by Natasha Deen
“Thank you, Mrs. Lee,” said Connor.
She smiled and walked away.
This was no good, no good at all. If we didn’t solve the case in the next ten minutes, the police would take over! Suddenly my bestest day had turned into my worstest day.
“We have to find out the solution,” Connor said to me. “If we don’t, no one will ever hire us!” His face was super wrinkly.
“It’ll be okay,” I said. “We’ll figure this out.” I didn’t know if that was true, but I didn’t want him to feel bad.
“Do you think so?”
I nodded. “Yep, yep, you don’t have to be—” I couldn’t remember the word, but it was a good one, and it had a great oo sound. It meant when you were so sad it was like rain clouds were over your head.
“Let’s take a closer look at the display case,” I suggested. We went over to it, and I tried really hard to think like the P.I. in the book. I looked at all the jewelry. There were red stones and blue, some that were black, some were clear, and some that were green.
“There is a lot of stuff here,” said Connor. “Earrings and necklaces and bracelets.” He stared at each of them. “If I was a thief, I’d steal earrings because they’re the easiest to hide.” His face went all frowny. “But why would I steal diamonds?”
“Because,” Halmoni said as she came to stand by us, “they are the most valuable.”
“Oh.” He nodded. “Okay.”
“Connor, I think you have a very good idea,” I said. “We should each pretend to be the thief. Maybe then we can figure out who it is.”
“We have four suspects.” He took his notebook out. “Mrs. Lee, Mrs. Weidman, Henry and Mrs. Paradowski. They were all by the jewelry case.”
“Henry and Mrs. Weidman were by the fish tank, looking at the fish,” said Halmoni.
“Does that mean we only have two suspects?” Connor looked at me. “I can’t imagine Mrs. Lee would steal from her niece.” He shook his head. “But I can’t imagine any of them would steal.”
“Me either,” I said.
I closed my eyes and thought hard. I pretended I was the thief. I used my imagination to pretend I’d stolen some earrings and then something happened that made me worry I was going to get caught. So I had to hide them. I had to put the earrings somewhere I would find them later where no one else would see them.
I thought and thought and thought.
“I’m excited about getting a box of Creamsicles. It’s been forever since we had the pancakes, and I’m really hungry,” I heard Connor say to Halmoni. “But they won’t taste as good if we don’t solve the robbery.”
I was getting hungry too. I bet we all were, the adults, me, Connor, even the fish. My eyes popped open.
I had solved the case!
Chapter Nine
I told Connor what I thought. He nodded, serious-like, and said, “I think you’re right.”
So I went to Halmoni and whispered what I knew. “What should we do now?”
“Let’s wait for the officer to arrive,” she said. “Then we’ll tell her and the Lees at the same time.”
A couple of minutes later Officer Duong came in. She went over to Mr. and Mrs. Lee.
Halmoni, Connor and I followed, and I told them what I thought.
They listened.
Officer Duong went to the fish tank and used the strainer to turn over the stones. I felt the butterflies in my stomach. We had looked for the diamonds in front of the tank, behind it and under it too. But we hadn’t looked in the tank. I tried to calm the butterflies as Officer Duong searched. After a few seconds, she smiled and lifted the strainer out of the water. “Lark, open your hand.”
I did, and she gently shook out the strainer. The diamond earrings fell into my palm. Officer Duong turned to the group of grown-ups. “Henry, is there something you want to say?”
His eyes went wide. “You think I did it?”
Connor and I nodded.
Henry’s face went growly. “I didn’t take them. You can’t prove anything!”
“Lark’s holding the earrings right now.”
“So?” he said. “Anybody could’ve put them in the tank.”
“It had to be you,” I said, “because your words gave you away.”
Everyone turned to look at Henry.
He gulped.
“Lark,” said Mrs. Wiedman, “why do you think it’s Henry?”
“Because of the fish,” I said. “Dad says when it comes to feeding them, you have to be very responsible. They can only be fed once a day, and then only a certain amount. The Lees always feed the fish at eight in the morning. But we got here at ten. I know because Connor and I were sad we’d missed giving them breakfast. They shouldn’t have been hungry, so it made me wonder why Henry said they looked hungry. Plus, he said he fed them again,” I continued. “That’s when I realized that maybe Henry had taken the earrings.” I looked at him. “But you had to hide them quickly—”
“Mrs. Lee glanced over, and I got scared,” he said. “I was worried that she’d seen me take the earrings. I pretended to feed the fish, but really I was dropping the earrings in the tank. I thought I’d get them later, when everyone was gone and the store was quiet.”
“The diamonds are clear, so they blended in with the pebbles,” said Connor. “It was a good hiding place.” He grinned. “Until Lark figured it out.”
“We did it together,” I told him. “When you talked about food, I remembered about Henry feeding the fish.”
“I’m sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Lee,” Henry said glumly. “But I needed the money for my car.”
Both the Lees looked really sad.
“If you had just told us,” said Mrs. Lee, “we would have lent you the money.”
“Instead, you’re coming with me to the police station. Come on. Let’s go,” said Officer Duong. She led Henry out the door to her police car.
Chapter Ten
Mr. Lee came over to us. “That was great detective work! I’m very impressed! Thank you for helping us.” He held the detective poster that Conner had been making notes on. “I’m going to put this right beside the cash register, and I’m going to tell everyone what you did!”
Connor grinned.
I grinned even bigger. “Thank you!”
Mrs. Lee gave both of us a giant hug and handed us each a dollar. “And for the rest of the summer, you can have a free Popsicle every day!”
Wow! This was the bestest day ever!
“That’s so great, Mrs. Lee. Thank you,” said Connor.
“Thank you again,” said Mrs. Lee. “I’m just tickled pink that we got our jewelry back!” She gave me another hug.
I didn’t understand. I knew neither Connor or I had tickled Mrs. Lee. Plus, she didn’t look pink. But she was smiling at me, so I smiled back.
Even though we had solved the case, there was something we still had to do. Only we had to wait until the sun set before we could do it.
Chapter Eleven
I knocked on Sophie’s door.
Sophie opened it. “I didn’t think you were going to show up. It’s getting late.”
“We had to wait until it was darker if we were going to help with the monster movie,” said Connor.
I was holding a bottle.
Sophie looked at it. “I already tried soda.” She looked at the light in Connor’s hand. “What’s that for? We already have lights for shooting the movie when it’s dark outside.”
“This one is special, and it’s better for the monster experiment.”
She shrugged. “Ma, I’m in the backyard with the sheep people!”
Connor growled. “Totally not cool.”
“She’s just joking,” I said. “Best friends like us joke all the time.”
We went into the backyard. Sophie got an extension cord and plugged in our light.
“It’s a black light,” said Connor. “It shows when stuff glows in the dark.”
Sophie frowned.
“And this is tonic wa
ter. It has a special ingredient called quinine that’s going to make the soda glow in the dark. Trust me. It’s going to work. We read about it in a science book we borrowed from the library yesterday.”
We took the label off the bottle so we could see inside it. Then we rolled up a piece of paper so we could use it as a tube to hold the mints. Once everything was set up, Sophie’s mom came out to make sure everything was safe. She stood to the side and started recording. “Ready? Go!”
Connor used the tube to drop a bunch of mints into the bottle, then ran away as it sank to the bottom. Almost immediately there was a huge gush of water that glowed blue in the light.
We all cheered and clapped our hands. Sophie cheered the loudest! “This is amazing! It really is superduper cool! It’s perfect for the monster movie!” She smiled at me. “Thanks, Lark sheep!”
I felt great. I had found the stolen earrings and figured out how the culprit had hidden them. Plus, I had helped Sophie make an awesome explosion. I was a really amazing, excellent P.I.
Chapter Twelve
“Come on! Come on!” I bounced on the chair and waited for family talent night to start.
“Be patient,” said Mom. “We’re coming!”
When everyone got settled, the evening began. Mom showed off her amazing memory by reciting a really long poem about a road that split into two paths in a wood. It was kind of a boring poem, but the adults all cheered and said stuff like, “It’s so moving! What a great poem!” So I clapped and cheered and said, “It’s the best poem ever,” because I wanted my mom to feel good about her talent. Dad and Max danced the cha-cha. Max was much better at it than Dad was, but I didn’t say anything.
Halmoni stood. “My talent is the inside-out-upside-down-make-your-tummy-flip cake.”
Cake!
Connor jumped up and gave everyone a plate and fork.
Halmoni put the cake on the table. “It’s a special cake. It’s solid on the outside, but on the inside is a chocolate river.”
Connor frowned. So did I.
“If the cake is cooked, then it’s all solid,” he said.
“Behold!” Halmoni cut the cake, and a river of chocolate ran out!
“Wow,” said Connor. “That’s amazing!”
I was too busy helping eat the cake to say anything. Besides, it would have been rude to talk with my mouth full. So I smiled and kept eating. I only wanted one piece, but I also wanted to make Halmoni feel good about baking a delicious, spicy, yummy chocolate cake. So I had three pieces. I would have had four, but Mom made a frowny face at me.
“What’s your magical talent?” Mom asked us when we’d finished eating.
“Watch!” I gave Halmoni a quick hug of thanks, then ran to stand by Connor. We’d practiced the disappearing-coin trick, but then we decided to do something else. Something that would be amazing and make Halmoni very happy.
“This is an ordinary star.” Connor held up a star he’d cut out of yellow paper. “But with a little spell, it becomes magic. It will change its appearance as it travels through the air, unseen, to land at a new location!” He held the star in the palm of his hand.
I waved a piece of red velvet cloth in front of him. “Abracadabra, ala-kahoni!” I dropped the cloth over the star. “Travel, star, to our halmoni!” As I pulled the cloth back up I secretly grabbed one of the star’s points in Connor’s hand. It looked like the star had disappeared, but it was hidden in the velvet cloth.
Connor held up his hands to show they were empty.
Mom, Dad and Halmoni oohed and aahed.
“We’re not done yet,” I said. “Halmoni, reach into your pocket.”
She did, and her eyes widened as she pulled out a yellow star. “Oh, my goodness!”
“It’s no ordinary star,” said Connor as he went over to her. “Look, we decorated it.”
“Yes,” said Halmoni, “I see the gold glitter.” She squinted. “Are those lima beans glued to the edges?”
I nodded. “You helped us solve the case. Without you, I’m not sure we would have gotten all the clues we needed to make Henry spill the beans.”
“You deserve a gold star,” said Connor, “because you’re a very big help to us P.I.s.”
Mom and Dad whispered. Then Dad stood.
“The judges have conferred, and we have a tie,” he said. “Connor and Lark, you win our family talent night, and Halmoni wins too”—he smiled—“for her help in solving the case and because this cake is delicious.”
“We win!” Connor jumped up and down.
“Yes,” said Mom. “But I get a special mention because I’m about to perform a second, astounding magic trick.”
“What are you going to do?” I asked.
She grabbed the plate with the rest of the cake. “I’m going to make this cake disappear!” Then she started eating it.
She laughed, and we did too. Mom put the plate down and cut pieces for each of us.
“Connor,” I said. “We solved a case, we helped Sophie and we won family talent night. Today really is the bestest day ever.”
THE WORDS LARK LOVES
CHAPTER THREE:
I really liked this idea, and Halmoni’s plan. It made me think of a word, but I couldn’t remember it. It started with a p, and it had an o in it, and it was a good word.
The word Lark was thinking of was proactive. It’s an awesome word! It means rather than waiting for good things to happen to them, Lark and Connor go out and make good things happen. Instead of waiting for Halmoni or Mom or Dad to tell them there’s a case, Lark and Connor check their mailbox and emails to find out for themselves.
CHAPTER EIGHT:
I nodded. “Yep, yep, you don’t have to be—” I couldn’t remember the word, but it was a good one, and it had a great oo sound. It meant when you were so sad it was like rain clouds were over your head.
Lark knew the definition but not the word. That amazing word is gloomy. If you are ever feeling extra sad, you could be feeling gloomy.
THE STUFF LARK *ALMOST* GOT RIGHT
CHAPTER THREE:
When Halmoni left the kitchen, Connor turned to me. His face had lots of worried squiggles. “I don’t know if I can be on a ball,” he said.
“Me either,” I said. “Cutting paper and drawing might be hard if we have to sit on Mom and Dad’s yoga balls to do it.”
Being on the ball doesn’t mean sitting on a ball. It’s a fun way to say you pay attention to what’s happening around you, and if something needs to be done, you act right away. For example, when Lark and Connor didn’t wake up to any cases, instead of being sad, they made posters to let people know they were private investigators looking for cases.
CHAPTER TEN:
“Thank you again,” said Mrs. Lee. “I’m just tickled pink that we got our jewelry back!” She gave me another hug.
I didn’t understand. I knew neither Connor or I had tickled Mrs. Lee. Plus, she didn’t look pink.
Tickled pink is a saying that’s been around for a really long time. It means to be extra, extra happy that something good has happened to you. For example, if you end up being the first one on the playground and you get the swings, you might be tickled pink at your luck!
Award-winning author NATASHA DEEN graduated from the University of Alberta with a BA in psychology. In addition to her work as a presenter and workshop facilitator with schools, she writes for kids, young adults and adults. Natasha was the 2013 Regional Writer in Residence for the Metro Edmonton Library Federation. Natasha lives in Edmonton, Alberta. For more information, please visit her website at www.natashadeen.com.
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