BACK NECKLAC9 7' Detective and the case of the stolen necklace Lucifer Snidely and all of his henchmen were locked up securely in jail. 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 anyone could steal it. But the old lady insisted that the necklace was now safe because of the tiny tracking device that was glued to the back side of it. That night, she fell asleep wearing the necklace. But when she woke up the next morning, the necklace was gone! She call the police and they activated the tracking device, but they discovered that the tracking device had been torn off the necklace and thrown into a garbage can near a bus stop. "Michaela, you have to help me!" exclaimed the old lady. "The police can't find my necklace! There's no trace of it anywhere!" Michaela brought her magnifying glass and microscope to the old ladies house and examined her bedroom. "Aha!" exclaimed Michaela. "Find something?" asked the old lady. "Yes," replied Michaela, "A couple of brown hairs... here on the window sill." Michaela put the hairs under the microscope and compared them with pictures from a book. "These are cat hairs. Do you own a cat?" asked Michaela. "No. Of course not. I'm allergic to cats. Cat hair makes me itch." replied the old lady. "How did cat hairs get on my window sill?" "I think the burglar got into your house through this window." replied Michaela, "I think the burglar wrapped his feet in cat fur and that's how he got into your house without you hearing his foot steps. The person who stole your necklace is what's known as a cat burglar." Michaela examined the floor between the window and the bed. "Aha!" exclaimed Michaela. "Find something?" asked the old lady. "Yes," replied Michaela, "More cat hairs. And nearly all of these cat hairs have small pieces of other hair attached to them. More than one color." As she examined the hairs in the microscope, the old lady asked, "What kind of animal?" Michaela looked in the book and compared the pictures with the small pieces of hair. "All of these pieces are human hairs. But there's something else on these cat hairs too... Aha!" "Something else?" asked the old lady. Michaela examined the picture books, then replied, "These tiny particles look like Pollen. It looks like pollen from a tree.... Yes, according to the book, this pollen comes from the purple blossom of a jacaranda tree." "What does that mean?" asked the old lady. Michaela replied as she looked into the microscope, "These pieces of human hair are cut sharply on both ends. I think your cat burglar lives or works near a barber shop or a beauty salon. And, since you don't have any jacaranda trees in your yard, I think there must be a jacaranda tree blossoming outside of the barbershop or beauty salon where the cat burglar lives or works." Michaela called the city's street maintenance department and asked, "Are there any jacaranda trees planted along any of the streets in the city?" "Yes," replied the manager, "But they're only along third street." Michaela picked up the phone book and looked for beauty salons or barber shops on third street. There was only one, a beauty salon. Michaela had Papa drive her to the beauty salon. There, right in front of the salon, was a large jacaranda tree with huge purple blossoms in full bloom. Michaela pointed, "The cat burglar either works in the salon there or lives in the apartment upstairs over the salon. Papa drove around the block and into the alley behind the salon. They got out of the car and went over to the stairway leading to the upstairs apartment. Michaela examined the stairway with her magnifying glass. "Aha!" exclaimed Michaela. "Find something?" asked Papa. "Yes," replied Michaela, "More cat hairs. Same color." While the police searched the apartment for the stolen necklace, Michaela went around to the beauty salon and asked, "Who lives upstairs?" One of the workers replied, "The owner of this salon lives up there. But she's not home. She's at the other store." "The OTHER store?" asked Michaela. "The toy store." she replied as she pointed, "Next door." As Michaela was coming out the door, the policeman reported, "We didn't find the necklace upstairs. Any ideas?" Michaela pointed and replied, "The lady who lives upstairs also owns this beauty salon." While the police search the beauty salon, Michaela went next door to visit the toys store. The store had only one kind of toys, stuffed animals. There were teddy bears and panda bears, kangaroos, snakes, alligators, horses, zebras... every kind of animal you could think of. "May I help you, little girl?" asked the lady behind the counter. Michaela asked, "Are you the owner of the beauty salon?" "Yes." replied the lady, "Why do you want to know?" But before Michaela could answer, the policeman came in the door and reported, "Not there either. Any other ideas?" "Yes," replied Michaela, "This is the lady who owns the apartment upstairs and the beauty salon next door. She also owns this toy store." The policeman replied, "Then, we'll search this store too!" "Search my store?!" exclaimed the lady behind the counter, "What's going on here?!" The policeman replied, "Someone stole the world's most valuable necklace last night. We traced the suspect to this building." "How?!" exclaimed the woman. "Nevermind that!" replied the policeman, "We're going to search this store." "That won't be necessary," replied Michaela. "Why not?" asked the policeman. Michaela pointed and replied, "I'd like to buy that stuffed cat up there on the top shelf." The policeman was impatient. He replied, "We're after a cat burglar! Can't you buy a toy some other time?" Michaela ignored him and pointed again, "I'd like to buy that stuffed cat up there on the top shelf." "You can't!" exclaimed the woman, "It's not for sale!" By now the policeman understood what Michaela was up to. He asked as he reached for the stuffed cat, "This is a toy store and the little girl wants to buy that toy. Why won't you sell it to her? Is it because you're hiding the world's most valuable necklace inside this stuffed cat?" With that he turned the cat over, unzipped its belly and pulled out the world's most valuable necklace. "Of all these animals, how did you know that she chose this one to hide the necklace in?" asked the policeman. "Because," replied Michaela, the world's greatest detective, "She's a cat burglar. She was wearing cat fur on her feet. I just chose the stuffed cat that had the same color fur as the cat hairs I found at the crime scene." Yet another crime was solved by Michaela, the world's greatest detective. ©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 BACK |