Vanishing Passenger Read Online Free PDF Page A

right!” Henry knelt down and sniffed Watch, too. “Yes, this is definitely the same smell.”
    Violet and Benny were puzzled. “What dog shampoo? What bath?” Violet wondered. “Benny and I don’t remember that.”
    “You and Benny were with Grandfather that day,” Jessie said. “At the fair.”
    “Oh yeah,” Violet said. “We were having our faces painted.”
    “And we had ice cream!” Benny said. “I remember that!”
    “We decided to give Watch a bath while you guys were gone,” Jessie continued. “We went to the pet store and asked for a good shampoo for fleas and ticks. They gave us this stuff that worked really well, but it had a strong medicine smell.” Jessie sniffed Watch again. “It’s still on him, even after all this time. Ugh—awful!”
    “And that’s the same smell that was on the train?” Violet asked. She was stroking her chin and thinking. “Could that mean that a dog was in the fourth car with Mr. Finch?”
    Jessie’s eyes widened. “Possibly! Maybe it was that dog who was barking! Remember Mrs. Blake said she heard a dog barking, and that’s why she couldn’t read?”
    “That’s right,” Henry continued. “And that family we saw at the station, with the two children who were crying. Didn’t one of the children have—”
    “A leash! ” Benny said.
    “Yes, a leash,” Henry told them. “But they didn’t have a dog with them. I’ll bet that’s why the children were so sad. Something must’ve happened to it.”
    “Like what?” Violet asked.
    “I have no idea,” Henry said. “But maybe someone down at the station does. Let’s go check it out.”
    When they got to the station, though, they didn’t see the conductor. But there were other faces they’d seen before.
    “Look!” said Henry. “Wasn’t that family on the train yesterday?”
    “Yes,” Violet said. “I remember the two crying children.”
    “They’re not crying now,” Benny noticed. “But they still look sad.”
    The two children were helping their father put up flyers around the station. They carefully stuck bits of tape to the corners of each flyer so that their father could hang them up. Their mother stood nearby, dabbing at her eyes with a tissue.
    “Should we talk to them?” Jessie wondered.
    “Let’s read one of these flyers, first,” said Henry. They found one posted near the front door. LOST DOG, it said in block letters across the top, above a photo of a small dog with woolly fur.
    “Poor thing,” Violet whispered.
    Below the photo was written: Just as we arrived home to Greenfield on the Saturday morning train, we discovered our dear dog, Max, missing from his carrier. We don’t know what happened and we are heartbroken! If anyone has any information that can help us find Max please contact the Taylor family. A phone number was listed at the bottom of the page.
    “We have information,” Henry said. They all nodded. They walked over to where the family was busy putting up another flyer.
    “Excuse us,” Jessie said softly. “You’re the Taylors, right?”
    They all turned. “Why, yes,” said the mother.
    “I’m Henry Alden, and these are my sisters and my brother,” said Henry. “We’re trying to solve a mystery of our own, and we think your dog might be part of it.”
    The Taylors all looked at each other, and back to the Aldens. “Go on,” said Mr. Taylor.
    Henry told them the whole story. At the end, Mr. Taylor took the copy of the Finch book that Henry brought along and studied the photo on the back. “You know something, this man does looks familiar.” He held it up so his wife could see. “Isn’t he the person who patted Max on the head as we were waiting for the train to arrive yesterday morning?”
    Mrs. Taylor only needed to take a quick look at Mr. Finch’s picture. “Yes, that’s him. He was very friendly,” she told the Aldens. “And he seemed to have an instant connection with Max. Max doesn’t always like strangers, as we said before, but