A RING OF TRUTH, by Hal Charles
681 Words
A RING OF TRUTH,
by Hal CharlesDetective Julie Mitchell fought the urge to cover her ears as she stepped through the front door of her sister’s house. She couldn’t decide which was louder—the excited voices of the children or the cranked-up music coming from the stereo?
On her day off, Julie thought she’d drop by Ellen’s to see how things were going with her nephew’s sixth birthday party. Themes were all the rage, and Sammy had begged for a “Pirate Party.”
Sure enough, Julie was immediately surrounded by about a dozen small boys and girls with cardboard skull-and-crossbones hats and plastic swords. She could hardly believe her eyes when across the room she saw a brightly-colored parrot swoop down and perch on the shoulder of a tall, bearded man in what looked like authentic pirate garb.
“Avast, ye lubbers,” shouted the man over the voices and music, “Calico Jack and I have a really swashbuckling game planned for you!”
Bobbing its head, the parrot let out an ear-splitting squawk.
As the kids gathered around the Captain Hook lookalike, Julie noticed Ellen emerging from the hallway, a troubled look on her face.
“What’s wrong?” Julie said as her sister approached.
“It’s my wedding ring,” blurted out Ellen. “I left it on the tall cabinet in the hallway when I went to the kitchen to prepare the refreshments. I didn’t want to get a bunch of gooey icing on it. Just now when I went to retrieve it, the ring was missing.”
“Just calm down,” said Julie. “I’m sure you must have knocked the ring off the cabinet as you hurried to get the refreshments set up.”
“That was my first thought,” said Ellen, “but, believe me, I’ve searched the hallway with the proverbial fine tooth comb—even moved the cabinet—and the ring’s not there.”
“Ellen, I know you’ve been on pins and needles all week getting ready for the party. Could you have forgotten to take off the ring before heading for the kitchen?”
“Look, Julie,” said Ellen a bit defensively, “I know I can sometimes be a little scatterbrained, but I’m sure I left the ring on the cabinet.”
“Humor me,” Julie said as she watched a pintsized pirate, a bright red bandana covering his eyes, try to pin a cutout cannon to the deck on a ship attached to a corkboard in the corner of the room. “Let’s take a look in the kitchen.”
When the sisters’ search of the kitchen proved as unsuccessful as most treasure hunts of old, Julie’s police detective gene kicked in. “Did you notice Captain Hook out there leave the front room?”
Ellen thought for a moment then said, “Our friendly pirate has had his hands full since he got here. Sammy and his friends haven’t let him out of their sight all morning.”
Julie had solved her fair share of cases over the years—everything from shoplifting to armed robbery—but for the moment the case of the missing wedding band had her stumped. “You don’t think that one of the kids could have—”
“They’re six-year-olds, Julie. Not tall enough to see what’s on top of the cabinet, and, besides, what would one of them want with a wedding band?”
“Good point,” said Julie, impressed by her sister’s reasoning.
Leaving the kitchen, Julie saw Captain Hook collecting his party props.
“Captain,” said Ellen, “aren’t you going to stay for refreshments?”
“Arrrg!” said the bearded pirate, still in character. “I’d love to share a feast with me hearties, but I have another rendezvous with some swarthy mates across town.” With that, he signaled, and Calico Jack once again swooped down from his perch across the room and landed on the Captain’s shoulder.
“Captain,” said Julie, “you have a rendezvous, okay, but it’s at the local lockup.”
Solution
When Julie saw Calico Jack fly across the room, she realized the bird was Captain Hook’s accomplice in crime. Confronted, the Captain produced the wedding band and confessed that he had trained the parrot to fly around houses during his parties and pick up shiny objects, many of which were valuable. A check of police records revealed several reports of thefts from houses where the pirate had staged parties.
- Writer
