going to write a book,” she said. “I might call it
Peeks at Leaks
or
Pipes and Gripes
.”
She got in her truck. “Look for my book,” she said as she drove off.
Jim said, “The only other person who came in or left during dinner was Sadie Rosen. She wouldn’t steal basketballs and my computer.”
“Is there a back way into camp?” Cam asked.
“You can go through the woods,” Jim told her.
They followed Jim to the woods just beyond the baseball field. It had rained earlier in the day. The ground was soft and wet.
Jim said, “Look for foot or tire prints.”
They all walked along the edge of the woods from the end near the baseball field to the road.
Once they reached the road, Eric said, “There’s nothing here. There’s no path wide enough for a car or truck to ride on.”
“There are lots of footprints,” Terri said. “They’re from this afternoon, when we played baseball here. But none of them leads into the woods.”
There were several benches along the side of the road. Jim sat on one. He put his head in his hands and said, “We didn’t find any clues. Everything is just gone.”
Meow
!
Kitty rubbed her back against Jim’s leg.
“No, it’s not just gone,” Cam told him. “We did learn something. We learned that the sports equipment didn’t leave the camp through the front entrance or through the woods. So it must still be here. It must be hidden.”
Jim looked up.
“That’s right,” Jim said. “Now where in camp could someone hide basketballs, soft-balls, baseball bats, my computer, and all those prizes?”
C HAPTER F OUR
“This is like a math problem,” Terri said. “First we have to see what we know and then find out what we don’t know.”
“We know lots of stuff was stolen,” Eric said.
“And we know it’s still somewhere in camp,” Terri added. “We just need to know where.”
“This isn’t helping,” Jim said. “I don’t need problems. I need answers. I need to know where to find my things.”
Meow
! Kitty said, and licked Cam’s hand.
Cam petted Kitty.
Jim said, “I also need to know what to do without all the sports equipment. The end-of-camp tournaments are tomorrow.”
Meow
!
Cam took her hand from Kitty. Her palm was wet. Cam wiped her hand on her shirt.
“She’s licking your hand,” Eric said. “It must taste like the tuna fish you fed her.”
“That’s right,” Cam said, and looked at Kitty.
Cam looked at her hand. She thought for a moment and said, “Eric, you may have done it again. You may have helped me remember a very important clue.”
“What clue?” Terri asked.
Cam didn’t answer. Instead she closed her eyes and said, “
Click
!”
She said, “
Click
!” again.
“What are you looking at?” Eric asked.
“I’m looking at Kitty by the sports shed,” Cam answered.
Cam opened her eyes. “I just remembered that when we left the shed, Kitty didn’twant to go. Jim had to pick her up and carry her.”
“So what?” Jim asked. “She’s not heavy.”
“But why didn’t she want to leave?” Cam asked as she stood. “I’m going back to the shed to find out.”
Jim picked up Kitty again. He followed Cam, Eric, and Terri to the shed.
“Please,” Cam said, “put Kitty down.”
Jim put Kitty down by the entrance to the shed. Kitty went back to the padlock. She started to lick it.
“When we went to talk to Barry, Kitty was licking this lock,” Cam said. “That’s why Kitty didn’t want to leave the shed.”
“But why?” Eric asked. “It’s just a metal lock.”
Jim took the padlock from Kitty. He smelled it.
“It’s metal,” he said, “but it smells like fish.”
“Tuna fish,” Terri said. “Cam, you had tuna fish in a napkin. You must have touched it.”
“But I didn’t,” Cam said. “None of us did. We just looked at the lock and saw it was cut. The last person to touch it must have been the thief.”
“And there must have been tuna fish on his hands,” Eric said, “or
James McGovern, Science Fiction, Teen Books, Paranormal, Fantasy Romance, Magic, Books on Sale, YA Fantasy, Science Fiction and Fantasy, Science Fiction Romance, aliens, cyberpunk, teen