The Missing Moose Mystery

Karen Walker was playing baseball in her best backyard. Just then Rachel and Marissa walked up. Karen Walker, Marissa Tate and Rachel Bedford were detectives. Together they were the 'True Crew'. "Mary's dad is going away for a business trip", Rachel said. "Mary is staying with us", added Marissa. Karen groaned. "That'll be hard", she sighed "Mary's so bossy! She'll take over my room. Why can't she stay with her mom?", asked Karen. "Remember her mom died?", said Rachel. "She did?", asked Karen. "I thought you knew that", said Marissa. "I didn't", said Karen.

Ding dong!!!!! I'll get it, cried Karen.  "KKAAARRREEEENNNN!!!"  It was Mary. Yikes!! whispered Rachel. Mary had a belt with scissors, knives, glue, dirty crayons and sticky paper. Karen was surprised. Mary was never crafty. "Let's go now",said Mary in a different voice. "Time to clean up your room". Mary had a mini boom box attached to a bracelet, chewing gum and had an ipod. "How much music does she need?" Marissa and Rachel asked coming up beside her.

Mary had a blast at Karen's house. She broke a lamp, phone, flower vase and made Karen's room a mess with a lot of dirty stuff. When Mary wasn't looking, Karen made a face at her. Rachel and Marrisa tried to cheer her up by saying not to worry her dad would be back soon. But Karen wasn't counting on it.  

One day Karen's mom took them to the zoo. Mary liked the moose, Karen liked the snakes, Marrisa liked the Perican Falcons, Rachel liked the lizard and Karen's mom liked the bat. 

Karen’s mom bought them snacks, and Mary forced Karen to share her snacks. Karen told Marrisa, and Mary was tripped by her.  When Marrisa got in trouble, she told Mrs. Walker what Mary did to Karen. Mary got some scolding, and Mrs. Walker bought Karen some new snacks.

Rachel and Marrisa were staying over for a sleepover. They had made plans to clean up Karen’s room, and get it back in order. But their cleaning up would have to wait.

When they got home a TV announcement said a moose was missing from the zoo. Karen, Marrisa and Rachel tried to convince Mrs. Walker to take them back to the zoo. "No is the answer girls, sorry!"

That night the girls snuck out to investigate.  They had packed backpacks with flashlights, cell phones, and notepads with pens. Karen took a magnifying glass just in case.

They all dressed in dark clothes, and quietly went out the sliding glass door.   They were careful walking past Mary’s room. She was a light sleeper, and woke up at the tiniest noises.

They walked the two blocks to the zoo and went through the other end of the gate. They heard noises near the area where the moose were kept. They looked through the bars and saw the zoo keeper. But that wasn’t all. The moose was standing right next to him!

“I can’t wait till the authorities learn that I have found the moose again. Just kidding, I’m not telling anyone that I found you until I get enough money to get one of you”, the zoo keeper cackled. The girls were speechless. The moose had been in the zoo all along, but there was no way they were going to let the zoo keeper get away with this. They left the moose’s gate and walked over to the zebra’s gate. Karen took out her cell phone and started dialing the police. Meanwhile Marrisa took out her notebook and started writing down what she saw. Rachel took out her cell phone and started taking pictures of the zoo keeper with the moose.

The zoo keeper heard the click of Rachel’s phone. He whirled around to see who was in the zoo. He grabbed the stick that was by the gate and left the moose’s pen clutching the stick close to him. “Who’s there!!” he shouted. The girls rushed to hide behind some bales of hay. The zoo keeper walked towards them and the girls were trembling with fear. Karen had a plan. She huddled with Rachel and Marrisa and told them her plan.

Rachel sneaked behind some bales of hay and reached behind the zoo keeper unnoticed. She took a smaller stick and banged it against a pole. The zoo keeper whirled around to see, but Rachel had quickly ducked behind a box. While the zoo keeper was advancing towards Rachel’s hiding place, Marrisa had snuck towards the moose’s pen. She opened the door and slammed it again to make it look like someone had just gone into the pen. The zoo keeper turned again and started going towards the pen. It was dark enough for Marrisa to dive behind the hay before the zoo keeper could see her.

While Rachel and Marrisa were playing games with the zoo keeper, Karen had been busy. She had called the police on the cell phone and was now whispering to them where she was and was relaying what was going on. The police said they would be on their way and Karen started to help Marrisa and Rachel.

Soon police sirens could be heard from near the gate. The zoo keeper ran to the pen and fumbled with the lock. Two policewomen had marched up to the gate and started banging on it. The zoo keeper turned pale, but you couldn’t tell because it was dark.

“Open up, it’s the police!” shouted one of the police officers. The zoo keeper finished locking the moose’s pen and went to open the gate. He was met with two police officers. The taller policewoman had blonde hair and her name tag read ‘Julie’. The other police officer had brown hair tied up and a name tag that said ‘Marie’. “We are the officers investigating the missing moose case and we need to search the pen for clues. Can you let us in?” Marie asked. The zoo keeper turned white as if he had seen a ghost. “Is there something wrong?” Julie asked.

“I would love to take you, but do you have a search warrant?” the zookeeper asked. Marie turned red. “No, but we can get one if you need it” she answered, showing no sign of embarrassment. Julie took out a walkie-talkie and said something into it.

Soon they heard more police sirens outside. A young man came out. His name tag said Joe.  “Now we have a search warrant” Julie said with a satisfied smile. The man handed Julie a piece of paper. The zookeeper read it, and turned redder than a tomato. “Okay you can search the pen” he agreed. But as the girls watched he led them to the horse pen.

“Hey! That isn’t the moose pen!” Marrisa shouted, jumping up from her hiding place. The police officers turned around, and the zookeeper went pale again.

“Why are you in the zoo at this hour, young lady?” The zookeeper asked sharply. Karen jumped up, along with Rachel. “I am the one who called you” Karen said to the police officers. “Your name is Karen, right?” Julie asked. Karen nodded.  

“Sir, take us to the moose pen, or we take you to court” Joe ordered.  Reluctantly, the zookeeper led the police officers to the moose pen, with the girls trailing behind.

It was Julie, who discovered the moose. She had been looking at the ground, when she heard sounds coming from the caged in part of the moose’s pen. She looked inside, and saw the moose.   

           When she questioned the zookeeper, he looked so red, Rachel thought he was going to burst. 

            “I only hid him so I could get the money” the zookeeper protested. “You are still coming with us to court” Marie answered.

              The officers drove the girls home.

               When the police car drove up, Mrs. Walker was standing on the porch. “Where have you girls been?!” she cried. After she heard the whole story from Julie, she thanked the officers, and they left. The girls got SCOLDED for sneaking out of the house, but Mrs. Walker was the type of mom that always looks at the good side of things.

                Mary of course was upset that the true crew got famous, and she didn’t. But the girls were fine with that. After Mary left, the girls did some major cleaning of Karen’s whole house.

        But the girls knew this wasn’t their last mystery!