Mystery #30: Kristy and the Mystery Train
Child star Derek Masters is back in town and it looks like he brought some trouble back with him. This time he’s promoting a new movie called Night Train to Charleston and part of the promo is an actual three-day train trip from Boston to Charleston. Derek is bringing some friends along, so his parents hire Kristy, Abby, and Stacey to come along as baby-sitters. (Living the dream once again!)
Okay, I have to pause here because ghostwriter Nola Thacker went truly wild with the character names in this book. Let’s take a look, shall we?
The director of Night Train to Charleston is named Rock Harding. Seems… inappropriate.
The publicist’s name is Anne Arbour. (I wonder if she’s from Michigan?)
The reporter’s name is Jane Atlantic. Seriously?
The stars of the film are named Benjamin Athens and Elle San Carlos. (Like, did she play one of those what’s-your-actor-name games and it was “the name of a relative who was photographed exclusively in sepia tones + a travel destination for nerds”?)
The poor writer; his name turns out just to be Ronald Pierce. What a dork.
Immediately it’s clear that there’s drama aboard. Elle and Benjamin are dating, and Elle’s divorce from her ex, Charlie, was obviously messy; he shows up and yells at Elle to tell the truth and that Benjamin is just using her for publicity and when she tells him to eff off, he manages to say “you’ll be sorry” before being dragged away by security guards.
Meanwhile, the baby-sitters get to hang in a lovely train car on an exact replica of the train from the movie (talk about living the movies, eh?). And speaking of replicating the movie… there’s already a mystery aboard, too! When the gang goes to get lunch, they’re handed programs, and everybody’s program has a piece of white paper in it that says THE TRUTH WILL COME OUT — THERE’S NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO STOP ME. Kristy can tell from the publicist’s reaction that it’s not part of the Mystery Train promo experience and so here we are, back in BSC-as-detectives land.
Everyone knows that as soon as the BSC utters the word “mystery” it conjures more hijinks immediately. So, all of a sudden Elle San Carlos is screaming because her lunch was delivered with a (fake) human hand on top of it, with the same threatening message as above clutched in its fingertips. Then, the compartment where the BSC’s and kids’ rooms are fills with billowing black smoke and they’re nearly trapped in it, as someone has locked the door.
“This is a stupid way to die.” - Kristy, page 66
Luckily, it turns out just to be a smoke bomb. But Kristin Amanda Thomas is not pleased and now she’s on the lookout for someone with a master key who’d want to scare them. Next thing ya know, Kristy and Stacey are witnessing a literal murder — one guy throwing another guy over the railing and into the water below the train trestle — and yet, when the police come, it turns out no one is unaccounted for. All Kristy can find is page 37 of the Night Train to Charleston script stuck in the railing. I have a sneaking suspicion that the fact that Elle San Carlos and her ex-husband Charlie met and came up through stunt work might play into this, but… what do I know? I’m not a Connecticut tween.
Abby rules. She makes a pun about there being “an ocean of mystery” about the reporter Jane Atlantic, and then refers to Coach Thomas as Agatha Kristy. Meanwhile, Kristy finds out that Jane had received a note (similar to the one that had been in the programs) telling her to be on the observation deck at 8pm (the time of the “murder”) for some “real news.” The gals start stalking some of their suspects but don’t find too much out of the ordinary — mostly just that Jane Atlantic didn’t have an alibi for the time of the “murder,” that Benjamin Athens is a bad tipper, and that Charlie has sent Elle fourteen telegrams from Boston since the train departed (yikes bikes, needy much?).
Just as Kristy figures out that the script page she has is a draft and therefore must belong to the screenwriter, Ronald Pierce, everything goes haywire again. A smoke bomb is detonated in the stage car and another “THE TRUTH WILL COME OUT” message appears on the windows of the car. Kristy confronts ol’ Ronald and he explains that he’d stolen the idea for the movie from a former student who was now out for revenge, and the threats of taking what Ronald loves the most refer to his son Daniel, who’s being baby-sat by Abby.
Kristy, with Christian McCaffrey-like moves, hauls ass to where Daniel is in danger and ultimately saves him from Laurence Channing, the former student and current saboteur. Turns out Channing’s plan was for Jane Atlantic to witness his “murder” at the hands of Ronald Pierce, framing Pierce for murder; then after the arrest and trial, Channing would return claiming “amnesia” and take his rightful place on the throne. Pretty wackadoo, even for a BSC mystery.
That being said… can I ride the next Mystery Train?
