The Mystery at the Haunted House

BOOK: The Mystery at the Haunted House
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Table of Contents
 
Is the haunted house really haunted?
It was dark inside the house. They followed dim purple lights past a painting with moving eyes.
A low, deep voice said, “Welcome to my home.”
“Oh, my,” Aunt Katie said.
Plastic skeletons that shone in the dark were hanging from the ceiling. A tape of scary sounds was playing.
Eric whispered to Cam, “This is not very scary.”
A door creaked open and they heard someone scream, “Oh! Help!”
“There is something scary ahead,” Cam whispered.
Eric moved closer to Cam and Uncle George.
A toy black cat that almost looked real jumped off a bookcase shelf. It fell close to Cam and Eric. Then it stopped. It was held by a string.
“Oh, my!” Aunt Katie said.
Eric grabbed her hand. “I'm not scared,” he said.
Then something dressed in black jumped at Aunt Katie.
“Oh! Help!” she screamed. “Let go of me!”
The Cam Jansen Adventure Series
#1 Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Stolen Diamonds
#2 Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the U.F.O.
#3 Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Dinosaur Bones
#4 Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Television Dog
#5 Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Gold Coins
#6 Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Babe Ruth Baseball
#7 Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Circus Clown
#8 Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Monster Movie
#9 Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Carnival Prize
#10
Cam Jansen and the Mystery at the Monkey House
#11 Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Stolen Corn Popper
#12
Cam Jansen and the Mystery of Flight 54
#13 Cam Jansen and the Mystery at the Haunted House
#14 Cam Jansen and the Chocolate Fudge Mystery
#15 Cam Jansen and the Triceratops Pops Mystery
# 16
Cam Jansen and the Ghostly Mystery
#17 Cam Jansen and the Scary Snake Mystery
#18 Cam Jansen and the Catnapping Mystery
#19 Cam Jansen and the Barking Treasure Mystery
#20 Cam Jansen and the Birthday Mystery
#21 Cam Jansen and the School Play Mystery
#22 Cam Jansen and the First Day of School Mystery
#23
Cam Jansen and the Tennis Trophy Mystery
#24
Cam Jansen and the Snowy Day Mystery
 
 
 
DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE YOUNG CAM JANSEN
SERIES FOR YOUNGER READERS!
To Eitan.
With love
to a good boy
with a great smile
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 by Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Books USA Inc., 1992
Published by Puffin Books, a division of Penguin Books USA Inc., 1994
Reissued, 1999, 2004
 
 
Text copyright © David A. Adler, 1992
Illustrations copyright © Susanna Natti, 1992
All rights reserved
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HAS CATALOGED THE 1992 PUFFIN EDITION AS FOLLOWS:
Adler, David A.
Cam Jansen and the mystery of the haunted house / by David Adler ;
illustrated by Susanna Natti.
p. cm.—(Cam Jansen adventure ; 13)
Summary: Cam and her friend Eric chase the thief of Aunt Katie's
wallet through an amusement park and find themselves involved in another
case requiring their special detective skills.
eISBN : 978-1-101-07610-1
[1. Mystery and detective stories.] 1. Natti, Susanna, ill.
II. Title. III. Series.
PZ7.A2615Cah 1992 [Fic]—dc20 91-28863 CIP AC
 
 
RL: 2.1

http://us.penguingroup.com

Chapter One
 
 
 
 
 
C
rash!
Eric Shelton was driving a small racing car in an amusement park. He turned and shouted to Cam Jansen, “Stop it! Stop crashing into me.”
Eric held on to the steering wheel with both hands and gently pressed the pedal with his foot. The car moved slowly forward until it was close to the one ahead. Eric stepped lightly on the brake pedal. His car stopped.
Eric closed his eyes and clenched his teeth.
He knew Cam would move her car forward, too. He was sure she would crash into him.
Eric waited. Then he felt Cam's car softly touch his.
Eric turned and said, “That's better.”
Eric moved his car up again and stopped. He unhooked the safety belt and stepped out onto the platform beside the racetrack.
Crash!
Cam had driven right into the back of Eric's car. She stepped out and met Eric at the exit.
“That was a great ride,” Cam said.
Eric said, “It was fun until the end. Why did you keep bumping into me?”
“My pedal was loose. Anyway, the cars have those big bumpers because they expect us to crash.”
It was a warm spring Sunday afternoon. Cam and Eric were in the park with Cam's Aunt Katie and Uncle George.
“There they are,” Cam said. She pointed to two old people sitting on a bench. Aunt Katie was talking to a woman pushing a baby carriage. Uncle George was holding a cane and resting. His eyes were closed and his legs were stretched out in front of him.
“Isn't she just the cutest baby?” Aunt Katie said to Cam.
“Yes, she's very cute.” Cam looked around and asked, “What ride are we going on next?”
“Look at her hair. Look at those tiny curls.”
“I see her hair, Aunt Katie. It's very nice,” Cam said. Then she whispered, “Eric has a baby brother named Howie. I can see him any time I want, but this is the only chance I'll have to take these rides.”
Aunt Katie stood and said, “You're right. I told you we would go on every ride we can, and we will. Where should we go next?”
Cam closed her eyes and said,
“Click.”
“What is she doing?” the woman with the baby carriage asked.
Eric explained, “Cam has a photographic memory. She can take one look at something and remember it perfectly. It's as if she has a mental camera, and photographs stored in her head. Whenever she wants to remember something, she says,
‘Click.'
That's the sound her mental camera makes.”
Aunt Katie told the woman, “When Cam was a baby, we called her Jennifer. That's her real name. But as soon as we found out about her amazing memory, we began calling her ‘The Camera.' Soon, ‘The Camera' was shortened to ‘Cam.'”
“I'm looking at a picture of the map we saw when we came into the park,” Cam said. Her eyes were still closed. “If we go up the road to the left, we'll pass the parachute and train rides, and the Haunted House. To the right are the merry-go-round, pony rides, and the gift shop.”
“Amazing,” the woman with the baby carriage said.
“Watch out!” Eric called.
Cam opened her eyes.
Two teenage boys on roller skates were coming toward Cam, Eric, Aunt Katie, and the woman with the baby.
Cam moved to the left. Eric and the woman moved to the right. Aunt Katie didn't know which way to go. First she moved to the right. Then she moved to the left.
Crash!
One of the boys couldn't stop. He went right into Aunt Katie.
“Oh, my!” she said as she fell to the ground.
The boys tried to help her, but they couldn't. Each time they started to pull her up, they rolled on their skates and fell again. Finally Cam, Eric, and Uncle George helped her to the bench.
“Oh, my,” Aunt Katie said as she sat down.
“We're very sorry,” the boys said. Then they rolled down the road toward the parachute ride.
Aunt Katie brushed off her clothes. Uncle George helped her.
BOOK: The Mystery at the Haunted House
11.02Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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