Ann Martin - Mary Anne And The Zoo Mystery

Claudia took that opportunity to check on Haley, who had recovered from her crisis and now stood in front of the mirror in her mother's room, practicing elephant poses. Then Claud told Matt that lunch would soon be ready. She raced back into the kitchen to hurriedly put macaroni and cheese, apple sauce, and carrot sticks on two plates.

By the time the calls had been made, and lunch was served, and the children with the wet banner had decided to proceed to another house, Claudia was exhausted. She felt as if she'd run a marathon. Jessi's news didn't make her feel any better.

"Stacey said yes," Jessi said glumly. "On one condition — that she come with it. She even volunteered to pull the wagon at the front of the walkathon."

"Stacey leading the walkathon?" Claudia gasped. "Oh, Kristy will love that idea. No way! There's just no way!"

Jessi winced. "Too late. I told Becca to tell Charlotte to tell Stacey okay."

"You what! Oh, I wish it were Monday and we were going to school and the Elephant Walk were over."

Mrs. Braddock returned home a few minutes late, which gave Claudia no time to go home. She had to head straight for the playground, because the walkathon was set to start in fifteen minutes.

Claudia jogged through the groups of kids who were making their way to the starting line. She spotted 10181/8 faded ball cap in the middle of a group of children to whom she was giving last-minute instructions.

"Hey, Claud," Kristy called cheerily. She proudly displayed one of the T-shirts that

Claud had designed and silk-screened. "What do you think?"

"It’s you," Claudia said with a grin.

Kristy looped her stopwatch and whistle over her head. She was in full coach gear. 'The kids showed me the banner. I think they did a good job."

"Just don't get within five feet of it," Claudia warned her. "The paint’s still wet. Where's Dawn?"

"At the drugstore," Kristy replied. "She was supposed to help me pass out supplies, but she realized at the last minute that she had forgotten to buy film for her camera." Kristy gestured to the card table she'd set up on the playground. It was stacked high with baskets full of Free Babar buttons.

Claudia smiled approvingly. "It looks like the Pikes and their Badge-o-matic factory have been working overtime."

Kristy checked her clipboard. "I have the buttons. Haley and Becca will be in front in their elephant costumes — "

"Vanessa has the pledge sheets," Claudia interrupted.

"Good." Kristy nodded her head. "Watson and I drove the walkathon route this morning. The town really came through. They have bright orange sawhorses in place and are ready to cordon off the route."

"Mallory did a great job with the publicity," Claudia said. "Mom has been cutting the articles out of the paper. There were two tiny ones on Thursday and Friday and a really large spread in this morning's Sunday paper. The headline said KIDS CAKE."

Kristy grinned. "I saw that. The photo was great, too. Eight Pike kids, showing off their buttons and T-shirts, with those ear-to-ear grins. You can almost hear them all shouting, Cheese!"

"And speaking of too cute for words ..." Claudia pointed down the street. "Check out the little elephants coming our way."

Haley and Becca were in elephant costumes of gray tights, leotards, and hoods with big ears. They'd even found rubber elephant noses at Toy City.

Kristy checked her watch. "They're right on time. We're at T-minus four minutes and counting."

ft was amazing how many children were participating in the Elephant Walk. I had offered to do a kid round-up, walking some of our clients' kids to the starting line. Jenny Prezzioso and the Arnold twins came with me to pick up Jamie Newton and Nina Marshall. The walkathon was supposed to be four miles long, but I'm sure we added another mile collecting all those children. My group and I hit the playground seconds

before Charlotte Johanssen — and her friend — arrived. Charlotte was pulling a wagon behind her.

Kristy squinted into the afternoon sun. "Why is Charlotte pulling a wagon? For the fliers?"

Claudia gulped. She realized she hadn't broken the news to Kristy about the tape player. "Uh, no, we had some difficulty with the music. Jessi needed to borrow a tape player with really big speakers, so the Elephant Walk music could be heard."

"Oh." Kristy leaned forward, adjusting the bill of her cap. "But who's that with her?"

Jessi joined Claudia just then, and they answered together, "Stacey."

We were lucky that it was now T-minus one minute until the walkathon was supposed to begin, because from the look on Kristy's face, we could have had a major blow-out.

"We don't have enough time to change anything," she grumbled after checking her watch again. "I just hope she stays away from me."

Stacey did exactly that. She and Charlotte stood on the edge of the crowd until Kristy blew her whistle. Then Haley and Becca stepped forward in their elephant costumes and posed.

"They've been practicing that pose for two days," Jessi whispered to Claudia.

"I know." Claudia grinned. "When Haley wasn't panicking about her costume, she was

practicing her pose and her bow. I guess she plans to do that when we hit the finish line."

Next, the banner kids took their places behind the elephants. Then Kristy gestured for Charlotte to bring the wagon forward, and Charlotte and Stacey moved into position. It was weird. Stacey and Kristy never even looked at each other. Jessi put her tape in the player and nodded to Kristy.

Kristy blew her whistle and shouted, "Let the Elephant Walk begin!"

The music blasted from the speakers and the kids in front began to march. I know it was supposed to be a walkathon, but it felt more like a parade, with the kids in costume and the music.

Kristy made sure that Charlotte and Stacey were far ahead and then she blew her whistle once more. The rest of us stepped out.

After all the stress Claudia had gone through in the morning, she ended up having fun. It was a sunny day, and the walkathon route was lined with friendly people anxious to help us Free Babar. They cheered and waved as the kids streamed by.

Here's the remarkable part of the day — every kid walked the entire four miles. A few, such as Claire Pike, covered the final few blocks on some other kid's shoulders, but they all made it!

Chapter 13.

"I think we should talk to Mrs. Wofsey," Dawn said at our Wednesday BSC meeting. "She should know about those spies in the matching jogging suits."

"I'm with Dawn," Claudia agreed. "We've all watched them making lists with dollar amounts next to weird Latin words. And Logan and Mary Anne even heard them talking about how much a gibbon would cost."

I said, "And the next thing we knew, the cage was standing wide open."

"I'll talk to Mrs. Wofsey," Claudia volunteered. "I think she'd appreciate any dues we can give her."

"Speaking of dues," I said, "I can't stop thinking about those red berry stains. When the emu was freed the stains were both inside and outside the cage. With the gibbons, the berry stains stopped at the door. And with the

giraffe, there were no stains at all. What do you think that means?"

Kristy, who hadn't really been part of our zoo investigation, offered a solution. "Maybe it just means that there are berry bushes near the emu and monkey cages, but not the giraffe."

I looked at Kristy. "Yeah. Maybe I'm trying to invent dues where there aren't any."

I went home that night more discouraged than ever. Nothing seemed to fit together.

But the next day, the pieces started to fall into place. It all began when I tried to use my zoo key in the bears' information kiosk. (I realized I'd listened to the emus' and the seals', but not the bears'.)

"It doesn't fit," I muttered. Several visitors who were standing near me at the bear exhibit overheard.