Case of the Missing Diary
By
Traci Kishbaugh
It was a warm day in the beginning of June. Billy Williams, and energetic 12-year-old boy with blonde hair and blue eyes, sat in his Science class pretending to pay attention to what was going on around him. Instead, he was daydreaming and waiting quietly for the bell to ring. Today was the last day of school, and it was his last class. Flies were flying around, birds were singing, and there was a nice breeze coming through the windows. In five minutes, it would be the start of summer vacation, and Billy couldn’t wait. It seemed to go on forever. Time always goes so slowly when you’re waiting for something. He always heard his mom say “A watched pot never boils.” He never understood that cliché until now. He hated to admit it, but his mom was right. He tried not to think about the time. “Maybe that will make the time go faster” he thought. Finally, the bell rang, and Billy thought to himself, “Free at last!”
Billy was the first one out of his seat and to the door when he heard someone call his name. It was David Collins, Billy’s best friend. They’d known each other since they were babies. David had red hair and freckles. He was one of the nicest boys you would ever want to meet. He wouldn’t hurt anyone. At least not on purpose. They had planned to spend a week together at Billy’s house. “Billy, I have to talk to you," David said. I just found out that my parents made plans to go away on a family vacation this year, so we’ll have to cancel our plans.”
“That stinks,” Billy said. “A whole summer with your family? Yuck! That’s too bad. Oh well, have fun. I guess I’ll see you when school starts in the fall.” Then he slowly turned, disappointed, and walked away.
When Billy got home, his father, a hard working family man, was busy putting up a tent in the back yard for Billy and David. It was supposed to be a surprise, but Billy walked in on his dad putting it up. His dad didn’t realize Billy was there until he heard him laughing. His father was very caring, loving, and a good man, but he didn’t know the first thing about putting up a tent. He was good at a lot of things, but he wasn’t good at putting things together. “That’s ok, Dad,” Billy said laughing. “You don’t have to bother with this. David had to cancel. His family is going on vacation. Thanks anyway, though.”
Billy’s dad put his hand on his shoulder and said “That’s too bad your plans are ruined. Why don’t you help me put up the tent and you and I can camp out together?”
“That sounds great!” Billy said. They put up the tent, got lots of food, and spent the night in the tent. They had a lot of fun. Billy’s dad looked at him and said “We should do this more often."
“That sounds like a good idea. I’d like that”, Billy said, smiling.
The summer seemed to drag on forever. Billy called every one of his friends, but they were all going away on summer vacations. It wasn’t long before Billy became extremely bored. He spent most of his time in his room watching TV, listening to his stereo and reading his favorite type of books; mystery novels.
One day, Billy’s mother, a small, quiet woman went in his room to talk to him. “If you’re so bored, why don’t you call Jodi Watkins and hang out with her?” she asked. Jodi Watkins lived a few houses away, and she was in Billy’s class at school. She wasn’t very pretty or popular. She had straight, long black hair, braces, and glasses, and she was the last person Billy wanted to hang out with.
“I’m not that desperate,” Billy answered. “All the kids will tease me if they find out.”
His mom just looked at him and said “Now, Billy, she’s a very nice girl, and she doesn’t have any friends. Just think about it.” Billy just kept reading, trying to tune her out.
Some time in the beginning of July, Jodi went to see Billy. Her diary had been stolen, and since she knew Billy liked mysteries, she thought he might be able to help her out. At first, he told her to go away, but then he realized this would be the perfect opportunity to prove that he would be a good detective. This was just the chance Billy had been waiting for! “It’s not the biggest case, but you have to start somewhere”, he thought. “OK, I’ll take the case”, he finally told her. He quickly set up the Williams Detective Agency in his backyard to make it official. Billy was in business!
“First, we have to discuss my fee,” he said, cockily. “I’ll have to charge you $1 for my expert services.”
“That’s ok,” Jodi answered. “I have enough money to pay for it.”
“Now where should I start on the case?” he thought out loud. “I know! What does your diary look like?
“It’s blue with little white flowers all over it, and it’s red around the edges.” Billy got a notebook and wrote down the date, case number, Jodi’s name, the description of the diary, and amount of the fee. Then he wrote “Paid” in the “Fee” column. Then he picked up the notebook, and they went to Jodi’s house to see if they could find any clues.
“When did you see the diary last?” he asked Jodi.
“Yesterday,” she replied. “I put it under my bed like I always do after I write in it.” Just then, Jodi’s mother called her for dinner, and she invited Billy to stay. Billy accepted the invitation and told Jodi they would work on the case after they ate. Jodi’s brother, Tommy, a 10-year-old pest, had stayed at a friend’s house for dinner, which was a relief to Jodi. He was always picking on her, and Jodi was grateful to finally have peace and quiet. They were having meatloaf, Jodi’s favorite.
“What are you two up to?” her mother asked.
“Billy is going to help me find my diary after we eat,” Jodi answered. “We think we know who stole it.”
“Maybe it wasn’t stolen. Maybe you just misplaced it,” her mother said.
“No I didn’t,” Jodi said, positive she was right. She’s always very careful with her diary, like she is with all her things. She never misplaced it. “I put it under my bed just like always. I wouldn’t misplace something as important as my diary.”
After dinner, Billy and Jodi started working on the case. “What did you mean when you said ‘We think we know who stole it’? We haven’t found any clues yet.”
“I know, but I just thought of a suspect. Come on! Let’s check out Tommy’s room. He’s always teasing me,” she said. “Especially about my diary. I’m sure he’s the thief!” They checked Tommy’s room for evidence first. They searched his room from top to bottom, but found nothing. Then they searched the rest of the house, thinking Tommy may have hidden it somewhere else to throw everyone off the trail. They didn’t find anything in the rest of the house, either.
“Darn! That’s disappointing. I was sure the little creep was guilty. Now I don’t have anything on him I can use for blackmail!” Jodi exclaimed.
Billy just looked at her in disbelief. He was an only child, and he desperately wanted a younger brother. “If I had a brother, I would never dream of thinking about him the way Jodi thinks about Tommy,” Billy thought. “She’s lucky to have a little brother.”
They checked Jodi’s room last. “Maybe she did just misplace it or maybe she hid it on purpose just to get me to hang out with her. It would be just like her to pull something like this,” Billy thought. However, if he wanted to be considered a real detective, he had to learn to keep his personal feelings separate from his cases. Otherwise, he would never be able to do his job to the best of his ability. He decided to give Jodi the benefit of the doubt, and he kept looking.
They looked under the bed where Jodi keeps the diary. There were blades of grass under the bed.
“Now I remember!” Jodi yelled. “That neighbor boy, Jimmy Hansen, mowed our lawn yesterday. He’s such a bully, and he never liked me. He’s the thief! I’m sure of it now! But he couldn’t have! It was still there after he finished.”
Jimmy Hansen was a big boy, a few years older than Billy and Jodi. He had brown hair, brown eyes, and he was very strong. He picked on everyone and everything. He lived next door to Jodi. Mowing the lawn gave him the perfect opportunity to steal the diary. When they went to Jimmy’s house to question him, he denied everything.
Billy confronted Jimmy and told him his theory. “When you were in the house when you mowed the lawn,” Billy explained, “you saw Jodi writing in her diary, and you saw her put it under her bed. Then you forgot to collect your fee, so you went back and you asked to use the bathroom. That’s when you went into Jodi’s room to steal the diary.” Jimmy still denied everything, but Billy insisted they look around to see if he was hiding anything. He wasn’t lying. The diary wasn’t anywhere to be seen.
“I told you so!” Jimmy said. “I may be guilty of a lot of things, but I’m no thief!” Billy and Jodi apologized, and as they left, Jimmy said he’d let them know if he hears anything.
As Billy and Jodi left Jimmy’s house, Billy said “One suspect down.”
“What do you mean one suspect? He’s the only suspect!” Jodi cried.
“Don’t worry. I’m not beat yet. I’ll figure something out. I WILL find your diary, I promise!” he assured her. It was getting dark, so they decided to call it quits for the day and start again first thing in the morning. Billy walked Jodi home to her house and then walked back to his house.
Billy said hello to his parents and went up to his room. He took out his notebook and wrote down the names of the suspects, Jimmy and Tommy, and then Billy wrote “NO” next to the names. Then he went to bed early—around 8:30. He didn’t usually go to bed that early, but the case really tired him out. “This detective stuff is really hard work,” he thought. Billy didn’t have any trouble sleeping that night. He fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
The next day was Saturday. Billy got up really early so he and Jodi could get started on the case and hopefully solve the case that day. However, when Billy looked out his window, he saw it was raining. “Darn! We’ll never solve the case today. Mom and dad will never let me out of the house while it’s raining. They are always worried I’ll catch a cold,” he said to himself. Billy was right. When he went downstairs, his parents told him he couldn’t go outside until it stopped raining.
Billy called Jodi to tell her he couldn’t come over until it got nice out again. Jodi said, “That’s ok. I can come over to your house. I’m sure my parents won’t mind. I’ll be right over."
“OK,” Billy said. Try to think of other suspects and anything else you might think is important on your way over.” She said she would and then hung up.
When Jodi got to Billy’s house, they went up to his room, which he was using for a temporary office since his real office was outside. “Why don’t we dust for fingerprints when we go back to my house?” Jodi suggested.
“I don’t have any way of doing that,” Billy answered. “Besides, how would we be able to tell who’s fingerprints they were? We can’t compare them with any others because we don’t have any other fingerprints.”
“Oh, yeah. Sorry,” Jodi said disappointedly.
Jodi and Billy decided to call Jimmy to see if he could come over. “Maybe he’ll have some ideas or he might remember seeing something. It’s worth a shot,” Billy told Jodi. She agreed.
Jimmy came right over, but he couldn’t help much. He didn’t remember seeing anything unusual. They spent the next few hours trying to think of something. It was getting closer to lunch time, so they decided to take a break. Jimmy and Jodi went home for lunch and promised they’d be back as soon as they ate.
During lunch, Billy’s mother asked him how the case was going. “Not good,” he answered. “Every angle is a dead end. We only have two suspects, and they are both innocent.”
“That’s too bad,” his mom replied. “How hard could it be to find a blue diary with white flowers and red around the edges?” Billy pretended not to notice that comment, but he wondered to himself how she knew what the diary looked like. After all, he never mentioned it. “Well, finish your lunch,” she continued. “Your father and I need to run some errands, so we’re trusting you to behave while we’re gone. He’s waiting in the car. We won’t be gone long.” Then she left the house.
As soon as his mother was out of the house, Billy decided to start snooping around. There was only one way his mother could know what the diary looked like. He searched the house from top to bottom. Nothing. Not a sign of the diary anywhere. He was just about to give up hope when he remembered something. “The desk!” he exclaimed. Billy’s parents had a nice old desk in the living room that he wasn’t allowed to go into. Too many important papers that a young boy might get into. “If that diary is anywhere in the house, it has to be in the desk!”, he yelled out loud. He started looking through the desk but didn’t find anything. “Great! It’s locked,” he said to himself when he tried one of the drawers. He searched all over the desk and finally found a key hidden underneath the blotter. As he turned the key and opened the drawer slowly, he prayed that the diary was there. It was! He found the diary!
Just as he opened the drawer, he heard his parents come in the house. He quickly pulled out the diary, closed the drawer, and locked it back up, putting the key back underneath the blotter. His mother came in the house and found Billy sitting in a chair by the desk holding the diary.
“What are you doing with Jodi’s diary?” he asked. His mother didn’t answer. She just stood there shocked that she had been found out. “I knew something was up when you knew what the diary looked like. I never told you,” he continued. His mother swallowed hard.
“All right. Yes, I did it! Jodi’s mother and I wanted the two of you to become friends. We knew you’d never be friends on your own, so we decided to help you along. We knew if Jodi’s diary was stolen, she would ask you to help find it, and the two of you would be forced to speak and hopefully become friends. And it worked, too,” she said, very proud of what she had done.
“Very sneaky, Mom,” Billy said, smiling. He got up from the chair and went over to the phone. “I guess I better call Jodi and tell her I found her diary,” he said as he dialed the phone.
The second Jodi found out about her diary, she asked him to come to her house right away and return it to her. He explained to her what happened to it, and they both had a good laugh about it.
That night before bed, he took out his notebook and wrote “SOLVED” next to the case number. From that day on, Billy and Jodi were friends. She spread the word about his detective agency, and he had enough mysteries to solve until school started again in September. It had turned out to be a good summer after all. Not only did he make some extra money, but he found a new friend, too.
END
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