“… And he walked slowly, quietly, without making any noise… then, as he entered the room, he took something sharp from his pocket… it was a knife… got closely and closely to the person who was sleeping in the room peacefully, looked at him in rancor… smiled a detestable smile… raised the knife….”
A loud voice came from 12 years old Eleanor, who was watching a movie, ‘The Crime’. Her face was white of fear, her eyes were full opened and her feet were trembling.
A tall, pretty, but frightened woman entered the room gasping; she was Eleanor’s mother, Martha. She sat next to Eleanor and asked confusedly: “What is it, my dear? What happened?”. Eleanor didn’t answer; she was frozen in her place. Martha noticed that her daughter was watching something, she looked and saw: ‘The End’ on the TV screen. So she grumbled and said angrily: “A movie? Again?” then she turned the TV off and continued: “I told you hundred of times not to watch those frightening movies! You should act like all the girls in your age!”. After that she left the room mumbling: “It’s your dad’s fault! He buys you those unsightly things… uh! Your father’s fault… yeah…”.
Eleanor watched her mother while she was walking away mumbling angrily, so she yawned and said: “What an understanding mother! What a sympathetic mother!”. She looked at her digital watch, it’s 12 a.m. “I’ll go to the cafeteria…” she said, then put on her scarf, coat, hat and gloves and walked to the door whispering: “And he walked slowly, quietly, without making any noise...” went out and closed the door.
Outside, streets were wet, trees were deprived of leaves, and people were running to their homes; it was a gloomy day of December’s.
Eleanor walked across the street to the cafeteria thinking of the movie she saw. Suddenly, a car passed very fast in front of her, but she noticed the driver… how could she forgot that suspicious face? He was her father’s friend, Alfred Brown, who is supposed to be in Sweden. “Why did he come so fast? He said that he’d stay in Sweden for two years!” Eleanor was thinking. “Oh… from the first time I saw him, I knew that he’s doubtful...”. She kept thinking of him and didn’t notice that she’s in the middle of the street, or the queue of cars which was behind her, or even the drivers’ shouts and sounds of their cars’ horns. So she passed quickly saying: “Sorry!”.
She entered the cafeteria after ten minutes. It was warm and peaceful –in contrary to the weather outside. She looked around and saw her friends: Humorous Tony, very sensitive Amanda and Nicholas the ‘scientist’. “Hi there!” Eleanor called out, so her friends replied by waving their hands. And when she reached their table, she took off her coat and gloves. “How things are going, buddies?” she asked smiling. “Nothing new… everything’s normal and boring..” Amanda said, resenting. “I think that something mysterious will happen today..” Eleanor said. “Yeah.. today..”. Then she ordered a sandwich and a cup of Nescafe, and they talked about their last, successful investigation about the robbery that happened in Tony’s house.
These four kids were making a great band together. Eleanor was the leader of it; she was the cleverest. Their hobby was helping her dad, the inspector, in finding criminals and thieves.
After an hour, our detectives went out the cafeteria. Eleanor said goodbye and went home. And when she arrived, she entered her ‘extraordinary’ room and put on her pajamas.
The reader would like to know about this ‘extraordinary’ room: It was painted with sky blue - Eleanor’s favorite color. One wall had paintings and pictures on, the second was full of shelves, and there are videocassettes, CDs and books on them, the third wall was full of notices and special names and dates on small papers. There were a bed, 2 big closets, a desk, a laptop and 2 long mirrors. Inside her closets you can find all spy gadgets and disguises. There were Agatha Christie’s and Arthur Doyles’s books everywhere; on the desk, on the bed, on the floor…
Time passed slowly till Eleanor’s father, David, came at four o’clock. He was angry about something. He sat and said: “Another crime..” Mother grumbled and Eleanor said: “Wow! I love that!” Then started her torrent of questions: “Where? When? How? Did you find the criminal? Did he steal anything? Who died?”
Her dad said: “A crime in Brown’s house, my friend’s, Alfred. You remember him, don’t you? He came so fast from Sweden like he has known that something would happen! His father was killed by cyanide. The policemen inspected the house and didn’t find it”. He hushed up for a couple of seconds then continued: “We’ll go to the house after…”
“I’ll go with you, dad!” Eleanor interrupted him. So her mum cried: “No! No! I won’t let you! It’s dangerous!”
“Oh, mum! Please! This isn’t the first time I do such a thing! “ Eleanor protested.
“Don’t worry, darling. I’ll take care of Eleanor”. Dad assured.
Mother thought for a moment then said: “Ok… but, be careful, my dear…”
“I’ll call my band!” Eleanor said happily while she was running to her room.
Later on, Mrs Constance Brown- Alfred’s wife- was greeting the four detectives, Eleanor’s dad and the policemen. “Who lives in this house?” David asked her. “Me, Alfred, his grandfather, his great aunt, Cecilia, and the cook, Louisa Fry” Mrs. Brown answered.
“What do you know about your husband’s grandfather?”
“He was sick and weird sometimes, but kind…I didn’t talk to him too much”.
“Does that mean that he didn’t like you?”
“ Yes… No! I mean…I… I don’t know…”
“ Yes, no, I mean I don’t know?!… What do you mean Mrs. Brown?” Eleanor asked, funnily.
“ I don’t know what he thought about me…”
Eleanor’s father noticed that Mrs Constance became angry. So he changed the topic.
“ When did you know about his death and how?” he asked.
“I was having tea here in the living room at 1 p.m after I gave Mr Ronald, Alfred’s grandpa, his tea and left him sleeping. Alfred came to me at quarter past one, and told me that Mr Ronald is dead”.
“Thank you, Mrs. Brown.” David said.
Alfred was at the second floor. He greeted Eleanor’s father and they began their interrogation with him. His answers were: “I returned today from Sweden, I was at home at 12:30 a.m. I went to my grandpa’s room at 1 o’clock to make sure that he’s alright… and he was dead”. “ I told my wife directly and she said that she gave him his tea and he was fine”. “I came from Sweden because I wanted to see my family. I missed them… that’s all”.
Eleanor seemed like she wasn’t convinced of what he’d said and her father wrote some notes.
Then, the policemen and the little detectives were at Alfred aunt’s room, Cecilia. She was nearly 60, a really elegant woman. She only said: “ I wasn’t at home. I was at my friend’s house, Margaret Cup. I stayed there from 12 a.m to 3:30 p.m. when I returned home Alfred told me about this misfortune.”
The cook, Louisa Fry, was nearly 50. She was a fat, gentle and strong woman. She said: “I has worked in this house for 20 years”. “I always make meals for this family. And today, I brought the breakfast and the lunch to Mr Ronald’s room. But when I made the tea, Mrs Constance took it.”
“In this house, no one like Mrs Constance except Mr Alfred. She complains of everything and she’s mad-brained”.
“Mr Ronald is a real gentleman. But his illnesses have made the others think that he’s weird or mad”.
After asking lots of questions, David knew that everyone’s answers were honest.
Tony felt hungry all the time. Amanda didn’t like the house or its people, and Nicholas felt sleepy and bored all the time.
At 6 o’clock, everyone had dinner at the Brown’s house and decided to continue at the next day.
Next day, at 12 a.m, Eleanor phoned Amanda, who said that she thinks that Mrs Constance is the convict.
- “But why?” Eleanor said.
- “ I don’t know, but I felt something strange about her”.
- “ I think Alfred is.”
- “ Why would he kill his grandpa?”
- “ Maybe for inheritance or something like that… he said that he’d stay in Sweden for two years! Missing his family isn’t a strong reason to come home that fast!”
- “Tony says that Mr Ronald killed himself… I mean he committed suicide…oh! He doesn’t like sad ends! You know, someone goes to jail and the others start crying…. And Nicholas think that it’s Alfred”.
- “We’ll go to continue our work after an hour. Do you want to come?”.
- “Sure! I’ll call Tony and Nicholas. Bye!”.
- “Ok then! Bye!”.
At two o’clock, everyone was at the Brown’s house.
When David was asking Alfred some questions, Eleanor went to Mr Ronald’s room. It was big and tidy, but desolate. She noticed a medicine on a small table at the corner. She asked Miss Cecilia and she told her that it was Mr Ronald’s, its smell was strange but Eleanor didn’t touch it. And there wasn’t anything important else. So she returned to her father who was sitting with her friends, and sat next to him.
“Alfred, his wife and the cook went up to Mr Ronald’s room. And there isn’t anything that tells us how he was poisoned. What a mystery!”. Her dad began.
“And the only thing we know is that Miss Cecilia isn’t the criminal”. Tony said.
“Look, Alfred could poison his grandfather when he went to his room, and the cook could do that but why? She’s worked for 20 years! And Mrs Constance could, too, when she brought Mr Ronald his tea. But no trace! Uh…! A real mystery!” Nicholas said.
“Come on! We’ve worked on more difficult crimes and found the criminal! Thank God Mr Ronald didn’t go out his room!” Eleanor said to cheer them up.
After five minutes of deep silence, Eleanor seemed like she had remembered something. “I say, dad… could you please let me see the cyanide?” she said.
“What? Ok…” Her dad said.
And when she smelled it, her eyes flashed and she said: “Wow! I got it! Follow me dad!”.
Her father was surprised but he trusted his daughter and followed her.
When they entered Mr Ronald’s room, Eleanor wore gloves and gave her father the medicine of Mr Ronald. “Smell this.”. She said “The criminal put the cyanide in the bottle and gave the pill to Mr Ronald, and maybe he didn’t notice that it’s a little different and took it, then died”. Her father smelled it and said happily: “Great, daughter! Now, all what we have to do is to test the bottle”.
After half an hour, David, his assistants, the four little detectives, Mrs, Miss and Mr. Brown were sitting in the living room. David started talking. “Well, I gathered you to tell you that we, finally, knew who poisoned Mr Ronald… but, I need to know why she did it… right, Mrs Constance?”
“What?? I…I… I’m not the…I didn’t do it!” Mrs Constance said. So David said while his voice was becoming louder: “Crime doesn’t pay, Mrs. Brown! We knew from the cook that you give Mr Ronald his medicine everyday. You bought the poison and put a pill of it in its bottle before a short time, and gave it to Mr Ronald. He didn’t notice that it’s a little different and died after taking the pill. You did take the tea to his room, gave him the pill, and then drank the tea or something like that. After that you left the room like nothing had happened and Mr Ronald was drinking the tea and he slept after that. And you got rid of the poison by some way.
But you’ve made a little mistake, Mrs. Brown; you forgot that the cyanide has a special smell. So my daughter noticed that and we’ve found your fingerprints on the bottle…
I think that you should now tell us the reason of the crime, right?”
Everyone was silent, and after two minutes, Mrs. Brown raised her head, took a deep breath, and then said: “You are clever, dear Eleanor. I thought that you’d never know...”
“But why? I tried to guess why but I couldn’t!” Nicholas said.
“Ronald was stealing Alfred from me! Alfred stayed with him and in his job all the time! I tried all the ways to grab his attention but… everything went with the wind! After that I decided to do anything to make him care about me more! So I… I….”. And her eyes brimmed with tears.
Everyone was shocked and didn’t know what to do. And Alfred was broken-heartedly.
Policemen took Mrs. Brown to the jail. Alfred sat and concealed his face with his hands. The cook was consoling him…
Outside the Brown’s house, our band and David were meditating. “What do you think, kids?” Eleanor’s father asked. “The end would be better if Mr Ronald committed suicide…” Tony said, sadly. “Amanda beat us, this time!” Nicholas said, funnily. “I told you guys, it’s my sixth sense!” Amanda said, proudly.
Then Eleanor said, frightened: “What are you waiting for? Come on! We got to go home quickly! Otherwise, mum will say that I steal you from her, dad… and you won’t know what the outcome will be…!!”.
They all laughed and got into the car…
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