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....