The Missing Love Vase Case pt. 2

The people (and animals) involved in the Missing Love Vase Case (left to right): Fido, Gordo (front left), the Mark Louis the policeman (left rear), Edward Ludlow the criminal (center rear, left), the other guard (center rear, right), Jack Stevenson (front center, left), Ryan Gregor (front center, right) and Otis Ostrich. The Love Vase is in the background.

Two weeks ago, you might recall that the Love Vase, a priceless artifact, went missing from the Riverville Museum of Natural History. It was unknown who stole it and where it went . . . until last Saturaday! Friday night is when two kids who live in Animal Adventures Inc., Ryan Gregor and Jack Stevenson (the same kid in our GreatPumpkin issue) along with two of their animal friends, Fido (FIH-doe), a guinea pig that acts like a dog, and Gordo, a spider monkey, decided to solve this mystery! “We had a hunch,” said Ryan. “There’s an old belief that bad guys always return to the scene of the crime. Always. Never fails. No matter how dumb it may be, they will sooner or later, always return to the scene of the crime. So our best chance of catching the thief was to go back to the scene.” While Ryan was the main guy behind the project, Jack was a lot of help. He is quoted for saying, “I had some ideas about how we could catch the bad guy. My idea was that we try to catch the villain in the middle of his own bad deed.” The plan was to spread the word that a detective was coming to the museum. So naturally, the thief would want to clear the evidence before the detective came. The kids and the Gordo and Fido would go to the museum at night (with Mr. Otis Ostrich’s, the co-owner’s, permission of course) and try to catch the bad guy in the act, with the help of a motion-picture camera. So they went to the museum on Friday night and waited . . . and waited . . . and waited . . . until around 1:00 a.m., Saturday morning, the thief was spotted sneaking into the museum with a brush, a bar of soap and a bottle of water (presumably to clean off the area where the evidence would be left). Then as he moved over to where the Love Vase was prior to the theft and the kids leapt into action! They ran toward the thief (who was wearing a special mask so his face couldn’t be seen) and he dashed toward the museum entrance to escape. It seemed as though the criminal would escape when suddenly a monkey and guinea pig (who had been waiting by the front door) leapt forward with a net and threw it over the bad guy! Then about five minutes later, the police arrived. The bad guy was forced to remove his mask and guess who did the crime . . . Edward Ludlow S.! As you might recall from two weeks ago, Edward is one of the museum guards. Some astute readers might have noticed that his last name is S., and after researching, I found out that S. stands for Smithson! As you also might recall from last week, the Love Vase was almost stolen by the creator of the vase’s brother, Woodward Smithson. He said a long time ago that “either he or one of his descendants would steal that vase”, and it just happened! Guard Edward is one of those descendants – now it all makes sense! The police went over to Edward’s house and after confiscating the vase, brought it back to the museum. Otis Ostrich has something to say about the museum’s security, “Now we are going to have both security cameras AND guards guarding the museum both day and night. Whereas before, only one or the other was guarding. With both guarding, this museum should be much safer!” After Edward was arrested, a new guard was hired and there was one more thing that Ryan Gregor wanted to say, “See? What I tell you? I said, ‘Never fails. No matter how dumb it may be, they will sooner or later, always return to the scene of the crime.’ And they always do!”

The beautiful Love Vase

Written by: Mr. Smiley

Photographer: Daniel P. Smithwater

Edited by: Christian Ryan

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We here at Smiley’s News, I have been working night and day to get articles ready. I could really use some help! So we are looking for people interested in writing (especially kids and teens). If you are interested, PLEASE(!) send an email to animaladventures@aol.com and save me from working night and day! I’m exhausted!

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