Cam Jansen and the Valentine Baby Mystery Read online

  There’s a thief in the hospital!

  “Please Dr. Berger,” Mrs. Shelton said, “can you tell us about Jane Jansen? How is she? Did she have her baby?”

  Dr. Berger smiled. “I was just with Mrs. Jansen,” she said, “and she’s doing very well. It will be a while before I can tell you any more than that.”

  Dr. Berger went to the coffee machine.

  Cam, Eric, and Mrs. Shelton went back to their seats.

  “It’s your turn,” Cam told Eric. “I said ‘Naomi’ and that ends with an ‘I.’”

  “Ian.”

  “Nellie.”

  “I’m getting a cup of coffee,” Mrs. Shelton told Cam and Eric. “Are you thirsty? Would you like some juice?”

  Cam and Eric wanted orange juice.

  Mrs. Shelton looked on the couch. She lifted her coat. Then she lifted Cam’s and Eric’s coats. “Hey,” she said. “Where’s my purse?”

  The Valentine Baby Mystery

  David A. Adler

  Illustrated by Susanna Natti

  PUFFIN BOOKS

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.

  Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700,

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  (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)

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  (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)

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  Registered Offices: Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  First published in the United States of America by Viking,

  a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 2005

  Published by Puffin Books, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 2006

  This edition published by Puffin Books, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 2011

  Text copyright © David A. Adler, 2005

  Interior illustrations copyright © Susanna Natti, 2005

  Logo illustration copyright © Penguin Young Readers Group, 2010

  All rights reserved

  CIP DATA IS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST FROM THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

  Puffin Books ISBN 978-1-101-66162-8

  Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.

  For Anne R. G.

  with thanks

  —D. A.

  To Lydia

  —S. N.

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER ONE

  “Hey, look at this,” Danny said.

  Cam Jansen and her friends Eric and Beth looked.

  Danny put a straw into his milk container. He blew milk bubbles that spilled onto the lunchroom table.

  “That’s not funny,” Eric said.

  “Well, this will be funny,” Danny said.

  His cream cheese and jelly sandwich, a large heart-shaped cookie, and an apple were on the table. Danny unwrapped the sandwich, took off the top piece of bread, and put it on his nose. It stuck.

  Cam and Eric started talking about math. Their teacher, Ms. Benson, had just taught a lesson on different kinds of triangles. Beth ate her sandwich.

  “You’re not looking. You’re not laughing,” Danny said.

  “I’m eating,” Beth told him. “That’s why I’m here.”

  Danny took the bread off his nose and put it on his chin.

  “Look now,” he said. “I have a beard. I’m Abraham Lincoln.”

  “Danny, why don’t you just eat your lunch,” Beth said. She showed Danny his heart-shaped cookie. “Look at what your mother wrote on your dessert.”

  I Love You was written in red icing across the front of the cookie.

  “That’s because it’s Valentine’s Day,” Danny said. “She always gives me heart cookies on Valentine’s Day.”

  Beth told him, “Your mother wants you to eat your lunch.”

  “And I want to wear my lunch,” Danny said.

  When Danny spoke, the bread on his chin went up and down. Children at the next table laughed.

  “Don’t laugh,” Beth told them. “If you laugh when he’s silly, he gets sillier.”

  Danny did get sillier. He stood on his chair and made chicken noises.

  “Cluck! Cluck! Cluck!”

  He held up his apple and said, “I laid a red egg.” He hugged it and said, “My little baby.”

  The children at the next table didn’t laugh.

  “You’re right,” a boy said. “He did get sillier.”

  Danny looked at the children at the next table. They were eating. He looked at Cam, Eric, and Beth. They were eating, too. Danny sat down. He took the bread off his chin and bit into it.

  “Your mother is nice,” Eric said to Danny. “She’s a reading teacher,” he told Cam and Beth. “In first grade, when I was having trouble learning to read, she helped me.”

  “Cam,” Beth said. “How is your mother? When will she have the baby?”

  “Soon, I think,” Cam answered. “Maybe in a few weeks. She said I’ll be surprised.”

  “What’s the surprise?” Eric asked. “You know you’re getting a sister.”

  “Maybe the surprise is, she’ll be like Cam,” Danny said. “She’ll have a picture memory, too. She’ll be born holding a camera. Instead of crying ‘Boo hoo,’ she’ll cry, ‘Click! Click!’”

  Cam has an amazing photographic memory. It’s as if she has pictures of whatever she’s seen stored in her head. Whenever she wants to be sure she remembers something, she looks at it, blinks her eyes, and says, “Click!” Cam says that’s the sound her mental camera makes when it takes a picture. When Cam wants to remember something she’s seen, she says, “Click!” again.

  Cam’s real name is Jennifer Jansen, but when people found out about her amazing memory they started calling her, “The Camera.” Soon “The Camera” became just “Cam.”

  Danny said, “We can call your new sister Film Jansen or Flash Jansen or Click Jansen.”

  Cam said, “I like the name Alice. It means ‘truth.’”

  Cam, Eric, and Beth had finished eating their lunches. They put the wrappers from their sandwiches and their empty milk containers in their lunch bags and threw them away.

  “Hurry,” Beth told Danny. “Lunchtime is almost over.”

  Danny took a big bite of his apple. Before he chewed it, he took a big bite of his heart-shaped cookie. His mouth was full. As
he chewed the apple and cookie, crumbs fell onto the table.

  Rrrr! Rrrr!

  “That’s the bell,” Beth said. “Let’s go.”

  Cam, Eric, and Beth started to leave the lunchroom.

  “Wghmt aw we!” Danny said.

  “What?” Beth asked.

  Cam told her, “I think he said, ‘Wait for me.’”

  Danny threw away his wrappers. He wiped the cream cheese and jelly off his face with his sleeve and said, “I’m ready.”

  They left the lunchroom and walked toward their classroom.

  The halls were decorated with large paper hearts. In the middle of each heart was a message. Among them were, I Love to Learn, I Love to Read, and I Love School.

  The children turned the corner. Their classroom was straight ahead, at the very end of the hall.

  “Hey,” Cam said. “Someone is talking to Ms. Benson.”

  “Maybe it’s your mother,” Beth said to Danny. “Maybe you’re in trouble.”

  “No,” Danny said as they got closer. “It’s Eric’s mother.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  Eric ran to his mother.

  “Why are you here, Mom? Is something wrong?”

  “I came for Cam,” Mrs. Shelton said. “Her mother is about to have the baby.”

  Ms. Benson told Eric, “Your mother is taking Cam to the hospital, so she can be there when her sister is born.”

  Cam, Beth, and Danny were by the door to the classroom now. Ms. Benson told Cam the good news. She told her to get her coat and books and go with Mrs. Shelton.

  “I want to go, too,” Eric said.

  “You know, Eric is Cam’s very best friend,” Mrs. Shelton said. “It would be nice for both of them if he could go, too.”

  Ms. Benson smiled and said, “Eric may go.”

  “What about me?” Danny asked. “I’m also Cam’s friend.”

  “I can’t just let you leave school,” Ms. Benson said. “I’ll need a note from your mother or father.”

  Cam and Eric put on their coats. They gathered their books. They were ready to leave the classroom when Danny called out, “Wait for me!”

  He gave Ms. Benson a note.

  “This must be one of your jokes,” Ms. Benson said after she read the note.

  “It’s not a joke,” Danny said. “I want to go with Cam and Eric.”

  Ms. Benson read the note aloud. “‘Please let me go to the hapistal.’ That’s what you wrote: ‘hapistal.’ And you signed it, ‘Danny’s dad.’”

  Danny smiled at Ms. Benson. She smiled, too, and shook her head. She wouldn’t allow him to go with Cam and Eric.

  Danny turned and started toward his seat, and children in the class laughed.

  “What?” Danny asked. “I didn’t even tell a joke.”

  Math worksheets from Ms. Benson’s desk were stuck to the cream cheese and jelly on Danny’s sleeve.

  “That’s a good idea,” Ms. Benson said. “You can hand out the worksheets.”

  Danny went back to Ms. Benson’s desk. He took the rest of the worksheets from her desk. He gave sheets to Cam and Eric. Then he walked through the room and gave one to each of his classmates.

  Cam and Eric followed Mrs. Shelton to her car. “Buckle up,” Mrs. Shelton said as they got in.

  Cam and Eric got into the backseat of the car and put on their seat belts.

  “What’s the name of a triangle with all three sides the same length?” Eric asked. He was reading from the worksheet.

  “I’m not thinking about triangles,” Cam answered. “I’m thinking about my sister.”

  “That’s exactly what I’m thinking about,” Mrs. Shelton said. “Babies are so cute.”

  “It’s equilateral,” Eric said. Then he folded the worksheet. He put it in his jacket pocket and said, “I’ll do this later.”

  It was a short ride to the hospital. Mrs. Shelton drove to the entrance of the parking garage. The gate was down. Mrs. Shelton stopped the car and pulled a ticket from the machine, and the gate went up.

  “Here,” Mrs. Shelton said, and gave Eric the ticket. “Please hold this.”

  It was a large garage with several levels. Mrs. Shelton drove along the ramps from one level to the next. The first empty spot she found was on the fifth level. Mrs. Shelton parked her car. When she, Cam, and Eric got out, she pushed the car clicker on her key ring. The car lights blinked as the doors locked.

  “Let’s go,” Mrs. Shelton said.

  The front lobby of the hospital was decorated with pink ribbons and lots of paper hearts.

  “Hey,” Eric told Cam. “Your sister’s birthday will be February fourteenth, Valentine’s Day. That’s so great!”

  Mrs. Shelton told the man at the front desk, “We’re here to see Mrs. Jane Jansen.”

  “Maternity, fourth floor,” the man said after he checked on the computer. Then he looked at Cam and Eric. “Are these Jane Jansen’s children?”

  “She’s Mrs. Jansen’s daughter, and he’s my son.”

  The man smiled and said, “Go ahead upstairs.”

  Cam, Eric, and Mrs. Shelton went to the elevator. They got off at the fourth floor and followed signs to the maternity ward.

  “Look, Cam,” Mrs. Shelton said, and pointed down the hall. “There’s your dad.”

  Cam ran to him.

  He hugged Cam. “Mom is waiting to go to the delivery room,” he said. “I’ll tell her you’re here.” Then he hurried off.

  CHAPTER THREE

  “Babies have their own schedules,” Mrs. Shelton said as she, Cam, and Eric went to the waiting room. “It may be a few minutes or a few hours before your sister is born.”

  In a large chair in the corner of the room was a man. His legs were stretched out onto a small table. His coat was over his legs, and he was asleep. A white-haired old woman and one with blonde hair were also in the room. They were sitting together and reading magazines. In the back of the room were vending machines, one with coffee and one with juice.

  “It’s hot here,” Mrs. Shelton said, and took off her coat. She put the coat and her purse on a couch near the sleeping man. Cam and Eric also took off their coats.

  Eric said, “Let’s play a game while we wait. Let’s play Geography. I’ll name a place, like ‘Texas.’ That ends with an ‘S.’ Then you’ll name a place that starts with an ‘S,’ like ‘South Dakota.’”

  “Let’s do it with babies’ names,” Cam suggested, “and I’ll go first.” Then Cam smiled and said, “Alice.”

  “That ends with an ‘E,’” Eric said. “Etain.”

  “Hey, that’s a boy’s name. I’m not having a brother.”

  “‘Etain’ is a name,” Eric said, “and it ends with an ‘N.’”

  “‘Nancy.’”

  “‘Y,’” Eric said. He thought for a moment and then said, “‘Yale.’”

  “‘Ellen.’”

  “‘Nathan.’”

  “‘Naomi.’”

  A man in a white doctor’s jacket walked into the room.

  “Maybe he’s your mother’s doctor,” Mrs. Shelton said to Cam.

  Mrs. Shelton quickly walked to the man. Cam and Eric followed her.

  “Excuse me, Doctor,” Mrs. Shelton said. “Can you tell me about Jane Jansen? How is she? Was she taken to the delivery room?”

  “Jane Jansen,” the man said, and rubbed his chin. “I don’t think she’s one of my patients.”

  “She has red hair,” Mrs. Shelton said. “She’s about to have a baby.”

  Just then a woman in a white doctor’s coat walked into the waiting room.

  “Maybe she can help you,” the man said, and walked toward the coffee machine.

  Cam, Eric, and Mrs. Shelton went to the woman.

  The woman wore a name tag. Her name was Judith Berger.

  “Please, Dr. Berger,” Mrs. Shelton said, “can you tell us about Jane Jansen? How is she? Did she have her baby?”

  Dr. Berger smiled. “I was just with Mrs. Jansen,” she said, “and sh
e’s doing very well. It will be a while before I can tell you any more than that.”

  Dr. Berger went to the coffee machine.

  Cam, Eric, and Mrs. Shelton went back to their seats.

  “It’s your turn,” Cam told Eric. “I said ‘Naomi’ and that ends with an ‘I.’”

  “‘Ian.’”

  “‘Nellie.’”

  “I’m getting a cup of coffee,” Mrs. Shelton told Cam and Eric. “Are you thirsty? Would you like some juice?”

  Cam and Eric wanted orange juice.

  Mrs. Shelton looked on the couch. She lifted her coat. Then she lifted Cam’s and Eric’s coats. “Hey,” she said. “Where’s my purse?”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “Maybe it fell behind the couch,” Eric said.

  Cam and Eric crawled on the floor, first under and then behind the couch. They crawled out again holding a few candy wrappers and a dirty coffee cup.

  “Look at both of you,” Mrs. Shelton said. “Your hands and pants are filthy.”

  Eric wiped his hands on the seat of his pants and said, “They should keep this place cleaner. It’s a hospital.”

  “Here,” Mrs. Shelton said, and took two wrapped Wet Wipes from her coat pocket. “Please clean your hands.”

  Cam and Eric each tore one open and cleaned their hands.

  Eric looked at the others in the waiting room. Dr. Berger was in the back, drinking coffee. The two old women were still reading, and the man in the corner was still asleep.

  “Maybe he’s not really asleep,” Eric whispered. “Maybe he took Mom’s purse and he hid it under his coat.”

  Eric quietly moved closer to the man. Eric smiled. The man didn’t react. Eric stuck out his tongue and waved his hands. The man still didn’t move.

  The two old women had put down their magazines. They were standing next to Mrs. Shelton.

  “What is he doing?” the white-haired woman asked.

  “He wants to see if the man is sleeping,” Cam whispered.

  “What did you say?” the woman asked.

  She had her hand cupped behind her ear.

  “The boy wants to see if that man is sleeping,” the blonde-haired woman said really loudly.