The instant he entered the room, Blake went running up to the Aldens. “Did you solve the mystery?” he asked, out of breath. “Did you find my missing camera?” Blake’s red hair was sticking up, as if he’d tossed and turned all night. His eyes looked dark, too. It was obvious Blake hadn’t slept well the night before.
“Not yet,” Henry told Blake. “But we’re narrowing down our suspects.”
“Have you interviewed Annika?” Blake asked.
“We’re about to do that now,” Jessie told him.
“Good,” Blake said. “Tell her to give me back my camera.”
“If we find out that she took it, we’ll let you know,” Violet said.
Benny was supposed to interview Annika, but Mr. Newton called him to the front. Mr. Newton was carrying a heavy animal cage. He set it down on the floor at the front of the room.
“I better go,” Benny told Violet. “I didn’t get here in time to help with all the cameras. Mr. Newton’s counting on me to be his assistant zoologist again today. And I want to do a good job!”
Benny smiled, then rubbed his tummy. “If I do a good job, I get to go first at tonight’s pizza party. Mr. Newton promised! So can we interview Annika while we walk around the zoo?”
“Of course,” Violet said, and Benny rushed off. Then she turned to Jessie. “I think you can go ahead and cross Griffin off the suspect list. He bought a camera this morning. He’s one of the few I saw buy one.”
“But yesterday, he took a picture of the monkey,” Henry said. “Whose camera was that?”
“He and Matthew were friends again by then,” Violet said. “Now that I think about it, they high-fived each other by the jaguar habitat. And that was after Blake announced that his camera was missing. I guess Griffin was back to sharing with his brother.”
“Okay,” Jessie scratched out his name. “What about Nico?”
“He’s still a suspect,” Violet said. “He has a camera, but none of us saw him buy it.”
Henry had an idea. He rushed over to where Mr. Newton was busy getting a little monkey out of the cage. Benny was helping, holding the end of a red leather leash.
“Is that Simio?” Henry asked, momentarily distracted from what he meant to ask.
“It sure is!” Mr. Newton said. “Simio might not be a baby monkey, but we can still learn a lot from him.”
“Great!” Henry was excited and turned to go to his sisters. “Oh,” he spun back. “I almost forgot. Did you sell Nico a camera today?”
“Yes,” Mr. Newton said as Simio jumped onto his shoulder. “Why?”
“Just checking,” Henry said.
Then Henry went back to his sisters, eager to sit down and learn about the monkey.
“Nico’s in the clear,” he told his sisters. “He bought the camera this morning.”
“Did you ask about Sophie, too?” Jessie asked her brother.
“No,” he said. “I thought we decided she wasn’t a suspect anymore.”
“I still wonder . . .” Jessie looked at Sophie’s name in the notebook. She reread the clues that pointed to her and checked each one off. “Forget it,” Jessie said at last. “I think she’s innocent. After the monkey show, we’ll talk to Annika. She must have taken the camera. There’s no one else on our list.”
“She had the biggest reason to take it,” Henry said.
Jessie looked over at Annika. She was taking pictures of Mr. Newton and the monkey.
“Hey!” Annika suddenly shouted. “That’s mine.”
Jessie, Henry, and Violet all rushed over to see what happened.
“Give it back!” Annika told Simio.
Simio had reached backward from his perch on Mr. Newton’s shoulder. He grabbed the camera right out of Annika’s hands!
She put out her palm. “Not funny,” Annika told the monkey. “Give it back. Now.”
Simio hooted at her and held it up too high for her to reach.
Mr. Newton swung the monkey off his shoulder. “Come on, Simio,” he said gently. “That isn’t yours.” He took the camera easily out of Simio’s hands and gave it back to Annika.
At first, Annika looked surprised that is was so easy for Mr. Newton to take the camera back. “Thanks little guy!” Annika said. Then she took another picture of Simio before she went and sat down.
Mr. Newton smiled after her, then cleared his throat. “Students, everyone, please sit down,” he said. “I want to teach you what this terrific little monkey can do.”
He set Simio on the ground in the center of the circle and told Benny to remove the leash.
“Are you sure?” Benny asked, eyes wide. “He could escape again.”
“That’s an interesting thought, Benny,” Mr. Newton said. “But Simio’s only good at picking cage locks. The doors here have a different kind of lock, so I’m not worried about him getting loose. I want to show you the great tricks he knows.”
After Benny took off Simio’s leash, Mr. Newton held up a hoop for Simio. The monkey jumped through it and everyone applauded. He gave Simio a jump rope, and the monkey skipped rope a few times. Then, he placed a large ball on the floor in front of Simio. Simio looked at it.
“Toss it to me,” Mr. Newton told him. Simio stared at the ball, and then, instead of tossing it, he leapt over it and ran over to Annika. He snagged the camera right out of her hands. Again.
Then, Simio ran around the room, randomly grabbing various items from the students. Before anyone could stop him, the monkey had made a big pile of cameras, jackets, water bottles, and other items in the center of the room. He even took Mr. Newton’s glasses!
Mr. Newton kept calling his name. “Simio. Stop!” But Simio was happily running around, squawking and collecting.
“Add monkeys to the list of animals I don’t like,” Sophie said as Simio quickly hopped by. “I’m scared of monkeys now, too. I’m going to have nightmares tonight about a monkey stealing my stuff.”
Mr. Newton grabbed at the little fellow, but Simio was fast. “Benny, I need your help,” he said. “Let’s use your fruit trick again. We have to get him back in the cage.”
“I’ll get my backpack,” Benny said, hurrying to the back of the room.
He reached into his bag, which was once again filled with snacks. “Here!” said Benny as he tossed Henry an orange. Just like he had done the day before, Henry peeled the fruit and offered it to Simio. But the monkey was busy stealing another water bottle.
“It isn’t working,” Henry told Benny.
“Just wait,” Benny said. “If his tummy is anything like mine, he won’t be able to stay away from good food.”
And sure enough, after tossing the container onto his pile of things, Simio came back for a bite of the fruit.
Mr. Newton caught Simio this time while Henry was feeding him the orange.
“You have a smart tummy,” Henry told Benny while Mr. Newton put the little monkey back in the carrying cage.
“Simio is always hungry. Just like me,” Benny said, smiling. He peeled his own orange and bit into a segment.
“Sorry about that,” Mr. Newton told the group. “Capuchin monkeys spend their days searching for food. It could be that he thought he was collecting food.” Mr. Newton shrugged. “Clearly he isn’t as well-trained as I thought.”
“Maybe he’s just excited by all the kids,” Annika said as she searched the pile for her camera.
The sweatshirts and jackets were easy to identify. The water bottles were in many different colors, so the kids could tell which ones were theirs. Sophie gave Mr. Newton back his glasses. After they had picked up the most obvious things, a pile of cameras remained.
“Luckily we all put our names on the cameras today,” Nico said, grabbing his. “They might have gotten switched otherwise.”
“Uh-oh,” Matthew said as he and Griffin stood over the last two cameras.
“We both only put our last name on our cameras. And we have each taken the same number of pictures. We don’t know whose is whose. What if Matthew wins the photo contest using my pictures?” Griffin picked up the two cameras and stared at them as if he might be able to tell them apart.
“Don’t worry,” Mr. Newton told the twins. “When I develop the film later, we can easily figure out who owns which camera by the pictures. Each of you take one now, and we can sort out the photos tonight.”
The boys liked that plan and each took a camera.
When they had finally sorted out all of the things Simio had stolen, Mr. Newton went to give Benny the tour leader’s flag. “Let’s go see some more baby animals,” Mr. Newton announced.
“You know,” Henry said, “after seeing Simio steal everything in sight, it could mean that—”
“Maybe Simio took Blake’s camera?!” Benny exclaimed.
“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” Henry said, smiling at his brother. |