Cam Jansen and the Secret Service Mystery

by David A. Adler

  Dr. Prell was annoyed. She told Cam to pick up the book and get back to her seat.

  Cam picked up the book and said, “Didn’t you see what happened? Books don’t just fall. They must be pushed. And when they do fall, they don’t fall flat and don’t make a loud noise.”

  Dr. Prell looked at Cam. Then she looked at the book. She pushed it off the desk. It didn’t fall flat.

  “I think you’re right,” she told Cam. “Come with me. We’ll talk to one of the Secret Service agents.”

  Dr. Prell whispered to the female agent with long blonde hair. Then Cam followed Dr. Prell and the agent into the library office.

  Cam told the agent what she had just told the principal. Then she took a book and pushed it off the desk, and again, it fell on its side.

  “You’re a smart little girl, aren’t you?” the agent said, and smiled. “Of course, you’re right. We know someone dropped the book to cause a disturbance. But we checked the room, and there’s no one here who’s a danger to Governor Zellner. We’re sure it was just one of the children in the back who did it to be funny.”

  Cam thought of Danny.

  Dr. Prell smiled and told Cam, “You see. It was just one of those little things that happen in schools.”

  It wasn’t such a little thing, Cam thought. The governor was scared. We all were.

  Cam reluctantly returned to her seat.

  “You missed meeting the governor,” Eric said. “We got in line and shook his hand. He even signed my notebook.”

  Eric showed her the governor’s autograph.

  “One day, this might be really valuable. He might be president.”

  Mr. Tone’s class was in line now. Each child in turn shook hands with Governor Zellner. The Pearls shook hands with the children, too.

  Mr. Tone had brought along a camera. He stood nearby and took photographs of each child with the governor.

  Cam told Eric what the agent had said.

  “I don’t think someone would do that just to be funny,” Eric said. “Even Danny wouldn’t do it. It’s too scary with all these Secret Service people and police around.”

  “I think you’re right,” Cam said. “I think someone had a reason to drop that book. I just wish I knew what it was.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Newspeople were still gathered around the governor and the Pearls. They were asking questions and taking photographs.

  “Maybe one of the newsmen did it,” Eric said. “Maybe he thought it would make a good story—‘Governor Frightened by Loud Noise!’ or ‘Book Scares Governor Zellner!’”

  “Maybe it was one of the photographers,” Cam said. “I bet they all got lots of good pictures of the governor and the Pearls hiding behind the desk.”

  “What about your pictures?” Eric asked. “What about the ones you took with your mental camera?”

  Cam closed her eyes. She said, “Click!” She tried to remember everything she had seen that morning.

  “Smile,” Mr. Tone told the child standing with the governor.

  “I am smiling,” Governor Zellner joked. “I always smile.”

  Mr. Tone pressed the button on his camera.

  Click!

  Cam said, “Click!” too.

  “What are you looking at?” Eric asked.

  “There are so many pictures in my head. So much has happened today. Right now I’m looking at pictures of those long black cars, of the doors being opened. You should close your eyes, too,” she told Eric. “Try to remember what you’ve seen.”

  Eric closed his eyes.

  “Do you remember when we looked through the window?” Cam asked Eric. “First those four Secret Service agents got out of the car.”

  “Yes,” Eric said. “I remember, but I can’t see it like you can. I remember we saw the governor, the Secret Service agents, and the Pearls.”

  “Me, too,” Cam said. “Now, I’m looking at the Pearls.”

  Cam said, “Click!” again. Then she said, “Hey! That may be it.”

  Cam opened her eyes.

  “It may be the pearls.”

  “What did they do?” Eric asked. “They didn’t drop the book. Someone in the back of the library did.”

  “I’ve got to see Mr. and Mrs. Pearl.”

  Children had surrounded the front desk. The short Emma and Sam Pearl were mostly hidden behind them. Cam could see their faces, but nothing more.

  “Please,” Mr. Tone said, “squeeze closer together. I want to get everyone in the picture.”

  Mr. Tone was standing right behind Cam and Eric.

  Cam stood. She tried to look over the heads of the children.

  “You’re in the way,” Mr. Tone told her. “Please, sit down.”

  “But I must see Mrs. Pearl.”

  “I have to see her, too,” Mr. Tone said, “and with you standing there, all I see is the back of your head.”

  “But this is important.”

  Mr. Tone was a tall man. He looked down at Cam and told her, “This picture is important to me and to every child in my class. You will just have to wait.”

  Cam sat. She watched and waited while Mr. Tone told one child after another to move either to the left or to the right. He told some to crouch down a bit and others to stand taller. Then he told them to smile.

  Click!

  “One more,” Mr. Tone said.

  Click!

  Mr. Tone thanked everyone. Then he told his students to return to their seats.

  The children moved away from the desk.

  Cam stood. She looked at Mrs. Pearl.

  “That’s it,” she said. “Now I know why someone dropped that book. I just have to find out who.”

  “Why?” Eric asked.

  “I already told you. The pearls.”

  Eric looked at Mr. and Mrs. Pearl.

  “They dropped the book?” Eric mumbled. “But why?”

  Cam told Ms. Benson, “I have to speak with Mrs. Pearl and the Secret Service people.” Then she grabbed Eric’s hand and pulled him along.

  The children in Ms. Kane’s fourth-grade class were getting in line.

  “Hello,” Ms. Kane said to Governor Zellner. “It’s so nice to meet you.” She asked him for his signature. “I’ll make copies for the children in my class.”

  Governor Zellner signed the paper.

  Cam and Eric rushed past the governor and Ms. Kane.

  “Mrs. Pearl,” Cam said, “where’s your pearl necklace?”

  Mrs. Pearl felt for it. Then she looked down.

  “My pearls! They’re gone!”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  “My good pearl necklace is gone,” Emma Pearl told her husband.

  “Maybe the clasp broke,” he said.

  “Oh, my,” Mrs. Pearl said. “I hope not. It’s a gold and diamond clasp.” She was very upset. “I wear that necklace everywhere.”

  “Don’t worry,” Mr. Pearl told her. “We’ll find it. And if the clasp is broken, we’ll get it fixed.”

  He told the Secret Service agent with long blonde hair about the necklace. The agent spoke into her walkie-talkie, and a police officer came in from the hall. The policeman asked the Pearls lots of questions.

  “Is the necklace valuable?”

  “Yes,” Mr. Pearl said. “It’s very valuable.”

  “Are you sure you had it on today?”

  “Yes,” Mrs. Pearl told the officer.

  “Maybe you took it off. Maybe it fell off.”

  “Maybe the string broke,” Sam Pearl said.

  “If it did, pearls are rolling all over the school.”

  “That’s not what happened,” Cam said. “Someone dropped the book to make that noise and then stole the necklace.”

  “That’s nonsense,” the agent with long blonde hair said. “Nothing was stolen. We’ve been with the Pearls since they came here.”

  The police officer said, “If the necklace was lost, we’ll find it. It must be somewhere in this school.”

  The officer told
Dr. Prell to have the children and their teachers all wait in their seats.

  The Secret Service agent asked Governor Zellner and the Pearls to please wait in the library office. Two of the agents would wait with them. The other two and the police officers would look for the necklace.

  Cam watched the two agents search on the floor near the desk. Then they walked slowly toward the door. They searched the floor as they walked.

  Cam closed her eyes and said, “Click!”

  The two agents left the library.

  “Where are they now?” Cam asked Eric with her eyes still closed.

  “They’re in the hall.”

  “Mrs. Pearl didn’t lose it in there,” Cam said. “I’m looking at a picture of her when we first came into the library. She still had her necklace.”

  “Hi,” Danny said as he sat down. “I’m back.”

  “You missed everything,” Beth told him. “We met Governor Zellner. I shook his hand. And Mrs. Pearl lost her pearls.”

  “She did? How many little Pearls did she lose?” Danny asked. “And what are their names? Janie Pearl? Jackie Pearl? Jokie Pearl?”

  “Stop!” Beth told him.

  “I like the name Jokie.”

  “Well, she didn’t lose her children. She lost her pearl necklace.”

  “Oh.”

  Cam opened her eyes. She got up and started toward the library office.

  “Please, sit down,” Ms. Benson told her.

  “I can’t,” Cam said. “I have to speak to the Secret Service people. I know what happened to Mrs. Pearl’s pearl necklace. It was stolen, and I know who did it.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  “Are you sure?” Ms. Benson asked.

  Cam nodded.

  “Okay. Go ahead,” Ms. Benson told her.

  Ms. Benson asked Mr. Tone to watch her class. Then she followed Cam to the library office. Eric, Danny, Beth, and others in Cam’s class went, too. They crowded around her as she knocked on the door.

  When the door was opened, Cam said, “Someone dressed in black stole the necklace.”

  “Please,” the agent with long blonde hair said. “Let us take care of this.” She started to close the door.

  Ms. Benson put her hand out and stopped the door.

  “This girl is one of my best students,” she told the agent. “She’s very smart, and she has an amazing photographic memory. She’s solved lots of mysteries. You should at least listen to her.”

  “Okay. I’m listening,” the agent said.

  “I’m listening, too,” Governor Zellner said.

  Cam took a deep breath.

  “Someone knew that when he dropped a book flat on a cement floor it would make a noise like a gun being shot. When Governor Zellner dropped to the floor, a man dressed in black pushed the Pearls behind the desk.”

  “He wanted to protect them,” Governor Zellner said.

  “But he wasn’t one of the Secret Service people. Only four agents came with you. There was someone else dressed in black.”

  “Max and I were checking the governor, to be sure he wasn’t hurt,” the blonde agent said. “Jimmy and Susan checked the room.”

  “Yes,” Cam said. “Those were the four agents I saw get out of those long black cars. And I saw just four when you came into the library.”

  “Well, someone pushed me behind the desk,” Emma Pearl said. “He squeezed my arm when he pushed me.”

  “And he stole your necklace,” Cam said.

  Cam closed her eyes and said, “Click!”

  “He has curly brown hair,” Cam said, with her eyes still closed, “round eyeglasses, and a funny little beard.”

  “Funny?” the agent asked. “What was funny about his beard?”

  “It was crooked,” Cam said. “He had on a black shirt and pants and white sneakers.”

  “Our shoes are black,” the agent said, and held up her foot.

  “Hey! I saw him,” Danny said.

  Cam opened her eyes.

  “I was at the water fountain when that man and a real thin woman walked by. They were about to go out the back door when Mrs. Adams stopped them.”

  “Who is Mrs. Adams?” the agent asked.

  Dr. Prell said, “She’s the custodian.”

  “Well,” Danny went on, “she pointed to a car and asked, ‘Is that yours?’ When the man said it was, Mrs. Adams told them not to park there again. Their car was blocking the back door.”

  “Don’t worry,” Governor Zellner told Mrs. Pearl. “We’ll get your necklace back.”

  He hurried out of the library. The two Secret Service agents followed him. They were soon back with two police officers.

  “Please,” Governor Zellner said to Cam and Danny, “tell officers Taylor and Gold what you told us.”

  They stood just outside the library office. Cam and Danny told the officers about the thief dressed in black and the thin woman. Officer Gold wrote what they said in a small notepad.

  “I bet it was that thin woman who dropped the book,” Cam said.

  Officer Taylor said, “First we’ll speak to Mrs. Adams. Maybe she can describe their car.”

  Officer Gold closed his notepad. Then he and Officer Taylor started out of the library.

  “We’ll go with you,” Cam said. “We can help you catch the thieves.”

  “Yes, we’ll go with you,” Danny said.

  “Oh, no you won’t,” Dr. Prell told them. “The police and the Secret Service will handle this.”

  Dr. Prell stepped up to the microphone. She thanked Governor Zellner and the Pearls. Then she told the teachers to take their children back to their classrooms.

  Ms. Benson thanked Mr. Tone for watching her class. Then she led her children into the hall.

  “Hey!” Eric said. He bent and picked up something small, brown, and hairy from the floor. He held it by just one hair and said, “I think I’ve seen this somewhere.”

  “We’ve all seen it,” Cam said. “We have to show it to Officers Taylor and Gold. It may help them find the thieves.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Eric showed the brown, hairy thing to Ms. Benson.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  Cam held it under her chin.

  “It’s a fake beard,” Cam said. “The thief put it on to fool us.”

  Eric said, “We have to show it to those police officers.”

  Ms. Benson shook her head and said, “I’m sorry. This is not a day for you to be wandering in the halls looking for the police.”

  “They may not even be here,” Beth said. “They may be on their motorcycles chasing the thief.”

  “I’ll call the office,” Ms. Benson said. “I’ll tell Mrs. Wayne about the beard. She’ll find the police.”

  When they returned to their classroom, Cam and Eric looked out the window. The long black cars were still in front of the school. The news truck was there, too. But two of the police motorcycles were gone.

  “Tell me if you see anything,” Cam said to Danny.

  “I see you,” Danny said. “I see Eric and Beth and Jane and Aaron.”

  “Stop it!” Cam said. “I agree with Beth. You’re not funny. Please, just tell me if you see anything happen outside.”

  Ms. Benson called the school office. Then she taught a lesson on personal pronouns.

  “I’m having trouble listening,” Cam whispered to Eric. “I keep thinking about the necklace.”

  “Me, too,” Eric said.

  Cam looked over at Danny. He shook his head. Nothing had happened outside.

  “Danny,” Ms. Benson said. “What’s a personal pronoun?”

  “Me?” Danny asked.

  “Very good.”

  “Hey,” Danny whispered to Beth. “What did I say?”

  “Me is a personal pronoun.”

  Danny smiled.

  “Jane, please give me other examples of personal pronouns.”

  “He, she, we, and I,” Jane said.

  Ms. Benson talked on and on about persona
l pronouns. She gave examples of how they can be used in sentences. Then she told the class to open their grammar workbooks.

  “Please, do the problems on page ninety-two.”

  Cam opened her workbook. She tried to do the work. But she kept thinking about the necklace.

  “Hey! Look!” Danny said. “The motorcycles are back.”

  Cam, Eric, and others in the class rushed to the windows. Ms. Benson went, too. The motorcycles stopped. Two police officers got off the motorcycles.

  “Look,” Beth said. “It’s Officers Taylor and Gold. I bet they caught the thief.”

  “If they did,” Eric said, “it’s because of Cam. She solved the mystery of the noise. She knew what was stolen.”

  Beth said, “I wonder why they came back.”

  “We just have to wait,” Ms. Benson said. “I’m sure Dr. Prell will tell us what happened.”

  “When?” Eric asked.

  “Later,” Ms. Benson said. “After the governor and the Pearls leave.”

  The children returned to their seats.

  Ms. Benson told the class, “I’m sure you’re all too excited to listen to a geography lesson. So we’ll have our silent reading time now.”

  Cam took a book from her desk. It was a mystery. She opened it. But instead of reading, she thought about everything that had happened that morning. She hoped Mrs. Pearl would get her necklace back.

  Ring! Ring!

  Ms. Benson lifted the telephone handset.

  “Hello. . . . Yes. . . . Oh, yes.”

  She put the handset down.

  “Dr. Prell, Governor Zellner, the Pearls, the Secret Service agents, and the police are all coming to our room.” Then she looked straight at Danny and said, “I expect everyone to be on his best behavior.”

  “I will,” Danny promised.

  Eric said, “We all will.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  “Straighten your desks, please,” Ms. Benson said to the class.

  She looked around the room.

  “Oh, my,” she said. She hurried to the side of the room and closed the closet doors. She saw a mess of papers on her desk. She quickly pushed them all into the middle drawer. She straightened the window shade beside her desk.