The Mystery of the Stolen Books

©2006 Keith Robinson

The Five Find-Outers and Dog are home for the holidays again. When Peterswood library is broken into, the gang are soon on the trail... much to Mr Goon's annoyance. Fatty and his friends find only one clue: a footprint on the windowsill where the burglar smashed a window and climbed in. Why anyone should risk breaking into a library to steal a few books is a mystery—so it's even more puzzling when the stolen books are found dumped in an old school field. Meanwhile, Mr Goon is investigating another break-in, this one at an office building in town. Valuable coins have been stolen out of a safe. Two burglaries in one night! Can they be connected somehow?

This is a completed novel which I sent to Egmont (the current publishers of the Find-Outer series) for consideration. They returned my synopsis with a hand-written note in the bottom corner saying simply, "I am sorry, I must pass." So I thought I'd make the story available here. I hope you enjoy it!

Chapter 5: Clues for Mr Goon

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Fatty wished he had another sausage roll to munch on. It really had been the best one he'd had in a long time. He made a mental note to get some more from that bakery next time they passed.

"I suppose we'd better get these back to the library," Larry said, gazing down at the books.

"We'd better tell Goon first," Fatty said. "He'll want to see these lying here in the field before we collect them all up and return them. We'd better not mess with the crime scene. I'm just glad we found them, not him."

"Did you search for clues?" Pip asked suddenly. "Footprints and things like that? It was raining last night, and—"

"Of course we searched for clues!" Bets said, almost indignantly. "Fatty made sure we stayed well back while he looked about."

"But there's nothing here," said Fatty, disappointed. "The grass is too long and thick for footprints, and there doesn't seem to be anything at all in the way of other clues. No scraps of cloth with buttons attached, no bits of paper with messages on...nothing at all. Just these books."

Pip suddenly sucked in a breath and glanced at Daisy. Fatty knew instantly that he'd remembered or thought of something important. "We met Old Clear-Orf out in the alley," said Pip. "He was looking for clues. And, Fatty—he said he'd found one!"

Fatty frowned. "Found one? What, just now? After we'd all been there?"

"He tapped his pocket and looked all smug," Daisy confirmed. "He's definitely found something—but exactly what we have no idea."

"Did you ask him?" asked Bets.

"Of course we did," Pip said, sounding annoyed. "But he refused to tell us. Looked quite pleased with himself."

"Did he now," said Fatty quietly, an idea coming to him. "You know, we're actually trespassing on school grounds. We shouldn't tell him we've been here. It might be better to tell him we spotted the books from Union Street, as we walked by just the other side of the iron railing."

"Yes!" Pip agreed. "We could say we spotted the books, knew instantly they'd been stolen from the library, and climbed over to investigate."

"Or," Fatty went on, a familiar feeling of glee creeping over him, "we could say we saw the books from Union Street as we walked past—but stayed well clear of them. We'll say we were afraid to climb over the railing into the school grounds because we knew we'd be trespassing, and besides, we didn't want to contaminate a possible crime scene."

Four blank faces stared at him.

"What are you getting at?" asked Larry, scratching his head.

"Well, we wouldn't want to prevent Mr Goon from finding all the clues, would we?" Fatty said reasonably. "If there are any clues here to find, they should be found by a fine officer of the law. Don't you agree?"

Now the four blank faces developed slow grins. "We'll leave false clues!" Bets said happily. "Just like we did when that Siamese cat disappeared, and we shoved a load of useless clues in through the bars of the cage."

"And like we did for Ern when we sent him up Christmas Hill after staging a false light show the night before," Larry added.

Ern was Mr Goon's nephew—and he had been a lot of fun to tease when he had come to stay in Peterswood.

Daisy clapped her hands. "Oh, it'll be fun! What shall we leave?"

Fatty glanced around to make sure no one was about. "How about this bag the sausage rolls came in? We'll tuck it under the pile of books, so it looks like it was left here by the intruder last night rather than just, say, blown across the grass from the street. We wouldn't want Old Clear-Orf thinking we'd left it behind. Instead he'll think someone bought something from the bakery yesterday, and then broke into the library later that night and sat here going through them while eating a bun or pastry or something."

"That doesn't make sense," said Larry, frowning. "The bakery shuts at five. The library wasn't robbed until...well, we don't know yet, do we? But it can't have been until it was dark, which would have been after eight—probably much later. Why would someone carry food around for at least three hours?"

Fatty laughed, imagining Mr Goon's puzzled expression as he tried to work that one out. "That's why I like the idea of leaving the bag as a clue," he said mischievously. "All right, what else? Anyone?"

As he tucked the bag right under the middle of the pile of books, Bets dug into her pocket and produced a boiled sweet with a red wrapper. "Our burglar dropped this too," she said with a serious face. "He was very hungry. The pastry wasn't enough, so he got stuck into his boiled sweets."

Everyone laughed as Bets dropped the sweet onto the grass. It slipped down between the blades and was almost lost from sight—but Fatty was sure it would be found if Mr Goon searched hard enough.

Then Pip chortled. "Got a pen and piece of paper?" he asked Fatty. Of course Fatty did. He handed it over and watched with interest as Pip wrote solemnly.

"There," said Pip, letting the piece of paper flutter down onto the pile of books. Everyone craned the necks to read what it said. It lay face up, and on it was a short paragraph of text:

All about crime and detection. Blue cover, red lettering. Quite thick. Can't remember title.

They all roared with laughter. "That's a stroke of genius!" Larry said, thumping Pip on the shoulder. "Now Goon will think the burglar had specific orders about which book to steal—but because he didn't know the exact title he decided to take the lot and go through them later..."

He trailed off as Fatty turned to stare at him very seriously.

Fatty felt a flutter of excitement in his stomach. "That could be the exact reason all these books were stolen," he said quietly. "Maybe he was looking for one in particular, but didn't know which one. Maybe he brought them all out to a quiet place, searched through them one by one, and finally found what he wanted. He took it, and left the rest."

There was a silence. Fatty shook himself and glanced about. "Come on, we should clear the area. And we'd best avoid going back through the hole in the fence in case we bump into Goon. Let's hop over those railing and walk down Union Street to the library, then go out the back way to the alley. And when we speak to Old Clear-Orf, we must make sure he sees to it that all these books are returned to the library."

"So we can check them off against Mrs Sharple's inventory and find out which book is missing," Daisy said.

Fatty grinned. "First class, Daisy. Now come on, everyone—let's make haste."

They climbed over the iron railing, which stood just under six feet high, and hurried down the road to the library. A white van was parked by the side of the road outside the little gate that led into the back garden. Tippington's Glazing was marked in large block lettering on the side. When the Five crowded through the gate they came across two men at the rear window fitting a sheet of thick plywood to the window frame.

One of the men glanced at them as they filed past, and a frown crept across his face. "'Ere, you know the library's closed, dontcha? There's a sign up round the front."

Fatty smiled pleasantly. "We're here to help Mrs Sharple. How long do you think it will be before the glass is replaced?"

The man swept a hand through his tousled brown hair. He was unshaven, with a ruddy complexion and large shaggy eyebrows. Fatty guessed he was in his thirties. "Probably tomorrow morning," he said with a shrug. "Got a lot on at the moment."

Bets seemed confused. "But why go to the trouble of fitting a big sheet of wood when you could just fit the glass instead? Wouldn't that save you time?"

The second man chortled and hammered a nail into the ply halfway up the frame. He seemed to be a young, skinny fellow, maybe an apprentice, but he continued with his work without looking round.

The first man smiled at Bets, and suddenly he looked much more friendly. His eyes twinkled. "If we could come out and cut glass as easy as we can cut wood, it would save us all a lot of time," he agreed. "But we gotta measure up the frame, see, and then go away and cut the glass carefully back at the shop. In the meantime we fit a sheet of wood in case it rains or gets windy."

"Oh," said Bets. She beamed. "I just assumed windows were all standard sizes and you just brought one of each type along."

The second man chortled again, and the first swept a hand once more through his tousled hair. "If it was only that simple, miss." He gave the others a nod and turned back to his work, digging a couple of nails out of his pocket and driving one into the ply along the top edge.

Fatty led the way into the library, and behind him he heard Pip whisper to Bets, "You really are a dolt sometimes. Honestly, don't you know anything?"

Mrs Sharple was standing by the crime section with hands on hips and an irritated frown across her face. "Looks like Mrs Sharple has figured out which books were stolen," said Fatty. "I'm going to go and find Mr Goon; he's probably still up the alley somewhere. You all go in and tell Mrs Sharple we've found the missing books, and then meet back at the fence outside the school."

"Right you are," Larry said, and saluted smartly.

Fatty grinned and headed back out the door to the alley. Mr Goon was about halfway along, a distant figure heading towards him. Evidently he had finished his careful search of the alley and was returning to the scene of the crime.

Fatty waved to him. "Mr Goon!"

"You clear orf!" came the thunderous reply. Instantly a dog started barking behind the fence of the garden immediately next to him and Mr Goon jumped, his helmet almost falling off.

Fatty sauntered up the alley and stopped by the hole in the fence, his hands in his pockets. The red-faced policeman eventually stomped up to him. "What do you want? Why don't you clear orf and let me go about my business in peace? You kids are always—"

"I found the stolen books," said Fatty mildly. "They're in the old school field. We spotted them as we passed by along Union Street. Would you like to see?"

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