The Mystery of the Gold Coins (4 page)

Eric pointed to a red plaid jacket hanging behind the counter.

“Can we check your jacket, too?” Cam asked.

Jimmy hesitated for a moment. Then he said, “Sure. Check anything you want. You won’t find any gold coins.”

Lenny handed the jacket to the policeman. The policeman emptied the pockets. He took out some tissues, chewing gum, and a large ring of keys.

The policewoman picked up the keys. “What are all these for?” she asked.

“Those are my house keys,” Jimmy said.

Mr. Collins took a ring of keys from his pocket. He compared the two sets of keys.

“Some of these look just like mine,” Mr. Collins said.

Lenny compared the keys and said, “Some of these
are
the same.”

“All right, Jimmy,” the policewoman said, “you’ll have to come with us and answer some questions.”

“What about my coins?” Mr. Collins asked.

“You’re not getting any coins back,” Jimmy said, “because I don’t have them.”

Chapter Seven

Jimmy put his pen and money back into his pockets. Then he put his jacket on.

As the police were leading Jimmy to the front of the store, they passed a man kicking the soda machine. When he saw the police, the man stopped kicking the machine.

“I lost two quarters,” he said.

“Well, don’t break the machine,” the policeman told him as he walked past.

Cam stopped. She looked at the man and the machine. Then she closed her eyes and said,
“Click. ”

She opened her eyes quickly. The police and Jimmy were just leaving the store.

“Stop!” Cam called to them. “Come back here.”

The policewoman rushed back. “What is it now?” she asked.

“Just wait here. I think I know where the gold coins are. And,” she said to the man, “you’ll get your quarters back.”

Cam ran to the locksmith’s counter. “Someone lost money in the soda machine,” she told Lenny.

Lenny opened the cash register and took out some coins.

“No. Don’t give him the money. Please, open the machine and see what’s wrong.”

Lenny took some keys off a hook and followed Cam. He pressed some buttons on the soda machine, but nothing happened. He put a coin into the machine and pressed the buttons again. But still nothing happened.

“When we came in,” Cam whispered to Eric, “Jimmy was standing right here. He put something into the machine. It might have been the gold coins.”

Lenny unlocked the machine and opened it. Inside were cups ready to slide down a small metal ramp, tubes leading to containers of soda syrup, and a clear plastic coin chute. There were coins stuck in the chute. The first two were gold. Lenny gave the chute a few hard taps and the coins dropped down. Lenny gave the man his money, and he gave the gold coins to Mr. Collins.

“One of these must be bent,” Lenny told Mr. Collins. “That’s why it got stuck.”

Mr. Collins said, “I’m glad. If the coins weren’t bent, we might not have found them.”

The police drove Cam, Eric, and Mr. Collins back to the coin shop. Then they took Jimmy to the police station.

“I said before that I didn’t know about
‘Clicks,’
” Mr. Collins told Cam, “but now I do. They help you remember, and they helped find my coins.”

Eric looked through the window of the store while Mr. Collins opened the door.

“You may have a good memory,” Eric told Cam, “but you -forgot about your camera. It’s on the counter. We better hurry back to school with it before it’s too late to put it in the science fair.”

“Don’t go so fast. I want to give you something for helping me,” Mr. Collins said.

He opened the door. Then he opened one of the cases and took out a handful of coins. He gave five of the coins to Cam and five to Eric.

Eric looked at the coins.

“These are pennies,” he said.

Mr. Collins smiled and said, “Yes. If you want to spend them, they’re worth just one cent each. But to a collector they’re worth much more. These are Indian head pennies, and they’re quite old. The last ones were made in 1909.”

Cam and Eric thanked Mr. Collins for the coins and invited him to the science fair. Then Cam took her camera and walked with Eric to school.

Chapter Eight

That evening Cam and Eric were standing by their projects. Ms. Benson and the other fifth grade teachers walked with the science fair judges from table to table. They asked the children about their projects. Each of the judges wrote notes on a pad. Later they would announce the winner of the science fair.

Cam’s parents were at the science fair. So were Eric’s parents, his twin sisters, Donna and Diane, and his baby brother, Howie. They all came to Cam’s table.

“Did the judges get here yet?” Cam’s father asked.

“No, but they’ll be here soon. They were just with Eric.”

“Do you know what to say?”

“They’ll ask me how I made the camera and how it works. And I know all that.”

“Don’t forget to tell them that the first picture you took was of me,” Donna said. “They might think it’s Diane because we look alike. You tell them it was me.”

The teachers and judges walked up to Cam’s table.

“This is Jennifer Jansen,” Ms. Benson told the others. “She made a camera. Can you tell us about it, Jennifer?”

“There’s no film in it now, so I can open it for you.” Cam took the top off the camera. “It started as a box.”

Cam showed the teachers and the judges where she put the film and how she had made the shutter with a pin, some tape, cardboard, and aluminum foil.

“And the most important thing is,” Cam said, “that I made sure no light gets into the camera. If light gets in, the film is ruined.”

The judges asked Cam some questions. Then they walked over to the next table.

Everyone waited for the winner to be announced.

Ms. Benson walked onto the stage. She spoke into the microphone while the other teachers and the judges stood behind her.

“Before I announce the winner, I want to thank everyone for coming here tonight. I also want to thank all our fifth grade students for working so hard.”

Someone tapped Cam and Eric on their shoulders. It was Mr. Collins. “I hope you both win,” he said.

One of the judges handed Ms. Benson a trophy. Then Ms. Benson said, “This year’s winner is Joan Cooper for her project, ‘Soda, Sugar, and Teeth.’ Joan, will you come up here, please.”

Eric whispered to Cam, “Well, at least Linda Baker didn’t win.”

Joan walked onto the stage, and Ms. Benson gave her the trophy. Lights flashed as her parents and some other people took pictures.

“Why don’t you take her picture?” Mr. Collins asked.

“There’s no film in my camera.”

“No, use your other camera, the one that saved my coins.”

Joan was shaking hands with one of the judges. Cam looked straight at her and said,
“Click.”
Then Cam looked at Mr. Collins. He was talking to Cam’s parents and to Eric and his family.

“I’m taking your pictures, too,” Cam told them.

Cam’s mother combed her hair. Eric’s mother held Howie up so that he would be in the picture. Then they smiled.

Cam looked straight at them all and said,
“Click.”