“Matilda! Matilda” Cried Emma Lindowsky as she ran into Matilda Dawson’s room. “Read this paper!” She handed the morning paper to the sleepy-eyed Matilda, who started to read it. “ Aw, someone’s house burned down. I feel so sorry for- wait, that’s- that’s MY house!!!” She said. “ Exactly. The mailman dropped it off. You’re lucky you were at me and Isaac’s house, or you would have been burned alive! The fire happened late last night, so you would’ve been asleep!” Emma grimly stated.“ Oh, what am I going to do?” Matilda replied. “Since I don’t have fire insurance, I have no place to go.” By then, Emma got the message. “ You can stay at our house until you get a new one.”
“ Thanks,” Matilda said. “ I was really hoping you’d say that. I’ll be well taken care of, since I brought a lot of luggage.” She motioned to a bulging bag in the corner of the room. “ Why don’t we go shopping?” Emma said. “ After all, you might need more clothing, and it’ll be fun.”
“ I’ll need to make a call to the my friend Mr. Clark’s real estate agency first.” Matilda stated as she walked over to the phone. She dialed the number, then made the call. “ Hello!” The kind secretary said. “ Would it be to much trouble if you would look for a house for me?” Matilda said. “ My current one burnt down.” “ I feel so sorry for you!” The woman said. “ No, it wouldn’t be much trouble. I’ll tell Mr. Clark.” “ Thank you.” Matilda said as she hung up. “ Let’s hit the road!” Said Emma. During shopping, Matilda bought a gorgeous green sweater-dress and a pair of boots to go with it. “ As they came home they were talking gaily. “ Oh, wasn’t that little girl cute?” Matilda said. “ She was just so- Hey! Look at this!” Matilda pulled out a piece of paper jammed in the doorway. It said:
Matilda,
My secretary told me she was on the phone with you today, & I heard about your ruined house! So sad! Luckily, I was looking at the houses that very moment, & I found the perfect place for you! It is called Bradley mansion, with 7 bedrooms and 4 baths.It is on 1264 Chestnut Dr., which is a very rich place. It is a bit of a fixer upper, but there is good news, too! It has been on the market so long, it’s price has been dramatically reduced.If you want to look at it, you know where to find me!
Your Friend,
Wilbert P. Clark
“Oooh…” Said Matilda as she read the letter. “ I can’t believe my good luck!” “ You shouldn’t” Said Emma. “ I’ve looked at that place, and remember that part of the letter when he said “ It’s a bit of a fixer-upper? Well, that’s putting it the nice way. It would cost less to build a whole new mansion!” “ Wow” Said Matilda, speechless. “ Can’t I just look at it? I don’t have to buy it, do I?”
Emma sighed. “ Do what you want, Matilda, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. “ I will definitely call him, then!” Matilda said. She ran to the phone and called the Agency. “ Hello again, dear.” The secretary cheerily said. “ I didn’t expect you to call again so soon.What would you like?” “Well, I have read the letter. Tell Mr. Clark I’d like to see the house.” “ Matilda dear, I don’t know every letter Mr. Clark sends, but I don’t remember him sending one like that. Oh well, I’ll check with him anyway.” The woman replied. Matilda waited patiently as the kind secretary woman checked with Mr. Clark. “ I’m sorry, but Mr. Clark has a bad, and very unexpected headache. Don’t worry, dear, I’m sure he’ll recover soon.” The woman said. These words reassured Matilda, and she was about to hang up when the secretary stopped her. “ Wait, if you come by early tomorrow, you can have the key to the mansion. Not a lot of people come by the mansion, so it won’t be missed.” “ Alright,” Said Matilda, and after exchanging goodbyes with the kind secretary, she finally hung up. She told Emma about the unexpected headache. “ Luckily, the secretary said I can stop by and get the key tomorrow.” Emma, a nursing student, looked worried. “ That was very unexpected.” She said. “ In fact, too unexpected. I think Mr. Clark has been poisoned!” “What!?” Matilda exclaimed. “ Not Mr. Clark! It can’t be!” “ Well, it is, though we might be able to get there in time.” Even though Emma looked confident, Matilda new it was barely beyond the realm of possibility and that Emma was just trying to comfort her. “ Well, let’s go, then!” She said. They practically ran to the car and raced down the street in the blue Station Wagon. They got there just in time to see Mr. Clark being wheeled into an ambulance. He was unconscious. “ Oh, poor Mr. Clark!” Matilda moaned. Both girls had been close to the old man since childhood, and it broke their hearts to see him like this. “ The nerve of someone to poison him!” Emma was infuriated. “Well, maybe we can still get the key?” Matilda said. They walked inside. The secretary was pacing nervously around the room. “Oh!” The secretary said, startled. “ I didn’t see you there! I was lost in thought about poor Mr. Clark. Now, what did you girls come for?” “ Well, we know about Mr. Clark and all, and we were coming to see if maybe we could still get the key?” “ Why, go on ahead, dears. Go ahead and take the key. Mr. Clark shouldn’t affect your looking for houses.” “Thank you very much.” Emma said as they eagerly grabbed the key from the kind woman’s hands. “Oh, and is it okay if we search his office?” “ Go ahead, dears. I want Mr. Clark’s poisoner to come to light as much as you do.” They trudged up the dark stairs to his office, which seemed odd and lonely without the man in it. They searched, but found nothing. As they were about to come down, Matilda found a scrap of note on the large mahogany chest, which read:
Meet me in the ce-
The rest of the hand-scribbled note was ripped off. Both girls thought the same thing: they would find the criminal wherever this note said. “ Let’s see what words begin with “ce”.” Emma said. “ Hmm…” Matilda thought hard. Well, cells, center, and century begin with “ce”. Celsius does, too, but we’re not talking about degrees. Honestly, none of these words would make sense in that note… “ I know!” Emma suddenly exclaimed. “Cellar begins with “ce”. I’m not sure if the criminal knows about Bradley mansion, but maybe they want to meet in the cellar of the old house!” “ Good idea!” Matilda said. “ I say we go there right now and catch the bad guy!!” They raced down the dark steps and hurriedly said goodbye to the kind lady, then raced off in their car, with the note in the front seat with them. “ 1264 Chestnut… 1264 Chestnut…” Matilda said over and over to herself on the way. “ Boy, this place is hard to find!” Finally, their search brought them to a secluded spot in the middle of the woods. “Well, this is the place, all right.” Emma said while pointing to a rusted sign that said “ 1264 Chestnut.” The two eager girls got out of the car, and both realized how lonely the house looked. “ I thought this place was a “rich neighborhood”.” Matilda questioned to Emma. “ Well,” Emma replied. “ This is the only house in the neighborhood, and it is a mansion, so that makes this place a rich neighborhood.” “Huh.” Matilda said and they walked to the front door. “What?” Emma said as she tried to use the key. “ This key isn’t working!” Suddenly, two men came up from behind and struck them both! It was hours before they came to, because it was dark out when they awoke. “I just thought of something.” Matilda said, and pulled a marker out of her pocket. She took the note out, too, and marked some letters. This is what it looked like:
Meet me in the ce-
“Hey..” Emma said. “ It says “tenth”!” “Exactly. I thought before we were knocked out maybe we didn’t even need the cellar part of the note.” Matilda said. “ Maybe those criminals purposefully tore off the part of the note to lead us on a wild goose chase and to communicate. Also, I think there is a picnic at the tenth street school, so maybe the criminals will be there! Luckily, I brought my phone, so we can call the police and they can meet us at the picnic. She telephoned the police, and they would meet her there. “ Let’s go!” Emma exclaimed. The drive was long, but finally they got there. A man came up to her, saying “Hello. I am a plain-clothes officer. You can call me Austin.” “ Okay.” Emma replied. They walked until they came to a suspicious looking pair of men, who seemed to be discussing something. “ Those must be the men!” Emma whispered as quietly as she could. The thieves suddenly looked at the trio, and made a run for it, but the officer stopped them. “ Hello, thieves.” He said smugly. The remark clearly scared the men, and one of them blurted out, “ How’d you know?!” “Shut it, Jones.” Another man said. “ You don’t scare me. the other man said. We did the whole thing because Mr. Barnes here wanted revenge because the agency Mr. Clark worked for kicked him out of his beautiful house. Since the agency split up, and Mr. Clark is the only person that still does real estating, he wanted to get rid of him so he could satisfy it. “ Mr. Barnes glowered at Jones. “ We sent the note to the girls because we knew they were close to Mr. Clark, and we set up a trap at the Bradley mansion to immediately send them to the hospital. Barnes sent the note, and on purpose he ripped it so that it would confuse the girls. I, however, poisoned Mr. Clark, and I have to tell you, I never want to do this ever again! Take me away, officer.” During the confession, Matilda had called the police. “ Hello, officer,” Matilda said. “ yes, we’ve caught the criminals, and we’d like reinforcements. Okay. Bye.” The conversation ended abruptly, and within a few minutes the police arrived and took the prisoners away. “ Since Jones cooperated with us, he will spend less time behind bars.” A policeman said. “Well,” Emma said to Matilda, “ We’ve just solved a mystery! A few days later, Emma has an exiting conversation with Matilda. “ Guess what?” She says. “ The Police would like to give you a special gift for solving the mystery! Mr. Clark is the most famous real estate agent, and now his poisoner is caught, so they’d like to give you 20,000 dollars! And guess what? Mr. Clark found a good house for you, for real this time!” “ Thank you!” Said Matilda “ I don’t know what I’d do without a friend like you!”
Epilogue
Within the years to come, Emma and Matilda start to solve mysteries, but they never forget their first. Emma and Matilda end up splitting the money, and Matilda buys the house. They had just finished their fifth mystery, when Emma and Isaac realize they were expecting. Once the baby comes, the proud parents realize that their baby, which they named Abigail, inherits Emma and Matilda’s mystery-solving spirit. To this day, Abigail is a detective for the Jasper Police Department, and no one knows what’s in store for her, maybe even another mystery!