Candy Factory Mystery Read Online Free PDF

morning. He’s probably on an errand and coming back.”
    Meg’s eyebrows shot up. “Tom was here already? So I guess he was the one who left the lights on. I’m always getting blamed for every little thing that goes wrong. Mrs. Winkles thinks he never makes mistakes, but he even forgot to lock the door. That’s why I locked it after I got inside, so I wouldn’t forget. Well, I guess I have no choice but to call him.”
    â€œGood luck reaching him,” Henry said. “I thought he answered the phone. But after the line got disconnected and I redialed, all I got was his answering machine. Wherever he went, it wasn’t back home. I don’t know where he is.”
    â€œProbably making more problems,” Meg muttered, “instead of helping me out.”

CHAPTER 6
    Broken Eggs
    W hen Meg still couldn’t get the sugar chick machine going, she sent the Aldens home for an early lunch. “I’ll call you when Tom arrives,” she told the children. “I left a message for him to come in and fix the machine.”
    â€œAnd we can fix lunch!” Benny announced.
    When the children returned to the loft, Benny and Violet headed straight for the refrigerator. They lined up all the lunch fixings on the kitchen counter, just like a conveyor belt.
    â€œThis is the Alden Tuna Fish Factory,” Benny said. “First, Soo Lee puts lettuce on the bread then slides it to me. Then I plop the tuna on the lettuce and slide the bread to Violet. She cuts the sandwiches and adds pickles. Then we do the next sandwich and the next one and the next one.”
    Jessie and Henry got a kick out of Benny’s system.
    â€œYou don’t even need a machine, either,” Henry said. “Boy, was Meg ever upset about that broken machine! I hope it gets fixed soon so Mrs. Winkles doesn’t lose any more business.”
    The phone rang just as Violet passed around the sandwich plates. “That’s probably Meg calling to tell us when to come back.”
    Jessie picked it up. “Oh, hi, Mrs. Winkles. We thought it was Meg. Yes, we’re on our lunch break.” Jessie paused. “Oh, so Meg told you about the problem with the chick machine? Sure, we can bring the part to get fixed.” Jessie grabbed a pencil and paper. “Just give me the address. We’ll go to the repair place this afternoon. I’ll put on Benny and Soo Lee so Grandfather can talk to them.”
    As the younger children chatted on the phone with James Alden, Jessie explained what Mrs. Winkles wanted the children to do. “She gave me the name of the tool-maker who takes care of the candy machines. She said Tom took the part in to get it fixed a couple of times before. She couldn’t believe that it was broken again.”
    Violet looked thoughtful. “Was Mrs. Winkles upset?”
    â€œA little,” Jessie answered. “Here’s the strange thing. She spoke to Tom, and he made it sound as if there was a problem with the machine when he showed it to us yesterday — that it broke while we were working with him.”
    â€œBut that’s not true!” Henry said. “Besides, how could Tom know about the part being broken? He wasn’t even there when Meg got to work this morning.”
    Jessie frowned. “And when he was here this morning, he acted as if he didn’t want to see us.”
    After the Aldens finished lunch, they went to get the broken part from Meg. They heard her voice coming from Mrs. Winkles’s office.
    â€œMr. Boxer, you really shouldn’t be in here,” the Aldens overheard Meg say to someone else in the office. “I was just locking up.”
    â€œAfter all, Meg, I am Mrs. Winkles’s shipper,” the man said. “I just need to check some old shipping bills. I’ll only be a few minutes.”
    Meg sounded a little worried. “But why are you looking at—”
    â€œOh, never mind,” the man