Ann Martin - Claudia And the Clue in the Photograph

"Good job, Claud," said Stacey, applauding. She had snuck up on us, and now she and Jamie stood clapping while Lucy grinned from her stroller. "But couldn't you have thought of something more creative to sell? Like canaries, maybe? Or cannonballs?"

"Cats!" shouted Jamie.

"Chipmunks!" yelled Becca, giggling.

"Clarinets!" said Charlotte. "Clouds! Cocoa Puffs!" She and Becca shrieked with laughter.

I laughed and bent to give Jamie, who was also doubled over with giggles, a hug. "Good to see you guys," I said. "What are you up to?"

"We're taking a walk!" said Jamie.

"Great idea," I said.

"We want to walk, too," said Becca. "Let’s go somewhere."

Stacey and I exchanged looks and shrugs. Both of us were sitting for the whole day, so it didn't matter much what we did. "I've been carrying around some penny rolls," she said,

"and I'm tired of my backpack being so heavy. We could drop them off at the bank, and then maybe walk around town a little."

"Let’s go! We can window-shop," said Becca.

"Shop for windows?" asked Jamie. "I don't want to buy any windows."

Giggling again, Becca explained what she'd meant.

"We could get ice cream, too," said Charlotte, licking her lips.

Stacey checked to make sure Lucy's diaper was dry and that she was comfortable in her stroller. I went inside and left a note for Dr. Johanssen, Charlotte's mother. (We always leave notes, even if we don't expect the parents back for hours.)

We set off for town, with each of the three kids taking turns pushing Lucy's stroller. Lucy dozed off immediately, and Jamie kept himself busy counting everything — cracks in the sidewalk, cars in driveways — everything. As we walked, Stacey and the girls and I played the "A my name is Alice" game some more. We were getting sillier and sillier.

"G my name is Gertrude," I said, "and my husband's name is Gus. We come from Germany, and we sell giraffes."

"H my name is — is — is Heather," said Becca, "and my husband's name is Harry. We

come from Honolulu, and we sell hangers."

By the time we reached downtown Stoneybrook, we'd been all the way through the alphabet and we were back at B again. Charlotte and Becca really lost it when Charlotte said her name was Bettina and that she and her husband Bob, who were from Baltimore, sold boogers.

"Okay, okay," said Stacey, trying to calm them down. "That’s enough now. It’s time to go into the bank, so let’s quiet down a little, okay?"

Charlotte and Becca had one more explosion of giggles, but then they grew serious. "Is this the bank all the money is missing from?" Charlotte asked, looking up at the fancy facade. I nodded. Charlotte is a smart little girl, and she doesn't miss much. I realized she must have overheard Stacey and me when we mentioned the bank mystery during the walk downtown. Charlotte turned to Becca. "Let’s be detectives," she said, "Quick, put on your disguise." She turned the baseball cap she was wearing backward and grinned at Becca. Becca pulled a pair of sunglasses out of her pocket and stuck them on.

The three kids went through the revolving door — pushing it around and around until a guard gave them a sharp look — while Stacey and I maneuvered Lucy's stroller through the

regular doors. Then I waited with the kids while Stacey stood on line to turn in her penny rolls. I looked around, wondering how it could be possible for such a well-guarded bank to be robbed.

"Look at all the policemen!" Jamie said, his eyes round as he checked out the guards.

"They must have extra because of that money disappearing," said Charlotte.

Of course! Charlotte was right. There probably were more guards than usual.

"Look at that big cage over there," said Charlotte. "What’s that for?"

I turned to see what she was looking at, and saw the vault for the safe-deposit boxes. The iron bars on the gate in front of it did look like a cage. I explained to Charlotte how safe-deposit boxes work, something I'd learned from going to the bank with my father. "People can rent those boxes to keep valuable things safe," I said. "You get your own key, and what you put in your box is your own private business. It’s like a miniature safe." Charlotte thought that sounded pretty neat, and said she might get a safe-deposit box someday to keep her favorite Barbie in.

Just then, Becca-the-detective poked Charlotte. "Don't look now," she said, "but there's a very suspicious character over by the table there."

"Where?" asked Charlotte, looking around immediately.

"I said, don't look!" said Becca. "Never mind. He's gone already. But keep an eye out. I bet he'll be back. He had this big black mustache, and I'm sure it was fake."

While the girls stayed busy playing detective and I stayed busy watching Jamie and Lucy, Stacey waited in a long line. I saw her tapping her foot impatiently as she waited. The next time I looked, she was at the head of the line. And the next time I looked, she was hurrying toward us, her face bright red.

"Come on," she said, pulling me along. "Let’s get out of here. I'm so embarrassed."

"What happened?" I asked her, once we were back out on the street with our charges in tow.

"You won't believe it," she said. "Remember that man in your pictures? The one in the suit, who I said was a banker?"

I nodded.

"I was only kidding, but it turns out that maybe I was right! He was standing behind the counter, talking to one of the tellers. I was so surprised to see him that I dropped two of my penny rolls on my foot. My toe is killing me!" She paused. "Anyway, once I finally put my rolls back together and gave them to the teller, the man was gone. And the teller must have thought I was nuts."

Just then, Lucy stretched in her stroller and began to whimper. Charlotte and Becca, bored with playing detective, started to talk about going for ice cream, and Jamie joined in. So Stacey and I took them to the Rosebud Cafe and bought them each a cone. Then, just as we were about to head home, Stacey remembered that the kids' pictures from Sunday might be ready, so we stopped at the camera shop. They were ready, and fortunately Stacey had the BSC treasury with her, so we paid for them with the money the kids' parents had given us. (They'd all been happy to donate a few dollars to our project.)

We spent the rest of the afternoon back at Charlotte's house, looking over the pictures (there were some terrific ones) and talking about how to put together the book for Dawn. Suddenly the project was really starting to take shape, and we were all feeling pretty excited about it. That afternoon, I forgot about the mystery at the bank, and so did Stacey and the kids. The mystery was still just that — a total mystery. It was much more fun to think about our project.

Chapter 7.

"Look at this one," said Jessi, with a giggle. "Can you believe the face Jordan is making? You'd think he was having a tooth pulled at the dentist's, instead of just having a trim at the barber's."

"He hates haircuts," Mal said. "Always has. That picture says it all."

My friends and I were gathered in my room on Monday afternoon, and our BSC meeting was just about to start. While we waited for Kristy to call the meeting to order, we listened to the radio and leafed through the pictures the kids had taken during our Day in the Life of Stoneybrook. There were so many good ones! It was going to be hard to decide which ones to include in our album.

Oh, sure, there were a few mistakes. Vanessa had taken a whole series of pictures featuring a giant thumb, for example. Mal explained that Vanessa would spend ten minutes

setting up a "perfect" shot, and then forget to keep her fingers out of the way at the last minute. And Buddy's roll included several totally black frames — he'd forgotten to take off his lens cap for those. Charlotte had a habit of chopping people's heads off when she photographed them, and Becca wasn't too sure how to focus.