“Connor Green, are you cheating?” Leslie shouted.

  Benny tugged on Jessie’s apron. “I knew it!”

  “Let’s find out what’s going on,” Jessie said. “No one’s guilty yet.”

  Mrs. Catalan and the other two judges hurried to Connor and Emma’s table. There was a lot of loud talking.

  “I found this baggie on the floor,” Leslie told Mrs. Catalan.

  “That looks like what I saw yesterday,” Benny told Jessie. “What is going on?”

  “I’m not cheating,” Connor insisted. “I’m improving! These are old family recipes. They need secret ingredients.” He looked for the TV camera. “Can you blame me for not wanting to tell everyone my family’s secrets?”

  “The rules say you can’t bring in ingredients on your own,” Mrs. Catalan said. “You knew the rules when you signed up.”

  “You use terrible ingredients!” said Connor. “I can’t possibly win without my own spices…I’m going to be a world-famous chef.”

  “That might be true someday,” Mrs. Catalan said. “But right now, in Greenfield, this team is disqualified.” All the judges agreed.

  “I don’t need your competition to succeed,” Connor boasted.

  Emma paused for a quiet second, then she went and packed up Connor’s station before following him out of the tent.

  “Well,” Jessie remarked when they were gone, “that was a surprise.”

  “I think the team that was sabotaging the competition just left,” Benny said. He stuffed his lucky penny and rabbit’s foot deep into his pocket. “We don’t need luck anymore. This tent is safe from mean, cheating bakers!”

  “I hope you’re right,” Jessie said, watching Connor stomp away with Emma behind him. They returned to their own station. “Now we can make our blueberry lemon custard pie without worrying about someone trying to ruin it. Let’s start the filling.”

  The Winner Is…

  “Mr. Lin is here again today,” Henry told Violet. They’d found good seats in the audience where they could see Jessie and Benny, plus the area around the tent.

  “Maybe we should investigate?” Violet suggested. “He’s a suspect, after all.”

  “Connor and Emma got disqualified, so maybe Benny was right,” Henry said. “They could have been causing all the trouble.” He didn’t seem so sure.

  “It’s never that easy,” Violet said. “Maybe Mr. Lin put them up to it?”

  “I guess we have to wait and see what happens,” Henry said. “Hopefully the trouble is done now that Connor and Emma have left.”

  “I think there might still be problems,” Violet told her brother. She pointed to where the judges were now all gathered around Duke and Daniel’s workstation. Jessie and Benny were with Duke and Daniel. Something was clearly wrong at their station too.

  Henry saw Mr. Lin glance over at the commotion and start moving around the tent, out of view.

  Violet stood. “We have to follow him.”

  Henry agreed. They came out of the stands and walked the way they’d seen Mr. Lin go. The back of the tent was completely blocked from the audience’s view. There wasn’t very much back there except a few supply trucks, Mrs. Catalan’s van, and the electrical equipment that kept the appliances running. There was also a water truck for pumping water to the sinks.

  Henry and Violet were near the edge of the tent when, suddenly, Violet stopped. “What’s this?” She bent low to the ground and stuck her finger in a white, powdery mess. The ants were coming quickly, which made Violet realize, “This is sugar.”

  Henry noticed there was a trail. They began to follow the sugar and the ants…and Mr. Lin.

  They found Mr. Lin behind Mrs. Catalan’s bakery van. He and Leslie were arguing over something. It looked like a paper bag. Henry squinted at the label.

  “That’s sugar,” he told Violet. “It explains the trail. The bag must be open.”

  “I wonder what Leslie is doing out here during the event,” said Violet.

  Mr. Lin grabbed the sugar bag from Leslie’s hands, and the entire thing ripped open. Sugar fell in heaps to the dirt. The ants were very excited. They swarmed the sweet treat.

  “Where’s our sugar?” Henry and Violet heard someone yell from inside the tent.

  “The eggs are gone!” another voice said loudly.

  Henry and Violet were about to go in to find Jessie and Benny when Jessie and Benny came out to them. The judges came out too. And the twins. And Mrs. Catalan.

  “There are ingredients missing from each workstation. We were going to ask Leslie about them, but we couldn’t find her and heard voices out here,” said Jessie. “The ingredients were there when we checked at the start, and then they disappeared.”

  “Sugar?” Henry asked. “Is that what’s missing?”

  “How did you know?” Benny asked.

  “We overheard you,” Violet explained. Then she pointed to the ground. “I’m guessing that’s your missing ingredient all over the place.”

  “We can’t use that,” Benny said, making a gross-out face. “It’s a gift to the ants.”

  “And they say, ‘Thank you,’” Violet told her brother. “I’m guessing the missing eggs are around here somewhere too.”

  “Inside the van,” said Leslie, who had stopped arguing with Mr. Lin when the judges had come out of the tent. “Mrs. Catalan left the back door open. You’ll find the eggs under the seat.”

  “How do you know?” Benny asked. But he didn’t wait for her to answer. He looked at his brother and sisters, then he realized they’d solved the mystery.

  Benny gave the answer to his own question. “Oh, you put the eggs under the seat all by yourself. You were the one trying to ruin the contest!”

  Henry listed all the clues that led to Leslie. “First you switched the salt and sugar. There was salt on the back of your clipboard that got all over your shirt. Next, you left the tent so you could turn off the power—we saw that on the news. And now you took ingredients away while everyone was distracted by Connor and Emma’s problem.”

  Leslie nodded. “The distraction was useful to me. I had a plan to sneak the ingredients from each team while I visited the stations to see how things were going,” she said. “Connor and Emma made it easier for me.” She looked at Mr. Lin. “I was only trying to help you.”

  Mr. Lin looked confused. “I don’t understand how wrecking the contest helps me.” He waved his hand over the sugar and pointed to where the eggs were in the van.

  “Your bakery is losing customers because of this contest!” she said. “I know because during my evening shifts there have been a lot fewer people coming in. Everyone around town is talking about the new menu item Greenfield Bakery will have after the competition ends.” Leslie yawned. “I’m so tired from working here all day and at your bakery at night.”

  Mr. Lin sighed. “My bakery is struggling.” He turned to Mrs. Catalan. “That is why I wanted this to be a joint competition, sponsored by both my bakery and yours. But you said no.”

  “Did you know Leslie was trying to sabotage the competition?” Henry asked Mr. Lin.

  “Absolutely not,” Mr. Lin said, shaking his head strongly. He realized what had happened. “But I was complaining about the competition to my wife. I told her, over the phone from my office, that I was worried we’d have to close our bakery if Mrs. Catalan’s became more popular.”

  “I heard that phone call,” Leslie said. “I need my job if I want to go to college. I’m saving every penny I make. I work so much, and with homework and school applications, I barely ever sleep anymore. I even have to run from the contest to the bakery.” She pointed down at her tennis shoes.

  “Running explains why Leslie’s so tired all the time,” Benny said. “Running makes me tired too.”

  Leslie sighed. “So I thought if there was no contest, or a really bad contest, Mrs. Catalan wouldn’t get new customers, and Mr. Lin’s bakery would survive. At first I wanted to join the bake-off. My idea was that if I won, I could tell everyone where I worked, and then Mr. Lin would get new customers.”

  “But you were too late to sign up,” Violet said, remembering when Leslie came into the bakery to enter the competition.

  “Work was busy,” said Leslie. “I couldn’t get away in time.”

  “So you asked to be the assistant,” Jessie said. “And made a new plan.”

  Leslie nodded. “I’m really sorry. I was just so worried.”

  “I am sorry too.” Mr. Lin put his hand on her shoulder. “I let you think you needed to do something drastic to help me.”

  The mystery was all coming together. But Henry still had one question. He explained that he and Violet had heard Mr. Lin and Leslie arguing outside the tent. “When you said, ‘We need to stop this,’ what did that mean?”

  “I meant stop the things from going wrong,” Mr. Lin said. “That’s why I came back today. I was going to try to solve the mystery.”

  “You should leave mysteries to us,” Benny said. “It’s our specialty.”

  “I’ll remember that next time,” Mr. Lin said with a laugh.

  “I’m sorry too,” Mrs. Catalan put in. “Next year we should host the Great Greenfield Bake-Off together. I was being selfish. I don’t want your bakery to go out of business.” She smiled. “Competition is good. It makes us all work a little harder.”

  Mr. Lin and Mrs. Catalan shook hands. Everyone returned to the bake-off tent, where they were greeted with one more surprise.

  Connor came running into the tent with Emma by his side. “Can I be sorry too?” he asked.

  “I’m also sorry to Conner and all the contestants,” Emma said. “I was so mad at my brother for signing me up with him. I didn’t want to help at all.”

  “Then why did you?” Violet asked.

  “Our mom is a pastry chef, and he wanted to show off to her what he knew.” She frowned. “No matter what he did, Mom was still too busy to notice. We decided together that we had to win to get her attention, so we did a very bad thing.”

  “That’s why you added your own ingredients?” Jessie asked.

  “Yes,” Connor said. “I thought if I won, Mom would be extra proud.” He looked to the audience where a woman stood, waving. “Turns out she was already proud. She was just so busy with work that she didn’t realize what was going on. She’s going to spend more time with me and Emma now.”

  “I’m sorry I was mean,” Connor told Emma.

  “And I’m sorry we cheated,” he said to everyone.

  Jessie thought about all that happened during the competition. Now she knew that Connor and Emma had brought in special ingredients. But something still didn’t add up. It hadn’t been sugar that Benny had seen in a baggie during the first round. “How did your cheesecake turn out so well?” Jessie asked.

  “At the beginning, I was mad at the way my brother was treating me, so I didn’t put any sugar in our pumpkin cheesecake,” Emma confessed. “Our sugar had been switched by Leslie too, only we didn’t use it, so we didn’t know! We won by accident because it wasn’t too salty.”

  “I thought she ruined the dessert, but she saved it,” Connor said, pulling his sister in for a hug.

  “Can we finish the competition?” Leslie asked Mrs. Catalan. “This time I’ll get all the pie ingredients and be ready on time.”

  “Next time you have a problem, you come talk to me, okay?” Mr. Lin told Leslie.

  “Yes,” Leslie said. “I will.”

  Mrs. Catalan stood quietly. She looked around at everyone while trying to decide what they should do. Finally, she said, “The final bake-off is between Duke and Daniel and Jessie and Benny. The best pie will win the day.” No one moved. “Go!” she said, pointing at the kitchen stations. “Leslie, get the ingredients they need. We’ll start in ten minutes.”

  The audience cheered.

  Henry and Violet returned to the audience. Grandfather and Watch and Mrs. McGregor had come to see the end of the competition. Mr. Lin sat with Connor and Emma and their mom. The mystery had been solved, and now it was time to see which team would win.

  Duke and Daniel Duncan won the day. Their pecan pie was thick and had just the right amount of pecans. The judges loved Jessie and Benny’s blueberry lemon custard pie, but they chose the Duncan twins’ pie to be the grand winner.

  After announcing that the Duncan Pie would be the new menu item at Greenfield Bakery, Mrs. Catalan had something else to say. “Even though Team Alden didn’t win the competition, they helped save the competition. Mr. Lin and I want to say a special thank you to Jessie, Benny, Henry, and Violet.”

  “I think we got the best award,” Benny said happily.

  While the twins got their picture taken for the newspaper, Benny finally got to taste something from the competition. He was holding the pecan pie in one hand. There was caramel topping on his chin.

  “This is a really great pie,” Benny told Jessie, Henry, and Violet. “Ours was good too, but this is really amazing!” He thought about pies. “Can we do the contest again next year? I think we should make a strawberry, chocolate, coconut, pineapple, and marshmallow pie.”

  “With nuts or no nuts?” Violet asked seriously.

  Jessie got a pen and paper to write down the recipe.

  “Yes, nuts for sure,” Benny said. He thought some more. “And whipped cream, and caramel, and apples, and peaches, and ice cream and sprinkles…” Benny kept adding ingredients for his pie, on and on, until he finally said, “With a cherry on top.”

  Turn the page to read a

  sneak preview of

  THE BEEKEEPER

  MYSTERY

  the new

  Boxcar Children mystery!

  Benny Alden lay on his back, staring at the living room ceiling. Watch, the family’s wirehaired terrier, was curled next to him. It was the last week of summer vacation. Benny was wondering what he and his siblings would do this week when the phone rang.

  “Can somebody please get that?” called Grandfather.

  Benny scrambled up and answered the phone. “Hello?” he said.

  “Benny?” asked a woman. Benny thought the voice sounded familiar. “It’s Laura,” she said. “Laura Shea. I know we’ve talked about a visit to the farm, and I wondered if you and your siblings could come this week. Are you busy?”

  “No,” said Benny. “We’re just waiting for school to start.”

  “Perfect,” said Laura. “I could really use your help with an emergency. A honeybee emergency!”

  “I’ve never heard of a honeybee emergency,” said Jessie Alden. The twelve-year-old girl rode in the back seat of the car with her six-year-old brother, Benny, and ten-year-old sister, Violet. They were on their way to Laura’s farm. Her big brother, Henry, sat up front with Grandfather. “What exactly is a honeybee emergency?” Jessie asked.

  “I don’t know,” said Benny. “But Laura needs our help.”

  “Well,” said Violet, “it sounds really important.”

  Up front, Henry looked at the road map. The fourteen-year-old was telling Grandfather which roads to take to the farm.

  The children liked taking road trips to new places. Laura and David Shea used to live near the Aldens in Greenfield. They owned the children’s favorite restaurant, Applewood Café. Laura let the children help care for the restaurant’s vegetable garden. Then the Sheas bought a farm and moved from Connecticut to New York.

  “I miss Applewood’s hamburgers with honey-barbeque sauce,” said Henry.

  Violet retied the purple bow on one of her ponytails. “I miss their pancakes with honey and powdered sugar,” she said.

  “I miss everything,” said Benny.

  “Look,” said Grandfather. A big highway sign ahead said: Welcome to New York—The Empire State.

  Soon they were passing open country fields. “I wish Watch could’ve come,” said Benny. “He could run around without a leash.”

  “That,” said Jessie, “is exactly why Laura asked us to leave Watch at home with Mrs. McGregor.” Mrs. McGregor was their housekeeper. She took care of Watch when the family was away. “Bees and dogs just don’t mix,” Jessie said. “Watch would get into all sorts of trouble. Remember the time he chased that skunk?”

  “P U!” said Benny, holding his nose.

  “Take the next exit,” Henry told Grandfather. “Then turn right.”

  Grandfather turned off the highway onto a narrow country road. Benny bounced in his seat. “Are we there, are we there?”

  “Almost,” said Henry.

  The children once lived near a small road like this. After their parents died, they were scared to go live at their grandfather’s house. They’d never met him before. What if he was mean? They ran away and hid in the woods. One night they found shelter from a thunderstorm in an old railroad car hidden among the trees. That boxcar became their new home. Then one day their grandfather found them. Grandfather turned out to be a kind, loving man. He asked them to live with him, and they’d lived together happily ever since.

  “We’re here,” said Henry. They drove under a sign that said: Applewood Farm. Grandfather pulled up to an old farmhouse and everyone scrambled out. Henry unloaded their bags from the trunk.

  “You can’t park there!” A tall gray-haired woman marched toward them. “This is private property. Parking for the store is down the road.”

  “Oh,” said Grandfather. “Laura asked us—”

  An old, red truck rumbled up. Benny’s eyes grew wide. The driver was dressed in all white—almost like an astronaut! Their head was even covered by a hat and veil. The person in the white spacesuit climbed out, calling, “Hello! Welcome!” As the hat with the veil came off, long black hair tumbled out.

  “Laura!” cried Jessie.

  Laura spread her arms wide for a group hug. “I am so happy to see you all,” she said.

  The gray-haired woman crossed her arms, frowning. “You know these people?” she asked.

  “The Aldens are dear friends,” said Laura. “They’ve come to help harvest our honey.” She turned to the children, saying, “Everyone, this is my new neighbor, Zelda. She moved here from the city and took my beekeeping class last month. She’s volunteered to help with our honey harvest too.”