The name’s Finn. Finn Lux. Most people have not heard of me, which is the way it should be. I am the one who hunts the bad guys, like the ones you see in the movies. I use the clues from the crime scene to catch the criminal and put them in jail. If you haven’t guessed it yet, I am a detective; the best detective in the US to be exact. I receive calls from the President in Washington D.C. I also get calls from people in Los Angles, California. My line of work ranges from catching murders to petty crimes like theft. But a crime is a crime and the criminal must be caught. Justice must be served.

This leads me to tell you about one of the craziest mysteries I have ever solved. This was not an easy case. This particular case thoroughly stumped me. It all started on any ordinary day.

The sign outside my office rattled and waved in the windy breeze. The rain pitter-pattered against the large windows. It was like any other Tuesday in April here in the little town of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. At exactly four o’clock in the afternoon, I received a call that Mr. Arnold’s jewelry store was robbed. Robberies were a new subject in this town, any crime at that matter. Crime was scarce in Fond du Lac; rarely anything happened in this town that was related to crimes. The biggest news the town heard was the apple pie eating contests and the fall carnival. The excitement in this town was slim to none, until this ominous morning turned into quite an eventful one.

Mr. Arnold was a frail old man. He loved owning the jewelry store. He had owned it for many years; he even started working for his father when he was a kid. It was a family owned business that had been around for fifty years. He hoped to share the dream with his daughter. Unfortunately for Mr. Arnold, his daughter, Samantha, wished to be an actress. She could not wait to be under the bright lights and sing her heart out on stage. Samantha aspired to be famous; she had always wanted to be in the spotlight. Mr. Arnold was upset that Samantha yearned to be an actress, but all he could do was nod at her remarks about the stage and support her. He secretly wished she would want to continue this family tradition.

As I drove to the jewelry store, I could tell this was going to be an odd case. I don’t usually investigate crimes in small populated towns. I usually investigate in large cities with reputations for crime; this city was not one of those cities.

When I arrived at the jewelry store, Mr. Arnold greeted me and invited me into his shop to have a look around and tell me more about what happened.

“When I unlocked this afternoon, I noticed something was missing. I had an expensive pearl necklace. The necklace was rare; it had pure white pearls with green speckles on it.  The necklace was beautiful, and I thought it would be a good gift for my daughter Samantha,” Mr. Arnold claimed.

“Are you sure nothing else was missing?” I wondered.
“I am positive. I keep close tabs on everything in the store,” Mr. Arnold reassured, “I would have noticed if anything else was missing.”

This seemed very suspicious; in the robberies I usually work, there is always more than one thing stolen.
“I’m going to check for fingerprints and other possible pieces of evidence. I am going to have to have you close down your store for the next couple of hours. Would you be comfortable if I have the media cover this case? The criminal will often times follow up on the case to feel like they have accomplished something,” I inquired.
“Yes, that would be great,” Mr. Arnold emphasized, “I am going to lock up. Take as long as you need.”

As I started to look around, everything looked too perfect. The cases filled with expensive gems were all in top shape. It looked as if things were cleaned on purpose. Nothing looked suspicious. I dusted for fingerprints and only found two. I would need to take them in to be tested. No windows or doors were broken. This led me to conclude there was no sign of forced entry. So the criminal must have been let in or forced their way in. This is what I was to figure out; this would lead me to the criminal.

The next day the results were in. The fingerprints were of Mr. Arnold and a local high school boy named James Brown. It was obvious that Mr. Arnold’s fingerprints would be on the glass cases; he owns the shop and would need to touch the case in order to sell the gems. I needed to find James Brown.

After the twenty-six hours I had been working on the case, the town of Fond du Lac was buzzing with the news of this mysterious robber. It was strange for a town like this to have so much hype over a robbery. No one knew who could have committed this crime. People were anxious to find out who the robber was.

I found James Brown in the skate park. His friends and he were hanging out. When I approached them, the other boys seemed not so happy to see me.

“James Brown?” I questioned, “You need to come with me for some questioning about the robbery at Mr. Arnold’s jewelry store.”

“I… I… I didn’t do it!” stammered James.
“I will just need to ask you a few questions, then you can come back and hangout with your friends,” I mentioned.
“OK,” James grumbled.
Back at my office, I knew getting this kid to talk would be difficult. He seemed like the type of kid that would get very offensive. I was ready with all my tactics at hand. I entered the questioning room feeling confident in my abilities.
“So James, you claim that you were at the skate park the time of the robbery,” I interrogated.
“Check with my boys, Finn. You’ll see I was there,” argued James.

“Oh, I already did. At the time of the robbery you were nowhere to be found. And I’m going to ask you again Mr. Brown, where were you at the time of the robbery?” I challenged.

“Fine. If I tell you, will you leave me alone?” James asked.
“Let me hear what you’ve got,” I insisted.

“You better not tell any of my friends what I’m about to tell you. If they found out I would be kicked out of the group,” James mumbled.
“I promise I won’t tell them. Continue please,” I said.
“Well, I really hate admitting this but I was tutoring other kids. I like helping younger kids; I tutor them every Tuesday. Please don’t tell my friends,” James pleaded.

James could not have been the robber. The student James was tutoring would have told the school he left early, and that they weren’t done with their lesson. This made things clear to me now. I let James go, thanked him for talking to me, and told him he could go back with his friends. I had to go catch a thief.

After two days of hard work and investigating, I had an epiphany. I finally realized who the robber was. All the pieces suddenly fell into place; I had been looking for the wrong man.

I went back to Mr. Arnold’s store to tell Mr. Arnold I had finally figured out who the robber was.
“Mr. Arnold you are under arrest for the theft of the $3,000 pearl necklace,” I proclaimed.

“What? How? I mean… I didn’t do it! It’s impossible!” Mr. Arnold shouted.

“No it’s not. Your fingerprints were at the crime scene. At first, I thought it was because you had to enter the cases to get out the gems to sell. After talking with James Brown, the other suspect, I found out he was tutoring the time of the robbery. The other prints left were yours,” I claimed, “Then I had to figure out why you would want to steal from your own store. It was obvious that you wanted the insurance claim money after the robbery was solved. Also, since your store wasn’t getting that much business, you wanted to have the press cover the case so your store would get publicity. This would motivate your daughter to work at your store and carry out the family tradition. It’s that simple.”

“I…I didn’t think you would figure it out. How could you? I thought I had it all figure out. I even planted those finger prints from James Brown! He was such an easy target,” Mr. Arnold revealed.

Mr. Arnold was sent to jail. His daughter shut down the jewelry store and moved to California to pursue her acting career. She became famous; everyone knew who Samantha Arnold was. This was the last anyone ever heard of Mr. Arnold and his jewelry store.