Edgar Allan's Official Crime Investigation Notebook Read Online Free PDF Page B

fish . . . none of it had led him any closer to solving the crime. He shook his head.
    â€œWell. I suggest we all keep our minds open,” Ms. Herschel said. “Use your powers of observation. Consider all the possibilities. Remember the culprit is sometimes the opposite of who you’d expect.”
    I am going to try opening my mind right now. Think…think…think…
    It could be anyone….Someone who looks sweet on the outside might be rotten on the inside. Like an Easter bunny with rabies. Or Clarice Stolnup!
    The crime happened between 8:25 and 8:55 and no strangers were in the building. If the thief is someone from school, it can’t be any of the kids on my bus because we didn’t get there until 9:00. So…it must be a walker.
    The walkers in my class are:
    Kip, Taz, Patrick, Destiny, Maia, and Gabriela.
    Kip is fast, and he wrote a really good poem. Could he have done it? Maybe he skateboarded in? No shoe prints then! But…he has even worse handwriting.
    Aha! The doors of my mind just banged right open. Who is the opposite of a criminal? Destiny Perkins! She is the best student in the class, and the nicest, happiest girl. She never gets into trouble even when we have a substitute. She also has excellent handwriting and loves poetry.
    One problem. She and Maia Gomez have been best friends since the first grade. Why would one best friend steal the goldfish that the other best friend gave to the class?
    I am going to observe Destiny. Never fear! I will solve this mystery.

CHAPTER EIGHT

    Destiny Perkins could hide a whole school of fish in her hair. Why hadn’t Edgar noticed this before? It was shiny and wavy on top of her head where it was gathered together by a ponytail holder, and then it puffed out in a frizz of black curls.
    Destiny was sitting two seats up and one row over, and even though Edgar knew she wasn’t hiding fish in her hair, he wanted to use his powers of observation to notice everything about her.
    He kept an eye on her all through math class, which meant that he didn’t complete the sixteen problems that were due by the end of the period and so he had homework. It would have been worth it if he had uncovered a piece of damaging evidence, but all Destiny did the entire time was math. Math! He was beginning to have his doubts about her as a suspect.
    On the way to Mr. Crew’s room, the situation improved. Destiny walked alone, which was very suspicious. Destiny always walked with Maia.
    Something is up between Destiny and Maia. Perhaps Maia knows that her best friend is a criminal and she has decided to no longer walk with her.
    In language arts, Edgar finally had his chance to do some professional sleuthing. It all began with another poetry lesson.
    Mr. Crew wrote a poem on the board.
    What Am I?
    Sometimes I am white.
    Sometimes I am gray.
    Sometimes I steal the sunlight.
    Sometimes I float away.
    The tall, lanky teacher finished writing, sat on the edge of his desk, and picked up his teacup. “What is the poem about? What am I?” he asked.
    Patrick was the first one to raise his hand. “A cloud,” he said.
    Edgar knew the right answer. He would have said it, too, if only he could’ve raised his hand faster.
    Note: The shirt I’m wearing is too small, which makes it hard for me to raise my arm. This is a problem because all my shirts are too small and my parents are too cheap tobuy me new ones. What I really need are new parents.
    Mr. Crew set down his cup. “A poem is a mystery to solve. As we discovered yesterday, the writer gives you clues and you have to figure out the poem’s meaning. I want everybody to try writing a riddle poem like the cloud poem I wrote on the board. It doesn’t have to rhyme, but don’t reveal exactly what the poem is about . . . we’ll try to guess what each poem is about when we read them out loud. Let’s have a minute of silence to let our