“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.”
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