The Mystery of the Stolen Corn Popper (3 page)

The guard took the small boy in his arms. The boy looked up at the guard and cried.

“Let’s go,” the guard said. He took big, quick steps. Shoppers moved aside. The boy continued to cry as he was carried to the Household Helpers department.

Cam and Eric followed them. “Don’t you want to know who stole the shopping bags?” Cam asked.

The guard didn’t answer.

Eric said, “He can’t hear you. That boy is crying too loud.”

The guard carried the boy to a table covered with houseplants. Next to the plants were watering cans, clay pots, and potting soil.

The boy stopped crying.

“Now can I tell you who stole the shopping bags?” Cam asked.

“Not now! I’m looking for this boy’s mother.”

The boy began to cry again.

“Let’s go,” Cam said to Eric. “We’ll find another guard.”

As Cam and Eric looked for another guard, the soft music that was playing throughout the store stopped. “Attention, shoppers. Attention, shoppers,” someone announced. “For the next hour, in our Binky’s Happy Feet department, all shoes are on sale at half the regular price. That’s right, shoppers. All shoes are on sale.”

Two men and a woman ran down the Household Helpers aisle. Cam and Eric stepped aside to let them pass. Another woman came running toward Cam and Eric. Her coat flew open as she ran. She had one hand on her head to keep her hat from flying off. With her other hand she carried a shopping bag. The woman ran right past Cam and Eric. Then she stopped.

“Which way are the shoes?” she asked.

Eric pointed down the aisle. “Everyone is going that way,” he said.

The woman thanked Eric and ran off.

Cam and Eric walked slowly along the side of the aisle as shoppers ran past them.

Cam and Eric walked toward an exit. “There’s a guard,” Cam said. “And look! Look! He’s caught her. He’s caught the woman in the blue dress.”

T
he guard was talking to a woman in a blue dress. But as Cam and Eric walked closer, they saw that the woman was wearing a brown hat. She didn’t have brown hair. And there were no flowers on her dress.

“We sell dried fruit in our candy department,” the guard was telling the woman. “Just walk down this aisle and you’ll come right to it.”

The woman said, “Thank you,” and walked away.

“I know who stole the shopping bags,” Cam told the guard. “It’s a woman with long, curly brown hair, glasses, and a blue dress with flowers on it.”

The guard smiled at Cam. “What makes you think you know who stole those shopping bags?” he asked.

Eric said, “Cam has an amazing memory. She says
‘Click’
and remembers just about everything she sees. Cam remembers seeing that woman leaving School Supplies with a shopping bag just after the corn popper was taken. And she was leaving Toys when the records and puzzle book were stolen.”

The guard asked, “How can you be so sure it was the same woman?”

“I told you. She has an amazing memory,” Eric said. “Go on, Cam. Show him.”

Cam looked at the guard. Then she closed her eyes and said
“Click.”

“You’re wearing a green uniform,” Cam said with her eyes closed. Your badge says ‘Binky’s Security Guard, Number 397.’ And you had ketchup for lunch.”

“That’s right. I did. You
do
have an amazing memory.”

Cam opened her eyes. “You should move that badge to cover the ketchup.”

The guard laughed. “I can’t,” he said. “It’s covering a mustard stain from yesterday’s lunch.”

The guard took a memo pad from his pocket and said, “Now tell me about that woman.”

Cam described the woman. The guard wrote down the description. Then he said, “After she stole that first shopping bag, we were looking for her. We didn’t know what she looked like, but we knew she had a gift wrapped in gold paper with a green bow. But she never left the store. Now she’s carrying two stolen shopping bags. We’ll find her.”

As Cam and Eric walked away they heard the guard talk into his walkie-talkie. He gave Cam’s description of the thief to the other store guards.

“They’ll catch her now,” Eric said. “Let’s hurry and get the notebooks, pencils, and things. I have to be home in time for supper.”

As they walked through the Household Helpers department, Cam pointed to someone in the Happy Feet department and said, “Look at that woman. She’s wearing a blue dress.”

Cam and Eric walked closer. There were flowers on the woman’s dress, and she had brown hair. Cam and Eric waited for her to turn around. When she did, Cam looked right at the woman, blinked her eyes, and said,
“Click.”

“She’s wearing glasses,” Eric said.

Cam closed her eyes and said
“Click”
again.

“That’s her,” Cam said as she opened her eyes. “Let’s go!”

Eric walked closely behind Cam. He whispered, “Why don’t we tell a guard?”

“First let’s make sure she’s the thief. Let’s see if she has the two stolen shopping bags.”

The woman walked slowly through the Happy Feet department. She looked down a lot, as if she were looking for something.

But she wasn’t carrying any shopping bags.

The woman left Happy Feet and walked into Household Helpers. She walked right past Cam and Eric.

“I don’t understand it,” Cam whispered. “She was there whenever a shopping bag was stolen. I was sure she was the thief.”

“Well, she didn’t have the shopping bags, so she’s not,” Eric said. “And we should tell the guards not to stop her.”

Cam and Eric walked into the Household Helpers department again. They saw the very tall guard and walked toward him. They planned to tell him that the woman in the blue dress was not the thief. The small boy was still in the guard’s arms. The guard hadn’t found the boy’s mother.

Eric stopped. He looked at the tall guard. Eric rubbed his chin and said, “I just remembered something. And I think I know where that boy’s mother is.”

Cam and Eric walked up to the guard. Eric pointed to the front of his own shirt and asked the boy, “What is this?”

The guard and the boy looked down at Eric.

Eric pointed to his shirt again and asked, “What is this?”

“Dirt,” the boy said.

“Dirt? You mean shirt!” the guard said. “Your mother isn’t buying dirt. She’s buying a shirt.”

The guard took big, quick steps as he walked to the clothing department. Cam and Eric followed him.

“How did you know ‘dirt’ meant ‘shirt’?” Cam asked Eric as they walked.

“That boy reminds me of my sisters. When Donna and Diane were little, it was hard to know what they were saying. ‘Dees’ was ‘keys,’ and ‘gogul’ was ‘bottle.’ ”

The guard walked past the men’s shirts, neckties, and pants displays. Then, as he was walking past a table covered with sweaters, the boy called out, “Mama.”

“Andy,” a woman answered. She ran toward him. “Where have you been? I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

“Mama.”

“Thank you so much,” the woman said to the guard as she took the boy in her arms.

“Mama.”

“Don’t thank me,” the guard told her. “This boy told me where to find you.”

“Thank you,” the woman said to Eric.

The soft music that was playing throughout the store stopped again. “Attention, shoppers. Attention, shoppers,” someone announced. “For the next thirty minutes, in our Binky’s Looking Good clothing department, all men’s shirts are on sale at half our regular price. That’s right, shoppers. All men’s shirts are on sale.”

“We’d better get out of the way,” Cam said.

Shoppers were already rushing to the clothing department. Then Cam and Eric heard someone call out, “Help! My shopping bag has been stolen!”

“
Q
uick!” Cam said. “That came from over there, the gift department.”

Cam and Eric ran toward the gift department. And men and women were running toward Cam and Eric, to get to the men’s shirts. Most of them were careful not to run into Cam or Eric. But one very fat man carrying two shopping bags wasn’t careful at all. He ran straight down the aisle shouting, “Get out of my way! Get out of my way!”

Cam and Eric moved aside to let the fat man pass. Then Cam pointed and said, “There she is again!”

Cam was pointing to the woman with long, curly brown hair, glasses, and a blue dress with flowers on it. She was leaving the gift department. She was walking quickly. And she kept turning and looking behind her as she walked.

“She
must
be the thief,” Cam said to Eric. “She’s there every time a shopping bag is stolen.”

“But what does she do with the shopping bags?”

“Let’s follow her,” Cam said. “There she is, behind that rack of men’s jackets.”

Cam and Eric began to cross the aisle. A woman came running toward them. Cam and Eric moved aside. The woman’s coat flew open as she ran. She had one hand on her head to keep her hat from flying off. In her other hand she was holding two shopping bags. It was the same woman Cam and Eric had seen near the shoe sale.

“Which way are the shirts?” she asked.

Cam pointed to the men’s shirt display. Then she looked for the woman in the blue dress. Cam ran to the jacket rack. Eric ran past the jackets to the men’s coats, neckties, and sweaters. The woman was gone.

“Let’s get to the exit before she does,” Cam said.

Cam and Eric ran to the nearest exit. The guard standing there was a woman. Her arms were folded.

“Did she come here?” Cam asked quickly. “Did she leave?”

“Who?”

“The woman in the blue dress. She stole the shopping bags.”

Eric spoke more slowly. “A woman in a blue dress has been stealing shopping bags. She just stole another one. And she was coming this way.”

The guard reached into her pocket and took out her memo pad. She read from it and asked, “Does that woman have long, curly brown hair and glasses?”