BACK ROBBERS 9' Detectives solves five robberies worldwide The phone rang while Michaela was sleeping but she went back to sleep as soon as the phone stopped ringing. "Michaela wake up. Michaela?" Her mother said softly as she rubbed her shoulder, "You have an important phone call." "Hello." said Michaela hoarsely into the phone. "Michaela? Is this the world's greatest detective?" asked a man with a foreign accent. "Yes. Who's this?" she asked. "My name is inspector Chao with the Bangkok police department." he replied. Michaela thought she might be still dreaming. "Bangkok? Bangkok Thailand?" she asked. "Yes." he replied. "But that's on the other side of the world!" she said. "I... I'm sorry if I woke you. It's mid-afternoon here." he said. "How can I help you?" she asked. He replied, "Some robbers broke into Asia's largest jewelry company and stole all the sapphires, emeralds and rubies. It looks like they stole almost a billion dollars worth. They tell me that you solved similar robberies in the United States. Can you help us?" "I don't know. You're on the other side of the world. I would miss a lot of school." she replied. "This is really important. A billion dollars is a lot of money. I tell you what," he said, "I've already emailed you the photos of the crime scene. Maybe that will get you started." "Okay," she replied, "I'll see what I can do." Michaela hung up the phone and went to her computer and looked at the pictures. They showed a huge hole drilled through the concrete wall of the basement of the building and a huge hole drilled through the side of the vault. She immediately picked up the phone and called the local police department. "Inspector Bracken." he answered. "Hi, this is Michaela. I..." "Michaela! I was just going to call you! Did you hear about the robbery?" he asked. "Why, yes. But... why would the Bangkok police call you?" she asked. "Bangkok police?" he asked. What do the Bangkok police have to do with this robbery?" Michaela thought for a moment, then said, "The Bangkok police just asked me to help them with a robbery of sapphires, emerald and rubies. Are you saying there's been a robbery here too?" "Yes." he replied, "They used a tunnel boring machine to drill through the basement of the federal reserve bank and the main vault. They got away with over a billion dollars worth of gold bars and cash." Michaela explained, "Both of these robberies sound like the work of Lucifer Snidely." "That's what I thought too." replied the policeman, "But I just checked. He's still in prison." Michaela thought for a moment, then said, "I don't know how he did it, but Lucifer Snidely planned both of these robberies. Do you have any idea where they took the loot?" "Not a clue." he replied, "That's why I was hoping YOU could tell us where they went." "I'll be right there." she said. Michaela went downtown to the Federal Reserve Bank and inspected the crime scene carefully. "This is definitely the work of Lucifer Snidely," she explained, "The machines and computers needed to break in and get away cost millions of dollars. Lucifer Snidely is one of the richest men in the world. No other thief could afford to buy everything they needed to pull it off." That day, three other police departments from around the world reported big, big robberies. In the Antwerp Belgium robbery a billion dollars worth of diamonds were stolen after the world's largest helicopter tore the roof off the building and lifted the entire vault completely out of the building and hauled it away. On wall street in New York, someone tunnelled from the underground railroad tunnel into the Stock Exchange and stole a billion dollars worth of bearer bonds. In London England, someone tunnelled into the tower of London from the Thames River and stole all of the crown jewels, again worth over a billion dollars. Again, the thieves used the world's largest helicopter to pull the entire vault out of the side of the building. "In all cases," explained Inspector Bracken, "there was a private jet plane waiting at a nearby air strip to fly the loot out of the country. But all of the robbers wore masks and noone knows who they are or where they went. Any ideas?" While she was talking to the policeman on the phone, she was looking at pictures of all the crime scenes. "The robbers left behind about twenty million dollars worth of boring machines and tools and two helicopters." she explained, "Don't you think someone would have receipts or records of all those purchases?" Sure enough, when the policeman checked the bank records of Lucifer Snidely, he found about twenty million dollars in cash payments to equipment companies, all of them in Lucifer Snidely's home town. Michaela exclaimed, "He didn't do the robberies, but he was definitely involved!" The police had the people from the equipment companies help police artists make drawings of the men who purchased the tools and equipment. After a few days they tracked down these men and arrested them. But none of the men had any of the loot. And they weren't talking. When they were arrested, the men had to empty their pockets and put what they had into plastic bags. Michaela asked, "May I see what was in their pockets?" The policeman replied, "Why bother? All they had was wallets and keys and loose change." Michaela explained, "It's worth a try." Sure enough, Michaela found five clues in all five plastic bags: they all had the same key ring, key chain and key fob. But when Michaela examined each of the key fobs she noticed that they were all slightly different. The fobs were all made of solid steel square bars. They all had a hole drilled near one end. And the hole was shaped to a hexagon, like a wooden pencil. But all of the fobs were a different length. They were all between a half inch and one inch long. "What do you think they're for?" asked the policeman. I don't know." replied Michaela. "But it looks like all of these could fit on the same hexagon-shaped rod. I'll bet Lucifer Snidely has the rod that fits into all of these key fobs. You should have some policeman watch the prison and follow him when he escapes." "Will do!" said the policemen. "But don't arrest him until he leads you to where he's hiding the loot!" warned Michaela. Sure enough, late that night, Lucifer Snidely escaped from prison. Michaela and the police followed him to an abandoned bank building. As soon as he went inside the building, the police moved in and arrested him. "Search him and see if he's carrying the steel rod." said Michaela. Lucifer Snidely sneered, "You little brat! How did you know about the steel rod?! And what did you do with my men?!" The policeman answered, "All five of your henchmen are in jail." Sure enough, when they searched Snidely's pockets, they found an Allan wrench, a hexagonal-shaped steel rod with one end bent as a handle. Michaela took the wrench and slipped one of the key fobs onto the end. "See?! It fits!" exclaimed Michaela. So, she slipped all the other key fobs onto the end of the Allan wrench and held it up for all to see. "It makes a key for a lock!" she exclaimed, "I'll bet it opens the lock on this bank vault." "Well, try it!" exclaimed the policeman. "It's not that easy," replied Michaela, "These fobs have to be arranged in the right order for it to fit this lock." The policeman turned to Lucifer Snidely and demanded, "Tell us how the key fobs are arranged!" "Never!" replied Snidely, "Figure it out yourself!" "Then take him to jail!" demanded the policeman. And off he went to jail, leaving Michaela to figure out the order of the fobs on the key. She examined the key and pondered for a while. The policeman suggested, "Maybe the fobs go on in the order the robberies took place." "No." replied Michaela. "Two of the robberies happened at exactly the same time." "Then, maybe they're alphabetical by the names of the countries?" he asked. Michaela reviewed the countries: Thialand USA England Belgium USA "No," replied Michaela, "There are two in the USA." "Then, how about alphabetical by the names of the cities?" he asked. Michaela reviewed the cities. Bangkok Antwerp London New York Los Angeles "No," replied Michaela, "There are two cities beginning with 'L'. How about the last names of the robbers?" Sure enough, the robber's last names were all different. Michaela arranged the key fobs in order of their last names and inserted the key into the lock of the bank vault. It opened! And about five billion dollars worth of jewels, gold and other valuables were returned to their proper owners, thanks to Michaela, the world's greatest detective. ©2007 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 |