Who Dunnit?

 Hi! Happy New Year! It's been so cold and snowy the last few weeks so I thought: a cold and snowy story! My friends and I have been sledging and making snowmen all week and that was the inspiration for this story. Hope you enjoy!😀

Who Dunnit?

One, two three, HEAVE! The four friends put the final head on the fourth snowman. Panting, they gazed proudly at the motionless white statues. Sparkling snowflakes floated through the air, to land softly in the garden of Crawick Cottage. The cold white figures stood in a line, facing the snow covered hedge, twig arms poking absurdly from the ball in the middle. Laughing at an uncanny likeness, Katie pointed at one of the recently created snowmen, “That one has a cheeky face, just like Matthew!” Matthew ran inside and returned seconds later carrying his Harry Potter hat and scarf. He placed them on the snowman with the mischievous grin. Amilia stared lovingly at the the snowman with the widest smile. “This one looks pretty.” With a gloved hand she placed her scarf around its neck. “Just like you,” said Katie rolling her eyes at Lily. Lily picked a tall thin snowman to decorate and fashioned it with her Sanquhar pattern hat and scarf while Katie chose a smart, sneaky looking one with a jolly grin to wear her stripy scarf and furry hat.

 Stepping back to admire their work, it was as if they were staring into a mirror - at alternate versions of themselves. “Oh!” said Katie “The wind makes it look like this snowman is waving!” Everyone laughed heartily but Matthew scrunched up his face and said seriously, “I think it did move its arm.” Lost in their own thoughts the children started when Lily and Matthew’s mum called them in for dinner and the group dispersed. Katie shouted back, “Meet for sledging tomorrow if it snows again tonight in the field across from the Lawyers Brae sign!” Lily gave her the thumbs up signal and stepped inside.

 The cockerel crowed as the sun broke through the angry sky. Matthew and Lily looked out of the window to see a deep carpet of snow three inches deep. There had been a mini blizzard the previous night but even the power cut couldn’t dampen their spirits. The merciless cold stung their faces as they stepped outside. The wind was beating a violent tattoo on Lily’s and Matthew’s jackets making them shiver. They climbed the dry stone dyke and, over the wind, they heard what sounded like birds squawking in the distance. Wait-that wasn’t birds… Lily looked at Matthew, he had heard it too. They rushed along the road, slipping on the ice, and tripping over stones blanketed in snow. Rounding a corner, Lily and Matthew almost crashed into Katie and Amilia who were also trying to discover the source of the noise. Together, the foursome slid to a halt. A bundle of skirts seemed to be twisting and turning on the ground.

 Wilma, our old neighbour from down the hill, was sprawled on the ice, trying to untangle herself. The children hurried over. “Are you hurt?!” shouted Lily, helping Wilma sit up straight and gazing concernedly at her. Neighbours were running as fast as they could on the icy ground towards Wilma - who seemed unharmed apart from the embarrassment. “I’m fine! Quite fine!” said Wilma consolingly, “Now watch this ice! It’s treacherous!” “What happened?!” someone shouted. And Wilma said, “I think that someone is playing a rather crude joke. It seems that they stretched a wire at the top of the hill. But really!” said Wilma “No need to fuss, I’m fine!” Wilma was helped to her feet and led back to her house. Lily, Katie and Amilia stared at Matthew. This sounded like something he usually found funny but… “It wasn’t me!” he said incredulously.

Crawick was total chaos. Zach ran up the street shouting angrily. “Right!” he scowled, storming towards them. “Who nicked my bike?” “No one!” Said Matthew defensively. “Well, it’s gone and you’re the only person, Matthew, that’s ever said he wished he could have my bike!” “No, I didn’t!” Matthew yelled, pushing past Zach who glared suspiciously after him. The whole street was madness. Zach’s big dog Ollie came bounding out, covered in pink spray paint. Flowers that the villagers loved and cared for were upside down. Katie and Amilia’s swings were hanging from lampposts and Lily and Matthew’s mum was storming towards them.

“Matthew!? Lily!?” Matthew and Lily gulped. “Firstly,” she said, and the children wouldn’t have been surprised to see sparks fly out of her nostrils, “I want to know who stole Dad’s cans of cider from the back door. Go on, own up!” Her glare was so ferocious that it was a wonder that Lily and Matthew didn’t back away. No one had taken Dad’s cider and they were getting blamed for it. “Well, if nobody’s admitting to that theft then may I ask, WHY is our washing line stretched across the top of Miller’s Brae?” She hadn’t heard about Wilma yet and the children were glad that she was still ignorant. Nobody knew what to say. “Right, well I think it’s time to come home if neither of you know anything about it.” Lily managed a wave at Katie and Amilia before she and Matthew were marched home.

That night Lily lay in bed thinking. “Something very strange has happened here and it wasn’t me, Matthew, Katie or Amilia because we love the people of Crawick. Perhaps it’s someone from Sanquhar? It just didn’t make sense to her and soon Lily was fast asleep.

Keep your eyes peeled for Part 2!

Who Dunnit Part 2

 

Two nights ago, strange events happened in Crawick and four local children were being blamed for them. Determined to prove their innocence, they turned into detectives to unravel the mystery…

 Who Dunnit Part 2

Next morning, four children slipped out of two houses, unbeknown to their parents who had grounded them for their potential involvement in the pranks and vandalism that had mysteriously occurred around Crawick two nights ago. Lily, Matthew, Katie and Amilia met in secret, half-way up Millers Brae to discuss a plan for proving their innocence to their parents and the villagers.

“Ok,” whispered Lily, “Me and Amilia will interview the suspects and victims, and you two,” she pointed at Matthew and Katie, “can check out where the trip wire was hidden.” Everyone nodded silently and Lily added, “Meet back here in half an hour.”

 Matthew and Katie continued up the icy hill while Amilia and Lily slipped down – taking care not to land on their bottoms. When Katie and Matthew finally reached the top of the hill, Katie knelt in the snow, pointing to a thin line where the soft snow had been parted. “This is where your mum’s washing line was stretched across the road.” Matthew gasped and said, “Incriminating evidence! Look at those weird footprints! It looks like someone’s been wearing tub lids on their feet!” Katie clapped her hands excitedly. “Well done Matthew!” And she quickly snapped a shot on her phone of the strange, curved rectangular shapes that were scattered around the offending area.

The next half hour passed fairly quickly and the children were feeling rather proud of themselves as they met again. “Well, we have found out a good amount.” said Lily, puffing out her chest. “We know that Bob, Wilma’s next door neighbour, went for a walk at 6:30pm to the Dumping Stone and back and his snowy footprints corroborate this.  There didn’t appear to be any other shoe marks on the road which would suggest that he was the last walker until 9:30am, next day, when Wilma tripped and fell - considering that it stopped snowing at 6:00pm last night. So, either Bob nicked our washing line and used it as a trip wire or someone sneaked along when it was dark and everyone was in bed. It was placed between 6:30pm at night and 9:30am in the morning. Still no leads on the upturned flowerpots or the swings dangling from the lampposts.”

Katie sniffed disapprovingly and began accusing everyone and anyone that she could think of who may have stolen her swings, before crossing her arms so tightly that it looked unlikely that she would ever unravel them again. They still hadn’t retrieved their swings and the kindest thing to say was that Katie was cracking up. To sail the conversation out of these dangerous waters, Lily piped up that she and Amilia had also interviewed Zach who was able to shine some light on the case. Apparently, when he went to bed, 10:30pm, his big dog Ollie was white and when he woke up, 7:30am, Ollie had been spray painted pink (Zach whole heartedly blamed Amilia for this, as pink was her favourite colour and she does love to paint!) “So that narrows it down even further.” said Lily. “If we’re assuming it’s the same pranksters behind everything, then the events must have happened between 10:30pm and 7:30am next morning. But we can only see Bob’s footprints from last night, so who else could have been around?” “Well,” chipped in Matthew, “we saw really funny shapes in the snow beside the trip wire, and it looked like it could have been someone wearing tubs on their feet – perhaps to throw anyone off the scent.” “So, does this mean that we can rule out Bob then?” asked Lily. “Yeah, Bob’s not a suspect.” agreed Katie. “We can also discount Wilma, of course.” “Free again tomorrow?” asked Lily. “Yup.” replied Katie.

Lily and Matthew scurried up the hill while Katie and Amilia slipped down towards their house. Thankfully, neither parents noticed their children’s absence and they were able to sneak back inside undetected as dusk wrapped its thick blanket over the confused hamlet of Crawick.  Lying in bed that night, Lily was sure that she heard someone laughing at her as though mocking her. But the net was closing in.

                                                     

Who Dunnit Part 3

Who Dunnit? Part 3

L.M Owens

 

12 o’clock chimed, bringing with it another inch of snow. Lily and Matthew were thankful that Katie had photographed the weird marks from yesterday as most snow would have covered any trace of evidence. They told their parents that they were going sledging, which wasn’t exactly a lie as they were likely to do this at some point. Running into their play hut, they spied out of the windows and waited for Katie and Amilia. Eventually, they arrived ten minutes late and with so many layers on, they looked like giant teddy bears. When they saw Lily and Matthew peering out of the window, they scurried up and joined them in the hut. “Sorry we’re late!” said Katie hurriedly, “I told my mum we were going out in the snow and she made sure we wore every piece of winter clothing we owned! “That’s ok,” said Lily, “Now, let’s get down to business. Does anyone have anything to report? Any new leads?

“Yes!” said Amilia breathlessly. “Someone let a cockerel in our house at 4:00am and it crowed all morning, Mum’s sure it was Katie! Remember those funny shapes in the snow surrounding the trip wire? We also found them in our back garden when the cockerel woke us up.  They led up to our backdoor, and that was the only day we forgot to lock it!  In fact, we noticed them everywhere around Crawick! Thankfully, Katie snuck out and took all of these pictures, (she showed them on the phone) because this new layer of snow has almost erased any trace.  Ohh if only there hadn’t been a blooming power cut, then we could have checked the CCTV cameras and it would be clear for everyone to see who was behind all this mischief!” Lily rubbed her arm soothingly. “Don’t worry Amilia, we’ll prove to everyone in Crawick that it wasn’t us. Let’s go down and sledge for a bit to cheer us up.”

They were just about to file out of the play hut when Lily yelped. “Oh my! What the…?” The others followed her shaky finger and their hands leaped to their mouths. Four cans of cider lay in the corner of their hut. “Dad’s cider.” She stared aghast at the crumpled, empty cans. “Should we tell?” said Matthew worriedly. “And be throttled half to death? No thanks!” cried Lily scathingly. “They’ll all think it was us!” Nodding her head and smiling grimly, Katie twitched a blanket from the pile in the corner over the cans. “Just in case any nosey parker comes peeking through the window. We’ll deal with this later. C’mon, may as well sledge for a while.”

The day was full of fun and laughter as the children momentarily forgot their worries as they careered wildly down the hill on their sledges until their hands became numb and their feet ice blocks. On the road home, they chatted animatedly until they noticed a figure walking towards them. As he came closer, he tutted disapprovingly. “You’ll be the four troublemakers then.” He was an old, stooped man with a walking stick grasped in his brown aged spotted hand. “Poor Wilma.” He shook his head. “What do you mean?” asked Katie anxiously. “I thought she was ok!” “Yeah well she was rushed to hospital last night with a suspected hip fracture! But I suppose it was worth it for your little moment of fun?” he glared at them. “But we didn’t…” began Matthew heatedly. But the old man interrupted him. “Don’t think no one saw you the other night. I look out of my window across the river and what do I see? Four kids carrying a cockerel! You’re not fooling anybody.” And with that, he shuffled away glancing back and throwing them contemptuous looks.

The children stared at each other. Matthew gnawed at his stubby nails. Amilia bit her lip so hard it would soon draw blood. Katie shuffled her feet and stared at the ground. Lily, who had been chewing her hair, looked up nervously. “Hello Zach.” Everyone else’s heads snapped up to watch as a second figure approached them. Zach ignored her. Instead, he held up a piece of paper in his hand, shoving it under Amilia’s nose who stepped back in alarm. “That’s the bill. We’ve got to pay the vet £200 for what you’ve done. Ollie had an allergic reaction to that paint!” he scowled, without looking at her. As he turned to leave, he glared at Matthew. “And I’d appreciate it if I could have my bike back. And I swear Matthew, if I get it back in pieces, you’ll be buying me a new one!” The four stared miserably at each other. “You know, I don’t even blame Zach for being angry with us. All the evidence does point to us. And if this had happened to our dog, and my bike, I’d feel exactly the same.” said Matthew.

They all nodded and ran up the hill. As they reached the play hut, Matthew remembered that Dad had borrowed their seats for his own hut so they hurried towards Dad’s shed to retrieve them.  The shed door was conveniently open. Even before the contents inside came into their line of vision, the children knew that something wasn’t right. The air was thick with a deep feeling of foreboding that made them instantly wary. Matthew, who was the first to the door, gave a low moan when he saw what was sitting in the shed. A mangled piece of blue metal, two flat tyres and a squashed bell lay in a heap on the floor. Zach’s bike. Above it stood dad, arms crossed, eyes blazing. “Explain.” he said through a lipless mouth. And the children launched into speech. After a quarter of an hour of coherent explanation, Dad was forced to accept that the foursome was indeed innocent. “So, you think someone might be stealing the garments off your snowmen as a disguise, to frame you?” Dad asked, his brow furrowed. They all agreed with bated breath. “Well,” began Dad. “If you want to find out who’s stealing your stuff and causing all this trouble, you could set up my wildlife camera and catch the thief in action.” Dad glanced out of his shed window at the descending darkness. “It’s getting late, you should probably go home now. I’ll set up the camera.” They all trooped outside and Katie and Amilia waved as they reached the driveway, before trotting down the hill. “I wonder who we’ll catch!” said Matthew excitedly. As the siblings walked inside, Dad fixed the camera to a tree opposite the snowmen, covered it in leaves and pressed record.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Katie and Amilia hammered on Lily and Matthew’s door. Matthew opened it quickly, bouncing on the balls of his feet and grinning from ear to ear. “Have you got the footage?” asked Katie, frantically unravelling a scarf from around her neck. Lily appeared in the doorway, holding up the wildlife camera and smiling. “Come on, we can watch it in my room.” she said. The children trooped upstairs and sat on Lily’s bed, staring at the camera expectantly. Lily propped it up on a stack of pillows and with trembling fingers, pressed play.

A figure stirred in the shadows and began to make its way forward. It’s arms were so thin and spindly they looked as though they could be blown away with a single gust of wind. Who was it? It’s body was as round as a plum. It’s bright orange nose was at least five inches long and it’s feet were curved and rectangular. Three more figures joined the first. They looked identical.  The first rascal skipped off towards the washing line and began to pull it down. Two more ran at the bird feeders and stole the fat balls from within- starting a game of tennis with rackets that had been left on the ground. Suddenly, the last of the intruders pointed straight at the camera, pulled a chunk of their own flesh from their stomach, and hurled it at the lens – covering it in white, wet splodges.

They all sat staring at the blank screen. Their faces resembled those who had been recently hit over the head with clubs. Finally, Amilia broke the silence. “The snowmen!” She stared at them all, her face a mask of shock. “How will we prove it? No one will believe us!” “Your dad does. I think I might have an idea…” said Katie thoughtfully. “Does he use Facebook?” “Yes.” the siblings replied.

After writing a careful and thorough explanation of the strange happenings in Crawick, Lily and Matthew’s dad uploaded their comments along with the video footage, to “The Town of Sanquhar” Facebook page, asking everyone to share and spread the news and evidence of their innocence in a bit to restore their tattered reputations. Hopefully this does the trick, said Amilia, crossing her fingers.

“What about the snowmen though?” asked Matthew. “It’s time to put an end to their skulduggery!” replied Lily firmly. They marched outside; heads held high. But when they reached the garden, all that was left were four hats and scarves and four carrot noses amidst diminishing blobs of snow. Seeing as they could no longer have the confrontation that they wished for, they enjoyed the last of the bodies with a snowball fight. “Take that, you abominable snowmen!” as the remainder of their bodies were scattered all over the garden.

When they arrived back inside, news and messages of support from Facebook were already flooding in. Dad was in the process of fixing Zach’s bike and Zach couldn’t stop apologising for ever suspecting them. The five of them set about tidying up the street and best of all, Wilma was returning that afternoon from hospital, fit as a fiddle. “Well done kids, you could be detectives some day!” said Dad, clapping them on the back. The four friends grinned and took a bow.

THE END