Free The Mystery of Flight 54 by David A. Adler Page B

a very tall young man came from the luggage area. “Have you seen anyone leave here with a small brown suitcase?” he asked the guard.
    “Is this yours?” Mrs. Jansen asked and showed him the suitcase.
    “How did you get that?” the man said. He took the suitcase from Mrs. Jansen.
    Aunt Molly leaned close to him and whispered, “That pineapple shirt is ugly. If you put it on, wear a jacket over it.”
    “Humph,” the man said as he walked away.
    “I must find my niece,” the woman in the red dress said.
    The man with her showed the guard a photograph. “This is Simone,” he said. “Have you seen her?”
    The guard looked at the photograph. He shook his head and said, “I’m sorry, I haven’t seen her. But if you wait, I’ll have someone look to see if she’s inside. And I’ll have someone look for your suitcase.”
    He called over a woman guard with long curly hair. He told her about Aunt Molly’s missing suitcase and showed her the picture of Simone. The guard looked at the photograph and then went inside to look for Simone and the suitcase.
    When the guard gave the photograph back to the man, Aunt Molly took a quick look at it.

    “I saw Simone,” Aunt Molly said. “I saw her on the plane. She sat right across from me. She is very polite. Every time the flight attendant gave her something, she said merci. That’s French for ‘Thank you.’ But she didn’t eat her applesauce.”
    Aunt Molly thought for a moment. She was holding her sweater. She brushed some lint off it. Then she said, “She was just ahead of me when I got off the plane. And I think I remember seeing Simone waiting for her luggage.”
    The woman in the red dress held her hands together, looked up at the ceiling and said, “Oh, I’m so glad she arrived here safely. She’s just ten and we were worried.”
    Cam said, “I’m ten and so is Eric.”
    “But where is Simone?” the man wanted to know. “She’s visiting us for two weeks and we’re responsible for her.”
    “Don’t worry,” Mrs. Jansen told the woman. “They’ll find Simone.”

    Aunt Molly ate some more popcorn while she waited for the guard to return. Mrs. Jansen tapped on her handbag. And the man told everyone about Simone.
    “This is her first trip to visit us. We plan to take her to museums and to the park. We prepared all her favorite foods.”
    “I hope you didn’t make applesauce for her. She doesn’t eat it,” Aunt Molly said. Then she asked Eric for some more popcorn.
    “Here,” Eric said and gave her the bag. “You can have what’s left.”
    The woman in the red dress sat on a bench nearby. She leaned forward and said, “If Simone is lost, I don’t know what I’ll do.”
    Just then the guard with the long curly hair came out. She told the other guard, “All the luggage is off Flight 54 and it’s all been claimed. And I didn’t see that girl.”

Chapter Four
    “ O h, no,” the woman in the red dress said. “Simone is missing.”
    “I hope the gifts I bought are not in that lost suitcase,” Aunt Molly said. “I bought a bookmark in the shape of the Eiffel Tower and a toy soldier made of old candy wrappers.”
    “What should we do now?” Mrs. Jansen asked the guard.
    “Go to the airline’s service desk. Someone there will help you.”
    The old man helped his wife off the bench. Mr. and Mrs. Jansen each carried one of Aunt Molly’s suitcases. They followed Cam, Eric, and Aunt Molly to the service desk.
    People nearby were sitting on benches and reading newspapers and magazines. Others had their legs stretched out and were resting. There were people rushing past with luggage and people talking to each other. And there were anouncements.
    “My name is Charles Green,” the old man told the woman behind the airline’s desk. “This is my wife Ida. We came to, pick up our niece and we can’t find her. Her name is Simone Green and she doesn’t speak any English.”
    A tag was pinned to the woman’s jacket. “Jill Waner” was