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Authors: David A. Adler

Cam Jansen and the Sports Day Mysteries (4 page)

BOOK: Cam Jansen and the Sports Day Mysteries
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Cam looked at him. She closed her eyes and said, “
Click!
“Stop him!” Cam said with her eyes still closed. “Don’t let him get away!”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Officer Oppen hurried to the back door. “Don’t go anywhere,” he told the bakery worker. “We need to talk to you.”
Cam opened her eyes.
“Sadie and Martha told us the thief was wearing blue jeans and blue sneakers,” Cam said.
Officer Oppen looked at the worker’s jeans and sneakers. They were blue.
“I didn’t hurt anyone,” the worker said. “I just took some money and a bracelet. I’ll give it all back.”
“It’s the new boy,” one of the bakery women said.
“Tom, are you the thief?” the other woman asked.
Tom didn’t answer.
Officer Oppen took out a pair of hand-cuffs. He locked them around Tom’s wrists.
“Come with me,” Officer Oppen said.
Tom, Officer Oppen, and Cam went to the front of the bakery.
“We have our thief,” Officer Oppen told Zelda.
“I’m really sorry,” Tom said. “I shouldn’t have robbed your customers. But I didn’t hurt them. All the money and the bracelet are in my pockets.”
“May I empty them?” Officer Oppen asked.
Tom nodded.
He emptied Tom’s pockets and gave Zelda the bracelet and all the money Tom had taken.
“You’re done here!” Zelda said. “You’re fired!”
She looked at the bracelet and money. “I know who he robbed,” Zelda told the two police officers. “I’ll return everything.”
Officer Oppen said, “I didn’t know how we’d find the thief. But this girl did.”
Officer Davis asked Tom. “Did you really think you could get away with this?”
Tom nodded. “Early this morning,” he said, “I hid the hat and other things behind the bakery. During my break I went out the back way and put them on. Then, when I came in through the front door, no one knew it was me.”
“Cam Jansen knew,” Eric said.
Officer Davis told Cam, “You would make a great detective.”
“She’s also a good student,” Mrs. Wayne said. “I know. I’m the principal’s secretary.”
Officer Oppen told Zelda, “I think you should reward these children.”
“Of course,” Zelda said. “You can have all the cookies you want or my famous sprinkle cupcakes.”
“Today is Sports and Good Nutrition Day,” Mrs. Wayne said. “The school’s principal will be telling everyone to eat good foods and get lots of exercise.”
Mrs. Wayne looked down. Her voice got lower.
“I’m sorry to say this, but cookies and cupcakes have lots of sugar. It’s not the best food for children to eat.”
“My cookies and sprinkle cupcakes are delicious,” Zelda said. “But if you want, I’ll give you oat bran, whole wheat, and corn muffins. I use very little sugar in my muffins and I use applesauce instead of butter. They’re delicious and they’re good for you.”
“Thank you,” Mrs. Wayne said. “And can you give us forty-six? We really need enough for every child in the fifth grade.”
“Forty-six muffins!” Zelda said. “That’s a lot.” Then she smiled and said, “Of course you can have them. The muffins are still warm. They just came out of the oven.”
Officers Oppen and Davis thanked Cam. Then they led Tom out of the bakery.
Zelda filled four bags with warm muffins and gave them to Cam, Eric, and Mrs. Wayne.
Eric took the card Sadie had given him and gave it to Zelda.
“When you return her things,” Eric said, “please tell her the red-haired girl with the great memory caught the thief. I told her Cam would get her things back. I want her to know I was right.”
“Yes,” Zelda said, and smiled. “I’ll tell her.”
Cam, Eric, and Mrs. Wayne left the bakery. Eric carried two of the muffin bags. Cam and Mrs. Wayne each had one.
As they walked, Mrs. Wayne opened her bag. She took a deep breath. “Ah,” she said. “I love the smell of fresh muffins.
Eric said, “I love eating fresh muffins.”
“I love muffins, too,” Cam said. “And I love solving mysteries.”
Cam Jansen
The Soccer Game Mystery
CHAPTER ONE
Mrs. Wayne looked in the bakery bag she was carrying. “I’ll bet these muffins taste good,” she said as she walked with Cam and Eric to Franklin Park.
Mrs. Wayne took an oat bran muffin from the bag.
“Yummy. This smells so good,” she said as she held the muffin close to her nose. “Do you think I could have one?”
“You can have mine,” Eric told her.
“No,” Mrs. Wayne said. “I won’t take yours.”
They had come to the park entrance.
“Oops!” Mrs. Wayne said. “This muffin touched my nose. No one will want it now. I guess I should eat it.”
“Sure,” Cam said. “We’ll have enough. Eric and I will share one.”
“No,” Mrs. Wayne told them. “Three children are absent today. Let’s just say this is one of theirs.”
Mrs. Wayne bit into the muffin. “Eghen flugh zgats joosd flogh joo sjan zgaste joosd,” she said with her mouth full.
“What?” Cam asked Mrs. Wayne. “What did you say?”
Mrs. Wayne swallowed.
“I said, ‘Even food that’s good for you can taste good.’”
Mrs. Wayne finished her oat bran muffin. She walked with Cam and Eric along a path at the edge of the lake.
“Look at the boats,” Mrs. Wayne said. “Mr. Wayne and I sometimes rent one. I like to row. It’s good exercise.”
The boat rental booth was right there, at the edge of the lake. There were several boats on the lake. Most were close to the booth.
“Look,” Mrs. Wayne said. “There’s boat number seven. That’s the one we had the last time we were here.”
Mrs. Wayne smiled. “That was such a nice day. Please,” she said to Cam, “take a picture with your mental camera of boat number seven.”
Cam looked at the boat. She blinked her eyes and said,
“Click!”
The soccer field was on the other side of the path.
Zoom!
A toy car sped in front of Cam, Eric, and Mrs. Wayne.
“Yikes!” Mrs. Wayne said. “I almost stepped on a car.”
An old man was sitting on a bench beside the path. He held a remote-control unit.
“Watch out!” the man said. Then he pushed a button and the car crossed the path again.
Zoom!
An old woman at the next bench put down her newspaper. “Sam,” she said. “Be careful with that!”
The man pushed another button. The car turned and sped right in front of Mrs. Wayne, Cam, and Eric. It went right into the old woman’s foot.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Sam said.
The woman took the toy car and gave it to Sam. “Please, be careful with this,” she said very loudly.
“Sam is my husband,” the woman told Mrs. Wayne, Cam, and Eric. “He doesn’t hear or see very well.”
Cam, Eric, and Mrs. Wayne walked onto the soccer field. Eric told his classmates, Ms. Benson, and Mr. Day about the bakery thief and how Cam had caught him. Mrs. Wayne told everyone about the oat bran, whole wheat, and corn muffins.
“Hey,” Danny said. “I like jelly doughnuts.”
Beth said, “I like the rainbow-sprinkle cupcakes.”
“This is not a doughnut and cupcake day,” Ms. Benson said. “It’s more of a muffin day, and you’ll eat them later.”
“Yes,” Mr. Day said. “Now it’s time to play soccer. You’ll all get to play. Some of you will play the first half of the game. The others will play the second half.”
Trill! Trill!
Mr. Day blew his whistle. He waved to Ms. Benson’s and Mr. Day’s classes. They gathered around him.
Mr. Day looked at everyone.
“You’re a good player,” he told Beth. “You’ll play goalie. Felix, you’ll be the goalie for Mr. Dane’s team.”
Mr. Day chose the other children who would play the first half. Cam and Eric would play the second half.
Trill! Trill!
Mr. Day blew his whistle to start the game.
CHAPTER TWO
Mr. Day put the soccer ball in the center of the field. He blew his whistle and a player from Mr. Dane’s class kicked the ball hard. It bounced and then rolled toward the goal. Beth grabbed the ball and threw it the other way.
“Good play,” Ms. Benson shouted.
Players from both teams ran to the ball. They crowded around it. Each player tried to kick the ball toward his team’s goal.
“Pass the ball! Pass the ball,” Mr. Dane shouted. “Move it down the field.”
The ball was stuck in the middle of the crowd. Players from both teams kicked it, but it just bounced and rolled from one player to another.
“Ow!” Carlos shouted. “Someone kicked me.”
Carlos stepped away from the others. He rubbed his leg.
Someone from Ms. Benson’s class kicked the ball hard. It rolled through the other players’ legs toward the goal. Players from both teams raced after the ball.
“Here I come,” Danny called.
Danny swung his foot far back and then forward. He missed the ball and fell.
“Not so hard,” Ms. Benson shouted.
“Pass the ball,” Hector shouted to the players on Ms. Benson’s team.
Sam’s remote-controlled toy car rode onto the field.
“Sam, turn the car around!” his wife told him. “Turn it around!”
Sam didn’t seem to hear her.
Amy ran to the ball and kicked it toward the goal.
Sam’s wife ran onto the field.
Felix, the goalie on Mr. Dane’s team, caught the ball. He threw it toward the center of the field. It bounced onto the roof of Sam’s remote-controlled toy car.
Sam’s wife grabbed the toy car.
“Sam, you must be more careful,” she told her husband as she hurried off the field.
“What?”
“Be careful!” she shouted.
Trill!
Mr. Day stopped the game. When Sam and his wife were off the field, he gave the ball to Dwayne, a boy in Mr. Dane’s class. Dwayne stood by the sideline. He held the soccer ball over his head and threw it onto the field.
BOOK: Cam Jansen and the Sports Day Mysteries
13.75Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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