BACK NECKLACR 8' Detective and the case of the stolen necklace As Michaela was walking to school one morning, a police car screeched to a stop at the curb. Michaela recognized the policeman immediately. "Let me guess," Michaela smiled, "Lucifer Snidely hired someone to steal the necklace again." "We're not sure it was Snidely this time." replied the policeman. "What do you mean?" asked Michaela. "Where is your magnifying glass?" asked the policeman. "My magnifying glass?" asked Michaela as she took off her backpack, "It's right here in my backpack. What do you need it for." "I'd just like to see it." replied the policeman. "Sure." said Michaela as she unzipped the pocket of her backpack and slid her hand inside. Her face wrinkled as she pulled her hand out, "That's odd!" "What do you mean?" asked the policeman. "I usually keep my magnifying glass in this pocket." said Michaela, "But it's not there." As Michaela unzipped another pocket, saying, "I wonder what I did with it." the policeman pulled a plastic bag out of his pocket and dangled it in front of Michaela's face. "Is this your magnifying glass?" he asked. Inside the plastic bag, Michaela could see what looked like her magnifying glass. "Is that mine?" she asked. "Yes." replied the policeman. "Where did you find it?" she asked. "On the showroom floor at the museum after the robbery." he replied. "That's not possible." said Michaela as she slid her hand into another pocket of her backpack, "I just used my magnifying glass last night before I went to bed. How could it get all the way down at the museum overnight?" "Well, I can think of one way." replied the policeman, "You could have dropped it accidentally when YOU stole the necklace!" "Me?!" exclaimed Michaela, "You think I stole the necklace from the museum?!" "That's what it looks like to me!" exclaimed the policeman. Then he snapped the handcuffs onto one of Michaela's wrists, saying "Michaela, you're under arrest." As soon as he had both of her hands in handcuffs, he searched the other pockets of Michaela's backpack, finally pulling out a beautiful diamond and ruby necklace. "Well, what have we here?" he exclaimed. "I recognize that necklace!" exclaimed Michaela, "That's the necklace that was on display next to the world's most valuable necklace down at the museum! How did it get into MY backpack?!" "Well, I think it's pretty obvious. YOU stole both necklaces!" exclaimed the policeman as he turned the backpack over and shook everything out of the pockets. Books, papers, pens and pencils fell out, but not the world's most expensive necklace. "What did you do with the other necklace?!" asked the policeman. "Surely you don't think I stole that necklace, do you?" asked Michaela. "How else would a stolen necklace get into YOUR backpack?" asked the policeman as he pushed Michaela into the police car. (Can you guess how the stolen necklace got into Michaela's backpack? Can you guess how Michaela's magnifying glass ended up on the floor of the museum after a robbery? Can you guess what happened to the world's most expensive necklace?) When Michaela got to the police station, both of her parents were already behind bars. "What's going on, Michaela?" asked Michaela's Mom, "The police think your father and I helped you steal two necklaces!" The policeman explained, "Michaela is too young to drive a car. And the museum is too far for her to ride on her bike. One or both of her parents MUST have been involved. You're all staying in jail while we search your house for the other necklace." Two hours later, the policeman returned to Michaela's jail cell and unlocked the door. "I'm sorry, we made a mistake." he said, "You're free to go." Michaela's mom and dad were angry and walked right out of the police station. But Michaela stayed behind. "How did you know it wasn't us?" she asked. The policeman explained, "Both of your cars have G.P.S. units that keep track of everywhere they go. But according to the G.P.S. units, your cars never left home last night." "We checked the stolen necklace for fingerprints. But the only fingerprints we found belonged to a robber we arrested on a previous robbery by Lucifer Snidely." explained the policeman, "Listen, I know you're mad at me for arresting you, but I really need your help on this case. Except for the fingerprints, the robbers didn't leave us any clues. And we have no idea how that necklace got into your backpack." "I think I can tell you." Michaela explained, "Lucifer Snidely knew that if he didn't get me out of the way, I would solve the case and find the necklace again. So, he stole two necklaces, so he could use one of them to make it look like I was the robber." "How did he do that?" asked the policeman. "The robber took one necklace from the museum and brought it to my house, where he sneaked into my house and put it into my backpack." Michaela explained, "At the same time, he stole my magnifying glass from my backpack and brought it back down to the museum, where he dropped it on the floor next to the display case, so it would look like I had been there." "Will you please help us find the other necklace?" begged the policeman. "Let me see the necklace you took from my backpack." replied Michaela. "Why?" asked the policeman, "We've already examined the necklace for fingerprints. We already know who the robber is." "But you don't know WHERE he is." Michaela explained as she inspected the necklace with her magnifying glass, "Robbers always leave clues behind telling you WHERE they've been. We just have to look carefully. Aha!" "Find something?!" asked the policeman. "Yes," replied Michaela as she scraped something off of the necklace onto a piece of paper, "Just as I thought. The robber carried the necklace to my house in his pocket. So, whatever was in his pocket rubbed off into the crevices between the diamonds in the necklace." "What is it?" he asked. "It looks like a couple of grains of pollen." she replied, "Can I borrow a microscope?" After Michaela examined the pollen grains under a microscope, she compared them to pictures in the books. "This pollen is from the flower of a plant that only grows in the mountains." explained Michaela. The policeman looked up the land records in the mountains for houses owned by Lucifer Snidely. Sure enough, he found a mountain cabin owned by Snidely near the ski resort. They took the police helicopter to the mountain resort and searched the cabin for a hidden vault. Sure enough, under the kitchen sink, they found what looked like a water filter, but was actually a cleverly disguised vault. "There's no lock or keypad on it." said the policeman, "How do we open it?" "Follow the wires." replied Michaela as she pointed the flashlight at some wires leading away from the water filter and through the walls. They traced the wires to a control panel near the electric meter outside. Inside the control panel was a ten-number keypad. "Now all we need is the combination." said the policeman, "Any ideas?" Michaela pointed to the door of the control panel saying, "That will tell you." Normally, the list on the door of the control panel tells the homeowner, which switches turn off which lights. But this list contained these clues: Flag stripes Flag stars Commandments of Moses Baseball team Football team Basketball team (Can you guess the combination from these clues?) Here's what Michaela assigned to each clue: Flag stripes = 13 Flag stars = 50 Commandments of Moses = 10 Baseball team = 9 Football team = 11 Basketball team = 5 (Can you guess the combination from these numbers?) Here's the combination Michaela entered into the keypad: 1,3,5,0,1,0,9,1,1,5 Michaela heard a click, a buzz and a hum. When she returned to the kitchen, the vault was open and there was the world's most expensive necklace. The world's greatest detective solved another crime! ©2009 Bob Snook. Conditions for use: This story is free. Pay no fees or royalties. Do not sell this story or rewrite it. You may reproduce and distribute this story freely, but all copies must contain this copyright statement. http://www.bobsnook.org/kid email: bob@bobsnook.org BACK |