The School Play Mystery

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Authors: David A. Adler

BOOK: The School Play Mystery
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Table of Contents
 
 
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
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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.

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