Watson’s Apprentice

Striking news and chamomile tea

1

Something about what she said confused me. Her sons John and Samuel seemed unreal, impossible. She spoke about them all the time but never, ever did I see them. I never wondered about it until now. She, Ms Holland, was my neighbor, I should have visited her before, after all she visited me multiple times over the four years we had lived on Pearl street. That sunny afternoon on the porch I realised that something was wrong. She had just
explained how John had wrestling on Tuesday at the community center across town and how he was so loud in the car on the way home. It hit me like a hailstorm. Samuel had art at the same time. Ms Holland had told me she was single. How could she have been to places at once? Then I remembered all the strange reactions and movements she had made for the last four years and discovered a pattern. Whenever I mentioned her
house she would jump or shudder and then try to point out a thing to distract me with. Then a theory formed in my mind; what if
she didn’t live in the house right next to me? What if our friendship was just for show? What if her name wasn’t Holland? What if? Without thinking I demanded to see where she lived. And without thinking she took out a gun. ‘Come with me’ My jaw dropped. She gripped her gun harder.

I woke up in a dusty attic. The chairs around me were covered with cobwebs and I was lying on the floor. Then I noticed her. She was sitting next to me feeling for my pulse. ‘Good. When I knocked you out two hours ago I was scared you were injured. I tried to say something but the words failed me. I managed a lousy ‘Why’ before slumping back down again. Ms. Holland just put her finger to her lips and brought me a warm cup of
chamomile tea. I took it reluctantly and sipped to renew my strength. My host just sat there looking cooly around the room. Once I had finished the cup she began to speak: ‘If you what any answers you will need to swear on your life, not to repeat a word I say. Are you ready to take on this responsibility?’ she asked as if she did this every day. I wondered if she did. ‘About twenty years ago a young woman by the name of Jeanne Watson founded a secret detective society of women. Now she lives on Pearl Street 184.’ and with that she pulled off a wig and a blond pixie cut came into view. ‘She goes by the name of Ms Holland now and recruits young women like you. Me knocking you out is a tradition.’ It took me a while to process that one. Finally I managed to suppress my confusion and asked the question I had been wanting to ask since I had woken up: ‘Why me?’ ‘I have
been watching you and you seemed like the perfect apprentice so when you passed my test, realizing I could not be telling the truth, I recruited you without hesitation.’ she answered. ‘Why would you need me or any apprentice at all?’ ‘Because we have just been given the biggest case
yet.’

Telephone numbers and real alibis

2

The sun was setting and the moon rose over the hills but the woman in front of me took no notice and just talked on. It was clear that Jeanne was excited, but in such an unusual, more intense way than anyone I had ever met. When Jeanne talked about detective work her eyes shone so brilliantly that no matter how late it got, one never could resist a conversation with her. ‘Half my agents have gone missing.’ she explained
with more wonder than sorrow. ‘They went missing last week soon after my secretary received a mysterious call from an unknown client saying to inspect a Jeanne Watson before hanging up.’ She went on explaining that the first digits had been 432 meaning that one of her agents was behind the call. The remaining agents were to be contacted;. Ms. Ella Freeman, Ms. Zora Eiler, Ms. Rebecca Laumann, Ms. Kaya Dell'Antonio, Ms. Daisy Wong, Ms. Margaret Lambert. Each of them needed alibis for both the call at
10 am Tuesday morning and the disappearance of the staff Tuesday night. Additionally those gone missing needed to be called repetitively for an answer to this incredible feat. I was supposed to do it all. Meanwhile Jeanne, knowing all her agents well would work on motives. We would talk to each other over tea in the morning on the day after the following. With the telephone numbers in hand I left the house to work with telephone numbers and agents I didn’t know.

The next morning I was sitting at the kitchen table going over the list of
names. I decided to start with the suspects. Excited, I dialed her number and waited. No response. After trying two more times I decided to move on. The next agent was Ms. Zora Eiler. This time my suspect responded almost immediately: ‘Hello. Hello? This is Zora Eiler. Who’s speaking?’ ‘Hi there. My name is Jane Booker and I am new to Jeanne Watson’s Detective Society.
I was wondering where you were on Tuesday morning at around 10am and if you saw anything out of place in the agency Tuesday night.’ ‘I was sorting the books in my office at that time and only noticed cold Ms. Dachsler fiddling stressed out with the lock to Ms Freeman’s office at about 8pm before going home for the night. ’ she huffed and then hung up. ‘Well that was interesting.’ I thought before getting up to pour some more black coffee.

By the end of the day only one more agent, Ms. Margaret Lambert, picked up, saying that she was at a business meeting and couldn’t talk. Of those who had gone missing not a single one answered the phone. I was exhausted and completely put down by the true difficulty to be found in detecting and wondered how Jeanne could possibly love it so much. Despite the hardships I was looking forward to our meeting the next morning to see what motives she had discovered.

I was not disappointed in the least. ‘Let us start with Zora. She has been in the Society since the beginning and has always had trouble with putting food on the table since we don’t pay our agents scarcely enough for a whole lifetime. If the agents gone missing are being held for ransom like I presume, it seems like a pretty good motive. You say she was sorting books?’ ‘Yes ma’am. That’s what she said at least.’ ‘Good we will call again later for more information but in the meantime we will move on to the other agent who answered your call, nice Ms. Lambert.’ ‘She said she was at a business meeting and couldn’t be disturbed.’ I explained. ‘Well then we know she has something to hide because if there was a meeting of
the agency today, I would know. Either she works somewhere she hasn’t told us yet or she is somewhere completely different.’ she responded matter-of-factly. ‘That makes her incredibly interesting. Now for the other agents. Rebecca and Daisy are lovely twins who live together in a small apartment with no room. I could not find any motives for either of them but if they were behind the disappearances they would need to hide
their captives somewhere else. Ms Antonio owns a mansion across town and could easily have hidden captives there. Her girlfriend was murdered or not giving a criminal organisation the information they needed so Kaya could easily have something against us even though she hasn’t said a word.’ I just sat there listening and sipping my tea while she rapidly went through the case. Again I marveled at her passion and ability, detecting.

By that night I had called Rebecca and Daisy with no response though I had spoken with both Ms. Lambert and Ms. Antonio. This time Ms. Lambert could make no excuse and reluctantly admitted to not have gone to bed till eleven the night of the disappearances though strangely saw no sign of
Ms. Dachsler after walking past Ms. Freeman’s office door at eight o’clock.
At ten in the morning on Tuesday she apparently had been at her computer emailing and didn’t get off till quarter past the hour. Kaya said she left the agency at four in order to have time to make dinner for her guests, her nephew and her demanding older sister, Sara, who had been out for the day but would come back to the house shortly. At ten o’clock she had been giving her guests a tour of the colorful city. Annoyingly her sister had made her leave her phone at home in order for her to have all Kaya’s attention. Luckily Kaya’s sister was a famous artist so I found
her telephone number online. When I called her she gave me the same story from her perspective. She could not have known about the society and wouldn’t have been pulled into the crime if there wasn’t another option. I was one step closer to ruling a suspicious suspect out!

Jeanne agreed excitedly upon listening to my discoveries and almost burnt herself with the scalding tea in the process. She had had no such luck that day, thanks to long board meetings, and decided to go and visit Rebecca and Daisy that morning. I agreed having nothing else to do
and we set off with high hopes of sleuthing success.

Half an hour later we arrived in front of a tall apartment building downtown lit up brilliantly and with hundreds of small windows peeking out onto the broad street. Before going inside we bought a cake from the neighborhood bakery and confirmed what we should ask. When we rang the doorbell the door unlocked itself with a buzz. We took the elevator to the fifth floor and turned multiple corners before coming to a stop in front of a scarcely furnished flat. Rebecca, tall and gray haired, stood in the doorway expecting us. Behind her Daisy’s head popped out from the kitchen calling: ‘Jeanne, long time no see! Come on in!’ Watson replied just as enthusiastically: ‘Hi there! How ‘s life treating you these days?’ ‘Well though what happened Tuesday night was horrible! Just imagine, almost all the agents, gone! And to think me and Rebecca could have disappeared!’ The whole time Rebecca had not muttered a single word. I wondered if it could be possible that one twin could keep such a big crime as kidnapping from their twin for long. ‘O yeah! Did you know the secretary got a strange call from an unidentified agent that very morning?’ Jeanne responded innocently. ‘Heavens no! Are you sure?From one of us?’ ‘Yeah and since you two haven’t disappeared yet, you are going to be completely framed!’ Suddenly Rebecca spoke up: ‘You don’t think it is us, right?’ ‘Of course not but I have come here for an alibi to rule you guys out. Wait for the cake to give me one.’ she said and pulled the chocolate cake out of her bag. We sat down around the kitchen table and Rebecca began to explain. Apparently she had gone to had stayed at home with the flu on
Tuesday with her phone off to avoid office business when she was sick. She went to bed shortly after Daisyhad made her dinner, at half past six. Daisy nodded along with the story adding in a few details here and there. Jeanne listened with pleasure and when the twins were done, even clapped explaining that the twins would not have done it together since it was not necessary and the money would have been split either way. She was clearly glad that the twins of which she thought so much, could not have done it. When we left she let them have the remains of the cake and nearly pranced over red if it had not been for me.


So close but yet so far

3

The next days went by in a blur of tea and coffee, of truth and lies, and of cold morning meetings with Jeanne Watson. Every day I woke up with
the hope of finally getting further in the case and every day I went to bed with the hope of a better day the next day. Jeanne, in the meantime,
never lost faith in the case, even after four days without results. When I once tried to explain my problem she just grinned and told me that I was the apprentice for a detective and if I wanted a taste of the job, the less success the better. I didn’t know what to respond so I just sat there thinking. Finally I went for: ‘I think it is time to pay this Ms. Lambert a visit.’

Just ten minutes later Ms. Lambert let us inside her house. It was small and dusty but there was no square inch of the wall without a painting, photograph or certificate. The ground was covered with north asian carpets and the furniture was on grey scale. She led us to the dining room and brought us homemade pecan brownies and some coffee. Thankfully I began to eat while Watson did the talking. ‘So I hear from my new recruit that you were in a business meeting when she first tried to call you. May I ask which sort?’ ‘Oh just the normal type.’ she answered trying to keep her cool and spectacularly failing. ‘Would your answer change if you knew we know that you’re lying?’ Ms. Lambert hesitated before admitting to not have been at a meeting but at a rock concert. Apparently she didn’t
want me to know and tell the agency that she enjoyed heavy metal for she found it too embarrassing. Though I didn’t find that very embarrassing myself, it was clear that she was telling the truth. After we had finished
our delicious brownies, we left the old house very confused.

We had gotten so far and in the end the only suspect left, we had already almost ruled out. How come detecting was so hard? I tried to work on
the case for the rest of the day with no luck. Every time I thought I was getting close, my brain got stuck. That night my hope of the next day being better had dissolved.


Case solved

4

The next day I woke up slowly. I had lost hope. Little did I know that there was no reason to. By the time I got to Jeanne’s house I had dived into the world of detecting once more. Let’s say it was the only suspect left, Kaya. Sara must have found the agents in the mansion and asked Kaya about them. Kaya would explain, promising to share the ransom money with her if she kept her mouth. Greedy, she agreed. They had had a story ready when the time came and never were suspected. Then I came up with a genius idea to prove my theory. Jeanne opened the door smiling but I just stormed to the computer to look up Kaya’s nephew’s phone number. Luckily he, like his mother, was famous (the fastest kid in New Hampshire), and I found his phone number within seconds. I dialed the number full of anticipation. ‘Hi there. I was wondering what you did on Tuesday. I think I found something of yours and want to know if you left it.’ ‘We were in the city taking a tour from my aunt. Where did you find it?’ ‘I found it in the public library. Were you there?’ ‘No. Too bad. Thanks!’ and he hung up. ‘Was
that Kaya’s nephew?’ ‘Yes. Kaya couldn’t have done it.’ ‘Well. Well. Who does that leave?’ was her only response. In that moment I realised two things. Number one: Jeanne set the whole thing up as a test. That was why
she hadn’t shown me the agency yet. Number two: The criminal was not one of the suspects but someone else completely.

Two hours later I was declared a real agent and given an office in the agency. It had a tall ceiling, a large desk and a flatscreen TV. On the walls hung oil portraits of retired agents and the curtains were covered in dust. Clearly it was a reward for solving the ‘crime’ given to every new recruit upon solving a case. I wondered if every recruit was given the same case and whether everyone took such a long time.

Great! I love the story! )

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Thanks guys, all of you for your support! Have a great day!