Cam Jansen and the Birthday Mystery

by David A. Adler

  “You mean all our things are gone?” Gramps asked. “You mean the gifts are gone? That’s why he robbed us. He saw those gift-wrapped boxes and he wanted them.”

  The policeman smiled. “I’m Officer Mill veckstein,” he said to Cam’s grandparents. “Most people call me Officer M. Just think for a moment. I’m sure you really did see the driver.”

  Officer M took out his pad and waited.

  “Well,” Granny said. “I saw the back of his head, and he has long blond hair.”

  “He’s wearing a black jacket,” Gramps added. “There was a really big dent in the side of his cab. I remember that because it was hard to open the door.”

  “Now that’s something,” Officer M said. “We’ll go to the terminal, where the cabs wait. Maybe we’ll find the thief there, or maybe one of the other cab drivers will be able to help us.”

  “I’m sorry,” Officer M told Cam, Eric, and Cam’s parents, “but we don’t have room for all of you in our car.”

  Cam’s grandparents got into the back of the police car. The car drove off. Cam, Eric, and Cam’s parents started to walk toward the terminal.

  “I may have seen him,” Cam whispered to Eric. “I may have seen the thief.” Then Cam closed her eyes and said, “Click!”

  Chapter Six

  “When we got out of our car, I saw a man with long blond hair and a dark blue jacket. In the cab, Granny and Gramps may have thought the jacket was black,” Cam whispered to Eric with her eyes still closed. “He was on the path walking toward the terminal.”

  Cam’s parents were walking ahead of her and Eric. Mr. Jansen turned and said, “We’ll go back to the car. We’ll wait there for Granny and Gramps.”

  Cam opened her eyes.

  “But I want to be with Granny and Gramps,” Cam said. “Maybe we can help them catch the thief.”

  Mr. Jansen told Cam, “Catching a thief may be dangerous. It’s ajob for the police.”

  “But I think I saw him,” Cam said.

  She told her parents about the man on the path.

  “Cam has to tell the police what she saw,” Mrs. Jansen said. “And then, instead of sitting in the car, we can wait in the terminal, on those comfortable chairs.”

  It was a long walk across the parking lot. Cam clicked again and looked at the picture she had in her head of the man in the dark blue jacket.

  “He’s wearing a red scarf, sunglasses, and boots,” Cam said, “and he was walking very fast.”

  They were walking on the path now, with lots of other people who were on their way to the terminal. Many of them were carrying luggage. None of them was wearing a dark blue or black jacket.

  At the end of the path was a traffic light and a Walk—Don’t Walk sign. People stopped there and waited for the Walk sign to light up.

  People were waiting across the road, too. They were on their way to the parking lot. Many of them were also carrying luggage.

  Cam watched cabs ride past and let their passengers off at the curb. Then the cabs joined the end of the line waiting to take people from the airport.

  The Walk sign lit up. The path across the road was quickly crowded with people walking to and from the terminal.

  “There they are,” Eric called out. He pointed to Cam’s grandparents and the two police officers. They were looking at the long line of cabs waiting by the curb.

  Cam ran to them. She told Officer M about the man in the dark blue jacket.

  “If he’s the thief, why would he be walking in the parking lot?” Officer M asked.

  Cam was thinking about that when her parents and Eric caught up with her.

  “Did you tell them who you saw?” Cam’s mother asked.

  “Yes,” Cam answered, “but now I’m not sure he’s the thief.”

  Just then Officer Taylor pointed to a cab that had just stopped by the curb. There was a large dent in its side. Two people got out of the cab.

  “Is that the cab you were in?” she asked Cam’s grandparents.

  They turned to look at it.

  Gramps said, “It’s hard to tell from here.”

  “Let’s go,” Officer Taylor said. “Let’s take a closer look.”

  The cab started to drive off.

  “Hey! Stop!” Officer Taylor shouted.

  She and Officer M ran to the middle of the street and held up their hands.

  Granny and Gramps ran after them. Cam and Eric started to run, too.

  “Wait here,” Cam’s father told Cam and Eric. “The police don’t need your help.”

  Screech!

  The cab quickly stopped.

  Officer M poked his head into the window of the cab. Then the door on the driver’s side began to open.

  “They’ve caught him,” Eric declared. “They’ve caught the thief!”

  Chapter Seven

  The driver got out of the cab. He was bald and he was wearing a blue sweater.

  “Where’s his blond hair and black jacket?” Mr. Jansen asked.

  “Maybe he was wearing a blond wig when he stole the luggage,” Eric said. “And maybe he took off his jacket.”

  The cab driver spoke to the police and Cam’s grandparents for a while. He opened the trunk of his cab. It was empty. The police thanked him. The driver got back in his car and drove off.

  “Hey,” Eric said and pointed to a cab at the end of the line. It had a large dent in its hood. “The thief may be in one of the other smashed cars.”

  Cam looked at the cab with the dented hood. Then she saw another cab stop. A man got out. He was carrying a small suitcase. Cam looked at the front of the line. A woman and a small child got into a cab while the driver loaded two large suitcases into the trunk.

  Cam’s grandparents and the two police officers returned to the curb. Eric and Cam’s parents watched them look at each of the cabs.

  Cam didn’t. She closed her eyes and said, “Click!”

  As a cab at the front of the line drove off, all the others moved up. Others kept joining the end of the line.

  Cam said, “Click!” again.

  “There’s one with a large dent on the side,” Eric said and pointed to the end of the line.

  Cam opened her eyes. “I just remembered something,” she said. “Let’s go to our car.”

  “No,” Eric told her. “I think I found the cab. I am going to tell the police officers. I want to watch them catch the thief.”

  The police looked into a cab in the middle of the line. Then the door opened and the driver got out. The driver was a woman with long blond hair. She was wearing a blue denim jacket.

  Eric said, “I’m going to show them the cab with the dent.”

  Mrs. Jansen said, “I’ll go with you.”

  “I’ll be waiting for you in our car,” Cam told Eric and Mrs. Jansen as they walked off.

  “Maybe looking in cabs is not the best way to catch the thief,” Cam told her father. “Maybe there’s a better way.”

  “What are you saying?” he asked.

  “I’m saying, I think I know how to catch the thief. I know how to get back Granny and Gramps’s luggage and the birthday gifts. I just need to go to our car and look at something.”

  “Then let’s go,” Mr. Jansen said.

  Cam and Mr. Jansen walked quickly toward the parking lot. The Don’t Walk sign was lit. Cam and her father stopped and waited for it to change.

  “Look at the people on both sides of the road,” Cam said. “Lots of them are carrying luggage.”

  “So what?” Cam’s father asked.

  The Walk sign lit up. Cam and her father crossed the road to the parking lot.

  “So what?” Cam’s father asked again.

  “I’ll show you,” Cam said. She led him to the almost empty part of the lot where their car was parked. The red sports car and the gray van on either side of the Jansens’ car were still there. Cam looked through the back windows of the van. Then she told her father to look, too.

  “What do you see?” Cam asked.


  “Suitcases,” Mr. Jansen answered. “So what? Lots of people bring suitcases to an airport.”

  “That’s right,” Cam said. “But they don’t leave them in their cars. They either park here and take their luggage onto an airplane. Or they get off an airplane, bring their luggage to their cars, and leave the parking lot.”

  Mr. Jansen looked at his daughter and smiled. “You’re right,” he said. “Why would a van be parked here loaded with luggage?”

  “Mom told me to remember where our car was parked,” Cam said. “That’s why I looked at our car, the sports car, and the van, and clicked! That’s why I remembered the luggage in the back of the van.”

  Mr. Jansen looked through the back windows of the van again. “And there are two large gift-wrapped boxes in there,” he said. “I’ll bet those are our birthday gifts. We have to show this to the police.”

  “I’m not leaving here,” Cam said. “The thief might come back with more stolen luggage. He might load it in the van and drive off.”

  Cam’s father asked, “What would he do with the cab?”

  “Maybe the cab is stolen. Maybe he’ll just leave it here,” Cam answered.

  Mr. Jansen looked at the luggage in the back of the van. Then he told Cam, “You’re not staying here alone. We’ll wait in the car and see what happens. But we’re not chasing any thief.”

  Chapter Eight

  Cam and her father got in their car. Cam was in the back. Her father was in the front. They locked the doors.

  They watched cars ride along the road, just on the other side of the parking lot fence. Each time they saw a cab, Cam and her father wondered if the thief was driving it.

  Mr. Jansen pointed to the gray van and said, “That may not be the thief’s.”

  Cam said, “I think it is.”

  “Well, maybe it’s not,” Mr. Jansen said. “Maybe someone got here early for his flight. It was too early to bring his luggage to the terminal, so he’s eating dinner in one of the restaurants. Or maybe he’s buying a ticket now to go somewhere.”

  “Look!” Cam whispered.

  A cab was going by the fence very slowly. Cam looked at the cab. She blinked her eyes and said, “Click!”

  Cam and her father watched the cab turn into the parking lot entrance. It was in the middle of the lot, a long way from the van and the Jansens’ car. The cab turned.

  “Did you see the big dent in the door?” Cam asked.

  “I saw it,” Mr. Jansen whispered. “And I see what he’s doing. He’s checking that there’s no one here.”

  The cab turned again. Now it was coming back toward the van and much closer than the first time.

  “Get down!” Mr. Jansen said. “Don’t let him see us.”

  Cam and her father fell to the floor. They waited and listened.

  Cam heard a car door open. Then she heard other car noises.

  Cam slowly moved up until she could peek out the window.

  The cab was right by the van. Its door and trunk were open. A man with blond hair, wearing a black leather jacket, was loading a suitcase into the van.

  Cam dropped to the floor again and listened. She heard an engine start. She waited. Then she peeked out. The van was still there. The cab was driving off.

  Cam told her father, “He’s gone.”

  Mr. Jansen peeked out the window.

  Cam said, “He’s probably going to steal someone else’s luggage.”

  The cab went just a short way off. Then it stopped right by the fence. The driver got out and walked toward the van.

  Mr. Jansen dropped to the floor again. Cam did, too.

  “This is it,” Mr. Jansen whispered. “He’s finished his dirty business for the day. He’s leaving the cab here. He’s going to drive off with the luggage and our birthday gifts.”

  Cam said, “We can’t let him get away. We have to stop him.”

  They heard the van door open.

  Mr. Jansen said, “We’re not trained to stop criminals. That’s a job for the police.”

  They heard the van engine start.

  Cam said, “Before he can leave the lot, he has to pay for parking here like everyone else. Let’s get ahead of him. When it’s time to pay, you can tell the man in the booth to call the police.”

  Mr. Jansen sat up. “That’s a great idea,” he said. “We’ll keep our doors locked and I’ll just be someone in a hurry to leave the parking lot.”

  The van was already on its way to the exit. Mr. Jansen quickly started his car. He sped in front of the van.

  Honk! Honk!

  The thief tried to pass, but Mr. Jansen wouldn’t let him.

  Honk! Honk!

  They were near the exit now. Mr. Jansen got in line, just in front of the thief.

  “That was scary,” Mr. Jansen said. “I sure hope he doesn’t know we think he’s the thief. I hope he doesn’t drive to the other exit.”

  “There’s another exit?” Cam asked.

  Mr. Jansen nodded. “It’s on the other side of the lot.”

  The gate went up. The car ahead drove off. Now it was Mr. Jansen’s turn to pay.

  “Ticket please,” the man in the booth said.

  Mr. Jansen whispered, “You have to call the police. The man behind us is a thief.”

  “Ticket please,” the man in the booth said again.

  “He didn’t hear you,” Cam said.

  Mr. Jansen wrote CALL POLICE! on his ticket. THE MAN BEHIND US IS A THIEF! He handed the ticket to the man in the booth.

  The man looked at the ticket. He looked at Mr. Jansen. Then he looked at the man in the van.

  Cam and her father turned and looked at him, too.

  The man in the booth picked up his telephone. He pressed a few buttons and then said, “This is Gary in the south parking lot exit. Get me security. Get me the police.”

  The thief saw Gary talking on the telephone. He started to back up. There was a large white car right behind him.

  Honk! Honk!

  The thief honked his horn as he backed his van up. He bumped into the white car, turned, and drove off.

  “He’s getting away!” Cam shouted. “He’s getting away!”

  Chapter Nine

  A police car entered the lot. Officer Taylor was driving. Officer M, Eric, and Cam’s mother and grandparents were in the police car, too.

  Cam opened her window. She pointed to the gray van speeding across the lot and shouted, “Get him! He’s the thief. Get him!”

  The police car turned and followed the van.

  Rrrr! Rrrr!

  The police car’s lights were flashing. Its siren was blaring. It sped in front of the gray van and forced it to stop.

  Mr. Jansen turned and drove to where the police car and van had stopped. Everyone was standing by the van. Its back doors were open.

  “That’s all my stuff,” the driver told the police. “I always take a lot of clothes along when I travel.”

  Granny took a blue suitcase out of the van. She opened it and took out a dress and a pair of women’s shoes. “Are these yours?” she asked the driver of the van.

  He didn’t answer.

  The police arrested the driver of the van.

  Officer M put Gramps and Granny’s things in the trunk of the Jansen car. Granny and Gramps thanked the police officers.

  “And we thank you,” Officer M told Cam. “Your friend Eric said we should find out why you were waiting in the parking lot. He said you solve mysteries, and he was right.”

  Cam said, “I remembered there was a van parked next to our car and it was loaded with suitcases. When I saw all the people carrying their luggage to and from the terminal, I realized it was strange for someone to park here and not take his things.”

  “Cam has a photographic memory,” Eric said. “That’s why she remembered the van.”

  Officer Taylor thanked Cam. She locked the thief in the back of the police car and drove off. Officer M got in the van and followed them.

  Cam, Eric, and Cam’s
parents and grandparents watched the police car and the van leave the parking lot.

  “Well,” Gramps said. “We have a party to go to.”

  “It’s a surprise party for us,” Mrs. Jansen said, “and the surprise is, we’re not there.”

  They all crowded into the car and hurried home. On the way, Mr. Jansen smiled and said to Cam, “When we were driving to the airport, I told you we were not coming here to solve a mystery.”

  “Well, I’m glad she did,” Granny said. “Cam is always solving mysteries,” Eric told Cam’s grandparents.

  When they arrived at the party, everyone was happy that Cam’s grandparents were safe.

  They sang “Happy Birthday” to Cam’s parents again.

  “Open our gifts,” Gramps said to Mr. and Mrs. Jansen. “Take a look at what we gave you.

  Mrs. Jansen unwrapped her gift. It was a video camera. Mr. Jansen’s gift was a still-picture camera.

  “There’s film in both cameras,” Gramps said. “That’s part of the gift.”

  “Smile,” Mr. Jansen told everyone.

  He looked through the viewfinder of his new camera. He pressed the shutter button and the camera went, Click!

  “Keep smiling,” Cam told everyone. “My mental camera has film, too.” Then Cam looked at all the happy people at the surprise birthday party. Cam blinked her eyes and said, “Click!”