Chapter Seven
“Who stole the cake?” Eric asked. “Do you think he ate it all? Did he eat the pastries and cookies, too?”
“That’s too much for any one person to eat,” Mr. Jansen said. “He must have shared it, or maybe he was having a party.”
“Officer Davis,” Cam said. “I have to tell you something.”
The police officer closed her police pad. She turned.
“I know who stole the cake,” Cam told her. “It was Mr. Fancy.”
“Who is Mr. Fancy?” Officer Davis asked. “And did you see him take the cake?”
“I didn’t see him. I don’t even know what he looks like, but I know he did it.”
Officer Davis shook her head and asked, “How could you know he’s the thief if you never saw him?”
She turned away from Cam.
“Here comes my partner,” she said to Ken and Lucy. “Maybe he spoke with someone who saw the cake being taken.”
Officer Oppen, Bob, Danny, and Beth had just crossed the street. They were walking toward Officer Davis.
“Who is Mr. Fancy?” Eric whispered. “And how do you know he took the cake?”
“Tell me, too,” her father said.
Cam walked a few steps away from Officer Davis. Eric and Mr. Jansen followed her.
“We know three things,” Cam told them. “Someone saw the keys in the back door of Ken’s truck. To see them, he had to be standing behind the truck.”
Eric said, “Lots of people may have walked past the truck.”
“Because of the trail of crumbs,” Cam said, “we also know which way the thief went with the stolen pastries, cookies, and cake. He carried them from Ken’s truck and past Dad’s car.”
Cam smiled.
“Dad,” she said. “You gave me the third clue, and it’s very important.”
“I did?”
“You reminded me that wedding cakes are tall, that Ken needs a truck with a roof high enough to hold them.”
“Mom and I had a really tall cake at our wedding. We held hands and cut the first few pieces together.”
Mr. Jansen smiled.
“She put a small piece of cake on her fork and fed it to me. Then I put a small piece on my fork and fed it to her.”
“Would your cake have fit in the back of a car?” Eric asked.
“No,” Mr. Jansen said, shaking his head.
“There was a yellow truck parked right behind your car,” Cam said. “ ‘ Mr. Fancy Fix-It’ was printed on the side of the truck.”
“That’s it!” Eric said. “When Mr. Fancy went to his truck, he must have seen Ken’s keys. Then he must have opened the back door of Ken’s truck. He saw the cake, cookies, and pastries and took them. He has a truck, so he had room for the wedding cake.”
“He was in a hurry because he didn’t want to get caught,” Mr. Jansen said. “That’s why he dropped cookies. That’s why he left a trail of crumbs.”
Mr. Jansen thought for a moment.
“You didn’t prove Mr. Fancy is the thief,” he said. “But all those clues do point a finger at him.”
“I think he did it,” Eric said. “Let’s tell the police.”
Mr. Jansen went to Officer Oppen and said, “My daughter may know who took the cakes.”
Officer Oppen asked Cam, “Did you remember something? Do you have a picture in your mental camera of something you saw?”
“I remembered clues,” Cam said.
She told him the same clues she had told her father and Eric.
“Listen to this,” Officer Oppen told his partner. “I think the ‘Click! Click!’ girl found the thief.”
Officer Davis, Lucy Lane, Ken the baker, Danny, Beth, and Old Bob listened as Cam told them why she thought Mr. Fancy was the thief.
“I may know how to find him,” Lucy Lane said. “I think I have a picture of his truck.”
She looked at the back of her camera. She pushed a button and looked at the pictures she had taken.
“Look! Here’s a picture of Ken. Behind him is Mr. Fancy’s truck. It’s yellow.”
Officers Oppen and Davis looked at the picture.
“It would really help,” Officer Davis said, “if you had a picture of the truck’s license plate. Then we could find out who Mr. Fancy is. I don’t think that’s his real name.”
“I have pictures, too,” Cam said. “They’re in my head.”
Cam closed her eyes. She said, “Click!” She said, “Click!” again.
“Here it is! I found it! It’s a yellow truck. MR. FANCY FIX-IT, NO JOB TOO BIG OR TOO SMALL is printed on the side of the truck. There’s also a telephone number and an e-mail address.”
Cam told the officers the number and the address.
Officer Davis said, “That might be all we need to find Mr. Fancy. We can check his truck and see if he took the cake.”
“Could you please hurry?” Ken asked. “It’s almost time for the wedding to start.”
