Detective Brothers: The Case of the Missing Restaurant Money

          The Case of the Missing Restaurant Money

It was a nice, calm, sunny day in Brawl Town. Lloyd was a third grader in Blue Skies Elementary School and co-founder of the CCC (also known as the Criminal Control Club). He clicked away on his computer coding a program that could identify fingerprints. 

“Almost done!” he said, pushing his glasses up. “I just need to add this string right here.” 

“Lloyd, stop coding and let’s look for some emails of mysteries we could solve,” Don, the leader of the CCC said, memorizing more numbers in pi. Don had his favorite math kit that he carried around everywhere. 

Don thought about his previous case. He and Lloyd had found the mayor of Brawl Town’s money. Mr. Carbunkle, the manager of Olive Garden, had helped them. It turned out to be hidden in John Billing’s house. He was the criminal.  

“Nothing yet,” Lloyd said, switching out of Gmail and logging back into his coding website. 

“Can you at least check the local newspaper?” Don said, eager to have a case to solve. He had been waiting for almost two weeks now to have a mystery. Lloyd searched up the local newspaper and scrolled around. All that was there was an advertisement offering 40% off of all Pantene products, and that an old lady had found her cat in a bush. 

“We’ve been waiting for nearly two weeks. Well, technically 11 ½ days. Well then, of course you would round it to 2 weeks.” Don said. Lloyd fake yawned. 

“We get it, Mr. smarty party. We’ve been waiting for 2 weeks,” Lloyd said, starting to search again. “That’s all you have to say.” 

“Ring!” The phone buzzed loudly. “I’ll get it.” Don said, walking up to the phone. 

“Hello, the CCC here.” 

“It is me, Mr. Carbunkle. Get here quick! I’ve been robbed!” The Olive Garden restaurant manager, Mr. Carbunkle yelled into the phone. Don moved the phone away from him because the noise was so loud. 

“We’ll be right there sir,” Don immediately put down the phone so that Mr. Carbunkle couldn’t yell anymore. 

“Lloyd, we’ve got a case to solve,” Don said excitedly, putting his shoes on. 

“Let’s go then,” Lloyd said, joining Don and putting his shoes on.  

Don and Lloyd got on their bikes and set off toward the Olive Garden. 

“How much more time?” Lloyd said while riding, falling behind since he was so tired. 

“We have 1 kilometer left,” Don said. 

“Which is?” Lloyd said. 

“1000 meters,” Don replied. 

“I meant like if it was one mile or like less than a mile,” Lloyd said trying to explain. 

“But then it wouldn’t be accurate,” Don responded. 

“Ugh. Never mind,” Lloyd said giving up. After they biked a kilometer more they reached Olive Garden. Mr. Carbunkle was waiting outside. He had a horrified look on his face. Lloyd and Don set their bikes outside.  

“Come in quickly. Somebody stole our money!” He said charging into the restaurant. He dove behind the counter and opened the cash register. Don and Lloyd followed him. Mr. Carbunkle snatched a paper out of the cash register. A bell jingled as they raced to catch up with Mr. Carbunkle. Around the restaurant were multiple doors. The tables were in a pattern in the middle of the restaurant. The counter looked very dusty. It looked like nobody cleaned it in days.  

“All that was a piece of paper with random numbers on it,” Mr. Carbunkle said frustrated. 

“Wait,” Don said. 

“Let me see that,” He walked toward Mr. Carbunkle. 3.14 it said. 

“Hey that’s pi,” Don said. 

Mr. Carbunkle thought for a moment. “Oh yes we do have pie here. We have blueberry, banana split-” 

“No. I mean the number pi,” Don said, taking the paper and putting it in his pocket. 

“What? Pie is a number?” Mr. Carbunkle looked confused. 

Don started to explain. “Yes. It is a endless num-” 

“Okay, Let’s get to the point,” Lloyd interrupted. 

“Hmm…” Don started thinking. Who might want to do that? 

Suddenly, he came up with an idea. John Billings! He always wanted to get back at Mr. Carbunkle. Ever since Mr. Carbunkle, Lloyd, and Don had discovered that John Billings had    robbed the mayor’s money, John always wanted to have revenge on them.  

“Hey guys it could’ve been John Billings!” Don exclaimed. 

“But he is in jail,” Lloyd remembered. 

“Oh yeah,” Don said disappointed. 

“I do know one thing,” Mr Carbunkle said. “He does have a brother, Billy Billings. He always wanted revenge for his brother. He is a mastermind at breaking codes. But, instead of using it for good in the world he uses it for bad,” 

“Do you happen to know his address?” Don took his notepad out. 

“Yes. He lives right next to his brother.” Mr. Carbunkle said. Don put the paper with pi on it in his pocket. 

“Thank you Mr. Carbunkle,” Lloyd said as they left.  

“Next stop, Billy Billings house,” Lloyd said while they were walking down the street. After a few minutes they reached the Billy Billings house. Don rang the doorbell. There was a loud bang of a drawer being slammed shut. A tall skinny man with blond hair opened the door. Inside there was a yellow chair with blue polka dots on it. 

“What do ya want kids,” the man said impatiently. 

“Do you happen to be Mr. Billy Billings?” Don said politely. 

“Yeah why?” Billy Billings asked suspiciously. 

“We have a few questions for you,” Lloyd said taking his notepad out. 

"Well what do ya wanna ask me? Make it snappy. It better not be about free candy!” Billy Billings said impatiently. 

“Just like his brother,” Don quietly whispered to Lloyd. 

“Where were you last night?” Lloyd asked scanning around the room for any clues. He noticed a lock on the drawer and a a green paper sticking out of it.  

“I was at a friend's house,” Billy grumbled. 

“Can you tell us who this “friend” is?” Don went on. 

“Just get outta my house,” Billy yelled with his face turning red. He slammed the door open and shoved Don and Lloyd outside. 

“Well that backfired,” Lloyd said shaken up. I wonder who the friend is, Don thought as they walked back to the restaurant. After they reached the circular restaurant, Mr. Carbunkle barged through the door. 

“I have some big news for you!” he yelled. “I have been on the lookout for some time, and have another suspect! Blint Barnucle. He is one of my workers and he never follows the rules. One time I asked him to dust the place. He said yes and didn’t clean up!” 

“May we see Blint,” Don asked eager to ask more questions.  

“Yeah he is in his office,” Mr. Carbunkle said pointing to his office. Lloyd and Don opened the door to the office. A tall skinny man with blond hair was sitting in a red velvet chair. 

“Hello are you Blint Barnucle?” Don asked the man. Once again Lloyd scanned around the room. He noticed a safe with a lock on it.  

“Yes I am,” Blint said 

“What were you doing last night?” Don asked politely. 

“I stayed late sweeping the corners of the restaurant,” Blint answered. “I wanted to please Mr. Carbunkle so that I could get a raise.”  

“Thank you for your time.” Lloyd said trying to be as polite as Don. Don and Lloyd walked outside Blint’s office. They decided to eat lunch while they discussed what they saw. They found a table and ordered two milkshakes. 

 “I noticed the locks on the drawer and the safe. They both had a green piece of paper sticking out of it,” Lloyd started their conversation.  

“Hmmm…” Don thought about what Lloyd had said. “I wonder what those were.” After they ate their food they walked outside the restaurant. They got on their bikes and rode in the  night sky back to Don’s house. 

“It’s getting dark.” Don’s mom said as Don and Lloyd walked inside. Don and Lloyd went into the basement. Don thought for a moment. He tried to put everything together. They fit together like puzzle pieces. “Lloyd I think I solved the mystery.” 

“We gotta go mom!” Don said as Lloyd and him ran outside and straight to Olive Garden.  

Don kicked the door open and yelled “We know who stole the money!” 

“Who do it?” Mr. Carbunkle asked  excitedly. Everybody in the the restaurant looked at them weirdly. 

“Lloyd I need your program.” Don said. 

“Alrighty.” Lloyd took his portable computer out and and opened the program. 

“Since Blint never cleaned the place up his fingerprints and Billy’s fingerprints would be on it.” Lloyd placed his fingerprint machine on top of the cash register. Then he asked Blint to come and place his hand on the machine. They matched.  

“Aha!” Lloyd exclaimed. “They match.” 

“Who is the smarty party now?” Don grinned.  

“Shut up” Lloyd said.


“I believe that the safe in Blint’s office contains the money. The same for Billy’s drawer. They both had a piece of money sticking out of them. Also this is a circular restaurant. There are no corners. Blint couldn’t have been sweeping the corners.” Don explained. Blint’s face turned as pale as snow. Mr. Carbunkle looked angrily at Blint. Suddenly, Billy barged into the restaurant. “Hey Blint. A few kids came in and almost found out that we stole-” Billy looked up. “Oh shoot.” He said. Then 3 things happened at once. Blint grabbed his safe and ran outside the restaurant and in the direction of Billy’s house. Billy ran to. The CCC and all the other people in the restaurant raced after them. 

“Stop right there!” Lloyd yelled running as fast as he could. They are only a meter away. Don thought as he ran. Don pulled his math kit out. He took his meter stick out and attached his mini hook that he made onto it. He swung his meter stick out. 

“Clink!” The hook attached. 

“Yes! Perfect shot,” Don said holding onto the meter stick. Lloyd helped Don keep the thieves from moving. Mr. Carbunkle snatched his safe back from Blint. Then he headed for Billy’s house. He opened the drawer and grabbed all his money. As for Billy, he got to join his brother in jail and so did Blint. The CCC was in the newspaper and were big heroes. The CCC solved yet another major mystery.