Cam Jansen and the Valentine Baby Mystery (3 page)

“Maybe it fell behind the couch,” Eric said.

Cam and Eric crawled on the floor, first under and then behind the couch. They crawled out again holding a few candy wrappers and a dirty coffee cup.

“Look at both of you,” Mrs. Shelton said. “Your hands and pants are filthy.”

Eric wiped his hands on the seat of his pants and said, “They should keep this place cleaner. It’s a hospital.”

“Here,” Mrs. Shelton said, and took two wrapped Wet Wipes from her coat pocket. “Please clean your hands.”

Cam and Eric each tore one open and cleaned their hands.

Eric looked at the others in the waiting room. Dr. Berger was in the back, drinking coffee. The two old women were still reading, and the man in the corner was still asleep.

“Maybe he’s not really asleep,” Eric whispered. “Maybe he took Mom’s purse and he hid it under his coat.”

Eric quietly moved closer to the man. Eric smiled. The man didn’t react. Eric stuck out his tongue and waved his hands. The man still didn’t move.

The two old women had put down their magazines. They were standing next to Mrs. Shelton.

“What is he doing?” the white-haired woman asked.

“He wants to see if the man is sleeping,” Cam whispered.

“What did you say?” the woman asked.

She had her hand cupped behind her ear.

“The boy wants to see if that man is sleeping,” the blonde-haired woman said really loudly.

“That’s the big problem in hospitals,” the white-haired woman said. “People here always want to know if you’re sleeping. I was a patient here once and I was sleeping and a nurse shook me. ‘Are you sleeping?’ she asked. ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Oh,’ she told me, ‘then you won’t need this pill.’ It was a pill to help me sleep. ‘Well,’ I told her, ‘I need it now!’”

The man opened his eyes. All the loud talk had wakened him.

“We’re looking for my mother’s purse,” Eric said.

The man rubbed his eyes.

“Did you see it?” Eric asked.

“My eyes were closed. I was asleep,” the man said, and sat up. “I didn’t see anything.”

When he sat up, his coat fell onto the floor. Mrs. Shelton’s purse wasn’t by his legs. Eric bent to pick up the man’s coat. When he did, he looked under the couch. The purse wasn’t there.

“Thank you,” the man said when Eric gave him his coat.

Eric went back to his seat. He pushed his coat aside and sat down. His mother and Cam sat beside him.

“Are you sure you had it with you?” Eric asked. “Maybe you left it in the car.”

“I think I had it.”

Cam closed her eyes. She said,
“Click!”
and looked at the picture she had in her head of Mrs. Shelton when she walked into the hospital.

“It’s a green bag,” Cam said with her eyes still closed.

“Yes,” Mrs. Shelton said. “It matches my coat.”

“You carried it over your left arm.”

“When you came into this room you said, ‘It’s hot here,’” Eric said. “You put your purse on the couch, and then you took off your coat.” Eric smiled, and said, “I have a good memory, too.”

Cam opened her eyes. She looked around the waiting room at the man and the couch and the two old women and said, “They didn’t take the purse.”

“The only other people in here were the two doctors,” Eric said, “Dr. Berger and the man.”

“That’s strange,” Mrs. Shelton said. “We know Dr. Berger’s name, but not the other doctor’s.”

Cam closed her eyes again and said,
“Click!”

“Dr. Berger wore a hospital tag,” Cam said with her eyes still closed. “It had her name, Judith Berger, MD. But the other doctor had no tag.”

“He said your mom was not one of his patients,” Mrs. Shelton remembered.

“If he’s a doctor, he should have a tag,” Eric said.

Cam opened her eyes.

“He must be a fake,” Cam told Mrs. Shelton, “and while we were talking to Dr. Berger, he stole your purse.”

“Now what do we do?” Mrs. Shelton asked.

“We look for him,” Cam said. “When we find the fake doctor, we’ll find your purse.”

“I’ll call security,” Mrs. Shelton said.

There was a telephone by the door. She lifted the handset, pushed a few buttons, and said, “I need to report a robbery.”

“Yes,” Mrs. Shelton said into the telephone handset. “I can describe the thief.” She thought for a moment. “He has blond hair and is wearing a white doctor’s jacket, and . . . and . . . and that’s about all I remember. Oh, and he has my purse. It’s big and green.”

“Wait,” Cam said. “I remember more.”

Cam closed her eyes and said,
“Click!”
Then, with her eyes still closed, she described the man to Mrs. Shelton.

“He has a round face, curly blond hair, blue eyes, and a small scratch on his right
cheek, and he’s wearing a silver ring with a blue stone on the middle finger of his right hand.”

Mrs. Shelton repeated Cam’s description to the security guard. She listened for a moment and then put the telephone handset back on its cradle.

“The security guards will look for him,” she said, “and they’ll call the police.”

Cam opened her eyes.

“What about us?” Eric asked. “What should we do?”

“We can look, too,” Mrs. Shelton said. “We’ll look for my purse. Maybe the thief dropped it. But if we see the thief, we won’t say or do anything. He could be dangerous. We’ll just come back here and call security.”

Cam, Eric, and Mrs. Shelton left the waiting room. Mrs. Shelton went directly to the nurse’s station. She told the nurse about the fake doctor.

“I still have my cell phone,” she told the nurse. It was in a holder on her waist. She
gave the nurse her cell phone number and said, “We won’t be in the waiting room, but we want to know just as soon as you have any news about Jane Jansen.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll call you just as soon as she’s taken to the delivery room,” the nurse said. “And I hope you find your purse.”

Cam, Eric, and Mrs. Shelton walked down the hall. A man wearing a white jacket hurried past, but he had long dark hair and a name tag. A man in a white jacket came out of an office, but he didn’t have blond
hair. He had no hair. He was bald. Then two men in white jackets got off the elevator. Neither was the fake doctor.

“Oh!” Eric said, and threw up his hands. “They all wear white jackets and none of them is the thief!”

“Maybe he went downstairs,” Cam said when they reached the elevator. “Maybe he left the building.”

“All my credit cards are in my purse,” Mrs. Shelton said, “and my driver’s license, library card, and medical insurance card. First I’ll have to cancel all those cards. Then I’ll have to replace them. There’s money and keys in my purse. This is terrible.”

“Don’t worry,” Eric told his mother. “Cam will find your purse.”

But how will I find it?
Cam wondered. Then she had an idea.

“What would you do if you were the thief?” she asked Eric. “What would you do if you had just stolen someone’s purse?”

“I would never steal,” Eric answered.

“Please,” Cam said. “Help me with this. Pretend you’re a thief.”

Eric folded his arms and looked up at the ceiling. Then he shook his head and told Cam, “I’m sorry. I can’t.”

“Well, I can,” Cam said. “The thief must know people will be looking for a man in a white jacket carrying your mom’s green purse. First he would take off the jacket. Then he’d empty the purse, get rid of it, and run.”

Cam looked up and down the hall and asked, “Where would he leave the jacket and purse?”

“I’d throw it in a trash can,” Mrs. Shelton said, and went to the nearest one. She took off the lid. She looked in, moved some papers, and said, “It’s not in here, but there are lots more trash cans.”

Mrs. Shelton went to the next one and lifted the lid.

“Yuck!” she said.

Cam and Eric looked in.

It was filled with papers, bread, tuna fish, and tomato juice.

“Someone didn’t like his lunch,” Mrs. Shelton said.

She carefully pushed aside some papers but didn’t find the white jacket and green purse.

“I’ve been trying to do what you said and think like a thief,” Eric told Cam. “I don’t think a thief would want someone to see him throw good things away. He’d go where no one would see, and then get rid of the stuff.”