Discomfort in Comfort, Part 2

"So Timmy's innocent!" exclaimed Cheyenne " I knew it!"

"Actually," replied Josh, "I was talking about the other crime."

"What other crime?" asked Cheyenne, confused.

"Uh, the one about the murderer hiding out somewhere in town," broke in Lucy.

"Oh, that crime," said Cheyenne, ruffling her blonde hair.

"Anyway," continued Josh. " I think he may be hiding out at the school. I mean, it's July. No one has been there in months. What better place for a deadly criminal to hide?"

"So," said Lucy, "let's go tell the police your theory."

"Well, I kinda already tried that," Josh said. "They just laughed."

"So, like, what are we supposed to do?" asked Cheyenne.

"Were going to find him ourselves!" said Josh.


To be continued....

Discomfort in Comfort, Part 1

"It's, like, so hot!" complained Cheyenne, taking a sip of lemonade.

"I know!" said Lucy, licking her popsicle, which was melting more and more by the second.

"Hi! called Josh, walking into the backyard.

"Hey!" echoed the two girls.

"Did you guys hear?" asked Josh.

" 'Bout what?" asked Cheyenne.

"The murderer hiding out somewhere in town!"

"What!? Where is he!?" exclaimed Lucy, almost spitting out her popsicle. "We haven't had a crime here in Comfort since Tommy stole a bag of M&M's from the 7-11."

"I thought that was Timmy,"said Cheyennne.

"It doesn't matter who stole the Hershey's bar!" said Josh, frustrated.

"M&M's!" said the girls in unison.

"Whatever," said Josh. "Anyway, I have a lead."


To be continued....

The Mystery of the Diamond Earring, Part 9

Shenice and Taylor sat on Shenice's bed drinking Coke.
"Can you believe those guys were wanted in seven different states?" said Taylor, biting into her chocolate chip cookie.

"I know!" said Shenice taking another sip of her soda. "I heard that almost twenty thousand dollars worth of stuff was stolen from Ms. Rachel. It's a good thing she got it all back."
"Yeah, he was about to board the plane when all of the sudden the police were arresting him," said Taylor.

"They found his 'girl friend' hiding out in a small country called Genovia."
"Well, now that this mystery is solved I've got something better for us to do."
"What?" asked Shenice.
"Clean out your closet," said Taylor.

The End

The Mystery of the Diamond Earring, Part 8

Taylor screamed in terror.

"Do as I say and no one will get hurt," growled the thief.

The girls watched fearfully as the thief walked around the house putting various valuable objects into a a large brown bag. Shenice and Taylor were almost ready to run when suddenly the thief whirled. "This way, ladies," the man smirked, shoving them into the hall closet, closing the door. He pushed a heavy object in front the door so they could not escape.

"Las Vegas here I come," said the crook, and with that the girls heard him leave out the back door.

Several minutes later they heard sirens and then Ms. Rachel's frantic voice talking to a police officer. They began to call for help. A moment later Ms. Rachel and the officer opened the door. "Why girls, what are you doing here? I thought you went home."
"Well . . ." began Shenice . . .

To be continued....

The Mystery of the Diamond Earring, Part 7

"No!" yelled Taylor, but the thief ignored her. He simply pushed his way through the door and locked it so the girls and Ms. Rachel couldn't get in behind him.
"The back door," suggested Shenice, but a moment later they discovered it was locked too.
"Girls," said Ms. Rachel, "I want you to go home. I'm going next door to call the police."
Ms. Rachel left but instead of going home, Shenice and Taylor crawled through the window and began to look for the thief.

Just as they began to think he had left, they turned around to see him drawing a gun!

To be continued....

The Mystery of the Diamond Earring, Part 6

"Okay," said Shenice trying to remain calm," go out on the front porch and stall him. But don't let him in and don't let him leave until we get there." Shenice hung up the phone.

She hurried to the dining room and quickly thought of an excuse for leaving all of the sudden. "I . . . uh, left something at Ms. Rachel's and she needs me to come get it," said Shenice. "Come on, Taylor, why don't you come with me?"

On the way to Ms. Rachel's house, Shenice explained to Taylor what was going on. When they got there they saw Ms. Rachel talking to a man in a very corny, cheap looking suit. He was holding a vacuum.

"Hi Ms. Rachel!" called Shenice.

"Hi!" said Ms. Rachel with a hint of relief on her face.

"Now if you just let me inside I'll show you how this vacuum cleaner works," said the 'sales person'. He didn't even acknowledge the girls' presence.

"I'm sorry," said Ms. Rachel, "but you can't come inside."

"Ya right!" said the man as he pushed his way through the door!


To be continued....

The Mystery of the Diamond Earring, Part 5

"That's my earring!" said Shenice in surprise.
"Are you sure?" asked Ms. Rachel.
'Yes," said Shenice, "see that little bit of green paint on the back? That's from when I helped paint the set for some play."
"What do you think we should do?" asked Taylor.
Just then Shenice looked down at her watch and gasped, "It's 5:30," she said. "We've gotta get home. I promised my mom we'd be home in time for dinner."

The girls hopped on their bikes and hurried home.
"Dinner time," called Shenice's mom as the girls walked in the door.
Shenice and Taylor sat down and began to eat with rest of the family. Just then, the phone rang and Shenice got up to answer it.
"Shenice," said the voice on the other end of the phone, "it's Ms. Rachel. That sales person is outside again!"



To be continued....

The Mystery of the Diamond Earring, Part 4

"So," said Taylor "what do you think we should do now?"

"I think," replied Shenice, "we should go over to Ms. Rachel's house and ask her if anything strange has happened. I'm sure the thief will realize he got the wrong house."

"Do you wanna walk?" asked Taylor.

"Let's ride our bikes," said Shenice. "It'll be faster."

"OK," replied Taylor.

"Mom," called Shenice, "we're going to Ms. Rachel's house."

"OK," said Shenice's mom. "Don't be gone long."

Shenice and Taylor hurried and jumped on their bikes and were at Ms. Rachel's house within minutes. They arrived just in time to see a car, which had been parked in front of Ms. Rachel's house, speed away. The girls hopped off their bikes and hurried to the front door. Shenice knocked. A lady looking to be in her mid sixties answered the door a moment later. "Well, hello Shenice." said Ms. Rachel "Who is this you have with you?"

"This is my cousin Taylor," Shenice explained. "We need to ask you a few questions."

"Is something wrong?" Ms. Rachel asked.

The girls quickly explained what had happened.

"You know," said Ms. Rachel, "there was a sales person that came earlier that seemed pretty suspicious."

" What seemed so suspicious?" asked Taylor.

"Well," began Ms. Rachel, "for one thing, most sales people try to look nice, and this man was wearing a white T-shirt, dirty jeans, and a baseball cap. Second, he said he was selling vacuum cleaners, but he didn't have anything with him.

"It does sound pretty suspicious if you ask me." said Shenice. Anything else?"

"Well," said Ms. Rachel, "as he was turning to leave I noticed something fall out of his pocket. I bent down to pick it up, but by the time I had it the man had driven away. You can take a look if you like."

The girls gasped at what Ms. Rachel handed to them.

To be continued....

The Mystery of the Diamond Earring, Part 3

Taylor read the letter out loud:

"Dear Foster,
There are some very valuable gems at this address: 901 S. Grove Street, Copperas Cove, AZ 22754. Rob it on April 29, then we'll split the loot fifty, fifty. Oh and one more thing. Don't mess up on this one unless you want us both to land behind bars!

Caitlyn"

Taylor gulped.

"Now do you believe me?" asked Shenice.

Taylor nodded, then replied, "I thought you lived on N. Grove Street."

"I do," replied Shenice. "901 S. Grove Street is where Ms. Rachel lives. Her husband died a few years ago and left her a bunch of money and gems and stuff."

"But I don't get it," replied Taylor. "If the gems are at Ms. Rachel's house, then why would the thief come here?"

"The thief probably just got our addresses mixed up. We're always getting each other's mail. Anyway, we have to investigate."

"Investigate," said Taylor timidly. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure," said Shenice. "We have to protect Ms. Rachel."

"OK," said Taylor. "But you have to promise we won't do anything dangerous."

'Promise!" said Shenice with her fingers crossed behind her back.

To be continued...

The Mystery of the Diamond Earring, Part 2

"Duck and cover!" yelled Shenice as everything but the kitchen sink came pouring out of her closet, including Belle's favorite chew toy. The little dog picked it up and ran off. "What's this?"asked Shenice, holding up a small blue bead.

"It's a bead," replied Taylor.

"Yeah, but it's a bead from the necklace, the one that's broken. But it was fine when I put it in the jewelery box," she replied.

"Are you sure?" asked Taylor.

"Yes, I'm sure," said Shenice.

"Then it must have rolled in there when it was broken." said Taylor.

"I'm sure the thief broke it," replied Shenice.

"For the last time, Shenice, a thief didn't break your necklace."

"Did you break my necklace?"asked Shenice.

"No," said Taylor.

"Then why won't you believe me about the thief?"

"Because it's not logical. There isn't any real proof!"

"How much proof do you need?" asked Shenice.

"Enough proof to actually prove something!" retorted Taylor.

Just then Shenice noticed something under her bed. It was a letter, which she picked up and quickly scanned over. Then she handed it to Taylor. "Is this enough proof for you?" she asked.

To be continued...

The Mystery of the Diamond Earring, Part 1

"Oh no!" said Shenice fearfully.

"What happened?" asked her cousin, Taylor.

"My earring! It's gone!"replied Shenice.

"Which earring?" asked Taylor, seeing her cousin's panicked expression.

"My diamond ones."

"Shenice, you knew you weren't supposed to wear those earrings," said Taylor.

"That's the thing, I wasn't," she replied. "They were in my jewelery box."

"Are you sure?" asked Taylor.

"Yes, I'm sure," Shenice replied. "And I think it was stolen ."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Stolen?" asked Taylor, shocked. "Who said anything about the earring being stolen?"

"Well," began Shenice. "I looked around the jewelery box for proof and I found several leads. First of all, one of my necklaces is broken, but it was perfectly fine when I put it in. Second, my jewelery box was moved a few feet from where I put it. And -,"

But before she could go on Taylor interupted. "Shenice, none of this stuff points to your earring being stolen. All of what you mentioned probobly has a simple explanation. And anyway, if someone was going to steal it, wouldn't they take both earrings?!"

"That brings me to my last clue," replied Shenice cooly. "Do you remember when McDonald's was giving girls dolls and boys spy stuff with their Happy Meals? We thought the spy stuff was cool and asked for the boy toys."

"Yeah," replied Taylor. "What's that got to do with anything?"

"Well," replied Shenice, "I got a motion detector and I got it to stand up in the back of my of jewlery box, and my guess is that when the thief reached to grab an earring, the detector went off and the thief didn't relize it was just a toy and ran off."

Just then, Shenice's dog, Bell, began barking wildly at the closed closet door.

"What is it girl?"asked Shenice as she reached out to open the door to Taylor's closet.

"Don't open that!" shouted Taylor quickly. "If you open that door all my stuff will come pouring out." Shenice laughed and opened the closet door.

To be continued . . .