Ann Martin: Mary Anne And The Zoo Mystery

A man holding the hands of two little girls said, "I'd ask for my money back. They charge you for everything here."

I studied the key. "It’s solid brass," I said to myself. "Not just painted gold." Then it hit me. "The missing zoo key!"

But how could I have gotten Mrs. Wofsey's key? I didn't remember dropping a key. Mrs. Wofsey lost hers a week and a half before on Friday. I must have had my own then, because

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I used it to gather information about emus from the kiosk.

Shortly after, the emu was freed, so someone else must have had the key at that moment. The only other time my key was out of my backpack was when I dumped my pack onto the table to look for change for a soda. Alan and Howie both emptied their packs, too. That's when the key exchange must have happened.

Suddenly everything made sense. "Alan has the key!" I announced to the next group of strangers who had come to look at the bears. Normally I would have been embarrassed to have been caught talking to myself, but today it didn't matter. I had solved the mystery.

Alan Gray stole the zoo key. But why? Alan must have freed the emu so he could observe the emu on the run and win the contest. I stuck the key in my pocket and marched down the zoo sidewalk toward the emu enclosure, muttering, "No wonder he knew so much about emus. Nobody could get that kind of information watching from a park bench outside the fence. He was inside the emu's cage. And that also explains the berry stains. He was standing in the bushes."

Alan was sitting by the emu enclosure with his notepad open when I arrived. "We have to talk," I said bluntly.

"You look worried," Alan said, shutting the notebook. "You shouldn't be. With all the information I have here, we're sure to win the prize."

I looked directly into his eyes. "I know how you got your information." He blinked nervously. "How?" "You gave yourself away." This time he swallowed before he spoke. "How did I do that?"

I put my hands on my hips and announced, "Alan, I have the key. The one you used to open the emu cage. We accidentally switched keys when we were pooling our money to buy a soda at the snack bar. But before that, you opened the cage and went inside. How do I know this?"

Alan shook his head, too confused to answer.

"Because there were berry stains inside the cage. You stepped on the berries outside the cage before you went inside to take a closer look."

"Berry stains . . . zoo key?" Alan finally muttered. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about all of that information you picked up about the emu. Nobody could find it out just sitting on one of these benches. You had to have been up close and personal."

'That’s not true," Alan snapped.

I threw my hands in the air. "Well, how else could you know so much about emus?"

Alan shot a nervous glance at his backpack, which was sitting open on the park bench. I followed his gaze and saw what he was looking at a large picture book titled Australia's Flightless Bird, the Emu.

"You — you found your information in a book?" I stammered.

"Shhhh!" Alan gestured for me to lower my voice. "I really need the extra credit. I wasn't observing anything from this bench. I mean, Edith just eats and sleeps. She never even comes near the fence."

"I know," I muttered. "It’s kind of frustrating. But Mrs. Gonzalez told us we were strictly forbidden to use any information from a book. It has to be based on observation."

"Great." Alan's shoulders slumped. "This way we'll never beat Logan's group."

"Look, Alan," I said, "I think we have a lot of good information without that book. And you certainly didn't need to go into the emu's cage — "

"Hold on a minute!" Alan nearly shouted. "Don't you understand? I never went in the emu's cage. I never had the zoo key."

"Well, I didn't have it when the emu was freed," I shot back.

Alan squinted at me. "If you didn't have it, and I didn't have it, then — "

"Howie must have had it!" we both said at once.

"Come on." Alan tucked his notebook into his pack and looped it over one shoulder. "Let’s find Howie."

"He must be at the seal pool," I said, "because I was watching the bears, and I didn't see any sign of him."

That's where he was, too. Howie was in the little grassy area across from the seal pool, lazily eating an ice-cream bar.

You should have seen his face when Alan confronted him. He turned so red the tips of his ears were blazing.

"Okay, okay. I found the key on the ground by the berry bushes," he confessed. "But I thought it was mine. I only realized it wasn't when I couldn't make it work in the information kiosk."

"So you tried the key on the emu's gate?" I asked.

He nodded. "But I only stepped into the pen. I mean, I wasn't there three seconds when I turned and ran." He looked at Alan and me and winced. "I guess I must have left the gate open. I felt terrible when I heard the emu had escaped." Suddenly I remembered something. "I

should have known you weren't observing the bears that day. You told me they were all napping in the trees. Bears don't sleep in trees!"

Alan frowned at Howie. "Way to cover, dimwit!"

Howie narrowed his eyes. "You believed

me."

Then Howie turned to me. "Hey, I may have accidentally freed the emu. But what about the giraffe and the gibbons? You had Mrs. Wofsey's key when all that happened."

"I was at the elephant painting exhibition when the giraffe got loose, and at the gorilla lecture when the gibbons' cage was left open." The boys stared at me, not quite convinced. "There were plenty of witnesses!" I cried.

"Time out!" Alan made a T with his hands. "I think we can safely say that none of us had anything to do with those two escapes. Which means there's a criminal running around with his — or her — own key."

My eyes widened. "You're right. Because we've had Mrs. Wofsey's lost key the entire time." I realized it was time to fill Howie and Alan in on the BSC's investigation. I told them everything we'd discovered and listed our key suspects. When I finished, Howie nudged Alan. "I think we should do some investigating of our own. You know, like scope out the zoo, and see who has a key, and who doesn't.

Maybe tail those two spies in the jogging suits

some more."

Howie liked the idea. I decided to let them do their research. I was anxious to find Logan, Claudia, and Dawn, so I could tell them what I'd found out.

I bumped into the three of them in front of the visitors' center. But Claudia had news of her own, and could hardly wait to tell me about it.

"Mary Anne, I talked to Mrs. Wofsey this morning," she blurted out. "And those people in sweatsuits are agents, all right. But not spies. They're agents for an eccentric tycoon in New Hampshire. He wants to build a zoo on his estate. Mrs. Wofsey is helping them figure out how much it would cost to set one up."

"Whoa!" I said. "Wait till the animal rights activists hear about that!"

"Not to mention his neighbors," Logan joked. "Can you imagine? Instead of neighbors complaining about a dog barking, he'll be getting calls about his lion roaring."

"Or his gibbon shrieking," I said, laughing.

"Speaking of gibbons," Dawn said, "we still don't know who tried to set them free."

"Well, we do know who didn't do it," I said, "which is a start." Then I told Claudia and Logan how Howie had found Mrs. Wofsey's

key and accidentally freed the emu. "Now I have the zoo key, so that means whoever did it has his or her own key."

"That probably eliminates the protestors," I said.

"And narrows it to zoo employees," Claudia said. "Like that guard, Mike, or Tim the vet—"

"Or Mr. Chester," I said. "Remember how unpleasant he's been to Mrs. Wofsey? He really seems to dislike her."