Detective Camp (9 page)

Detective Robb held the door open for the kids. “Come on in,” he said. “The Darbys are waiting for you.” He led them into the great room.

Michael and Bessie Darby were sitting on one of the sofas. Sitting between them and holding Bessie’s hand was Buzzy Steele.

“Well, hello,” Michael Darby said when he saw the kids enter. “Please sit. Mario is going to bring us all some lemonade.”

The kids sat on another sofa facing the Darbys and Buzzy.

Buzzy looked at Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose. He winked.

“First I want to thank you three for exposing Mademoiselle Musée for the thief she is,” Michael Darby said. “When we decided to open this little camp, we
had no idea any
real
detective work would be necessary!”

“Mademoiselle Musée admitted to everything,” Detective Robb told the kids. “If you three hadn’t figured out what she was up to, she’d have walked out of here with several extremely valuable paintings.”

Bessie Darby turned to Buzzy. “Dear, why don’t you tell the children the rest of the story?”

Buzzy blushed. “Okay, Grandma,” he said.

“You’re the Darbys’ grandson?” Josh blurted out.

“Yep, I sure am,” Buzzy said. “I didn’t say anything because I wanted all the kids to treat me the same as Luke and Angie. Anyway, this is what happened. When Mademoiselle Musée came—”

“By the way, her real name is Maude
Murn,” Detective Robb said. “She wasn’t from France at all. But she’s wanted in five states out west. In Arizona, she’s known as Maude the Fraud. She left there in a hurry and changed her name when she got here.”

“When she got here to clean the paintings, my grandparents told her about Detective Camp and all the kids we were expecting,” Buzzy said. “I guess she figured with a detective and a bunch of kids snooping around, her scam might be discovered. So she made a plan, right, Detective Robb?”

He nodded. “She decided to add some confusion so no one would pay her any attention,” Detective Robb said. “She took a few pieces of the Darbys’ silver and hid them under mattresses in the kids’ cabins. Then she went to the Darbys and told them she’d seen a kid running out of the great room. The
Darbys warned Buzzy about it.”

“My grandparents asked me to search the cabins,” Buzzy continued. “I did, and found the silver animals. I put them in my trunk for safekeeping.” He blushed again. “I admit, I thought some of the kids had stolen the silver.”

“Then Maude pretended her ring had been stolen and hid it under a mattress,” Detective Robb went on. “She planned to demand a search. She figured the ‘stolen’ stuff would be found, kids would be accused, and the Darbys would send you all home. Then she could continue with her scam. But Ruth Rose found the ring before Maude could get a search going.”

“So her plan to shut down the camp backfired,” Michael Darby said. “Thank goodness you clever kids discovered her trunk’s secret hiding place!”

“Turns out her father was a magician,
and that was his trunk,” Detective Robb said. “He used to hide things inside that hollow door.”

Bessie Darby sighed. “So sad. The woman was a talented painter and restorer, but she threw it all away because she was greedy.”

“What will happen to her?” Ruth Rose asked.

“She’ll go back to Arizona for trial,” Detective Robb said. “Thanks to you three awesome detectives!”

At five o’clock, everyone feasted on lobster, corn on the cob, salad, and ice cream. The Darbys came to the lake and sat in lawn chairs out of the sun. At six o’clock, Buzzy supervised swimming and diving off the dock. Some kids went canoeing with Angie and Luke.

Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose were standing up to their shoulders in the
clear, still-warm lake water.

“I wonder if that monster really is hibernating in this lake,” Josh said, peering down into the water.

“Maybe you’re standing on him,” Dink said. “Better watch out, Josh.”

“I’m not afraid of any old monst—”

Suddenly Josh’s eyes opened wide. His tongue drooped out of his mouth, he fell over, and he disappeared under the water.

“Josh the joker,” Dink said.

“I wonder how long he’ll stay under,” Ruth Rose said, looking into the water where Josh had been standing.

Just then she let out a yell and jumped into the air. “Something pinched me!” she said. “It felt like a—”

Josh’s laughing face broke the surface. He was holding a red lobster claw, making the two pincers open and close. “That’s for scaring me last night, Ruth
Rose,” he said. “Now we’re even!”

“You’re so immature,” Ruth Rose said.

Then she jumped on Josh and dunked him under the water.

When I was ten years old, my best friend Larry and I spent a week together at a summer camp. It was the first time either of us had been to a sleepaway camp. I remember how exciting it was to sleep in a bunk bed in a log cabin. We were deep in a dark forest, and there was a pond in the middle of a ring of cabins. We swam in the pond until someone discovered that a huge snapping turtle lived there!

Camp was so much fun. We learned how to track animals, use a compass, locate constellations in the night sky, find berries and roots that were safe to eat, and a lot of other cool stuff. We ate most of our meals in a big dining hut, but we cooked some over an open fire. Our counselors were teenagers, and we campers had fun playing tricks on them.

I got the idea for a mystery about art fraud from a friend who works in an art gallery. She told me that some crooked artists put fake names on their paintings, then sell the paintings for much more money than they are really worth. I hope you enjoyed reading
Detective Camp
. I had a good time writing it. Now I am going to end this letter and get busy writing the next book about Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose.

P.S. Be sure to look for the answer to the hidden message on the bottom of the next page. And please keep visiting my Web site at
www.ronroy.com
!