Mae's Mysteries: The Case of the Missing Necklace

     "Won't you just tell me what this is all about?" the Lenny pleaded.

     Mae shook her head. "You're going to have to trust me. Can you do that?"

     Her uncle stared back at her in desperation. "Mae--"

     "I've read every mystery series that the Neopian Times has published! I promise I know what I'm doing."

     Jovron brought a wing to his face for a moment, then rested it on Mae's shoulder. "Mae, I do apologize, but that is not terribly reassuring."

     Mae shrugged, but was positively jittering with excitement. "It's going to be okay, please just relax."

     He shook his head, and after a second, opened the door to the gallery for Mae, and followed her in.

     Around the dining room table in the gallery were the guests from the night before. Jovron strode to the empty seat at the head of the table where he had sat during dinner. Khadi-Ra was next to him to the right again. Across from him was Psylina, and Casara next to her, all exactly as they were the previous night. There were only two differences: first, that Sir Palomir sat in what had been Mae's seat next to Khadi-Ra. Second, there were two more chairs pulled up to the table next to Casara and Sir Palomir, and Brunton and Tadriel were occupying them.

     As her uncle settled into his seat, Mae walked slowly up to the empty spot at the table where Sir Palomir's chair had been the night before. Her heart had been thundering in her chest so loudly she could feel it in her throat ever since her realization. Mae looked blankly out at the Neopians in front of her, the words not quite making it to her mouth to form sentences yet.

     Tadriel peered around the table at everyone sitting around him. "What, erm, exactly is going on?" He settled his gaze on Jovron, who shrugged and gestured towards Mae.

     Mae drummed her fingers against the edge of the table as her tail swished back and forth in excitement. Psylina coughed.

     After a moment, Mae looked up. "I know who did it."

     The reaction to her statement was an audible one, and Jovron's eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his head as he sat forward. There was a murmur amongst the guests before Jovron loudly asked, "Do you? Who was it?!"

     Mae took a moment to study each guest. Seven faces stared back in her in surprise. "Who, what, where, when, how, and why. That's what I've been working on today. Clearly, the 'what' is the necklace, and the 'who' is the most important question. Who exactly stole the Heart of the Sun? My belief was that if I could figure out the what, where, how, and why, they would come together to point me to the 'who'."

     "And were you right?" asked Casara, fanning herself with a delicate traditional Shenkuu fan.

     "Well, it was certainly difficult to figure it out, but once the first puzzle pieces came together, everything else began to fall into place. The trouble is, every one of us was a suspect, but none of us could have done it."

     Casara snorted. "That's a paradox."

     Khadi-Ra shook his head. "Yes, Mae, you're contradicting yourself."

     "Funny you should speak up," Mae said, swivelling her head to look straight back at Khadi-Ra.

     "Me?" he said in surprise.

     "Yes, you, Khadi-Ra. I heard something interesting about you today, actually."

     Khadi-Ra recoiled. "Mae, I'm sure I don't know what you mean."

     Mae folded her arms and continued staring squarely at the Lutari. "I heard that you might've gotten a blemish on your record as an art dealer."

     "Me?" he repeated. "Who did you hear that from?"

     The Kougra ignored his question. "There was word going around that one of the art pieces you stole was a forgery." Some of the guests turned to Khadi-Ra in surprise.

     "That's not true!" he cried. "Whoever told you that is a liar!"

     "Imagine you're dealing forged art, and you get caught. A couple people find out, but it's kept enough on the down-low that your reputation remains in-tact." She turned around and walked to one of the paintings in the gallery, one of a school of Peophins swimming underwater. "But then, you sell an internationally famous priceless necklace to your friend and soon the whole world knows who he bought it from. Then the Neopians who knew of the fraud would call the necklace's integrity into question, and the story of your forged art would speak to all of Neopia."

     She looked away from the painting and back at Khadi-Ra. "Surely that would be motive enough to try to get the necklace back. He had to steal it so that it wouldn't become public that he was involved in selling it, and he could protect his reputation. That's the 'why.'

     "As for the 'how.'.. Brunton and Jovron were the last two to see the necklace in person, after Brunton brought our drinks up. Between then and Tadriel serving dinner, the only people to go in and out of the gallery were Brunton and Tadriel, so he couldn't have taken it then. But when Casara's glass broke, he got his window of opportunity: he made the excuse that he was getting bandages for Casara's hand, but instead went to the study and pocketed the necklace. He then could go to the restroom to get the bandages. It did take him an awfully time to come back to the room, after all."

     "Mae!" Khadi-Ra sputtered. "I-I told you, I was gone for so long because the medical supplies were difficult to find, not because I was committing theft!"

     "So you say," Mae shrugged. "When he went to the restroom, it also gave him the opportunity to hide the necklace there. Then he could double back to the party and wait for his chance to retrieve it. Because we all got sent home immediately after getting searched, he came back to the manor this morning under the pretence of a visit but, in actuality, to collect the necklace from under the bathroom sink. There's the 'how' and the 'where'."

     At this point, Mae noticed how red her uncle was becoming. Before she could stop him, he leapt up out of his seat. "You?!" he bellowed at Khadi-Ra, who went white in the face.

     "Jovron, please! I don't know what she's talking about, it wasn't me!"

     "I--" Jovron started to yell.

     "Uncle Jovron!" Mae cried. Her uncle froze and turned to face her. "Stop!"

     "What? You said you solved it, you said it was him!" her uncle shouted back.

     Mae shook her head emphatically. "No, because then there's something that doesn't work. When I came back this morning, I used the restroom down the hall after Khadi-Ra gave me his version of the events. I looked around as if I was looking for bandages, and they really were in the last place I looked -- they were almost buried in the cabinet. Khadi-Ra could have hidden them to corroborate his story, but if that was the case, I should have found the necklace when I searched the bathroom this morning. I went in there before he could go back in. So even though he may have had the motive, means, and opportunity--"

     "Like I said, it wasn't me!" Khadi-Ra insisted.

     Jovron sank back down into his chair. "Oh."

     "You were pretty quick to jump on Khadi-Ra, Jovron," quipped Casara. She smirked and delicately crossed one of her legs over the other.

     "Yes, that's true," Mae concurred. "Uncle Jovron knew in advance that the Heart of the Sun would be here. However, if he were trying to profit off it, I think the smartest thing would've been to re-sell it right away, not parade it around in front of his friends."

     "Parade?" Jovron repeated, sounding just a bit affronted by the word.

     Casara waved her hand dismissively. "Well, then I still think it was the cook."

     "Hey!" Tadriel growled, and Casara rolled her eyes.

     "Was it not you who told me how lovely the necklace would look around your neck, Casara?" Mae posited. "A Neopian like you who spends so much time at auctions purchasing jewellery, which you admitted to me yourself, would probably know exactly how much that necklace is worth and how to sell it, wouldn't they?"

     "Mae!" Casara snapped, sitting up straight in her chair. "Listen to yourself, Super Sleuth! You may be right about that, but you agreed earlier today that I'm the only one who couldn't have possibly stolen it!"

     "And why is that?" Sir Palomir chimed in. "It seems to me that it could have been any of us."

     "Because I never left the room!" Casara snapped back. "I--"

     Mae held a paw up to silence her, and her sentence came to an abrupt halt. The Kougra turned to Sir Palomir. "Casara was in the gallery from the moment we all walked in together to the moment we all left, the exception being when she stepped out onto the balcony. However, I looked out there myself, and there's no way in Neopia to get from the balcony to the study without being able to fly."

     "See?" Casara said, crossing her arms.

     "Well, I agree about Tadriel," Mae's uncle said. Tadriel's face fell, and Casara nodded as Jovron continued. "He's the stranger, he's the one who would choose to attempt to ruin me like this! Not one of my friends!"

     As Tadriel clenched his jaw again and looked down at his paws, Mae looked to her uncle. "That may be the easiest for you to believe, Uncle Jov. But Brunton was with him almost the entire night, and you never found it when searching Tadriel, his things, or the manor. He wouldn't have had the chance to get it out of the manor, would he?"

     "I supposed not," Jovron conceded.

     "I think," Mae said gently, "in your thorough attempt to prove that it was Tadriel, by searching him immediately and having Brunton watching him all day today, you've actually proven it impossible for him to be the culprit."

     It was now Jovron's turn to redden in the face. "Sorry, old sport," he muttered, glancing for a moment in the direction of Tadriel.

     "Don't mention it," Tadriel said dryly back.

     At this point, Mae turned her gaze to someone who hadn't said a word since their arrival back at the mansion that night. "Psylina," she said sweetly. "You've been awfully quiet tonight."

     Psylina glared at Mae. "I have nothing to say."

     "And why might that be?" Jovron said, snapping his head to look to Psylina.

     "Because," Mae interrupted, before Psylina could answer, "she's nervous that I'm going to expose her for the thief she is."

     Psylina slammed her hand down on the table. "Lies!" she boomed. "You are a filthy liar, and I will not stand for it!"

     Mae ignored her outburst. "I visited Psylina today to ask her one question: if she was leaving the gallery to use the restroom down the hall, how did she pass by the study at the opposite end of the hallway to see the missing necklace?"

     Heads turned to watch Psylina, who chose to turn her seething stare towards Mae, who tried to hide how nervous she was by closing her eyes to focus. "Furthermore, I know that the study door was closed. Even if you'd somehow gotten lost in a hallway and managed to end up at the other end, the only thing you would've seen from the study was its shut door. How do you explain that?"

     Psylina seemed to be growing so angry that she was starting to shake. "I... Well... It's..."

     "Exactly right, both of those things are impossible. You left the gallery that night under the pretence of going to the restroom, but your real goal is obvious: to steal the necklace."

     This stopped Psylina's outbursts. She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Instead, she continued to stare at Mae and quake in her seat.

     Mae clasped her paws behind her back and paced at the edge of the table. "You may be royalty, but even royals can have troubles. In this particular case, it's that your family has run out of Neopoints -- to the point where you've been asking for donations from other lands across Neopia. Unsuccessfully, it sounds like, I might add.

     "When Uncle Jovron showed us the Heart of the Sun, it was too much for you to resist. With Tadriel, Brunton, Sir Palomir, and Khadi-Ra racing through the halls following Casara's glass breaking, there wasn't time to sneak to the study without the risk of getting caught. Instead, you waited for everyone to be occupied, and make an excuse to slip out of the room. Perhaps your intent was to rejoin the party with the necklace in your pocket, and then you'd simply state that you needed to leave before anyone even noticed it was gone. Your family would be saved, and you'd be safe back in the Lost Desert by the time Uncle Jov found the display case empty."

      "It is not my fault!" Psylina finally cried. Those who were so rooted to Mae's explanation jumped in their seats at her wail. "My family is destroying itself! I am trying to help, but am met with nothing but greed! When nobody would give us even a single Neopoint, I became desperate!"

     Yet again, Jovron leapt up. "Where is it?!" he thundered. "What have you done with my necklace?!"

     "I do not know!" Psylina said meekly. She shook her head vehemently. "I did not steal it!"

     "You just admitted to it!" Casara snickered. "We all heard you, no take-backs!"

     "I did not!" Psylina let out a long breath, and closed her eyes for a moment. When she reopened them, there were tears welling up in the corners.

     "She didn't steal the necklace," Mae said quietly.

     "Mae!" Jovron hollered. "What is going on here?!"

     Mae smiled. Her tail twitched back and forth in anticipation. "Psylina intended to, yes. If the Heart of the Sun had still been in its case when she went to the study after dinner, I am fully confident that Psylina would've been our thief. But by the time she got there, the necklace was already gone."

     Psylina nodded. "Yes. I admit..." she paused. "I... asked about the toilet. I went back to the necklace instead. I hoped to solve the problems with my family. But... it was not there."

     "See?" Mae said. "Otherwise, she never would've come charging back in to tell us it was missing. For her plan to work, she would've needed us to go as long as possible without noticing someone had stolen it."

     Jovron sank down into his chair and buried his head in his wings. "I cannot fathom what your goal is tonight if it's not to completely confuse us! If it wasn't Psylina, then who stole the necklace?"

     "It's simple," Mae stated. "It was Tadriel."

     Seven faces gaped back at her. Especially the Red Gelert, who looked like he had just been told that the sky was green and Faerieland sat at the bottom of the ocean. "Me?" he said. "But you just--"

     "It was you, and we both know it," Mae interrupted. Tadriel said nothing, but continued staring slackjawed at Mae.

     "But... how?" Khadi-Ra said. "I thought it was impossible for him to steal it."

     Mae shook her head. "No, it was more than possible for him to steal it. Allow me to start from the beginning... When Tadriel agreed to work at Uncle Jov's dinner last night, he already knew the Heart of the Sun would be here. In reality, his work as a chef is his cover for what he really is -- a member of a team of Interneopian treasure thieves."

     "That's preposterous!" bleated Tadriel. "I'm a chef, that's all!"

     "No," Mae said back. "You work as a chef to gain access to the Neohomes of Neopia's elite. When you heard that the Heart of the Sun had turned back up and was in Shenkuu, you and your gang couldn't resist it. So you secured your spot as the chef here, and that was step one.

     "Once here, you had to lie in wait for your opportunity to get the necklace. Sure, you knew Uncle Jov had it, but not where he had it. All you had to do was wait to see where Uncle Jov brought us after we were all in the parlour -- to the study to show us the necklace. After finding out where it was, you had to make sure you had a time to take it. So, when you were on your way up to the gallery with dinner, you made sure you came up by himself -- without Brunton. At that time, you sneaked into the study, stole the necklace, and hid it -- I'm guessing in your apron. Maybe one of us would have noticed that there was something in your pocket when you were moving around the table with our food, but almost as soon as you were in the gallery, you smashed Casara's glass, and everyone's attention became immediately fixed on that."

     "The glass was an accident!" Tadriel barked.

     Mae shook her head again. "No, it wasn't. I believe that knocking over Casara's glass was very much on purpose; it was a calculated incident designed to throw everyone into a frenzy, and it worked splendidly."

     Tadriel's face darkened, and a sneer crossed his lips. His whole demeanour seemed to change in that moment, as it seemed like a curtain was pulled back to reveal the truth. "If you're so smart, then how are you forgetting that you just said moments ago that I had nowhere to stash it or get rid of it? Has that changed in the last few minutes? Or did I call upon the Pant Devil and give it to him?" He crossed his arms and stared daggers at Mae.

     "I stand by what I said before. You didn't have any way to hide the necklace or remove it from the mansion yourself."

     "That's precisely what I thought," he snapped. "Keep your mouth shut and think before you speak next time, kid."

     Mae smiled back at him. "You didn't need to get the necklace out of the mansion yourself because someone else helped you do it."

     "What?" said Sir Palomir in surprise. "An accomplice?"

     Mae shook her head. "No, Tadirel was the accomplice -- he was receiving instructions from the one who masterminded the entire plan. Once I realized that two people were working together to commit the theft, it started becoming easier to see what really happened last night. Tadriel was the one who actually removed the necklace from its display case, but he wasn't working alone. Someone else was here to help him after he had the Heart of the Sun in his possession.

     Mae swayed back and forth, and drummed her finger against her chin. "This other person played a much bigger role than just taking the Heart of the Sun off of Tadriel's hands. It was their responsibility to ensure that Tadriel was hired here, it was them who knew the Heart of the Sun would be here, and I believe the plan in its entirety was devised by them."

     When she stopped speaking, the gallery was so quiet that they could only hear the sound of the rain outside. "Well?" Jovron said finally. "Who was it?"

     "Isn't it obvious?" Mae sang, savouring her moment. She really was living out the plot of one of her detective books, and she was starting to enjoy every second of it. "Whose alibi comes apart once you realize that they didn't need an opportunity to steal the necklace?"

     Heads turned again, all now facing exactly one of the guests.

     "Oh, you must be joking," Casara paled, all eyes now on her.

      "You, too, are in the gang of thieves that Tadriel is apart of. Everyone seems to know that when information and gossip spread around Neopia, your position at King Skaarl's is one of their first stops. Once you heard through the underground grapevine that the necklace was here, you began laying your plan. Tadriel would become employed here as a chef -- you swayed luck to get Tadriel at the dinner in Altador Sir Palomir was at, and had him cook dishes that you knew Palomir would enjoy from what you knew of his dinners in Meridell. He then did exactly as you expected, and recommended Tadriel's services for Uncle Jov's dinner.

     "I'm sure you both took into account that Tadriel is the first person everyone would suspect, so you had to make sure there was never an opportunity for someone to catch him with it. Once Tadriel had the necklace, as I said before, he hid it in his pocket. You instructed him to knock your glass over, so everyone's attention went to the glass. When that happened, Tadriel bent down as if he was picking up the glass shards, but in reality, it was his opportunity to slip the necklace into your lap, where she could cover it with her napkin. When nobody was looking, I'm guessing you slid it into your sleeve. That's why she was so insistent about keeping Khadi-Ra and Palomir from getting too close to her hand."

     "Oh, and then what did I do?" snarked Casara.

     "Well, to distance yourself from him, you tried to implicate him as a suspect," Mae continued. "By throwing suspicion at each other, you hid that you were in cahoots, but also made sure that I thoroughly investigated your alibis. You both knew that I would find it'd be impossible for either of you to be the thief, and consider you exonerated. You just had to make sure that I wouldn't think of you two conspiring together, so when I asked each of you about the events of last night, you expressed your intense distaste for the other.

     It was silent again in the gallery. Tadriel was staring at a fixed spot on the table in front of him, and Mae could feel the rage bubbling out of him as his paws balled into fists. She noticed Casara, however, seemed largely unfazed.

     "Would you stop seething over there like a fool?" she sighed, examining her nails. "She doesn't have any evidence. She can't prove a single thing, no matter how fantastic her little story is." Casara looked up at Mae, flipped her hair, and crossed her legs again. "Sorry, Super Sleuth. Maybe instead of putting everyone through this charade, you could've just written a story for the Neopian Times. I hear they love fiction." She spat the last word out as if it was a poisonous dart, directed specifically at Mae.

     Just as Mae was about to respond, the doors behind her burst open. In flew Kacia at top speed, landing in the doorway with her paws held together in front of her. "You were right, Mae!" she panted, out of breath. "They were exactly where you said they'd be!"

     Kacia hurried over to the head of her table and held out her paws. As she opened them, Mae's breath caught in her throat. A dozen brilliantly shiny red jewels peeked out.

     "The necklace!" gasped Jovron. "But, Kacia, where did you-- how did you--"

     Kacia grinned and gestured to Mae as she closed the gems safely back in her paws.

     "When I spoke with Brunton earlier today, he told me about how he briefly left the kitchen last night when he heard the sound of rain starting to fall. He shut the windows in the kitchen, and then went to the conservatory to make sure those windows were closed as well. That seemed entirely normal to me, until tonight when Kacia made a comment about how it would've been more fitting if last night was a dark and stormy night instead of tonight. That's when I realized -- the skies were beautiful and completely clear last night. There was never any rain at all."

     "Mae, as I told you, I'm sure I heard raindrops!" Brunton insisted.

     "No, Brunton! You heard the sound of something landing in the gravel in the garden, you just thought it was rain! The balcony upstairs overlooks the garden and the kitchen window. When Casara slipped out to the balcony after dinner, she pulled the necklace apart and tossed the individual jewels to the ground below. Kacia, where did you find those shiny red gems?"

     "In the gravel in the garden," Kacia confirmed.

     "And... did any of you notice anyone besides Casara on the balcony last night?" The group shook their heads. Mae turned triumphantly towards Casara. "Sorry, Casara. It looks like the 'alibi' that was supposed to prove you were the only one who couldn't have done it has actually proved that you were the only one who could!"

     Over the course of Mae's speech, a lock of hair had fallen into Casara's now-red face. Her hands had curled into fists as well, and her eyes had narrowed. "You..." she snarled, "have been a thorn in my side since you showed up. You're really starting to annoy me, actually."

     Mae turned her head to the side and looked up to the ceiling. "Should I not tell them about the Brightvale stained glass window situation, then?"

     At this, Casara's face fell and Tadriel went rigid in his seat. His eyes bulged, and Mae thought one or both of them may get sick in front of everyone.

     "I think you'll find the heist in Brightvale you told me about earlier," Mae said to Palomir, "was committed by these two and their friends too. It's all in Tadriel's cooking -- the dinner from Altador, dessert from Meridell, and the traditional Brightvale foods that were in Casara's pagoda were all prepared by Tadriel, who I know likes to show off where he's been cooking recently with the dishes he serves. I think they pulled a similar scam there as they did here. I'll bet if you look into it, Tadriel was employed as the cook at the castle in Brightvale at the time, and perhaps Casara was coincidentally visiting on business from the neighbouring land of Meridell."

     Casara locked eyes with Mae, and the two of them stared at each other as the guests looked on. The Aisha's face was completely drained of colour now, and her ears had started drooping downwards. Mae watched as Casara simmered in her seat, and Tadriel said nothing.

     Suddenly, there was a flash of white as the Aisha made a dash towards the door. Almost instantly, Khadi-Ra was there too, firmly grasping Casara's wrist as her other hand grabbed desperately towards the doorknob. "Close," Khadi-Ra smiled at the thief, "but I always was faster than you."

To be continued…