CHAPTER FIVE

“My good pearl necklace is gone,” Emma Pearl told her husband.

“Maybe the clasp broke,” he said.

“Oh, my,” Mrs. Pearl said. “I hope not. It’s a gold and diamond clasp.” She was very upset. “I wear that necklace everywhere.”

“Don’t worry,” Mr. Pearl told her. “We’ll find it. And if the clasp is broken, we’ll get it fixed.”

He told the Secret Service agent with long blonde hair about the necklace. The agent spoke into her walkie-talkie, and a police officer came in from the hall. The policeman asked the Pearls lots of questions.

“Is the necklace valuable?”

“Yes,” Mr. Pearl said. “It’s very valuable.”

“Are you sure you had it on today?”

“Yes,” Mrs. Pearl told the officer.

“Maybe you took it off. Maybe it fell off.”

“Maybe the string broke,” Sam Pearl said.

“If it did, pearls are rolling all over the school.”

“That’s not what happened,” Cam said. “Someone dropped the book to make that noise and then stole the necklace.”

“That’s nonsense,” the agent with long blonde hair said. “Nothing was stolen. We’ve been with the Pearls since they came here.”

The police officer said, “If the necklace was lost, we’ll find it. It must be somewhere in this school.”

The officer told Dr. Prell to have the children and their teachers all wait in their seats.

The Secret Service agent asked Governor Zellner and the Pearls to please wait in the library office. Two of the agents would wait with them. The other two and the police officers would look for the necklace.

Cam watched the two agents search on the floor near the desk. Then they walked slowly toward the door. They searched the floor as they walked.

Cam closed her eyes and said, “Click!”

The two agents left the library.

“Where are they now?” Cam asked Eric with her eyes still closed.

“They’re in the hall.”

“Mrs. Pearl didn’t lose it in there,” Cam said. “I’m looking at a picture of her when we first came into the library. She still had her necklace.”

“Hi,” Danny said as he sat down. “I’m back.”

“You missed everything,” Beth told him. “We met Governor Zellner. I shook his hand. And Mrs. Pearl lost her pearls.”

“She did? How many little Pearls did she lose?” Danny asked. “And what are their names? Janie Pearl? Jackie Pearl? Jokie Pearl?”

“Stop!” Beth told him.

“I like the name Jokie.”

“Well, she didn’t lose her children. She lost her pearl necklace.”

“Oh.”

Cam opened her eyes. She got up and started toward the library office.

“Please, sit down,” Ms. Benson told her.

“I can’t,” Cam said. “I have to speak to the Secret Service people. I know what happened to Mrs. Pearl’s pearl necklace. It was stolen, and I know who did it.”