“I can’t find my new shoes!” Benny called.
“Can someone tie my purple hair ribbon?” Violet asked.
It was the following night and the Aldens were getting ready to go to the magic show. They were all getting dressed up in their best clothes. The boys were in slacks and jackets, and the girls wore pretty dresses. Even Grandfather was wearing a suit and his red flannel vest.
“Here are your shoes,” Henry said, pulling them out from under Benny’s bed.
“Oh, is that where they were,” said Benny. “How did you know?”
“Because that’s where I always find them when you forget to put them away in the closet, silly,” Henry said.
Meanwhile, Jessie was tying a purple satin ribbon in Violet’s hair. “There,” Jessie said, standing back and looking at her work. “You look very pretty, and the bow matches your dress perfectly.”
“Thanks,” Violet told her sister. “And you look nice, too.”
In a short while the Aldens arrived at the community theater. A large crowd filed into the auditorium. There were lots of young children, and the air was filled with the buzz of excited voices.
Jessie heard a boy next to her say, “This is the same magician that I saw at Billy’s birthday party. She was great!”
A man in front of them was telling another man, “Yes, we saw her here last year. She puts on a great show.”
As soon as the lights began to dim, the voices hushed. Music played and the lights came up on the stage. Then Cassandra appeared, dressed magnificently in a purple satin dress with a matching top hat and cape. The audience broke into applause.
Cassandra was a tall woman with long, flowing brown hair. She walked gracefully back and forth across the stage, smiling out at the audience and bowing her head slightly in thanks for the applause. As soon as she spoke, Jessie and Benny recognized the voice they’d heard in Party Time. Only now she didn’t sound angry. Now her voice was calm and cool.
Cassandra began with some small tricks, pulling silk flowers and scarves from her cape and hat. She heaped the colorful scarves and flowers on a small round table to her right. She juggled some sparkly balls and made them disappear. She poured a glass of milk into her hat, and the milk vanished. With each trick she invited the audience to help her by repeating the magic words she recited. The Aldens eagerly joined in, laughing and clapping at the tricks.
The next trick was a card trick. A girl Cassandra had chosen from the audience had to pick cards from a deck and Cassandra guessed the numbers. Amazingly, she was right every time. After the girl sat down, Cassandra called up another volunteer—this time a boy sitting near the stage.
Cassandra asked the boy to write his name and favorite ice cream flavor on a piece of paper. She took the paper from him.
Everyone was very surprised by what she did next. She tore up the paper into little pieces and dropped them into her hat. Then she waved her hand over the hat and pulled out—a whole sheet of paper. The paper wasn’t even crumpled. When Cassandra turned the hat upside down, there was nothing else inside—no torn scraps. Next Cassandra held up the paper and read from it. “Mint chocolate chip,” she said. “Is that your favorite kind of ice cream?”
The boy nodded.
“And your name is Kevin?” Cassandra asked.
“Yes,” said Kevin, obviously amazed. “But you just tore up what I wrote. How did you …?”
“That’s my secret,” Cassandra said, sending Kevin back down to his seat. “And now we’re going to take a short break. But make sure you’re back in your seats for the second half of the show!” The audience began clapping, and Cassandra smiled and curtsied before the curtain fell.
“That was great!” Benny said as the lights came back on.
“It sure was,” Henry agreed.
“She seems so nice,” said Violet. “It’s hard to believe she said all those mean things and might be trying to run us out of business.”
“You’re right,” said Jessie. “She doesn’t sound anything like she did yesterday at Party Time.”
“How about some Cokes?” Grandfather suggested. They all walked out to the lobby and enjoyed drinks and popcorn before returning to their seats.
The second half was even more exciting than the first. Cassandra was now wearing a sparkly red outfit with a matching red top hat. She took a live dove from her top hat and placed both dove and hat on the little round table, where the dove settled comfortably on the brim of the top hat among the silk scarves and flowers. Then she blew up some long thin balloons and twisted them into animal shapes—a dog, a bird, a monkey in a tree. She threw the first two balloon animals to eager children in the audience. But the monkey she put under her cape—and when she lifted her cape, it was gone. She did several more tricks and then paused and spoke dramatically. “I need three volunteers for my last and most amazing trick,” Cassandra said.
“Pick me, pick me!” Benny whispered under his breath as he reached his arm up as high as he could.
“You in the blue jacket,” Cassandra said, pointing right at Benny, “and the girls on either side of you.”
Benny, Jessie, and Violet turned around to make sure she was really pointing at them. “Us?” Benny asked.
“Yes,” Cassandra said with a smile, “you three.”
“Go on!” Henry said, patting each of them on the back as they slid down the row of seats and walked up the aisle to the stage.
“What are your names?” Cassandra asked Benny.
They each said their names in turn.
Cassandra seemed surprised. She paused for a minute. “Did you say Alden?” she asked.
“Yes,” Benny said.
Then Cassandra recovered from her surprise. “Well, do you see this big box behind us that’s covered by a cloth?”
“Yes,” they answered.
“Benny, Violet, go pull the cloth off,” Cassandra said.
They did as they were told. Underneath the cloth was no ordinary box. It was a safe.
“This trick is called the Mystery of the Empty Safe,” Cassandra said. “Jessie, will you hand me what’s inside the safe?” Jessie opened the door to the safe, which was not locked. Inside was a large bag with a dollar sign on the front. She lifted out the bag and gave it to Cassandra. It was quite heavy.
“What’s inside?” Cassandra asked, holding out the bag so Jessie could put her hand in.
Jessie reached in and pulled out some gold coins. “Looks like gold,” she said.
“Ah, money,” Cassandra said, her eyes lighting up. “Now, Violet and Benny, look inside the safe and tell me if you see anything else.”
“No,” Benny said after he’d looked.
“Just an empty safe,” said Violet.
“Now, all of you, feel the safe—try to move it. Is it heavy? Does it feel solid, like a real safe?” Cassandra asked.
Benny, Jessie, and Violet banged on the safe with their hands, tried to push it, and walked all around it, inspecting it closely.
“It feels very solid,” said Jessie.
“Put the money bag back inside, please, Jessie,” Cassandra instructed.
Again Jessie did as she asked. Then Cassandra shut the door of the safe and turned the lock on the front. “Now, each of you see if you can open the safe.”
Benny Jessie, and Violet each tried pulling the door open, but it was locked shut. Benny even tried turning the lock, but the door still wouldn’t open.
“I bet I can open it,” Cassandra said. She stepped in front of Benny and waved her hand over the safe. Then she knocked two times on the top of the safe, stepped back, and the door swung open by itself. Inside, the safe was empty.
The audience gasped and then began applauding. Jessie, Violet, and Benny smiled in surprise. Cassandra bowed deeply, and then showed the Alden children off the stage. Cassandra bowed one more time, the curtain fell, and the show was over.
Grandfather was standing up, putting on his coat and wrapping his scarf around his throat, when he noticed that none of his grandchildren were ready to go. They were all staring at the curtained stage, looking amazed and confused.
“Can you believe that last trick she did?” Jessie said at last.
“Wasn’t that wonderful?” said James Alden. “I’ll never guess how she did it.”
“That’s not what Jessie means,” Henry said. “That trick was … well, it’s exactly what’s happened to the two families we’ve given parties for. At the end of the parties their safes are empty.”
“Well, isn’t that a funny coincidence,” Grandfather said.
“If it is just a coincidence,” Henry said.
“What do you mean?” their grandfather asked.
“I think we’d better tell you about this in the car,” Jessie said. She and the others quickly put on their coats, hats, and mittens. Once they were in the car, Jessie told Grandfather about their torn posters, which had been replaced by Cassandra’s posters, and about the angry phone call Cassandra had made to Mr. Grayson. They also told him about the conversation they’d overheard in Party Time. “We’ve been wondering if we’re the ones she was talking about—if she’s mad at us for taking away some of her birthday party business. We’re afraid she’s trying to get rid of us—or at least our party business. And now that empty safe trick really makes me wonder …”
“You don’t think she robbed those two families, do you?” Grandfather asked.
“I can’t believe she’d really do that,” said Henry. “And yet …”
“She’s such a successful magician,” Mr. Alden said. “Why would she risk committing crimes to make money, when she does so well with her magic shows?”
“Yes, but not with her birthday party business, and she said that was a big part of her income. Anyway, maybe she didn’t rob the safes for the money,” Jessie offered. “Maybe she just did it as a prank, because she was mad at the families that used us for their parties.”
“That’s a pretty dangerous prank,” Henry said.
“Yes, it is,” Jessie agreed.
“I noticed something else,” said Violet, who’d been quiet since the show ended. “Remember when we went up on stage and Cassandra asked our names? Did anyone notice something strange about her reaction?”
“Yes, I’d forgotten, but I did notice that,” said Benny. “When we told her, she looked surprised. She said, ‘Did you say Alden?’ as if she’d heard our name before.”
“That would make sense if she knows about our birthday party service,” said Jessie.
“Maybe Cassandra isn’t to blame at all,” said Henry. “Maybe it’s her manager using her party service as a cover for his own burglaries.”
“You kids and your mysteries,” said Grandfather. “I agree that there have been some strange coincidences happening lately, but I hope you’re not going to jump to any conclusions about Cassandra.”
“Don’t worry, Grandfather, we won’t,” Henry assured him. “But we’re not going to rest until we’ve solved this.”