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NECKLACF 6' Detective and the case of the stolen necklace

Michaela was sitting in her classroom one day when a man in a
police uniform walked in the door. She knew why he was there, so
she packed up her books and things into her backpack.

Her teacher said, "Michaela, you need to go with this
policeman."

"I know." replied Michaela as she hurried out the door with the
policeman.

When they got into the police car, Michaela said to the
policeman, "Don't tell me. Let me guess. Lucifer Snidely hired
someone to steal the world's most expensive necklace again."

The policeman replied, "Yes, but Lucifer Snidely is getting
smarter and smarter every time he plans a new robbery. We caught
the robbers a block away from the museum, but they didn't have
the necklace with them. So, we looked at the video tape from the
television cameras inside the museum and it showed that the
robbers had the necklace with them when they left the building."

Michaela asked, "Did you check the storm drains?"

"Yes." replied the policeman, "That's the first thing we
checked. But, there wasn't a trace of the necklace or any sign
that Snidely's henchmen were ever down there."

When they got to the museum, the policeman showed Michaela the
television picture of the robbers leaving the building.

"They left by the back door into the alley?" Michaela said.

"Yes," replied the policeman, "and I know what you're thinking.
There are trash dumpsters behind the building. But we looked in
the dumpsters. We checked every inch of that alley for a hiding
place. Nothing!"

Michaela went out the back door and looked around asking, "Which
way did they go from here?"

The policeman pointed and replied, "That way. At the end of the
alley is a sidewalk. Then they turned right. We caught them
getting into their car around the corner."

Michaela walked down the alley slowly examining everything
carefully. Every place she pointed to as a hiding place had been
searched by the police. When she reached the sidewalk, she
turned the corner following the route of the robbers. But again,
every possible hiding place for the necklace had been searched
by the police.

Just past the corner, the policeman pointed to the curb and
said, "This is where we captured the robbers as they were
getting into their car. We searched their car but there was no
trace of the necklace."

Michaela slowly turned a complete circle looking in all
directions, then pointed and asked, "Did you search those
newspaper dispensers?"

"Well, no," replied the policeman. "In order to hide the
necklace there, the robbers would have had to run past the car
and come back."

Michaela said, "That's where Lucifer Snidely would hide it."

So, the policeman opened all three newspaper dispensers and
emptied out all of the newspapers and searched them thoroughly,
but found nothing.

"Another dead end!" he exclaimed.

Michaela pointed to the dispenser closest to the corner and
said, "It's in this one."

The policeman exclaimed, "But I just searched all of them!"

Michaela explained, "This is the one alright. It's brand new.
Lucifer Snidely had it built to look just like the others. The
robbers installed it here before the robbery. There's a hiding
place in here somewhere."

With that she knelt down and looked at the underside of the
dispenser and pointed, "There it is!"

Sure enough, there was a hidden vault built into the underside
of the dispenser. The vault was identical to the one found in
the men's restroom after the last robbery. But this vault had
different words on the push buttons:

pepper

cats

lightning

ketchup

sugar

pans

exit

dad

moon

feet


Michaela copied the words onto a piece of paper, then showed
them to the policeman.

"Here we go again!" he exclaimed, "Without knowing the sequence,
we can't open the vault!"

Michaela examined the dispenser for clues, but the dispenser
looked exactly like the one next to it.

The policeman suggested, "Maybe the clues are on the newspapers
that were inside."

With that he began to examine the pile of newspapers from that
dispenser.

Michaela replied, "I don't think so. What if someone bought all
the newspapers in the dispenser. Lucifer Snidely would never
risk loosing the clues that open the vault."

So, Michaela stepped over to the dispenser on the far end and
examined it.

"Here it is!" she exclaimed.

As Michaela copied down the words, the policeman looked over her
shoulder and exclaimed, "Well, I'll be! That was really clever!
The robbers covered the instructions with a plastic sticker with
ten extra words on the bottom. Nobody would have ever noticed!"

Here are the extra words on the sticker:

mustard

cream

salt

dogs

thunder

mom

sun

hands

pots

entrance


(can you tell the sequence from these words?)

"Wait a minute!" exclaimed the policeman, "These words don't
tell us anything. They're not the opposites of the words on the
vault push buttons. So, what good are they?!"

Michaela studied the words for a minute or two, then, exclaimed,
"These words are go-togethers!"

"What does that mean?!" asked the policeman.

"For instance," explained Michaela as she pointed to the word,
"Whenever you say MUSTARD you always say MUSTARD AND...?"

The policeman thought for a moment, then exclaimed, "Ketchup!"

(can you tell the sequence from this clue?)

So, Michaela reached under the dispenser and pushed the KETCHUP
button first. Then she pushed the other buttons in the sequence
they appeared on the list from the other dispenser:

cream and... sugar

salt and... pepper

dogs and... cats

thunder and... lightning

mom and... dad

sun and... moon

hands and... feet

pots and... pans

entrance and... exit


As soon as Michaela pushed the final button, the vault door fell
open and the world's most expensive necklace fell into her
hands. Michaela, the world's greatest detective solved another
crime!

©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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