The Mystery of Stolen Diamonds

Table of Contents

 

Cam and Eric tried to get through the crowd quickly. With a baby carriage it wasn't easy.

“Come on,” Cam urged, “or we'll lose the man.”

They rushed ahead. They turned the corner onto Lee Avenue and saw the man halfway down the block.

“He saw us,” Eric whispered. “What should we do?”

“Keep walking. If we stop whenever he does, he'll know we're following him.”

“It's almost twelve,” Eric said. “My mother will be waiting. Let's go back and call the police.”

“And what would we tell them? If those women and Mr. Parker are right, we're following an innocent man. As soon as we know something we'll call.”

Cam crouched and made her way down the street. “Come on,” she called in a loud whisper.

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

PUFFIN BOOKS
Published by Penguin Group
Penguin Young Readers Group,
345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R ORL, England
Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia
Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2
Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, 182-190 Wairau Road, Auckland 10, New Zealand

First published in the United States of America by The Viking Press, 1980
Published by Puffin Books, 1991
Reissued 1997
This edition published by Puffin Books,
a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 2004

Text copyright © David A. Adler, 1980

Illustrations copyright © Susanna Natti, 1980
All rights reserved

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HAS CATALOGED THE 1991 PUFFIN BOOKS EDITION
UNDER CATALOG CARD NUMBER: 90-53366

 

eISBN : 978-1-101-07599-9

 

 

RL: 2.2

It was the first morning of spring vacation. Cam Jansen and her friend Eric Shelton were sitting on a bench in the middle of a busy shopping mall. While Eric's mother was shopping, they were watching Eric's baby brother, Howie. And they were playing a memory game.

Eric's eyes were closed.

“What color jacket am I wearing?” Cam asked.

“Blue.”

“Wrong. I'm not wearing a jacket.”

Eric opened his eyes. “It's no use,” he said. “I'll never have a memory like yours.”

“You have to keep practicing,” Cam told him. “Now try me.”

Cam looked straight ahead. She said,
“Click,”
and then closed her eyes. Cam always said,
“Click,”
when she wanted to remember something. She said it was the sound her mental camera made when it took a picture.

Eric looked for something he could be sure Cam hadn't noticed. Then he asked, “What does the sign in the card store window say?”

“That's easy. ‘Mother's Day Sunday May 11. Remember your mother and she'll remember you.'”

“You win,” Eric said.

Cam still had her eyes closed. “Come on, ask me something else.”

Cam had what people called a photographic memory. Her mind took a picture of whatever she saw. Once, she forgot her notebook in school. She did her home-work—ten math problems—all from the picture of the assignment she had stored in her brain.

When Cam was younger, people called her Jennifer. That's her real name. But when they found out about her amazing memory, they started calling her “The Camera.” Soon “The Camera” was shortened to “Cam.”

“All right,” Eric said. “What color socks am I wearing?”

Cam thought a moment. “That's not really fair,” she said. “I never saw your socks.”

But Cam didn't open her eyes. “You're wearing green pants, a green belt, and green sneakers,” she said. “I'll bet your socks are green, too.”

“You're too much, Cam.”

“No, you're too neat.”

“It's my turn now,” Eric said.

Eric looked carefully at all the stores and people in the shopping mall. He closed his eyes. But he quickly opened them again. Howie was crying.

“What do we do now?” Cam asked. “Should I look for your mother?”

Eric shook his head. “Let's wait. Maybe Howie will go back to sleep.”

“But what if he doesn't?” Cam asked.

“Then I have to find out whether he wants to be held, fed, or changed. I have everything I need right here.” Eric patted the insulated bag strapped to the front of the carriage.

Eric and Cam watched to see what Howie would do. He squirmed, turned his head from side to side, and then went back to sleep.

“Let's play another memory game,” Cam said.

“Let's not. I'm tired of losing.” Eric rocked the carriage. “Rocking relaxes a baby,” he told Cam.

Cam was an only child so she didn't know much about babies. Eric was the oldest of four children. Besides Howie, who wasn't even a year old, Eric had twin sisters who were seven.

Eric rocked the carriage gently while he and Cam talked about the fifth-grade science fair. It was being held right after spring vacation. Eric was making a sundial, and Cam was making a box camera.

Suddenly a loud bell rang. It woke Howie and he started to cry.

Cam jumped up on the bench. “It's Parker's Jewelry Store!” she yelled. “Their alarm just went off.”

Eric pulled at Cam's sneakers. “Get down from there.”

“No, wait. Maybe something is happening.”

Something
was
happening. A tall, heavy man with a mustache and wearing a dark suit ran out of the jewelry store toward the center of the mall. He was in a real hurry. He pushed people aside—including Eric. Cam looked straight at the man and said,
“Click.”

The man kept running and caused a great commotion. He was bumping into dozens of people. He left a path of angry shoppers from Parker's Jewelry Store halfway through the shopping mall.

“Come back here, young man,” one woman shouted, “and pick up all my packages!”

Another woman dropped a bag filled with groceries. Eggs broke. Tomatoes and cucumbers were rolling in all directions.

“If he's trying to get away,” Cam asked, “why didn't he run out one of the exits?”