The Orchard Mystery

          Karen, are you packed?" called Marrisa from the van. "Yeah!, Rachel is too!", Karen yelled back. Karen and Rachel rushed to the van and got in. They were heading for an orchard, where they could pick cherries, strawberries and apples. "I am going to pick baskets and baskets of  fruits!" Rachel grinned. "Hey ! Sshh!! this is my favorite radio station!", Marrisa shushed them. Suddenly an announcer made a surprising announcement. "There are many robberies reported near Richard's Orchard, so if you go fruit picking don't lose your wallets".

          Karen looked at Rachel, who looked at Marrisa. All of them were wide eyed. "So keep your distance folks!", the announcer continued, but the girls were not listening. They were thinking about a thief. When they finally reached, they oohed and aahed at the rows of fruit trees, bushes and baskets of fruits. There were cabins with people streaming in and out. The girls hopped out of the car. Karen's parents followed. When they reached the lobby, Karen's dad shook hands with his old friend Richard. Since Karen's dad was friends with the owner the group got a huge cabin. "Mom! can we go fruit picking", called Karen."It's 8.00 o clock honey , we can go tomorrow!" called her mom. Marissa sighed and turned on the T.V .Look at the this guys!" she cried. The new showed  reports of robbery, near Richard's orchard ."Girls its time to to go to bed!" called Karen's mom. The girls crawledi nto the beds. They all dreamed about robbery, diamonds,handcuffs and fruit.

          The next day they decided to go fruit picking . The girls came out of the cabin when a young women came out of the cabin next door "Hello there!" She smiled warmly at them. "My name is Ashley, What are yours?" she asked.After introductions, a man out of the next cabin , "Hi !" Ashley called ,but the man quickly locked the door gave her an icy smile and left . he wasn't very friendly", Karen remarked after he left . "Don't worry Andy is just busy" Ashley replied ." Do you know what he does"? Rachel asked . "No but he has been locking his door since thief rumors have come up " Ashley answered . "Lets go have breakfast ,I am starving" Marrisa suddenly broke in . "Okay" laughed Ashley" lets eat" . They headed for the cafeteria  . Ashley and Karen's parents had omelets, and the girls had pancakes with strawberries ." Mom can we go fruit picking with Ashley?" Karen asked her mom." Sure " answered her mom "Yes! I want to pick cherries" Rachel squealed . "Girls you have to stay with Ashley or you'll get lost" warned Karen's Dad. "Stay together" said Ashley .So  the girls went with Ashley to pick fruits.

“Karen, are you packed?" called Marrisa from the van. “Yeah, Rachel is too!" Karen yelled back. Karen and Rachel rushed to the van and got in. They were heading for an orchard, where they could pick cherries, strawberries and apples. "I am going to pick baskets and baskets of fruits!" Rachel grinned. "Hey! Sshh!! This is my favorite radio station!” Marrisa shushed them. Suddenly an announcer made a surprising announcement. "There are many robberies reported near Richard's Orchard, so if you go fruit picking don't lose your wallets".

Karen looked at Rachel, who looked at Marrisa. All of them were wide eyed. "So keep your distance folks!” the announcer continued, but the girls were not listening. They were thinking about a thief. When they finally reached, they oohed and aahed at the rows of fruit trees, bushes and baskets of fruits. There were cabins with people streaming in and out. The girls hopped out of the car. Karen's parents followed. When they reached the lobby, Karen's dad shook hands with his old friend Richard. Since Karen's dad was friends with the owner the group got a huge cabin. "Mom! can we go fruit picking", called Karen."It's 8.00 o clock honey, we can go tomorrow!" called her mom. Marissa sighed and turned on the T.V .Look at this, guys!" she cried. The news showed reports of robbery, near Richard's orchard."Girls it’s time to go to bed!" called Karen's mom. The girls crawled into the beds. They all dreamed about robbery, diamonds, handcuffs and fruits.

The next day they decided to go fruit picking. The girls came out of the cabin when a young woman came out of the cabin next door "Hello there!" She smiled warmly at them. "My name is Ashley, What are yours?" she asked. After introductions, a man out of the next cabin, "Hi!" Ashley called, but the man quickly locked the door gave her an icy smile and left. He wasn't very friendly", Karen remarked after he left. "Don't worry Andy is just busy" Ashley replied." Do you know what he does"? Rachel asked. "No but he has been locking his door since thief rumors have come up “Ashley answered. "Let’s go have breakfast, I am starving" Marrisa suddenly broke in. "Okay" laughed Ashley" let’s eat". They headed for the cafeteria. Ashley and Karen's parents had omelets, and the girls had pancakes with strawberries. “Mom can we go fruit picking with Ashley?" Karen asked her mom. “Sure "answered her mom "Yes! I want to pick cherries" Rachel squealed. "Girls you have to stay with Ashley or you'll get lost" warned Karen's Dad. "Stay together" said Ashley .So the girls went with Ashley to pick fruits.

            Rachel, Karen and Marrisa picked so many fruits, they had to drag their baskets behind them.  They said good bye to Ashley and went into their cabin. While the girls were looking through their fruits, Karen noticed Andy walking outside. “Hi Andy”, she called. Andy looked around but didn’t see her. Karen watched him walk around the cabin, measuring walls and writing down things in a notebook. She returned to Marrisa and Rachel and told them about Andy. “Do you think he is the robber? He could be measuring his escape route”, suggested Rachel. “No, Ashley told me that he got here last week. The robber was here for a month”. Marrisa shook her head. “We should still add him to the list of suspects”, Karen said. “This is hard, let’s have lunch”, Rachel rubbed her growling tummy. So Marrisa put the baskets on the counter, Karen ran to call her parents and Rachel looked for her shoes. The group invited Ashley who agreed right away.

When they reached the cafeteria, Karen and Marrisa got a table. Ashley and Rachel came back with cups and plates. Karen’s mom filled cups with lemonade and Karen’s dad bought two large cheese pizzas. When they finished lunch a waiter came to pick the plates up. “Hi, I’m Larry”, said the waiter with a smile. Another waiter came up, frowned and said “I’m Max”. He picked up the cups and walked away. Larry watched him leave and shook his head. “Max started working last month, but he still isn’t friendly with anyone”, Larry sighed. Then he smiled, picked up the plates and said “Have a good day folks” and walked away. Karen watched him talk to a waitress. The waitress pointed to the kitchen and Larry walked in. Suddenly Karen jabbed Rachel and Marrisa with her elbow and pointed to the next table. Andy was talking to a man dressed in black. As the girls watched, Andy pulled out some money and gave it to the man, who counted it and then nodded. Then Andy and the man stood up and left. Max walked over to clean the table. He bent down and picked up something and then left without bothering to clean up the table.

Karen turned to Rachel and Marrisa. “What did he pick up?” she asked aloud. “More important, who is the man in black and why did Andy pay him”, Rachel mused. The girls got up and said good bye to Ashley. Then Karen’s parents took them back to the cabin. The girls played board games all afternoon. For dinner they had spaghetti with warm garlic bread. The girls climbed into their beds and tried to go sleep. Something outside kept rustling. Finally Rachel couldn’t stand it anymore. She marched up to the window and flung it open and Karen followed her. They leaned out the window and saw a black figure moving through Ashley’s backyard. As they watched the figure jumped the fence and went into Andy’s house. A light went up in Andy’s upstairs window. The girls saw two shadows huddled in the corner. Finally Rachel closed the window and they told Marrisa what they saw. Marrisa was as astonished as them, but she advised them to go to sleep. “We can tell Ashley tomorrow”, Marrisa promised.

The next morning they made breakfast in their cabin. The girls decided to make Karen’s parents a Thank-You-For-Bringing-Us-To-The-Orchard breakfast. Marrisa sat at the table and cut slices of bread into fruit shapes. Then she passed them to Karen. She put them in a pan until they were nice and hot. Then she took them out, and fried an egg in the pan. She put the egg in the bread, and added a slice of cheese on top of the egg. Then she put another slice of bread on top, to make a breakfast sandwich. She put the sandwiches on plates, and slid them across the counter to Rachel. Rachel cut slices of the fruit they picked, and arranged them on the plates.

After breakfast, they ran to Ashley’s house. Karen knocked on the door. “Ashley? It’s Karen”. Ashley opened the door. “Hi girls, what happened?” she asked when she saw their faces. “Ashley, someone went through your backyard last night” Rachel gasped for air after her run.

“What! I didn’t see anyone! Are you sure?” “They jumped your fence and went into Andy’s house” Karen explained. “Well, I want to make sure that nothing was taken any way. Do you want to come inside?” Ashley invited them in.

Ashley’s cabin was smaller than theirs because it was built for one person. It was a cozy space with a kitchen and reading room. The second floor had one bedroom. They went through the sliding glass door into the backyard. The backyard was a mess. There used to be flower pots set neatly in rows and a bird bath next to them. The flower pots were knocked all over the place with dirt spilling out of them and the bird bath lying upside down. Ashley was shocked and her mouth was hanging open. “How would someone jump that fence?” Karen wondered aloud pointing at the fence. It was a white wooden fence and was at least 6 feet high.

“I cannot believe that my backyard is such a mess when someone just went through and jumped the fence” Ashley managed to say. “But it was night time, they wouldn’t have been able to see anything” Rachel pointed out. “Let’s start cleaning up” Karen interrupted pointing to the mess.

Marrisa started picking up the flower pots and arranging them around the backyard. The others pitched in. While they were cleaning, Rachel found a piece of black fabric caught in one of the bushes. “Hey Guys! Look at this!” The others quickly came to see what Rachel was holding. “Maybe the person who was in your backyard last night was wearing this” Rachel said to Ashley holding up the piece of fabric. “That’s a possibility”, Ashley agreed. “Let’s hold on to it in case” Karen said, putting the piece of fabric into her pocket. When they were finished cleaning, it was already 11:30AM.

“Do you guys want to go fruit picking, in the rest of the time we have?” Marrisa asked while tying her shoe. “Sure, but you guys have to ask your parents first” Ashley said. The girls ran back to their cabin and asked Karen’s parents if they could go with Ashley. Karen’s parents agreed and thanked them for the lovely breakfast they made.

While they were walking towards the fruit picking area, Ashley said that she wanted to talk to Richard a little bit about what had happened the night before. They walked into Richard’s office. It was a huge office that could have been mistaken for a library if there was not a desk in the corner.

Richard was sitting at the desk and reading a thick book. He looked up at the sound of the door. “Hello” Richard greeted them. “Why might you be here?” “It seems like someone has vandalized my backyard last night” Ashley explained. “Is that so?” Richard asked looking at each of the girls in turn. “We saw someone go through her backyard last night and then into Andy’s house” Karen added. “Andy??” Richard asked confused. “Andy is the guy in the cabin next to me” Ashley explained. “Hold on, let me get the register to see the information about Andy” Richard got up and pulled a book off a shelf behind his desk. He flipped through the pages and the others looked through the names. “Any idea when this Andy guy came to the orchard?” Richard asked them. “Well I think he came around last week” Ashley answered. Richard flipped to the pages for the week before and they scanned the names looking for Andy. “That’s strange. I don’t see his name anywhere” Karen said.

“Oh and when we went to lunch, we saw Andy sitting with a guy dressed in black and Andy handed him some money” Rachel remembered. “And then Max the waiter came to clean their table up, but he picked up something and left without cleaning the table” Karen finished. “Well I’ll talk to Max and I’ll pay a visit to this ‘Andy’ guy” Richard promised.

The girls then went cherry picking until Karen’s parent picked them up and they all went to lunch in the cafeteria. Karen’s dad got the girls macaroni and cheese, and Karen’s parents and Ashley had BBQ chicken with fries.

While they were eating, they saw Richard talking to Max. Max handed Richard something. Max hung his head, and went into the kitchen. Richard came over to their table and said “Hi”. He asked Karen’s parents if he could talk to the girls and Ashley.

“I talked to Max and he gave me this” Richard held out his hand for the girls to see. He was holding out a piece of paper. “I thought I would show it to you”. Karen picked up the note and read:

Date: 9-14-2013

  Max (Tiger 789), we will hit houses 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 on the night of 9-15-2013. Meet me at the oak tree outside the cafeteria. Bring the backpack I gave you and make sure you don’t take anything out. We need all the supplies. Make sure no one follows you. We will finish everything here and then move on.

-Puma 123 and Jaguar 456

            “That’s today!” Karen exclaimed. “That means that if this note is from Andy or that other guy dressed in black, they will meet tonight” Rachel concluded. “I am going to hand Max over to the police and then we will figure out what to do next” Richard said.

            As to not alarm the guests at the orchard, Richard arranged for the police to pick up Max outside the gates of the orchard. As the girls watched the police car leave with Max inside, they thought about the note. “Well, we know that whoever wrote the note knew Max and was planning to meet him, but we don’t know if it was Andy or someone else who left the note for Max” Marrisa said to the others.

Richard scratched his head. “Do you girls think you could come with me to the oak tree tonight, since you have seen the person who was in Ashley’s backyard and would probably recognize them?” Richard asked the girls and Ashley. “We have to ask my parents, but I would really want to” Karen answered for them all. Karen’s parents agreed, as long as the girls stayed with Ashley and Richard at all times.

            The group met in Richard’s office to plan their mission that night. The final plan included a sneak attack with the police. Richard had a friend who worked as a police officer, so he called his friend, who agreed to help.

            Karen wrote down the plan:
                            PLAN                                                                DATE: 9-15-2013

We know the houses are 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. The police will hide in these houses. There are 5 houses, and 5 of us. We will each hide in a house with a police officer to accompany us. Whoever sees the thief first, will use the police officer’s walkie-talkie to alert the rest of us. We will each take a house, and guard the doors, so they cannot make a getaway. The police will take the crooks to jail after their whole plan is explained to us. Then everything that was stolen will be returned to their rightful owners. After that we will give the story to Dad for his newspaper…   

            That night the girls packed bags to take with them. Inside they had flashlights, walkie-talkies just in case, cell phones and note books. Their parents had told them to call if anything was wrong. They met Richard and Ashley under the oak tree. The police officers would come too without any sirens or lights. Soon they heard someone coming towards the oak tree. They hid behind the tree in case it was the thieves. But it was just the police officers. There were three men and two women police officers. One policewoman was tall with auburn hair; her name tag read ‘Evelyn’. The other policewoman had black hair and her name tag read ‘Jenny’. The other police officers were ‘Steve’, ‘Joe’ and ‘Drew’. Following their plan, they were each paired up with an officer and each took one house.

            Karen was paired up with Evelyn. They were assigned house number 3. While they were waiting, they heard something coming from the walkie-talkie. Rachel’s voice came over the speaker. “I think I see someone coming towards your house, get ready”. Karen and Evelyn stood still waiting for whoever was coming to get through the door. Suddenly the door opened and they heard the door squeak. They heard a thump and a muffled groan. Evelyn whispered something into the walkie-talkie. Then Evelyn jumped on to whoever was out in the hallway. Karen ran to help her.

            At Marrisa’s house, she and Jenny had heard someone coming too. Jenny said something into her walkie-talkie and she pounced on to the thief in the hallway. Marrisa joined in. Meanwhile the other groups were forming outside the houses.

At Karen’s house the thief managed to escape from Evelyn and ran towards the door. As soon as he flung open the door, Richard and Joe pounced on him. Karen ripped off the thief’s mask. “Andy!!!” Karen exclaimed. “So this is Andy”, Richard said.

At Marrisa’s house, Jenny had pinned the crook down on the floor. Marrisa pulled off the mask on him. Underneath the mask, was a face Marrisa recognized as the guy sitting with Andy at the table in the cafeteria. Jenny pulled out her walkie-talkie “We’ve caught a crook, how about you?” The reply was, “We’ve caught Andy as the crook, who is yours?” Marrisa spoke into the walkie-talkie “Karen it’s the guy we saw talking to Andy in the cafeteria”. Richard’s voice crackled from the walkie-talkie “Bring him over”.

Jenny handcuffed the crook and led him out the door with Marrisa following behind. When they reached Karen’s house, Andy was handcuffed and was sitting on a bench outside the house. Jenny sat the other crook next to Andy. Rachel tried the piece of fabric against Marrisa’s crook’s shirt. It was a perfect match. “It was you!” Ashley exclaimed.  “Now tell us who you are and what you were doing” Steve ordered.

“My name is Adam, or Puma 123 and I was working with Andy or Jaguar 456 to rob the houses here. We had an accomplice Max or Tiger 789 but he didn’t meet us so I don’t know where he is”. “Oh that’s because we caught him” Richard interrupted. “Adam forced me into stealing because I owed him a favor” cut in Andy. “Keep going” Drew ordered. “We’ve been stealing for a few months and I am really starting to regret it” Andy added. “We never expected a surprise attack when we started robbing these houses” Adam said glaring at Jenny.

While the police handcuffed the two crooks, Karen still had one question she wanted to ask. “Where are all the things that you stole?” “They are in my cabin” Andy admitted. Ashley and Officer Steve took the key from Andy and went to retrieve the items. Then Karen called her parents to let them know that they were alright. When Ashley and Steve returned, the crooks were already in one of the police cars, ready to go. “There is a lot of stuff in there and we can’t take it all out by hand” Ashley told them. “We’ll come back tomorrow to get everything out” Officer Steve added.

The girls were thanked by both the officers and Richard for their detective work. Then Ashley walked them back home. “So it was a pretty exciting night, huh?” Ashley smiled at them. “Yeah, it was so funny when Jenny had pinned down Adam, he couldn’t even move” Marrisa chuckled. “Good night girls!” Ashley called before stepping into her cabin. “Good night!” the girls yelled back and then went into their cabin.

After being bombarded with questions and repeating the whole story of their night to Karen’s parents, they finally went to bed. Before they went to sleep, each girl high-fived each other and whispered
 

“The true crew did it again!”

           

                                    --------------- T H E   E N D ------------------