Cam Jansen and the Basketball Mystery
Page 3
The Sheltons hurried over.
“What happened?” Mrs. Shelton asked. “Why are you shouting? Did my son do something?”
“No,” Brian said. “It’s your daughter. She got cake stuff and ice cream all over my jacket.”
“Oh, she’s not my daughter. She’s a friend.”
“What’s the problem?” the Hamilton Helper standing by the door asked.
“This girl got cake and ice cream all over my jacket,” Brian shouted.
Mr. Shelton took out his wallet.
Coach Jenkins, Governor Zellner, three of his guards, and his two assistants came over.
“What’s wrong?” the tall red-haired assistant asked.
Brian looked at Coach Jenkins, Governor Zellner, his assistants, and the guards.
“I’ve got to go,” Brian said.
“No, wait,” Mr. Shelton said. “I’ll pay the cleaning bill.”
Brian didn’t wait. He rushed to the door. He seemed scared. He kicked balloons aside and ran out of the cafeteria.
“Stop him,” Cam told the governor’s guards. “He knows something about the missing basketball.”
Coach Jenkins asked, “What missing basketball?”
“Don’t worry,” one of the guards told the coach. “We’ll find it.”
“Find what?” Governor Zellner asked.
“The basketball you signed is missing,” the guard said. “It must have rolled off. We’ll find it.”
“No, you won’t,” Cam said. “If that boy gets away you won’t ever find that basketball.”
Cam, Eric, and others hurried to the door. They watched Brian hurry through the parking lot.
“Stop him!” Eric said. “We have to stop him before he gets away.”
“Did he take the basketball?” one of the guards asked.
“We think he did,” Cam answered.
Governor Zellner said, “We can’t stop someone because you think he did something wrong.”
Danny pushed into the crowd. He had two balloons and a sharp toothpick.
“Hey, Mr. Governor, do you know who I am?” Danny asked. “I’m ‘Buster’ Danny.” He pointed the toothpick at the balloon and said, “Watch this.”
“Not now,” Eric told him.
“Yes now,” Danny said, and pushed the toothpick into one of the balloons. “This is funny.”
Pop!
The busted balloon fell to the floor.
“That’s why they call me ‘Buster,’” Danny said and pushed the toothpick into the second balloon.
Pop!
The second busted balloon fell to the floor.
Cam looked at the two busted balloons.
“That’s it!” Cam said. “I know where the basketball is hidden. And that boy has it!”
“Are you sure?” Governor Zellner asked.
“Yes,” Cam told him. “I think I am. I think I know where to find that basketball.”
The guards looked at the governor.
“Go ahead,” Governor Zellner told the guards. “Tell that boy I want to see him.”
Chapter Eight
Two of the guards rushed outside.
“I hope you’re right,” Governor Zellner told Cam. “I don’t want to bring him back here if he did nothing wrong.”
“I also hope I’m right,” Cam said.
Cam, Eric, and the others watched the two guards run through the parking lot. Brian started running, too, but the guards were too fast for him.
The guards caught up to Brian and talked to him. One stood on one side of Brian. The other guard stood on the other side. They were much taller than Brian.
“Look,” Eric said, and pointed. “He’s coming back.”
Brian walked slowly into the cafeteria. The guards were right behind him. His head was down. He kicked aside some balloons and stood in front of Governor Zellner.
“They said you wanted to talk to me.”
“Yes, I do,” Governor Zellner said.
Eric said, “Ask him what’s in the bag.”
“Stuff,” he answered. “I didn’t do anything wrong. It’s not against the law to have stuff, is it?”
“If there’s just stuff in your bag,” one of the guards said, “you won’t mind if we look in it.”
Cam said, “I think the ‘stuff’ you have in that bag is a stolen basketball.”
Brian laughed. “A basketball wouldn’t fit.”
“He’s right,” Governor Zellner said. “That bag is too small to hold a basketball.”
Cam took a balloon off the floor. Cam asked Brian and Governor Zellner, “Do you think I could fit this balloon in my pocket?”
“Of course not,” the governor answered. “It’s too big.”
“Please,” she said to Danny, “give me a toothpick.”
Danny gave Cam a toothpick. She poked it into the balloon.
Pop!
The balloon broke.
Cam put the broken balloon in her pocket.
“You see,” she said. “Without the air, it fits in my pocket. And without the air in the basketball, it would fit in that bag.”
“Is that what you did?” Governor Zellner asked Brian.
He didn’t answer.
“May I have that?” the governor said.
Brian gave him the bag. Governor Zellner took out a small wrinkled basketball. There were signatures on the ball and a line and circle drawing.
“Yeah! Cam did it again!” Eric said. “She solved another mystery.”
Mr. Shelton said, “I bet Brian heard on the news that you were giving Coach a basketball signed by Matt Taylor.”
Governor Zellner looked at the many people who had gathered around him, Coach Jenkins, Cam, Eric, and Brian. Jordan Gold and the other Hamilton players were there, too. They had showered. Now they were dressed in regular clothes.
“I’m calling the police,” the governor said. “They’ll handle this.”
One of the guards took out a cell phone. He called the police.
Governor Zellner gave Coach Jenkins the wrinkled basketball.
The coach laughed. “It’s like me,” he said. “I’ve got wrinkles, too.”
Cam thought, It’s also like Mr. Shelton. His face has lots of wrinkles.
“That’s easy to fix,” Jordan Gold said. “I’ll pump it up.”
Coach Jenkins gave Jordan Gold the wrinkled basketball.
Governor Zellner turned to Cam and Eric. “People who do good deeds should be rewarded. Now how should I reward you for finding Coach’s basketball?”
Coach Jenkins whispered something to the governor.
“That’s a good idea,” Governor Zellner said.
Coach Jenkins then whispered to Jordan Gold. He gave him some keys.
“Don’t forget me,” Danny said. “I also helped find the basketball. My buster joke helped Cam solve the mystery.”
“Yes,” Coach Jenkins said. “Bring three.”
Two police cars drove up to school. Four police officers got out of the cars. They walked into the cafeteria. Governor Zellner told them what Brian had done.
“Come with us,” one of the police officers said.
Brian left the cafeteria with the officers. He got into the back of one of the police cars. The two cars drove off.
Jordan Gold came back with the basketball and three orange Hamilton High School sweatshirts. The basketball was filled with air. It didn’t have wrinkles.
Jordan Gold gave the governor the three sweatshirts. A guard gave the governor a black marker. Governor Zellner signed each of the shirts.
The guard gave a shirt to Cam, Eric, and Danny.
Danny put on his shirt. He puffed out his stomach and said, “Hey, look. I’m an orange pumpkin.”
No one laughed.
“Oh well,” Danny said. “My jokes helped Cam solve the mystery. It pays to tell good jokes.”
Diane shook her head and said, “You mean it pays to tell bad jokes. It pays to tell real bad jokes.”
Cam and Eric laughed. Governor Ze
llner, Coach Jenkins, and lots of other people looked at Danny with his puffed-out stomach and laughed. Then Danny, the orange pumpkin, laughed, too.
A Cam Jansen Memory Game
Take another look at the picture opposite page 1. Study it. Blink your eyes and say, “Click!”Then turn back here and answer the questions at the bottom of the page. Please, first study the picture, then look at the questions.
1. Is Mr. Shelton wearing a hat? Eyeglasses?
2. How many people are in the Sheltons’ SUV?
3. Who is sitting directly behind Mr. Shelton?
4. What is the baby holding?
5. Are Eric’s twin sisters wearing shirts with stripes?
6. Who is holding Mr. Shelton’s yearbook, Cam or Eric?