The Tennis Trophy Mystery (2 page)

“Cam remembers the rules,” Eric whispered as they walked slowly to the side of the gym. “She remembers everything.”

“What’s that?” Mr. Day asked. “What did you say?”

“Nothing,” Eric answered.

Mr. Day divided the class into two teams. He set one team on each side of the net. He stood on the side of the court.

“It’s worse here,” Cam whispered.

“What is?” Eric and Danny asked.

“The smell,” Cam answered. “It’s worse here. I think it’s coming from Mr. Day’s office.”

“Pass the ball forward,” Mr. Day told children in the back row. “Play as a team.”

“I think it’s coming from Mr. Day’s office,” Cam whispered to Eric.

“Sh,” Eric said. “Don’t talk. We’re in enough trouble.”

A boy in the back row hit the ball straight up. Everyone watched the ball go up. It almost touched the ceiling. Then they all watched the ball come down. No one tried to hit it.

“Don’t just watch!” Mr. Day shouted to the children. “This isn’t a television show. This is a game.”

Cam quietly stepped closer to Mr. Day’s office.

It was Janet Teller’s turn to serve. She held the volleyball in her left hand. She made a fist with her right hand and hit the ball. It flew to the side, right at Mr. Day.

“Oh no,” Janet screamed.

Mr. Day put his hands in front of his face and caught the ball.

Cam stepped even closer to the office.

Eric took a step, too. Then he whispered to Cam, “What are you doing?”

Mr. Day stood next to Janet.

“Hey,” Danny called to Cam and Eric. “Where are you going?”

“Whisper!” Eric told Danny.

Danny moved next to Eric and whispered, “Where are you going?”

“Cam wants to know why there’s a strange smell coming from Mr. Day’s office.”

“Maybe he’s cooking garlic,” Danny said. “Or maybe he’s burning old sneakers. That would
really
stink.”

Mr. Day held the ball in his left hand. “When you serve, hit the ball like this,” Mr. Day told Janet. Then he took an even swing and hit it high over the net.

Cam took one more step and was by the office. She turned and looked through the small window in the door.

It was a small office. When Cam looked through the window, all she could see was Mr. Day’s desk and the old cabinet behind the desk.

The desk was piled high with papers.

The cabinet was against the back wall of the office. The cabinet had two locked glass doors. Cam looked through the glass doors to the back wall. It was painted yellow.

“That’s it,” Cam said. “That’s the smell. The office was just painted. It was blue before and now it’s yellow.”

“Yellow!” Danny said.

Eric and Danny looked through the window.

“It’s a big square banana. That’s what it is,” Danny said. “Mr. Day’s office is a big square yellow banana.”

“The cabinet looks a little empty,” Cam said, and looked through the window again. “I think something is missing.”

Cam closed her eyes and said,
“Click!”

“That’s it,” Cam said with her eyes still closed. “That’s what’s missing.”

Cam opened her eyes and looked at the top shelf of the cabinet. On the shelf were two silver trophies.

“He had three trophies on the top shelf,” Cam said. “Now he just has two. His tennis trophy is missing.”

“That’s the trophy he won at last year’s teachers’ tournament,” Eric said. “He’s so proud of that one.”

“Bam! Whoosh!”
Danny said, and pretended to be swinging a tennis racket. “He beat Ms. Green.”

“Maybe the trophy is in his desk,” Eric said. “Maybe he took it home.”

Mr. Day turned. He saw Cam, Eric, and Danny standing by the door to his office.

“I told you to study the rules,” he said. “You can’t see the sign from there.”

“How did that happen?” Danny asked as he looked to his right and looked to his left. “How did we get here?”

Cam, Eric, and Danny went back to the corner. They looked straight ahead at the sign.

“I’ve got to get in there,” Cam whispered. “I’ve got to get in that office and look for that trophy.”

“It’s time to stop playing. Line up, please,” Mr. Day told the class. He stepped forward and caught the volleyball. “You, too,” he called to Cam, Eric, and Danny.

The children hurried to the entrance to the gym. They got in line and waited for their teacher, Ms. Benson.

“What happened to your tennis trophy?” Cam asked as she walked past Mr. Day.

“I won that last year,” Mr. Day said. He was very proud of that trophy. “I won it in the teachers’ tournament. The last match was real close. It was between me and Ms. Green.” Mr. Day smiled. “She just couldn’t hit my serve.”

“Yes, she could,” Danny said. “She thought the serve was out.”

Mr. Day turned. He glared at Danny.

“Dr. Prell was the umpire, and she said it was good.”

“After the tournament,” Janet said, “that’s all Ms. Green talked about, that the ball was out.”

Now Mr. Day glared at Janet.

Ms. Benson walked into the gym. She spoke to Mr. Day for a moment. Then she led the children back to their classroom.

Cam didn’t follow Ms. Benson.

“I know how you won the trophy,” Cam told Mr. Day. “I want to know where it is. Did you put it on your desk? Did you take it home?”

“No,” Mr. Day answered. “It’s in my office, in the cabinet.”

“No it’s not.”

Mr. Day walked to his office. Cam followed him. Mr. Day unlocked the door.

“Oh my,” Mr. Day said. “It’s gone.”

There was a padlock on the glass doors to the cabinet. Mr. Day checked it. It was locked.

“I keep the office door and the cabinet doors locked. How could anyone have taken it?” Mr. Day asked.

“Maybe you took it home,” Cam said.

Mr. Day pushed some papers aside and sat on the edge of his desk. He shook his head and said, “No.”

Some papers on Mr. Day’s desk fell to the floor. Cam put them back on his desk.

Mr. Day sat quietly. Cam looked at the cabinet. Then she turned and looked at the office door.

“Who else has the keys to your office?” Cam asked.

“Dr. Prell and Jake.”

Dr. Prell was the school principal. Jake was the custodian.

“Do you ever leave the cabinet open?”

“No,” Mr. Day said, and shook his head. “My trophies are valuable. They’re real silver. That’s why I keep the cabinet locked. And I keep tests and my marking book in there. I don’t want someone to get them.”

Cam looked at the cabinet. The two doors were closed. There was a padlock between the doors, and it was locked.

Someone broke into a locked cabinet,
Cam
thought, and stole a silver trophy. And whoever did it put the lock back on. Why would the thief put the lock back on?

Cam told Mr. Day, “I’m good at solving mysteries. Right now I’m having trouble with this one. But don’t worry. I’ll solve it.”

“No you won’t,” Mr. Day told Cam. “You’ll go back to class.”

“But what about your silver trophy?”

“Don’t you worry,” Mr. Day said. “I’ll find it.”

No you won’t,
Cam thought as she walked to class.
I will.

“Where have you been?” Ms. Benson asked when Cam walked into class.

“I was in gym,” Cam said. “I was talking with Mr. Day.”

Ms. Benson told Cam, “We’re learning about oceans.” Then she asked, “Janet, please tell Cam what we learned.”

“Almost three-fourths of the earth is covered with oceans,” Janet read from her notebook. “There are five oceans, the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic, and Antarctic, and they’re all connected.”

Cam sat in her seat. She opened her notebook.

Ms. Benson asked, “What causes waves?”

“Parents do,” Danny called out. “If your parents have wavy hair, so will you.”

“Adam,” Ms. Benson said. “Please tell Danny and Cam what causes waves.”

“It’s the wind,” Adam said. “And the moon causes tides.”

A folded piece of paper landed on Cam’s open notebook.

“It’s from me,” Eric whispered.

“Cam,” Ms. Benson asked, “do you know how the moon causes tides?”

Do I? Cam wondered.
I think I do. I think I read about it last night.

Cam closed her eyes and said, “Click!” She looked at the pictures she had in her head of the page she had read in her textbook on oceans and tides.

“The moon’s gravity pulls on the water,” Cam said. “As the earth turns, it pulls on water over different parts of the earth. That’s why we have high tides and low tides.”

“Thank you,” Ms. Benson said. “Now please open your eyes and pay attention.”

Cam opened her eyes. She wanted to open Eric’s note, too, but she waited.

Ms. Benson talked about currents. She also talked about plants and animals that live in the sea. Then she turned to write on the board.