BACK NECKLACJ 7' Detective and the case of the stolen necklace Michaela had just finished her homework and sat down to watch her favorite TV game show when BOOM! The window rattled and the floor of the house shook. "What was that?!" exclaimed Michaela's mom. "Sounds like an explosion somewhere." replied Michaela. Five minutes later, a television news announcer broke into the game show and announced that there was an explosion at the First National Bank downtown. Michaela immediately stood up and went over to the telephone table and put her hand on the telephone. "What are you doing?" asked her mom. Michaela replied, "The First National Bank is right across the street from the museum. I think Lucifer Snidely hired someone to steal the necklace again." Before the words were out of her mouth, the phone rang. Michaela picked it up before the first ring finished. Michaela spoke into the phone, "The bomb was in the museum, wasn't it?" "How did you know it was me calling?" asked the policeman. "The bank is right across the street from the museum." replied Michaela, "I'll bet that the bomb blew out some windows in the bank, so everyone thought the bomb was in the bank." "You're right." said the policeman, "As usual, you're right about everything. The robbers blew a hole in the roof of the museum and lifted the entire necklace display right through the hole in the roof with a big helicopter. Can you help us with this case?" "Sure." replied Michaela, "Call me when you find the helicopter." "But, don't you want to go with me to the museum?" he asked. "No." replied Michaela, "The explosion probably destroyed any evidence left behind by the robbers. Your best bet is to find the helicopter. There can't be more than just a handful of helicopters that big in the city. And there's probably only one that was stolen for the robbery." Sure enough, the next day the policeman picked up Michaela from school and took her to the airport to inspect the hangar where a large helicopter had been stolen last night. The owner of the helicopter pointed to the spot where the helicopter was last parked. Michaela inspected the area carefully with her magnifying glass. "Aha!" she exclaimed. "Did you find something?!" asked the policeman. "Yes." replied Michaela, "It's a piece of tree bark or something that fell off of the robber's shoe. It's brown and hard. I'll look it up in my picture books." A few minutes later, she exclaimed, "Found it!" "What is it?!" asked the policeman. "According to the book," explained Michaela, "This is a piece of a seed from inside of a pine cone. And the pine tree this pine cone is from only grows high in the mountains." "Well, that's not very helpful." replied the policeman, "There's thousands of square miles of pine forests in the mountains near here. We could be searching the mountains for weeks before we find the helicopter." "I can save you a little time." explained Michaela. "How?" he asked. Michaela explained, "This robbery was obviously planned by Lucifer Snidely. Have your investigators look in the land deeds for mountain land owned by Lucifer Snidely." Sure enough, a few minutes later, the investigators at head quarters found a deed for a mountain cabin owned by Lucifer Snidely. Michaela and the policeman flew to the cabin in the police helicopter. When they approached the cabin, they saw the stolen helicopter on the lawn next to the cabin. But the helicopter and the cabin had been abandoned. "We're too late!" exclaimed the policeman, "The robbers and the necklace are gone!" "Don't be so sure!" replied Michaela, "The robbers may have left the necklace here somewhere for Lucifer Snidely." While the policemen searched the cabin, Michaela searched the helicopter. "Found it!" exclaimed Michaela. When the policeman ran out to the helicopter, he just shrugged his shoulders, "I don't see anything!" he exclaimed. "As usual, Lucifer Snidely disguised the vault." explained Michaela as she pointed to one of the dozens of instruments on the instrument panel of the helicopter. "I still don't see it." replied the policeman. "The label on it says it's a radio." explained Michaela, "but it's a vault." "How do you know it's a vault?" asked the policeman. "Well, I know it's not a radio, because all radios have a volume control to control the loudness." explained Michaela. "Oh!" exclaimed the policeman, "That's really clever! It looks just like all the other instruments on the panel! But it's got ten numbered push buttons on it like all the other vaults we've seen. So, now all we have to do is find the sticker with the number sequence." They looked and looked and looked for a sticker or a slip of paper or even for some scratches that looked like numbers. Nothing. "Maybe we're not looking for a list of numbers." said Michaela, "Maybe we're looking for a list of words that tell us the numbers." So, she looked through some thick books that she found under the pilot's seat. "Here it is!" exclaimed Michaela. The policeman looked over her shoulder and replied, "That's a list of words, but it's just a page in the pilot's manual." "Look at the color of the paper." said Michaela. "Oh!" exclaimed the policeman. "The printing looks like the printing in the other pages, but the paper is not as yellow as the other pages. That means this paper was just printed." Here are the words on the page: Straight Snore Heaven Tree Spine Tricks Alive Nun Clue Hero (can you tell the number sequence from this clue?) The policeman said, "This can't be the sequence. These words don't even mention numbers." Michaela replied, "These words are rhymes of the numbers." (can you tell the number sequence from this clue?) "Rhymes?" asked the policeman, "I don't understand." Michaela explained, "Well, for instance, the first word is STRAIGHT which rhymes with 8. So, the first number is 8." So, she pushed the "8" button on the vault. Then she pushed the other numbers in the order their rhymes appeared on the list. Snore rhymes with 4 Heaven rhymes with 7 Tree rhymes with 3 Spine rhymes with 9 Tricks rhymes with 6 Alive rhymes with 5 Nun rhymes with 1 Clue rhymes with 2 Hero rhymes with 0 As soon as she pushed the "0" button, a green light went on, there was a click, a buzz and a hum. Then the front panel fell open. There was the world's most expensive necklace! Michaela, the world's greatest detective, recovered the stolen necklace yet again! ©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.bobsnook.org/kid email: bob@bobsnook.org BACK |