The Case of The Missing Backpack by Edward G. Mason

A Sequel to The Mystery of the Black Hand Print Copyright 2010 Manson Household Press

It was Monday. The worst day of the school week. As I got off the bus, I tried to look optimistic about the new school week. It was hard. We had a French Test, a Music Test, and a really hard gymnastics project for Gym. I was not in the best mood. As I walked in the building I automatically noticed something. Albert Mats one of my "associates" didn't have his high security backpack on him. I asked him what was wrong but he said he'd tell me after lunch. Math was incredibly fascinating thanks to jokes and paper airplanes. Literature was fantastic. We were reading The Bobbit by J.L.L. Molkien. It's a great book. After my lunch of two cheese and ham sandwiches and a refreshing drink of fruit juice, and devotions, I quietly slipped away to the Science Room, our un-official meeting place. Albert looked upset. "What took you so long, man?" "Well, you know, lunch" I said smoothly. "So what's up with you?" "Well I was on Bus #2 this morning and I was about to get off when I noticed my backpack was gone. I couldn't bring forth accusations right away or the bus driver would’ve killed me. I asked her if I could look for it and she told me that no, I couldn't. Then she practically booted me off the bus. So yeah, that's my story." "Max, you notice anything suspicious about the kids in our class?" "No Jack, nothing" " Well we all know the prime suspects, so here's what we do." "We can either sneak into their homes at the dead of night or search their lockers." Obviously everybody chose the second option. So the next day after a good sleep we got to work at school. We knew that most of the girls in our class went somewhere or rather at recess. Probably the washroom, we presumed. So, we decided to strike at a less busy time of day. After everybody was outside for lunch. We searched Kate, Nosila, Nancy, and Anne's lockers. Max was the first to find something. In Nosila's locker laid a giant lock that had obviously been scorched by a welder. We gathered it into a evidence bag. I also found two of Jordan's notebooks in Nancy's locker, plus a piece of black thread from Albert's backpack. After school, we all biked to my basement lab and examined the evidence closely. Evidently Kate had grabbed it while he was reading, stuffed it into her backpack and then walked away off the bus. Then Nosila and Nancy must have fought over who would bring it home and open it. Thus the thread. Nosila had won, brought it home, scorched it and then handed the notebooks to Nancy the next day. How to confront them.... We thought up a trap. Summer Vacation was only a day away. We legally hacked into a girl in our classes’ e-mail account and sent invitations to them for a small get-together at Bayfront Park. Obviously the girls had noticed we had the evidence now, but they didn't think we'd be as sly as to trap them. On the first day of Summer Vacation, the day of the "get-together" we hired a actor to be Josie, the girl whose e-mail we had hacked into. She had a tape-recorder and a walkie-talkie in her pocket. We quietly hid in the bushes and listened in. We couldn't stop burping because of all the rootbeer we had bought at a shack. Eventually we taped each other's mouths shut. Finally after the "get-together" we listened to the tape recorder. Sigh... nothing interesting yet...Yawn..."Hey wait we got something!" I exclaimed! "Yep, Albert will never find out, I know...." "I couldn't find the stuff we stole guys.." "Ha that's because I got Conner to get rid of it just in case they find it!" "Bye girls" "Bye!" Yes Victory! It reminded me of a song by Tom Cochrane. We hacked once more and told the unsuspecting girls to meet us at Limeridge for "coffee." It worked! We came 20 minutes late and automatically went all out. First, we rubbed in their face what we knew. Then we convicted them of stealing private property. Next we laughed at their disheartened expressions. Then we told them to stop stealing Albert's stuff and to get lost before we called the cops. They actually believed us and went running as fast as they could to the girl's washroom, the only place they knew they were safe. We all laughed and went to a barbeque at Max's house. What a great start to summer!

The End (For now)