Dedicated to my friends, my Mom - Panini, Dad – Madhusudhan and my

Sister –Mahi.

The Development and production of this book has been supported by Institute of Experiential Learning, Bangalore, India.

Printed at Bangalore

April 2012

 

Chapter 1

In the year 2011, I took my degree of Doctor of Medicine from the University of Canada, and proceeded to Netley to go through the course prescribed. Having completed my studies in Canada, I had a little trouble remembering routes. I was a poor girl and did not have a lot of money. I had to find a place to live in, so I had to club money and share a house. Nobody wanted to club money though. I told my feelings to an old Innkeeper. He said “I have heard for the second time today about somebody who cannot find anyone to club money with”.

I excitedly asked “Who is it?”. He said, “It is a woman of your age and her name is Josephine Abbot. Beware of her; she is a little too scientific for my tastes.

I eagerly asked “can you introduce me to her”? He said “Yes, I can. Meet me at the 4T block tomorrow at 6:00 pm.

So, the next evening I went to 4T block at 6:00 pm, the Inn keeper was there waiting for me. We hired a taxi and went near St. Mary Jones Hospital and took a left. We came upon a small brick shed lit by a kerosene lamp. There was a girl of my age standing over a pile of chemicals. Her eyes had great black circles around them. I guess she was working on these chemicals for endless nights. She was wearing a black glittery cap with a green coat and golden T shirt and some cargo pants. She looked like she came from a well off family. I wondered why she had little money. I looked at her again, she had excitement written all over her face, but I saw fear there as well. I watched the way she carefully mixed two chemicals and beamed at the result. She saw me staring at her and raised her eyebrow as if to say “what? Have you not seen another person before?”. I was at a loss for words. I finally said “Hey my name is Shefali… and… I am from Canada… I like Science”. When I said the word Science she hollered

‘I like science too, infact I love it” I thought to myself, “Get to the point Girl!”. I said “Hey, I heard you were looking for someone to club money with, well coincidentally, I am looking for someone too! So I thought that we could club money to lease a house. She said “Sure, why not?”

 

Chapter 2

A week after we moved to our new place, I was reading the news paper in the morning. In the headlines was “MURDER IN BROOKE MANOR” I called out “Jo (Josephine) look what I found!” she came running, looking irritated and said “What is it? I was thinking you know”. I then said “I’m sorry, but look at this” pointing at the headline “I proved you wrong, there are crimes committed now-a-days, in fact there’s a murder committed today!” She took a closer look and exclaimed “Come, let’s go have a look. I am dying to rock and roll!” By looking at her so excited, I did not have the heart to say no. So, we set off to have a look at the house. It turned out to be a large grey mansion, with a garden and a massive portico. We walked in, noting that it was strangely dirty. I suspected it had become like this right after the murder. The Police Inspector came walking towards us. He had a thick moustache, a rather fat nose and a large mouth. His name as I remember was Turner. Inspector Turner came and instantly recognized Jo. “Is that you Jo?” he asked and she smiled politely saying “Hi Inspector Turner, can we have a look around the house?” he said “Yeah, sure, just stay out of trouble”.

I told Jo “You look for clues around the house and I will assist you”. Jo said nothing, she simple nodded and started her hunt. My first move was to go to the hall, where the crime was committed. I examined the hall for blood, but surprisingly there was none. I looked for fingerprints and there were none of those as well. Meanwhile, Jo had gone to the man’s room. I had just located a thumbprint on the fridge when she cried out “Shefali, I’ve done it! I’ve solved the mystery!” I went running to her with my heart pounding. She pointed to the wall in front of the bed. I looked up and saw the word ‘RACHE’ written with dark lipstick. She exclaimed that it must have been ‘Rachel’ the murderer’s name! Isn’t it obvious that it is a girl, its written with lipstick”. I stood there staring at the word RACHE. It seemed familiar, RACHE, RACHE, what was it? It hit me, RACHE in Spanish meant revenge! I told her “Jo, RACHE in Spanish means revenge, besides why would criminals write their name on a wall? To get caught? Jo stood there looking slightly hurt, I felt a bit guilty, I guess she saw that and said “Well, you’ve got a point”. This cheered me up a little. I said “Let’s go have a look at the body”

 

We went to the hall. The body was of a rather handsome man, his face marred by frothing at the mouth. I leaned down to examine the body closely. At first I thought the man might have had bad table manners. I eventually realized that this could not be the case and he was poisoned. I turned to see Ji. She had a look of horror on her face. She looked as if she would throw up any moment. I decided it would be best if we searched for more clues and I hurried her out of the room, spoke to her soothingly and asked her to look for more clues. I was just going out of the hall when I tripped on something. Jo was by my side in a second. I looked down to see what I had tripped on. It was a wedding ring which had a name engraved on it. Jo grabbed it and read aloud “Emma”.

Chapter 3

Jo read the name EMMA. I saw that sparkle in her eyes and I knew EMMA was one of our suspects. Without even looking at me she walked out of the house. I followed her, as she walked out she stopped to ask the watchman “Do you know anyone named Emma?” He looked at her curiously and sad “Why yes of course Ma’am. Emma is Mr. Brooke’s wife” He hesitated, then said “Everyone suspects she killed Mr. Brooke” Jo said “ Thank you very much…” We went to Emma’s mother’s house. I knocked on the door, and an elderly lady opened the door. She stepped out and I noted that her eyes were grey in colour and that she had a long nose and a rather small mouth. She had a fierce look in her eyes and said rather feebly “Who are you kids? Whom do you want?. Jo replied “I am Josephine and this is Shefali. We are looking for Emma”. The old woman said “Come, I will take you to her”. We followed the old woman inside the house. On a bed was a young lady who had deep brown eyes, a pointd nose and a small mouth. The old woman said “Emma these kids have come to see you”. Emma looked up, she saw our innocent looks and said “Have a seat please”. I said “Hey Emma, my name is Shefali and this is Josephine. We are searching for clues right now and have come to ask you about your husband”. She fixed me with a look that made me feel guilty and said “I am his wife and we had a fight. He wanted to give me a divorce and I threw my wedding ring at him and told him I had taken enough”. Jo asked

 

“Did you or did you not commit the murder?” Emma said vehemently “I did not commit a crime!” I stood up and thanked her for her time “Remember we believe in you”. We went back home, and I sat down to think about how I could solve mystery. Then it hit me! RACHE, being a Spanish word would mean the killer knew Spanish… I think I need to speak to the Innkeeper.

Chapter 4

I told Jo that we should now get the Innkeeper to help us. We went to the Inn and spoke to him about this seemingly impossible situation. He said he was sure Emma had murdered the man. I still believed Emma though. The innkeeper told us to leave in five minutes as one of the people staying at the inn had woken up. While saying goodbye he said “Adios Amigo”. At that point it did not strike me but when I got back home I realized he had spoken in spanish! He was now on the top of my list of suspects, but then I wondered about the poisoning. This was really messing with my head. The next morning I asked him if he knew the meaning of RACHE and he answered correctly. I went to Inspector Turner after that and told him all about what I had found out as well as my suspicion about the innkeeper. Turner said “Kid, you were not supposed to look for clues but since you’re so close to solving the mystery, I will come with you and will bring my gun as well. So we went to the Inn to catch the Innkeeper but found he had already made a run for it. Turner said “He would have gone to catch a train as there are no planes leaving now”. “Let’s go to the Train station the” I said. We drove there at top speed and reached just as the Innkeeper was boarding. We sped towards him but he saw us and tried to make a run for it again. We were too fast for him and soon caught him. I asked “Why did you kill Brooke?” and he said” He was my business partner and then when he saw Emma he dumped me and went goo goo eyed on her” he continued “ I had to work in the inn from then on” I almost felt sorry for him. Inspector Turner then grabbed his hand and said “You re coming to jail now!” I though the mystery is solved after all!

 

Shefali  Deshmukh  wrote  this  book  as  part  of  the  Creative  Writing  and  Publishing  Learning  Lab  facilitated  by  Institute  of  Experiential  Learning.  

Shefali  Deshmukh  is  10  years  old  and  lives  with  her  parents.    She  is  passionate  about  reading  and  

is  a  great  story  teller.  

 

   

Shefali  meets  a  new  girl  called  Jo  and  they  have  an  impossible  mystery  to  solve,  Will  they  solve  it?  They  are  21  year  olds…  

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