The Mystery of the Circus Clown Read Free Page B

doors. Cam tried to catch up with them. When she got to the doors, she saw they were already downstairs, running through the lobby.

Chapter Seven
    Cam ran down the steps to the lobby. Eric and Aunt Molly were waiting for her.
    “I saw the clown with the chalkboard, the one who helped us before,” Cam said. “He was with a short woman, and they’re both carrying shopping bags. I think she’s the pickpocket.”
    Cam ran through the doors and onto the sidewalk. Eric and Aunt Molly followed her. It was raining hard outside. Some people had umbrellas. Others covered their heads with magazines and newspapers as they ran to their cars. Cam, Eric, and Aunt Molly looked for the couple.
    “Is that them?” Eric asked. He pointed to a man and woman walking quickly toward the parking lot.
    “Yes.”
    “You get the guard,” Aunt Molly said as she took a scarf from her handbag. “I’ll stall them.”
    Eric ran back to the arena. Aunt Molly walked quickly toward the couple. Cam followed her.
    “Excuse me,” Aunt Molly said to them, “but do you have the time?”
    “It’s four-thirty,” the woman called out over the sound of the pouring rain.
    Aunt Molly stood in front of the woman as the man walked ahead. “You know it’s not four-thirty in London,” Aunt Molly said. “It’s later there. I travel a lot and I never really know what time it is. That’s why I ask people.”

    “Come on,” the man called.
    “Please, I’m getting all wet,” the woman said. “And I’m in a hurry.”
    While they were talking, Cam sneaked behind the woman and looked in the woman’s bag. She saw a red wig, a white jacket, and pants with red and blue stripes. Cam was standing behind the woman. She pointed to her and nodded her head so that Aunt Molly would know they had found the Bumping Clown.
    “People over here always seem to be in a hurry,” Aunt Molly said. “It’s not like that all over, you know.”
    The woman started to push past Aunt Molly. The man was coming to help. Just then two of the guards ran up.
    “You, over there. Stop!”
    The woman started to run off, but she slipped on the wet street and fell. The man ran to his car. As he was opening the door, the guards caught up with him. They led him back to where the woman was sitting on the wet street. The guards helped her up and led them both back to the arena. Cam, Eric, and Aunt Molly walked behind them.
    They all went into an office behind the ticket booth. The woman sat down with the shopping bag on her lap. The man stood next to her. One of the guards called the police.
    The woman’s dress was soaking wet. The paper shopping bag she was holding was wet too. Aunt Molly took a handkerchief from her handbag and wiped the rain from her face. Then she gave the handkerchief to Cam.

    “Why are you holding us here?” the man asked. “We did nothing wrong.”
    “And look at me. I’m all wet,” the woman said.
    “You stole my wallet. That’s why we stopped you,” Aunt Molly said.
    “And you took other people’s wallets, too,” Cam said. “And I’ll bet they’re all in those bags you’re holding.”
    “I didn’t take anything,” the man said.
    “Neither did I. Everything in this bag is mine,” the woman said, and lifted her bag.
    As she lifted it, a big hole ripped through the bottom of the wet bag. Clown shoes, a jacket, pants, a small white hat, a red wig, and several wallets fell out.
    Aunt Molly picked up one of the wallets. She opened it and took out a credit card. She showed the card to one of the guards and said, “This is mine.”

Chapter Eight
    Jack Wally walked into the office. He was still wearing his bright red suit and carrying his top hat. He wrote a list of all the names and telephone numbers of the people whose wallets were stolen. He said that he would call the people and tell them that their wallets had been found.
    Then the police came. “So it’s you two again,” one of them said. “The last time we caught you, you were dressed