It shone like a light in the darkness. The diamond’s beauty reflected off the walls, illuminating the ‘caution stand back’ tape surrounding its case. Standing peacefully in the middle of the room, it seemed like nothing could harm this wonder – except for the man that lay carefully on the ground beside the diamond’s glass case. Slowly moving into an upright position, the man took a tool from his jacket and made a smooth hole in the glass. Ever so carefully, he stuck his hand into the case and gripped his hands around the gem. He slipped it into a bag while pulling out an electronic chip. He set it on the place of the original diamond. In a few seconds, the chip whirred and created a holographic image of the diamond. As the man put the glass piece back, someone yelled,
“Hey! Who is that?”
Footsteps grew louder as the man hurried toward the wall. In the process, he cut himself with a leftover shard of glass. All of a sudden, the door flew open and light flooded the dark museum room, revealing the colors of the Oriental rug and the old fashioned walls. A janitor entered.
“Who are you?” The janitor growled.
“I’m the new janitor. I was assigned to clean the diamond room. I didn’t know where the lights were, and I had to finish cleaning this room as fast as possible, so I didn’t look around too much.” The man replied.
The man chose his clothes well – the perfect outfit a janitor would be wearing and not the usual black that all thieves wear. The janitor glanced at the case. Mistaking the diamond hologram as the real thing, he said a few more words to the man and left. The man grinned and quickly exited the room himself, holding the precious stone close to him.
* * *
A brown haired, 20-year-old stood In front of a fairly large building with a few windows. Any passerby would turn away from this spooky building, but she grew familiar to her unusual workplace. At the top right of the brick building, three letters, L, B, and I, were written in gold. The 20-year-old sighed, and took four steps, pushed open the mahogany door, and greeted her colleagues at the Local Bureau of Investigation.
“Good morning!”
“Good morning to you too Jamie, but I wouldn’t be so happy. Looks like we’ve got another case,” Samantha, a friend of Jamie replied.
“What? We have another case? We just solved one yesterday though!” Jamie complained, walking through the colorful cubicles of others to her office.
“Girl, we work at the L.B.I. What do you expect us to do? Sit around all day? Besides, this case is actually interesting. Here, check out the overview.” Samantha continued, handing Jamie a couple papers, “It says that the Hira Diamond was stolen from the Sandy Museum. We have to find out who did it.”
“That’s horrible! That diamond was the pride of our city! My great grandfather found it in the mines of a Middle Eastern country, and brought it back here to show off. This is a disgrace to my family,” Jamie’s pretty face twisted into a frown.
“I know, and we only have about a week or two to find out who did it!” Samantha followed Jamie into her disorganized office.
“On the overview, they started us off with a couple of possible suspects,” Jamie continued, taking a seat in her chair and smoothening out her black pants, “Casey Rak, suspect number one - She is the tour guide who shows the Hira Diamond to tourists. Chase Miles, suspect number two - He was present during one of the morning tours. Skipper Chuck, suspect number three - He was also present during a morning tour. They give us a picture of Skipper Chuck… He looks fat. This case does seem interesting. Let’s take it.”
“We have no choice. We have to take it. Let’s try to find as much information about these three people as we can. If you find anything useful, share it with me. I’ll do the same.”
Jamie nodded and turned to her computer. Her fingers clicked away as she did a profile check on each of the suspects. The checks didn’t give any information that could have been useful to Jamie, so she grabbed her keys and Abercrombie jacket off her desk, causing a stack of papers to tumble into a heap on the floor. I’ll clean that up later she thought, hurrying out of the office and maneuvering between colorful cubicles of others.
In a couple minutes, she got to her car. The frosty evening made her nose and slightly raised cheeks turn red. Her perfect face brightened with a little more color.
Jamie started her car up and drove it down to the Sandy Museum. She parked her car and strolled into the museum, her high heeled boots clicking away.
“Hello, and welcome to the Sandy museum. How may I help you?” A clerk at the counter asked.
“Hi, I work for the L.B.I and I have come here to investigate on the Hira Diamond case,” Jamie replied, flashing her badge.
“Oh, yes, right this way,”
The clerk lead Jamie through a couple rooms, all of them containing mysterious and ancient artifacts. As Jamie followed the clerk, she looked in awe at the amazing and interesting tools and items surrounding them. Finally, they arrived at their destination. The room seemed like a room in an abandoned house. You couldn’t tell that it once used to hold a precious stone diamond.
“I need to talk to some people who work here. Do you know who Casey Rak is?” Jamie inquired.
“Oh yes. I’ll send her right in. You can wait here and check out anything you like!” The clerk squealed, exiting the dark room.
Jamie took a step closer to the glass case located in the middle of the room. She looked at it from all sides and found a little hole in the corner. Just then, someone burst into the room. She wore a long black coat, Jamie noticed as she walked right up to her.
“Are you the person waiting for me?” A young woman asked, flipping her dark hair out of her eyes.
“Yes. You must be Casey Rak. My name is Jamie. I work for the L. B. I. I’m here to investigate the case of the missing diamond,” Jamie introduced.
“Jamie! I know you! You are my sister’s friend. Do you know my sister Rosy? Yeah, she talks about you all the time!” Casey said.
“I know Rosy Rak! No wonder your name sounded familiar! Nice to meet you in person! I’ve always considered you as a friend, even though I never met you before! It’s just that Rosy always talks about you too…” Jamie droned on.
“Oh my god, what a coincidence we met!” Casey stated, going into a cleaning closet and coming out with two chairs.
“Speaking of that, I have to ask you a couple questions, if that’s okay with you,”
They both took their seats and Jamie started investigating.
“What do you know about the disappearance?”
“I’m going to tell you all I know. I first spotted the disappearance of the diamond. When I showed this room to the tourists two days ago at nine o’ clock (my first tour that day), the diamond amazed all of the guests. The instant I came into this room for the 10:00 tour, I couldn’t spot the diamond anywhere. I made everyone leave here as fast as possible and went and told the manger that the diamond was gone.” Casey confessed.
“Did you notice anything unusual?”
“Um… Yeah. During the first tour I could swear I counted eleven people following me to each room. At the end of the tour, I counted only ten. I thought I counted wrong, but maybe not. I also noticed this unusual guy in the crowd. His name sounded something like Sipper Cup, or maybe it was Skipper Chuck. I don’t know,” Casey’s face turned dark all of a sudden, like she realized something bad.
“Does anyone come in here other than you? Did anyone come in here perhaps between the tours?”
“Um… Uh…” Casey stuttered, “Well, I… I… I know that the janitors usually clean out this place every morning. Dan is the name of the janitor who cleans this place out, but I’m pretty sure he didn’t touch the diamond,”
Casey looked away from Jamie. Her blue eyes lost their shine in a second. What happened to her? Does she know something? Did she steal the diamond? Jamie wondered, carefully watching Casey’s movements. Casey placed one hand quickly on top of the other, as if to hide something on her hand.
“Can you call Dan in here, so I can talk to him?” Jamie asked.
Casey sighed, as if relieved that the interview ended.
“Sure, I’ll call him right in!” Casey squeaked, jumping up and heading to the door.
Once left alone again, Jamie marched over to the glass case and observed the hole in the glass. Big enough for the Hira Diamond to fit through, the hidden hole definitely had something to do with the crime. As Jamie examined the hole more closely, a knock came on the door.
“Come on in,” Jamie shouted loud enough for Dan to hear while taking her seat.
Dan walked in and took a seat.
“I know what I am here for. I’m just going to tell you everything I know, just like what Casey did,” Dan didn’t wait for a reply and kept going on, “So I came here at 9:15 like usual, and I was about to walk right in, but I heard some noises coming from inside. So I started calling out ‘who’s there?’ but I got no reply until I walked into here. There was a man standing right about where we are sitting, wearing a janitor’s outfit. He claimed to be a new janitor. So I said okay and left after making sure that the diamond was there. It was there alright. About five seconds after I left, he left too, and followed me out. There was no way he could steal the diamond in five seconds. But I think he did it. By the way, he had a French beard…”
“Thanks for the information. I’ll look into that. Um, I should probably get going,” Jamie nodded.
They both exited the room the same way they came in, but this time Jamie couldn’t wait to call Samantha and tell her what she found out.
In an hour Jamie arrived at her home. The instant she walked in, her mom bombarded her with questions.
“Where were you? You were supposed to be back an hour ago! What happened? Why didn’t you call? I was so worried… Why didn’t you call?”
“Chill mom, I was just at the office and at the museum working on a case! No big deal! Gosh…” Jamie retorted, tossing her keys onto a side table near the grand stairs and plopping down on the sofa in front of the TV.
“Chill…? How can I chill? I don’t even think you should work at the L.B.I! It’s way too dangerous! When will you do your collage courses? When will you do those? What kind of unusual case have they put you in this time? ” Jamie’s mom glared at Jamie.
“The L.B.I is the coolest job ever! And this time, I got put in the totally awesome case of trying to solve the case of the missing Hira Diamond!” Jamie replied, turning off the TV and getting ready to head up to her room.
“If that job doesn’t give you anything good by the end of this week, I’m making you quit!” Jamie’s mom called, watching Jamie fade away into her room.
Jamie plopped down onto her fluffy green bed. Her Mini Yorkshire Terrier, Snuffles, yelped and jumped on with her. He barked a couple times and then started sniffing her. Jamie took off her coat and threw it onto a light green egg chair in the corner of her room. Snuffles followed the coat and started barking at the side of it. What’s wrong? She wondered, getting up and reaching for her coat.
Jamie stuck her hand into the pocket and pulled out a piece of ripped cloth. Snuffles happily yelped, having fully conveyed the message. The cloth looked exactly like the outfit that Dan wore.
“That’s odd… I didn’t see any tears in Dan’s outfit…” Jamie pondered, returning to her bed.
Jamie tucked herself in and Snuffles crawled up next to her. With thoughts of diamonds in her head, she fell sound asleep.
The chirp of birds sailed into the house that Jamie lived in. The clear sky helped the sun shine brighter than ever. Jamie woke up earlier than her alarm. She looked outside for a while and let her thoughts wander. As soon as the endless buzzes of her alarm clock started, she hurriedly turned them off and started to freshen up. In an hour, Jamie arrived at the breakfast table to see her mother making pancakes, and her father reading the newspaper with a cup of coffee.
“Good morning! How’s it going?” Jamie inquired, taking a seat and a plate of piping hot pancakes.
“Jamie, I know that this probably seems like I am nagging you, but I seriously think that you should quit that job of yours,” Jamie’s mother repeated, bringing up the topic from the night before and a fresh batch of pancakes.
“Why? I’m still going to college, right? So what’s the big deal?” Jamie persisted, stuffing her mouth with pancakes, but making sure that she didn’t spill any on her new flare jeans and A and F baby doll top.
“You should concentrate on getting good grades first, and then think about your job. You won’t get anywhere in these small jobs - like being a crime investigator, unless you’re really good,” Jamie’s father contributed.
Jamie got up and put on her boots and coat. She looked at her parents and stated,
“You guys are nagging me. And I am getting good grades,” She paused halfway out the door, “and I am a good crime investigator!”
Jamie hopped into her red mustang and headed toward the Sandy College. After parking, she caught up with Samantha.
“Hey Samantha,” Jamie jollily called.
“Hey,” Samantha stated, spotting Jamie.
“OMG you will not believe how much information I gathered yesterday!” Jamie enthusiastically said.
“I barely got any useful information about this stupid case. Seriously, I spent five hours at the L.B.I looking up profiles!”
They passed many of their fellow students as they made their way to their classroom.
“Well, I went to the museum and interviewed some people. First I talked to Casey Rak, and it turns out that she is Rosy Rak’s sister! You know our classmate? And then I talked to a Janitor and he told me so many things! I took some notes, and I’ll show them to you after class. But it’s all so exiting…” Jamie dragged on.
“Wait, you went to the museum without me?” Samantha stopped walking and turned toward Jamie, clearly annoyed.
“Um… yeah….”
“Why didn’t you tell me? I spent my time bored half to death!”
“Sorry, next time I’ll ask if you want to come too. Sorry. Here are the notes I took,” Jamie apologized, handing Samantha a notepad.
After scanning the notes, Samantha sneered,
“How do you know that any of this is true? What if they all lied? How would you know? They could be trying to lead us off.”
“Why would they do that? I mean if you think of it like that, how would I know that you are telling the truth about working for five hours?”
“Ask anybody working near me, they’ll all tell you that I worked so long,”
“How do I know that they aren’t teaming up with you? See, I have to trust you. The same way I trusted the suspects!” Jamie retorted, the argument heating up between them.
“You know what, Jamie? If you think that you can do this case all alone, so be it. You can do the rest by yourself and I’ll just take up another one. Gosh…” Samantha finished and turned to walk away.
Before Jamie could say anything, Samantha was gone.
Jamie stalled going to her class, and arrived late. Trying to avoid being scolded by her professor, she tiptoed to her seat and slouched down into her swinging chair. Luckily, she escaped the teacher’s gaze, and got through the two hours furiously taking notes on fingerprint analysis.
The instant the class dismissed, Jamie grabbed her books, stuffed them in her pink bag along with her fingerprint scanner, and rushed out the door. She jogged to her car and tossed herself and her bag in. Jamie’s parents required her to check in with them before heading to the L.B.I. She refused to be late once again to her job, so she rushed on the road and amazingly, safely arrived at her home. Striding inside, Jamie called to no one in particular,
“I’m home!”
“Jamie! Did you quit your job?” Her mother’s voice paused, “You’re home early today,”
“Mom, I didn’t quit working! I told you, I love my job!” Jamie growled, anger bubbling inside of her.
After waiting a moment without any reply from her mother, Jamie bolted out the door as fast as she came in and hopped into her car. She slammed the door and started the ignition. Muttering to herself, she pulled out of the driveway. On her way to the L.B.I, she recalled her argument with Samantha earlier that day.
“Ah!” She yelled in frustration as she approached a red light.
Unfortunately, she didn’t realize that her window was open a bit. She glanced at the driver in the car next to her, noticing his stare saying “you’re crazy” all over it. Realization poured into Jamie as she pulled away from the signal, that made her regret being mad. Especially how the driver, that caught her mad, zoomed away from her as soon as the red light gave up.
When Jamie arrived at the L.B.I, she tossed her keys into her black guess bag and strolled past the door and toward her office. Halfway there, she ran into her boss.
“Jamie, the case you and Samantha are solving must be solved in two days. It would be too late if you take any longer because the museum is shutting down that area, and… If you don’t find the culprit within the time I have given you… you’re fired!”
“What! I have been working here for a very long time! Two days? Are you serious?” Jamie exclaimed, nearly in tears.
“Sorry, but two days is all I can give you,” And with that, Jamie’s boss strutted away into another office.
Feeling even more frustrated, Jamie walked a few more feet before being confronted with Samantha.
“Jamie, since you are doing this all by yourself, you should know that Chase Miles is waiting to be interviewed in your office. I just thought you would like to know…” Samantha angrily stated, before walking toward the door.
Jamie stood speechless for a couple of seconds before finally arriving at her office.
“Hello, you must be Chase Miles,” Jamie welcomed, not bothering to glance at him until she sat in her seat.
When Jamie looked at his face, she internally gasped, instantly making a connection. Her head turned in shock and didn’t know whether to trust her eyes or not. He had a beard! Not an unusual one, but stunning to Jamie. Chase Miles had a French beard!
“Hi. You must be Jamie. I know why I’m here. I didn’t steal the Hira Diamond or whatever because I brought proof, that I was somewhere else!” Chase candidly mentioned, revealing a sheet of paper from his pocket and offering it to Jamie to look at.
Jamie received the paper normally, recovered from her connection.
“This is the official document that I received after I went to the court to have a plea bargain for my speeding ticket. On that document, it is listed that I was at the court from 9:30AM to 10:00AM the day of the crime. As the diamond was found gone at 10:00, I couldn’t have stolen the diamond, because I have a legal document proving I was elsewhere!” Chase spilled.
“Oh. What happened to your arm?” Jamie inquired, referring to the bandage around Chase’s left arm.
“Oh… I uh… got cut by some glass.” Chase stammered.
“Okay. Um…That answered all of my questions. I guess this interview is over. I mean…” Jamie trailed off.
At the end, Chase and Jamie nodded, and Chase left, leaving Jamie to think things through.
Chase had a French beard! Oh my god! Just like the janitor said… He’s the only suspect with a French beard! Also his story was fishy. Like a perfect lie! And how did he know what time the diamond was stolen? At least I can eliminate the suspects of Casey Rak and Skipper Chuck. I saw his photo on the day we received the case, and I know he doesn’t have a French beard. Now I can focus on Chase Miles. I know he stole the diamond, but how do I prove it? Jamie pondered.
Then, she decided it was time to get help. Jamie was going to talk to Samantha.
Jamie whisked out her special L.B.I phone, containing information and contacts of all the fellow members and workers. Jamie scrolled down using the touchpad till a bright, blue-eyed, dark-haired picture of a person smiled back at her. Selecting Samantha’s face, she held the phone close to her ear, hoping that Samantha would pick up.
“What do you need?” Samantha answered, replacing the friendly hello she usually would say as soon as she saw the caller ID.
“Samantha! I need your help, please! I have some really good informa-“
“Jamie! I told you that I wasn’t going to help you because you wanted to do this all by yourself!” Samantha retorted, annoyed.
“Please Samantha! I really need your help!” Jamie begged.
“Oh, alright, where do you want to meet up?” Samantha gave in.
“We can meet at the museum in 20 minutes, if that’s okay with you. And thanks so much!” Jamie ended the phone call.
In exactly fifteen minutes, Jamie and Samantha arrived at the museum. After showing their badges, two workers escorted them into the crime scene. As soon as they left the two girls alone, Jamie spilled out all the information.
“The first time I came here I talked to Casey Rak and Dan the Janitor. Casey Rak claims that the diamond disappeared while she did her 10:00 tour. Then she told me that Dan the Janitor also cleans up the place so I interviewed him. He said that he saw a new janitor in here during the time the diamond…” Jamie went on until she updated Samantha.
“Okay, so what do you want me here for?” Samantha inquired, still clearly a bit mad.
“Help me look for clues.” Jamie quickly replied.
Both the girls examined the glass case first. Jamie made a note about the hole in the glass. Next she made another note about the Janitor’s words and the French beard.
Samantha walked around the room and looked for clues, but failed to find any except for an earring on the floor right next to the case, where a tourist couldn’t reach. She wanted to mention that the criminal could have been a woman, but kept it to herself. Hours passed, but neither of them could acquire any new information.
“This is harder than I thought it would be,” Samantha finally broke the silence.
“Yeah, I’m probably getting fired now. I failed this case…” Jamie sulked.
“No you didn’t! We still have until six o’ clock tomorrow to find evidence that Chase is guilty! At least we know he did it!” Samantha comforted.
“Yeah, I guess… We should probably get going. We have been in here for hours! Who knows what the manager will think!” Jamie concluded, picking up her bag.
Samantha agreed, and wrapped her stuff up too. Then they both signed out of the museum and headed their separate ways to their cars. As Jamie neared her mustang, she sighed and thought,
My mom was right. I’m going to lose my job. Maybe I’m not good enough to be a Crime Scene Investigator after all. I’m going to lose my job! And that too, to this case! A diamond case! How will I break the news to her? What will I do to earn a salary?
She continued thinking these kinds of thoughts all the way till her home.
The rest of the day, Jamie stayed aloof from everyone and kept her thoughts to herself. She wanted to be alone so she could think things through for one last time. But to her disappointment, she couldn’t think of a single thing to help the case.
The next day, a wave of disappointment overcame her. She arrived early to her class, and barely spoke with Samantha. After the college class dismissed, Jamie decided to not go home or to the L.B.I. She had an urge to go to the museum. Getting into her car, she started on her way to the museum. She didn’t bring her L.B.I detective bag, so she only carried her pink school bag into the museum. She knew the way to the Diamond room, so she went there automatically; to sit and think about the good times she spent at the L.B.I.
The instant Jamie entered the room, the musty scent of an unsolved case lingered to her nose. I’m going to miss this smell… She thought, and then quickly changing her mind, No! I’m not going to miss this because I’m not going to lose this! I’m going to find evidence right now and give it to my boss! I have the intelligence! I can do this in the two hours left!
Encouraging herself, she got out a fingerprint scanner from her bag and scanned the fingerprints on the case.
“Why didn’t I think of this before?” She said out loud, as the system processed the information.
As she waited, she glanced at the hole in the glass case. Hidden away in the edge was a small drop of dried up blood. A light bulb went off in Jamie’s head at the same time that the fingerprint scanner beeped.
Chase cut his arm on glass! He reached into the case to grab the diamond and that’s probably how he cut it! Jamie recalled, enjoying the moment. But that doesn’t prove anything on how he got that legal document saying he was at court for a plea bargain at the time of crime.
Jamie checked the finger print scanner. CHASE MILES and CASEY RAK was written at the top with a copy of the fingerprints found and compared them with the ones secured at the L.B.I station.
Yes! It has got to be him! I have evidence, but I just have to prove that Chase wasn’t at the court or something…
Jamie took a step closer to the glass and realized she had been blind not to see something in the center of the case. She reached in through the hole and pulled out a tiny chip. Colorful wiring and a black backing hid it from plain sight. Jamie flipped it over to examine the back side. Engraved neatly in the corner was the words “diamond hologram”.
“Oh my god,” Jamie gasped, instantly reaching for her phone.
Luckily, Samantha picked up on the first call.
“Samantha! I figured out who stole the diamond! I got the evidence!” Jamie shrieked into the phone.
“OMG that’s great! We have to meet up right away. I’ll see you at the L.B.I. Come with the evidence. We have, like, a half an hour before six o’ clock!” Samantha hurriedly replied, ending the conversation.
In no time at all, they met up at the Local Bureau of Investigation. Heading inside, Jamie waited until they reached her office to spill everything.
“I found fingerprints and I found a little blood on the hole were the glass was cut and I found a DIAMOND HOLOGRAM!” Jamie squealed as soon as they arrived, holding out the chip.
“That’s it! We have to go and tell the boss!” Samantha rushed as she bolted for the door.
Jamie followed close behind as they navigated through the cubicles in search of their boss. As soon as the top of his head came out on top of the crowd, Jamie ran toward him and said,
“I’ve found it! I have the evidence to prove Chase Miles did the crime!”
Jamie’s boss told Jamie and Samantha to meet him in his office. Their excitement brought them to his office in a jiffy.
“What have you got?” Jamie’s boss asked, once seated comfortably in his chair.
Jamie and Samantha took turns filling him in as they added some details that one or the other left out.
“That’s marvelous! I’ll call Chase right now!” Jamie’s boss agreed, after listening to the entire story.
In a few minutes that seemed like hours to Jamie and Samantha, Chase Miles came into the boss’ office.
“We know you did the crime. You might as well spill everything you know right now, and we might reduce the punishment,” Jamie’s boss threatened, locking the door behind Chase.
Chase sat still for a second, and then uncomfortably looked around.
“Fine, I admit it. I stole the Hira Diamond,” He confessed finally, “First I got a traffic ticket for speeding and made sure that they wanted me to come to court on the day of the robbery. I have a friend who is really intelligent and makes holograms of different objects. He helped me make a breach in the security system in the Museum, which helped me enter. My friend also gave me a high speed laser that I used to make a hole in the glass case. I then removed the diamond and placed a holographic chip of the diamond. In the process, I cut my arm on the glass. I turned it on and then an identical diamond popped up. That’s when I was interrupted by that stupid Janitor who almost got me caught. I left the place with him. And I was going to sell the diamond, but I guess…”
“You’re in really big trouble?” Samantha finished.
While Chase confessed, Jamie’s boss called the police and the instant he completed his confession, the police arrived at the door.
“Take this man away to jail. We’ll give you details later,” He nodded to the policemen, opening the door. When Chase left with the police, Jamie never felt happier than before. She solved the case, and got her best friend back. But the best part – she got to do the job she loved every day.
