Ann Martin - Mary Anne And The Zoo Mystery

it, Alan and Howie were standing in those bushes just this morning."

Logan opened his mouth to speak, then smiled. "I was just about to say something rotten like, I might have known Alan would be involved, but I remembered that I promised to be nice."

"Good." I patted his shoulder. "Keep remembering that."

A group of students standing in front of the gibbons' cage soon migrated to Mojo's and James's area, where Dr. Wordsworth was now conducting an impromptu question-and-answer session.

"Does Mojo communicate with just one person?" Jessi Ramsey was asking. "Or can she talk to anyone who uses American Sign Language?"

"Mojo can speak with anyone," Dr. Wordsworth replied. "Many hearing-impaired people visit the Huntington Animal Park just for that reason."

Jessi gestured to Matt Braddock who stood beside her. Signing as she spoke, she explained, "My friend uses ASL, and he'd like to ask Mojo a few questions."

"Go right ahead." Dr. Wordsworth stepped back and watched as Matt tried to talk to Mojo.

Do you know who freed the emu? Matt asked the gorilla.

Mojo answered Yes.

Matt turned to Jessi, his face flushed with excitement. She says she knows who freed the emu! he signed.

Jessi grinned and signed back, I know. Ask her who did it.

Matt signed the question, and we all held our breaths, waiting for Mojo's reply. I knew enough ASL to understand the answer.

"Food," I said, turning to Logan. "That's what she said before. I wonder if she's hungry."

"Maybe she wants a treat before she'll answer," Logan suggested to the group at large.

Dr. Wordsworth shook her head. "Mojo doesn't normally ask for snacks. Maybe she is just hungry."

"Besides," Erica Blumberg added, "how would a gorilla know what an emu is?"

Matt and Jessi left the zoo, downcast. I guess we all felt a little disappointed. We were back to where we had started with berry stains as our only due and the protestors and the people in sweatsuits as our only suspects. But it would have been pretty incredible if the gorilla had named the culprit, wouldn't it? Not only would Mojo be famous for knowing sign language, but she would have gone down in history as the first gorilla detective.

Chapter 12.

"I can't find my elephant ears!" Haley screeched from her room on Sunday morning. "Claudia, help."

Claudia had promised to sit for the Braddocks in the morning and then help supervise the Elephant Walk that afternoon. She hadn't realized that so much work would be left to the last minute.

Brrrring!

"I'll get it," Claudia shouted to Haley. "Check in the bottom drawer of your dresser. I think your mom said your costume was there." Claud picked up the phone and said, "Braddock residence."

"Hi, this is Vanessa. I collected the pledge sheets from most of the kids at school, but I don't know what to do with them."

Claudia, who was trying to prepare lunch for Haley and Matt while she spoke to Vanessa, reached for the freezer door and flung it open. "Let's see, Vanessa, I thought Kristy was supposed to be in charge of — macaroni and cheese!"

"Macaroni and cheese? I thought there wasn't going to be any food. Just the Free Babar buttons and T-shirts."

"Sorry, Vanessa." Claudia cradled the phone on her shoulder. "I'm trying to fix lunch here. Um, bring the sheets to the school play-

ground at one o'clock and either Kristy or I will take them."

Ding-dong!

"It’s like Grand Central Station here. Sorry, Vanessa. Gotta run," Claudia tossed the macaroni and cheese container on the counter, slammed the freezer door shut with one hand and hung up the phone with the other. Then she raced for the front door.

The Pike triplets and Sara and Norman Hill were standing on the front steps. They held a six-foot-long banner and were beaming at Claudia as she opened the door.

"What do you think?" Sara asked. "Doesn't it look great?"

Free Babar was printed in big letters and Your coins count! in smaller ones beneath it. All around the lettering were drawings of gold coins.

"It’s terrific," Claudia said as she let the kids into the front hall. "But aren't you guys a little early? The parade doesn't start for over an hour."

"We painted the banner this morning," Sara Hill said, "and it’s still not dry. My mom said we couldn't keep it in the house so we thought we'd bring it over here."

"That has wet paint on it?" Claudia gasped.

Byron Pike nodded. "Don't touch it. Look what happened to me." He stepped back to show Claudia the print of a large "B" on his T-shirt.

"Out!" Claudia shrieked. "Everybody, back

outside. Don't touch the walls or doors."

The five children hurried out the front door as Matt Braddock came bounding down the stairs. He grabbed Claudia's arm and pointed upstairs, where Haley was shouting, "I still can't find it. Help!"

Claudia gestured for Matt to stay with the kids out front. Then she ran up the stairs two at a time. Haley's room looked as if a tornado had hit it. Every drawer was pulled out of the dresser, and every shoe in her closet had been thrown into the room. In the middle of it all stood Haley, her chin quivering.

"It’s all right," Claudia said, giving Haley a hug. "Your mom said the ears are here. I bet we'll find them. And if we can't, you're lucky that you have the world's greatest elephant ear-maker baby-sitting for you today."

Claudia and Haley picked up the room and Haley was right — the ears were nowhere to be found. However, they did collect a lot of dirty clothes, and while Claudia was taking them to the laundry room, she spied two pieces of gray felt stretched across the ironing board.

"I found them," she shouted to Haley. "Crisis solved!"

"Not quite," a voice answered from the front hall. Jessi Ramsey had heard that Claudia was at the Braddocks' and had come over to ask for help.

Claudia gave Haley the ears and hurried outside to check on Matt and the kids, passing Jessi on the way. "Is it dry yet?" she asked the kids.

Norman Hill held one hand over the banner and patted a letter. He held up a red palm to show Claudia.

"I guess not." Claudia sighed. She made a mental note to find a rag for Norman so he could clean his hand. In the meantime, Jessi was still waiting in the front hall, looking agitated.

"Sorry, Claudia," Jessi said. "It looks like you have your hands full, but I just remembered that I'm supposed to be in charge of music."

"Didn't you find a tape of the "Baby Elephant Walk?" Claudia asked.

"Oh, I have the tape, all right," Jessi said, "but I don't have anything to play it on, except a tiny little tape recorder. We need a huge boom box."

Claudia scratched her head. "Stacey has a great tape player with really loud speakers. We could put it in one of the kids' wagons and let them pull it."

Relief washed over Jessi's face. "Let’s call her."

Claudia grabbed Jessi's elbow. "Aren't you forgetting something? We aren't speaking to Stacey."

"Oh, right." Jessi's shoulders slumped. "For a

minute there I thought our problem was solved." Claudia saw the macaroni and cheese carton lying on the counter and hurried to stick it in the microwave. "It might still be," she said as they waited for the food to cook. "We just have to be clever about this. Maybe we can get someone else to ask Stacey." "Like who?" Jessi asked. "One of the kids?" "Why not?" Claudia said with a shrug. "We'll just ask Becca to ask Charlotte to ask Stacey if the kids can borrow her tape recorder for the parade." "Do you think she'll let them?" "Stacey adores Charlotte. Of course she will."

Jessi ran to the phone. For the next few minutes there was a flurry of activity as Jessi phoned Becca, who phoned Charlotte, and then called Jessi back to say she'd phoned Charlotte, who'd said she'd phone Stacey right away. Now Becca was waiting for Charlotte to call with Stacey's response.