The Case of the Misplaced Jewel

The Whitaker family was in a massive panic. It seemed they were missing their patriarch’s most prized possession. Old man Whitaker had his entire family out looking for his Jewel. They had looked high and low, but no one had found his precious gem. The old man was sure someone had taken his dear love, so he called in Old Mother Combs to solve the crime.

Old man Whitaker sounded so urgent that Mother Combs immediately showed up. Upon her arrival, the distraught old man promptly fell to telling Mother all about the disappearance of his Jewel, where he had last seen his precious gem, and what he was doing at the time. After discussing a few more intricate details, including the description of his love, good old Mother Combs questioned everyone else in the family.

She questioned each family member, in turn, quite thoroughly. Mother Combs treated each individual as a suspect in a crime, for they were. She went back and interrogated again a couple of family members whose story did not make sense. Mother Combs did so until she thought she understood the facts of the case from beginning to end.

Once Mother Combs had finished questioning everyone, she took a lone tour of the entire mansion, including the grounds outside, stopping in the kitchen, where she prepared a quick bite for everyone and served it in the dining room. Once everyone had eaten and withdrawn to the library, she was ready to conclude the mystery of the missing Jewel.

Mother paced momentarily, then stopped and pointed at Jonathon Bentley, old man Whitaker’s great-nephew, “At 11:46 am, Waldo, the chef, was preparing a special fish dinner when he saw you come into the kitchen and pour some milk into a saucer. YOU had Jewel with you when you were there, yet you swear, the last place you saw Jewel was 11:15 in the foyer.”

Before Jonathon could respond, Mother Combs spun on her heel and pointed at Miriam, old man Whitaker’s spinster daughter, and said, “Old Jeeves was in the hallway to the kitchen at 12:30 pm when he saw you with a ball of yarn trying to rewind it up into a ball. YOU were cussing Jewel for being in your way. You claim the last time you saw Jewel was at noon when you had to chase the treasure out of your knitting supplies.”

Holding her hand up to quiet everyone down, Mother Combs continued, pointing at a punky girl with purple lo-lights, “You, Margo, you told me you were heading up the stairs when you threw your shoe at the treasure because you couldn’t get it to hush up, striking the wall on the other side of the hall. This incident was at 1:30 pm.”

Pointing to the twins in the room, Eva and Ava, she continued, “YOU both suspiciously claim to have not seen your grandfather’s dearly loved treasure today. YOU both claim that you were outside all day today. Yet, young Jeeves, who was out working in the gardens today, says he saw neither of you running around like he usually does. Still, Maria saw you both attempting to get Jewel to play with you at 2:15 pm when you both received a swat and a hiss apiece from Jewel for your troubles, and you went on your way.”

“If you follow me, I will show you what has happened to the family’s most treasured Jewel,” Mother Combs said as she led the way out to the foyer and the hallway to the kitchen, where she stopped and pushed on a spot on the wall that immediately swung open, revealing a purring Persian cat, with six small tiny mewing kittens suckling.