Eleanor McAdams: The Girl Detective

Chapter 1

The Case of The Stolen Blueprints

Benjamin Dawa drove his automobile hurriedly to McAdams's house. He seemed kind of worried and exhausted. Perspiration ran from his long overcoat. He grimaced with the expression of anger. 

"Why did this happen to me?" he asked himself. "I will not leave the person, whosoever did this!" 

He parked his automobile near the lawn of the big mansion. He knocked on the door. A girl in Khaki shorts and greenish top opened the door. She was chewing gum and holding her hat very proudly.

"Who are you?" she asked, confused.

"Uh…. Me? Well, I am architect Benjamin Dawa," Benjamin retorted.

"Whoa. What do you want?"

"I want to hire your sister, Eleanor, to solve a case."

"Wait, how do you know I have a sister? And why do you want to hire her?"

Before Benjamin could reply, an elder gal with a green and blue colored hair came to the gate. She inquired about the strange visitor from her sister.

"Come in, Mr. Dawa," she let Benjamin come in.

"Thank you so much. Actually, I came here because I want to hire you for a case. I have heard a lot about you so I thought that you would help me nab a thief," Benjamin explained, gulping some sips of apple cider offered by the detective. 

"Well, what is the case?" Eleanor asked curiously, 

"I am an architect. I work for Amanda Construction Inc. I made blueprints for the new mall on 343 West street. You might not know that street because it is in the outskirts of the town. It would probably take you three hours to reach there. The blueprints were very important to the company and I kept them in a cabinet in my office. But today morning, they were missing. I searched everywhere but I couldn't locate them. I am afraid someone must've stolen it."

"I will try my best to help you, Mr. Dawa. Wait a second, let me grab my notebook and go to your office now," she said.

Eleanor rushed to her study room and slowly pulled down a notebook from between the big books on the brown bookshelf. Then, she came back to the drawing room and was about to go with him when her sister immediately asked to come along.

"May I take Scarlett with me, Mr. Dawa?" Eleanor asked.

"Sure," Benjamin nodded.

All of them went to Amanda Construction Inc. through Benjamin's automobile. It took them forty minutes to reach there because the headquarters were far away. They took the elevator for the office workspaces on the fourth floor.

"They'll kill me if they find out that someone stole the blueprints," Benjamin unlocked the door of his cabinet by inserting a silver key into the keyhole. "They are very important." restated Benjamin.

"Don't worry, Mr. Dawa. I will try our best to find your blueprints," Eleanor reassured.

The workspace was small. There was an armchair, a desk In the middle and an old cabinet on the left hand corner. There were some papers with several sketches and a pen on the desk. Eleanor looked carefully through the whole workspace. She searched for the blueprints in the cabinet and in the drawers of the desk. She examined each part of the workspace including the floor. Neither blueprints nor clues could be found.

"When did you last see your blueprints?" Eleanor asked, squirming a bit. 

"Today morning at 8. Then I went to the eatery to have breakfast and came back at 9:30" Benjamin recalled. 

"Mr. Dawa, is there any other person who knows where you keep your blueprints?".

"My assistants- Mack Robertson and Henricks Bailey."

Eleanor jotted every single detail in her notebook. 

"Can I meet them?" she asked.

"Yeah, definitely. Let us go to the eatery on the ground floor. They must be there," Benjamin responded.

When they reached there, Benjamin pointed towards a dining table on the right hand side of the eatery. There were two shy men, one wearing brand new spectacles and one wearing a long top hat, gobbling on some tacos.

"Hi, Mack and Henry! Meet Eleanor McAdams and Scarlett McAdams. They are detectives. Can they trouble you by asking some questions related to the theft this morning?" Benjamin asked, sitting on a vacant chair beside Henricks.

"Hi girls! Come on, sit. And yes, would you like some tacos?" Mack asked cleaning his spectacles.

"No, it is okay," Scarlett said, sitting on one of the vacant chairs. "We had our breakfast. We are here to ask a few questions to both of you"

"Yes, please proceed further," Mack belched. "Pardon me from …..belch……. belching."

"It's okay. So first of all, what were you guys doing this morning?" 

"I left my house at 7, which is just beside this building. I reached 343 West Street at 8 and I worked there until 10. Then I came back here at 11," Mack answered. 

"I left my home at 7:30, reached here at 8 and was in my workspace focusing on unfinished projects until 11. Then I came here in the eatery with Mack," Henricks said.

"Mr. Dawa, I don't need to ask more questions. One of your assistants is lying," Eleanor said. "And I have explanations for you to trust me."

Who was lying? How did Eleanor know?

Eleanor went to Amanda Construction Inc. for investigation. It took them forty minutes to go there.

In the eatery, Mack said that he left his house which was just beside the company headquarters at 7 and reached 343 West Street at 8. But that isn't possible! At Eleanor's home, Benjamin told her that he made the blueprints for the new mall on 343 West Street which was in the outskirts of the town. It would take Eleanor three hours to reach there. And it would take Mack two hours and twenty minutes! That proved that Mack was lying.

Mack confessed his crime. He stole the blueprints somewhat between 8:00 to 9:30. He wanted to sell the blueprints to another company because they promised to give him a lot of money for that. He gave Benjamin his blueprints back. Mack and his other sinister fellows who told him to steal were imprisoned by the police. 

"I don't know how to thank you guys!" Benjamin patted Scarlett and Eleanor on their backs. "You've helped me a lot."

"Mention not!" the detectives exclaimed together.