Chapter 1-
CRASH!
Nicole and Rahul woke up.
‘What has happened?’ said Rahul.
‘It came from grandpa’s house!’ said Nicole.
Their parents came in their room.
‘Anything happened?” asked Daddy.
‘No!’ said Nicole. ‘Let’s go to grandpa’s house and see if anything has happened there.’
They went to their grandpa’s. Everybody was outside! The alarm was broken! And that was not all. Some of grandma’s money was stolen!
‘How did it break?’ asked Nicole.
‘We don’t know’ said Sally.
Sally was their aunt. She had one daughter and one son. The daughter’s name was Sophia and the son’s name was Sean. They were both fast asleep in bed.
‘Woof!’ came a noise. It was Duke their dog.
He jumped on Daisy, their maid, and nearly threw her down. What a dog, thought Daisy.
‘Ethan is coming tomorrow!’ said grandma.
‘Hurrah!’ chorused Nicole and Rahul.
CHAPTER 2 – THE FIVE SET TO WORK.
Rahul and Nicole woke up feeling excited. It was Christmas Eve, and they had holidays for a month with their cousins at home.
They had their breakfast, brushed their teeth and hair, changed their clothes and went to their grandparents’ house. As the front door was locked they used the back door.
‘Good morning.’ said Rahul who had good manners.
‘I hope you had a good night sleep.’ said Nicole who had equally good manners.
‘Oh good morning.’ said grandma.
‘Two engineers will be coming today afternoon so be careful of the wires.’
‘Now, come on.’ said Rahul with a laugh. ‘Let’s wake Sophia and Sean up from their beauty sleep.”
They went to wake up Sean and Sophia.
CHAPTER 3 – SOMETHING RATHER STRANGE
Sophia and Sean were already awake. Sally was telling them the story of the night before.
‘Morning.’ said Sean when he saw them.
‘Morning. We are going to have a meeting today after lunch.’’ said Nicole who was the oldest and the leader of the little group.
‘Good. Ethan is coming for lunch and staying for 2 weeks.’ said Rahul. ‘Grandma told me this.’
That afternoon Ethan arrived. ‘Grandpa told me everything on the phone.’ he said ‘Let’s have a meeting.’
‘Yes. We were planning to do that.’ said Nicole.
‘Let’s go to the old shed.’ said Sean and Sophia together.
‘We’ll go after lunch. First that let’s search for clues.’ said Nicole.
So they all went to search for clues. Ethan saw something first. It was a stone and was under where the alarm used to be.
‘That explains the crash we heard.’ said Rahul.
‘The thief must have broken the alarm to steal the money.’ said Nicole.
After lunch they all went to the old shed.
‘Where did you keep the key?’ asked Ethan.
‘You just wait and see!’ said Sophia, a grin on her face. Then she lifted up a broken tile. ‘It’s here.’
But she was in for the biggest shock of her life!
CHAPTER 4 – RAHUL’S DISCOVERY
The key had gone!!
‘It’s gone.’ said Sophia.
‘Where?’ asked Ethan ‘where did . . . ?’
‘Ssshh. I can hear something.’ said Rahul, ‘There is someone in our shed!’
‘Who?’ asked Sophia under her breath.
‘I think a robber has entered our shed.’ said Sean, in a whisper.
They all ran away.
‘Let‘s go tell daddy.’ said Sophia.
‘No.’ said Rahul, ‘I think the person who broke the bell is in our shed.’
‘But how shall we find out who that person is?’ asked Nicole half impatient, half alarmed.
‘I think I have an idea.’ said the usually quiet Ethan. ‘Pass me that stout branch that’s fallen over there.’
Sophia passed it to him and he went back to the shed. The others all followed him. Ethan jammed the branch outside the door so that no one inside could get out.
‘Now that the robber is locked inside we can go and tell daddy.’ said Nicole ‘I dare not look inside the window in case the robber does something dangerous. What do you think Rahul?’
CHAPTER 5 – THE END OF THE MYSTERY
Rahul didn’t answer. He had seen something. ‘Look here.’ He said in an excited voice.
The others looked and saw something that made them stare.
It was a page and on it was written:
Black group 9, I broke the alarm on 23rd December and robbed the money just as u told me to. I hope u r doing your work too.
Yours,
Agent 158 (Daisy)
‘Let us tell grandma.’ said everyone and turned around only to find grandma there.
‘So it’s Daisy?!’ said the children’s grandmother.
Grandma promised to give her a good scolding and said she would hand Daisy over to the police.
‘I’ll get a new maid tomorrow.’ said grandma. ‘And I must say well done to the –err-um………’
‘Five cousins and dog.’ said everyone.
‘Don’t you remember last holidays we solved the mystery of the missing diamonds?’ asked Sean.
‘Yes I do my dear.’ said grandma, kissing Sean.
‘Well, I must say we have done a good job and Rahul did the best of the lot.’ said Ethan.
‘You all did your bits,’ said Rahul, blushing ‘Except Duke that is.”
‘He found out first.’ said Sophia.
Nicole continued. ‘Remember last night? He smelt Daisy’s smell on the alarm and jumped on her almost throwing her down.”
You are right girls. And guess what? The real excitement is yet to come.
CHAPTER 6 – CHRISTMAS DAY!!
When they woke up the next day it was Christmas day! Actually it was Duke that woke them up. He gave them a lick each and barked as if to say ‘Get up lazy children. I’ll eat your breakfast if you don’t.’
So the children had to get up. They were all tired as they had gone to midnight mass and although it had been fun they were very tired. But they had to get up. If they didn’t as Sean soon learnt, he would plaster them with the wettest licks ever. So they went into the kitchen after brushing their teeth and washing their faces.
After a wonderful breakfast cooked by Grandpa, everyone went to see what presents they had got from each other. All the men had got scarves and sweaters made by Nicole and Sophia with a little help from the mothers here and there. The three boys all got toys and books and chocolates. The two girls got frocks, sweets and books. The mothers and grandma of course, got cooking utensils and lovely dresses. So they spent a lovely time together singing carols and praise to God.
Nicole was on the piano. In the middle she joined Rahul and Ethan with the guitars. Sean and Sophia were having a lovely time singing into the mike. It was the most enjoyable time ever. Then they shared a magnificent lunch. ‘Smashing’ Ethan called it. That evening they went around the village looking at the beautiful cribs around. It was a lovely end to a ‘smashing’ mystery.
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