Cam Jansen and the Graduation Day Mystery (3 page)

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Authors: David A. Adler

BOOK: Cam Jansen and the Graduation Day Mystery
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“This toy is not mine.”
He looked in the bag said, “None of the things in here are mine.”
Eric said, “That train looks like the one Harry had. He sat behind us.”
Grandpa looked under his chair. He looked under all the chairs in the row.
“Please,” he said. “Help me find my bag. There's something very valuable in it.”
“I know what's so valuable,” Diane said. “It's the surprise you have for Dad.”
The Sheltons and Cam looked under all the chairs in their row and the ones in the nearby rows, too.
“Look what I found,” Diane said. “Lots of programs. When Donna and I get home we can have a pretend graduation. I'll be the president and make a really long speech.”
“And I'll be a graduate,” Donna said. “I'll get a
pildoma
.”
“Diploma,” her mother said.
“Grandpa,” Diane said. “Maybe you took the bag with you when you went to take Dad's picture. Maybe the bag is all the way up front.”
Grandpa shook his head and said, “No, I took the camera out of the bag when I walked to the front. Then I put it back.”
“I'm going to look up front,” Mr. Shelton said. “In a big crowd sometimes things get moved.”
Cam and Eric went with him.
The cat followed them.
Grandpa, Mrs. Shelton, and the twins continued to look near their seats.
Cam, Eric, and Mr. Shelton walked through the crowd of people leaving the field.
“Look carefully at what everyone is carrying,” Eric said. “Maybe someone has Grandpa's bag.”
“Is it just a regular small brown shopping bag?” Mr. Shelton asked.
Cam closed her eyes. She said, “
Click!”
Cam bumped into a tall man wearing a black cap and gown.
“Excuse me,” the man said.
She bumped into the cat.
Meow!
Eric took Cam's hand.
“Yes,” Cam said with her eyes still closed. “I'm looking at the picture I have in my head of Grandpa's shopping bag, and it's brown and not very big. It has two small brown rope handles.”
Cam opened her eyes.
“I haven't seen anyone carrying a bag like that,” Mr. Shelton said.
They looked under rows and rows of chairs near the platform, but they didn't find the bag.
“Let's go back,” Mr. Shelton told Cam and Eric. “It's not here.”
As they walked back to where Eric's family was sitting, they looked under all the rows of chairs.
When they got back, Mrs. Shelton was still holding Howie. He was sleeping. Grandpa was next to them. On the chair on the other side of Grandpa was the bag with the toys, animal crackers, and apple juice.
“We didn't find it,” Mr. Shelton told Grandpa.
“This is terrible,” Grandpa said. “The gift I had in there can't be replaced. And my camera with all my pictures of the graduation is also in there.”
“Is the gift worth lots of money?” Donna asked.
“Yes. And it's been in the Shelton family for almost one hundred years.”
“I think I know what happened,” Donna said. “I think Harry took Grandpa's bag.”
“That's it!” Diane said. “He took Grandpa's shopping bag by mistake.”
“I think she's right,” Mr. Shelton told his father.
“Yay!” Diane said. “We did it! Donna and I solved the mystery.”
“You solved one mystery,” Cam said, “but Grandpa Shelton still doesn't have his bag. Maybe someone found it and gave it to the security people.”
“Now there's another mystery to solve,” Eric said. “We think Harry took Grandpa's bag, but where is Harry? We don't even know his last name. We have to find out who this Harry is and where he is. We have to get Grandpa's bag back.”
Chapter Four
“What do we do now?” Eric asked.
“We do what Cam suggested,” Mrs. Shelton said. “We tell the security people what happened. Maybe the boy didn't take Grandpa's bag, and someone found it. Maybe his mother realized it wasn't his bag and gave it to one of the guards.”
Cam and the Sheltons went to the gate at one end of the field. A man and woman in green and yellow uniforms were sitting behind a table. Grandpa told them what happened. Eric showed them the bag they had—the wrong bag.
“It sounds like a simple mistake,” one of the guards said. “Hopefully the woman and the little boy who took your bag will come back here with it.”
Grandpa told the guards what was in his bag.
“My camera is digital. When you find it, look at the pictures and you'll know it's mine. Almost all of the ones I took today are of my son.”
“That's me,” Mr. Shelton told the guards.
“Give us your cell phone number,” the first guard said. “We'll call you if the woman and her son come back.”
“What about this bag?” Grandpa asked.
“Leave it here.”
Grandpa left the bag on the table. Then he wrote his cell phone number on a small piece of paper. The guards gave him a card with their number.
“I'm Janet Jones,” the woman guard said.
“I'm Paul Cogan,” the other guard said. “I hope we find your things.”
Cam and the Sheltons walked away from the table.
“What do we do now?” Grandpa Shelton asked.
“Dad is a college graduate,” Mrs. Shelton said. “We will still go to Green Stripes Restaurant and celebrate. We can walk there. It's just a few blocks away.”
Mr. Shelton held Donna and Diane's hands. Mrs. Shelton put Howie in a stroller.
The cat followed them as they walked through two large stone columns at the entrance to the campus.
Mr. Shelton stopped.
“Good-bye,” he said to the columns and to the college. “And thank you.”
He started walking toward the restaurant.
Mrs. Shelton stood by the entrance to the college.
“Aren't you forgetting something?” she asked.
Mr. Shelton looked at Donna and Diane. He looked at Howie in his stroller. He looked at Grandpa, Eric, and Cam.
“No,” he said. “Everyone is here.”
“What about your cap and gown?” Mrs. Shelton asked.
“Oh! Am I still wearing them?”
Mr. Shelton took off his cap and gown. He put them in a zippered bag strapped to the back of Howie's stroller. Then the Sheltons and Cam walked to Green Stripes Restaurant.
“Look at the line,” Grandpa Shelton said.
“I called. They're expecting us,” Eric's mother told him. “We shouldn't have to wait.”
Mrs. Shelton went to the front of the line. She spoke to a woman in a green striped dress. Mrs. Shelton waved to her family and Cam.
Eric told the cat, “You can't come in with us.”
Meow!
The cat sat on the sidewalk. She watched as Cam and the Sheltons followed the woman in the green striped dress into the restaurant.
“Wow!” Cam whispered to Eric. “This is a fancy place.”
The tables were covered with green striped cloths. The waiters wore green striped bow ties and jackets. The woman in the green striped dress led the Sheltons and Cam past lots of tables and lots of people. She led them down a few steps to the lower level of the restaurant.
“Please be seated,” she said when they came to a long empty table. “Your waiter will be here soon.”
She brought a high chair for Howie.
“Look at the walls. Look at all the pictures,” Eric whispered. “This place is like a museum.”
Cam and Eric sat on one side of the table. Grandpa sat next to Cam.
A tall man in a green striped jacket came to the table. He gave everyone a menu.
“My name is Roger,” the waiter told everyone at the table. “Our brunch specials today are orange-glazed tuna and old country French toast.”

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