Emma and Jake were twins who loved to solve mysteries. They had a detective club with their friends and they would take on any case that came their way. They had a notebook where they wrote down all the clues and suspects they found. They also had a magnifying glass, a flashlight and a walkie-talkie to communicate with each other.
One day, they came home from school and smelled something delicious in the kitchen. It was their mom’s famous chocolate chip cookies! They ran to the kitchen and saw a plate full of cookies on the counter. Their mom was nowhere to be seen.
“Wow, these look so good!” Emma said.
“Let’s have one before mom comes back,” Jake suggested.
They reached for the cookies but before they could grab one, they heard their mom’s voice from upstairs.
“Emma! Jake! Come here for a minute!”
They looked at each other and sighed.
“Okay, mom!” they shouted back.
They left the kitchen and went upstairs to see what their mom wanted. She was in her bedroom with some papers on her desk.
“Hi kids,” she said. “I need your help with something.”
“What is it, mom?” Emma asked.
“I’m working on this crossword puzzle and I’m stuck on this clue. It says ‘a type of fish that starts with S’. Do you know what it is?”
Emma and Jake thought for a moment.
“Salmon?” Emma guessed.
“No, that’s too long. It has four letters,” their mom said.
“Sole?” Jake tried.
“No, that doesn’t fit either. It has an A in the second position,” their mom said.
Emma and Jake looked at each other and shrugged.
“Sorry, mom. We don’t know,” Emma said.
“That’s okay. Thanks anyway,” their mom said. “You can go back downstairs now.”
Emma and Jake nodded and left their mom’s room. They went back downstairs to the kitchen to enjoy some cookies.
But when they got there, they saw something that made them gasp: the plate was empty!
The cookies were gone!
Someone had taken them while they were upstairs!
They looked around the kitchen for any clues or signs of who did it. They saw some crumbs on the floor leading to the living room. They followed them and saw more crumbs on the couch and on the coffee table. They also saw some chocolate stains on a napkin next to an open book.
They picked up the book and read the title: “The Mystery of the Haunted House”.
They recognized it as one of their dad’s favorite books. He loved to read mysteries too.
They looked at each other with wide eyes.
“Dad!” they exclaimed in unison.
They ran to their dad’s office where he worked from home as a writer. They opened the door and saw him sitting at his desk with his laptop open. He was typing something on his keyboard but he stopped when he saw them enter.
He smiled at them innocently but they noticed something suspicious: he had some chocolate around his mouth!
“Hi kids,” he said casually. “What’s up?”
Emma and Jake pointed at him accusingly.
“You took our cookies!” they shouted together.