Monkey Trouble

  Chapter 6

  More Monkey Madness

  The instant he entered the room, Blake went running up to the Aldens. “Did you solve the mystery?” he asked, out of breath. “Did you find my missing camera?” Blake’s red hair was sticking up, as if he’d tossed and turned all night. His eyes looked dark, too. It was obvious Blake hadn’t slept well the night before.

  “Not yet,” Henry told Blake. “But we’re narrowing down our suspects.”

  “Have you interviewed Annika?” Blake asked.

  “We’re about to do that now,” Jessie told him.

  “Good,” Blake said. “Tell her to give me back my camera.”

  “If we find out that she took it, we’ll let you know,” Violet said.

  Benny was supposed to interview Annika, but Mr. Newton called him to the front. Mr. Newton was carrying a heavy animal cage. He set it down on the floor at the front of the room.

  “I better go,” Benny told Violet. “I didn’t get here in time to help with all the cameras. Mr. Newton’s counting on me to be his assistant zoologist again today. And I want to do a good job!”

  Benny smiled, then rubbed his tummy. “If I do a good job, I get to go first at tonight’s pizza party. Mr. Newton promised! So can we interview Annika while we walk around the zoo?”

  “Of course,” Violet said, and Benny rushed off. Then she turned to Jessie. “I think you can go ahead and cross Griffin off the suspect list. He bought a camera this morning. He’s one of the few I saw buy one.”

  “But yesterday, he took a picture of the monkey,” Henry said. “Whose camera was that?”

  “He and Matthew were friends again by then,” Violet said. “Now that I think about it, they high-fived each other by the jaguar habitat. And that was after Blake announced that his camera was missing. I guess Griffin was back to sharing with his brother.”

  “Okay,” Jessie scratched out his name. “What about Nico?”

  “He’s still a suspect,” Violet said. “He has a camera, but none of us saw him buy it.”

  Henry had an idea. He rushed over to where Mr. Newton was busy getting a little monkey out of the cage. Benny was helping, holding the end of a red leather leash.

  “Is that Simio?” Henry asked, momentarily distracted from what he meant to ask.

  “It sure is!” Mr. Newton said. “Simio might not be a baby monkey, but we can still learn a lot from him.”

  “Great!” Henry was excited and turned to go to his sisters. “Oh,” he spun back. “I almost forgot. Did you sell Nico a camera today?”

  “Yes,” Mr. Newton said as Simio jumped onto his shoulder. “Why?”

  “Just checking,” Henry said.

  Then Henry went back to his sisters, eager to sit down and learn about the monkey.

  “Nico’s in the clear,” he told his sisters. “He bought the camera this morning.”

  “Did you ask about Sophie, too?” Jessie asked her brother.

  “No,” he said. “I thought we decided she wasn’t a suspect anymore.”

  “I still wonder . . .” Jessie looked at Sophie’s name in the notebook. She reread the clues that pointed to her and checked each one off. “Forget it,” Jessie said at last. “I think she’s innocent. After the monkey show, we’ll talk to Annika. She must have taken the camera. There’s no one else on our list.”

  “She had the biggest reason to take it,” Henry said.

  Jessie looked over at Annika. She was taking pictures of Mr. Newton and the monkey.

  “Hey!” Annika suddenly shouted. “That’s mine.”

  Jessie, Henry, and Violet all rushed over to see what happened.

  “Give it back!” Annika told Simio.

  Simio had reached backward from his perch on Mr. Newton’s shoulder. He grabbed the camera right out of Annika’s hands!

  She put out her palm. “Not funny,” Annika told the monkey. “Give it back. Now.”

  Simio hooted at her and held it up too high for her to reach.

  Mr. Newton swung the monkey off his shoulder. “Come on, Simio,” he said gently. “That isn’t yours.” He took the camera easily out of Simio’s hands and gave it back to Annika.

  At first, Annika looked surprised that is was so easy for Mr. Newton to take the camera back. “Thanks little guy!” Annika said. Then she took another picture of Simio before she went and sat down.

  Mr. Newton smiled after her, then cleared his throat. “Students, everyone, please sit down,” he said. “I want to teach you what this terrific little monkey can do.”

  He set Simio on the ground in the center of the circle and told Benny to remove the leash.

  “Are you sure?” Benny asked, eyes wide. “He could escape again.”

  “That’s an interesting thought, Benny,” Mr. Newton said. “But Simio’s only good at picking cage locks. The doors here have a different kind of lock, so I’m not worried about him getting loose. I want to show you the great tricks he knows.”

  After Benny took off Simio’s leash, Mr. Newton held up a hoop for Simio. The monkey jumped through it and everyone applauded. He gave Simio a jump rope, and the monkey skipped rope a few times. Then, he placed a large ball on the floor in front of Simio. Simio looked at it.

  “Toss it to me,” Mr. Newton told him. Simio stared at the ball, and then, instead of tossing it, he leapt over it and ran over to Annika. He snagged the camera right out of her hands. Again.

  Then, Simio ran around the room, randomly grabbing various items from the students. Before anyone could stop him, the monkey had made a big pile of cameras, jackets, water bottles, and other items in the center of the room. He even took Mr. Newton’s glasses!

  Mr. Newton kept calling his name. “Simio. Stop!” But Simio was happily running around, squawking and collecting.

  “Add monkeys to the list of animals I don’t like,” Sophie said as Simio quickly hopped by. “I’m scared of monkeys now, too. I’m going to have nightmares tonight about a monkey stealing my stuff.”

  Mr. Newton grabbed at the little fellow, but Simio was fast. “Benny, I need your help,” he said. “Let’s use your fruit trick again. We have to get him back in the cage.”

  “I’ll get my backpack,” Benny said, hurrying to the back of the room.

  He reached into his bag, which was once again filled with snacks. “Here!” said Benny as he tossed Henry an orange. Just like he had done the day before, Henry peeled the fruit and offered it to Simio. But the monkey was busy stealing another water bottle.

  “It isn’t working,” Henry told Benny.

  “Just wait,” Benny said. “If his tummy is anything like mine, he won’t be able to stay away from good food.”

  And sure enough, after tossing the container onto his pile of things, Simio came back for a bite of the fruit.

  Mr. Newton caught Simio this time while Henry was feeding him the orange.

  “You have a smart tummy,” Henry told Benny while Mr. Newton put the little monkey back in the carrying cage.

  “Simio is always hungry. Just like me,” Benny said, smiling. He peeled his own orange and bit into a segment.

  “Sorry about that,” Mr. Newton told the group. “Capuchin monkeys spend their days searching for food. It could be that he thought he was collecting food.” Mr. Newton shrugged. “Clearly he isn’t as well-trained as I thought.”

  “Maybe he’s just excited by all the kids,” Annika said as she searched the pile for her camera.

  The sweatshirts and jackets were easy to identify. The water bottles were in many different colors, so the kids could tell which ones were theirs. Sophie gave Mr. Newton back his glasses. After they had picked up the most obvious things, a pile of cameras remained.

  “Luckily we all put our names on the cameras today,” Nico said, grabbing his. “They might have gotten switched otherwise.”

  “Uh-oh,” Matthew said as he and Griffin stood over the last two cameras.

  “We both only put our last name on our cameras. And we have each taken t
he same number of pictures. We don’t know whose is whose. What if Matthew wins the photo contest using my pictures?” Griffin picked up the two cameras and stared at them as if he might be able to tell them apart.

  “Don’t worry,” Mr. Newton told the twins. “When I develop the film later, we can easily figure out who owns which camera by the pictures. Each of you take one now, and we can sort out the photos tonight.”

  The boys liked that plan and each took a camera.

  When they had finally sorted out all of the things Simio had stolen, Mr. Newton went to give Benny the tour leader’s flag. “Let’s go see some more baby animals,” Mr. Newton announced.

  “You know,” Henry said, “after seeing Simio steal everything in sight, it could mean that—”

  “Maybe Simio took Blake’s camera?!” Benny exclaimed.

  “That’s exactly what I was thinking,” Henry said, smiling at his brother.

  Chapter 7

  Suspecting Simio

  “When could Simio have taken Blake’s camera?” Jessie asked Henry and Benny.

  “Do you remember when we visited the butterfly pavilion after lunch yesterday?” Henry asked his sister. After she nodded, he continued. “There was a zookeeper carrying a little monkey in a cage. That might have been Simio.”

  “I’m sure it was! Zookeeper Frank said that the first time Simio escaped yesterday, they found him near the butterflies,” Benny added.

  “You really are the best rememberer ever!” Violet said, giving Benny a quick hug.

  Jessie turned to Mr. Newton. “Has Simio ever escaped his cage before?”

  “He’s a smart monkey,” Mr. Newton said with a long sigh. “Yes. He gets out all the time. Every time we change the locks, he still figures out a way to escape.”

  “How many times has he wandered around the zoo?” Henry asked.

  “Three times that I know of,” Mr. Newton said. “But I haven’t been working here very long. It might be more.” He gave a small smile. “Know what’s funny? Even if Simio leaves the door open, none of the monkeys that share his cage ever leave. Simio’s the most curious monkey we have at the zoo.”

  “That is funny,” Benny agreed.

  “Do you recall what time Simio first escaped yesterday?” Jessie asked.

  “It was around lunchtime,” Mr. Newton answered.

  “That means that Simio really may have been the thief! We need to search the capuchin cage for Blake’s camera!” Henry exclaimed.

  Mr. Newton nodded. “After his little show this morning, I think you’re on the right track. Plus, I have to take Simio back to his habitat, anyway. Let’s go!”

  Jessie opened her notebook and looked at the suspect list she’d printed from her computer. It was still firmly taped inside. With a pencil, she added the monkey’s name to the list.

  The tour children all followed Mr. Newton, who was carrying Simio, to the capuchin habitat.

  When they got close enough to see the habitat, Benny broke into a run. He dashed straight up to the cage door.

  “I bet that camera is in there somewhere,” Benny said. He stood on his tip-toes, looking into the cage through the bars.

  Simio was still in the carrying cage nearby. Benny went over to him and said, “Okay, Mister. Where’d you hide it?”

  The monkey scratched his head and hooted at Benny.

  Benny laughed.

  Mr. Newton found the correct key and opened the cage. He carried Simio inside and set him down. Then Mr. Newton closed the door, shutting them both inside the cage.

  Simio climbed a tree and hung upside-down by his feet, hooting to himself.

  The tour group gathered around the outside of cage. “Does anyone see the camera?” Mr. Newton asked the group.

  “Maybe my camera is near those ropes.” Blake shoved his nose up to the bars to get a better look at the monkey playground in the habitat.

  “I don’t see it,” Matthew reported. “It’s not over here.”

  Griffin was on the opposite side of the cage from his brother. “Not here, either.”

  “I don’t see a camera anywhere,” Mr. Newton said, looking around.

  All of a sudden there was a loud hoot from Simio. Then there was a crashing sound.

  “Ow!” said Mr. Newton. He rubbed the back of his head. “Something hit me!” His glasses had slipped down his nose. Mr. Newton pushed them back up and discovered that he had been struck by a water bottle.

  “Where’d you get that?” Mr. Newton asked the monkey. Simio was hiding in a thick bush near the back of the cage. The monkey answered by throwing an apple at Mr. Newton’s stomach.

  This time, Mr. Newton caught it. “Nice try,” he said. Mr. Newton moved closer to where the monkey was hiding. “What else do you have in there?” Mr. Newton asked. “Blake’s camera maybe?”

  Mr. Newton was about to reach behind the bush into Simio’s hiding place when he got pelted with a bunch of animal crackers. Bits of yellow cracker got stuck in his dark hair.

  “It looks like Simio is throwing all the stuff he picked up on his escape adventures around the zoo!” Matthew giggled. Then he yelled, “Mr. Newton, duck!”

  Mr. Newton did, just in time, as a tennis shoe soared past his head. “Thanks for the warning,” Mr. Newton told Matthew. He picked up the shoe. “That would have hurt,” he added. Then he stared at the shoe a second. “Hey! Wait a minute. That’s my shoe. It’s been missing a whole week!” Mr. Newton said, looking at the monkey.

  Simio hooted at Mr. Newton. Then he came out from the bushes and made a grab to get the shoe back.

  “Oh, no you don’t,” Mr. Newton told the monkey. “What did you do with my other shoe?”

  Benny grabbed Jessie’s arm. “Doesn’t that look like the one we found earlier in the main office?” Benny asked. Jessie nodded in agreement. “We already solved that mystery!” Benny called to Mr. Newton. “It’s in the lost-and-found.”

  “Great work,” Mr. Newton told Benny. “Now we have to find that camera!” He went around the bushes and sorted through Simio’s hiding place. “A cell phone, a flip-flop, and half a sandwich. Where did you get this stuff?” he asked Simio.

  “Oooh, oooh,” Simio answered, jumping up and down.

  “I think this monkey has escaped more times than we know,” Henry told Mr. Newton.

  “That explains a lot,” Mr. Newton said, his head disappearing behind the bush as he finished the search. “I found the other flip-flop, but unfortunately no camera,” he reported at last.

  “Are you sure?” Blake asked. “It has to be there.”

  Mr. Newton shook his head sadly as he got up and dusted off his pants. “I’m sure,” he said.

  Mr. Newton addressed the students. “Okay,” he said. “Enough monkey business for today. We need to give up the search. If we don’t hurry, we’ll never see all the new zoo babies before the spring break tour ends.”

  The tour group began to follow Mr. Newton on the path toward the next animal pen, where the baby gorillas lived.

  Blake was disappointed. He walked up next to the Aldens and turned to Henry. “Isn’t there anything more you can do?” Blake still looked very, very tired.

  Henry said, “I’m not sure. Maybe we can come up with an idea.”

  “Annika’s still a suspect, right?” Blake said hopefully.

  “She’s still on the list, but there really isn’t any evidence that points to her,” Henry told him.

  “But she wants to win the contest,” Blake said. “And if she wins, she’ll get to be on the school newspaper staff. Aren’t those reasons enough?”

  “I suppose those are good reasons to keep her on the list. We’ll talk to her now,” Jessie said, taking out her notebook and looking at Annika’s name. “And we’ll let you know what we find.” She put an X though Simio’s name on the suspect list.

  Blake nodded and hurried ahead to the gorilla cage. When the Aldens got there, Mr. Newton was already explaining about the mama gorilla, an ape named Harriet. “Gorillas
usually only have one baby,” Mr. Newton said. He pointed at a leafy nest in the center of the cage. “But sometimes, they can have twins.” Up popped two little gorilla heads. “We named the babies Mojo and Jojo.”

  “Twins!” Griffin and Matthew did a happy dance.

  “Just like us,” Matthew said.

  “Only furrier!” Griffin replied.

  “They are so cute!” Annika tossed back her short brown hair before she snapped a picture of the twin gorillas.

  “Annika, are you sure you don’t have two cameras?” Benny asked her.

  “Oh, come on,” Annika said, turning to face him. “Is Blake still trying to convince you I stole his?” She waved her camera near Benny’s face. “This is my camera! My camera!”

  “Okay, Annika,” Henry said. “Since Blake’s is still missing, we needed to check with you.”

  “Please tell Blake to stop accusing me of taking his,” Annika said much more softly. Then she walked away.

  “Well, this is a first,” Jessie said as she slowly put her notebook in her back pocket.

  “A first what?” Benny asked.

  “The first time we have crossed off all our suspects and run out of clues before we solved a mystery,” Jessie said.

  “We can still solve it,” Henry told her.

  “How?” Violet asked. “Tonight is the pizza party. The zoo tour is almost over!”

  “I honestly don’t know what we will do,” Henry said. “But we can’t give up yet.”

  Chapter 8

  Pizza Party

  By the start of the pizza party, the Aldens hadn’t solved the mystery. Blake’s camera was still missing.

  Jessie opened the door to the Greenfield Zoo Education Center’s red barn. The place was decorated with balloons and streamers.

  “I smell pepperoni,” Benny said. “And veggie pizza. And . . .” He sniffed the air. “. . . a couple of plain cheese pies, too.” Benny rubbed his belly and smiled.

  “You have an amazing nose,” Violet said, pointing to a table along a side wall. On top of it were the three types of pizzas Benny’s nose had predicted.

  “Pizza makes every party perfect,” Benny told Jessie.