
Mysterious Housebreakings
Chapter I: Lucy's horrible experience
It was a dark and stormy July afternoon. Sherry Rathbone was sitting in her comfortable rocking-chair, listening to the latest Metallica album and reading A.C. Doyle´s The Hound of Baskervilles. She knew it almost by heart but every time she was reading it again she loved it like it was the first time.
Brief look at the watch showed her that it was 4:55, almost time for her afternoon tea. She put the book away and wanted to get the water heated when suddenly her cell-phone rang.
“Oh no,†Sherry said to herself. “Not now.â€
She guessed that her tea would have to be postponed because every time somebody called her, something had happened. She answered the phone.
“Yes?â€
“Hi Sherry, this is Lucy. I must tell you something?†said the cheerful voice of Sherry´s best friend, Lucy Baker.
“Hi, couldn´t it wait? I don´t have much time now.†Sherry lied. Lucy always knows the best time for her phone calls.
“Nonsense, I have something which might interest you, dear Holmes. Meet me at my place in ten minutes, OK?†Lucy hanged up before Sherry could refuse.
“Oh no, she always knows how to spoil my tea-time,†Sherry was quite upset but suddenly the “what if†idea came to her mind. What if this could be the beginning of a new mystery? Curiosity replaced anger and our teenage detective put a red flannel shirt over her black t-shirt and left the house.
Rain had stopped by the time Sherry Rathbone reached the house where Lucy lived.
“I hope this is important,†said Sherry, after her friend opened the door.
“Sure, sure, it is important, darling. Please come in. I´ll tell you everything inside.â€
They entered Lucy´s room and sat down on the bed.
“Well ...?†with every chance of the new mystery Sherry was becoming more and more curious.
“Well ...†Lucy smiled at her friend with her irresistible Rita Hayworth-like smile. “Look at this.†She handed her friend a copy of newspaper.
Sherry took a look at the article. She had already read the very same article this morning.
“Oh yeah, one of those strange housebreakings – everybody at home bound and gagged, house ransacked, nothing stolen. I have been thinking about it recently, four houses broken into, nothing stolen, no clue, no connection between them, only big nothing. Maybe some freak who enjoys tying people up.â€
“Five houses,†said Lucy.
“What?†Sherry was astonished. “But they didn´t ...â€
“No, nothing was in the papers about the fifth home invasion, because I didn´t report it.â€
“You didn´t? You wanna say you ... your house ...?†Sherry was surprised as hell and now she certainly didn´t regret missing her tea.
“Yes, the last night they were here. They tied me up and gagged me as the other victims and then they ransacked all the things and left, they didn´t touch me at all. After more than ten hours I managed to untie myself. Nothing was stolen so I decided not to report it to the police. I told nobody, neither my parents, they are on the business trip out of town, nobody knows but you.â€
Sherry sat there on Lucy´s bed, her mouth was open and she wasn´t able to say a word.
“OK Lucy,†said Sherry after five minutes of thinking. “Now I am going to ask you several questions. Can I?â€
“But of course, let´s start.â€
“Great. So, maybe you should tell me exactly what happened yesterday night.â€
“Well, it was certainly after midnight.†A pretty raven-haired girl started to tell her horrible experience. “I was sleeping and suddenly I was woken up by some noises. I opened my eyes and saw a silhouette of a man. He was standing in my room. His gun was pointed at me. He said he didn´t wanna hurt me and that I should stay quiet and cooperate, you know, like in the movie. I was so scared I wasn´t able to move. He stuffed my mouth with my very own scarf and taped it shut with three pieces of duct tape and then he tied my wrists behind my back with some rope, ankles and knees as well, tied me to my bed and left my room. I struggled very hard and when I managed to get myself free after more than ten hours nobody was in the house, only the mess on the floor.â€
“Oh, that must have been awful, being tied up and gagged for such a long time. You don’t know how I am glad you are alright, Lucy. So, you saw only one man?â€
“Yeah.â€
“Do you think there were more of them in the house?â€
“Hard to say. I didn´t see anyone else and didn´t hear anybody either.â€
“Well, can you describe the one who tied you up?â€
“He wasn´t big, actually he was quite small, maybe smaller than I, he was dressed in black and wore a ski mask so I wasn´t able to see how he looked.â€
“Well, any special marks? Tattoo? Perfume? Or do you think you have heard his voice before?â€
“No, nothing special and I never heard that voice either.â€
“OK and you say nothing was stolen, just like the other invasions, right?â€
“No, not a single thing is missing.â€
Sherry thought for a while.
“OK, that can mean only one thing. The intruder or intruders were looking for something particular, something that ain’t yours, something that doesn’t belong to this house something that may have been hidden here only by chance.â€
“But why here? ...†Lucy looked little bit confused.
“Quickly, bring me all the newspapers containing the articles about the intrusions. I get the addresses and then we are going to check those places and take a look around. We must find the connection.â€
“I think I got it.†Sherry, standing in front of the site of the first invasion, looked quite proud of herself.
“But I don´t get it.†Lucy looked even more confused than before. For one hour she was running around the town with her friend, watching her “working†but she did not know what to think of it. They started at her place where the last invasion occurred. Sherry went round Lucy’s house several times and then without a word ran to 26 Carter St, where the previous invasion happened. Lucy followed her.
“I thought so,†said Sherry after they reached that house.
“Thought what?†asked confused Lucy.
“Later, later, we still have three places to go. I must be sure.†Shouted Sherry and started running again.
“Look, nothing could be simpler than this. Five home invasions, five random houses completely ransacked, nothing stolen ...â€
Both girls were standing in front of the house at Roubik Street where the first strange invasion took place several days ago and catching their breath.
“Well Lucy, did you notice anything remarkable during our little jogging?â€
“Ehm ... to be honest I did not.â€
“Have a good look. What do you see in front of this door?â€
“Only a plaster dwarf.â€
“Exactly, that’s it.â€
“What? They were looking for a dwarf?â€
“Of course not, but don’t you have by any accident a similar one in front of your house?â€
“Yeah, we do ...â€
“And so do the other victims. Do you understand now?â€
“Those guys are breaking into the houses with plaster dwarves?â€
“Apparently!â€
“But why?â€
“These dwarves are the connection we need. I am almost sure that somebody has hidden something into the house which has the plaster dwarf in front.â€
Lucy was speechless with amazement. This happened to her every time Sherry started to use her deductions and solved the crimes only like that. She only stood there with her mouth open and waited for her friend to tell her more.
Sherry took out the map of town from beneath her shirt.
“Here ... here ... here ... here and finally here. These are the places of all the housebreakings.†Sherry made 5 black points with a marker on the map. “You see, they are all pretty close to one place.†She pointed her finger at the point in the map that was proximately in the middle of irregular circle bounded by five black marks.
“The town gallery?â€
“Yes, the gallery.â€
“What connects our gallery with these houses?â€
“It is not so hard to guess if you read the news about crime regularly, dear Lucy. Last week Family of bones, a precious painting by Vincent Furnier, a French modern painter, was stolen from the gallery during the daylight. You probably heard about it. There were five robbers. They left in their car and cops were after them. Their car broke down, so they had to run away on their feet. They split and disappeared among the houses. One of them was shot and died, three were arrested and the last one escaped. The painting wasn´t found.â€
Lucy was more than surprised. She would have never thought that breaking into her house was connected to the robbery that took place a week earlier. But on the other hand she wasn’t much convinced.
“Well, one shot, three arrested and the fifth one got away with the painting.â€
“Maybe Lucy, maybe ... but I don’t think this is what happened.â€
“And what do you think that happened?â€
“Well ... the car breaks down and the robbers leave it and split. One of them is running away with the painting, he is shot but he somehow manages to lose the cop who was after him. He feels that he won’t be able to run for a long time so he decides to hide the painting. He chooses the house with the plaster dwarf, I don’t know if it was done by purpose or not but it doesn’t matter. He gets into the building by the basement window, hides the painting somewhere inside, leaves the house and continues to run. After a while he falls on the pavement and dies of his wounds.â€
“And now his ghost is searching the houses with plaster dwarves and looking for his painting?†asked Lucy jokingly but was sure that it was no ghost who tied her up.
“Of course not, there are several possibilities. Either hiding the picture into the house with the plaster dwarf was the part of the plan in case something went wrong, but I, personally, don’t believe in this, or shortly before his death he met one of his partners, the one who got away, and told him about the place he hid it. He didn’t tell him the address he told him only about the plaster dwarf and now our little fella is searching all the suitable houses in the area one by one, looking for it. The case is practically solved.â€
“Well, maybe, but you still don’t have the painting and you still don’t have the guy who did it.’
“Only a detail, dear Lucy. Something tells me that this is going to change tonight.â€
“OK, I don’t want to spoil your fun but I still think that the last guy disappeared with the picture and we will never hear about him again.â€