Free Cam Jansen and the Sports Day Mysteries by David A. Adler Page B

when she gets our things.”
    Eric took the small card. Then he ran to catch up with the others.

CHAPTER THREE
    A police car sped past Cam and her friends. It stopped in front of Zelda’s. Two police officers got out. They went into the bakery.
    Mrs. Wayne said, “I wonder what’s happening in there.”
    “I’m wondering, too,” Danny said. “I’m going in.”
    “No you’re not,” his father told him. “You’re going with us to Franklin Park.”
    As they walked past Zelda’s, Cam, Eric, Mrs. Wayne, and Danny looked in. Two police officers were there. They were talking to a very thin woman.
    “That thin woman is Zelda,” Eric whispered to Cam. “She loves to bake.”
    “Let’s go,” Mr. Pace said.
    Just past Zelda’s was a narrow driveway. Along one side of the driveway was Zelda’s. Along the other side was a tall metal fence. At the end of the driveway was a large open metal trash container.
    “Hey, look at that!” Danny said. “There is something red in the trash.”
    Danny hurried down the driveway.
    “Wait! Wait!” his father called.

    Mr. Pace hurried after his son.
    Cam and Eric watched Danny step onto a wooden box by the side of the trash bin. He reached into the trash and took out something red.
    “Look at this!” Danny said as he ran toward Cam.
    Danny had a large red hat.
    “I found it in the garbage,” Danny said. “It was right on top.”
    “You shouldn’t have taken that hat,” Mr. Pace said. “I don’t want you mixed up in any robbery. We should give that hat to the police and then go to the park.”
    “Yes, let’s go,” Beth said. “Ms. Benson is way ahead of us. Everyone is way ahead of us.”
    “Danny, that hat is a clue,” Mr. Pace told his son. “You must give it to the police.”
    “But I like this hat,” Danny said. “Look at me.”
    He put on the floppy red hat. He turned so everyone could see how he looked.
    “Ha!” Beth said. “I bet crooks don’t wash their hair much. I bet that hat has cooties.”
    “Cooties!” Danny said.
    He threw the hat to the ground.
    “I’m giving that to the police,” Mrs. Wayne said. “But first, I’m looking in the trash for more clues.”
    Mrs. Wayne took the hat off the ground. Then she walked along the driveway toward the trash bin.
    “Come on,” Cam whispered to Eric. “Let’s go with her.”
    Mrs. Wayne, Cam, and Eric hurried down the driveway. Eric stood on the box by the side of the bin and looked in.
    “Just look,” Mrs. Wayne told him. “Don’t touch anything.”
    Eric said, “I see a large pair of sunglasses.”
    Cam told Eric to look for a blue jacket.
    “There it is,” Eric said. “And there’s a green wire hanging out of the pocket. I bet that’s the wire Sadie and Martha saw.”
    Cam and Eric looked around the trash bin. The area was clean. The driveway and backyard of the bakery were surrounded by the metal fence.
    Eric said, “We knew the thief was wearing a large red hat, sunglasses, a jacket, and an earpiece with a green wire. Those were our only clues. Now that the thief is not wearing this stuff we’ll never find him.”
    “I’m giving this hat to the police. And I’m telling them where to find these other things,” Mrs. Wayne said. “Then we have to get to the park.”
    Because of the fence, there was no way out of the backyard except down the driveway.

    “Look!” Mrs. Wayne said. “We don’t have to walk around. There’s a back door to the bakery.”
    Mrs. Wayne opened the door. She, Cam, and Eric walked past large ovens, two women mixing dough, a young man decorating a cake with icing, and a young man taking loaves of bread from an open oven.
    “You can’t be here,” one of the women told Mrs. Wayne, Cam, and Eric.
    “They’re with me,” Mrs. Wayne said. “I’m Dr. Prell’s secretary. She’s the principal.”
    “This is a bakery, not a school,” one of the women told Mrs. Wayne.
    “Okay,” Mrs. Wayne said. “We’re leaving.”
    She walked with Cam and