DARING DETECTIVES

    

 A MISSION IN THE MAKING

              It was a bright and sunny fall morning. Sounds of laughter echoed from the room upstairs to reach the living room where adults were busily chatting and sipping warm herbal tea. Breaking the talk of the elders was a voice “Dad, Dad did you see my cowboy hat anywhere? It just fell off the stairs” It was Lily and her cousin Thea scampering down the stairs searching for the hat, Brown was about to sit on the sofa when he spotted the hat near the fireplace. He bent down and when he saw the hat his face lightened up “Sally, are you playing cowboys. I loved the game when I was your age” he asked handing the cap back to Lily. “Yes Dad, yesterday I read a comic you bought me, and it was all about cowboys. It fascinated me so much so that I decided to play the game with Thea” Lily answered. “Why don’t you both take a bite of the pancakes I made for breakfast,” asked Sarah, Lily’s mother. “Ooh! yummy! I bet I could finish the whole lot. I really like Aunt Sarah’s perfect round and sweet pancakes “added Thea. The duo settled on a chair beside each other and relished the sweet and delicious pancakes. After they were done eating, “Can you two run outside and bring in today’s post” Ted, Thea’s father requested. “Of course, Dad race you, Lily, “said Thea quickly as she sprinted to the porch. She and Lily opened the mailbox and there was a peculiar mail sitting right inside.

   Lily picked it up and struggled to carry it back to the house as the winds hit her face back inside Lily handed the envelope to Ted, who examined it carefully. “Hmm, I guess It’s a letter from the magician's training Institute,” he remarked as he carefully opened the envelope and read the letter slowly. He was right the letter read as follows.

     Dear Mr. Brown and Mr.Ted

Greeting from the MTA your success in the previous mission has been the talk of the whole institute. Your accomplishments have been so useful that we have another mission waiting for you right now. It is an urgent one and If you agree you can visit the Institute for further information.

Yours truly,

Williams of MTA

“Oh Wow another mission, I can’t wait to find out what it is this time” Sally, Thea’s mother said.

WESTERNVILLE, HERE WE COME!

After breakfast, they hopped on to Unifly their magical unicorn, and sped to reach the MTA headquarter where they were met by Williams to escort them to the magic mission care department. “I am glad that you were able to make it. This is an extreme case down in the wild west.

  In the town of Westernville, there has been a terrible spate of robberies. The sheriff responsible for the control of the crime has called us for help”. He explained “Your Unifly is the sole transport to and from our base and Westernville as it is a place of the past and with our machines it will take months to reach. A team of advanced technicians will upgrade Unifly to transport you all to western ville” He added. “Ohh... This seems to be an adventure a real serious one. we will try the very best we can to save westernville “ Ted replied. “That’s the spirit team, I will meet you here in an hour so that you get time to prepare,” Williams remarked and led them to the changing room. There there was a row of cowboy costumes for them all to mix with the public.

        One hour later, the team of 8 were all set to go. In their splendid work suits Lily, Thea, Sally, Sarah, Brown, Ted, Minty, and Bob were totally magnificent. “Now If you press this button and step into Unifly’s carriage you will be transported to Westernville and back. Williams gave them a machine called Pathway that can easily retract marks and footprints that were covered. The team after waving goodbye to Williams and the crew stepped onto

JOURNEY BACK IN TIME

Unifly’s carriage is ready to take off. In a matter of seconds after pressing the button they opened their eyes to see a totally new world in Westernville. There was a street in the middle of the countryside houses that were traditional and many cowboys who acted as guards stood across the street. They saw a cowboy approaching them to enquire where they came from and why they were there.

      After a lot of questions, the cowboy asked where they wanted to go. “We wanted to go to the Sheriff’s office,” said Bob. The cowboy hearing the answer escorted them to an old-looking building where the walls were covered with the local newspaper “Cowboy Times”.They walked to the door where they found a strict-looking officer with a top hat and a sheriff badge. “Greetings sheriff, We are representatives from the magician’s training institute . We are glad to help out in this investigation” introduced Brown on behalf of everyone else. “Ahh! You’re the ones Williams have been talking about Welcome, Welcome, please find your rooms in the back of my office . After refreshment you can help me out,” remarked the sheriff.

 AN EXTREME CASE OF ROBBERIES

     After an hour the Eight of them walked back to the sheriff’s office. “Thank you, the room was very comfortable and now we are ready to start the investigation” Sarah thanked the sheriff. “Good, I’m afraid there have been continuous robberies for the past few days. The recent one was when the thief stole the riches of one of the wealthiest men in town named Harrison. Our guards have inspected the place and have failed to find any clues as the marks have faded. I have arranged 6 horses for you to reach there” explained the sheriff. “Alright, Let’s get going” declared Sally carrying Pathway with her. They boarded their horses and sped to Harrison’s large mansion with the help of the map of the town which the sheriff had given them.

              As soon as they reached the mansion they were welcomed by Harrison himself. He led them to his vault which was empty. “I have two guards at a time, guarding the gates and two guarding the vault. While they go for lunch, Another two are on guard. Apart from that I have a watchdog near the vault. The theft happened about 1:00 in the afternoon when the first set of guards went for lunch. You are free to inspect anything in this place” Harrison explained. The detectives split up. Sally, Bob, and Ted went to question the guards while Thea, Lily, and Brown started to use the pathway to search for clues and marks, and Minty wrote them down in a notebook.

ALIBIS AND EXPLANATIONS

 When the first guard watching the gate at that time was questioned He introduced himself as Robin and said “I had been on the watch the whole time. But never found anything suspicious at the gate. Suddenly I heard a scream in the dining room, and since the other guard next to me named Peter assured me that he would watch the gate I went to check for the reason. I saw Tom, the servant whose foot had been hurt by a falling table. I helped him up and then went back to the gate. That’s when I found Master exclaiming that the vault was stolen.” “Oh! Thank you” said Ted as he went into the house to question Tom, while Bob went to question the other guard and Sally to question the guards who were guarding the Vault

       Ted went near Tom who was counting some papers. He asked him where he was when the theft occurred and enquired if he saw something suspicious. “I was about to start off for an errand when Tina the maid accidentally hit the table while making master his evening tea. The table fell on me and I let out a loud scream just then Robin the guard approached me to help me up. I was to start off on my errand after getting back on my feet and just then heard a loud cry from my master after he knew about the theft” He explained. Ted thanked him and left the room in search of the others.

        Meanwhile, Bob found out that the other guard (Peter) next to the gate was a temporary replacement for the original gate guard as he continued in his ill bed since a week before the theft. “I had assured Robin to check out what the scream was and didn’t notice anything suspicious. Bob also checked the path to find any clues. He came across a piece of paper that had been crumbled, It read “Old shed Cannister Alley”. He rushed to others to show them.

         At the same time, Sally had found out that one of the vault guards had gone to find out about the same scream while the other guard said that he was right there next to the vault until his master came for a visit when he found that the vault was stolen. Thea found a little piece of paper with a schedule.

Mon-Harrison

Tue-Store

Wed-Bank

     

CLUES AND SUSPECTS

 They all gathered at the porch reviewing the clues when Bob handed the piece of paper to Minty. “This is a kind of address” She exclaimed. Bob, Sally, and Ted filled the others in, with the info they received. Likewise Lily, Sarah, and Brown informed the others that using the pathway they had found two pairs of footprints. Sally also showed the paper, Thea had found near the vault. Brown examined the piece of paper and declared that it is the robbery schedule “Oh my god tomorrow they are going to rob the bank and today they would have robbed the store.

 “Alright, Let’s split up Brown, Sally, and Thea head to the mentioned address while Sarah, Lily, Minty, and I can investigate in the store,” Ted remarked.

          Heeding the command, Sarah, Lily, and Minty followed Ted’s Lead to the store. They halted near the store and walked inside. They introduced themselves to the manager who looked totally frightened after an attack which had happened half an hour ago. He reported that 4 men walked inside the store to buy groceries and as soon as he looked up after calculating the bill they threatened him to hand over all his earnings, scared he immediately handed it to the thugs.

 A TONNE OF LOOT

              Meanwhile in the old shed of Cannister Alley Brown, Sally, and Thea after making sure the coast was clear they headed inside a barren shed that was empty apart from some old boxes which were full of loot. After noticing the loot stored in the corner of the shed Brown suggested “Let’s use a shrinking spell on them and load them onto Unifly.”. “To the size of ants, you boxes Shrink, for us to carry in a wink “chanted Brown and then carefully loaded them into the leather bags attached to the horses.

             The two groups met at the Sheriff’s house “We found out that there are in total four thugs involved in the robberies” exclaimed Lily. “Wow, and We found out the stolen goods,” Lily told. “Both the groups have made wonderful discoveries I have handed over the loot to the Sheriff. After a good night’s sleep let’s get ready to stop the theft of the bank tomorrow” Brown declared.

 READY, SET ACTION

              Early the next morning the family woke up and headed to the bank with Unifly and their horses. On reaching the bank, the eight of them heard a commotion. They crept to the vaults as quiet as mice and hid behind the wall. They found a horrible sight, the vault guards were helping the other two men to steal! one of the 4 men, noticed them hiding as Thea let out a sneeze and hence, before the 8 investigators could react, 2 of the thieves locked them up in the empty room after gagging them.

            “What are we going to do now” whispered Lily. “I have an idea. I put Unifly and a piece of paper in my pocket for emergencies. See that crack on the wall, we can attach a message to Unifly who can deliver it to the Sheriff. This way we can inform him about the theft and our lockup” Brown suggested as he began writing a note on a piece of scrap paper and then attached it to Unifly. He chanted the magic spell “Fly at your fastest speed, deliver the message to the Sheriff for us to be freed” Unifly took off as small as a mosquito and as fast as a cheetah out through the crack in the wall.

THE TRUE STORY UNCOVERED

                 What if they don’t come up in time” asked worried Minty. “We will hope for the best, Unifly will never disappoint us” replied Ted. In a tense mood, a few minutes passed, and suddenly there was a huge noise that felt like the door opening. The family tip-toed through the door and they found the Sheriff and the cowboys smiling brightly with the gang of four robbers in their custody. One of them was the Vault guard of Harrison’s house and another was Peter at Harrison’s. The third and fourth were the vault guards of the bank. “We can’t thank you enough for the valuable help you had offered” exclaimed the Sherriff. The group of 8, found out that there were four crooks along with Tina the maid. Tina intentionally hit the table to cause the commotion and on their cue, Peter and the second vault guard robbed the vault while the other two were attending to Tom. The vault guards at the bank along with Peter and Harrison’s vault guard were the cause of the bank theft. “Accept a small gift, the least we could do for your help” remarked the Sheriff handing over 8 badges with their names on them and marking them as the 8 brave saviors of the land. “Oh wow, I’m a real cowboy now” cries Thea. “Me too!” Lily added. “It was nice being in Westernville Sheriff but it's time for us to go,” Bob told.

After waving goodbye to the Sheriff. Sally, Lily, Thea, Brown, Sarah, Ted, Minty, and Bob were back in the present day again. What a success to such an interesting mission