The Toystore Murder by Shruthi Viswanathan (good romance books to read TXT) 📖

you tell me everything again?” She looked at me suspiciously but then told me.
“Ann’s body was found in the store room of the toyshop in the morning….”
“I got all that” I said. “But tell me about this girl”
“Ann?” she asked. I nodded.
“Well, Ann is just a high school student. I don’t know much about her. I haven’t met her much. But one of her friends is here. I could ask her” She went into the crowd and came out with a thin and sad girl. She introduced her to me as Bella- Ann’s friend.
“What kind of person was Ann?” I asked her.
“She was a really nice person. She was so energetic and friendly. I cannot think of anyone who would murder her”
“No, not that. What else can you tell about her?” I asked.
“She was crazy about mysteries. She told me that she wanted to become a detective when she grew up. She had special interest in real life murderers, serial killers, smugglers and thieves. She studies about them extensively. I always thought that was strange”
“Anything else?” I asked.
“She had no enemies” Bella said. “She was a wonderful person. I don’t know how anyone could have murdered her……” she started crying. Stella let her go. She went back to the crowd.
“I think I know what happened” Stella said, trying to sound like a detective. “I think it was Anthony’s fault. He murdered her and put her in the store room of the shop so that he could steal all our business. Yes, that’s it….”
“Don’t you think that it is a little extreme?” I asked. Just then, I got it. I looked at Stella.
“No that’s not what happened” I said. “I know what happened”
“Really, what?” she asked. “Come, tell grandma about it also” She caught my arm and dragged me to her grandma.
“Grandma, grandpa, he knows what happened” she said. There was a police officer standing nearby. His attention turned towards me too. I felt a little embarrassed.
“It’s just a wild guess” I said.
“Guess it” the officer said.
“Okay, so here it is. Harry Hinsou- the famous jewel smuggler, who escaped from prison, was here, in this city. He was wandering around in disguise. One day, Ann spotted him. Since she had extensive knowledge about him, she recognized him in his disguise and immediately hurried to inform the police. But before she could do that, he realized that she knew about him. So he murdered her. But to direct the suspicion from him, he had to direct it towards someone else. So he kept the body in the store room of this toyshop because it was the only place he could find before he went to the airport and escaped from this place”
“I am not understanding anything” Mrs. Adams said. “We locked all the doors and windows at night. We don’t even have a duplicate key and the lock wasn’t broken or replaced when we came here this morning”
“He didn’t come here at night. He came here in the morning” I said.
“But I didn’t see him” she said.
“You did. You just didn’t recognize him because he was in a disguise. Remember that pale man with the huge black suitcase who bought a talking doll for his niece. It was him. He came with the body in that big black box. He went to the third floor where there was no one since Stella and Mr. Adam had gone out. Seeing this as an ideal opportunity, he opened the store room, took out the body from his suitcase and placed it there. Then he came down and pretended to be an innocent customer. He bought that doll and cooked up a story and by now he’s probably landed in some other place, too” I said.
“I think it all makes sense” the police officer said. “I’ll call up all the others immediately and alert them. Maybe we can still catch him”
-#-
“Thank you soooo much Sam” Stella said. As usual, she hadn’t bothered to knock before coming in. She was carrying a big box in her hand. She put it down on my table.
“What is that?” I asked.
“It’s a huge chocolate cake. It’s a thank you from grandma and grandpa for you. You were right about the whole thing. It was he who did it. The police caught him finally. They told you to come and collect your bounty from the police station later”
“How much was the bounty?” I asked, curiously.
“The officer told me that since he was a wanted criminal there was a bounty of three hundred thousand dollars on him”
“I’m rich” I said.
“Yes, you are” she said. “But you deserve it. Let’s eat the chocolate cake now” She opened the box and we both sat down to eat delicious chocolate cake.

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Publication Date: 03-30-2010

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