The Diggabilly Square Mystery

It was a cool, spring morning in Washington State.  Earlier forecasts had called for rain, but none was to be found, so far.  A slight breeze blew, and it wouldn’t have been a bad day to be outside.

Jack Barnes wasn’t enjoying the weather, though.  He was outside, but he had other stuff on his mind, such as what to buy his mother for Mother’s Day.  Finding something for her would be easy; Jack was on his way to the perfect place for that.  However, he wasn’t the only member of his family searching for a Mother’s Day present.

“Emma, will you hurry up?  We don’t have all day!”

Emma Barnes, Jack’s seven-year old sister, younger than him by five years and also quite annoying, was coming along to get the Mother’s Day present.  That was bad enough.  Worse, Kurt Morris and Robbie Ransom (Jack’s best friends) weren’t coming.  Jack couldn’t blame them, but it would have been nice not to be left alone with Emma all morning.

“I’m going fast!” insisted Emma, catching up with her brother.  “Why don’t you hurry up?”

“Emma, I was two yards ahead of you!  Will you stop waving at every car that goes by?”

“No, I won’t,” said Emma.  “I’m a celebrity.  When I wave, people go home and tell their families that the girl that avowed the car robbery waved at them.”

“Avowed?  I think you meant averted,” said Jack.  A cement truck drove past, and Emma waved.  “See?  Now that truck driver can tell people I waved at him,” said Emma.

Continuing down the street, the truck driver was thinking, “Wonder who that little girl is?”  Ever since Emma had single-handedly stopped someone from stealing the Barnes’ car, she’d considered herself a celebrity.  The multitude of news interviews had something to do with it.  What she hadn’t figured out yet was that people forget about stories like that in a very short time.  Jack knew this, but he didn’t have the heart to tell Emma.

“Well, we’re almost there,” said Jack, pointing to the brick building coming up on the other side of the street.

“Good!” said Emma.  “I like Diggabilly Square!”

“At least one of us like it,” thought Jack.  How had Diggabilly Square gotten its name?  Funny you should ask.  When it was being built, many years ago, the builder had planned to name it Piccadilly Square, like the famous one in London.  He’d phoned a company to send some letters for the front of the building and had told the person on the other end he wanted “Piccadilly Square.”  Unfortunately, the phone connection was bad, and the person on the other end thought he said, “Diggabilly Square.”  Those letters got sent, and the builder was too cheap to send them back, so that was how Diggabilly Suare got its name.  Those same letters still stand above the four columns that mark the entryway to Diggabilly Square.

Now for why it wasn’t Jack’s favorite place to go.  Whatever the large, old brick building had originally been built for, Diggabilly Square now contained several stores.  On the right of the entry, Christine’s (a knockoff of Bath & Body Works).  On the left, a jewelry store.  Straight down the main hallway was a restaurant, but it was mostly frequented for tea by ladies in the 60+ age range.  I’m sure it was a good restaurant, but you can imagine why Jack didn’t often eat there, or go to the building for that matter.

Diggabilly Square would be the perfect place to find a Mother’s Day Gift, though, so Jack led the way inside.  He wouldn’t have minded getting something at the jewelry store—if he’d had the money.  He did not, however, so he turned right as soon as he got in.

“Here we are,” he said.  “I’ll pick out something for Mom, and you do the same.”

“How about this?” asked Emma, grabbing the first bottle of body gel she saw off the shelf.

“No,” said Jack.  “Look at the scent.  Coconut mint.  Mom’s allergic to coconut.”

“She’s not going to eat it, is she?” asked Emma.

“Of course not,” said Jack, “but we’re not buying her that!”

Replacing the bottle, Emma grabbed a different one.  “How about this one?”

Jack looked at it.  Black Raspberry.  “That’ll be fine,” he said.  Deciding to do the same thing Emma did, he grabbed another bottle off the shelf.  His was Orange Blossom.  “This was easy,” he thought.  “We’ll be out of here in no time.”

He led Emma to the register, where the clerk was waiting for them.  The clerk was a man, which was highly unusual for anyone that worked at Diggabilly Square.  Oh, well.  Jack put the bottles on the counter and said, “These two things please.”

“Sure,” said the man.  “Did you find everything you were looking for OK?”

“Yes, thank you,” said Jack.  The man scanned the items and told Jack the total.  He paid.  “Do you want a bag?”

“Yes, please,” said Jack.  The man placed the items in a small, brown paper bag, which he handed to Jack.  “Have a nice day,” he said.

“Thanks,” said Jack.  “Come along, Emma.”

“Can we go to ‘Oh-So-Victorian Tea’ before we leave?” asked Emma.  “I’m hungry!”

“No!” said Jack.  “We’re not going there.  Come on.”  He dragged her out of the building.

As he and Emma started to descend the stairs, all at once a police car pulled up.  Two officers got out, one of whom Jack recognized.  “Hi, Officer Williams.”

“Oh, it’s you,” said Officer Williams.  “Did you just come from in there?”

“Yes, why?” asked Jack.

“We got a report that a man we’re looking for was in that building.  He’s wanted for bank robbery.  Here’s his picture,” said Williams.

Jack and Emma looked at it.  Then, they gasped.  There was no mistaking—

“That’s the man that just checked us out at Christine’s!” exclaimed Jack.  “It’s on your right when you go in!”

“Thank you!” said Williams.  “Come on, Stieg!”  He and the other officer rushed past Jack and Emma, who followed curiously.  The officers ran up the steps, opened the door to the main building—

And found the door to Christine’s closed.  The hours were now visible; the store was not supposed to open until 10:30.  (It was only 9:45.)

Williams tried the handle and found it locked.  Undeterred, he broke down the door.  He and Stieg charged inside, only to find the place empty.

“He couldn’t have gone past us,” said Stieg.  He pulled out his walkie-talkie.  “Units 4 and 7, do you have the back covered?”

“Covered,” came the reply. “Suspect not spotted.”

“Howard, Green,” said Stieg.  “Are the sides covered?”

“No sign of him,” came the reply.

“He must still be inside, then,” said Williams.  “We’ll search the place.”

“Emma,” said Jack, “you should probably wait outside.”

Emma did not appear particularly happy with this idea.  “Why?” she said.  “I can take care of myself, remember?”

“What do you think, Officer?”

“Actually, both of you should probably wait outside,” said Williams.  “We’ve got enough men here.  We’ll get him easily.”

Now it was Jack’s turn to be unhappy, but he wasn’t going to complain to the police.  “Alright.  Come on, Emma.”

“I want to find the criminal!” complained Emma, as Jack dragged her out the door.

“So do I, Emma, but we have to wait out here.  Don’t worry, we can watch from here.  We’ll see when the police catch him.”

Watching, however, proved very boring.  It wasn’t like the movies, where they have camera shots of the different officers going down creepy-looking halls, wondering every minute whether the crook will spring out from a doorway.  It was more like when you see a fire engine at a building, and you watch, and all you see is the engine outside, lights flashing.  In this case, it was a police car.

“Sorry this isn’t more interesting,” Jack told his sister, when he suddenly noticed that she was staring up at something.

“Look!  That window!”

“Which one?” asked Jack, trying to see which way she was pointing.

“The one at the top!” said Emma.  “Over Christine’s!”

Jack looked, but didn’t see anything.

“It’s gone,” said Emma, “but I saw that face in the picture!”

“You did?” asked Jack.

“I know I did!”

Jack studied Emma carefully.  She wasn’t always that truthful about things like this…but he could tell she wasn’t making this up.  Unless she’d been imagining things, there had been a face at that window.

Quickly, Jack rushed into the building.  He ran down the hall to the restaurant.  Soft music played as the customers sat in white wicker chairs scattered around a black-and-white checkered floor.  Officers Williams and Stieg looked quite out of place in the crowd of people mostly thirty years older.

“Officer Williams!” gasped Jack.  “Emma saw him!”

“She did?  Where?”

“Excuse me,” said a waitress, slightly younger than most of the customers, “Can I get you some tea?”

“She saw him in the window above Christine’s!” said Jack.  “He’s on the second floor.”

“Second floor,” mused Williams.  “Um, no, I’m sorry, we don’t want any tea.  We’re looking for a robbery suspect, and we think he’s on the second floor.”

“Oh, no, that’s quite impossible,” said the waitress.  “There aren’t any stores up there.”

“Nevertheless, someone saw him in a window.  Is the floor accessible?”

“There’s a staircase in the back of the janitor’s closet,” said the waitress, “down the hall next to the rear entry. But I don’t think you’ll find—”

“Come on!” said Williams.  He ran out of the restaurant, followed by Stieg, followed by Jack (who hoped the police wouldn’t mind his presence now that he’d furnished the clue.

True to the waitress’s word, the closet was down the hallway, on the left.  Williams gained the door first and opened it.  It was unlocked. Inside, buckets, a mop, and a broom were scattered, and it was clear that someone had gone through to get to the stairs at the back.

Williams charged up them followed by Stieg.  He charged up them, followed by Stieg. They were almost at the top when

BANG!!!

Williams staggered backwards, hand on his shoulder.  “Nelson!” he called.  “You’d better give yourself up.  We’ve got this place surrounded!”

“Come in and get me!” screamed a desperate-sounding voice.

“Waiting won’t do you any good,” said Williams.  “You don’t have any way to escape.”

“Try and take me!” dared Nelson.

Jack had watched, horrified, as Williams had been shot.  At least the wound didn’t look bad (Williams was still standing, and all), but Nelson was still armed and dangerous.  Suddenly, Jack got an idea.  He turned and charged down the stairs.  Reaching the first floor, he ran down the hall to the front of the building as fast as his legs could carry him!

Jack reached the door and darted outside, to where Emma was waiting.  “Emma!  I need a—oh, there’s one!”  He grabbed a big rock and turned to face the building.

The window above Christine’s was high, and it wasn’t that large.  However, Jack had played quarterback before and had a pretty good arm.  If he could just get that rock up there—

He reared back his arm and let loose with the pass of his life.  CRASH!!!  The window shattered!

A moment later, there was a shot, then—

“Got him!” shouted Officer Williams, loud enough that Jack could hear through the window.

“Hooray!” said Jack.  He gave his sister a hug.

Later, Jack told Kurt and Robbie about his adventure.  “Wow!  We should have come along!” said Kurt.  “It’s a good thing you came up with throwing that rock!”

“Yes,” said Jack, “but that was easy, compared to the police’s job.  It must be scary, charging up stairs like that, not knowing whether someone’s going to be waiting with a gun or not.  I’m glad Williams is going to be okay.  We owe the police our gratitude, for the risks they take each day to keep us secure.”