Read The Mystery at Monkey House Online
Authors: David A. Adler
The Mystery at Monkey House (4 page)
“This is the girl I told you about,” Wally Russell told the man. “She’s the one who found the lock.”
“I’m Don Cooper. I’m the director of the zoo,” the man said, as he shook hands with Cam and Eric. “Now what can you tell me about the monkeys?”
“Some people drove in here with a truck. The back of the truck was filled with dirt. I thought they were doing some planting. But the truck passed us later. It was leaving the zoo and the back was still filled with dirt.”
“We’re not doing any planting. That truck didn’t belong here,” Mr. Cooper said. He walked quickly to the entrance and asked the guard if the truck rode past.
“About fifteen minutes ago,” the guard said.
Cam described the truck. Mr. Cooper called the police. He told them about the monkeys and the truck.
Mr. Cooper stood by the telephone. He folded and unfolded his arms. He put his hands into his jacket pockets and took them out. Then he clapped his hands and said, “Come on. I can’t just wait here. Maybe we can find that truck.”
Cam, Eric, Billy, and Wally Russell followed Mr. Cooper to the parking lot. Mr. Cooper opened the doors to an old green car. The backseat was filled with baby toys, balls, and dolls.
“Just push those aside,” Mr. Cooper said. “I use them when I play with the baby animals.”
Cam and Wally Russell sat on the front seat next to Mr. Cooper. Eric and Billy sat in the back.
As the car went through the gate, Cam said, “When the geese honked they reminded me of the truck. It honked at us twice.”
Billy said, “Did you know that some people keep geese as pets?”
“And I thought it was strange,” Cam went on, “for that truck to bring dirt into the zoo and take it out again.”
Mr. Cooper stopped just outside the zoo. There was a long line of cars ahead of him. Mr. Cooper waited. The traffic light at the end of the road was red. But when the light turned to green, the cars still didn’t move. Mr. Cooper honked his car horn.
“It happens every time,” Mr. Cooper said. “When I’m in a rush, there’s a traffic jam.”
The light turned red. Then it turned green again, but no cars moved.
“What’s going on up there?” Mr. Cooper asked, as he got out of his car and walked down the road. Cam and Eric followed him. And right behind them were Billy and Wally Russell.
There had been an accident. A small blue car had crashed into a large truck. The drivers were standing in the middle of the road and arguing.
“That’s it,” Cam said. “That’s the truck I saw in the zoo!”
Chapter Seven
A
police siren sounded. The siren got louder and louder. Then two police cars turned the corner. Mr. Cooper waved his arms and the second car stopped.
police siren sounded. The siren got louder and louder. Then two police cars turned the corner. Mr. Cooper waved his arms and the second car stopped.
“We can’t help you,” the officer said as he rolled down his window. “Some zoo animals have been stolen.”
“I know. I called you. I’m Don Cooper, the director of the zoo. And I think we’ve found the thieves.”
The police officer opened his car door and got out. Mr. Cooper told him the truck had been in the zoo at the time the monkeys were stolen.
The police officer walked over to the truck. Mr. Cooper, Cam, Eric, Billy, and Wally Russell were right behind the officer.
“Whose truck is this?” the officer asked.
“It’s mine,” a young man said. He was wearing a green baseball hat and a sweat shirt. “And she crashed into me.” The young man pointed to a woman standing next to the small blue car. “My neck hurts. And my back hurts. And my truck is dented.”
“You were turning?” the officer asked.
“Yes, and that woman crashed right into me. She shouldn’t be allowed to drive a car.”
“If you were turning and she was going straight,” the officer said, “she had the right of way.”
The woman said, “He wants me to fix his truck and pay for his bad back. But if I had the right of way, the accident wasn’t my fault.”
The woman looked at her car for dents or scratches. She didn’t find any so she got into her car and drove away.
The young man walked toward his truck. “Wait just a minute,” the officer told him. “I want to talk to you about some monkeys.”
The man turned. “I don’t know anything about monkeys,” he said.
“Then you won’t mind if I look around,” the police officer said.
He opened the truck door and looked inside. Mr. Cooper looked, too. They walked around the truck. Cam, Eric, Billy, and Wally Russell followed them. They all bent down and looked under the truck. They looked in the back of the truck, but they didn’t find any monkeys.
“Can I go now?” the young man asked.
The officer nodded. The young man climbed into the truck.
“Hurry,” Eric whispered to Cam. “Say
‘Click.’
Do something!”
‘Click.’
Do something!”
Cam closed her eyes and said
“Click”
just as the truck started to move. The traffic light was red. The truck waited. Cam said
“Click”
again. Then the light turned green.
“Click”
just as the truck started to move. The traffic light was red. The truck waited. Cam said
“Click”
again. Then the light turned green.
“Wait!” Cam called out as she opened her eyes. “I know where he has those monkeys hidden.”
The police officer blew his whistle and ran to the truck. “Pull over to the side of the road,” he said.
“Look at the sticks in the back of the truck,” Cam told the police officer. “I’ll bet they’re hollow. That’s so the monkeys can breathe. They’re in a cage under the dirt.”
The police officer and Wally Russell dug their hands into the dirt. “Hey, there’s a cloth here. And there’s something under the cloth. It feels like a cage.”
Mr. Cooper opened two latches at the back of the truck. The gate dropped down and he found his monkeys.
Mr. Cooper and Wally Russell pulled the cage out and put it on top of the dirt. There were holes in the top of the cage. Attached to each hole was a wooden tube.
Mr. Cooper looked closely at each of the monkeys. Cam, Eric, and Billy looked at them, too. Eric scratched his nose and put his hands behind his back as he looked. One of the monkeys scratched his nose. Then he put his hands behind his back. It was the very small monkey, the one that had copied Eric.
Chapter Eight
T
he young man with the green baseball hat drove his truck back to the zoo. Wally Russell rode with him. The police officer and Mr. Cooper followed in their cars. Cam, Eric, and Billy rode with Mr. Cooper.
he young man with the green baseball hat drove his truck back to the zoo. Wally Russell rode with him. The police officer and Mr. Cooper followed in their cars. Cam, Eric, and Billy rode with Mr. Cooper.
“How did you know where to find the monkeys?” Mr. Cooper asked Cam.
“I had lots of pictures of that truck stored in my head. I looked at them and saw that the rakes and the shovels in the back had been moved around. But the sticks hadn’t. They were in the exact same places each time.”
“That wouldn’t happen if the sticks were not attached to the cage,” Eric said. “If the sticks were in a pile of dirt they would move around when the truck moved.”
“If you have pictures stored in your head,” Mr. Cooper said, “you must have a photographic memory.”
“She does,” Eric said.
“Well, your memory saved the zoo some valuable monkeys.”
“I have a good memory, too,” Billy said.
Mr. Cooper drove his car through the main entrance. He parked right outside the monkey house. The truck, two police cars, and three police officers were already there.
Mr. Cooper and Wally Russell carried the box from the truck to the first cage. The young man with the green hat had the key to the lock on the first cage. He opened it. Mr. Cooper opened the box. “Go on,” he told the monkeys. “Get into your cage.” But the monkeys didn’t move.
Mr. Cooper took a few bananas from the trunk of his car. He threw them into the cage and the monkeys went in after them. Mr. Cooper put one of the zoo’s locks on the cage door. Then he turned to the young man and asked, “Tell me, what did you plan to do with those monkeys?”
“I was going to sell them,” he answered, keeping his head down. “I know some people who would pay a lot of money to buy a pet monkey.”
The young man got back into his truck. A police officer got in with him. Then he drove off with one police car riding ahead of him and the other following him.
“You children deserve some reward for saving our monkeys,” Mr. Cooper said. “I’ll give each of you free passes to the zoo. I’m going to take you someplace that isn’t open to most people. And I have something really special to give you.”
Mr. Cooper gave Cam, Eric, and Billy free passes to the zoo. Then the children followed Mr. Cooper to a building near the zoo entrance.
“This is the zoo kitchen,” Mr. Cooper said. He led them into a large room. “This is where we prepare the food for all the animals.”
The children watched as large “hamburgers” were being made for the lions.
“We mix vitamins and minerals in with different kinds of meat,” Mr. Cooper said.
Cam, Eric, and Billy watched as salads were made for the apes and monkeys. They saw live insects, mice, and chickens that were kept in the kitchen to feed the snakes, lizards, and alligators.
Other books
Passion Play by Jerzy Kosinski
A Christmas Wish by Evie Knight
Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen
Bend over Bundle by Violet Veidt
Fire Baptized by Kenya Wright
Secret Keepers and Skinny Shadows: Lee and Miranda by Mary A Russell
Wart by Anna Myers
The Lady of Lyon House by Jennifer Wilde
If She Only Knew by Lisa Jackson