Cam Jansen and the Sports Day Mysteries

by David A. Adler

  “I’m Officer Davis,” his partner told Cam.

  “I remember both of you,” Cam said.

  Mrs. Wayne pointed to Cam’s head and said, “She remembers everything. She’s got a camera and photo albums in that head of hers.”

  Mrs. Wayne gave Officer Oppen the large red hat. Eric told the police officers about the sunglasses and jacket.

  “They’re in back, in the trash bin,” Cam said. “We think the thief wore them.”

  Officer Oppen said to his partner, “We knew what the thief was wearing. Now he’s not wearing any of it.”

  “Don’t worry,” Officer Davis told Zelda. “We’ll still look for him.”

  “We have to go,” Mrs. Wayne told the two police officers.

  “Today is Sports Day. We’re on our way to Franklin Park.”

  Mrs. Wayne, Cam, and Eric left Zelda’s. Danny, Beth, and Mr. Pace were waiting outside. Cam and Eric told them about the things they found in the trash bin. Then they hurried to catch up with their class.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Mrs. Wayne and Mr. Pace led Cam, Eric, Beth, and Danny to the entrance to Franklin Park.

  “There you are,” Ms. Benson said. “We were waiting for you.”

  Trill! Trill!

  Mr. Day, the gym teacher, blew a whistle.

  “Follow me,” he shouted.

  “Stay together,” Ms. Benson said. “Don’t wander off.”

  Eric whispered to Cam, “Maybe she’s afraid the thief is in the park.”

  Everyone in Ms. Benson’s and Mr. Dane’s classes followed Mr. Day through the park. They walked on the path along the edge of the lake. They walked past a soccer field, a baseball field, and a picnic area. They walked past a playground with swings and a fenced-in sandbox.

  “Here we are,” Mr. Day shouted.

  They had reached a fenced-in track with white lines painted on the ground.

  “The egg-balancing race is first,” Mr. Day said.

  He put an egg on a spoon and walked with it.

  “That’s all you have to do. You have to walk to the finish line without dropping the egg. The first one there wins.”

  “Is that a raw egg?” someone asked.

  “Let’s see.”

  Mr. Day shook his spoon. The egg fell to the ground and broke.

  “Yuck!” Beth and a few others said.

  Danny waved and said, “Bye-bye, Mr. Egg. I guess you cracked up because my jokes are so funny.”

  “I need six from each class,” Mr. Day said.

  “I’ll race,” Danny said. “I’m good with eggs.”

  The twelve children stood at the starting line. Mr. Day gave them each a spoon and an egg.

  “Hey,” Danny asked the boy next to him. “Do you know what goes up white and comes down yellow?”

  The boy held his spoon steady. When Danny asked his riddle, the boy didn’t move. He didn’t answer Danny.

  “On your marks,” Mr. Day said. “Get set. Go!”

  Eleven of the children started to walk. They held their spoons out and took slow but steady steps.

  “Go! Go! Go!” people called out.

  “It’s an egg,” Danny called to the boy who had been next to him. “An egg goes up white and comes down yellow.”

  No one but Danny heard his joke. Everyone else was either holding an egg on a spoon and taking careful steady steps or watching the race.

  “Go!” Mr. Pace called to his son. “Go!”

  “Hey! Wait for me,” Danny said.

  Danny took a long quick step, and his egg fell.

  “Look,” Danny said. He pointed to the broken egg. “It was white up here and now it’s yellow.”

  Eric was watching the race. Cam wasn’t. Her eyes were closed. She was thinking about the robbery at Zelda’s.

  “Those two women, Sadie and Martha, went out one way from Zelda’s,” Cam said with her eyes closed. “Four other people went out the other way. I have a picture in my head of them leaving Zelda’s. One was wearing a red hat.”

  “Really?” Eric asked. “He’s the thief.”

  “We only know what he was wearing,” Cam said. “And now he’s not wearing it.”

  People cheered.

  Cam opened her eyes.

  Jacob was the first to reach the finish line without breaking his egg. Fernando finished second. Sarah was third. They were all in Mr. Dane’s class.

  “The potato-sack race is next,” Mr. Day said. “I need six from each class.”

  Eric said, “I’m racing this time.”

  “I’m racing, too,” Beth said. “And I hope someone from our class wins.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  “Mr. Dane’s class won the egg race,” Beth said. “This time we’ll win!”

  Mr. Day gave Eric, Beth, and each of the others in the potato-sack race a large cloth bag.

  “Climb in,” he told them. “When you run, your feet and legs must be in the bag.”

  Eric stepped into the bag.

  “On your marks,” Mr. Day said. “Get set. Go!”

  Eric took a big step forward and fell. Lots of runners fell. They got up, took another big step, and fell again.

  Cam walked along the side of the track. She leaned over the fence and whispered to Eric, “Take small steps.”

  Eric got up. He held on to the top of his cloth bag. He took one small step and then another.

  Beth took a big step and fell.

  Eric didn’t hurry. He took only small steps. He didn’t fall. Soon he was ahead of everyone.

  “Go! Go! Go!” Cam called.

  Eric went. He took small steps and didn’t fall again. He was the first to reach the finish line. Tamika and Shane from Mr. Dane’s class came in second and third.

  Beth took a giant step just before the finish line and fell. She looked up at Eric and said, “Good. I’m glad one of us won.”

  Eric stepped out of his cloth bag. He turned and began to walk back to the starting line.

  “Don’t go that way,” Ms. Benson told him. “Walk around. We’re setting up for the next race.”

  Eric walked past the finish line again. He walked around the fence along the side of the track.

  “You were right,” Eric told Cam. “I didn’t take big steps and I didn’t fall.”

  “Let’s go! Let’s go,” Mr. Day called out. “The backward race is next. Anyone who wasn’t in the first two races must be in the backward race.”

  “That’s me,” Cam said.

  “Line up right here,” Mr. Day said. “Stand backward.”

  Cam stood on the starting line. She was facing Mr. Day. Beyond him was the sandbox. A young child sitting in the sand had lost his shovel. He started to cry.

  “It’s right there,” his mother told him. “It’s right behind you.” She was sitting on a bench beside the fenced-in sandbox.

  The small boy didn’t turn. He just cried louder.

  “No turning around to run forward,” Mr. Day told Cam and the others in the backward race. “You must run backward.”

  The small boy’s mother stretched over the low fence that surrounded the sandbox. She couldn’t reach the shovel. The small boy cried louder.

  “I’ll be right there,” his mother said.

  She ran around the fence. She reached behind her son and gave him the shovel.

  “That’s it!” Cam said.

  Cam closed her eyes and said, “Click! ”

  “On your marks,” Mr. Day called. “Get set. Go!”

  Cam’s eyes were still closed. She said, “Click!” again.

  The others in the backward race ran backward.

  “Run Cam! Run!” Beth, Danny, and Mr. Pace called.

  “Open your eyes,” Eric called to Cam. “Start running. Everyone is way ahead of you.”

  Eric shook his head.

  “No,” he said. “They’re way behind you, and in the backward race that means they’re way ahead of you. You’re losing the race.”

  Cam opened her eyes. She turned and
looked behind her. She started to run backward.

  As Cam passed Eric she told him, “I know how to find the thief.”

  “Just run,” Eric said.

  Cam ran, but she was the last to cross the finish line. Mr. Dane’s class had won again.

  “Don’t worry,” Beth said. “We’ll win the soccer and baseball games.”

  Cam hurried from the finish line to the starting line.

  “I have to go back to Zelda’s,” Cam told Ms. Benson. “I may have solved the mystery. I might know how to catch the bakery thief.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  “Can you really catch the thief?” Eric asked.

  “I think so,” Cam said. “Please, Ms. Benson.

  Let me go to Zelda’s.”

  Ms. Benson told Cam, “You can’t go alone.”

  Eric said, “I’ll go with her.”

  “No,” Ms. Benson said. “You need to go with an adult.”

  “I’ll go, too,” Mrs. Wayne said. “I want to help Cam Jansen catch that man. I also love Zelda’s.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “That whole place smells like bread, cookies, and cupcakes.”

  “Go ahead,” Ms. Benson told Cam. “But hurry back. We’re resting a short while and then we’re playing soccer.”

  Cam, Eric, and Mrs. Wayne walked past the fenced-in sandbox, picnic area, baseball field, and soccer field.

  Mrs. Wayne said, “I bet I could find Zelda’s with my eyes closed. I just have to walk straight ahead, and when I smell bread, cookies, and cupcakes, I’ll know I’m there.”

  Mrs. Wayne closed her eyes and walked ahead. She walked right into a tree.

  “I’m sorry,” Mrs. Wayne told the tree. Then she opened her eyes.

  “Oh,” she said. “You’re a maple tree. I can tell what tree you are by your leaves.”

  “Do you remember what happened after the potato-sack race?” Cam asked.

  “I won,” Eric said.

  “Yes. And you had to walk around the fence to come back to the starting line. That happened in the sandbox, too,” Cam said. “The boy had to wait for his mother to walk around the fence.”

  Cam, Eric, and Mrs. Wayne were at the corner. They looked both ways. No cars were coming, so they crossed the street.

  “Do you remember the driveway next to Zelda’s?” Cam asked. “The bakery was on one side. The other side was fenced in. We saw the thief leave Zelda’s. But then we were talking to Martha and Sadie. We didn’t see where the thief went. Now we know he must have gone along the driveway and dropped his hat, sunglasses, jacket, and earphones in the trash bin.”

  “Of course, he must have gone there,” Eric said. “That’s where we found his things.”

  “That was his plan,” Mrs. Wayne said. “He wanted us to remember his floppy hat and sunglasses. Then he threw it all away.”

  “Yes,” Cam said as they walked. “But where did he go after that?”

  Mrs. Wayne and Eric didn’t know.

  Cam said, “I watched Zelda’s and I didn’t see anyone walk out from the driveway. If he didn’t leave by the driveway, he must have gone through the back door of the bakery.”

  “If he did,” Eric said, “the workers saw him.”

  “Yes. And they saw him without his disguise. Maybe they can describe him.”

  “We’re almost there,” Mrs. Wayne said, and took a deep breath. “I can already smell the bread.”

  They stopped by the door to the bakery and looked in.

  A woman was standing by the counter. She was buying a loaf of bread. Officers Oppen and Davis were still there. They were talking to Zelda.

  “Officer Oppen,” Cam said when she went in. “I have to talk to you.”

  “Is it about the robbery?”

  Cam nodded.

  Officer Oppen and Cam went to a quiet place near the front of the bakery. Cam told him everything she had told Eric and Mrs. Wayne.

  “If the thief came in the back door,” Cam said, “the workers saw him without his floppy hat and sunglasses. They can tell you what he looks like.”

  “Come with me,” Officer Oppen said. “We’ll ask them.”

  Officer Oppen and Cam went behind the counter to the back of the bakery. Two women and two men were working. They were the same people Cam, Eric, and Mrs. Wayne had seen there earlier.

  “I need to talk to you,” Officer Oppen said.

  The two women and one of the men stopped what they were doing. They went to where Officer Oppen and Cam were standing. The other man turned and started toward the back door of the bakery.

  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 the
y 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.