Maybe I've been watching too much of the bad-guys-turned-good, Robin Hood television show "Leverage" lately (one episode during each morning workout!), but when I found a case of graffiti this morning, the detective work began.
Discovered: one wooden Barclay block with the name JOHN written on it in pen
Where: in the play/school room
When: discovered this morning when school was beginning
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| The block which says JOHN . . . or does it? |
"I didn't do it!"
"Well, I didn't do it!"
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| The windowsill which says JOHN |
Thankfully, I have approximately five years' experience in forensic handwriting analysis. One of my early, break-through cases when I was a rookie on the job was finding JOHN scratched into the window sill. I found and prosecuted the perpetrator of that crime and have had an almost unbroken record of successful cases in the years since.
Was the criminal of my earlier case doing his crimes again? I thought he had reformed himself, but we in the biz' know that cases of recidivism are high. One JOHN years ago, and now a new JOHN. This might be a quick open-and-shut case.
But no . . .
These eyes might be getting older and my eyesight fuzzier, but a close look and a plain old-fashioned hunch that something didn't "feel right" revealed that the graffiti did not read JOHN but read M JOHN.
The new suspect was brought in for interrogation.
I accused the perp of starting to write her own name, then realizing that she would invariably be caught, so trying to frame a previous but now reformed criminal of the crime.
In this jurisdiction, I play all parts of victim (one of the parents who paid for said wooden blocks, now defaced), detective and expert analyst, bad cop (interrogator), judge, jury, and jailer.
Crimes of which accused was found guilty:
- Defacing property owned by another party
- Trying to frame an innocent party
- Perjury (which we had just learned at Colonial Williamsburg was then punishable by two hours with nails in the ears, resulting in permanent "notched ears," so that everyone would know the person was not trustworthy, was willing to lie under oath that a person did a crime he didn't do, was willing to see that innocent person be punished)
Sentence: a $1 fine (a hefty amount which represents one-third of her money earned from weekly chores)
Consider this case of The Frame Job closed up, boys.
Smart girl! We had a car that said Brendan on 2 sides, but he wasn't framed. I wish it were just a block or a windowsill.
ReplyDeleteSara: Do you mean your real, actual family car? Your sweet boy wrote his name on both sides of it?! Oh, I can only imagine the scene . . .
ReplyDeleteLittle smarty. My sister also wrote our other sister's name on walls! haha - too bad they were eye level of the older one and couldn't have been written by the littler! :) Good Sherlocking ;) Let's make a new show, Sherlocks of their Homes ;)
ReplyDeleteMary gets $3.00 per week for chores? Wholly smokes! Don't tell my kids! Their 0.75 to 1.25 for babysitting, dish washing, table & floor cleaning PER week (with money off for bad attitudes) will not seem so great.
ReplyDeleteThere is hope. Perhaps Mary will grow up to be a real sleuth like her mother!
ReplyDeleteJessica: We just started them on allowances and it's such a murky area! There are so many ways to do it (or not do allowances). What we're trying for now is that they have basic chores due daily just for being citizens of the family. Then they have about two "paying chores" per day, each of which earns 25 cents. But they have to do their basic chores before they can earn anything for their paying chores, so no shirking the basic chores and thinking they'll get paid.
ReplyDeleteWe're definitely still figuring out the pros and cons of the system.
Oh, yes, Katherine, it was the family mini-van! Fortunately, just scratched on with a stick and not written with Sharpie. ;-)
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