Cam Jansen and the Graduation Day Mystery (4 page)

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Authors: David A. Adler

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“I don't want old toast,” Diane said. “I want it to be new.”

Roger smiled.

“The French toast is fresh,” he said. “It's the recipe that's old.”

The children each ordered French toast. Eric's parents and grandfather ordered the fish.

“It's not just my surprise for Ben that's gone,” Grandpa said while he waited for his meal. “All the pictures I took are gone, too.”

“I have a camera,” Eric's mom said. “Ben still has his cap and gown. When we get home we'll take new pictures.”

“We could do that,” Grandpa said sadly, “but it won't be the same. I took a picture of Ben getting his diploma. He had such a great big smile.”

“Look at all the people here,” Eric whispered to Cam. “I bet lots of them were at the graduation.”

Cam looked around.

“I think you're right,” she said.

Eric whispered, “Maybe Harry and his mother are here. Maybe he doesn't even know he took the wrong bag.”

“Let's look,” Cam said.

Chapter Five

Eric told his mother that he and Cam were going to take a walk through the restaurant.

“Don't bother anyone,” his mother said. “And don't get in the way of any of the waiters.”

Cam and Eric looked at the people in the lower level of the restaurant. Several children were sitting at a table in the corner.

“Look,” Eric whispered. “Look at the boy in the blue shirt. He looks like Harry.”

Cam shook her head and whispered, “That's not him.”

“Are you sure?”

Cam closed her eyes and said,
“Click!”

Cam told Eric, “Harry had on a white shirt, dark blue pants, and black shoes. His hair was combed back.”

Cam opened her eyes. She pointed to the boy in the restaurant and whispered, “That's not him.”

Eric said, “You never clicked for the college guards. You never told them what Harry and his mother look like.”

“Excuse me,” a waiter said. He held a tray of dirty dishes high over his head as he walked past.

Eric said, “Let's ask Grandpa to call the guards.”

Cam and Eric went back to their table. Roger had brought them a basket of rolls and pats of butter.

“These rolls are hot,” Diane said. “Watch this.”

She broke open a roll and dropped in a pat of butter.

“It's melting!”

Eric's grandfather called the guards. He asked if they had found his bag. Grandpa listened for a moment and then sadly shook his head. He gave his cell phone to Cam. She closed her eyes and said,
“Click.”
Then she described Harry and his mother to the guards.

“Now let's check upstairs for him,” Eric said to Cam.

Cam and Eric walked to the upper level of the restaurant.

“This is a strange mystery,” Cam told Eric as they climbed the steps. “We know who has Grandpa's things. We just don't know how to find him.”

Cam and Eric walked from one table to the next. There were lots of children in the restaurant, but none of them was the boy who sat behind them at the graduation.

“Those are the doors to the kitchen,” Cam said. “We've been through the whole restaurant. Harry isn't here.”

Eric walked to a quiet corner near the kitchen doors.

A waiter carrying a tray of dirty dishes walked past. He pushed open a swinging door and went into the kitchen.

“What do we do now?” Eric asked.

Cam shook her head. She didn't know.

The other kitchen door swung open. A waiter walked out with a tray covered with plates of French toast.

“That's our waiter,” Cam said. “That's Roger.”

Another waiter followed Roger with three plates of tuna.

“They're carrying French toast and fish,” Eric said. “That's our food. Let's go.”

Chapter Six

“Excuse me,” Eric said as he hurried past the two waiters.

“Excuse me,” Cam said.

They went down the few steps to the lower level of the restaurant and to their table. Mrs. Shelton was holding and feeding Howie.

“Our meals are coming,” Eric said.

The two waiters came to the table with French toast and three tunas.

“Yummy,” Diane said as she held a small pitcher over her toast and covered it with syrup.

The twins got syrup on their faces and clothes.

When they were done eating, Roger brought them dessert menus.

Eric's parents and Grandpa Shelton ordered tea and cookies. Cam, Eric, and Donna asked for ice cream.

“I don't want ice cream,” Diane said. “I want a big piece of chocolate cake.”

After Roger left, Diane told her sister, “The chocolate cake has gooey chocolate cream inside. That's what my friend Carol told me. She's been here lots of times.”

Grandpa stood.

“This is when I planned to give you a special gift. It was my grandfather's gold watch. The watch was his graduation gift to my father. It was my father's graduation gift to me. Ben, it was going to be my gift to you. I don't have the watch to give, but I'm still very proud of you.”

“Thank you, Dad,” Mr. Shelton said, and hugged his father.

Roger brought the desserts.

“Yummy,” Donna said after she tasted her ice cream.

Diane poked her cake with her fork.

“Hey, there's no chocolate cream.”

Roger took a small pad from the pocket in his apron.

“You asked for chocolate cake,” Roger said. “That's chocolate cake.”

“Where's the gooey cream?”

“There's no cream in the regular chocolate cake,” Roger told Diane. “It's in the chocolate
mousse
cake.”

“Moose! My friend didn't say there's a moose with horns in the cake. She said it had cream.”

“It's a different kind of moose,” Roger explained. “It's not spelled the same.”

He smiled. “I'll change it for the one with cream.”

Roger took Diane's cake away.

“Names and spelling are important when you order food in a restaurant,” Mrs. Shelton told Diane.

Cam put down her spoon.

“Did you hear that?” she whispered to Eric. “Names are important.”

“Of course names are important. My name, Eric, means âmighty one.'”

“A name can solve this mystery. A name can help us get back Grandpa's things,” Cam said. “I remember exactly what Harry and his mother look like. I just have to remember the name they called out when Dr. Guterman gave out the diplomas.”

Chapter Seven

Roger brought Diane a slice of chocolate mousse cake.

Diane stuck her finger in the cream and tasted it.

“Yummy,” she said.

“Please, thank Roger,” her mother told Diane. “And please, eat with a fork.”

“Thank you,” Diane said to Roger.

Diane broke off a large piece of the cake with her fork.

“â
Choo! Choo!
All aboard!'” Eric said. “That's what the boy called out.”

“He cheered for someone when she went to get her diploma,” Cam said. “He yelled, âYay, Margery!' ”

“Eat your ice cream before it melts,” Mrs. Shelton told Cam and Eric.

They each ate some ice cream.

“We have to find a woman named Margery who just graduated from your dad's college,” Cam said. “She'll know who the boy is. Then we'll find Grandpa's bag. Donna and Diane can tell us Margery's full name.”

Roger cleared away their dessert dishes.

“My sisters can't help us,” Eric said. “They don't know the names of the graduates.”

“They have lots of printed lists of their names,” Cam said. “The names of all the graduates are in the programs.”

“Diane,” Eric asked. “Can I see one of the graduation programs?”

Diane took a handful of crumpled papers from her pocket. She gave them to Eric.

“I have more,” she said.

Diane took another handful of papers from her other pocket and gave those to Eric, too.