Saturday 26th March

Sally was already up by 8:00am, eating breakfast with her brother downstairs. They were both having cold cereal, though Sally had also elected to have a piece of buttered toast along with her cereal. At the table, Sally began to speak.

"What's on today?" she asked.

"We have a baseball game today." Charlie Brown replied. "Are you going to watch?"

"If I'm free." Sally replied. "I'm anticipating a case will fall at my desk."

"Like it always does." Charlie Brown said, with a hint of sarcasm. "Some case it will be, too."

"That sarcasm is going to come back to bite you someday." Sally warned, before she walked off.

"You didn't eat your crusts!" Charlie Brown said.

"Woodstock can have them." Sally replied.

"I'm sure… he'll appreciate it." Charlie Brown said, much more softly.

Whilst Charlie Brown was feeding Woodstock, Sally had put on her longcoat and sat down in her office (a desk next to her room, with a telephone, in yellow). It was not too long (11am) before a knock on the door was heard. Charlie Brown opened the door.

"Hello, Charlie Brown."

"Good Morning, Rerun. What brings you here?"

"I want to talk to Sally." Rerun said. Charlie Brown, not knowing what to say next, simply held the door open for him. Rerun proceeded upstairs and walked into Sally's office.

"Rerun, reporting for duty, ma'am." He called out. Sally turned around on her chair.

"Great! You accepted my request!" Sally said enthusiastically.

"It's not a difficult decision. I get bored easily." Rerun replied.

"I know." Sally replied. "But I haven't had anything like an exciting case yet."

"Oh, that's a shame." Rerun said, his smile reduced to a light frown.

"Maybe you could take inspiration from some of my case files." Sally responded. She then went to fetch a selection of files from a shelf in her room.

"Here's one I had a few weeks ago." She said to him, handing him a piece of paper.

"What happened?" Asked Rerun.

"Well," Sally began. "It was about a month ago. I was working in my office in the late morning when I heard a knock on the door. I opened it to see Floyd standing there."

"Who's Floyd?" Rerun asked.

"Floyd's from the other neighbourhood. He has a crush on Marcie, which she hates him for." Sally continued. "He said he heard some commotion going on at the park. I followed him out of the house and to the park. It was of no surprise to me that Thibault was there, harassing a little girl. I walked over to him, asking what the commotion was about. He responded by spouting about what he thought a woman's place was, instead of playing so called 'boy' sports. Needless to say, I was very offended, and the girl he had been harassing was in tears. I countered him by telling him that Floyd had reported him to me and reminding him of everyone's equal rights."

"What happened next?" Asked Rerun.

"Well," Sally began again. "So I said that, and then he said…

'You wanna fight?' in his gruff and bigoted tone. I responded by punching him in the face, and then when he tried to rush towards me, I used a foot sweep on him (it's a Judo move). As I left him to reconsider his actions, I went over to the little girl to console her. She told me her name was Sophie, and that she was playing soccer on her own when Thibault showed up. I told her I dealt with him, pointing at him on the ground, in considerable pain, but not majorly injured in any way. I recommended to her that she should bring a friend or two in case Thibault showed up again. After that I went home." Sally said, finishing her story.

"That was exciting." Rerun said approvingly. "Though I'm not sure I could handle someone in a fight."

"Maybe I could teach you some skills for today." Sally said. "That way you'd be able to defend yourself. It's not for attacking, though." She advised.

"Understood." Rerun noted. "Maybe later, I'd like to know more about the job."

"What's your question?" Asked Sally.

"How did you get the nice coat?" Rerun asked.

"I got it as a Christmas present, from Mom." Sally replied. "But I think you'd look better in a Tweed suit and a matching fedora." Sally said to him.

"Like a Noire Cop?" Rerun asked.

"Yes, like that." Sally confirmed.

"Cool. I wonder where I could find one." Rerun said to himself.

"Maybe you could ask for one on your birthday." Sally suggested.

"That's still two months away." Rerun said.

"Enough time to learn how to be a detective, then." Sally said.

"Starting Now." Requested Rerun. They went downstairs to the dining room table to discuss more comfortably. Rerun sat down at one end whilst Sally sat opposite.

"First off." Sally began. "Being a detective requires skill and intuition. This means making decisions based on good instinct and thorough analysis, and on the fly."

"Do I have good instincts?" Rerun asked.

"We can test that." Sally said.

"How?" asked Rerun.

"Well, you can ask me a few questions. Every so often I will lie." Sally said. "You'll have to judge whether I'm telling the truth or not."

"Okay, let's begin." Said Rerun with some mild enthusiasm.

"First question. Your name." he began.

"Sally Brown."

"Home State?"

"Minnesota."

"Any love interests?"

"No."

"That's a lie." Rerun said.

"How so?" Said Sally, knowing he was correct, but keen to see Rerun's ability.

"It is no secret to anyone that you refer to Linus as your 'Sweet Babboo'."

"And?"

"Usage of terms of endearment are well known indicators of romance."

"That's true. I confess. You did well, Rerun." Sally said. "But real suspects don't lie as obviously as I did, or concede the truth so easily. So keep practising."

"I'll keep it in mind." Rerun said. He looked up at the clock.

"It's only noon, what should we do next?" Rerun asked.

"I don't know, but it's going to be lunch soon. You'd best go on home." Sally said.

"See you soon." Said Rerun, getting up out of his chair. He exited out of the front door. Charlie Brown walked into the dining room from upstairs. He saw that Sally was sitting there already.

"So how has your day been, so far?" Charlie Brown asked.

"Well, first I did all my homework." Sally began. "Then I went to sit in my office, then Rerun arrived, offering to be my deputy, and then we talked about detective work."

"You like your detective work, don't you?" Charlie Brown said.

"Yes. Of course I do." Sally replied.

"I don't think Rerun should be a detective." Charlie Brown said. "I want him to have a fun life, playing, like we used to do, instead of being all serious."

"I see your point." Sally conceded. "But it's still his decision. So what have you been doing?"

"Well, I've been fixing my motorcycle." Charlie Brown replied.

"Do you know what kind of bike it is yet?"

"It looks like a Harley-Davidson." Charlie Brown replied. "Then after that I went to Linus' house to talk about the Hungary trip. Then I gave Snoopy a mid-morning snack, and after that I did some sketching."

"Sketching?" Sally asked.

"Yes, sketching. I was drawing a picture of the back garden. It's peaceful, and it passed the time."

"When's the baseball game?" Sally asked.

"1:30 at the latest." Charlie Brown replied. "But our team will arrive at 1:00."

"What's for Lunch?" asked Sally.

"Whatever we can find." Charlie Brown replied. "Dad's at work and Mom's at a PTA meeting, so we'll have to feed ourselves. Which reminds me, I have to feed my dog." Charlie Brown got up to fix Snoopy's lunch, whilst Sally began to set the table, setting down plates, knives, spoons, glasses, bread, butter, and lemonade, among other things. She sat down at the table and waited for Charlie Brown to come back.

When Charlie Brown returned, he took some bread and put it in the toaster. A minute later, the toast popped, and Charlie Brown then buttered his toast and sat down to eat it. Sally was helping herself to a ham and cheese sandwich.

"Big brother, what's the field trip about?" Sally asked.

"Well," Charlie Brown began. "It's mostly about Art and Music, and I think the teachers just wanted to go somewhere."

"At least it'll be interesting." Sally replied. "Our last field trip was in a farmer's field, in the middle of winter."

"In Hungary it'll be just as cold." Charlie Brown responded.

"It's a good thing I didn't put myself forward then, isn't it? Sally said jokingly. They continued eating their meal. Once they had finished their sandwiches, and had some crisps, they cleared the table and went their separate ways. Charlie Brown went to get his baseball glove and cap, and Sally went back to her office. Sally looked around and checked that nothing was out of place, before she left again. She placed a sign on her desk which read. "The detective is [Out]. The detective is at [Baseball Game]."