The Great Sabotage Mystery
By Marie Flinchbaugh
I was working at home on my math homework on a Friday afternoon. I was
thinking about one of the playoff games of the National League of Gym Floor Hockey
(NLGFH). I jumped up at the sound of Evelyn slamming the door. She ran in and
said “Come quick! Someone ruined all of our team’s hockey equipment!” I put my
jacket on and slipped on my shoes. We ran out the door, grabbed our bikes and biked
to Manor Middle School, where the equipment was stored and the games were
played. I burst into the equipment room and saw all the hockey sticks shattered. The
pieces were strewn along the bins of colorful jerseys. The yellow jerseys were cut and
hacked at. They were little more than bits of cloth and elastic.
“Who could have done this? Who would want to?” I asked.
“Look!” someone called from around the corner, “I found an extra hockey stick!” I
turned to where the voice was coming from. Evelyn was holding up an unbroken blue
and gold hockey stick.
“That’s Ms. Neiss’s favorite hockey stick! Lily did take a lollipop from her
desk. Maybe Ms. Neiss is trying to get revenge!” I exclaimed. “I think we have our first
suspect!” I started to look around some more. Hopefully, I would find more clues
around the room. After searching around for a few minutes, I found a few red hairs
under a bench. “Aha!” I cried triumphantly, holding up the hairs. I slipped them into a
plastic Ziplock bag. I would send the hairs to Mrs. D’Amico for DNA testing. I was
walking over to the door of the room when I saw something under my foot. I jumped
back to avoid stepping on it. I looked closer and saw that this mystery object was really
a clump of Babybel cheese. “Hmmm… This is Gabe’s favorite,” I muttered to
myself. Again I slipped the clue into another Ziploc bag.
“Do you think you found something?” Evelyn asked, leaning over my shoulder.
“Yeah. This is Gabe’s favorite cheese. We now have three suspects: Ms. Neiss,
Gabe and the red-haired mystery man.”
“I heard that Gabe did bet against our team for this next game,” Evelyn said
slowly.
“That would explain why he did this, if he did this,” I agreed.
“Well, it’s getting late and I still have to do homework and study. Our test is only
one week away!” As Evelyn headed off to her house, I looked once more around the
ransacked equipment room and then biked back to my house. I sat down and finished
my last math problem. Sinking into my bed, I fell asleep thinking of crime scenes and
hockey.
The next morning I met up with Evelyn and we discussed the mysterious redhaired man. “ I hope the results of the DNA testing come back soon from Mrs.
D’Amico!” I told Evelyn. “The suspense is killing me!”
“We could go and interview our known suspects,” she suggested.
“That’s a good idea. If one of them confesses we won’t need to know who the
red-haired man is.”
“We’ll go to Ms. Neiss first.” Evelyn decided. We biked away to Ms. Neiss’s
house on Owl Manor Avenue.
“There it is!” I called over my shoulder. Evelyn was looking for the house slightly
farther behind her. She rode up to me. We dismounted and walked up to the house. It
was a single-story rancher with a small driveway. I rang the ornate doorbell on the
stone siding.
Ms. Neiss opened the door a moment later. “Hello girls! What brings you here?”
“I assume you know about the NLGFH sabotage?” I asked.
“No. I had no idea. When was this?”
“Yesterday afternoon the yellow team’s equipment was destroyed.” I said
solemnly. “We are investigating the case, trying to find the saboteurs. We-”
“Where were you yesterday afternoon? Your hockey stick was found unbroken
at the scene,” Evelyn interjected.
“I was at a teacher meeting at the high school. We were getting ready for the
spelling bee.”
“Alright. Thank you for your help. If think you’ve found something, please let us
know!” I replied. It seemed one of our suspects was innocent. We would have to keep
looking.
When I arrived home, an envelope was lying in the mailbox. Mrs. D’Amico had
returned the results of our DNA scan. I pulled out a folded up sheet of paper from the
envelope. It was a picture of Elmo and his information. The companion note said,
MarieAs surprising as it may be, your mystery man is Elmo. Perhaps this
harmless creature is not as harmless as we’ve been led to believe. One of
your teammates was heard to say that they harbored a strong dislike for the
color red. Everyone knows that red is Elmo’s favorite color. I believe that
this incident could be his motive. This is Elmo’s file. I hope you find
everything you need in it.
Sincerely,
Mrs. D’Amico
I called Evelyn and told her to meet me at Elmo’s house, 888 Sesame
Street. Ten minutes later we were knocking on Elmo’s door. Elmo answered almost
instantaneously. “Hello!” he said in his sing-song voice. “What brings you to Elmo’s
door today?”
“We found your fur in the Manor Middle equipment room. On the same day
some of the equipment was broken and ruined,” Evelyn stated plainly. “Why was your
fur in the equipment room?”
“A few days ago I went looking for Mr. Noodle,” he replied. “ I checked in the
equipment room because Mr. Noodle likes to watch the games. I haven’t been in there
since.”
“Alright. Let us know if you think you know the culprit.” I waved goodbye and
biked off to Gabe’s house with Evelyn beside me.
“What do you think of his story?” I asked Evelyn.
“I’m not sure I believe him,” she admitted. “I mean, he confessed to being in the
room before the crime was discovered. He could have done it.”
“Yeah.” We arrived at Gabe’s house a minute later. I rang the cheese wedge
shaped doorbell and waited for Gabe to answer.
“Hey, Marie! Hey, Evelyn!” Gabe answered with a small wave.
“Hi. We were hoping to ask you a few questions,” I responded.
“Okay. Shoot.”
“Where were you yesterday afternoon?” I inquired.
“I was at the first day of the National Cheese Convention.”
“Did you hear about the hockey sabotage?”
“Yeah. I don’t know why anyone would do that. It’s so petty.”
“I agree. How did you find out about the crime?”
“Oh, Kenzie told me yesterday evening. I had to deliver her a pack of Skittles,
and she informed me when I arrived.” I would have to ask Kenzie about her knowledge
on the crime. Maybe she found a clue we overlooked.
“Thanks for your help,” I told Gabe.
“Anytime. I’ll keep an eye out for clues,” he replied. Evelyn and I discussed our
suspicions and then split up to go home.
“See ya later!” I called to her as I biked away.
The next day I saw Kenzie at school and went up to her. “Hi Kenzie!” I called.
“Hi Marie. I just heard that some hockey equipment was destroyed!” She said
with a shocked expression. Something clicked in my head. Gabe had said that he
heard about the crime from Kenzie… but Kenzie had just heard of it today!
“Aha!” I cried. I made a beeline for the gym to tell Ms. Neiss. “Ms. Neiss!” I said
between breaths. “Gabe is our saboteur!” I quickly filled her in on my discovery.
“I’ll call him to the office!” she declared. When Gabe arrived in the office we
confronted him.
“We know you were the saboteur!” I accused.
“How did you-” He tried to correct himself, “I mean, that’s crazy!”
“You lied about how you knew of the crime and the National Cheese Convention
is starting next week!”
“Alright, it was me,” he confessed unhappily. “I bet Ethan that the yellow team
would lose the game.” When Gabe finished confessing he was sentenced to eight
weeks of after-school detention. He also had to pay to replace the ruined
equipment. The game was won by the yellow team, but Gabe was too busy with extra
homework to care.
The End