“I’m waiting,” Danny said, “and the crook won’t show up. That’s not right.”
“Lots of times,” Mr. Winter told him, “when I was a detective, I waited and watched and nothing happened.”
Danny whispered to Cam, “I could tell jokes. Then waiting here would be fun.”
Cam shook her head and whispered, “No. Waiting for a thief is too serious for jokes.”
“I have a question,” Eric said. “Why did the thief take the car key off the ring? He could have just taken all the keys.”
Jim E. Winter smiled.
“I have two answers to your question. It could be that he thought if he left the key ring, it would take longer for your dad and that other dad to know something was wrong. They would find their keys. They would not know their cars were stolen until later, when they went outside.”
Cam wiped the fog off the window again. Mrs. Jansen quickly gave Cam tissues. She didn’t want Cam to wipe her hands on her shirt.
“What’s the other reason?” Eric asked.
“Oh, the other reason,” Jim E. Winter said, and laughed. “Crooks often do strange things. That’s because they’re usually not the smartest people. If they were smart, they wouldn’t be stealing. In the end, they always get caught.”
“Cam, there you are,” someone called.
Cam turned. It was Beth.
“I was looking everywhere for you,” she said. “Look at my books. Mr. Winter signed them.”
Jim E. Winter turned.
“Oh,” Beth said. “I didn’t know you were here.”
“I chose three of your books,” Cam told Mr. Winter. “I’ll go in right now and pay for them. Then will you sign them for me?”
“Of course I will.”
Cam and her mother returned to the gym. Mrs. Jansen paid for the books. Then Cam brought them to Mr. Winter.
“Did anything happen?” Cam asked Eric.
“No. Just that the window fogged up again and I wiped it.”
Jim E. Winter looked at Cam and smiled. Then he signed the books, For Cam, a smart detective, from Detective Jim E. Winter.
“Thank you,” Cam said.
Cam looked outside. A car entered the school parking lot.
“Look,” Cam whispered. “If the thief is here, he’ll be watching, too. Maybe he’ll try to steal this car.”
Cam and the others watched the driver and his daughter get out of the car. The driver put the keys in his raincoat pocket. He opened an umbrella. Then he walked with his daughter into the school.
No one followed him.
“Welcome to the book fair,” Dr. Prell told the man and his daughter. “Please hang your coats in room seventeen. And please don’t leave your keys in your coat pocket. The books are in the gym.”
Everyone was quiet after that. They waited and watched.
Cam opened her copy of My Name Is Blake and the Scary Movie Mystery.
Cam turned to the third chapter. In it, Barry Blake is in the theater. He’s looking for the woman’s purse.
You won’t find it, Cam thought. That woman forgot where she was sitting. She’s taking you to the wrong seat.
Cam kept reading. In the fourth chapter, Barry Blake asks the woman if she is sure she brought her purse to the theater.
“Of course I did,” she says. “I had to buy a ticket, didn’t I? Well, I paid for it with some of the money I keep in my purse.”
A mother and her two sons walked past Cam and the others. They left the school. Cam watched them go to the parking lot. The woman found her car and drove off.
Cam read some more. In chapter six, Barry Blake finds the woman’s purse. No one had taken it. The woman had just forgotten where she had been sitting.
I knew it, Cam thought.
Cam closed the book.
Just then, three police cars drove up. Officer Oppen got out of the first car and entered the school.
“We drove up and down every block near the school,” he said. “We looked in every driveway, and then we saw a garage with the lights on. We looked in the window, and there they were—the two stolen cars.”
“I bet that garage has an automatic electric eye,” Jim E. Winter said. “When you go in or out, the light goes on.”
“Yes,” Officer Oppen said. “We found a man in the garage and arrested him. He’s outside.” Then he said to Cam, “We need you to tell us if he’s the man you saw in the parking lot.”
“I don’t want my daughter to meet any thief,” Mrs. Jansen told the officer. “He might be dangerous.”
“He’s handcuffed,” Officer Oppen said. “We’ll take him out of the car. We’ll shine a big light on him. You’ll be able to see him. But don’t worry. The light will be shining in his eyes. He won’t be able to see you.”
“Well,” Mrs. Jansen said, “that sounds safe.”
Cam joined Officers Oppen and Gray by the door to the school. Officer Oppen held a large light. He pointed it at a short fat man in a light-brown raincoat. Two police officers were standing beside him.
Cam closed her eyes. She said, “Click!” She looked at the picture she had in her head of the man in the parking lot.
“Yes,” Cam said, and opened her eyes. “That’s him.”
“Thank you,” Officer Oppen said. He waved to the other officers to let them know that Cam identified the thief.
“I’m sorry,” the short man in the light-brown raincoat called out as he got into the back of the first police car.
The police car drove off.
Cam and the two officers went back into the school.
“These are yours,” Officer Gray said. She gave a car key to Mr. Shelton and another to Mr. Pace. “We’ll take you to your cars.”
“This is a story with a happy ending,” Jim E. Winter said. “It’s happy for everyone but the thief. People will get their cars back, and I’ve got a great idea for a new book.”
“You’re going to put this in a book?” Eric asked.
“Yes, and in the front of the book I’ll thank Cam Jansen for helping me solve the mystery.”
“He didn’t solve the mystery,” Eric whispered to Cam. “You solved it all by yourself.”
“I don’t care about that,” Cam Jansen said. “What I care about is that my name will be in a book. Isn’t that great? My name will be in a book!”
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 to this page and answer these questions. Please, first study the picture, then look at the questions.
1. Is it raining in the picture?
2. How many cars are in the picture? How many open umbrellas?
3. What is written on the sign above the school doors?
4. How many school windows are in the picture? Is anyone looking out?
5. Is anyone in the picture wearing a skirt?
Cam Jansen and the Mystery Writer Mystery Page 3
