• The day started out just like any other. I woke up and showered, and headed for school. I could feel that today would be a day to remember. I was on my way to Geometry class when I heard a cry of despair. I dashed toward the sound. It was coming from the lunchroom. Someone had stolen all the cookies from the cafeteria. When I arrived, I found the principal, Mrs. Petska, had retained everyone who had been in the room at the time of the theft. I volunteered to help solve the mystery while I scanned the room; it was packed. This could be a long case.
    I decided my first step was to inspect the scene of the crime. There were cookie crumbs everywhere, but they didn’t lead in any one direction. The crumbs were a dead end. It was only fitting to question the cooks first. Maybe one of the cooks could not resist temptation. Maybe one of them had the nerve to steal one of the delicious cookies they had made and liked it so much they took the whole batch. What I discovered was shocking. The cooks were not there. I could not find a single cook in within the premises. This struck me as mighty fishy. When I conversed with Mrs. Petska concerning my suspicions, she informed me that the cooks were finished at 1:05 when the theft occurred at 1:07. I crossed the cooks off the suspect list.
    Next, I questioned Mrs. McDonald, the lady who charges and collects the money for lunches, and all the other teachers. Maybe they thought they could sneak one when no one was looking. If that was the case, they were successful, considering I found no crumbs near any of the places they had been during that lunch period.
    My next suspects were the seniors; since they had been here long enough they felt they were on the top of the world. They all showed me where they sat that day and attempted to prove their innocence.
    But I wasn’t fooled. Near the area where the senior boys sat, there was a little group of freshmen. There was an extreme excess of cookie crumbs and in an area about the size of a single tray. This was the seat in which Tanis Pettit sat. He had a look of such innocence that there was only one explanation. He was the cookie thief. He could see it in my eyes. He knew that I knew. The thief took off like a shot.
    Tanis had fooled even me, for I had sat right in front of him that very day and not noticed a thing. He proved to be a slippery fellow to catch. You see, he runs cross-country with my brother just about every day, and their general running distance is two miles. We had to commandeer a bus to catch him. Once we had him in custody, it took us the rest of the day to get him to confess his crime.
    He finally caved into my tactics as a detective and I sent him away. It made for an interesting close to an interesting day.