The security guard wandered into the room and stayed behind at the entrance. He had convinced the other guards to look after the room. However, he wasn’t alone. There was another man in the room too, who was wearing a black suit. He carefully tiptoed toward the diamond. The other items in the jewelry exhibit were breathtaking but none were as valuable, or as beautiful as the diamond. As soon as he would grab it the alarm would start. The man knew that, though. The man quickly grabbed the diamond not wasting a moment to look at the magnificent diamond. The alarm sounded and the man started running toward the back entrance where no security guard would be. The security guard looked at the thief and ran toward him. The thief ran out and the guard did the same. The other guards came to see what was causing the commotion and arrived to only see the guard and the robber were gone. The following day …
“What did the guard say when he came back after the thief fled?” questioned the detective.
“That’s exactly what’s strange. The security guard never came back,” replied the manager.
“Maybe, the security guard was with the thief,’’ pitched in Max. The other detective Jack just nodded. He was thinking about something else. How could the robber get in the room? After all, there was no way the robber could have got in. Watching the CCTV cameras had arouse a lot of questions, more than the manager was able to answer. Then he remembered seeing something about the thief. He told the manager to go back to the scene where the thief was taking the diamond and to pause it and zoom in on his chain.
“What's so important about the chain?”, inquired Max.
“Look at what the chain reads,” replied Jack. Max gasped, and nearly choked on the gum he was chewing. Inscribed into the necklace, there it read Jim.
It was all falling into place. There had been a prison outbreak just recently, 2 weeks ago. Luckily, all but one prisoner had been caught. And that prisoner who was successful also just occurred to be Jim, who they had arrested one year ago. His partner Joe had already been let out before the jailbreak. The chain was identical to (and possibly was ) Jim’s gold chain. Inscribed into his necklace was Jim and 3 or 4 bird feathers which looked to be of a rare Oreothlypis celata, were also on the chain. But there was still no proof that the robber had to be Jim. Anyway, anybody could have a chain like that.
“Max, this is no mere coincidence! We need to find Jim and Joe,’’. “Let’s investigate the diamond exhibit.”They inquired around and learned the security guard who had not come back was new and applied for the job one week ago. They also came to know that the diamond exhibit had put up posters and news about needing another security guard about 10 days ago.
“You know, it could be other robbers beside Jim and Joe,” suggested Max.
“Max, the timeline fits perfectly. Two weeks ago, Jim broke out from jail.3 days afterward the diamond exhibit announced it needed a new security guard. The security guard had enough time to explore and figure out every single way the robber could get inside the jewelry exhibit without being spotted. And then finally, BOOM! The diamond was stolen,” Jack said forcefully.
“Jack, Jim, and Joe are not the only ro-’’Max wasn’t finished when Jack cut him off.
“But, we need to at least add them to our suspect list, Max. It is possible,” Jack replied. Max finally agreed that it was possible.
The duo then decided to go to Joe’s house to interrogate him. As they approached the sound of quarreling was easily heard. The steps up creaked and the voices quickly stopped. They had heard the someone approaching. Jack knocked on the door and the door was opened by Joe.
“You both here! ,” Joe’s startled voice cried.”I mean for what reason have you come?
“We’ve come here to talk to you about the bank robbery and search the house,” fiercely replied Jack.
“Do you have a warrant ?”Joe inquired. But the detectives paid no heed to his question and walked right in. There was a handmade map of the jewelry exhibit, complete with the exits and where the security guards along with alarms would be. There was also an orange-crowned warbler bird feather lying on it.
“This is prime evidence of Joe’s guiltiness!” Max told Jack.
“We don't need that. There’s somebody upstairs, who probably is Jim,” replied Jack, and with that took off running heading upstairs. Max followed his lead and ran into the room where the sound had come from. Nobody was inside but only a window, which was open all the way. “Whoever was here escaped,” concluded Jack. Max nodded his head in agreement and looked back at the window one last time.
By the time the next day rolled around the detectives had Joe. Joe had committed to his crime but not had admitted to who was his partner. But, he had committed that Jim came to his house. He also said that the robber had not come back to his house. They were driving toward Joe’s house again to search for clues when they spotted a mysterious figure, in front of the house. The figure walked toward a car and as he opened the door light flashed off his gold chain. Jack quickly turned the car and started following the mysterious figure. The chain had looked just like the thief’s! The person soon realized he was being followed and made a sharp turn, and also switched lanes. But the detectives kept on the trail. Max yelled,” We know you are the thief! We saw your necklace!’’.The thief then finally stopped at the bridge. The man got out slowly, clutching his necklace. It was none other than Jim!
“You may have found me. But you will never be able to prove I am the thief!”, he yelled. And with that, he threw his chain into the sea.”Now all you can do is send me back to jail to serve the rest of my term, and for breaking out!”
The detectives took him to the police station where in turn he was confronted by the police. The police said that since there was no proof that he had robbed the bank, he would just go back to jail for breaking out. The detectives were mad but then a light bulb popped in Jack’s brain which made him sure he could figure out who was the robber.”Max! I got it! The feathers. There was a feather there which was just like the one the robber had. Joe denied anybody coming to his house besides Jim, but this means the thief did come! And the thief was Jim! And it’s illegal to keep a feather of an orange crown warbler or Oreothlypis celata! So the necklace must have been custom made!”, blurted out Jack full of excitement. The next day…
Jim had been caught and Jim and Joe admitted the truth. It was now finally nice, peaceful and quiet with no crimes. But it wouldn’t stay that way for long!