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put their glasses on when they fill out forms.”
    â€œI remember him blinking a lot, too.” Violet said. The others nodded. “But what kind of a clue is that?” she added.
    â€œIt doesn’t sound like a very good one,” Henry whispered.
    Barbara had turned back to Officer Weiss. “Here’s the form he filled out to rent the truck” she said. “It says his name is Mr. Fred Parker.”
    â€œDoes it say where he lives?” the police officer asked.
    â€œRight here in Greenfield,” Barbara told him. “On Carteret Street.”
    Jessie spoke up just then. “Excuse me, but that can’t be right,” she told Officer Weiss. “There’s nothing on Carteret Street but the shopping mall.”
    â€œHmm,” said Officer Weiss. “That’s right. I’ll have to check, but I think Mr. Parker may have given us a fake address.” He shook his head. “It figures.”
    â€œCan’t you catch him when he brings the van back?” Benny asked.
    Barbara shook her head. “We have many different offices all over the country. If someone rents a car or a truck here in the Greenfield office, they can return anywhere else. Even somewhere as far away as California.”
    â€œHe could be anywhere by now,” the police officer said with a frown. “We’ll alert other police departments. One way or another, we’ll track him down.”
    â€œDo you think you’ll catch him before the Greenfield Four play tonight?” Benny asked, hopefully. “So that they can get their instruments back?”
    â€œWe’ll try. Sometimes we’re able to catch a thief right away,” Officer Weiss said. But the children could tell that even he didn’t think the thief would be caught in time.
    Later, the Aldens sat in their sunny kitchen, but their moods were not sunny. They had tried their best to find the person who had stolen the Greenfield Four’s instruments, and now they were at a dead end. The phone book was open on the table. Henry flipped through the pages.
    â€œNope,” he said, “no Fred Parker. I’m sure the man who rented the van made up everything that he put on that form.”
    Grandfather came in and sat down. “That’s what Officer Weiss told me. I just got off the phone with him.” He took off his reading glasses and sighed. “I think you’ve done your best. Now we’ll all have to wait until the police find this thief.”
    Jessie looked at Grandfather’s glasses on the table. They made her think of something. “Benny, remember when you tried on Grandfather’s glasses last month?”
    â€œYes,” Benny said. “I thought they would make me see better. But they made me see worse! And they felt strange. They made my eyes go like this!” He blinked several times. Everyone laughed.
    â€œThat’s very funny,” said Henry, “but what does that have to do with the mystery?”
    â€œI think it’s another clue,” Jessie replied. “Remember what the woman at Drive-It-Yourself told us? She said the man with the beret kept rubbing his eyes. And he was blinking a lot when he was talking to us at the festival yesterday, but we thought it was because of the bright sun.”
    â€œBut maybe it’s because he doesn’t really wear glasses!” Violet said. “So his eyes were bothered by the pair he had on.”
    â€œThose glasses must have been part of a disguise,” Henry said. “It makes sense—if he didn’t want anyone to know his real name or address, he probably wouldn’t want anyone to know what he really looked like, either.”
    â€œI think you’re right,” Grandfather said.
    â€œNow if only we knew what he really looked like,” said Jessie. “But of course, we don’t.”
    The Aldens couldn’t remember the last time they had a mystery they couldn’t