Ann Martin: Claudia And the Clue in the Photograph

But still, it was amazing how many wonderful pictures there were. The whole series of the triplets' haircuts, for example. And Suzi's shot of a beautiful, glowing bride. There was Jamie's picture of Bart and Kristy at the ballfield, and Nicky's closeup of Pew's nose. Matt and Haley had taken some great pictures at their picnic, of a bunch of kids signing a mile a minute. And Charlotte's shots of the window of Polly's Fine Candy were so good they could make your mouth water.

In fact, seeing those pictures made me crave chocolate, so I went on a frantic search for a bag of Hershey's Kisses I'd hidden two weeks ago. I finally found them, tucked into a box of pastels. As the dock clicked over to five-twenty-nine, I helped myself to a couple of Kisses and tossed the bag to Jessi. Then I reached over to turn the radio off, since I knew Kristy was about to start the meeting.

"Leave it on," Kristy said.

"What?" I asked. I couldn't believe my ears.

"Leave it on," she repeated. "Who knows? We might hear some more news about the bank,”

"There wasn't anything in the paper yesterday," said Mal. "I checked."

"So did I," said Stacey. "All the police said was 'no new leads.' I don't know if they're ever going to solve that case."

"Order," said Kristy. "We can talk about the bank mystery later. First we have dub business to take care of." She turned to Stacey and raised her eyebrows.

"Right," said Stacey. "It is dues day." She grinned and held up the manila envelope.

We all groaned and rolled our eyes. We like to give Stacey a hard time about collecting dues. She passed the envelope around, and we stuck our dues money into it. Then the phone started ringing, and we set to work lining up jobs. Stacey landed one with Jamie and Lucy Newton, Mal and Jessi were scheduled to sit for the Pike kids, and I took a job with the Barretts.

Kristy had just hung up the phone after arranging the job with Mrs. Barrett when we heard the "beep-a-deep-deep" that news stations use to introduce a special bulletin. Kristy and I both reached for the radio's volume control, almost dunking heads as we dove for it. I grabbed it first, and turned it way up.

"Stoneybrook police, working in conjunction with security officers at the Stoneybrook Bank, have announced a break in the bank robbery case," said the announcer.

We leaned forward and listened as hard as we could. This was exciting!

"According to videotape records, the disappearance of large amounts of cash could only have taken place between the hours of one and four P.M. on the Sunday before the cash was reported missing. During that time, the bank's video cameras were disabled and no footage exists. Police are speculating that the crime might have been an 'inside job.' "

The announcer went on, but by then we had stopped listening. Instead, we were sitting there openmouthed. "Oh, my lord," I whispered.

"Do you believe it?" asked Mary Anne.

"It can't be true!" said Shannon. "Do you realize what this means?"

"It means," said Mallory slowly, "that the robbery really did happen while you guys," ,she looked at me and Mary Anne, "were there taking pictures."

"This is too, too wild," said Jessi.

"Claudia, where are those pictures?" asked Kristy, sounding very serious. "Get them out!"

I jumped up and pulled open one of my desk drawers. As slobby as I am usually, I can be very neat when it comes to certain things. My negatives are stored carefully in a three-ring notebook, with the contact sheet for each set tucked into a plastic envelope. They're all in order, and they're all dated. I even have notes about exposure times and film types. I found the contact sheet with the bank pictures on it right away. Then I took out my loupe and began to look over the pictures.

"Let me see," said Kristy, after I'd looked for a few seconds. I passed her the loupe and the contact print, and she scanned the pictures. Then, one by one, all my friends looked them over. When everybody had taken a turn, we sat quietly for a minute, thinking.

“It has to be the guy in the suit," said Mal.

"Definitely," I agreed. "Just what I was thinking."

"He works at the bank," said Shannon, "so he'd know how to turn off the security cameras."

"And he was near the bank on Sunday afternoon," finished Jessi triumphantly.

"And I bet he wasn't just outside it, either," said Mary Anne, "I bet he went in. Look how he was dressed, in that dark suit."

"Even though it was a hot, sunny day!" said

Kristy. "He must have been planning to go into the bank. Maybe he was pretending to do some work there."

"And the police said it was an inside job!" I added, suddenly remembering.

"Guilty, guilty, guilty!" said Stacey. I gave her the high-five.

"Just one moment, girls!"

We turned to see who had spoken. It was Janine, who was leaning against the doorframe, looking into my room. "I couldn't help overhearing your conversation," she said. "And I must point out that there are some serious deficiencies in your reasoning. Most, if not all, of your evidence is purely and unequivocally circumstantial."

"Excuse me?" I asked. As I've said, there are times when what Janine is saying goes straight over my head. I mean, I knew what some of those words meant — even the big ones, like 'circumstantial.' I've done detective work before, and that word has come up. But when she strings a whole bunch of big words together like that, sometimes I lose track.

"I think what Janine means," said Shannon, "is that we don't really have any hard evidence. Just because that guy was near the bank on Sunday afternoon, doesn't mean he's a criminal."

"That is true," said Mary Anne. "After all,

he could have been wearing a suit because he was going to church."

"Exactly,” said Janine, nodding at Mary Anne.

"But what about 'gut feelings'?" I asked. "What about hunches? I have a definite hunch about this guy."

"Intuition has been established as having a place in criminal procedures," Janine said, nodding. "However, in no way can it substitute for authentic and valid evidence that can be presented to the judge and jury."

Whoops. She'd lost me again. But I didn't care. A hunch was a hunch, and suddenly I had a strong one. Strong enough to make me want to follow up on it.

"Hey, Mary Anne," I said, as soon as Janine had left the doorway. "Did you write down that special number they gave out over the radio last week? The one you're supposed to call if you have any information or tips on the bank robbery?"

She checked her notebook. "It’s right here," she said, tearing out a piece of paper and handing it to me. "But you're not really going to call, are you, Claud? I mean, we're not sure of anything."

"Oh, you're being too cautious," I said. "After all, they didn't say to call if you had proof. They said to call if you had tips or information. And that’s what we have." I grabbed the phone and dialed. When a man answered, I spilled out the whole story, starting with, "See, my friends and I were making this book — well, not really a book, but an album — for another friend of ours. Her name's Dawn, and she lives in California. Well, she doesn't actually live there. . . . Anyway," I went on, noticing that Kristy was giving me the "hurry up" sign, "we took these pictures, and they all show this guy in a dark suit, and . . ."I went on and on. I guess I was a little nervous. The man on the other end just listened. Finally, I finished. "So, what do you think?" I asked him.

"I think this is a particularly unfunny prank phone call, and I'm asking you now not to tie up this line again, young lady." He hung up before I could say another word. I stared at the receiver, shocked.

My friends were shocked, too, when I told them what had happened. "That’s not fair," said Jessi.

"She's right," said Kristy. "And here's what I think we should do next."