‘Good afternoon, Mr Fox.’
Mr Fox had the perfect name for a locket thief – because he was so crafty. Like a fox.
We were waiting outside his room after lunch when he came walking along the corridor.
‘The one who likes magpies,’ Mr Fox said drily as he opened his door.
‘I do like magpies,’ I said, ‘but today … um, can we come in?’
‘If you must.’
‘But today,’ I said, strolling into the room with Lex and Nicholas following behind, ‘I’m after a different kind of magpie.’
‘Is that right?’
‘It is.’ I waited for him to ask more, but he didn’t. ‘It’s you, Mr Fox. You’re the magpie.’
‘Mm.’
He didn’t sound at all interested. That annoyed me. I pointed a finger at the huge paper yellow rose on his wall.
‘That,’ I said, ‘is Carmella’s locket.’
He finally turned around and looked.
‘That’s a rose.’
‘In the centre, the gold bit. That’s Carmella’s locket.’ I walked closer. ‘You know, when I first saw it I just presumed it was gold paint, but now I know better. That’s actual gold.’
‘It’s a gold coin,’ Mr Fox replied. ‘I got it in a car boot sale.’
I looked closer at the golden circle that sat at the centre of those curling paper petals.
‘It’s got a tiny hinge on one side,’ I said. ‘It’s a locket.’
‘It’s my locket.’ Mr Fox wasn’t ruffled at all. ‘My sister gave it to me.’
I looked closer at the golden circle. There was the faintest hint of an engraving – nearly worn away – but it was there.
‘There’s a fancy ‘C’ engraved on the locket. It’s Carmella’s.’
‘My first name is Clarence.’
‘No, it’s not,’ I snapped, finally losing my patience. ‘Your first name is … ugh, I can’t remember, but it starts with an ‘E’ or something. It’s definitely not Clarence anyway. I can check with my dad.’
At last, Mr Fox seemed to give in.
‘Fine. I found the locket–’
‘In the yellow rose bush, I know.’
He finally looked impressed at my detective skills.
‘It was just sitting there in the soil, and I was missing a centre for my rose. It was perfect.’
‘It was Carmella’s.’
‘I didn’t know whose it was. Thought maybe a magpie dropped it.’
‘So did we!’ Lex said. ‘Well, we’d thought maybe a magpie had stolen it. That’s so funny that we thought the same thing.’
‘Anyway Mr Fox,’ I said, giving Lex a look, ‘you know who it belongs to now. So give it back.’
Mr Fox took one last look at the paper rose, then he picked up a scalpel from his desk and carefully prised the golden locket out of its centre. The curly paper petals drooped, and he very gently pushed each of them back into place as if he didn’t want to hurt them. When the locket was finally out, the rose looked kind of sad and empty, and I couldn’t help feeling sorry for Mr Fox.
But I refused to be nice about it – he was a thief after all (kind of). I snatched the locket, nodded to Lex and Nicholas, and walked out of the room.
Operation Stolen Locket
SOLVED
On the way to the sitting room, I peeled off the last few bits of paper still stuck to the locket.
Carmella sat in her usual armchair.
‘Hi, Carmella,’ I said as Lex and Nicholas perched on arm and the back of the chair next to her, ‘look what we found.’
‘My locket!’ Carmella beamed and took it in her hands as if it was the most precious thing in the world. ‘Did I drop it?’
‘Out in the rose bush,’ Nicholas said with a wink.
‘In the garden? What am I like? Thanks very much for picking it up, I’d be lost without it.’
‘I know you would,’ I said.
‘You know,’ said Carmella, ‘you remind me a bit of my Freddie. Do you know her? She’s such a divil.’
‘So I’ve heard.’
‘Want to see a picture?’
I smiled at her and nodded. She opened the locket and showed me the photo she’d shown me a hundred times before.
‘Why are we going back to Rowan Tree Manor?’ asked Nicholas as we made our way from Berbel Street later that day.
I was trying not to grin, but I had a little knot of excitement in my tummy.
‘Because,’ I said, ‘I think I might have solved Operation Catch the Cheating Cheaty Cheaters.’
‘You mean Operation Weather Vane.’
‘Are you talking about Operation Scavenger Hunt?’ asked Lex.
I frowned. ‘That title did get a bit confusing.’
‘So who did it?’
‘I’m not sure yet.’
‘You said you solved it,’ said Nicholas.
‘I said I think I might have solved it.’ We stepped on to the porch of Rowan Tree Manor and rang the bell. ‘But we still have some investigating to do.’
I was expecting Graham to answer, so when Mr McCall opened the door I got a little nervous.
‘Um, hello Mr McCall.’
‘Yes? What is it?’
‘Um, we were wondering … I mean, I told Graham that we were, um …’
‘Yes? What?’
Mr McCall being impatient annoyed me. I decided to stand my ground.
‘Mr McCall, we’re investigating the disappearance of your weather vanes. Graham supports our investigation – he asked me to let him know who did it – and we’d like to check out the shed one more time. May we do that?’
Mr McCall stared at me for a minute.
‘Go on then.’
I stepped off the porch, then turned back.
‘Are your dogs out?’
‘Yes.’
‘Would you mind putting them in their kennels please?’
Mr McCall stared at me again, then huffed and stomped past us.
‘Brutus, Beelzebub, Balor, HEEL!’
Three huge black dogs came flying around the corner and glued themselves to Mr McCall’s legs as he walked towards the kennels.
‘Come on,’ I said. ‘Let’s do this quick before he decides to let them out again.’
We picked up the pace, jogging around the house and through the gardens.
‘What are you looking for?’ said Nicholas.
‘The weather vanes.’
‘But we looked for them everywhere,’ said Lex. ‘They’re not near the shed.’
‘I don’t think we did look everywhere,’ I replied. ‘Come on.’
When we reached the shed I immediately picked my way through the crows and climbed over the fence.
‘We checked the long grass already,’ said Nicholas.
‘We checked out there,’ I said, pointing, ‘cos we thought someone might have thrown the weather vane from the roof. But I don’t think it was thrown.’
I pushed away the tangles of long grass and weeds that wound themselves around the beams of the fence, right next to the wall of the shed.
‘I see something!’
Lex and Nicholas hurried over the fence and helped me clear the mess.
Down in the narrow gap between the fence and the shed, half buried in weeds and mud, were two big pieces of black metal.
‘That’s them, that’s them!’ cried Lex.
It took some effort to free the weather vanes. Eventually Lex leaned on top of the fence and squeezed her arm down into the gap, while me and Nicholas stretched our arms under the fence and pushed the vanes up from below.
‘Got it!’ Lex pulled out one vane, then the other.
I held up a metal crow in each hand.
‘We did it!’
The vanes were a bit heavy – one of them tipped over and hit me on the head. I didn’t mind.
‘I still don’t get it though?’ said Nicholas. ‘Who stole them and hid them behind the fence?’
‘That,’ I said, ‘is what our next bit of investigating will find out.’