Cam Jansen and the Birthday Mystery Read Free Page A

end of the line.
    Cam opened her eyes. “I just remembered something,” she said. “Let’s go to our car.”
    “No,” Eric told her. “I think I found the cab. I am going to tell the police officers. I want to watch them catch the thief.”
    The police looked into a cab in the middle of the line. Then the door opened and the driver got out. The driver was a woman with long blond hair. She was wearing a blue denim jacket.
    Eric said, “I’m going to show them the cab with the dent.”
    Mrs. Jansen said, “I’ll go with you.”
    “I’ll be waiting for you in our car,” Cam told Eric and Mrs. Jansen as they walked off.
    “Maybe looking in cabs is not the best way to catch the thief,” Cam told her father. “Maybe there’s a better way.”
    “What are you saying?” he asked.

    “I’m saying, I think I know how to catch the thief. I know how to get back Granny and Gramps’s luggage and the birthday gifts. I just need to go to our car and look at something.”
    “Then let’s go,” Mr. Jansen said.
    Cam and Mr. Jansen walked quickly toward the parking lot. The Don’t Walk sign was lit. Cam and her father stopped and waited for it to change.
    “Look at the people on both sides of the road,” Cam said. “Lots of them are carrying luggage.”
    “So what?” Cam’s father asked.
    The Walk sign lit up. Cam and her father crossed the road to the parking lot.
    “So what?” Cam’s father asked again.
    “I’ll show you,” Cam said. She led him to the almost empty part of the lot where their car was parked. The red sports car and the gray van on either side of the Jansens’ car were still there. Cam looked through the back windows of the van. Then she told her father to look, too.
    “What do you see?” Cam asked.
    “Suitcases,” Mr. Jansen answered. “So what? Lots of people bring suitcases to an airport.”
    “That’s right,” Cam said. “But they don’t leave them in their cars. They either park here and take their luggage onto an airplane. Or they get off an airplane, bring their luggage to their cars, and leave the parking lot.”

    Mr. Jansen looked at his daughter and smiled. “You’re right,” he said. “Why would a van be parked here loaded with luggage?”
    “Mom told me to remember where our car was parked,” Cam said. “That’s why I looked at our car, the sports car, and the van, and clicked! That’s why I remembered the luggage in the back of the van.”
    Mr. Jansen looked through the back windows of the van again. “And there are two large gift-wrapped boxes in there,” he said. “I’ll bet those are our birthday gifts. We have to show this to the police.”
    “I’m not leaving here,” Cam said. “The thief might come back with more stolen luggage. He might load it in the van and drive off.”
    Cam’s father asked, “What would he do with the cab?”
    “Maybe the cab is stolen. Maybe he’ll just leave it here,” Cam answered.
    Mr. Jansen looked at the luggage in the back of the van. Then he told Cam, “You’re not staying here alone. We’ll wait in the car and see what happens. But we’re not chasing any thief.”

Chapter Eight
    Cam and her father got in their car. Cam was in the back. Her father was in the front. They locked the doors.
    They watched cars ride along the road, just on the other side of the parking lot fence. Each time they saw a cab, Cam and her father wondered if the thief was driving it.
    Mr. Jansen pointed to the gray van and said, “That may not be the thief’s.”
    Cam said, “I think it is.”
    “Well, maybe it’s not,” Mr. Jansen said. “Maybe someone got here early for his flight. It was too early to bring his luggage to the terminal, so he’s eating dinner in one of the restaurants. Or maybe he’s buying a ticket now to go somewhere.”
    “Look!” Cam whispered.
    A cab was going by the fence very slowly. Cam looked at the cab. She blinked her eyes and said, “Click!”
    Cam and her father watched the cab turn into the