one of them wanted to go in without us knowing about it.”



“Why wouldn’t they want us to know?” said Benny.



Jessie shrugged 12. “Beats me.”



“Whoever was in there knocked all that stuff over and just left it that way,” Henry pointed out. “Wouldn’t one of them have picked it up?”



“You’re right,” said Violet.



They continued walking without saying anything. They were all deep in their own thoughts.



Then Jessie spoke 13 up. “Benny, tell us again what you saw out your window.”



“I saw a light,” Benny said. “Near the boxcar. It was sort of … floating along.”



“Floating?” Jessie repeated.



“I’m telling you, it looked ghostly,” said Benny.



“Maybe that’s it,” said Henry.



“You think it was a ghost?” Benny asked, his eyes widening.



“No, but maybe it was someone trying to make us think there was a ghost,” said Henry. “Maybe someone went in the boxcar and knocked things over to make us think the boxcar was haunted.”



“Who would do that?” asked Violet.



“Well, it was Professor Murray who made Benny think the boxcar might be haunted in the first place,” Henry said. “Maybe he did it on purpose. Then he came over with a flashlight in the middle of the night and knocked things over.”



“But why would he want us to think the boxcar is haunted?” said Violet.



“Remember how upset he was that we use the boxcar as a playhouse?” said Henry. “Maybe he thinks that if he scares us, we’ll want to get rid of it and give it to a museum like he suggested.”



“Maybe,” said Violet. She didn’t sound convinced.



“Well, if he thinks we’re going to be scared that easily, he’s wrong,” said Benny, standing 14 up tall and thrusting out his chest.



“I just don’t believe Professor Murray would do something like that,” said Jessie. “He is a professor, after all, and he’s Ms. Murray’s brother. She’s so nice — I can’t believe her brother would be so sneaky.”



“Maybe he thought there was no other way to convince us,” said Henry.



“Maybe,” said Jessie. “But I wonder more about Amelia.”



“What about her?” asked Henry.



“Professor Murray is our neighbor’s brother,” said Jessie, “but we don’t know anything about Amelia — who she is, why she’s interested in our boxcar. We don’t even know her last name!”



“You’re right,” Benny said.



“She said she likes old train cars,” said Henry. “That doesn’t mean she’d break into one.”



“But it doesn’t mean she wouldn’t, either,” Jessie said.



“Well, we’ll just have to keep our eyes open,” Violet said. “Right now we don’t have much to go on.”



They had reached the door to the grocery store and were about to enter when Benny stopped abruptly 15. “I have an idea!” he cried. “Let’s sleep outside in the boxcar tonight! That way, we’ll see if anything unusual happens.”



“Great idea,” said Henry.



“And if there’s a ghost,” Benny added, “we’ll know for sure.”