Cam Jansen and the Secret Service Mystery (4 page)

The children in Ms. Kane’s fourth-grade class were getting in line.

“Hello,” Ms. Kane said to Governor Zellner. “It’s so nice to meet you.” She asked him for his signature. “I’ll make copies for the children in my class.”

Governor Zellner signed the paper.

Cam and Eric rushed past the governor and Ms. Kane.

“Mrs. Pearl,” Cam said, “where’s your pearl necklace?”

Mrs. Pearl felt for it. Then she looked down.

“My pearls! They’re gone!”

“My good pearl necklace is gone,” Emma Pearl told her husband.

“Maybe the clasp broke,” he said.

“Oh, my,” Mrs. Pearl said. “I hope not. It’s a gold and diamond clasp.” She was very upset. “I wear that necklace everywhere.”

“Don’t worry,” Mr. Pearl told her. “We’ll find it. And if the clasp is broken, we’ll get it fixed.”

He told the Secret Service agent with long blonde hair about the necklace. The agent spoke into her walkie-talkie, and a police officer came in from the hall. The policeman
asked the Pearls lots of questions.

“Is the necklace valuable?”

“Yes,” Mr. Pearl said. “It’s
very
valuable.”

“Are you sure you had it on today?”

“Yes,” Mrs. Pearl told the officer.

“Maybe you took it off. Maybe it fell off.”

“Maybe the string broke,” Sam Pearl said.

“If it did, pearls are rolling all over the school.”

“That’s not what happened,” Cam said. “Someone dropped the book to make that noise and then stole the necklace.”

“That’s nonsense,” the agent with long blonde hair said. “Nothing was stolen. We’ve been with the Pearls since they came here.”

The police officer said, “If the necklace was lost, we’ll find it. It must be somewhere in this school.”

The officer told Dr. Prell to have the children and their teachers all wait in their seats.

The Secret Service agent asked Governor Zellner and the Pearls to please wait in the library office. Two of the agents would wait with them. The other two and the police officers would look for the necklace.

Cam watched the two agents search on the floor near the desk. Then they walked slowly toward the door. They searched the floor as they walked.

Cam closed her eyes and said,
“Click!”

The two agents left the library.

“Where are they now?” Cam asked Eric with her eyes still closed.

“They’re in the hall.”

“Mrs. Pearl didn’t lose it in there,” Cam said. “I’m looking at a picture of her when we first came into the library. She still had her necklace.”

“Hi,” Danny said as he sat down. “I’m back.”

“You missed everything,” Beth told him. “We met Governor Zellner. I shook his hand. And Mrs. Pearl lost her pearls.”

“She did? How many little Pearls did she lose?” Danny asked. “And what are their names? Janie Pearl? Jackie Pearl? Jokie Pearl?”

“Stop!” Beth told him.

“I like the name Jokie.”

“Well, she didn’t lose her children. She lost her pearl necklace.”

“Oh.”

Cam opened her eyes. She got up and started toward the library office.

“Please, sit down,” Ms. Benson told her.

“I can’t,” Cam said. “I have to speak to the Secret Service people. I know what happened to Mrs. Pearl’s pearl necklace. It was stolen, and I know who did it.”

“Are you sure?” Ms. Benson asked.

Cam nodded.

“Okay. Go ahead,” Ms. Benson told her.

Ms. Benson asked Mr. Tone to watch her class. Then she followed Cam to the library office. Eric, Danny, Beth, and others in Cam’s class went, too. They crowded around her as she knocked on the door.

When the door was opened, Cam said, “Someone dressed in black stole the necklace.”

“Please,” the agent with long blonde hair said. “Let us take care of this.” She started to close the door.

Ms. Benson put her hand out and stopped the door.

“This girl is one of my best students,” she told the agent. “She’s very smart, and she has an amazing photographic memory. She’s solved lots of mysteries. You should at least listen to her.”

“Okay. I’m listening,” the agent said.

“I’m listening, too,” Governor Zellner said.

Cam took a deep breath.

“Someone knew that when he dropped
a book flat on a cement floor it would make a noise like a gun being shot. When Governor Zellner dropped to the floor, a man dressed in black pushed the Pearls behind the desk.”

“He wanted to protect them,” Governor Zellner said.

“But he wasn’t one of the Secret Service people. Only four agents came with you. There was someone else dressed in black.”

“Max and I were checking the governor, to be sure he wasn’t hurt,” the blonde agent said. “Jimmy and Susan checked the room.”

“Yes,” Cam said. “Those were the four agents I saw get out of those long black cars. And I saw just four when you came into the library.”

“Well, someone pushed me behind the desk,” Emma Pearl said. “He squeezed my arm when he pushed me.”

“And he stole your necklace,” Cam said.

Cam closed her eyes and said,
“Click!”

“He has curly brown hair,” Cam said, with
her eyes still closed, “round eyeglasses, and a funny little beard.”

“Funny?” the agent asked. “What was funny about his beard?”

“It was crooked,” Cam said. “He had on a black shirt and pants and white sneakers.”

“Our shoes are black,” the agent said, and held up her foot.

“Hey! I saw him,” Danny said.

Cam opened her eyes.

“I was at the water fountain when that man and a real thin woman walked by. They were about to go out the back door when Mrs. Adams stopped them.”

“Who is Mrs. Adams?” the agent asked.

Dr. Prell said, “She’s the custodian.”

“Well,” Danny went on, “she pointed to a car and asked, ‘Is that yours?’ When the man said it was, Mrs. Adams told them not to park there again. Their car was blocking the back door.”

“Don’t worry,” Governor Zellner told Mrs. Pearl. “We’ll get your necklace back.”

He hurried out of the library. The two Secret Service agents followed him. They were soon back with two police officers.

“Please,” Governor Zellner said to Cam and Danny, “tell officers Taylor and Gold what you told us.”

They stood just outside the library office. Cam and Danny told the officers about the thief dressed in black and the thin woman.
Officer Gold wrote what they said in a small notepad.

“I bet it was that thin woman who dropped the book,” Cam said.

Officer Taylor said, “First we’ll speak to Mrs. Adams. Maybe she can describe their car.”

Officer Gold closed his notepad. Then he and Officer Taylor started out of the library.

“We’ll go with you,” Cam said. “We can help you catch the thieves.”

“Yes, we’ll go with you,” Danny said.

“Oh, no you won’t,” Dr. Prell told them. “The police and the Secret Service will handle this.”

Dr. Prell stepped up to the microphone. She thanked Governor Zellner and the Pearls. Then she told the teachers to take their children back to their classrooms.

Ms. Benson thanked Mr. Tone for watching her class. Then she led her children into the hall.