The Circus Mystery

by Martin Widmark

  GROSSET & DUNLAP

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Group (USA) LLC, 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

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  Original title: LasseMajas Detektivbyrå: Cirkusmysteriet

  Text by Martin Widmark

  Original cover and illustrations by Helena Willis

  English language edition copyright © 2015 Penguin Group (USA) LLC. Original edition published by Bonnier Carlsen Bokförlag, Sweden, 2003. Text copyright © 2003 by Martin Widmark. Illustrations copyright © 2003 by Helena Willis. Published in 2015 by Grosset & Dunlap, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014. GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) LLC.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

  ISBN 978-0-698-19752-7

  Version_1

  Contents

  Copyright

  Title Page

  The Circus Mystery

  Maps

  The People

  Pickpockets and Ice Cream

  An Angry Woman

  Muscles and Magic

  An Officer and a Monkey

  A Mosquito Bite and a Runaway Balloon

  The Trap Is Set

  A Monkey with a Heavy Load

  A Grateful Thief Was Caught

  Special Excerpt from THE CAFÉ MYSTERY

  The Circus Mystery

  The books in The Whodunit Detective Agency series are set in the charming little town of Pleasant Valley. It’s the kind of close-knit community where nearly everyone knows one another. The town and characters are all fictional, of course . . . or are they?

  The main characters, Jerry and Maya, are classmates and close friends who run a small detective agency together.

  CHAPTER 1

  Pickpockets and Ice Cream

  It was summertime in the town of Pleasant Valley. The sun had been shining brightly all day, and a gentle breeze rustled through the leaves of the trees in town.

  “Hi there, kids!” someone called out to Jerry and Maya as they bicycled down the street.

  It was the police chief, who was standing in front of a little newspaper stand enjoying an ice-cream cone. Jerry and Maya pedaled over to him. The police chief was an old acquaintance, and it was always good to talk to him.

  “What a fantastic day,” he said. “Perfect ice-cream weather, don’t you think?”

  “Absolutely,” replied Jerry. “Maya and I are on our way to the beach for a swim.”

  “Lucky things,” the police chief said with a laugh. “We poor police officers have to keep our noses to the grindstone day in and day out.”

  Jerry and Maya looked at each other and winked. The police chief didn’t exactly seem overwhelmed with work.

  “Have you been busy at the station?” asked Maya, curious all the same. The two friends ran a small detective agency together, and Maya was always on the lookout for an exciting new case.

  “I shouldn’t really tell you this,” said the police chief. “But you have helped me before, and I’m sure you can keep a secret, can’t you?”

  Jerry and Maya nodded eagerly.

  The police chief leaned forward and lowered his voice to a whisper. “Pickpockets! At the circus outside town! Several people were robbed at the first performance yesterday. I’ve called the police stations in the other towns where the circus has performed, and it’s always the same thing: Cell phones, necklaces, and wallets disappear after each show.”

  The police chief nodded thoughtfully and continued, “But as soon as the circus leaves town, the thefts stop, too. It seems as if the thief is part of the circus.”

  The police chief leaned in even closer, and Jerry saw that the scoop of melting ice cream was about to plop right out of the waffle cone in the chief’s hand. The police chief narrowed his eyes and whispered: “I’m going to the circus to check it out—in plain clothes, of course. It takes a trained eye like mine to spot a skilled pickpocket. I’m going to both shows this evening: the one at 6:00 p.m. and the one at 8:00 p.m.”

  With a splat, the chief’s ice cream fell out of the cone and landed on the sidewalk. The police chief frowned at the sticky puddle at his feet, but before he could react, his cell phone rang.

  The police chief answered it in a serious voice: “Hello. Police chief of Pleasant Valley speaking.” Then he covered it with his hand and whispered to Jerry and Maya:

  “What a coincidence! It’s the ringmaster.”

  Jerry and Maya didn’t want to interfere with official police business, so they waved good-bye and cycled on.

  Just a block away at Market Square, Maya surprised Jerry by suddenly turning right instead of left.

  “Wrong direction, Maya! The beach is this way.”

  “Forget the swim, Jerry! We have a job to do!”

  Of course! Jerry understood exactly where Maya was heading: to the circus!

  The Whodunit Detective Agency had a new case to solve.

  CHAPTER 2

  An Angry Woman

  Jerry and Maya rode their bikes to the grassy field at the base of the big sledding hill where the kids of Pleasant Valley played in the winter.

  At this time of year, there weren’t any sleds to be seen. Instead, half a dozen circus tents had been pitched in an enormous circle, and in the very center stood a gigantic striped tent. Jerry and Maya hopped off their bicycles and walked toward the tents.

  In addition to the striped circus tents there were several colorful trailers, all marked CIRCUS SPLENDIDO in big red letters. The first trailer was the ticket booth.

  Jerry and Maya knocked on the ticket-booth window, but there was nobody there.

  “It’s probably too early,” said Maya. “There’s still an hour until the first show starts.”

  “That gives us plenty of time to investigate,” said Jerry as he turned and walked toward another trailer.

  “But . . . ,” said Maya uncertainly, looking around.

  Then she shrugged her shoulders and followed Jerry, who had already crept in between two of the circus trailers. There was a RINGMASTER sign on the door of one.

  It was nice and cool in the shade of the tall trailers. The window on one end of the ringmaster’s trailer was open, and Jerry and Maya jumped when they heard a woman shout from inside, “I should have married Bobo instead of you, you . . . you washed-up failure of a ringmaster! Bobo brings me roses . . . and you can’t even afford daisies!”

  Jerry and Maya realized that they had stumbled upon an argument.

  “Now then, Greta, my little dove,” they heard a cautious male voice say.

  That’s probably the ringmaster, thought Jerry.

  “Things will be better soon,” continued the man’s voice. “When people realize what world-class performers I have, the money will start rolling in.”

  “World-class performers?!” the woman said with a snort. “Ha! You have a magician who learned his tricks in prison and a strong man who breaks the audience’s noses, and Bobo the c
lown seems to have more money than you. And, worst of all, there’s your daughter, Alice—who’s best friends with a monkey! She’s not the kind of stepdaughter I imagined having!”

  The woman caught her breath and continued: “And to think I once enjoyed selling popcorn for you! I can’t live like this anymore!”

  Jerry and Maya heard a crash as a dish was thrown against the wall of the trailer. Soon, cups and glasses came flying out the window.

  “Come on,” whispered Jerry. “Let’s get out of here!”

  CHAPTER 3

  Muscles and Magic

  As they dashed out into the sunshine again, Jerry tripped over a metal pole. He lost his balance and fell forward—crashing face-first into a big, hard stomach!

  The stomach belonged to a huge man, clad in a tight-fitting black-and-white-striped leotard. The metal pole was actually the man’s barbell.

  The man took a step back and knocked over a bottle near his feet.

  “My protein shake!” he roared. Now he was angry, very angry.

  “Ali Pasha is going to teach these bad children a lesson,” he continued, grabbing each of them by one ear.

  Then he lifted them up. Jerry and Maya had to stand on tiptoe to keep their ears from being ripped off.

  “The world’s strongest man doesn’t like being disturbed when he’s training his muscles!” he yelled, his face bright red. “What are these sneaky children doing in the circus camp?”

  “We . . . ,” began Jerry, but he couldn’t think of anything to say.

  “Are writing an article for the school newspaper!” Maya finished. “We’re writing an article about the world’s strongest man, who we’ve heard works here at the circus. Do you know where we can find him?”

  Ali Pasha immediately released his grip on the young detectives’ ears, and his face erupted in an enormous smile.

  “That man—the world’s strongest man—is me,” he said, flexing his biceps proudly.

  “Wow,” said Maya and Jerry with a quick wink at each other.

  Jerry took out his notebook, which he always carried in his back pocket. He leafed through a few pages and pretended to read some questions. Ali Pasha sat on his barbell, unaware that Jerry and Maya were making up the entire interview as they went along.

  The strong man happily started talking about himself and forgot all about how angry he had been just moments before.

  Maya and Jerry kept up the game about being reporters for the school newspaper until they heard a voice from behind them.

  “Oh! What a lot of questions you have written on your pad. It will take the entire evening for Ali Pasha, the world’s most terrifying man, to answer them all.”

  Jerry and Maya spun around to see a man dressed in a magician’s costume standing behind them. He was peering at Jerry’s notebook. He smiled and winked at Jerry and Maya, as if to say that he didn’t intend to let on about their act.

  “Go away, Trocadero!” said Ali Pasha angrily. “This circus was much better before you came here from prison. You should have stayed behind bars. Maybe your tricks would be better there.”

  “What a thing to say, Ali ‘Nose-Breaker’ Pasha,” teased the magician, whose name evidently was Trocadero. “You might hurt my feelings!”

  Jerry and Maya couldn’t believe that the magician dared make fun of the frightening Ali Pasha! But the magician just went on.

  “Have you told these two young people about the other people you’ve hurt? Like the man whose nose you broke? And his big hospital bill that you have to pay?”

  “There are more noses I could break,” roared Ali Pasha, lunging forward to grab Trocadero.

  But the magician was as quick as lightning, and Ali Pasha’s powerful arms were left wrestling with empty air as Trocadero scurried away.

  Suddenly, the door to the ringmaster’s trailer flew open, and an angry woman burst out.

  “Be-e-e-e-e-e-e quiet!” she yelled, so furious that she was spitting. “Every day I have to listen to you fools bicker. I tell you, I can’t live this way!”

  Huffing and puffing like an angry bull, Ali Pasha stomped off to find the magician Trocadero.

  CHAPTER 4

  An Officer and a Monkey

  As the sun set, the circus grounds began to fill up with people who had come to see the first show. The crowds of spectators wandered around looking at the animals, eating cotton candy and funnel cakes, and enjoying the cool evening.

  Maya and Jerry walked around and talked about what they had learned:

  “Someone working at the circus seems to be stealing necklaces, cell phones, and wallets from the audience members,” said Jerry.

  “The ringmaster is short of money,” said Maya.

  “The world’s strongest man, Ali Pasha,” continued Jerry, “needs money to pay the hospital bill for the man with the broken nose.”

  “The ringmaster’s wife is tired of selling popcorn for a living,” said Maya.

  “And there’s the magician, Trocadero, who has been in prison. I wonder what his crime was,” Jerry said.

  “Look, Jerry!” interrupted Maya. “What an adorable little monkey! Look how he bows to the balloon buyers!”

  Outside the entrance to the big top, there was a girl selling balloons. At her feet stood a tiny monkey, dressed in a backpack and a small hat.

  “Come on, Jerry, I want to buy a balloon,” said Maya enthusiastically, trotting over to the girl with the monkey.

  The girl smiled at Maya and introduced herself as Alice. “The monkey’s name is Sylvester,” she said. Maya said hello and then paused to choose one of the balloons.

  “They’re all so fun . . . it’s hard to choose.” Finally, Maya picked one that looked like a crocodile.

  The balloon girl had to struggle for a moment to pull down the balloon. Those are pretty powerful balloons, thought Jerry. Alice needs to be careful that she doesn’t fly away with them!

  Maya paid, and Alice gave the money to the monkey. Then Sylvester the monkey put the money in his backpack, lifted his hat, and bowed deeply to Maya.

  “Oh, isn’t he sweet.” Maya laughed.

  “Well, look who’s here! Hello, old friends,” called a familiar voice from behind them.

  It was the police chief—without his uniform! Jerry and Maya almost burst out laughing.

  He was dressed in a gray suit that was stretched tight across his tummy. He must have been a few pounds lighter when he last wore that suit, thought Maya.

  Maya and Jerry walked with the police chief toward the big top.

  They stopped in front of a man collecting tickets.

  “Police officer on duty,” said the police chief, flashing his police badge.

  The man at the entrance nodded and then looked at Jerry and Maya.

  “My assistants,” said the police chief firmly, ushering Jerry and Maya into the tent ahead of him.

  Inside the big top it smelled like sawdust and popcorn. The ringmaster’s wife, Greta, was selling popcorn in big paper cones.

  The police chief elbowed his way through the crowd toward the front bench at the edge of the ring.

  “You need the very best seats when you are on an official investigation.” He chuckled and patted the bench beside him, gesturing for Jerry and Maya to sit.

  Maya and Jerry looked around at the crowd. They recognized several people from Pleasant Valley. On one side of them sat the hotel manager, Ronnie Hazelwood. He waved cheerfully to Jerry and Maya. And just behind them sat the church caretaker, Roland Sussman, the man with three Ss in his name.

  On the other side of the ring sat Mohammed Carat, who owned the jewelry store. He was talking to Vivian Leander, his sales assistant.

  Then the circus band started playing, and a spotlight circled around on the red curtain, where the performers were about to make their grand entr
ance.

  The crowd fell silent.

  “Ladies and gentlemen!”

  The ringmaster stepped into the ring, smiling.

  “A warm welcome to CIRCUS SPLENDIDO,” he began. “Tonight, you will see a magnificent . . . amazing . . . fantastic . . . performance by world-class performers of the highest quality.”

  Jerry and Maya looked at each other and giggled. They could almost hear Greta fuming with annoyance by her popcorn stand. She clearly didn’t think much of the ringmaster or his performers.

  Then the show began.

  The magician, Trocadero, pulled several white rabbits from his top hat.

  With a flourish, he plucked coins and dollar bills out from behind the ears of audience members.

  The church caretaker, Roland Sussman, was delighted when Trocadero plucked a ten-dollar bill from under his chin.

  Bobo the clown stumbled around the audience looking for his lost paper popcorn cone, which was actually stuffed down the back of his baggy pants. He got to Vivian Leander and searched under her seat.

  Then he sat on her lap, and his popcorn cone made a loud crunching noise. Bobo the clown jumped up in alarm, and the people laughed.

  Alice pushed her way through the rows of benches selling her amazing balloons.

  There was no sign of Sylvester the little monkey. He must be taking a break, thought Maya.

  The mighty Ali Pasha came in lifting heavy weights. Then he challenged someone from the audience to a wrestling match.

  A one-hundred-dollar prize would go to anyone who could take down the world’s strongest man.

  A burly man climbed into the ring to challenge Ali Pasha, and a few seconds later he fell to the floor in a cloud of sawdust.

  “Amateurs,” muttered the police chief to Jerry and Maya, while Ali Pasha continued to flex his muscles.

  The show went on, and Maya and Jerry kept their eyes open for anything suspicious. Who could be stealing from the audience? That person must be here in the big top right now—but who could it be?