Chapter 4:

The Cinderella Cleaning Caper (3)

The Charming Detective Agency


The bell for the end of lunchtime recess rang, and the students in Miss Miller’s class slowly filed, single file, back into the building. As Lilly entered the classroom, Miss Miller called to her.

"Lilly, could you do me a huge favor?" she asked.

"Um…I could, what would you like me to do?" Lilly replied.

Miss Miller took a folder off of her desk, which had Nina’s name written on the outside in her neat cursive. "On your way home from school today, would it be possible for you to deliver this to Nina’s house?"

Lilly accepted the folder. "I can do that, but Meredith and Morgan and me, we’re working on our project in the library. So I can’t do it until after we’re done. Is that all right?"

Miss Miller smiled. "That’s fine, Lilly," she said. "I thought that maybe Nina would want to catch up on the work that she missed." The last of the students filed inside, and Miss Miller ushered Lilly back to her seat.

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The Bloom house was a three-story, white stone house, with huge windows flanked by rose-colored shutters. It was situated on a large, shady lawn and set apart from the rest of the street by an elegant wrought iron fence with a double gate that opened onto the cobblestone path that led to the front doors. Candace approached the bell pull on the outside and pulled the handle. There was the faint sound of bells ringing, and the front door opened to reveal what Riley surmised was the family butler. He was a tall, somewhat stocky man, with black hair streaked with gray, and a salt-and-pepper mustache. Balanced across his nose was a pair of brass pince-nez glasses, and his tweedy suit matched his facial hair perfectly (but Riley didn’t dare make that comparison to his face.)

"Oh, Miss Candace, you’re back earlier than expected," he said. As he noticed Riley, his eyes narrowed. "And who is this gentleman?"

"Pardon the interruption. My name is Riley Rowley," Riley said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his insignia—an engraved badge that was required to be carried by all licensed Imperial detectives. It was usually housed inside a velvet box that was presented with the badge to all persons who passed the examination. "My services were requested by Miss Bloom.”

"I see," the butler said, nodding. "Come right on in." He walked over to the double gate and undid the latch. The gate opened smoothly, and with a wave of his hand, he showed Riley and Candace inside.

"Thank you, Ben," Candace said as she opened the front door of the house. There were chattering voices within the house, and Candace led Riley by the source—a parlor filled with older women playing bridge.

"My mother’s weekly bridge group," Candace said. “In case you’re wondering, I don’t suspect them at all. She never brings them anywhere near my room.” Riley nodded, making a mental note. They stopped by a staircase, which was flanked by an ornate bannister. “Come on, we’ll need to go up two flights."

Candace’s bedroom was on the third floor. It was dominated by a massive carved cherry wood wardrobe, along with a matching mirrored vanity, strewn with bottles of perfume, lotion and other female accoutrements. Riley tried not to let his eyes stray. He was in a girl’s bedroom—a beautiful girl’s beautiful bedroom—and this needed to be strictly business related.

"Here," Candace said, as she stepped over to a slender chest of drawers. "This is where I keep all my jewelry." She opened the top of the chest, which was a lid to a storage cubby below. "And in here was where I kept my ruby earrings." She held up a flocked navy blue velvet box. "They were in here."

"So, they were not out in plain sight, and you noticed that they were missing when you or Sandra opened the box and found them gone?" Riley asked.
"Yes. And they were the only things missing," Candace said. "I have other jewels…but these were the only ones missing. I looked through everything and nothing else was gone.”

“Aside from yourself, who else in your household has access to this room on a regular basis?"

"Well, not a lot of people aside from myself,” Candace said. “My mother and father, my younger sister, the butler, and the maids from the cleaning service.”

“Your family uses a cleaning service? Do they get the same personnel every time?” Riley asked.

Candace shrugged. “I don’t know,” she said. “They’re scheduled for Friday mornings, while I’m having music lessons. All I know is that they do it every week. They clean and polish all the furniture…”

Riley stepped back and looked at the box. “Were they here they day you discovered your earrings were missing?”

“I’m afraid so,” Candace said. Riley sighed, patting his father’s prized fingerprinting kit in his jacket pocket. No fingerprints to go on. Of course, it’s never as easy as that, he thought. It was time to take the questioning in a new direction.

“Tell me about your butler. What are his duties?” Riley asked.

“He’s been in charge of household upkeep for around 20 years or so,” Candace said. “He answers the door, supervises the cooks and he accepts all the deliveries.” Her expression suddenly turned puzzled. "But you don’t think he was the one who stole my jewelry, do you?"

"Why would I think that? I just need to find out who may have had access to your room," Riley said, equally puzzled.

Candace chuckled. "Oh, I thought you were one of those detectives that always thinks that the butler did it, like in the detective serials," she said.

"I’m much, much better than that," Riley said, smiling. He realized that Candace had a nice laugh, and blushed.

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The final bell for school had rang about forty-five minutes ago, but Lilly, Morgan and Meredith were camped out in the library, with their books, notes, pictures and diagrams for their group presentation on the Sahara Desert spread out around them. Morgan was the one in charge of researching the desert’s various animals, Meredith was the one in charge of researching the people and their customs, and Lilly was concentrating on the Nile River. As for Nina, their absent friend, she was doing her segment of the presentation on the ancient Egyptians, focusing on the pyramids and the Great Sphinx. The presentation was almost completed, save for Nina’s portion. When the girls had parted ways for the weekend on Friday afternoon, Nina promised to bring her work with her on Monday morning so the four of them could assemble their presentation. Right now there was no way of knowing whether or not the girls were ready or not.

"I hope she’s finished with her work by now," Morgan said. "I don’t want to get a bad grade on this."

"Don’t worry," Lilly said. "I’m going to drop off Nina’s homework at her house. She’ll tell me how much work she’s done on her part."

"But what if she’s still sick?" Morgan asked. “If you catch it too, then—“

"You’re such a worrywart, Morgan," Meredith scolded. "It’s going to be fine."

"Yeah, sounds like she’s just got a stomach bug," Lilly said. "Like the one Bobby had when he threw up on the gym floor."

"EWWWW!" the three girls chorused at the unpleasant memory. There was a sharp "shh!" from the librarian, who was shelving books.

"Sorry," Lilly said, in a loud whisper.

The three girls returned to their books, but Morgan looked back up at her two friends. "If Nina’s still sick by Thursday when we do our presentation, can we just do this by ourselves?"

Meredith let out an exasperated sigh. "I told you, everything’s going to be fine! We can just leave her part out."

"Yeah, Morgan," Lilly said. "You worry way too much, and you’ll never be happy if you do. Honestly, you sound like my Bro sometimes."

"But, if Nina can’t do her part, maybe we should all do a little bit of what she was going to do. I don’t think it’s hard to learn about the pyramids," Morgan said.

"Well, yeah…" Meredith realized that Morgan had a point, but just then the distant sound of the city carillon drifted into the library.

"It’s four o’clock! I’ve got to go," Lilly said as she picked up stacks of paper and books and tucked them back into her backpack. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

"Yeah, let’s go," Meredith said. "And not another word from you, Morgan."

Morgan sighed as she put papers back in her bag. "Then, same time tomorrow, then?" Meredith and Lilly nodded.
"Hopefully, tomorrow we’ll have Nina here too," Lilly said.

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As Riley left the Bloom household, he waved to the butler. “May I talk to you for a few minutes?” he asked.
“Don’t see why not,” the butler said. He extended his hand. “Angus McGregor. And you are?”
“Riley Rowley.” He showed Mr. McGregor his insignia again. “I’ve got a few questions about the services you provide to the household, if you don’t mind.”

It was a warm and pleasant afternoon, and the two of them started walking around the beautiful green lawn that ringed the house. Riley explained what had happened with Candace, and Mr. McGregor nodded. “I was practically tearing up the house trying to look for those earrings,” he said. “She got them from her grandmother right before she passed, you know.”

“She mentioned that you were in charge of the entire household. Can you tell me about the maid service you use?” Riley asked.

“It’s a little operation, Cinderella Cleaning Service,” Mr. McGregor said. “Based downtown. They service a lot of homes around here. I’ve got their card, if you like.”

“I’ll gladly take it,” Riley said.

He followed Mr. McGregor back into the house, where he was handed a white business card with the company’s address and phone number, along with the wording “Ask about our Glass Slipper Service.” Is that like white glove service? Riley thought to himself, as he thanked Mr. McGregor and departed.

He leaned up against a fence post and opened up his notebook, marking the Bloom’s house off with a check. I’ll have to go by that cleaning service, Riley thought, but first, I’d better find out who attended that cotillion. He checked his watch—it was a little after four o’clock. Lilly will be home in an hour. He opened the piece of paper with the Basil estate’s address written on it, and realized it was a short walk away. Hopefully, someone should be home, he thought, as he checked his bearings and walked briskly down the street.

After stopping passerby for directions, he was in front of the red brick gates to the Basil estate. Riley rang the doorbell and was greeted by the family butler, who introduced himself as Mr. LeClair when Riley presented his insignia and stated the reason for his visit. He was a balding man with curly white hair from temple to temple and horn rimmed glasses, dressed somewhat casually in just a button-down shirt with a red tie and gray trousers. Riley was guided inside, and seated at a desk in Mr. LeClair’s office, which was in the front room of the servants’ quarters. After a short conversation, Mr. LeClair departed the room, and returned with a large book—an address book of the Basil family’s friends, acquaintances and frequent party guests.

"Let’s see…there were about fifty invitees to the cotillion," Mr. LeClair said, as he opened the book. “I marked down their names when I sent them an invitation…Ah. That pencil mark right there,” he said.

"I need to know the names and addresses of people who were invited to the cotillion that were Miss Domingo’s age," Riley said. “And their phone numbers, as well, if you have them.”

"Let’s see…that would be about fifteen young ladies. The rest of the guests were mostly associates of Lord Basil." He opened the book to the section that was marked with a tab marked A-B. “I’ll read them off to you.”

Riley nodded and began copying down information in his notebook, omitting Candace Bloom’s information when Mr. LeClair reached it.

“This is a tremendous help, sir,” Riley said, as he got up to shake Mr. LeClair’s hand. “By the way, has anyone from this household reported any jewelry missing as well?" Riley asked.

"Not at all. There are no complaints from Mrs. Basil, and young Miss Basil is seven years old.”

Mr. LeClair took the book back into the main house, and showed Riley out through the gate. “I should mention,” he said, “that Master Basil thought very highly of your father, and was quite saddened to hear about his passing.”

Riley gave a weak smile. “Thank you. Please send him my regards,” he said.