The Tennis Trophy Mystery by David A. Adler Page B

teachers’ tournament. The last match was real close. It was between me and Ms. Green.” Mr. Day smiled. “She just couldn’t hit my serve.”
    “Yes, she could,” Danny said. “She thought the serve was out.”
    Mr. Day turned. He glared at Danny.
    “Dr. Prell was the umpire, and she said it was good.”
    “After the tournament,” Janet said, “that’s all Ms. Green talked about, that the ball was out.”
    Now Mr. Day glared at Janet.
    Ms. Benson walked into the gym. She spoke to Mr. Day for a moment. Then she led the children back to their classroom.
    Cam didn’t follow Ms. Benson.
    “I know how you won the trophy,” Cam told Mr. Day. “I want to know where it is. Did you put it on your desk? Did you take it home?”
    “No,” Mr. Day answered. “It’s in my office, in the cabinet.”
    “No it’s not.”
    Mr. Day walked to his office. Cam followed him. Mr. Day unlocked the door.
    “Oh my,” Mr. Day said. “It’s gone.”
    There was a padlock on the glass doors to the cabinet. Mr. Day checked it. It was locked.
    “I keep the office door and the cabinet doors locked. How could anyone have taken it?” Mr. Day asked.
    “Maybe you took it home,” Cam said.
    Mr. Day pushed some papers aside and sat on the edge of his desk. He shook his head and said, “No.”
    Some papers on Mr. Day’s desk fell to the floor. Cam put them back on his desk.

    Mr. Day sat quietly. Cam looked at the cabinet. Then she turned and looked at the office door.
    “Who else has the keys to your office?” Cam asked.
    “Dr. Prell and Jake.”
    Dr. Prell was the school principal. Jake was the custodian.
    “Do you ever leave the cabinet open?”
    “No,” Mr. Day said, and shook his head. “My trophies are valuable. They’re real silver. That’s why I keep the cabinet locked. And I keep tests and my marking book in there. I don’t want someone to get them.”
    Cam looked at the cabinet. The two doors were closed. There was a padlock between the doors, and it was locked.
    Someone broke into a locked cabinet, Cam thought, and stole a silver trophy. And whoever did it put the lock back on. Why would the thief put the lock back on?
    Cam told Mr. Day, “I’m good at solving mysteries. Right now I’m having trouble with this one. But don’t worry. I’ll solve it.”
    “No you won’t,” Mr. Day told Cam. “You’ll go back to class.”
    “But what about your silver trophy?”
    “Don’t you worry,” Mr. Day said. “I’ll find it.”
    No you won’t, Cam thought as she walked to class. I will.

CHAPTER FOUR
    “Where have you been?” Ms. Benson asked when Cam walked into class.
    “I was in gym,” Cam said. “I was talking with Mr. Day.”
    Ms. Benson told Cam, “We’re learning about oceans.” Then she asked, “Janet, please tell Cam what we learned.”
    “Almost three-fourths of the earth is covered with oceans,” Janet read from her notebook. “There are five oceans, the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic, and Antarctic, and they’re all connected.”
    Cam sat in her seat. She opened her notebook.

    Ms. Benson asked, “What causes waves?”
    “Parents do,” Danny called out. “If your parents have wavy hair, so will you.”
    “Adam,” Ms. Benson said. “Please tell Danny and Cam what causes waves.”
    “It’s the wind,” Adam said. “And the moon causes tides.”
    A folded piece of paper landed on Cam’s open notebook.
    “It’s from me,” Eric whispered.
    “Cam,” Ms. Benson asked, “do you know how the moon causes tides?”
    Do I? Cam wondered. I think I do. I think I read about it last night.
    Cam closed her eyes and said, “Click!” She looked at the pictures she had in her head of the page she had read in her textbook on oceans and tides.
    “The moon’s gravity pulls on the water,” Cam said. “As the earth turns, it pulls on water over different parts of the earth. That’s why we have high tides and low tides.”
    “Thank you,” Ms. Benson said. “Now please open your