Mary Anne And The Zoo Mystery Part 9

"Does Mojo communicate with just one person?" Jessi Ramsey was asking. "Or can she talk to anyone who uses American Sign Language?"

"Mojo can speak with anyone," Dr. Wordsworth replied. "Many hearing-impaired people visit the Huntington Animal Park just for that reason."

Jessi gestured to Matt Braddock who stood beside her. Signing as she spoke, she explained, "My friend uses ASL, and he'd like to ask Mojo a few questions."

"Go right ahead." Dr. Wordsworth stepped back and watched as Matt tried to talk to Mojo.

Do you know who freed the emu? Matt asked the gorilla.

Mojo answered Yes.

Matt turned to Jessi, his face flushed with excitement. She says she knows who freed the emu! he signed.

Jessi grinned and signed back, I know. Ask her who did it.

Matt signed the question, and we all held our breaths, waiting for Mojo's reply. I knew enough ASL to understand the answer.

"Food," I said, turning to Logan. "That's what she said before. I wonder if she's hungry."

"Maybe she wants a treat before she'll answer," Logan suggested to the group at large.

Dr. Wordsworth shook her head. "Mojo doesn't normally ask for snacks. Maybe she is just hungry."

"Besides," Erica Blumberg added, "how would a gorilla know what an emu is?"

Matt and Jessi left the zoo, downcast. I guess we all felt a little disappointed. We were back to where we had started with berry stains as our only due and the protestors and the people in sweatsuits as our only suspects. But it would have been pretty incredible if the gorilla had named the culprit, wouldn't it? Not only would Mojo be famous for knowing sign language, but she would have gone down in history as the first gorilla detective.

Chapter 12.

"I can't find my elephant ears!" Haley screeched from her room on Sunday morning. "Claudia, help."

Claudia had promised to sit for the Braddocks in the morning and then help supervise the Elephant Walk that afternoon. She hadn't realized that so much work would be left to the last minute.

Brrrring!

"I'll get it," Claudia shouted to Haley. "Check in the bottom drawer of your dresser. I think your mom said your costume was there." Claud picked up the phone and said, "Braddock residence."

"Hi, this is Vanessa. I collected the pledge sheets from most of the kids at school, but I don't know what to do with them."

Claudia, who was trying to prepare lunch for Haley and Matt while she spoke to Vanessa, reached for the freezer door and flung it open. "Let's see, Vanessa, I thought Kristy was supposed to be in charge of - macaroni and cheese!"

"Macaroni and cheese? I thought there wasn't going to be any food. Just the Free Babar b.u.t.tons and T-shirts."

"Sorry, Vanessa." Claudia cradled the phone on her shoulder. "I'm trying to fix lunch here. Um, bring the sheets to the school play- ground at one o'clock and either Kristy or I will take them."

Ding-dong!

"It's like Grand Central Station here. Sorry, Vanessa. Gotta run," Claudia tossed the macaroni and cheese container on the counter, slammed the freezer door shut with one hand and hung up the phone with the other. Then she raced for the front door.

The Pike triplets and Sara and Norman Hill were standing on the front steps. They held a six-foot-long banner and were beaming at Claudia as she opened the door.

"What do you think?" Sara asked. "Doesn't it look great?"

Free Babar was printed in big letters and Your coins count! in smaller ones beneath it. All around the lettering were drawings of gold coins.

"It's terrific," Claudia said as she let the kids into the front hall. "But aren't you guys a little early? The parade doesn't start for over an hour."

"We painted the banner this morning," Sara Hill said, "and it's still not dry. My mom said we couldn't keep it in the house so we thought we'd bring it over here."

"That has wet paint on it?" Claudia gasped.

Byron Pike nodded. "Don't touch it. Look what happened to me." He stepped back to show Claudia the print of a large "B" on his T-shirt.

"Out!" Claudia shrieked. "Everybody, back outside. Don't touch the walls or doors."

The five children hurried out the front door as Matt Braddock came bounding down the stairs. He grabbed Claudia's arm and pointed upstairs, where Haley was shouting, "I still can't find it. Help!"

Claudia gestured for Matt to stay with the kids out front. Then she ran up the stairs two at a time. Haley's room looked as if a tornado had hit it. Every drawer was pulled out of the dresser, and every shoe in her closet had been thrown into the room. In the middle of it all stood Haley, her chin quivering.

"It's all right," Claudia said, giving Haley a hug. "Your mom said the ears are here. I bet we'll find them. And if we can't, you're lucky that you have the world's greatest elephant ear-maker baby-sitting for you today."

Claudia and Haley picked up the room and Haley was right - the ears were nowhere to be found. However, they did collect a lot of dirty clothes, and while Claudia was taking them to the laundry room, she spied two pieces of gray felt stretched across the ironing board.

"I found them," she shouted to Haley. "Crisis solved!"

"Not quite," a voice answered from the front hall. Jessi Ramsey had heard that Claudia was at the Braddocks' and had come over to ask for help.

Claudia gave Haley the ears and hurried outside to check on Matt and the kids, pa.s.sing Jessi on the way. "Is it dry yet?" she asked the kids.

Norman Hill held one hand over the banner and patted a letter. He held up a red palm to show Claudia.

"I guess not." Claudia sighed. She made a mental note to find a rag for Norman so he could clean his hand. In the meantime, Jessi was still waiting in the front hall, looking agitated.

"Sorry, Claudia," Jessi said. "It looks like you have your hands full, but I just remembered that I'm supposed to be in charge of music."

"Didn't you find a tape of the "Baby Elephant Walk?" Claudia asked.

"Oh, I have the tape, all right," Jessi said, "but I don't have anything to play it on, except a tiny little tape recorder. We need a huge boom box."

Claudia scratched her head. "Stacey has a great tape player with really loud speakers. We could put it in one of the kids' wagons and let them pull it."

Relief washed over Jessi's face. "Let's call her."

Claudia grabbed Jessi's elbow. "Aren't you forgetting something? We aren't speaking to Stacey."

"Oh, right." Jessi's shoulders slumped. "For a minute there I thought our problem was solved." Claudia saw the macaroni and cheese carton lying on the counter and hurried to stick it in the microwave. "It might still be," she said as they waited for the food to cook. "We just have to be clever about this. Maybe we can get someone else to ask Stacey." "Like who?" Jessi asked. "One of the kids?" "Why not?" Claudia said with a shrug. "We'll just ask Becca to ask Charlotte to ask Stacey if the kids can borrow her tape recorder for the parade." "Do you think she'll let them?" "Stacey adores Charlotte. Of course she will."

Jessi ran to the phone. For the next few minutes there was a flurry of activity as Jessi phoned Becca, who phoned Charlotte, and then called Jessi back to say she'd phoned Charlotte, who'd said she'd phone Stacey right away. Now Becca was waiting for Charlotte to call with Stacey's response.

Claudia took that opportunity to check on Haley, who had recovered from her crisis and now stood in front of the mirror in her mother's room, practicing elephant poses. Then Claud told Matt that lunch would soon be ready. She raced back into the kitchen to hurriedly put macaroni and cheese, apple sauce, and carrot sticks on two plates.

By the time the calls had been made, and lunch was served, and the children with the wet banner had decided to proceed to another house, Claudia was exhausted. She felt as if she'd run a marathon. Jessi's news didn't make her feel any better.

"Stacey said yes," Jessi said glumly. "On one condition - that she come with it. She even volunteered to pull the wagon at the front of the walkathon."

"Stacey leading the walkathon?" Claudia gasped. "Oh, Kristy will love that idea. No way! There's just no way!"

Jessi winced. "Too late. I told Becca to tell Charlotte to tell Stacey okay."

"You what! Oh, I wish it were Monday and we were going to school and the Elephant Walk were over."

Mrs. Braddock returned home a few minutes late, which gave Claudia no time to go home. She had to head straight for the playground, because the walkathon was set to start in fifteen minutes.

Claudia jogged through the groups of kids who were making their way to the starting line. She spotted 10181/8 faded ball cap in the middle of a group of children to whom she was giving last-minute instructions.

"Hey, Claud," Kristy called cheerily. She proudly displayed one of the T-shirts that Claud had designed and silk-screened. "What do you think?"

"It's you," Claudia said with a grin.

Kristy looped her stopwatch and whistle over her head. She was in full coach gear. 'The kids showed me the banner. I think they did a good job."

"Just don't get within five feet of it," Claudia warned her. "The paint's still wet. Where's Dawn?"

"At the drugstore," Kristy replied. "She was supposed to help me pa.s.s out supplies, but she realized at the last minute that she had forgotten to buy film for her camera." Kristy gestured to the card table she'd set up on the playground. It was stacked high with baskets full of Free Babar b.u.t.tons.

Claudia smiled approvingly. "It looks like the Pikes and their Badge-o-matic factory have been working overtime."

Kristy checked her clipboard. "I have the b.u.t.tons. Haley and Becca will be in front in their elephant costumes - "

"Vanessa has the pledge sheets," Claudia interrupted.

"Good." Kristy nodded her head. "Watson and I drove the walkathon route this morning. The town really came through. They have bright orange sawhorses in place and are ready to cordon off the route."

"Mallory did a great job with the publicity," Claudia said. "Mom has been cutting the articles out of the paper. There were two tiny ones on Thursday and Friday and a really large spread in this morning's Sunday paper. The headline said KIDS CAKE."

Kristy grinned. "I saw that. The photo was great, too. Eight Pike kids, showing off their b.u.t.tons and T-shirts, with those ear-to-ear grins. You can almost hear them all shouting, Cheese!"

"And speaking of too cute for words ..." Claudia pointed down the street. "Check out the little elephants coming our way."

Haley and Becca were in elephant costumes of gray tights, leotards, and hoods with big ears. They'd even found rubber elephant noses at Toy City.

Kristy checked her watch. "They're right on time. We're at T-minus four minutes and counting."

ft was amazing how many children were partic.i.p.ating in the Elephant Walk. I had offered to do a kid round-up, walking some of our clients' kids to the starting line. Jenny Prezzioso and the Arnold twins came with me to pick up Jamie Newton and Nina Marshall. The walkathon was supposed to be four miles long, but I'm sure we added another mile collecting all those children. My group and I hit the playground seconds before Charlotte Johanssen - and her friend - arrived. Charlotte was pulling a wagon behind her.

Kristy squinted into the afternoon sun. "Why is Charlotte pulling a wagon? For the fliers?"

Claudia gulped. She realized she hadn't broken the news to Kristy about the tape player. "Uh, no, we had some difficulty with the music. Jessi needed to borrow a tape player with really big speakers, so the Elephant Walk music could be heard."

"Oh." Kristy leaned forward, adjusting the bill of her cap. "But who's that with her?"

Jessi joined Claudia just then, and they answered together, "Stacey."

We were lucky that it was now T-minus one minute until the walkathon was supposed to begin, because from the look on Kristy's face, we could have had a major blow-out.

"We don't have enough time to change anything," she grumbled after checking her watch again. "I just hope she stays away from me."

Stacey did exactly that. She and Charlotte stood on the edge of the crowd until Kristy blew her whistle. Then Haley and Becca stepped forward in their elephant costumes and posed.

"They've been practicing that pose for two days," Jessi whispered to Claudia.

"I know." Claudia grinned. "When Haley wasn't panicking about her costume, she was practicing her pose and her bow. I guess she plans to do that when we hit the finish line."

Next, the banner kids took their places behind the elephants. Then Kristy gestured for Charlotte to bring the wagon forward, and Charlotte and Stacey moved into position. It was weird. Stacey and Kristy never even looked at each other. Jessi put her tape in the player and nodded to Kristy.

Kristy blew her whistle and shouted, "Let the Elephant Walk begin!"

The music blasted from the speakers and the kids in front began to march. I know it was supposed to be a walkathon, but it felt more like a parade, with the kids in costume and the music.

Kristy made sure that Charlotte and Stacey were far ahead and then she blew her whistle once more. The rest of us stepped out.

After all the stress Claudia had gone through in the morning, she ended up having fun. It was a sunny day, and the walkathon route was lined with friendly people anxious to help us Free Babar. They cheered and waved as the kids streamed by.

Here's the remarkable part of the day - every kid walked the entire four miles. A few, such as Claire Pike, covered the final few blocks on some other kid's shoulders, but they all made it!

Chapter 13.

"I think we should talk to Mrs. Wofsey," Dawn said at our Wednesday BSC meeting. "She should know about those spies in the matching jogging suits."

"I'm with Dawn," Claudia agreed. "We've all watched them making lists with dollar amounts next to weird Latin words. And Logan and Mary Anne even heard them talking about how much a gibbon would cost."

I said, "And the next thing we knew, the cage was standing wide open."

"I'll talk to Mrs. Wofsey," Claudia volunteered. "I think she'd appreciate any dues we can give her."

"Speaking of dues," I said, "I can't stop thinking about those red berry stains. When the emu was freed the stains were both inside and outside the cage. With the gibbons, the berry stains stopped at the door. And with the giraffe, there were no stains at all. What do you think that means?"