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Competition Winners

M. Adman And The Case Of The Missing Emerald

This story was one of the Runners-up in the Dragon Detective Competition in Issue 29. It is by James McCubbin (9) Cambridge

The tapping of feet echoed through the dark museum (the museum was the British Museum). The tapping of feet stopped by a case and a torch flicked on, illuminating an Egyptian mummy that was very badly wrapped in something that looked remarkably like toilet paper (strangely it hadn’t been there before). The mysterious figure felt around for a minute, found what he was looking for, tapped a few numbers in to the security lock and … nothing happened. He frowned and tried again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and… still nothing happened. He tried for the very last time and it opened. He reached down, opened the door and … checked that nothing was missing. Next he relocked the door. The security guard (who had forgotten the numbers of the security lock) got up and continued on his rounds. When the security guard was out of sight the crudely wrapped mummy pulled off its toilet roll bandages and slipped away.

Early the next morning the guard was on his rounds again. He was humming happily to himself but he suddenly stopped. One of the display cases had a hole in it. Inside there should have been a huge emerald but it wasn’t there! The guard ran down the corridor at full pelt but unfortunately forgot the electric revolving doors and came out a lot faster than he went in. After finding his hat, walkie-talkie and keys (which had also whizzed out and landed in various places) he picked himself up and ran to the nearest phone. He dialled 999 and picked it up. “Hello,” a voice crackled at the other end, “what do you want?” “Please may you send a detective to the British Museum?” “Okay” the voice crackled. The guard put the phone down and ran back to the display case. Remembering the last incident with the revolving doors, he slowed to a slow walk but unfortunately went too slow and ended up shooting out like before. He picked himself up and ran back to the display case where the emerald had been stolen (after all this running he was quite tired). He arrived back and waited for the detective. He had waited for about five minutes when the detective came in. “Hello,” said the detective. “I am detective M. Adman, why did you call me?” M. Adman (who was a man) had long blond hair and was wearing from the top downward a pink tiara, a police top with the words M. Adman written on it, a pink skirt, pink tights and floppy clown shoes. “I called you,” said the security guard, pausing and looking strangely at the man, “because a giant emerald has disappeared.” “Oh,” said the detective “so you have had a magician round.” “No, why?”, asked the security guard, confused. “Because only a magician could make something disappear.” The security guard sighed and carried on “I really don’t know how the burglar got in without any of the other security guards knowing.” “I know,” said M. Adman. “He didn’t tell them.” The security guard hid his face in his hands.

The next evening a taxi driver was just parking up his taxi, he had finished for the day. “There aren’t many people around at this time,” he said to himself as what looked like half the population of London walked past. Suddenly a man in dark clothes ran up to his taxi window and started frantically tapping on the glass and mouthing things to him. The taxi driver opened the door and the man leapt in saying he wanted to go the British Museum. “What do you want to go there for? It’s shut,” said the taxi driver. “Please,” said the stranger. “Okay,” said the taxi driver and they sped off. They were soon there but as they pulled in to a parking space the stranger leapt out without even paying. “Hey, you there, stop!” shouted the taxi driver, but seeing it had absolutely no effect on the figure (who had reached the doors and was trying desperately to get in) he decided to go back home and call the police. (He used to have a mobile phone until his wife used him as a target for it, saying she did not like these new-fangled things). When he got back he quickly opened the door and ran towards the phone but his wife blocked the way. “What time do you call this?” she screamed at him “I’m left to do all the jobs at home and you still don’t come home until 10pm!”, “But…” he said. “No buts!” she shouted, “You’re certainly not going to the pub tonight!” “But…” the poor taxi driver stuttered (he was quite scared now). “I said no buts,” she screamed. “Go upstairs and do the ironing this second.”

The mysterious figure that had just been in a taxi stepped in to the British Museum (it had taken most of the night to pick all of the thirty-two and a half locks, though he still didn’t know how they managed to get half a lock, but that was beside the point!). It was now 6 o’clock so he would have to watch out for security guards on their early morning rounds.
Inside the museum some security guards were having their packed breakfasts and comparing facts about their Barbie’s in the cloakroom; you had to get through the cloakroom to get to the rest of the museum. Suddenly the man in dark clothes ran through “Excuse me, please may you move, can I come through please?” he said hanging all the guards up on the coat pegs by the labels in their trousers! He ran through into the main part of the museum and… stopped in the shadows. There was someone there. The person had a burglar’s mask, a top and some matching trousers which said “I love robbing” and a swag bag. He also had a shaved head, gold ear studs and no beard.

The burglar heard the tapping of feet before the mysterious stranger did and so grabbed some toilet roll. Next he slipped one end in to a crack and tied the other end round himself. After that he quickly turned round and round until he was bandaged from the top hair on his head to one of the toenails on his feet, just like an Egyptian mummy. The burglar waited until the security guard had gone past and then unravelled himself by turning the opposite way, then he walked… straight in to the mysterious stranger’s arms! The stranger grabbed the burglar, tied his shoelaces together to stop him from getting away and was putting his hand in the burgla’rs pocket to see if the emerald was there when he felt something squishy in the burglar’s pocket. “What are these?” he asked, pulling two honey sandwiches out of the burglar’s pocket. “Oh,” replied the burglar “those are for me breakfast!” “Ah” said the stranger (though he did not understand at all) as he fished the emerald out of the burglar’s pocket and put it in his own. The mysterious stranger was about to drag the burglar away when he stopped. Detective M. Adman was running towards the stranger so fast, his legs could hardly keep up with his body. M Adman reached them quickly and asked who the mysterious stranger was. “I am Officer Arnold” said the mysterious stranger “But how come you have got the emerald?” M. Adman asked, fishing it out of Officer Arnold’s pocket and putting it in his own pocket. “You must be the burglar.” At that moment the security guard came. “Hey,” he shouted “what are you doing at this time?” “You must be the burglar!” the guard suddenly exclaimed, grabbing the emerald out of M. Adman’s pocket. “But I’m M. Adman” said the detective. “Oh, I couldn’t see in this light” answered the guard, quite disappointed at not catching the burglar. “Where did you get the emerald from?” he asked M. Adman. “I got it from Officer Arnold,” answered M. Adman. “And what are you doing picking locks at this time of night?” asked the security guard, addressing Officer Arnold “I saw the burglar go in and as there was no one around who could open the doors I picked the locks to follow him,” answered Officer Arnold. “But where did you get the emerald?” asked the guard. “From him,” answered Officer Arnold, pointing to where the burglar should have been, but the burglar wasn’t there! He had obviously untied his laces and run away during the commotion, but he had left a trail of muddy footprints. M. Adman quickly followed the trail and caught up with the burglar as he escaped through the revolving doors. M. Adman ran after him forgetting the speed of the revolving doors and shot through, did two backward flips and landed straight on the stomach of the surprised burglar. The detective stuffed the thief in to his own swag bag. “We have really got him in the bag this time!” joked detective M. Adman.