It was the talk of the town. Everyone knew what was going on- all four stories.... Headliners screamed out the horror in big, bold letters and newscast everywhere babbled about the ghastly events of Pillsbury, Colorado. Things were disappearing...

And no one knew who was doing it.

“Man, nothing happens in this stupid town!” Kelly Cedar complained to her best friend Lauren Davis.

“Well, the owner of Owens’s Milk and Cheese is promoting his son to manager,” Lauren suggested teasingly.

“How am I supposed to be a reporter if there’s nothing to report?”

“I don’t know, Kelly,” Lauren rolled her plain, gray eyes. “I don’t know.”

Lauren and Kelly had been best friends since the second grade and they shared everything. Including the dream of becoming undercover reporters in New York or some other big city.

They walked down the dimly lit hallway of Pillsbury High School, on their way to lunch. Kelly was talking a mile a minute while Lauren pretended to hear every word of it. Kelly was the chattier of the two and definitely the more flamboyant one.

Kelly’s style suggested she had a bursting personality and obvious spunk. From her boldly red-streaked on jet-black hair, to her almost black eyes, all the way down to her funky green toe nail polish and trendy sequined flip-flops, Kelly was the icon of élan. Her hair, being distinctive enough with those crazy red highlights, was always pulled into two ordinary ‘piggy-buns’ with a few pieces of hair left out in the front to serve as bangs.

Lauren was a little more timid and mild. She wore regular tee shirts with plain blue jeans and ordinary sneakers. Her hair was just a simple, short bob and she had simple, plain gray eyes. She was just your average, ordinary brainy high school girl. You would never have guessed her to be able to crack the biggest theft case in the history Pillsbury and maybe ever Colorado!

Kelly was interrupted by a scream from the other end of the hall. It sounded like Ms. Beasly.

“Help! Help! I’ve been robbed! Someone call the police!”

A swarm of students had gathered around the panic-stricken secretary, who was frantically searching her office for the missing item.

“My brooch, its been stolen,” Ms. Beasly cried as Kelly and Lauren came rushing up to the scene. “This is terrible! That brooch was a family heirloom!”

Kelly took full charge of the situation.

“Ms. Beasly, where were you at when you think your brooch might have been stolen?”

“I don’t know! I wore it today to school and I just looked down and realized it was missing!”

“Hmm....” Kelly scratched her head like she always did when she was trying to figure something out.

“So you remember everything you did today? Who you saw? Where you went?” Lauren inquired.

“Wait! I think I know who did it!” Ms. Beasly exclaimed so suddenly, that Lauren and Kelly jumped.

“Who?” they both chorused.

“I was that scoundrel, Aaron Cook!”

“You know for sure that he did it?”

“Of course I’m sure!”

By now Principal Paul Davis (no relation to Lauren) came panting and puffing up to the scene. The fat, dim-witted man had heard Ms. Beasly screaming from the other hallway.

“What’s going on here?” he gasped.

“Aaron Cook stole my family heirloom brooch! It’s very valuable and I must have it back!”

“Aaron?” Davis stood upright. “But he’s been in my office all day serving detention.”

“He was?” Kelly said puzzled. “Then why did Ms. B say that Aaron stole her brooch?”

“That boy is nothing but a common thief! Why wouldn’t he have done it?”