Who Obeys the Rain?
I just got home from the grocery store and I decided that I would find out what the weather would be today. I was hoping that it wouldn’t be pouring rain like it was yesterday. I could not even go down to my cul-de-sac and back for a quick walk because it was raining so hard. Finally, the news station said that it would be partly cloudy and 60 degrees later that day. While I was watching the television, I got a call from a close friend.
“Ruby,” her best friend Molly cried, “my ferret, Blossom, he, he’s dead! Blossom was not in his cage when I woke up, so went I out to the yard to see if he was running around and he was laying on the ground, dead.”
“Do not worry Molly, I will be over as soon as I can. I, Ruby Dow, will find out who did this horrible crime,” I said in a confident tone.
“Thank you so much Ruby, and hurry.” Molly hung up the phone and went outside to start making Blossom a grave.
I got in the car and drove over to Molly’s house as fast as I could. It took me longer than I thought it would that day because there was a Minnesota Twins game that caused traffic to be backed up 30 miles away from the baseball field. Molly lives about 30 miles away from the field in a neighborhood called “Sunshine Hills”. Mollys house has a four acre yard with a pool, and sport court. They also have pens for all of their animals. When I got to Molly’s house, Molly started to tell me all of the information I needed. The crime took place in Molly’s back yard, between 1:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. yesterday. Molly found three pieces of evidence at the scene: a broken “sister” sticker that was found in Bandit’s, Blossom’s sister, hammock; a feather the color of Einstein, the chicken; and a horseshoe that fits Solimist, the horse. The victim, Blossom, was soaking wet when found and it appeared that she was killed with a noose of some sort. Molly said that the animals were not supposed to go outside yesterday because of the rain. All of Molly’s animals/pets had some reason to be mad at Blossom, but some reasons were better than others. I asked Molly who she thought did the crime and Molly said there were only three animals that could have done it.

“Bandit, Blossom’s sister, seemed like she was not happy with Blossom that day,” Molly said.

“Why not? Was she always like that or was it just recently?” I said.

“Well, Blossom always made Bandit wait to eat until she was done with her food and I think that Bandit was getting sick of it.”

“Oh, do you think that Bandit could have killed Blossom?”

“No I do not because even though she might have been getting sick of her, they are still sisters, and that day Bandit was busy. When she woke up, she read a book, then she was going to go out and exercise, but she couldn’t. Instead, Bandit cleaned up her cage then went to bed.”

“Do you know what time she went to bed that yesterday night?”
“Yes. It was about 4:00, when Blossom was supposed to be exercising.”
“Was Blossom in her cage when Bandit went to bed?”
“No she was not, but another suspect could have been Einstein the chicken,” Molly said. “Blossom’s favorite food was chicken so, Einstein could have been mad at Blossom for liking chicken. Even though a feather matching Einstein’s color was found, there are many other chickens with his color that live with him. On the day of the crime, Einstein was working on his latest invention until 2:00 p.m. when he went out to eat with one of his friends. They went to Einstein’s favorite outdoor restaurant to eat that day, and the dinner did not take very long. Einstein was complaining about how much Blossom loves chicken and he said that she wished she would just leave the house.”

“Ok,” I said, “did you say that a feather that looked like his was found at the scene?”

“Yes I did, isn’t that interesting. Another piece that is interesting is that a horse shoe that matches Solimist was found at the scene and it appeared that she tried to get it off, but we do not know when she tried to get it off. Well anyways our horse, Solimist, could have been another suspect. That day Solimist woke up in her stall and ate until her riding lesson at 1:30 p.m. in the indoor arena. After her lesson, she noticed that her hay was all messed up, which usually Blossom loves to do. Solimist was fine with it though, because in ten minutes she was going to be getting fresh, new hay. Once she got her hay and her salt block, she went to bed because she was tired.”

“How do you know that she was at a lesson instead of going to kill Blossom?”

“Because my daughter was the one who had a lesson with her and it went until 2:50 p.m., I was there with her.”

“So you did not see who killed Blossom?”

“No because when I got back I went inside because it was raining.”

“Ok, well no need to worry because I know who did it!”