Free The Catnapping Mystery by David A. Adler Page A

luggage by the long front desk. People were sitting on chairs and couches. There was a red piano on a platform, and a woman in a long black dress was playing it.
    Mr. and Mrs. Jansen looked for Aunt Molly. Then, after a long while, Mr. Jansen called, “Molly! Molly!” He waved to a woman sitting by a large potted palm tree.
    Aunt Molly looked across the lobby, right at Cam, Eric, and Cam’s parents. Then she looked at the people sitting on the couch next to Mr. Jansen. She turned and looked at the woman playing the piano. Then she looked at the palm tree and smiled.
    “No, over here,” Mr. Jansen called as he walked toward Aunt Molly.
    Cam, Eric, and Mrs. Jansen followed him.

    “Oh, what a surprise seeing you here,” Aunt Molly said. She waved her hands in front of Mr. Jansen and said, “But I can’t talk to you right now. Someone is calling my name.”
    “That was me,” Mr. Jansen told her.
    “It was?” Molly asked. “Oh, of course it was,” she said. She hugged Mr. and Mrs. Jansen.
    “Oh, my,” she said when she looked at Cam. “You and your friend Sheldon are getting so big.”
    “Molly,” Mr. Jansen said, “his name is Eric Shelton, not Sheldon.”
    “Is that right?” Aunt Molly asked Eric.
    Eric nodded.
    Molly put her hand to her cheek, shook her head, and asked, “Are you sure?”
    “Yes, he’s sure,” Mr. Jansen told her.
    “What have you planned for us?” Mrs. Jansen asked. “You said you would find something exciting for us to do.”
    “Did I?” Molly asked. “I’m a little confused. I’ve been doing so much traveling. You know,” she said to Eric, “I work for an airline. I just came from New Orleans.”
    “New Orleans!” Eric said. “That begins with an n. That’s my answer,” he told Cam. “Now you need a place that begins with an s.”
    Cam told Molly, “We’re playing Geography.”
    “That’s nice,” Molly said. “And thank you,” she told Mr. Jansen. “I had such a nice time with you today.”
    “Molly,” Mr. Jansen said very slowly. “We just got here. We haven’t done anything yet.”
    “Oh, my,” Aunt Molly said. “That’s right.” She smiled. “I am very confused today.”
    She started across the lobby. Then she turned and said, “Come with me.”
    Aunt Molly led them to a young man at one end of the front desk. Behind him was a rack with folders describing things to do in the city.
    “Good morning,” Molly said. “We’re looking for something to do.”
    “Something exciting,” Mrs. Jansen added.
    “Good morning,” the young man said. “My name is Michael. Let’s see what I can find for you.”
    Michael turned and took a folder from the rack. “How about going up in a hot air balloon?”

    Mr. Jansen looked at the folder and said, “These balloons go pretty high up. How about something less exciting?”
    Mrs. Jansen looked at the folder and added, “And less expensive.”
    “Excuse me. Excuse me,” an old woman said. She pushed ahead of Aunt Molly. She put her hands on the desk. “Excuse me,” she said again.
    “You’re next,” Michael told her.
    The woman was very upset.
    “I can’t wait to be next,” she said. “It’s Little Tiger! It’s Little Tiger! I’m sure something terrible has happened to my Little Tiger.”

Chapter Three
    “Y ou have a tiger?” Eric asked.
    Mrs. Jansen patted the woman’s hand and said, “Just take a deep breath and tell us what happened.”
    The woman took a deep breath.
    “Did you hear that?” Eric whispered to Cam. “She has a tiger.”
    “Maybe it’s one of those toy stuffed animals,” Cam whispered.
    “Oh, no,” the woman said and took another breath. “My Little Tiger is real. And she’s such a dear. I take her everywhere.”
    “This is exciting,” Mrs. Jansen said.
    “I came to the hotel,” the woman told Michael. “I arrived by taxi. The circle drive in front was filled with cars. The driver said, ‘I can’t get in there. How about I leave you off here?’”
    The