THE CASE OF THE BEACH САРЁ BREAK-IN
The Beach Cafe in Seacliff had only been open a few
minutes when Tom went in. He noticed a new price list on the wall. “What’s
this, Mrs Hutchinson?” he asked. “Oh, I put it up this morning,” she told him.
“I’ve had to increase the prices by ten per cent because I have so many
expenses these days. Last night someone tried to get into the cafe by breaking
the window in the room at the back. Now I’ll have to get someone to put in new
glass.”
“Have you called the police?” Tom asked.
“No point. They didn’t take anything.” She took Tom
through to the small room at the back. “This is my office space. I was working
here last night changing the price list. I printed it and left it on the desk.
When I went out, I locked the door into the cafe, so whoever got in was stuck
in this little room. Nothing here to steal.”
Tom bought a drink and walked down to the seafront.
He saw Martin and Frank, who were fishing there. “Hey,” he called, “Did you
know that somebody had broken a window at the back of the Beach Cafe last
night?” he asked.
“No, we’ve been busy fishing,” Martin answered and showed Tom the fish
they had caught. Martin stood up. “Well, I’m starving. We got here early this
morning. I’ve got 70 pence left from my pocket money, so I’m going to get a
muffin from the cafe.”
‘You won’t have enough. You’ll need to
find another 7 pence from somewhere,” Frank said. “I’m going home to get
something to eat.” „
“Stop, both of you,”
Tom said. “I’m going to tell Mrs Hutchinson who broke the window. I know which one of you it was, and you’ll have to pay for it,”
and he pointed to one of the boys.