In house number 46 there lived a boy named Jeff. He loved reading and writing books. His neighbor, Alex, is his best friend who also likes writing books, together they have written five books about robberies of banks. They got interested in his topic, because the bank all four of their parents work at was once robbed.

They go to school at Forest Light Elementary School in Seattle, Washington. They have a homeroom teacher and reading teacher whose name is Mrs. Andosha, but sometimes kids call her Mrs. A. She usually buys most of the school supplies. Mr. Zarbon is also a teacher. He sometimes goes by Mr. Z. He teaches science on Wednesday, and he just got a new house across the street from Jeff’s house.

46

Jeff and Alex are both eleven years old, and they are in sixth grade. Jeff is very nerdy and likes swimming. He has black hair and tan skin. He hasn’t lost his tan yet, because he just moved here from Florida to escape the heat. His younger brother has already lost his tan, so have his parents. In swimming his favorite stroke is butterfly, because he is especially good at it. His coach’s name is Bob, he is very nice and lets the kids do dives at the end of class. Jeff has already done swimming for five years and wants to do it in college.

Alex has green eyes, so does his sister, but they are the only people in their family who have green eyes. Alex enjoys skiing because when he was six his grandma brought him to a ski center and he got hooked. He lives with his mom, dad, sister, grandma, and a cat named Snowy. Snowy is the cat’s name because once Alex went skiing and young Snowy snuck into his backpack and accidentally fell on Alex’s ski in the car before they came to the center.

On Wednesday Jeff and Alex, as usual, met each other at the end of fourth street. They gave each other a handshake and started talking about what their class job will be, they both wanted to feed the class fish. Luckily, they were job partners, which meant that they will share the job. After they came to Mrs. Andosha’s class they checked their jobs. They were happy to see that they were on fish duty! They fed the fish named John and sat down.  A moment later Mrs. Andosha came in and introduced a girl named Lucy.

“She came here from Montana because her family was too big for her old house.”, explained Mrs. Andosha.

Lucy has green eyes like a piece of seaweed and thick brown hair like the bark of a tree. She lives with her mom, dad, two sisters, five brothers, six cousins, two aunts, two uncles, and her mom is about to have a baby girl. Lucy’s father works as an FBI agent. Lucy enjoys having fun with her relatives and listening to rock music. Her favorite sport is speed skating because she couldn't take her eyes of the speed skaters at the town’s rink in Montana. She was excited to move because she would not have to share a room with her brother in first grade, her sister in fifth grade, cousin in third grade and brother in preschool.

A moment after Mrs. Andosha. introduced Lucy, the kids started reading class by returning their book reports, Jeff’s and Alex’s reports were on Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone. Suddenly, Mr. David, the principle, burst into the classroom shouting

“ALL THE COMPUTERS ARE GONE!”

“What? I spent $3,500 on them”! exclaimed Mrs. Andosha.

Jeff and Alex looked at each other, then looked at Lucy.

Lucy looked back. They raised their hands and said, “We can help.”

“How?" asked the teachers.

“Well, Lucy’s dad could teach us some investigating skills, and we can use those skills to find the thief,” said Jeff.

After school, Jeff and Alex Went to Lucy’s house. Each room had about 20 boxes (five for each of Lucy’s siblings). Lucy showed Jeff and Alex the room she shares with; one sister, one cousin, and they are going to share the room with the newborn baby. Lucy disappeared downstairs to explain the situation to her dad.

"Wow, this place has 6 bedrooms,” said Jeff.

“How do you know?" asked Alex “I did the math,” answered Jeff.

Suddenly, the door opened, and they heard a deep voice say “Hello”.

It was Lucy’s dad. “I’m Jeff and this is my friend Alex we are Lucy’s new friends,” said Jeff.

“I am Mr. Kaybob, Lucy’s father. So, why do you want to learn investigation skills?”

“In our school, 3 computers were stolen from the science room and we want to find who the thief is,” answered Alex.

“Ok, for that you will need 3 major skills; deduction, questioning and fingerprinting. Let’s go downstairs and I’ll teach you."

Mr. Kaybob led the kids to the kitchen.

“Today I will teach you a deduction. It means that you have to use your background knowledge and the facts you have to make a hypothesis. Let’s try it. A man lived in a house with 4 windows one on each wall. When he looks out each window all he sees is white. How is this possible?"

“Were the windows painted white?" asked Lucy.

“No, but that can be an answer,” said Mr. Kaybob.

“Can we research on our phones?" asked Alex.

“No, you have to use deduction to find the answer,” said Mr. Kaybob.

“He lives in Antarctica?” asked Jeff. “We know that Antarctica has snow and snow is white.”

“Good, here is another question. A cowboy came to the ranch on Friday stayed there 3 days and left on Friday. How’s that possible?" asked Mr. Kaybob.

“Could his setting be on a different planet, because some planet days are shorted than earth days?” asked Lucy.

“I think you're over thinking this,” said Mr. Kaybob.

“The horse's name was Friday!” exclaimed Alex.

Lucy looked at the clock, it read 6:00. “It is dinner time,” she exclaimed. Jeff and Alex went home.

The next day Jeff and Alex went to Lucy’s house after school.

“Today we will learn about questioning. Here are its steps: first you ask the observers what they saw, then you write down the information, after that, you ask the suspect, and finally...”

“You make a deduction?" interrupted Jeff.

“YES!" said Mr. Kaybob. Alex’s phone beeped, it was 6:30.

“Time flies when you're having fun” exclaimed Jeff and they went home.

The next day Jeff and Alex left school and roller-skated half a mile to Lucy’s, her dad opened the door.