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NECKLAC8 4' Detective and the case of the stolen necklace

Because Lucifer Snidely had already escaped from jail several
times, when he was sent back to jail, he was sent to a special
cell in the prison where there were no windows and no outside
walls. This meant that there was no way for him to escape.

Hearing this, the old lady decided it was safe now to take her
necklace out of the bank vault. But Michaela reminded her that
this was the world's most expensive necklace and that Lucifer
Snidely was not the only man who wanted to steal it.

But the old lady really loved her necklace. She loved to look at
it. She loved to touch it. And she loved to wear it. She
insisted on taking the necklace home with her. Finally, Michaela
convinced the old lady to attach a tracking device to the
backside of the necklace. That way, if someone stole the
necklace, the police could track the necklace and get it back
for her.

Sure enough, a few days later, one of Lucifer Snidely's henchmen
sneaked into the old lady's house while she was sleeping and
stole the necklace. When she woke up and saw that the necklace
was gone, she called the police. The police activated the tiny
tracking device.

They followed the thief to his hiding place and arrested him.
But they found that the necklace was locked inside of a
state-of-the-art vault that could not be opened and the sides
and door of the vault were made of a new metal that couldn't be
drilled through. They knew that using explosives to blow off the
door of the safe would also damage the world's most expensive
necklace.

So, the smartest police computer experts tried to figure out the
combination, but none of their combinations unlocked the vault.

So, they called Michaela, the world's greatest detective to see
if she could unlock the safe. When she arrived at the hiding
place, she saw that the safe had a state-of-the-art computer
lock. Instead of number keys, there were ten push-buttons with
different colors.

Michaela examined the colored push buttons with her magnifying
glass.

"Aha!" she exclaimed.

"See something?!" asked the policeman.

"Yes," replied Michaela, "in the space between the colored push
buttons, there's some tiny scratches."

"That's funny, I never saw any scratches." said the policeman,
"Maybe the people who made the vault scratched the metal
accidentally when they were making it."

Michaela shined her pocket flashlight on the scratches and
focused her magnifying glass again.

"These scratches are no accident." She replied, "These are
letters."

"Letters?!" asked the policeman, "You mean like words?"

"It doesn't look like any word I know." replied Michaela, "This
word has about sixty letters in it. I don't know any word that
long."

Michaela copied down the tiny letters onto her notebook:

rosaamarillorojoverdenegroazulpurpurablancamarronnaranja

The policeman looked at the letters and shrugged his shoulders,
"It doesn't look like any word I've ever seen."

Michaela replied, "Maybe these are several words crammed
together."

The policeman replied, "I can't see any words that I recognize.
Maybe its a code."

Michaela thought for a moment, then suggested, "Maybe it's some
other language."

The policeman asked, "What language looks like this?"

Michaela examined the letters, then pointed at the first four
letters.

"Spanish!" she exclaimed.

Then she divided the letters into ten spanish words:


rosa 
amarillo 
rojo 
verde 
negro 
azul 
purpura 
blanca
marron
naranja


"What do those words mean?" asked the policeman.

"These are the spanish words for colors." replied Michaela.

Then Michaela translated the Spanish colors into English:


rosa=pink 
amarillo=yellow 
rojo=red 
verde=green 
negro=black
azul=blue 
purpura=purple 
blanca=white 
marron=brown
naranja=orange


Michaela pressed the colored push-buttons on the vault door in
the order they appeared.

CLICK, BUZZ.

The vault door opened automatically and there was the world's
most expensive necklace. The necklace was returned to the old
lady and, thanks to the world's greatest detective, they all
lived happily ever after.

©2008 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.fea.net/bobsnook/kid  email: bobsnook@fea.net

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