BACK NECKLACW 4' Detective and the case of the stolen necklace The necklace was stolen again. Yet another perfect crime! No clues at the museum! But this time, Lucifer Snidely had no visitors at the prison. It looked like Lucifer Snidely would at last be able to get away with the world's most expensive necklace. So, the policeman asked the prison guards to search Lucifer Snidely's prison cell. But the only thing they found there that they didn't find last time they searched it was a receipt from a dry cleaner. "It looks like Lucifer Snidely got away with robbery." said the policeman. "Wait a minute." replied Michaela, "Why would someone in prison have a receipt from a dry cleaner? Prisoners don't wear anything that needs dry cleaning." "By golly, I think your right." said the policeman, "Why would he have a dry cleaning receipt?" Michaela explained, "I think the robbers hid the necklace somewhere in the dry cleaning store. Then they got the receipt to Lucifer Snidely in prison to show him where they hid it." "But how did they get the receipt to him?" asked the policeman, "We check the records in the visitors center. Lucifer Snidely had no visitors after the robbery." "No," replied Michaela, "But other prisoners had visitors. Maybe the robbers visited another prisoner who gave the receipt to Lucifer Snidely." "By golly I think you're right!" exclaimed the policeman. The dry cleaning receipt had the address of the dry cleaning store. So, they headed for the store. On the way, they asked the policemen at headquarters to check to see if Lucifer Snidely owns that store. Sure enough, he does. The police thoroughly checked the walls and floor of the dry cleaner for safes and vaults, but found none. So Michaela strolled around looking for a vault that didn't look like a vault. "There!" exclaimed Michaela pointing at a washing machine. The machine had a ten-key pad like a telephone, but instead of numbers on the keys, there were pictures: a man's shoe a horse shoe a loaf of bread a men's suit a candle a vase a wagon a rug a bag of flour a house "Now how do we know what keys to press?" asked the policeman. The policemen search the dry cleaner for clues but found none. Finally, Michaela, opened the phone book near the wall phone and paged through it. She noticed that some of the names in the phone book had circles around them: Leonard Taylor William Chandler Steven Cobbler Robert Potter Alan Baker Charles Wagoner Fred Weaver Donald Miller David Carpenter Paul Smith "I don't get it." admitted the policeman, "None of these names tell us anything about the pictures on the keys." (can you guess from these clues which keys to press on the washing machine to open the hidden vault?) Michaela wrote down the names, then studied them for a few minutes. Then she exclaimed, "Aha!" "Find something?!" asked the policeman. "Yes," explained Michaela, "Some peoples last names came from the things their ancestors used to make for a living." "I still don't see it." admitted the policeman. (can you guess from this clue which keys to press on the washing machine to open the hidden vault?) Michaela pointed to the name ALAN BAKER, then she pointed to the key with the picture of a loaf of bread and explained, "For instance, the last name Baker comes from the old days when some people made their living by baking bread." (can you guess from this clue which keys to press on the washing machine to open the hidden vault?) "Yes!" exclaimed the policeman pointing at the name DAVID CARPENTER and the key with the picture of a house, "A carpenter builds houses!" So, Michaela pushed the buttons on the washing machine in this order: Leonard Taylor ==> a men's suit William Chandler==> a candle Steven Cobbler ==> a man's shoe Robert Potter ==> a vase Alan Baker ==> a loaf of bread Charles Wagoner ==> a wagon Fred Weaver ==> a rug Donald Miller ==> a bag of flour David Carpenter ==> a house Paul Smith ==> a horse shoe There was a click, a buzz and a hum. Then, a small panel on the back of the washer swung open. The policemen pulled the washer away from the wall and looked into the hidden vault. There inside was the world's most expensive necklace! Michaela, the world's greatest detective, solved yet another mystery. ©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 |