리틀팍스

_1: The Card

Grace glanced nervously at the clock. 'Why isn't she coming?' she wondered as she tapped the table. It was a warm Thursday in March. She arranged to meet her new client at 10:00 A.M. in Joker Mainland, a very tiny and hard-to-find resturant. Before her client said to meet there, she didn't even know this place exsisted. Grace stood up and then sat down. It was 10:30 A.M. and her client was nowhere to be seen. 'Maybe she's late.' Grace thought as she sipped her orange juice. She waited and waited until 11:00 A.M. but the client still didn't come. "Never mind. I'll just call her later." Grace said to herself as she stood up. Then she spotted a figure running toward Joker Mainland. "Finally!" Grace said and sat back down. A pretty girl about her age burst into the resturant. She looked around and spotted Grace. "I'm really sorry mam." the girl said as she sat down. "I've caught the wrong buz and had to tell the buz driver to turn back." Grace stared at this girl who used standard laungue. "Er, nice to meet you. What's your name?" Grace said after some silence. The girl smiled at Grace. "My name iz Phala Vincintgeorvo. You can just call me Pala. Your name?" "Grace." "Grace, a nice name!" "So what's your case?" Pala's face fall as she spoke. "My problem? Er, I don't know how to say thiz, but..." she hesitated, leering at Grace. "My necklace disappeared. It'z a very important necklace that my boy friend gave me. He still doezn't know that I lost it, so I want you to solve thiz case fastly, before my boy friend notice that I lost my necklace." Grace nodded as she scribbled something on her note. "Was there something peculiar near where you put your necklace?" Pala thought for a minute and then nodded. "Yez, there waz something strange. There waz something like a card next to where I put my necklace. I don't have it right now, but I can show the picture to you." Pala rummaged through her pocket and pulled out her phone. Then she show the picture to Grace. She looked at the picture and gasped. It said: I still grill stuff. Because Ima grill. The text big tom is guraisusi's riti old vachi. Bye for now but not for long...

_2: On the Case

"Did you ever saw something so strange as this?" Pala said as she took a look at the picture her self. "I still grill stuff? Is thiz person from a baking club? And iz Ima grill a name of a grill? And what's text big tom? I don't know a person named big tom. Big tom iz guraisusi's riti old vachi? What's that? A baby saying something? Grace, do you know anything about thiz?" Grace's face was still pale as she stared at the phone. "Are you sure that was the thing next to where your necklace have been?" she finally spat out the words like it was a needle poking her mouth. "Yeah, why?" Pala looked confused by Grace's reaction. Grace quickly made a fake smile and said, "Just curious. Anyway, where was your necklace, no, where do you put your necklace when it got stolen? Did you put it in somewhere different from other days?" Pala thought for a moment and then nodded. "Yeah. I did put my necklace on the postbox just outside the front gate of our house. I usually forget to bring my necklace with me, so I put it on the postbox so that I'll remember to wear it when I go outside." "So anybody could have stole it, right?" "Well, anybody that woke up till midnight. I waz doing my math homework and when I looked out the window before I went to bed at 00:12, the necklace was still there. I knew that because it's string is made up of glow-in-the-dark thingz or something like that. I could even spot them from up in my second floor if I look carefully." Grace tapped her chin. "Where do you live?" she finally asked. "In Plore avenue on main street 17. Kind of far from here." "Kind of far! It's over 3km!!! Wait, did you just say 'Plore avenue'?" "Yeah, why?" "Oh, I think my friend lives there, or maybe I was mistaken. Anyway, bye!" Grace took off with out looking back. 'Lucy lives in Plore avenue. It's not likely, but it seems like I have to have some help from the Hania detectives'.

_3: Help From the Hania Detectives

"If you ever find yourself stuck in the middle of the sea, I'll sail the world to find you." It was a bright morning at the detective stand and Jenice was huming one of the songs that they learned in english class. It was called "Count On Me" and Jenice was huming the songs over and over again. Strangly, Catherine stayed quiet as Jenice hummed the song. The usual Catherine would say "Be quiet Jenice, I can't think!" or "Uh, stop that singing nonsence." but Catherine stayed quiet as Jenice sang the last few words. Hilda was unusually quiet to, though it was likely that Hilda wasn't really interested in Jenice. She was looking at her phone, tapping away like mad. Just then, they heard someone shouting. "Yo! Hanias!" It was Grace, running toward them. "What's it this time." Hilda murmured under her breath as Grace reached them. "Missed me?" "Nope, just tell us what you want." Catherine said coldly. Grace took a step back. "Okay." she said. "I just want to speak to Lucy please." Jenice stared at Grace and raised her eye-brows. "Why?" Grace just ignored Jenice's question and looked at Catherine and said once more, "I want to speak to Lucy." Catherine shook her head. "Not that easily. Tell us WHY." Grace bit her lip. Catherine was being hard again. She had once been, when Grace asked to contact Lucy. But this time, she wasn't going to back up, when her detective work was involved. She took a deep breath. "Because Lucy lives near my client's house and I have to ask her something." Catherine raised her eye brows. "What case?" Grace studied Catherine's face. Was she going to steal her case? "A fairly easy case. Now, your turn." Catherine nodded slowly as she called Lucy. Lucy answered in 3 calls and Catherine handed the phone to Grace. "Hello?" "Hello Lucy." "Hi Grace, why?" "Er, can I visit your house at 1:00 P.M?" "At 1:00 P.M? But that's just an hour away!" "Yeah, an hour. So can I visit or not?" "Well, you can..but did your parents agreed to this?" "Of course. Now I'll see you in a hour." Grace hung up and smiled at Catherine. "Thanks." she said and she ran toward her house.