Chapter 3:
The Charming Detective Agency
"Hey, Bro, what’s for lunch?" Lilly asked as she finished her cold cereal and fruit for breakfast.
"Hmm…" Riley smiled playfully. "Let’s see…I believe that it should be des sandwiches avec du beurre d’arachides et de la confiture."
"Peanut butter and jelly," Lilly guessed. "And what’s for dinner?"
"Nouilles et fromage en casserole avec des saucisses."
"Macaroni and cheese with hot dogs…" Lilly finished the milk in her bowl and put it down on the table, then glared at her brother. "Just because you say it in French doesn’t make it taste better."
Riley gritted his teeth. Cooking wasn’t something that came easily to him, and everything that he and Lilly had eaten in the past few months came from a can or box. They both missed their father’s meals. “I’m doing the best I can,” he said.
Lilly got up to put her dishes in the sink. "Bro, I’m going to be coming home late," she said. "I have to work on my group project at the library."
"Oh, that project on the Sahara Desert? Good luck with that," Riley said. He had offered his help to her a few days ago, but Lilly had declined, saying that she and the three other girls working with her would be able to handle it themselves. “What time do you think you’ll be home?”
“Hmm…” Lilly thought for a moment. “After dinner. Especially if you’re making it.”
Riley gave a wry chuckle. “Then be home by five o’clock then. All right?”
Lilly nodded. She’d been given permission to travel freely between home and school when she had started third grade, after years of being escorted by either her father or brother. Some evenings, she would stop at the library, or do a little bit of shopping with her allowance before going home.
The two of them walked to the door of their modest house. “I’ll see you tonight,” Lilly said, picking up a small, heavy leather book bag that had been a hand-me-down from Riley from his days in elementary school.
"Be safe," Riley said.
Lilly waved goodbye as she opened the door of the cottage and shut it behind her. It was a cool late September morning, and the walk to school at this time of year was pleasant. As she made her way towards the intersection of their small residential side street to the main road, she saw two familiar figures.
"Good morning, Morgan, Meredith!" Lilly said, waving.
Lilly’s two classmates were waiting for her at the corner. Morgan was the shorter of the two, but still taller than Lilly, with very short blonde hair and deep brown eyes. Meredith was taller and more slender, with curly brown hair and gray eyes. The three of them, along with another classmate, Nina, had been assigned to work together on a class geography project last week by Miss Miller, their beloved teacher.
"You’re late," Morgan said. "Come on, let’s hurry. We need to get there early so we can make sure the librarian reserves the room for us."
"We’ve got plenty of time!" Meredith protested. "Besides, we can go talk to the librarian during recess.”
"Yeah," Lilly added. Don’t worry about it."
The three girls continued down the street towards a cobblestone driveway that led to Second Street Elementary School and their fourth grade classroom. The first bell was still a short time away, and the children were playing outside on the jungle gym, on the swings, and talking to each other in short groups. Lilly glanced over at the small playground and scanned the children playing there, her brow furrowed.
"What’s wrong?" Meredith asked as she noticed Lilly’s worried look.
"I don’t see Nina," Lilly said.
"Hmm…that’s a problem," Morgan said. "She needs to talk about the desert."
"Maybe she’s already in class," Meredith said. The three of them decided to enter the school as one, and made their way down corridors crowded with students and teachers towards their classroom, Room 10, where Miss Miller was writing assignment instructions on the board in her neat, loopy cursive. A few of their classmates were present, but there was no sign of Nina.
"Nina’s not here either," Lilly said as she looked at the desk where Nina usually sat.
Miss Miller turned from the chalkboard to look at the three girls that had just entered. "Oh, good morning, dears. Nina’s gotten sick and she won’t be here today. I just heard from her mother."
"Oh, no…" Morgan looked downcast. "What will that mean for our project?"
"It sounded like it was just the bug that was going around, Morgan. I think Nina will be back with us this week," Miss Miller said. The bell rang, and she turned back to the chalkboard. "Girls, get into your seats, please."
"Yes, Miss Miller," the three of them chorused, as Lilly, Morgan and Meredith took their respective seats that were scattered across the classroom.
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As the midday chimes of the carillon echoed across the city, Riley finished the breakfast dishes and went to the icebox to take stock of the food he had remaining for the week. In order to save money, Riley only bought what was absolutely necessary, and that meant no after school snacks for Lilly unless they were fruits or other healthy items that required no preparation. He was about to take down the pad of paper that he used for grocery lists from its hanger on the wall when there was a knock on the door.
"Just one moment!" Riley shouted as he put down the list and ran over towards the door. He opened it to reveal two very well dressed young women standing outside, with frantic looks on their faces. Riley was momentarily flustered, until he realized his manners. “Good morning, ladies,” he said, hesitantly. “May I help you?”
"Are you Jasper Rowley?" said the young woman who was dressed in pink and had her copper hair pulled into a tight bun in back.
"Unfortunately, I am not. He was my father, and he passed away this past spring," Riley said, gravely. “I’m his son, Riley Rowley."
“Then, are you also an Imperial Detective?” The other woman, who had jet black hair and was wearing dark green, looked pleadingly at Riley.
“I am, but—" Riley started, but the woman in green spoke up before he could finish.
“Can you help us, please? We’ve been to five other detectives and no one will listen to us.”
More than six months since his last case. Riley almost wanted to say no, and return to his mundane life, but something inside him—like a fire that was beginning to die down—flared back to life, and Riley nodded. “I’d be happy to help you. It’s just…” Riley tried to find the right words to describe his situation, but decided that in this case the blunt truth would be best. "My, ah, detecting skills may have become a bit rusty. I’ll do all I can.”
"Thank you, oh, thank you!" said the woman in pink. "I’m Candace Bloom, and she is Sandra Domingo. We’ll tell you what’s going on once we’re inside."
Riley opened the door all the way for the two young ladies, and stretched out his arm towards the sofa, which was still covered with pages from the morning newspaper. "Please, pardon the mess," Riley said. "We’ll sit down, and have a spot of tea, and you can tell me what’s going on."
"Tea would be perfect, thank you very much," Sandra said.
One of the techniques of investigation work that Jasper had drilled into his son was how to talk to walk-in clients. It was a three step process:
1. Greet the client politely
2. Serve tea
3. Start asking questions
(Repeat Step 2 as needed)
After taking their coats, Riley went into the kitchen and put a steel kettle on the stove to boil. He then went to the cupboard to retrieve his mother’s heirloom tea set, and carefully set three cups, the sugar bowl, the creamer and the teapot onto a simple wooden tray. He reached into the pantry and picked up the tin of loose tea leaves, which he found to be alarmingly light. A look inside confirmed his worst fear—there was barely enough tea for one person, let alone three, so that meant Step 2 was out of the question. Riley tried not to panic until he noticed that there was an ancient jar of dried mint leaves hiding in the darkest corner of the pantry, behind of a can of corn. He retrieved the mint, took a large pinch of the dried leaves between his fingers and stuffed them into the diffuser along with the pathetic dregs of the tea leaves. Hopefully, this would work in SOME way.
A few minutes later, Riley brought out the improvised tea service to the sitting room and placed the tray between him and the two young women. "Help yourselves," Riley said, "but I apologize as to the quality of the tea…You know what they say about bachelors and cooking, ha ha ha." He blushed a little uneasily, but the two women took their cups and gave the tea a taste test.
"Hmm, very refreshing," Sandra said, inhaling the aroma.
“It’s, uh, the last remains of my father’s personal stock,” Riley said. “Now, if the two of you are settled, I’d like you to tell me why you need my services.” He sat back on the sofa with a pencil and a pad of paper, and prepared to take notes.
"Well…" Sandra took a sip of tea. "I’ll let Candace start, since it happened to her first," she said.
"Very well," Candace said. She put her teacup delicately on the saucer, laying her pinky finger on it in a ladylike manner to prevent it from clattering loudly. "It was about, oh, three days ago," she started. "That was when I noticed…but truthfully, it could’ve happened any time before that, I’m afraid. Sandra was over at my place where we were both preparing for the Cotillion that was happening at Lord Basil’s estate because she wanted to borrow some of my jewelry to go with her dress. That’s when I discovered that a pair of my earrings was missing."
Riley nodded. "Please continue," he said.
“I got the earrings as a birthday present from my grandmother when I was little,” Candace continued. “They’re not particularly rare or valuable, just…sentimental.”
"And they just happened to go with the gown I was wearing," Sandra said. "Ruby red with a lovely bustle back…"
"Can you describe these earrings?" Riley asked.
"They are heart-shaped rubies surrounded by tiny diamonds," Candace said. "Here…Maybe it’d be best if I draw you a picture." Riley handed her the notebook, and she opened it to a blank page. She drew a blocky heart shape, and surrounded it with small circles. "They’re post-style earrings, and fairly small. I’d say that the ruby was maybe…a quarter of an inch wide at its widest point."
Riley nodded as Candace handed back the notebook. "Once we discovered what happened," Candace continued, "we put on some different jewelry and left for the cotillion. That…was when an even stranger thing happened."
"Candace was talking about what happened with some of our friends," Sandra said, picking up where Candace left off. "And they told us that some of their jewelry disappeared. Small things…like earrings and pendants and such. Later that night, I decided to check for myself, and discovered that I had something missing from my jewelry box as well."
"So what was missing?" Riley asked.
"A gold locket," Sandra said. "Oval shaped, about an inch tall, with a diamond set in the front and an engraved inscription in the back. ‘To Doris from Frank.’ They were my great-grandparents…and if my family heard that I lost it, they’d KILL me."
Riley nodded, adding the details of the missing locket into his notebook. "You said there were others that had missing jewelry. How many?" he asked.
"I can’t really remember," Candace said, “but we talked to around five or six other girls before the dancing began.”
"Would it be possible for you to tell me who they are? I need to talk to them directly to find out what’s missing."
"Well…" Candace trailed off for a moment. "I know a few girls personally, but some of the others, I don’t know them by name.”
"Do you know if the Basil estate had a guest list?"
"I’m pretty sure they made a list of all the invitees," Candace said.
"Another thing," Riley said, "is that I would like to see where exactly the missing jewelry was before you noticed it was missing. Would that be possible for either of you?"
"That would be fine with me," Sandra said, "but I’m afraid I’m occupied for the rest of the day. If you want to, though, I will put in a word with my father and tell him that you’ll be coming by sometime." "I will probably try and visit as early as tomorrow," Riley said. "And you, Miss Bloom?" "Well, if you don’t mind, I am heading straight home right after this," Candace said. "I won’t have a whole lot of time to talk to you, though, since my voice lessons are this afternoon. You may follow me, if you like.""Certainly," Candace said, with a giggle and smile that made Riley blush.
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