By Koopiana Jones
Koopy Holmes sat on a park bench, watching as the Koopaling boys were playing a pick-up game of baseball. "I should retrieve my great-great-grandfather's bat and teach them the art of cricket," the squat Koopa detective thought, then realized he didn't know how to play himself.
"Oh, well," he sighed. "The lads are awfully close to those houses." And that,of course, was the moment when Roy smacked a long fly in the directon of the houses. Glass shattered and a home alarm began to screech.
Roy went after the ball. He scrambled up the high wooden fence and straddled the top, gazing at the house and yard below. "The ball broke a window, all right," he shouted back to the other Koopalings. Then his eyes widened. "Hey- you better call the police. I think there's been a robbery."
The game broke up immediately. Roy lowered himself into the backyard while the other Koopalings circled around to the front of the house and awaited the police.
Roy unlocked the door from inside and let the officers in. Koopy sneaked in right behind. The rotund little Koopa was safely hidden behind a potted plant when a man and women drove up in seperate cars.
The newcomers joined the police inside. Koopy edged the potted plant into a good viewing position and managed to piece together the essentials.
The newcomers were brother and sister, Clara and Duss Toad. The house belonged to their late father, who kept his collection of coins on display on a table by the rear garden window. This was what Roy must have seen from the fence. The heavy table lay on its side, not far from the wayward baseball. Pieces of glass were everywhere. A policeman walked across the fallen tablecloth and Koopy could hear the muted sound of crunching glass under the white linnen.
The Toads both had keys and both knew the alarm code. They had been together just this morning, arguing about the coins.
"Clara must've come back and stolen them," snarled Duss T, "then overturned the table in some pathetic way to blame it on a burglar. I was at home, ten miles away from here, washing my car. My neighbors saw me. I was there right up until you called me."
Clara glared at her brother. "I was at home, too, eight miles away in the other direction. I was on the phone with Aunt Minh T. and doing my laundry. You can go check with her if you want to."
Koopy wanted to jump out from behind the potted plant and solve the case instantly. But that might seem a little odd. So he waited until the officers were leaving.
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