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And if so, can you solve it as quickly as Bianca?
“Good grief, Bianca, how long are you going to be on that thing?”
My older sister Connie stands behind me at the computer and punctuates her question with a quick swat to my head using the file folder she’s holding. I snarl at her. In Balducci language we have just communicated a complex string of messages you are a dunderhead - get away from me, you zygote yeah, well, I love you anyway ditto.
“If we had DSL or cable, things would be a lot faster,” I say, rubbing my head. “And I’m doing biology homework, so leave me alone, for crying out loud.”
“Look, I just need a few seconds,” Connie says. “I’ll let you get right back on.”
I squint up at her, my lips pursed and my eyebrows creased. No translation necessary.
She tries another tack, one that has more promise. “It’s about a case,” she says. “If you let me get on for a few seconds, I’ll let you help me with my next one.” My sister’s a private investigator and I’m always trying to get her to consider giving me some part-time work. In fact, she lives at home so she can save money as she gets her business going. “I just need to email a report to my client’s lawyer.”
“What’s the case?” I ask, swatting her with my notebook when I get up to let her have the chair. (See above for translation.)
As she inserts a disk and begins clicking her way through cyberland, she explains.
“It’s the Jones boys,” she says sadly.
“I know them,” I say. “Bret was a senior when I was a freshman. Bret was really sick and had a bone marrow transplant two years ago, I heard from Ryan, his older brother. It worked out well and he’s okay now.”
“His health is fine. His moral compass is a little off.” She clicks open her email, types in a note to the lawyer and attaches the report from her disk. While we wait for our prehistoric computer to churn and groan through the upload, she tells me the story.
The Jones’s Great-Aunt Lorraine used to keep her one-of-a-kind diamond bracelet in a lockbox under her bed. Last week, she discovered someone had broken into the box and stolen the bracelet! No one has access to her bedroom without her knowledge. She keeps it locked all day, cleans the room herself, and never leaves her house. The only people who have been in that room in the past five years besides herself are Bret and Ryan. Five years ago, they were visiting and she sent Ryan upstairs to fetch her change purse. He took a long time to come down but she didn’t think anything of it at the time.
“So Ryan did it,” I say, impatient to get back on the computer.
“Nooooooo,” Connie says with that “you stupid moron, but what else could I expect from a high school student” kind of voice she loves to use with me. “Bret confessed right away and I figure she doesn’t remember both brothers going upstairs. And his blood was on the box whoever opened it scraped themselves when they jimmied the lock. It’s his blood type all right.” She shakes her head. “And everybody thought he was the good one and Ryan was the Black Sheep.”
“Couldn’t it be Ryan’s blood?” I ask.
“But Bret confessed. That’s all I need.”
I remember Bret. He WAS a nice dude. Real shy and gawky, probably because he was sick so often. I’m glad he’s okay. But I just can’t imagine him being a thief. His brother, Ryan, though, had already been in trouble once with the law some minor vandalism before he was out of college.
The file she’s uploading is creeping toward the finish line when my eyes light on my biology book and an idea grabs me.
“I bet you a summer job working for you that Ryan is the thief and Bret is just covering for him.”
“What?”
“Check Bret’s records,” I say, warming to my subject. “Check his medical records five years ago, from the time they visited their great aunt. I bet it’s not his blood on the lockbox. Come on, stop sending this file!” I reach beyond her and hit the “cancel” icon before the upload bar is completely colored in.
“Bianca!” she screams, pushing back the chair so it rolls over my feet. “You better be right or I’ve just wasted ”
“ Two minutes talking to your sister,” I retort. “Big deal. I bet I’m right. Bret’s no thief. You’ll see.”
*******
The next day, Connie picks me up at school and gives me the good news.
“You’re right,” she mumbles into the steering wheel.
“What did you say? I didn’t hear you.”
“I said you were right.”
“What?”
She turns and glares at me. “Bret is innocent. Ryan took the jewels and Bret was covering for him.”
I smile smugly and ask her when I can start working in her office and how much she’ll pay me.
“Who said anything about pay?” she asks as she turns the corner toward home.
**********
How did Bianca guess it was Ryan and not Bret who took the jewels? Bianca knew the following about the Jones boys and the missing bracelet:
Answer (CLICK HERE)
See what sort mystery amateur sleuth Bianca gets tangled in when she tries to sort out whether her secret crush really likes her in UNCOVERING SADIE’S SECRETS.
Good
Luck Spells for the New Year
Celebrity Secrets
Egyptian
Spa-tacuolar Spotlight
Emily's
virtual tour of Paris
Valentine Spotlight
Thanksgiving / Amy Kaye Spotlight
Spotlight on You Are SO Cursed!
Spotlight on My Alternate Life
Spotlight
on My Abnormal Life
Spotlight on Senses
Working Overtime
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