The Mystery of the Monster Movie (3 page)

Cam turned and watched the theater manager as he walked past. The lights dimmed. Music started to play.

“Look,” Cam said. “He stopped at Mr. Bender’s seat.”

“Sh. The movie is starting,” Cam’s father said.

“They’re arguing.”

Cam’s mother and Eric turned. Cam’s father didn’t.

“They’re both leaving the theater. I’m going to see what’s happening,” Cam said.

“You’re not going out there alone,” Cam’s mother whispered. “I’m going with you.”

“Me, too,” Eric said.

Cam’s father didn’t seem to notice when Cam, Eric, and Mrs. Jansen left their seats. On the movie screen a scientist was coating a bug with liquid vitamins. Then he fed the bug to a spider. Mr. Jansen’s eyes didn’t leave the screen.

As soon as Cam opened the door to the lobby, she heard the men arguing. “Bring back that reel of film or I’ll call the police,” the theater manager said.

“I don’t have your film.”

“First you come in here and make a fuss about the popcorn. Then you steal the film. I’m having you arrested.”

“Don’t sell half-empty buckets of popcorn and I won’t complain.”

The two men were standing very close to each other. The theater manager walked a few steps back. “I need that film now,” he said. “I have a whole theater filled with people waiting to see it. If you give it to me now, I’ll forget about calling the police.”

The theater manager and Mr. Bender were standing in the middle of the lobby. Cam, Eric, and Cam’s mother were standing in a corner near the doors to the theater. The two men didn’t seem to notice them.

“Do you think he took it?” Eric whispered.

“I think so,” Cam’s mother said. “He has a motive. A motive is like a reason. Mr. Bender’s reason for taking the film is so that people won’t want to come to this theater anymore. Then they’ll go to his instead. That’s why he complained about the popcorn.”

“It won’t help you to keep that film,” the theater manager said. “The newspapers will report what you did. That kind of publicity could ruin a theater like yours.”

Cam closed her eyes and said,
“Click.”

“What are you doing?” Cam’s mother asked.

“I’m looking at Mr. Bender. I’m trying to remember when I first saw him. Maybe he had the film hidden under his coat.”

Cam said,
“Click,”
again.

“Now what are you looking at?” Eric asked.

“I’m looking at all the other people I saw in the lobby. Maybe I saw someone else who had the film hidden.”

“Well,” the theater manager said to Mr. Bender. “Are you going to give me that film or not?”

“I don’t have that film,” Mr. Bender said. “I didn’t take it.”

“Then I’m calling the police. You just make sure that you don’t leave the theater before they get here.”

The theater manager walked into his office. Mr. Bender looked at a few of the movie posters in the lobby. Then he went into the men’s room.

“I’ll bet that’s where he hid the film,” Eric said. “I’ll bet it’s at the bottom of the wastebasket under the paper towels. As soon as he leaves, I’ll go in and find it.”

Cam’s eyes were still closed. “I looked at the pictures I have in my head of the people I saw in the lobby. I didn’t see anyone holding a reel of film.” Cam opened her eyes. “But I did see something strange. And I remembered something.”

“What was it? What did you remember?” Cam’s mother asked.

“The man in the projection room said, ‘I was here
just about
the whole time.’ That means that he wasn’t there the whole time. He must have left the projection room. Now what would get him to leave his job?”

“Maybe he had to go to the men’s room,” Eric said. “Maybe Mr. Bender was waiting for him there.”

“Or maybe,” Cam said, “there was a telephone call for him.”

“Yes,” Cam’s mother said. “A telephone call would get him away from his job.”

Cam started to climb the narrow steps to the projection room. “Come on,” she told her mother and Eric. “Let’s find out.”

Cam’s mother and Eric followed Cam. They knocked on the door of the projection room.

“It’s not locked. Come on in,” a man’s voice called from inside.

Cam pushed the door open. A man was sitting on a metal folding chair behind a large movie projector. All around the man’s chair were coffee cups and old newspapers.

“Can I help you?” the man asked. Then he saw Cam’s mother looking at the mess on the floor. “I was just about to clean up,” he said.

“I know that someone stole the second reel of
Shoe Escape,”
Cam said. “I think it happened when you left this room.”

“How do you know I left the room?”

“You spoke to someone on the telephone.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“You didn‘t,” Cam said. She looked down at the floor and gently kicked one of the empty cups. “I thought I had this all figured out.”

“I was called to the telephone. Someone had an ‘important message’ for me. But when I got there, no one was on the other end.”

“That’s it!” Cam said. “I know who called you, and I know who took the film.”

Cam ran out of the room and started down the steps to the lobby. Eric was about to follow her.

“That’s my daughter, Jennifer,” Cam’s mother told the man in the projection room. “She has an amazing memory. If she says she knows who took the film, I’m sure she does.”

“Come on, Mrs. Jansen,” Eric said. “We have to hurry and catch Cam.”

Once they were down the stairs, Mrs. Jansen looked across the lobby. Eric ran past the woman who collected the tickets, to the front doors of the theater. He looked outside. The snow was falling heavily now. It had covered the sidewalk. Eric saw someone shoveling the walk in front of the theater. A young couple had stopped to read the movie posters. But Eric didn’t see Cam.

Eric closed the door. “I can’t find her,” he told Cam’s mother. “Maybe she went back into the theater.”

Then Mrs. Jansen walked past a small open room. She stopped and said, “There she is.”

Cam was standing between two public telephones. She was looking through one of the telephone books. Cam pointed to a name on one page and said, “I found her. She lives at 358 Taft Drive.”

“Who lives on Taft Drive?” Eric asked.

“Angela Kane,” Cam said as she walked toward the front doors of the theater.

“Jennifer Jansen, where are you going?” her mother asked.

“To get back the missing film.”

“You’re not going out there without a coat. And you’re not going anywhere until you explain to me what’s going on.”

“But, Mom,” Cam said, “I’m sure I know who stole
Shoe Escape,
and we have to hurry to get the movie back before the end of
The Monster Spiders. ”

“Well,” Cam’s mother said, “if you say you know who stole the film, I believe you. You’re good at figuring these things out. I’ll get the coats. Then I’ll drive you. But you have to promise to explain everything to me in the car.”

“I promise.”

Cam’s mother went back into the theater to get the coats. While Cam and Eric waited for her, two police officers walked in. “They’re going to arrest Mr. Bender,” Cam whispered, “and he didn’t take the film. I’m sure of it.”

Cam’s mother came out of the theater and gave Cam and Eric their coats. Mrs. Jansen waited while they put on their hats and gloves. Then she opened the front door to the theater.

“We’ll be back,” Mrs. Jansen told the woman who collected the tickets.

The snow had been cleared from the sidewalk in front of the theater. Beyond that there was only a narrow path. Eric walked behind Cam as she followed her mother to the Jansens’ car. They worked together to clean the snow off the windows. Then, while Mrs. Jansen started the car, she asked Cam to please tell her who took the film.

“When I said all those
‘Clicks,’
I was looking at the people I saw in the lobby. Angela Kane was there wearing a big red hat. When Dad saw her in line, he thought she was one of the actors in
Shoe Escape.
Well, she was.”

“What does that mean?” Eric asked. “So what if she was in the movie? That doesn’t mean she stole the film.”

Cam’s mother was holding the steering wheel firmly with both hands. She was driving very slowly through the falling snow.

“When you said all those
‘Clicks,’
did you see something else?” Cam’s mother asked.

“Yes. Angela Kane was just ahead of us when we bought the popcorn. She wanted change to use in the pay telephone.”

“Do you think she’s the one who called the man in the projection booth?” Eric asked.

“Yes. That’s just what I think,” Cam said. “And when he came to the phone, no one was there because Angela Kane was on her way to the projection room to steal the film.”

“This is Taft Drive,” Mrs. Jansen said. “And there’s a good spot to park. It’s almost all clear of snow. Someone must have just pulled out.