The Secret of Morton's End — Patricia E. Canterbury

It's Christmas break in the tiny colored town of Poplar Cove, California. Nothing much happens there and three 12 year old best girl friends, nicked named the Triplets, are making baby clothing for their former teacher. The girls do not like their substitute teacher, Miss Swanson .Everyone loves the town's barber, Mr. Peterson. Someone, perhaps one of the many hobos who frequent the town searching for work, murders Mr. Peterson. The Triplets believe they know who has done the horrible deed and soon they and most of the town are searching for possible missing gold, lost gloves and other mysteries near the edge of the forest as it falls over the cliffs leading to the Pacific Ocean.