"Mum! I'm home!" Jake shouted through the bathroom door. His mother was constantly taking a bath and Jake privately thought that if his mother spent anymore time in the bathtub, she might as well cut off her legs and join the mermaids.
"Hi honey, I'm coming out in a second." His mum called out.
"Sure mum!" Jake shouted back. He had a room upstairs and hurried up the stairs and dumped his bag on his bed. He turned and was about to run back down when he caught sight of himself in the mirror and stopped.
Tall and thin he stood, many people mistook him for being a sixth-grader when he was actually just a 10-years-old fourth grader. He had inherited his looks from his mother and his brains from his father. His mother was an actress whom retired at an early age and had once won the Oscar Best-Actress-Award-of-the-year. His father on the other hand, was a famous private detective and had solved countless cases. Oscar, the police inspector of the local region, respected his father a lot and had to always rely on him to solve cases.
"Mum! I'm going out!" He called out.
"Wait a minute, Jake," his mum shouted after him, "Can you return Rachel's handkerchief for me? It's on the kitchen table. She left it here the other day."
"Sure mum!" Jake stuffed Rachel's handkerchief in his pocket and leapt out of the house through the backdoor, with his skateboard in hand.
He met up with the others 10 minutes later and was last to arrive. The others were all there, with their skateboards in hand too.
"Here Rachel, your handkerchief," Jake handed Rachel's handkerchief over.
"Thanks, Jake" Rachel's warm smile made Jake quiver.
"Alright, Jake's here. Let's go." Michael started skateboarding and shouted over his shoulder, "Last one there's a rotten egg!"
They arrived 20 minutes later and Jake immediately sensed that something was wrong.
"Guys, stop." He turned around to look at his friends and pointed, "Look, there are 2 police cars outside Jean's house. I wonder what's wrong."
They crept over quietly over to the big house. It was obviously a place where only rich people can afford to live. There was a garden at the back, with its flowers neatly attended to and the lawn mowed. There was also a private swimming pool with its own diving board. Lastly, there were also walls around the whole area. Jake looked at the house silently. Jean hadn't been wrong; her house was huge. He was about to ring the doorbell when the door opened and police inspector Oscar stood there, talking with his assistant.
"Go to the car and grab the phone tracking equipment here now!" He turned and noticed the children, "Oh hi Jake, how's your father doing? Wait, what are you doing here?"
Inspector Oscar was a large man with a mustache. He constantly wears a brown suit with a brown hat. He was usually very nice but was very strict when it comes to work.
"We're here to visit our classmate, Jean Hannah. Is something wrong, Inspector?" Jake asked.
"Shhhh!" Inspector Oscar looked around and said, "Come in. We'll talk inside."
Inside, they found a distraught looking man with white hair. He was looking very nervous and stood up the moment he saw Inspector Oscar and asked, "Who are these children?"
Jake's first impression of Mr. Hannah was that he was a man who radiated wealth and power. He was wearing a suit, customized by his own private tailor. His English was perfect, with no apparent accent. Yet all this seemed to have been robbed from him. His suit was looking very over worn. His neat white hair was in a mess. He looked as if he had not been taking care of himself properly.
Inspector Oscar replied, "Let me introduce you to them. Children, this is Mr. Hannah, Jean's father. Mr. Hannah, these are classmates of your daughter. Also, this is Jake Short, son of private detective James Short, you remember him?"
The name clearly meant something to Mr. Hannah. He seemed to have forgotten the thing that was bothering him temporarily and shook Jake's hand. "Oh, James Short's son! An honour to meet you!"
However, Jake was not buying it. He shook his head and said, "What's wrong, Inspector?"
The effect of this simple sentence was immense. Both men dropped their cheerful attitudes and exchanged dark looks.
"Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to tell you, seeing you are James' son," Inspector Oscar replied slowly, "Well you see⦠Jean's been kidnapped."
