Madhattan Mystery Read Online Free PDF Page B

her up long into the night—that and images of creepy jewel thieves and flashing patrol cars. If only the police would hurry up and solve that crime, it would be one less annoying thing to deal with.
    Why Aunt Roz woke everyone up at seven thirty a.m. to get to a ten o’clock orientation was yet another unsolved crime. They had arrived way too early, and Lexi and Kevin were sitting on hard folding chairs next to Aunt Roz, doing nothing but stifling yawns and sizing up the other campers trickling into the gymnasium.
    â€œI’ll wait just a few more minutes till everyone gets here before I begin,” Mr. Glick, the jittery head counselor,finally announced into an old-fashioned microphone. He wore a toothy smile and plaid shorts with droopy black socks, putting the
eek
in geek. “In the meantime, folks, let’s keep it down to a dull roar, shall we?”
    The YMCA, which happened to be only a few blocks away from Grand Central—way too close to where Lexi had encountered the thieves for her comfort—was filling up with kids and parents of every age, shape, size, and ethnicity. In the middle of counting Hello Kitty backpacks, Lexi happened to spot a TV mounted on the wall of an adjacent office with the door half open. She couldn’t hear the sound, but a close-up of a gaudy green necklace flashed on the screen.
Home Shopping Network?
Then a chunky gold arm cuff—a jewel-encrusted, ancient Egyptian-looking arm cuff? It wasn’t HSN, it was CNN.
Cleopatra’s jewels? They found them?
Her heart did a backflip.
Wait. Maybe not
. “Photos courtesy of Cairo Museum” was in teeny print. Now the gray-haired anchorman was onscreen yapping silently. Lexi strained to read the tiny text in the crawler at the bottom of the screen.
    WHILE TALKS RESUME ON CAPITOL HILL …
CNN
… NYPD SLOW IN GATHERING CLUES RE: CLEOPATRA JEWEL HEIST. THIEVES STILL AT LARGE AND POSSIBLY ARMED AND DANGEROUS …
    Don’t freak out! Just put it out of your mind. Think calm camp thoughts. Woodpeckers, canoes, mosquito bites …
    â€œOkay, people, listen up!” Mr. Glick clapped his hands.“I need seven-to eleven-year-olds to form a line at the table to my right.” He pointed to a foldout table with neat stacks of papers on it manned by a pimply-faced beanpole of a girl. “And twelve- to sixteen-year-olds at my table, please.”
    â€œWhy are they putting us in different lines?” Kevin asked as they all stood up, gathering their things. “Nobody said we’d have to be in different lines.”
    â€œIt’s probably just for registration,” Lexi told him, her eyes still glued to the TV.
    â€œWell, I’d better scoot if I’m going to make it to my callback on time,” Aunt Roz said over the sound of swelling chatter. “Or—oh, Alexandra, maybe I’d better not go. I really shouldn’t leave you kids alone.”
    â€œWe’ll be fine, Aunt Roz.”
    â€œAre you sure? How do I look?” She sprang up and did a little turn, showing off her flowery dress.
    â€œNot a day over twenty-nine.”
    â€œWell, that’s not right. I’m up for the role of the mother in the musical version of
The Glass Menagerie
. I was going for over-the-hill and dowdy.”
    Lexi was about to backpedal when someone goosed her from behind. “
Ow!
”
    â€œYou could never pull off dowdy, Ms. McGill.”
    â€œKim Ling!” Lexi’s jaw actually dropped. “What’re you doing here?”
    â€œStalking you,” she said with a deadpan stare.“Orientation, whaddya think? Now close your mouth—you’re attracting flies.”
    â€œHey,” Kevin said to Kim Ling, “you never told us you were going to City Camp.”
    â€œYou never asked.”
    â€œShe’s the one who told me about it in the first place,” Aunt Roz said. “I happened to mention it to your dad and the next thing I