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Authors: David A. Adler

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“Yes,” Mr. Jansen said. “Those are my parents!”

Chapter Five

When the car stopped, Mr. Jansen hurried to his parents. Cam, Eric, Mrs. Jansen, and the police officers were right behind him.

Mr. Jansen hugged and kissed his parents.

“Hi, Granny. Hi, Gramps,” Cam said. Then she and her mother hugged them, too.

Mr. Jansen stood back. He looked at his parents and asked, “Are you hurt?”

“No,” Granny said. “The cab driver just told us to get out of his cab. So we did.”

“You should have seen him drive off,” Gramps added. “Someone should have given him a ticket for speeding.”

Granny told the police officers, “We were looking for another cab when I realized he had our luggage and the two birthday gifts we brought along. It’s all in the trunk of his cab.”

Gramps said, “That’s why he drove off so fast. And that’s why he left us far away from anyone who could help us. He didn’t just want us out of his cab. He wanted to keep our luggage and gifts.”

Granny said, “When we realized we were robbed, I called you on my cell phone.”

“I’m Officer Taylor,” the policewoman said as she took a pen and pad from her pocket. “Can you describe the man?”

“Of course I can describe him,” Granny answered. “He wasn’t polite. He was greedy and not honest.”

“Please,” Officer Taylor said. “Tell us what he looks like.”

“Is he tall or short?” the policeman asked. “Is he fat or thin? What color are his eyes? His hair? What is he wearing?”

Cam’s grandparents looked at each other. They thought for a moment.

“We never saw his face,” Granny said. “He sat in the front seat of the cab and he never turned to look at us.”

Officer Taylor asked, “Can you describe the cab?”

“It was yellow,” Gramps said, “and there were candy wrappers on the floor.”

Officer Taylor closed her pad and put it back in her pocket.

“There are hundreds of cabs here,” she said. “They’re all yellow and probably all have candy wrappers on the floor. Without a better description, we can’t help you.”

“You mean all our things are gone?” Gramps asked. “You mean the gifts are gone? That’s why he robbed us. He saw those gift-wrapped boxes and he wanted them.”

The policeman smiled. “I’m Officer Mill veckstein,” he said to Cam’s grandparents. “Most people call me Officer M. Just think for a moment. I’m sure you really did see the driver.”

Officer M took out his pad and waited.

“Well,” Granny said. “I saw the back of his head, and he has long blond hair.”

“He’s wearing a black jacket,” Gramps added. “There was a really big dent in the side of his cab. I remember that because it was hard to open the door.”

“Now that’s something,” Officer M said. “We’ll go to the terminal, where the cabs wait. Maybe we’ll find the thief there, or maybe one of the other cab drivers will be able to help us.”

“I’m sorry,” Officer M told Cam, Eric, and Cam’s parents, “but we don’t have room for all of you in our car.”

Cam’s grandparents got into the back of the police car. The car drove off. Cam, Eric, and Cam’s parents started to walk toward the terminal.

“I may have seen him,” Cam whispered to Eric. “I may have seen the thief.” Then Cam closed her eyes and said,
“Click!”

Chapter Six

“When we got out of our car, I saw a man with long blond hair and a dark blue jacket. In the cab, Granny and Gramps may have thought the jacket was black,” Cam whispered to Eric with her eyes still closed. “He was on the path walking toward the terminal.”

Cam’s parents were walking ahead of her and Eric. Mr. Jansen turned and said, “We’ll go back to the car. We’ll wait there for Granny and Gramps.”

Cam opened her eyes.

“But I want to be with Granny and Gramps,” Cam said. “Maybe we can help them catch the thief.”

Mr. Jansen told Cam, “Catching a thief may be dangerous. It’s ajob for the police.”

“But I think I saw him,” Cam said.

She told her parents about the man on the path.

“Cam has to tell the police what she saw,” Mrs. Jansen said. “And then, instead of sitting in the car, we can wait in the terminal, on those comfortable chairs.”

It was a long walk across the parking lot. Cam
clicked
again and looked at the picture she had in her head of the man in the dark blue jacket.

“He’s wearing a red scarf, sunglasses, and boots,” Cam said, “and he was walking very fast.”

They were walking on the path now, with lots of other people who were on their way to the terminal. Many of them were carrying luggage. None of them was wearing a dark blue or black jacket.

At the end of the path was a traffic light and a
Walk
—
Don’t Walk
sign. People stopped there and waited for the
Walk
sign to light up.

People were waiting across the road, too. They were on their way to the parking lot. Many of them were also carrying luggage.

Cam watched cabs ride past and let their passengers off at the curb. Then the cabs joined the end of the line waiting to take people from the airport.

The
Walk
sign lit up. The path across the road was quickly crowded with people walking to and from the terminal.

“There they are,” Eric called out. He pointed to Cam’s grandparents and the two police officers. They were looking at the long line of cabs waiting by the curb.

Cam ran to them. She told Officer M about the man in the dark blue jacket.

“If he’s the thief, why would he be walking in the parking lot?” Officer M asked.

Cam was thinking about that when her parents and Eric caught up with her.

“Did you tell them who you saw?” Cam’s mother asked.

“Yes,” Cam answered, “but now I’m not sure he’s the thief.”

Just then Officer Taylor pointed to a cab that had just stopped by the curb. There was a large dent in its side. Two people got out of the cab.

“Is that the cab you were in?” she asked Cam’s grandparents.

They turned to look at it.

Gramps said, “It’s hard to tell from here.”

“Let’s go,” Officer Taylor said. “Let’s take a closer look.”

The cab started to drive off.

“Hey! Stop!” Officer Taylor shouted.

She and Officer M ran to the middle of the street and held up their hands.

Granny and Gramps ran after them. Cam and Eric started to run, too.

“Wait here,” Cam’s father told Cam and Eric. “The police don’t need your help.”

Screech!

The cab quickly stopped.

Officer M poked his head into the window of the cab. Then the door on the driver’s side began to open.

“They’ve caught him,” Eric declared. “They’ve caught the thief!”

Chapter Seven

The driver got out of the cab. He was bald and he was wearing a blue sweater.

“Where’s his blond hair and black jacket?” Mr. Jansen asked.

“Maybe he was wearing a blond wig when he stole the luggage,” Eric said. “And maybe he took off his jacket.”

The cab driver spoke to the police and Cam’s grandparents for a while. He opened the trunk of his cab. It was empty. The police thanked him. The driver got back in his car and drove off.

“Hey,” Eric said and pointed to a cab at the end of the line. It had a large dent in its hood. “The thief may be in one of the other smashed cars.”

Cam looked at the cab with the dented hood. Then she saw another cab stop. A man got out. He was carrying a small suitcase. Cam looked at the front of the line. A woman and a small child got into a cab while the driver loaded two large suitcases into the trunk.

Cam’s grandparents and the two police officers returned to the curb. Eric and Cam’s parents watched them look at each of the cabs.

Cam didn’t. She closed her eyes and said,
“Click!”

As a cab at the front of the line drove off, all the others moved up. Others kept joining the end of the line.

Cam said,
“Click!”
again.

“There’s one with a large dent on the side,” Eric said and pointed to the end of the line.

Cam opened her eyes. “I just remembered something,” she said. “Let’s go to our car.”

“No,” Eric told her. “I think I found the cab. I am going to tell the police officers. I want to watch them catch the thief.”

The police looked into a cab in the middle of the line. Then the door opened and the driver got out. The driver was a woman with long blond hair. She was wearing a blue denim jacket.

Eric said, “I’m going to show them the cab with the dent.”

Mrs. Jansen said, “I’ll go with you.”

“I’ll be waiting for you in our car,” Cam told Eric and Mrs. Jansen as they walked off.

“Maybe looking in cabs is not the best way to catch the thief,” Cam told her father. “Maybe there’s a better way.”

“What are you saying?” he asked.