November Night Read online

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Text copyright © 2014 by Ron Roy

  Cover art, map, and interior illustrations copyright © 2014 by John Steven Gurney

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York.

  Random House and the colophon are registered trademarks and A Stepping Stone Book and the colophon are trademarks of Random House LLC.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Roy, Ron.

  November night / by Ron Roy; illustrated by John Steven Gurney. — First edition. pages cm. — (Calendar mysteries; 11)

  “A Stepping Stone book”

  Summary: “As Thanksgiving approaches, Nate and Lucy must help Bradley and Brian find out what their shady new neighbors are up to.” —Provided by publisher.

  ISBN 978-0-385-37165-0 (trade) — ISBN 978-0-385-37166-7 (lib. bdg.) —

  ISBN 978-0-385-37167-4 (ebook)

  [1. Mystery and detective stories. 2. Neighbors—Fiction. 3. Thanksgiving Day—Fiction. 4. Twins—Fiction. 5. Brothers and sisters—Fiction. 6. Cousins—Fiction.]

  I. Gurney, John Steven, illustrations. II. Title.

  PZ7.R8139Nov 2014

  [Fic]—dc23 2013020099

  This book has been officially leveled by using the F&P Text Level Gradient™ Leveling System.

  Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

  v3.1

  I dedicate this book to kind children who do nice things for other people.

  —R.R.

  To Hana and Adelaide

  —J.S.G.

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Map

  1. Spying on the Neighbors

  2. Bradley’s Nightmare

  3. On the Case

  4. Weirder and Weirder

  5. Brian’s Great Escape

  6. Brian’s New Plan

  7. Operation Brian

  8. Surprise!

  9. Thanksgiving Friends

  On the Sunday before Thanksgiving, Bradley Pinto walked into his bedroom. His twin brother, Brian, was kneeling in front of the window. He was peering through binoculars.

  “What are you doing?” Bradley asked.

  “Nothing,” Brian said.

  “Yes, you are,” Bradley said. “You’re spying on the new neighbors again.”

  “I’m not exactly spying,” Brian said. “I’m just checking them out.”

  Bradley flopped down on his bed. “Mom and Dad gave us the binoculars so we could learn about birds and nature stuff,” he said.

  “Looking at people is more fun,” Brian said. “And I am learning about nature. I saw a hawk in the tree.”

  Bradley knelt next to his brother. He looked at the brand-new fence that surrounded the neighbors’ yard. A tall dead tree stood in the middle of the backyard.

  Before the new neighbors moved in, the twins used to play inside the tree’s hollow trunk. The tree trunk was so big that Bradley and Brian couldn’t stretch their arms around it. Sometimes, they would hide in the trunk from their older brother, Josh. Other times, the twins and their friends Nate and Lucy would sit inside and pretend they were lost in the woods. Or they’d pretend to be cave people hiding from ferocious animals.

  Bradley had lined the hollow trunk with hay from Polly the pony’s stall to make it softer to sit on.

  Brian had invented a game called troll in the hole. He would hide inside the tree trunk, wearing a scary Halloween mask. Bradley, Nate, and Lucy would walk past, and Brian would jump out, yelling, “Troll is hungry! Troll is going to eat you!”

  Nate would yell, “Don’t eat me, Mr. Troll! I taste like rotten eggs!”

  Bradley would yell, “Don’t eat me, Mr. Troll! I taste like dirty socks!”

  Lucy would just run away, laughing.

  But last week, a moving van had shown up. Workers unloaded furniture and boxes. New neighbors moved in! Bradley’s mom told the twins the neighbors were Mr. and Mrs. Sargent.

  A few days later, a truck carrying lumber drove into the driveway. Two men spent a whole day building a tall wood fence around the neighbors’ yard with slats so close together that the kids couldn’t see through it. There was a wide gate so the Sargents could drive their car inside the fence.

  Now the kids couldn’t get into the yard. They couldn’t play troll in the hole. They could just look at their favorite tree through binoculars.

  “Look, there they are!” Brian cried suddenly.

  On the other side of the fence were a man and woman. They had gray hair and wore sweaters and jeans. The man had on a red baseball cap. A gray ponytail stuck out the back. They stood and stared up at the old dead tree.

  “Maybe they’re going to cut the tree down,” Bradley said.

  “They better not!” Brian wailed. “What about my money?”

  “What money?” Bradley asked.

  Brian picked up his piggy bank and shook it. The bank was empty. “Every week, I hide my allowance money in a jar. I put the jar inside the old tree under the hay.”

  Bradley’s eyes got wide. “Why do you hide your money?” he asked.

  “So Josh won’t get it!” Brian said. “He used to sneak in here and borrow money from my bank. Only he forgot to pay it back!”

  They both looked out the window. “What if the new neighbors find the jar?” Brian asked. “There’s twenty dollars and thirty-seven cents in it!”

  “Well, what about my flashlight?” Bradley asked.

  “What about it?” Brian said.

  “The last time we were playing inside the tree, I left my special flashlight under the hay,” Bradley said. “The one with little bats on the handle that glow in the dark!”

  Just then, something huge, black, and hairy bolted out of the neighbors’ back door. It charged across the yard toward the man and woman.

  “Oh my gosh, a bear is attacking Mr. and Mrs. Sargent!” Brian said.

  The giant hairy thing stood on its hind legs and began licking Mrs. Sargent’s face.

  Bradley gulped. “It’s just a really big dog,” he said. “I guess that’s why they built the fence.”

  The boys’ basset hound, Pal, wandered into the room. He padded over to the window and put his front paws on the sill. When he saw the neighbors’ dog, he let out a low growl.

  Brian patted Pal on his head. “Don’t worry, boy,” he said. “We’ll protect you!”

  Pal ran and hid under Bradley’s bed.

  The boys watched the neighbors walk into their garage. They came out lugging a long ladder. They leaned the ladder against the tree.

  Mr. Sargent climbed up into the tree. He unclipped a tape measure from his belt and measured the lowest branches. Mrs. Sargent wrote something on a clipboard pad. Then she unrolled a big sheet of paper. She spread it out on the ground and put rocks on the corners. Her husband came down, and they got on their knees and studied the unrolled paper. Mrs. Sargent wrote more things on her pad.

  Brian trained the binoculars onto the paper. “It’s all funny drawings,” he said. “Grandpa had pictures like that when he built his boat, remember?”

  “Do you think they’re going to build a boat?” Bradley aske
d.

  “I don’t care what they build as long as they don’t cut our tree down!”

  “Um, it’s not our tree,” Bradley said. “It’s their tree now.”

  The boys watched the neighbors walk all around the tree. Mr. Sargent took more measurements. Mrs. Sargent wrote more things on her pad.

  Mr. Sargent put his head inside the hollow part of the tree. He crawled inside, then came out again. He said something to his wife, and they both laughed. They went back to the pictures on the roll of paper. They scratched their heads.

  “Don’t look under the hay!” Bradley whispered.

  Mr. Sargent went into the house and came out with two mugs. Bradley could see the steam rising. The neighbors sipped from their mugs and stared at their tree. They sat on the ground and leaned against the trunk.

  The twins heard their mother’s voice from downstairs. “Supper, you two!” she called. “And wash your hands, please.”

  “You guys were pretty quiet in your room,” their father said. “Were you hatching some evil plan?” He grinned.

  “No, but we think the new neighbors are going to build something in their backyard,” Bradley said. “They might cut the tree down!”

  “How do you know?” their mother asked. She passed a plate full of fried chicken.

  “Brian is spying on them with the binoculars,” Bradley said.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Sargent are from Florida,” the boys’ father said, passing the green beans to Josh. “A lot of people in Florida have swimming pools in their yards. Maybe the Sargents are going to put in a swimming pool.”

  “Sweet!” Josh said. “They could hire me to keep it clean.”

  “I’ll bet they’re going to plant a vegetable garden,” Mrs. Pinto said. “I think Martha Sargent misses her garden in Florida.”

  “Mom, it’s almost Thanksgiving,” Bradley said. “Why would she plant a garden now?”

  “You’re right, honey,” his mom said. “I meant in the springtime.”

  “Good, maybe she’ll give us some of her vegetables,” Mr. Pinto said.

  “No way!” Josh said. “We don’t need more vegetables in this house. Mom makes us eat too many already. One of these days, I’m going to turn green!”

  “Like Kermit the Frog,” Bradley said, grinning at Josh.

  “I should invite them over for a meal,” their mother said. “I think Martha and Ralph miss their kids and grandkids.”

  “Just don’t invite their dog,” Josh said. “He’d eat us!”

  After supper, Bradley and Brian went upstairs. Brian stepped into the bathroom, and Bradley went into their bedroom and picked up his book.

  “I can’t wait for Thanksgiving,” he said. “Only a few more days!”

  “Me too,” Brian said. He came out of the bathroom, wiping toothpaste off his chin. “Pumpkin pie! Ice cream! Mashed potatoes!”

  He knelt in front of the window and looked outside. “Oh my gosh! Bradley, come and see!”

  Bradley jumped off his bed and knelt next to Brian. The dead tree was hidden from sight. The neighbors had draped a huge blue tarp around the tree. The tarp hung from the branches all the way to the ground. It was like a big blue tent with the tree inside.

  Suddenly a light went on inside the tarp, making it glow. Mr. and Mrs. Sargent were in there. Bradley could see their shapes moving around.

  “I don’t think they’re building a swimming pool,” Brian whispered.

  “And they’re not making a garden, either,” Bradley said. “So what are they doing?”

  “What if Mr. and Mrs. Sargent are spies?” Brian whispered. “Or bank robbers! Maybe they’re burying money they stole in their latest robbery! We need to get inside that tarp!”

  “We?” Bradley said.

  “Yeah, you, me, Lucy, and Nate,” Brian said. “Let’s call them!”

  Lucy Armstrong was the cousin of Josh’s friend Dink. She was staying with Dink’s family for a year while her parents worked on a Native American reservation in Arizona.

  Nate’s older sister, Ruth Rose, was Josh’s other best friend. His family lived next door to Dink, so all the kids were friends.

  Bradley looked at the clock. “It’s too late to call,” he said. “But we’ll see them tomorrow morning at school.” He changed into his pajamas.

  “There is something weird about our new neighbors,” Brian said. “And we’re going to find out what!”

  Bradley fell asleep thinking about what could be going on inside the strange blue tarp. He dreamed that he was climbing over the fence to get a closer look. Suddenly the giant black dog appeared out of the night. It leaped on Bradley and started to—

  Bradley woke up screaming.

  “It’s only a nightmare,” he whispered to himself. But it had seemed so real! Bradley closed his eyes and thought about Thanksgiving pumpkin pie and ice cream. Finally, he went back to sleep.

  At eight-thirty the next morning, Bradley and Brian met their two friends on the corner of Farm Lane and Woody Street. They always walked to school with Nate and Lucy.

  “Our new neighbors are doing something strange next door!” Brian blurted out.

  “Like what?” Nate asked.

  “You know our favorite tree?” Brian asked. “They measured it, then covered it with this blue tarp thing. And they’re doing something inside the tarp, where we can’t see them! All we could see was their shadows.”

  “Maybe they’re digging for treasure,” Lucy said.

  “They have a giant dog,” Bradley said. “About ten times as big as Pal!” He told them about his nightmare.

  “Yeah, and Bradley screamed so loud I woke up!” Brian added.

  The kids hurried toward the elementary school.

  “I wish I was invisible,” Brian said. “Then I could climb over the fence and that big old dog wouldn’t even see me!”

  “But he’d still smell you,” Nate said. “Then he’d follow his nose and gobble you up!”

  Bradley grinned. “Maybe if you put on some of Mom’s perfume, the dog would think you were a rosebush!”

  “Very funny,” Brian said.

  They reached their school as the bell was ringing. “We need to investigate,” Brian said. “Can you come to our house right after school?”

  “Sure,” Lucy said. “I love solving mysteries!”

  “Me too,” Nate said. “But I’m not wearing any perfume!”

  At three o’clock, the four kids ran back to Bradley and Brian’s house on Farm Lane.

  Above the backyard fence, they could see the blue tarp hanging from the tree’s branches.

  “I wonder if they’re home,” Bradley whispered.

  Lucy found a knothole in the fence. “Nobody’s there,” she whispered. “But I can see their green car in the driveway.”

  “Can you see the dog?” Brian asked.

  Lucy shook her head. “Nope, just a squirrel.”

  They each took a turn peeking through the hole. “Guys, the Sargents are coming out of their house!” Nate said. “They’re walking toward the car.”

  Nate looked at Bradley. “They don’t look weird to me.”

  Brian put his eye to the hole. “Shhh, they’re talking!” he whispered. “Mrs. Sargent said they’re going shopping in town.”

  The other three kids placed their ears against the fence. They all heard car doors slamming.

  Brian was still looking through the knothole. “And Mrs. Sargent has her clipboard. She was making a list yesterday.”

  “Yeah,” Bradley said. “I bet if we follow them, we can find out what they buy. Then we can figure out what they’re doing!”

  “Wait!” Brian said. “After they leave, I can sneak over and get my jar of money!” He had told Nate and Lucy about hiding his allowance in the old tree.

  “And my flashlight,” Bradley added.

  “What about the dog?” Nate asked.

  Brian peeked through the knothole again. “Rats,” he said. “The dog is sleeping under the tree!”

&nb
sp; “Let’s go to Main Street,” Bradley said. “If we get there before they do, we can spy on them!”

  The kids took off running. They raced down Eagle Lane, then cut through the playground at the elementary school. A few minutes later, they were on Main Street, across from the fire station.

  “Stop! I have a pain in my side from running!” Nate said. He bent over and held his side.

  “There they are!” Bradley said. The neighbors’ green car was at the stop sign on Silver Circle. Then it turned onto Main Street. Bradley could see Mr. Sargent driving. Mrs. Sargent sat next to him. The car pulled into the supermarket parking lot.

  The kids crossed Main Street and ran to the back of the fire station. Its parking lot was next to the supermarket lot. The kids arrived just in time to see the green car turn into a space and stop.

  “Are they going grocery shopping?” Nate asked.

  Bradley, Brian, Nate, and Lucy were hiding behind a row of bushes. They watched Mr. and Mrs. Sargent leave their car and head to the rear of the supermarket. She was carrying the clipboard.

  “They might be going to that little hardware store inside the supermarket,” Brian said.

  “Should we follow them?” Bradley asked.

  “They’ll spot us if we do,” Brian said. “They must have seen us next door.”

  “I can go in,” Lucy said. “They don’t know me! Come with me, Nate.”

  “Good idea,” Bradley said. “Find out what they buy!”

  He and Brian watched Lucy and Nate scoot between some cars. They slipped into the supermarket’s back door two minutes behind Mr. and Mrs. Sargent.

  “I’ll be right back,” Bradley told Brian. He ran to the neighbors’ car and peeked into the back. He saw an old blanket, a bunch of tools, and a map of Florida.

  “Bradley! Come on!” Brian called. Bradley ran back to his brother. Mr. and Mrs. Sargent came out carrying bags. They headed right for their car.

  The bags were lumpy. They looked heavy.

  Just then, Nate and Lucy ran up to the twins.

  “We got it!” Lucy said.

  “Got what?” Brian asked.

  “This!” Lucy said. She held out a receipt. “I saw Mr. Sargent drop this into the trash, so I grabbed it!”