A+DETECTIVE+STORY

Title: The Mystery of the Stolen Keys Characters: 2° C students and St. Helena School students Setting: a middle school Time: present day

At the ring of the bell, the janitor, Lorenzo Babini discovered a terrible theft. “Oh my God!” he cried. It was Monday and straight away he phoned the detective, Simon Cash, to find the last traces left by the thieves. Mr. Peong's door was wide open and he told the janitor that his answer sheet for the upcoming test in his Mandarin Chinese world language class was missing. The principal had learned earlier that day that the online grade-book had been hacked. He noticed that every kid in the school had failing scores, which means that the thief must have gotten hold of the list of the teachers passwords.

Simon Cash, the detective, thought that the thief was a hacker and said, "A student, who knows a teacher very well, must have entered the school computer lab, counted the number of the letters of his password and tried a word: his daughter’s name, his dog’s name, etc. Then he must have logged in the online grade-book of the school and deleted the class scores". The principal, Clelia Cappelli immediately pointed the finger at Abu, a student in the school who was always causing trouble, but the janitor Babini said: "It's impossible! Only the janitor has the teachers’ passwords!” As a matter of fact, the principal had a list of all the teachers’ passwords and accounts. “Every time a teacher doesn't remember his/her account, s/he can ask me to retrieve it from the list in this locked closet.” added Babini, as he pointed to the closet in the principal's office. "Only the janitor and the principal have the key to this closet........and now whoever stole my keys can access it as well".   “We must question Abu the terrible”, said the principal. Abu was known to be a very destructive student. Why, even last year he was caught several times stealing personal items that belonged to other students in the school. He even stole money from the field trip envelope in a teacher's desk. And recently he had broken a window in the classroom by throwing his Mandarin Chinese text book. He was also not the best student academically either. So there were many motives for him to drop everyone else's grades and to steal the test answers. Immediately, Abu was taken to the principal’s office. Detective Cash interrogated him for several hours. “I’m not the thief! I swear! I cannot even use a computer!” he exclaimed looking quite innocent. In fact, this was true. Abu had failed technology class as well. The only thing he knew how to do on a computer was play games and text. “Someone must have helped him”, said Cash when he was alone with Principal Cappelli. "But who......and why? We need the help of the police or the FBI". Cash contacted Officer Phillips and explained the situation. He told Detective Cash that there was nothing that the local authorities (let alone the FBI) could do and that it was a school issue, not an issue for the police. And, without evidence, they could not even question Abu since he was a minor. On Tuesday, rumors began to spread around the school and the students started speculating, accusing practically everyone in the school. The principal decided to put together a group of trusted students to keep an eye on Abu and keep a look out for any other unusual activity. One of theses students was Carl He was the perfect student. He got good grades, participated in sports and other school events and even volunteered at a local food shelter on the weekends. He had a photographic memory and was able to recall anything he saw in complete detail.

Another student was Maria. Her father was a police officer and she loved reading mystery novels and was very involved in the technology club at the school. She was very upset when she learned of the hacking into the school's grade-book. The third was Patrick. He was the captain of the basketball team and he planned to join the Air Force as a pilot when he graduated. He had very strict military parents. He believed in following the rules and justice for those who didn't.

Maria thought she was Nancy Drew, the character of the famous mystery book series. She asked the principal if she could look around his office for clues. She walked past his desk and notice a smudged footprint of mud on the floor near his chair. It looked like it came from a work boot. She thought for a moment and realized that Abu was a skateboarder and only wore sneakers. She had never seen him in work boots. She took a picture with her camera.

She took the camera to Detective Cash and shared what she had found in the principal's room. Cash went straight to the room to see if he could find some other evidence. In the meantime Maria called Carl and Patrick and they thought about how to lay a trap for Abu. They were sure he was the culprit because anybody could buy work shoes and wear them to eliminate themselves as a suspect. Abu was really upset that he was being accused of this crime. He decided it was best that he did not stick around to be punished for something he did not do. Abu ran away that weekend.

On Monday morning, the police were back questioning another student, John Key, one of the smartest students in school. Over the weekend the administration had installed security cameras around the school. John was caught on camera breaking into the school. Several books were missing from many of the students lockers and only three people were seen on the cameras - John, Lorenzo the Janitor, and an unidentified person.

John was nervous but finally admitted that he needed to get back into the school to get his notebook to study for the big exam. He never got less than an A and really needed those notes. He must have been very convincing because the principal let him off with a warning. The janitor was questioned, but he did not see any other people in the school while he was cleaning the rooms. They then moved on to the next suspect, although they didn't know who this person was because he moved too quickly past one of the cameras. This person was rather tall and lean, and was carrying what seemed to be a heavy backpack. It couldn't have been Abu because he was only five feet tall.

But there was not much time anymore and they had to discover who had stolen the files! In the end Inspector Cash, Maria and the "detective team" found the person who had left the footprint of mud: it had been MrPeong, the teacher of Mandarin Chinese. He was arrested and questioned by Inspector Cash and the Headmaster Clelia. Forced to speak, he confessed that he wanted to discredit the headmaster: in his opinion she was not good at leading the school. He himself was the right headmaster for the school! " Everything would have worked", said Mr Peong, "if the students' "detective team" had not started to investigate!"