The School Play Mystery Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  A Cam Jansen Memory Game

  How could someone steal money from a sealed box?

  Susie looked to the right again. Then she said, “You walked all this way to bring me six cents?” She patted Eric’s shoulder and said, “Now I know why people call you Honest Abe.”

  Eric and Susie walked to the center of the stage and bowed. The children who had been in Offutt’s Store came out and bowed, too. People in the audience clapped.

  As the curtain closed, Sara said to Cam and Danny, “This is a play about Honest Abe Lincoln, but there’ someone here who’s not honest at all.”

  “He’s not honest, but he’s clever,” Danny said. “Somehow, he stole the money without opening the box. And he stole the money without Sara or me seeing him do it.”

  “Ms. Benson said she was counting on me,” Cam said, “and now the money is gone. I’ve got to tell her what happened.”

  The Cam Jansen Adventure Series

  DON’T FORGET ABOUT THE YOUNG CAM JANSEN SERIES FOR YOUNGER READERS!

  PUFFIN BOOKS

  Published by the Penguin Group

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

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  (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)

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

  First published in the United States of America by Viking,

  a division of Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers, 2001

  Published by Puffin Books, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 2003, 2005

  Text copyright © David A. Adler, 2001

  Illustrations copyright © Susanna Natti, 2001

  All rights reserved

  THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HAS CATALOGED THE VIKING EDITION AS FOLLOWS:

  Adler, David A.

  Cam Jansen and the school play mystery / David A. Adler ; illustrated by Susanna Natti.

  p. cm.—(A Cam Jansen adventure ; 21)

  Summary: When a thief takes the box office money at the school play,

  Cam uses her photographic memory to solve the mystery.

  eISBN : 978-1-101-17525-5

  [1. Theater—Fiction. 2. Schools—Fiction. 3. Mystery and detective stories.]

  I. Natti, Susanna, ill. II. Title.

  PZ7.A2615 Caqk 2001

  [Fic]—dc21 00-068662

  RL: 2.0

  http://us.penguingroup.com

  CHAPTER ONE

  “I ... I ... I ...” Eric Shelton said. “Oh, I can’t do this!”

  Eric looked at the papers he was holding. “It’s too scary.” He shook his head. “I can’t do this,” he said. “I just can’t.”

  Eric wore a long black jacket, white shirt, black bow tie, and black boots. He stood on the stage of his school’s auditorium. He was the star of the school play, Stories of President Lincoln.

  “Of course you can,” his friend Cam Jansen told him. “You’re smart and honest. You’ll make a great President Lincoln.”

  Eric smiled.

  “I love the second half of the play,” Cam told him. “I love it when you put on that top hat and beard. You look just like President Lincoln.”

  “But I won’t remember my lines.”

  “Sure you will,” Cam told him. “You have a great memory.”

  “No,” Eric said. “I have a good memory. You have a great memory.”

  Now Cam smiled.

  “Here,” Eric said. He gave Cam his papers. “Test me. See if I know my lines.”

  “I don’t need the script.” Cam pointed to her head. “I have a picture of it right here,” she said.

  Cam closed her eyes and said, “Click.” “It’s six cents,” Eric said. “I made a mistake this morning when you were in the store.”

  “You walked all this way to bring me six cents?” Cam asked with her eyes still closed.

  Cam reached out and hit Eric’s nose. “Oops! I’m sorry,” Cam said.

  Eric moved her hand to his shoulder.

  Cam patted Eric’s shoulder and said, “Now I know why people call you Honest Abe.”

  Eric applauded. “That was great,” he said. “You know Susie’s part.”

  Cam opened her eyes, “I know everyone’s part,” she said. “I have a picture in my head of every page of the script.”

  Eric was right. Cam does have a great memory. “I have a mental camera,” she says, “and pictures in my head of just about everything I’ve seen.”

  Cam says, “Click, ” when she wants to use her mental camera. She says Click is the sound her mental camera makes.

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

  “Where’s Susie?” Ms. Benson called out. “Where’s Jane? Where’s Hillel? Hurry! Hurry!”

  Children ran to their places.

  “Cam, is everything in order back here?”

  “Yes,” Cam answered.

  “Good. I’m counting on you.”

  Ms. Benson fixed Eric’s bow tie and Susie’s collar. Then she told Cam, “Let’s go out front.”

  Cam followed Ms. Benson into the hall. Two children sat there behind a table. On the table were schoolbooks, a comic book, a few animal crackers, a pile of tickets, and a shoe box.

  “Sara and Danny, this is no good,” Ms. Benson said. “I want just the box and the tickets on the table.”

  Sara and Danny took everything else off the table.

  There was a slit in the top of the shoe box. The sides were neatly taped to keep the box closed.

  “The money goes in here,” Ms. Benson said. She pointed to the top of the shoe box.

  “And don’t take off the tape. Just put the money in the box. Tickets are one dollar each, so you shouldn’t have to make change.”

  “I think we’re ready,” Cam said.

  Ms. Benson looked at her watch.

  “OK,” she told Cam. “Let’s open the doors.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  Cam turned the latch on the doors to the school yard. Ms. Benson pushed the doors open.

  “Welcome. Welcome,” Ms. Benson said to the people who walked in. “Just line up by the table. Sara and Danny will be happy to sell you tickets. Remember, all the money we raise goes to charity. It’s for Ride and Read, to bring homebound elderly people to the library.”

  An old woman was the first in line. “My granddaughter is in the play,” she told Sara. “She’s Mary Todd Lincoln.”

  The next woman in line said, “My nephew is taking care of the lights. T
hat’s important, too.”

  Cam walked past the long line of people waiting to buy tickets. She went outside, into the school yard. Some young children were on the swings. Lots of teenagers were playing basketball.

  Cam looked across the school yard. Then she saw her parents and Eric’s family. Cam waved. “Hurry,” she called to them. “The play is about to start.”

  “This is so exciting,” Mr. and Mrs. Jansen said as they entered the school.

  Eric’s twin sisters, Donna and Diane, were next. Then Mr. and Mrs. Shelton walked in. Mr. Shelton carried Eric’s baby brother, Howie.

  “Sh,” Mr. Shelton whispered to Cam. “Howie is asleep.”

  Cam watched as her mother paid for two tickets. Danny pushed the money through the narrow slit in the top of the shoe box.

  Next, the Sheltons paid for their tickets.

  “Please stay here,” Ms. Benson told Cam. “I’m going backstage to see if everyone is ready.”

  A few boys came in from the school yard. One of them carried a basketball.

  “Hey, what’s going on here?” one of the boys asked.

  Cam told them they were raising money for charity. She told them about the play. But they weren’t interested in a play about President Lincoln.

  “I learned enough about him in school,” one of the boys said as they left.

  There were only a few people still in line. The last was a tall woman. She had on an orange dress. Cam wanted to remember her. She looked at the woman, blinked her eyes, and said, “Click.”

  Then Cam told Sara and Danny, “I’ll let Ms. Benson know you’re just about done. I’ll be right back.”

  Cam walked into the auditorium. The seats were almost all filled. It was noisy. People were talking while they waited for the play to begin.

  Cam went backstage. Her classmates were checking their costumes. Some were looking at their scripts, making sure they remembered their lines.

  “You all look just fine,” Ms. Benson said. “We’re going to put on a great play.”

  Susie giggled.

  “What is it?” Ms. Benson asked.

  “I’m sorry,” Susie answered. “I laugh when I’m nervous.”

  “Don’t be nervous,” Ms. Benson said. “If you forget your lines, look to the right. I’ll be just behind the curtain. I’ll help you. And, please, don’t laugh.”

  Ms. Benson asked Cam, “Is everyone seated?”

  Cam looked through the curtains at the people waiting for the play to begin. She found the tall woman with the orange dress. The woman was in the aisle. She was drinking from a soda can and looking for a seat.

  Cam told Ms. Benson, “We are almost ready.”

  Cam watched the woman with the orange dress sit in the last row.

  “Now we can start,” Cam said. “The last one in line for tickets just took her seat.”

  Ms. Benson gave Cam a pair of scissors and a leather purse. She told Cam to open the shoe box, count the money, and put it in the purse. Then Ms. Benson called out, “Dim the lights. The show is about to begin.”

  Cam walked quickly down the center aisle. The lights dimmed. People in the audience stopped talking. They looked toward the stage and waited.

  Cam opened the doors and went into the hall.

  “Can we go in now?” Sara asked. “We want to see the play, too.”

  Cam said, “Ms. Benson wants us to open the box. She wants us to count the money and put it in this purse. Then we can all go in to see the play.”

  Cam cut the tape that was wrapped around the top and sides of the box. She took off the lid.

  There were just a few dollars in the box.

  “Hey,” Cam said. “You sold lots of tickets. What happened to all the money?”

  CHAPTER THREE

  Sara counted the money. There were just three dollar bills and four quarters in the box.

  “I put lots of money in there,” Sara said. “Lots more than this.”

  Danny said, “I did, too.”

  “The auditorium is just about full,” Cam said. “You must have sold about 150 tickets. At one dollar each, that’s 150 dollars.” Cam held up the money she had taken from the box. “All we have here are four dollars.”

  Sara told Cam, “I didn’t take it.”

  “And I didn’t either,” Danny said.

  “I know you didn’t,” Cam said.

  She looked at the box. The only hole in it was the slit in the lid. On the table were some unsold tickets and two empty soda cans. Cam looked under the table. She found a ticket, but no money.

  Danny told Cam, “Sara and I were both sitting here. We never left the room. Whenever we sold a ticket, we put the money in the box. And we never opened the box.”

  “I know,” Cam said. “I just cut off the tape.”

  Cam opened the door to the auditorium. Cam, Sara, and Danny looked inside. At one side of the stage was an easel. A boy walked onto the stage and put a sign on the easel:HONEST ABE LINCOLN.

  Cam whispered, “I must tell Ms. Benson about the missing money.”

  The curtain opened.

  On the right of the stage was a very large cardboard box painted to look like the front of a house. In the center of the stage were two barrels and a table. There were lots of jars and small boxes on the table. Susie stood and looked at the things on the table. Above her was a sign: OFFUTT’S GENERAL STORE.

  “I’ll have to wait,” Cam whispered. “I’ll tell her after this scene.”

  Eric walked onto the stage. A spotlight followed him as he slowly walked toward Susie.

  People in the audience applauded.

  “Hello, Mrs. Olsen,” Eric said.

  Susie put her hand to her mouth.

  “She’s about to laugh,” Sara whispered.

  Susie looked to the right, to Ms. Benson offstage. Then she took her hand from her mouth and said, “Hello, Abe.” She told Eric she needed flour, shortening, sugar, and raisins. She told him how much of each she needed. “I’m baking raisin bread,” she said.

  Eric carefully weighed each of the items. He wrapped them. He put everything in a large paper bag and gave it to Susie.

  Eric took a small pad from his pocket. He made some notes on the pad and then told Susie, “That will be one dollar and nine cents.”

  Susie paid Eric. She walked to the right of the stage and sat by the cardboard house.

  Other children came into Offutt’s General Store.

  “Abe, don’t you have a story for us?” one of the children asked.

  “Sure I do,” Eric answered.

  Eric told about a small child who was scared at night by a loud noise. “His father looked and looked,” Eric said. “At last he found the noise was coming from a bullfrog. He showed the boy the frog and said, ‘Don’t be scared, son. Sometimes a loud noise is just a way of saying Howdy.’”

  Eric leaned back, opened his mouth, and laughed. The children on stage and lots of people in the audience laughed, too.

  The children finished their shopping and left the store. Eric waited. When no one else came into the store, he counted the money he had been paid. He took the small pad from his pocket and looked at it.

  “Oh my,” he said. “Mrs. Olsen paid too much for her groceries.”

  “When he counted his money, he found too much,” Danny whispered. “When we opened the shoe box and counted our money, we found too little.”

  Eric put lids on the barrels. He covered the table with a large cloth. Then he walked very slowly across the stage, toward Susie. He gave her a few coins.

  Susie looked to the right again. Then she said, “You walked all this way to bring me six cents?” She patted Eric’s shoulder and said, “Now I know why people call you Honest Abe.”

  Eric and Susie walked to the center of the stage and bowed. The children who had been in Offutt’s Store came out and bowed, too. People in the audience clapped.

  As the curtain closed, Sara said to Cam and Danny, “This is a play about Honest Abe Lincoln, but there�
��s someone here who’s not honest at all.”

  “He’s not honest, but he’s clever,” Danny said. “Somehow, he stole the money without opening the box. And he stole the money without Sara or me seeing him do it.”

  “Ms. Benson said she was counting on me,” Cam said, “and now the money is gone. I’ve got to tell her what happened.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Cam hurried backstage. Ms. Benson was busy there, getting the stage and the children ready for the next scene.

  “Clear the table. Move it to the side,” Ms. Benson said. “Roll the barrels to the back of the stage. Take down the Offutt’s sign and put up the LINCOLN FOR PRESIDENT sign.”

  “Ms. Benson,” Cam said. “I have to talk to you.”

  “Good, Cam,” Ms. Benson said. “I’m glad you’re here. Make sure everyone is in place for the next scene.”

  “It’s about the money,” Cam said.

  “Go ahead! Go ahead!” Ms. Benson told Cam. “Get everyone in place. The audience is waiting.”

  Everyone backstage was busy. Cam watched as the table and barrels were moved. Then someone brought out a small stepladder and placed it in the center of the stage.

  Eric had on a top hat and a long black coat. He got up on the ladder. With one hand, he held onto the lapel of his coat. He pressed his lips together and tried to look very serious.

  Cam stood to the right of Eric and called out, “Susie, Hillel, Jane, and Jacob. You belong here, facing Eric.”

  Then Cam went to Eric’s left and called out, “Samuel and Deborah, you belong here.”

  “Are we set now?” Ms. Benson asked Cam. “Is everything OK?”

  “The scene is ready,” Cam told her. “But everything is not OK.”

  She told Ms. Benson there were only four dollars in the shoe box.