Little Cottage in the Northwoods

The Case Files of Sam Sleuth #2
The Missing Valentines

My name is Sam Sleuth. Well, it’s really Samantha Green, but Sam Sleuth looks better on the tree house window, and it attracts more clients. I’m a detective. I rid my neighborhood and my school of crime. One case I remember happened on Valentine’s Day. I like Valentine’s Day. I like the red and pink hearts. I love my best friend, Marcia Wilson’s, cupcakes that she brings every year, and I like the Valentine cards the whole class has to make one for everybody so nobody feels left out. In the middle of the classroom was a table with small brown paper bags and labels that had each person’s name on it. I memorized the order of the bags when I got there that morning so I could put my cards in order and only had to go around the table once. There were two students in our class, Chris J and Chris R. Their bags were next to each other so I double checked my cards to make sure I got the right card in the right bag. Then, for the last two hours of class, we had a party. We had cupcakes, cookies, and milk. Our teacher, Mrs. Taylor, planned out activities with a Valentine theme, and we were all able to read our cards. Some kids were so excited they spilled their bags of Valentine’s and had to sort them out again before they could read them. I read through mine. I saw that Chris J had given me a custom Valentine with a border of hearts and a magnifying glass that made a heart in the middle bigger than the others. It was because I was a detective. I liked that. I went over to his desk to thank him for it. He was licking the chocolate frosting from one of Marcia’s cupcakes off his fingers.
“I want to thank you for my card,” I said. “It’s really cool.”
“You’re welcome.” He smiled a little. “Thanks for your card, too.”
“You’re welcome.” I smiled as I headed for the next person I needed to thank.
“Wait, Sam,” he said. “Can you meet me by the monkey bars after school?”
“Sure,” I said.

After school, I waited by the monkey bars. Chris J walked up to me and handed me his brown paper bag.
“Look inside,” he said.
I did–inside the bag were two cards. The card I gave him and a card from Chris R. “What am I looking for? There are two cards in here.”
“Exactly,” he said. “I only got two cards. Mrs. Taylor’s rule was that you had to give a card to everybody in the class. I know the whole class wouldn’t break the rules. I think somebody stole my cards.”
“That could be. The hand is quicker than eye,” I said, “but why would anyone want Valentine’s Day cards that have someone else’s name on them?”
“I don’t know.” He shook his head. “Maybe somebody doesn’t like me, and this is their way of getting even.”
I thought about this for a moment. What Chris J said made sense, but it still seemed unlikely. “The only thing we can do is visit the scene of the crime.”
We went back into the classroom. Mrs. Taylor was still there. I explained about Chris J’s cards and asked if we could stay a little longer to find out what happened.
“Yes, of course,” Mrs. Taylor said. “This is Valentine’s Day, everyone should get cards. I would like to see you at work, Samantha. I hear you are a very good detective.”
“She’s the best!” Chris J exclaimed.
“Thanks.” I smiled. “Mrs. Taylor, could I please have some paper?”
“Absolutely, is scrap paper all right? They are all different sizes,” she explained.
“Yes, that’s fine,” I said, taking the scrap paper and a pen. On each sheet of scrap paper I wrote the name of each person in class, including myself, exactly the way they were written on the bags that day. Then I set them around the table in the same order the bags were in before.
“You remember what order they were in?” Chris J asked surprised.
“Of course.” I grinned.
After all the names were set out, I got my cards out of my backpack then took the card I gave to Chris J. I mixed them up so they wouldn’t be in any kind of order then handed them to him.
“Okay, I’m going to watch,” I said. “I want you to carefully put all the cards on the table by the name of the person they came from.”
“Okay,” he said. Walking around the table, using the name on the first card, he tried to find the name of person on the table: Marcia, Hannah, Chris R, Kevin, Jamie, Davey, Chris R. I snapped my fingers, and he jumped.
“That’s it!” I shouted. “That’s why you didn’t get any cards!”
“What are you talking about?” He looked down and saw the two cards on Chris R’s pile.
“I memorized where all the bags were so I could my put my cards in order. That’s the reason you got my card. The other kids went around the table more than once just like you did. They either misread the cards or the labels and gave all your cards to Chris R.”
Together, Chris J and I walked to Chris R’s house. She smiled when she opened the door.
“Hey, Chris J. You’re just the person I wanted to see. I called you but you weren’t home. Remember I left class early to go the dentist?” She asked as she held out a brown paper bag to him. “I opened my bag after I came home and saw that I got your Valentine cards by mistake.”
“Thanks, Chris R.” Chris J took the bag from her, and then he looked at me. “How much do I owe you?”
I tapped my chin, I never think about my fee; I only think about solving the case. I smiled. “It’s Valentine’s Day–this case was free.”