Last Sunday, Bobby and I were at Aunt Mildred’s house for supper. While we sat in the kitchen, watching her make a pecan pie, she told us about her latest adventure.
“Betty Silmar from down the street called today. She had a problem she needed help with. It seems that her husband’s watch was missing from the jewelry box, and she suspected the Juanita, her housekeeper, had stolen it. She wanted me to come over and look around, talk to Juanita and figure out if she stole it.”
“So I walked down the street to her house and she showed me the scene of the crime. She said ‘I haven’t touched a thing, when I saw that the watch was missing, I sent Juanita out of the room and locked the door. It is just the way I left it.’”
“I turned on the bedroom light. The room was dark because the shade was down. There on the dresser was an open jewelry box. I looked around, in the closet, under the unmade bed. Then I turned to Betty and said, ‘Tell me everything that happened up until you discovered the watch was missing.’”
“While Betty relayed her story to me, I sat on the love seat in the living room with my eyes closed. ‘I woke up about six thirty this morning and went for my walk. While I was out walking, I saw my husband, Bob, drive by. He waved to me and then turned right and disappeared around the corner. I finished my walk and went back to the house.’
‘While I was in the kitchen making coffee, Juanita arrived for work. I talked to my sister on the phone for while and then went in to the bedroom. I noticed that the jewelry box was open. I looked in the box and immediately saw that my watch was missing. I hadn’t put it on today because it needed a new battery. I was planning on getting it fixed.’”
“After listening, I sat still for a few minutes. Suddenly I opened my eyes and said, ‘Juanita did not take your watch, your husband did.’”
‘What,’ she exclaimed, ‘how can you tell that?’”
“I explained to her, ‘It is really quite simple, you know, first of all, the jewelry box was left open. Juanita is very neat, she would have closed the box, not left it open for you to notice. A man would leave the box open, just like they leave the toilet seat up, dear.’”
“’Also, the shade was down and the bed was unmade. A housekeeper would open the shade the minute she entered the room. Juanita was never in the bedroom today. And finally, you said you husband turned right. His office is to the left. So he must have been going somewhere else.’”
“Betty said, ‘I’m going to call Bob right now!’ And she did. Bob told her that he had remembered that Betty’s watch needed a new battery and since he was going to the mall at lunch time, he thought he’d take her watch in for her and surprise her. Betty was very grateful and told me that I was quite a detective!”
I asked her how she put the pieces together so quickly. She just smiled and continued rolling out the pie dough. “Oh, dear, it simple really, I saw Bob at the mall today and he told me he was getting Betty’s watch fixed. But don’t tell Betty, she thinks I’m a genius”
