Scam on the Cam Read Online Free PDF Page A

anyway?” I asked. “Have there been thefts around the area recently?”
    â€œOh yes,” said the pirate lady. “Lots of burglaries in the barges. Some of my old jewelry was stolen, and Marcel’s watch, and even some electronic equipment. And it’s happened to many other people in barges along this corner of the river.”
    â€œHave you told the police?” said Gemma.
    â€œOf course,” smiled the woman. “But they’re not too concerned with what happens to people like us, it seems.”
    â€œDo you know anything about pirate chests?” I asked.
    â€œPirate chests?” repeated Marcel, and he burst out laughing. “We might look like pirates,but we’re not,
ma petite fille
.”
    That was extremely disappointing, but also meant we weren’t in immediate danger of being made to walk the plank.
    â€œOkay,” I said, “it was really nice to meet you. Thanks for everything. I hope you catch your zieves. And now we need to run, or else our teacher will skin us alive with a nail file.”
    â€œWow,” said Gemma as we walked back to our rowboat. “That was close. Where did you put the key?”
    â€œI had to throw it into the river.”
    â€œWhat? Are you mad?”
    â€œWell, what else was I supposed to do with it? Swallow it? I wouldn’t have looked forward to getting it back at the other end.”
    â€œBut now we don’t have it anymore!”
    â€œWell observed. But it can’t be helped, I’m afraid.”
    Glumly, Gemma started fiddling with her ears, which is what she does when she’s being all pensive and intellectual. Suddenly, in the manner of an opera diva, she screamed,“Heavens! My earrings!”
    â€œWhat about them?”
    â€œMy pearl earrings!”
    â€œYes, I know what they’re made of. Everyone in the world knows.”
    â€œThey’re gone!”
    I looked at her ears, and indeed there were no pearls bulging from them to indicate that she was a respectable young girl.
    â€œAre you sure you were wearing them today?” I asked. “Thinking about it, I don’t remember seeing them this morning.”
    â€œI always wear them,” she said. “I never take them off.”
    â€œSeriously, Gemz, this morning I thought,
There’s something different about Gemma Sarland today. She’s the same, and yet different. She’s herself, and yet strangely Other
. It was the earrings, I’m sure. You must have left them at home.”
    She shook her head but looked unsure.
    â€œI’ll check tonight,” she said, “but I doubt it. I think I lost them at the boathouse.”
    â€œMaybe they fell off when the pirate captured us.”
    â€œHe wasn’t a pirate, he was a French barge owner. He’s a person just like us, and his life choice is just as good as all other life choices. You’ve got to stop calling him a pirate; it’s highly insulting.”
    Having thus proven that losing her pearl earrings hadn’t deprived her of random bouts of weirdness, she got back into the boat and we haphazardly rowed back to the Laurels’ boathouse.
    Toby was standing outside pretending to look innocent, which we immediately guessed meant he had hidden a frog inside his hoodie pocket.

    â€œHave you hidden a frog inside your hoodie pocket, Toby?” I asked as we brushed past him carrying the boat on our shoulders.
    â€œYes,” he said. “So, how did your mission go? I kept Halitosis very busy, just like you asked. I almost capsized us three times, and one of those on purpose. Lily was furious. As for Halitosis, he’s currently trying to calm himself down.”
    He pointed at Halitosis, who was lying under a nearby tree and breathing into a paper bag. We all spared a minute to pray that the paper from the bag wouldn’t ever end up recycled into any kind of food wrapping.
    â€œThe mission went quite badly,” I