Dina Anastasio

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A Mini-Mystery Excerpt

From "The Song That Wouldn't End"

By Dina Anastasio

...At eight o'clock Harry came to collect Fred, his pet parrot."

"Thanks a lot,"Harry said. "And if there's anything I can do for you..."

"Nothing at all," said Stanhope. "Goodbye, Harry. Goodbye, Fred."

"Goodbye Fred," said the parrot.

When they were gone," Stanhope went back to the song he had been writing. He'd been playing the first three lines over and over all day, and they were in pretty good shape...

Luckless Luke's in lots of trouble.
Blew a monstrous sticky bubble.
Building fell, turned into rubble...

but he couldn't get the last line. He thought about it all night. He thought about it the next day, and the next, and the next, and finally he gave up.

"This song is not to be," sighed Stanhope, as he tossed all copies of the first three lines into the fire.

Three months later, as Stanhope was drinking his morning tea, a familiar tune drifted from the radio.

Luckless Luke's in lots of trouble.
Blew a monstrous sticky bubble.
Building fell, turned into rubble.
Luke's still running on the double.

"Hey!" shouted Stanhope, spilling his tea. "Someboby took my song!"

But who could have taken it? He had never played it in front of anyone. Stanhope paced up and down. He scratched his head. He thought, and thought, and thought. And then he knew.

Who took Stanhope's song?

The Song That Wouldn't End ANSWER

Stanhope may never have played his song in front of anyone, but he did play it in front of something. Stanhope played it front of a parrot that repeats words. Fred, and Harry, took Stanhope's song.

Twenty Mini-Mysteries Series

Scholastic UK

The Proof's in the Photos
By Dina Anastasio

Gregory Martin walked out of the photo shop and hesitated in the warm morning sun. He took the photos that he had just picked up out of the bag and flicked through them. At first glance they all seemed clear and bright and Gregory was quite pleased that he had a record of his holiday in France.

"I'll look at them more carefully when I get home," he said to himself.

He was slipping the pictures into his back pocket when a tall thin policeman approached him.

"Excuse me," said the policeman. "You're Gregory Martin, aren't you?"

Gregory stroked his bushy moustache nervously and took a step backwards.

"The Gregory Martin who lives on Kirkland Street?"

"That's right."

The policeman put his hand on Gregory's sleeve. "Then you won't mind coming down to the station with me, will you?" he said.

Gregory coughed and shuffled his feet. "What have I done?" he asked.

"You know what you've done. Someone saw you leaving Fleming's grocery store in the middle of the night, and the next morning Mr Fleming was missing a great deal of money."

"That's ridiculous!" Gregory said. "I haven't been in Mr Fleming's shop in months. When exactly did this robbery take place?"

"Five night ago. Now, are you ready to come down to the station with me?"

Gregory stepped backwards and pulled the pictures out of his pocket.

"Look," he said. "I wasn't anywhere near the store five nights ago. I wasn't even in the country. See, I was on holiday, and these pictures will prove it."

Gregory handed the pictures to the detective and waited while he studied them.

The policeman looked through the batch of photographs. "These pictures don't prove anything at all," he said. "There are no calendars in them, so we can't tell the date. A few cows, perhaps, and some nice countryside, and...eh? Wait a minute. What's this? Here's a picture of you. Hmmm, very nice picture. You look like you're all dressed up and ready to go out. Shoes all polished. Nicely shaved--not a whisker on your entire face--looks like you just had a haircut too."

"That's right. That was my last night. The night you say I was in Mr Fleming's store. My friend Franz took that picture. So you see, I couldn't have committed the robbery."

Was Gregory telling the truth?

The Proof's in the Photos ANSWER

No one can grow a "bushy moustache" in five days, so Gregory's photos proved nothing except that he was lying. Gregory could have been on Mr Fleming's store.