The Mystery at the Haunted House

by David A. Adler

  “Look,” Cam said, “there’s a police officer.”

  Cam ran to the officer. She came back a few minutes later and told Aunt Katie, “She says we should go to the security office. She told me where it is. Follow me.”

  The security office was in a small building near the merry-go-round. Cam, Eric, Aunt Katie, and Uncle George went inside.

  “Oh, my,” Aunt Katie said. “There’s a line here, too.” Aunt Katie and Uncle George got in line, right behind a woman in a blue dress.

  Cam and Eric went to the park entrance. Many people were coming into the park. Cam tried to push one of the turnstiles to go out. A man on the other side was pushing it in.

  “It doesn’t go that way,” the man said.

  “Come on,” Eric said. “We have to go through the gate over there. But first we have to get our hands stamped, so we can come back in.”

  At the gate, a woman pressed a rubber stamp onto an ink pad and then onto the backs of Cam’s and Eric’s hands.

  “There’s nothing on my hand,” Cam said.

  The woman said, “Yes, there is. When you’re ready to come back into the park, I’ll pass your hands under a special light. Then you’ll see what I stamped. You’ll be surprised.”

  Cam and Eric walked through the gate. Cam was still looking at her hand.

  There were several ticket booths. Eric pointed to one and said, “This is it. This is where Aunt Katie bought the tickets. It had the shortest line.”

  Cam and Eric walked to the front of the line. A man surrounded with children was next.

  “We don’t want to buy tickets,” Eric told the man.

  “I don’t want to buy tickets, either. But it’s the only way to get into the park.”

  “We were already in the park,” Eric said. “Look at my hand. It’s stamped.”

  The man looked at Eric’s hand and smiled. “There’s nothing on your hand, but you can go ahead of me.”

  Cam closed her eyes and said, “Click.”

  Eric said to the ticket seller, “My friend’s aunt was here about two hours ago. We think she may have left her wallet.”

  “Click.”

  “I have a credit card that someone forgot, and two pens, a newspaper, and a magazine, but no wallet.”

  “Eric,” Cam said, “Eric, I know where Aunt Katie’s wallet is. She didn’t leave it somewhere. It was stolen and I know who took it.”

  Chapter Five

  “Who was it? Who stole her wallet?” Eric asked.

  “Those roller-skating boys, the ones who knocked Aunt Katie down. They took it. Pickpockets work like that, in teams. They bump into people and reach into their pockets or handbags. Come on. We have to find them.”

  Cam walked to the turnstiles.

  “May I have your ticket, please?” the guard standing there said.

  “We were in already. Our hands were stamped.”

  The guard pointed to the left and said, “You have to go to the re-entry gate.”

  Cam and Eric ran to the gate.

  “You’re back here so soon,” the woman there said. “Now you’ll see what I stamped on your hand. Every day I use a different stamp.”

  She held Cam’s hand under a small lamp.

  “It’s a frog sitting on a lily pad,” Cam said.

  “Yesterday I used my stamp of a rabbit eating a carrot.”

  Eric passed his hand under the lamp. Then he asked Cam, “Where do we look for them?”

  “They were skating along this path. They probably still are.”

  Cam and Eric walked past a popcorn wagon, a shop selling posters and post-cards, and the racing car ride. Cam was walking quickly. Eric had to hurry to keep up with her.

  “Why are we looking for them?” Eric asked. “Why don’t we just tell one of the guards? They have walkie-talkies. They could find the boys real fast.”

  Cam turned while she was walking and told Eric, “Because I don’t know for sure that they stole the wallet. I clicked, but I don’t have a picture of them taking it.”

  “Watch it! Watch where you’re going,” a man said. Cam had bumped into him.

  “I’m sorry,” Cam said. She walked more slowly now, and looked ahead as she spoke to Eric.

  “We’ll follow them. As soon as they knock into someone, we’ll check if his wallet is missing. If it is, we’ll know those boys are the thieves. Then we’ll tell the guards.”

  Eric smiled. “Did you take his wallet?”

  “Whose?”

  “That man you bumped into. We’re a team. We’re walking together and you bumped into that man. Did you take his wallet?”

  “Of course not! But that’s why we have to see what happens when those skaters bump into someone else. Maybe I’m wrong.”

  Cam and Eric walked past small shops selling magic tricks, stuffed animals, and children’s books. They walked past the Spinning Hat ride and a very long line of people waiting to ride the roller coaster.

  Suddenly Cam ran ahead, pointing and shouting. “Look! Look! There they are!”

  The two boys were skating on a path around a small pond. There were ducks, geese, and a few swans in the pond. Cam ran after the boys. Eric followed her.

  The boys skated past a woman and her two children. They skated between a man and his son.

  Cam almost bumped into the man. “Excuse me,” she said.

  “Excuse me, too,” Eric said.

  The boys skated past a man who was throwing bread crumbs to the ducks, geese, and swans. The noise of the skates scared them and a few of the ducks flew off.

  Eric stopped running. He sat on a bench and stretched out his legs. When Cam saw him there, she stopped, too.

  “I can’t keep up with them,” Eric said to Cam.

  “Neither can I.”

  They sat on the bench and watched the boys skate around the pond. A few people had to move quickly to get out of their way. One woman yelled at the boys, but they didn’t stop. They skated faster and faster until they knocked into a man selling balloons. When he fell to the ground, one of his balloons flew off.

  Cam jumped up from the bench. “You help the man,” she told Eric. “Then check if his wallet has been stolen. I’ll get someone from security.”

  One of the boys reached out his hand and said to the man, “Let me help you up.”

  The man pushed his hand away and said, “Don’t help me. Just take off those skates. You boys are a danger.”

  “I’ll help you,” Eric said.

  The man reached out and held onto Eric’s hand and pulled himself up.

  “We’re sorry,” one of the boys said. Then both boys skated off.

  Cam ran past the shops. Then, near the Spinning Hat ride, she saw a security guard. Just as Cam reached the guard, the boys skated past.

  Trill. Trill.

  The guard blew his whistle. He ran after the boys. Cam followed him.

  “Stop that! Stop skating.”

  The guard couldn’t keep up with the boys. He waved his arms at them, but they didn’t seem to notice. The guard stopped running. He took the walkie-talkie off his belt, and spoke into it.

  “This is Frankie in Section Four. Two teenage boys just skated past me toward the roller coaster. Maybe you can stop them. I couldn’t.”

  “They bumped into my aunt,” Cam told the guard. “They knocked her down and ...”

  “Wait! Wait!”

  Cam turned. Eric was running toward her.

  “Don’t tell him!” he called out. “Don’t tell him!”

  Chapter Six

  When Eric reached Cam, he took a deep breath and said, “They didn’t take his wallet. The man still has it.”

  The guard was a tall, thin man. He looked down at Cam and asked, “Do you have something else to tell me?”

  “No.”

  The guard spoke into his walkie-talkie again. “This is Frankie in Section Four. I’m going back to my post,” he said. Then he walked back to the Spinning Hat ride.

  “What do we do now?”
Eric asked.

  “Let’s go back to the security office. Aunt Katie and Uncle George may be worried about us.”

  They walked past the Spinning Hat ride. Children sitting in the hats were laughing and shouting as they spun around. People on the log ride and on the merry-go-round seemed to be having a good time, too.

  “You know,” Eric said, “every time I go someplace with you, something seems to happen. I’d rather spin around in a hat, or sit in a log floating in water than chase two boys on roller skates.”

  Aunt Katie and Uncle George had answered some questions and signed some papers, but they hadn’t found the wallet. They were outside the security office waiting for Cam and Eric.

  “We won’t let this ruin our day,” Aunt Katie said. “Let’s go on some more rides. When we’re ready to leave the park, we’ll stop at the Lost and Found department. I’m sure my wallet will turn up.”

  Eric said, “I’d like to go on the Spinning Hat ride. It looks like lots of fun and I know just where it is.”

  As they followed him to the ride, Aunt Katie said, “I wasn’t the only one who lost a wallet today. The woman just ahead of me in line lost her wallet, too.”

  Cam stopped walking. She closed her eyes and said, “Click.”

  Eric, Aunt Katie, and Uncle George stopped and watched Cam.

  “Click.”

  “Click.”

  Cam opened her eyes. She smiled and walked ahead.

  Cam stopped when they came to the Haunted House. “Let’s go through here again,” she said. “It was fun before and the line is short now.”

  Eric did not want to go through the house again, but Cam insisted. After a few minutes, the doors opened and they went inside.

  Eric smiled at the painting with the moving eyes. When the low, deep voice said, “Welcome to my home,” Eric said, “Thank you.”

  A door creaked open. Someone screamed, “Help! Help!” Then a toy black cat jumped off the shelf at them. Eric waved his arms at the cat and yelled, “Boo!”

  “Oh, my,” Aunt Katie said. “You didn’t scare the cat, but you did scare me.”

  They followed the small purple lights past spiderwebs and creaking furniture. The chair walked past them again and the walls seemed to be falling down. Then a door opened and they were outside.

  “That wasn’t as scary the second time,” Aunt Katie said.

  “It wasn’t scary at all,” Eric said. “Now let’s go to the spinning hats. That will be fun.”

  Eric started to walk ahead.

  “Stop!” Uncle George called. “Where’s Cam?”

  Aunt Katie and Eric looked around.

  “Oh, my,” Aunt Katie said. “She never came out of that house.”

  Chapter Seven

  Aunt Katie went to the guard standing by the exit and said, “My niece went through with us and she’s still in there. She may be lost, or hurt.”

  “How old is she?”

  “Ten.”

  “She’s old enough to follow the lights. Don’t worry. No one gets lost in the house. Some people just take longer than others to go through it.”

  Eric, Aunt Katie, and Uncle George waited outside the exit door. Some of the people coming out of the Haunted House looked scared. Others came out smiling and laughing.

  Aunt Katie looked at her watch.

  The door opened. More people came out, but Cam wasn’t with them.

  Aunt Katie looked at her watch again. Uncle George patted her hand and said, “Don’t worry.”

  Aunt Katie took a few steps to the left. She turned and took a few steps to the right. As she walked, she talked. “Maybe she fell. Maybe the black cat scared her, or the moving eyes, and she fainted. I’m going back in there. I’m getting in line and going back in.”

  Just then the door opened. A woman, two children, a young man, and Cam came out of the house.

  Aunt Katie ran to her. “Oh, I was so worried,” she told Cam.

  “Shh!”

  “I thought you were hurt, or maybe lost.” Shh!” Cam said again and pointed to the young man ahead.

  He was wearing a black shirt, black pants, black shoes. He was carrying a small shopping bag. Cam followed him through the crowd. Aunt Katie, and Uncle George followed Cam. When they came to the main path, where there was more room to walk, Cam didn’t follow the young man as closely.

  “Get one of the security guards,” Cam whispered to Eric. “He’s the one who stole Aunt Katie’s wallet. He stole lots of other people’s wallets, too.”

  Eric and Aunt Katie went into the security office. Cam and Uncle George followed the man through the gate to the parking lot.

  The young man went to a small green car. He opened the trunk and emptied the shopping bag into it. He looked around and then walked back toward Cam and Uncle George.

  Uncle George didn’t want the young man to know he was watching him. He quickly went to one of the public telephones. He picked up the receiver and talked into it. “Yes, Ruthie.”

  The man walked past Cam and Uncle George to the re-entry gate.

  “Shouldn’t we follow him?” Uncle George whispered.

  “We don’t have to. I know just where he’s going.” Cam smiled. “You can finish your telephone call to Ruthie.”

  “What?” Uncle George looked at the telephone he was still holding. “Oh,” he said, and hung up.

  Cam waited a minute. Then she said, “We can go now.”

  At the re-entry gate, Cam passed her hand under the small lamp. The woman said to Uncle George, “You’re lucky. I remember you so you can go in again, but you should have had your hand stamped. Take a look at the stamp I used today. It’s cute.”

  Cam passed her hand under the small lamp again. Uncle George looked at it. “It’s a frog sitting on a lily pad,” Cam said.

  Cam and Uncle George met Eric and Aunt Katie outside the security office. Two security guards were with them. One guard was short and had a long curly beard. The other guard was a woman with long blonde hair.

  Cam said to them,“I’ll bet a lot of people came to you today and told you their wallets had been stolen.”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, if you follow me, I’ll take you to the thief. I know just where he’s hiding.”

  Chapter Eight

  They all followed Cam to the Haunted House. Cam walked quickly. She also talked quickly.

  “Aunt Katie gave me the first clue. She said the woman ahead of her at the security office had lost her wallet, too. Well, I said, Click. I had seen that woman with the blue dress before. I had a picture of her stored in my head. She was the same scared woman we saw coming out of the Haunted House.

  “I said Click again. I remembered that someone jumped out at Aunt Katie. He must have jumped out at that woman, too. That’s why she was so scared.

  “People thought the man dressed in black was there to scare them. He wasn’t. He hid in the dark and stole from them. I watched him do it.”

  They had reached the Haunted House. The guards walked to the front of the line with Cam. The short guard went to the exit door. The guard with the long blonde hair told the guard at the house not to let anyone in.

  They waited for people to leave the Haunted House. Then the guard with the blonde hair said to Cam, “I’m Mary. Can you show me where the thief is hiding?”

  Cam and Mary walked into the Haunted House. Mary turned on the lights.

  “He’s not in here,” Cam said. “He’s in the next room.”

  Cam followed Mary through the creaking door. Mary turned on the light.

  “There he is,” Cam said and pointed. “Behind that curtain.”

  The man dressed in black ran for the exit. Mary and Cam ran after him. The door opened. The man ran out, right into the arms of the short guard with the curly beard.

  Cam told Mary and the other guard that she and Uncle George had followed him to the parking lot. “You’ll probably find Aunt Katie’s wallet and all the other missing wallets in the trunk of the green car.”r />
  The guards told Aunt Katie that as soon is they found her wallet, she would be called :o the security office. “While you wait,” Mary ;aid, “why don’t you go on one of the rides.”

  The thief was locked in handcuffs and led away by the two guards. Cam, Eric, Aunt Katie, and Uncle George watched them walk off. Then they walked to the Spinning Hat ride.

  “You know,” Uncle George said as they walked, “Aunt Katie and I are very proud of you.” Uncle George stopped walking for a moment. He patted Cam’s hand, looked at her, smiled, and said, “That’s all I’m going to say.”

  “Thank you,” Cam said. “Many people talk too much, but you say just enough. I’m glad you’re proud of me.”

  Cam and Eric went on the Spinning Hat ride. Aunt Katie and Uncle George stood on the side and watched.

  Cam and Eric rode in an upside down purple derby. In the center of the derby was a large metal wheel. The more they turned the wheel, the faster the hat spun around. Cam kept turning the wheel. When Cam and Eric came off the ride, they were dizzy.

  “Oh, my,” Aunt Katie said. “You’re walking funny.”

  “May I have your attention, please,” someone announced over the park’s loudspeaker.

  “Would Stanley Johnson, Alyse Neumark, Gabriella Goldwyn, Pat Baker, and Jessica Jones please come to the security office. Thank you.”

  “Their wallets must have been found in that man’s trunk,” Cam said. “Let’s start walking toward the office. I’m sure Aunt Katie’s name will be announced soon.”

  As they walked through the park, they passed two teenage boys. Each boy was carrying a pair of roller skates.

  “I guess someone finally stopped them from skating,” Eric said.

  “May I have your attention, please. Would Jane Taylor, Adina Zellner, Karen Kessler, and Katie Jansen please come to the security office. Thank you.”