The Mystery of the Stolen Corn Popper Read Free Page B

box of taffy you buy, you get a free two-pound bag of jelly beans. That’s right, shoppers, free jelly beans.”
    A woman carrying a full Binky’s shopping bag was walking into the store. “Where is that?” she asked the guard. “Where are those free jelly beans?”
    The guard told the woman how to get to the candy department. Cam watched as the woman walked off. Cam rubbed her chin and thought for a moment. Then she told Eric, “Come with me. I think I know where to find the shopping-bag thief.”

Chapter Seven
    “ W here are we going?” Eric asked.
    “That woman carrying the shopping bag into the store made me think,” Cam said as they walked.
    “What’s there to think about?” Eric asked. “That woman probably forgot to buy something, so she came back. That’s why she was walking into the store carrying a shopping bag.”
    “Maybe,” Cam said, “and maybe not.”
    Eric followed Cam to the other end of the store. They walked through the curtain, sheet, and towel department to Gift Wrap and Returns.
    Cam looked at the long lines of people waiting to return something they had bought. Then she found her. The woman in the blue dress was in the middle of the last line.
    “There she is,” Cam whispered.

    “Now I understand why she didn’t have the corn popper when we saw her,” Eric whispered. “As soon as she steals a shopping bag, she returns whatever is in it and keeps the money.”
    Cam said, “And that’s why none of the exit guards saw her. She never left the store.”
    Then Cam told Eric, “I’ll wait here. You, get one of the guards.”
    Eric took a few steps away. Then he came back. “I think I’ll get Guard Number 397, the one with the ketchup stain. I know he’ll come.”
    Eric walked off. Cam stood at the end of one of the other lines and watched the woman.
    There were two shoppers in line ahead of the woman in the blue dress. Cam watched as a woman behind the Returns counter gave the, money to the first shopper in line. The man counted the money and walked away. Everyone in the last line moved a step closer to the Returns counter. Now there was only one shopper ahead of the woman in the blue dress.
    An old man lifted a large suitcase onto the Returns counter. He spoke to the woman behind the counter and then showed her the zipper on the suitcase. The woman took the suitcase and returned the money he had paid. The old man smiled and walked away. Now the woman in the blue dress stepped up to the counter.
    The woman in the blue dress took a box and a receipt out of the shopping bag and put them on the counter. Then she took two more boxes from the bag and put them on the counter, too.
    Cam looked into the curtain, sheet, and towel department to see if Eric was coming with the guard. He wasn’t.
    The woman behind the Returns counter gave the woman in the blue dress some money. The woman in the blue dress smiled and walked quickly away. She walked past Cam.
    “Excuse me,” Cam said as she ran in front of the woman, “do you know where I can find the taffy?”
    “I’m sorry, I don’t,” the woman said.
    “If you buy taffy, you get free jelly beans. Don’t you like jelly beans?” Cam asked.

    “I don’t like jelly beans. I don’t like taffy. And I’m in a hurry,” the woman said. “Now, will you please get out of my way?”
    The woman gently pushed Cam aside and walked off. Cam ran ahead of her and asked, “Have you ever tasted a red jelly bean? They’re really good.”
    “I told you, I’m in a hurry. I have no time for jelly beans.”
    “What’s your hurry?” someone asked. It was Guard Number 397. Eric was with him.
    “I have shopping to do.”
    “You mean you have stealing to do. We know about the shopping bags.”
    The woman started to run. But two other guards were walking up the aisle. They caught her.
    A woman with red hair and a bright green dress walked quickly up to the guards. “Come with me,” she said.
    The guards and the shopping-bag thief followed