Ash and Jay: The Dynamite Detectives – The Case of the Halloween Heist by Shreya Sujit {Inklings Book Contest 2021 Finalist}

Today we are featuring Inklings Book Contest 2021 finalist, Shreya Sujit! Shreya finished 4th grade this past school year. The story we’re featuring today is “Ash and Jay: The Dynamite Detectives – The Case of the Halloween Heist.” Enjoy!

Ash and Jay: The Dynamite Detectives – The Case of the Halloween Heist
by Shreya Sujit

Meet Ashley Goldstein, Ash for short. She is a twelve-year-old and kind of short. Our story starts on Halloween night… 

Ash walked down the street where her best friend Jay Williams was sitting on his front steps. Her other friends, Bob and Charlie, were already there waiting for Ash. 

This was going to be even better than last year. Now that they were all twelve, they could walk as far as Sunset Street all by themselves. Besides, they had sat together at lunch for the past week and planned where to trick-or-treat. 

They were right about to cross the street when another kid in a ninja costume came running up to them, slightly weighed down by two bags. He must have been expecting a lot of candy.

“I’m Pete!” he panted. “I just moved into a house on Clarence Avenue last month, and I don’t have any friends to trick-or-treat with. My mom told me about you guys, and said that I could join you if you say I could.”

 Ash looked at Jay with a look that clearly said, “No way!” This was their thing, not an invite-yourself-to-join group. But Charlie and Pete were already chatting, and when Charlie makes friends, he always wants to include them. Halfheartedly, Ash agreed that Pete could join them, and tried to make friends with him. But boy, was that kid picky. They had spent a whole week planning, but half of the houses they wanted to trick-or-treat at were turned down. And for the silliest reasons too. 

“I don’t like that family’s cat!” 

“Their garden is too small!” 

“They give out candy bags that have pre-picked candy! I want to choose my own!” 

Finally, after 10 minutes of Pete’s whining, Ash totally lost it. You would too if you had to put up with someone like Pete. She pulled Bob and Jay aside, throwing her candy bag hard on the sidewalk, crumbling the small amount of candy she had. “This kid is ruining our Halloween! We planned this for so long! I can’t take it!” 

“Maybe it’s just because he’s new to this neighborhood,” Jay suggested. “Charlie seems to think he’s a good friend.”

 “Charlie could make good friends with a mosquito!” Ash exclaimed, getting even more frustrated now. “Maybe we can get Pete lost somewhere and trick-or-treat by ourselves! He’s new, he won’t know the way home.” 

Jay frowned. “I know you don’t like him Ash, but that’s pretty mean.” 

“Then what will we do?” Ash asked. “Don’t you want to get any candy this Halloween?”

Bob, who had been quiet this whole time, piped up, “Why don’t we go along with whatever he wants for now, and when he leaves, we can do what we were planning to do in the first place.” 

Jay seemed to like the idea, and Ash agreed, even though she’d much rather kick Pete out.

While Ash tried to change her attitude, it seemed like Pete was trying to change his. At least now he was saying yes to a few more houses, but he still spent extra time carefully choosing his candy, while Ash tried hard not to scream waiting on the sidewalk.

Finally, Pete decided to end his night and go home, as the other kids got their parents so they could go past Sunset Street. They were definitely having more fun now, but having their parents carefully watch their every move, sucked some joy out of it.

At 7:00 pm, it was time for all of them to go home, eat dinner, and go to bed. Usually, Ash had a lot to say, but on her way home, she was totally silent.                                                            

Still mentally complaining, Ash gulped down her dinner and did some homework before going to bed. She stared out her bedroom window and thought about what they would do about Pete next year. She waved to Mr. Chen, but he didn’t see her. He was quickly getting into his car, a shiny gold paper fell out of his pocket. The sight of the candy wrapper did not improve her mood. 

In the morning, Ash bounced out of bed and quickly got ready for school. She was even madder now since she’d had a nightmare of Pete stealing her candy. Then she ran out to her front yard, where Jay’s dad’s car was waiting. The two of them used to ride the bus, but Jay had gotten the idea that if everyone stopped using the bus and used earth-friendly options like biking and walking, the school would shut down the buses (and maybe even shut down the school too, if no one could get there). Ash didn’t think that Jay’s idea would work. However, she liked carpooling better because the bus was filled with kids monkeying around and screaming. 

Anyway, back to the story.                                          

Ash climbed into the car, looking at a newspaper in Jay’s hand. Jay had a habit of reading the newspaper in the car, and Ash liked to read along, to see if anything interesting happened.                                   

“Half of the houses in our neighborhood were robbed last night,” Jay said.

 “A crime happens every day in this town,” Ash shrugged. The radio station was always yapping about some theft or something. “The police will track down whoever did it. I still can’t believe that Pete! I already had to share candy with my sisters, and they took all of those huge shiny gold-wrapped ones with extra chocolate!” 

“I wasn’t allowed to eat those either,” Jay said. “They are loaded with sugar, so my parents said I should give them away.”

After discussing candy, Ash proceeded to complain about Pete but stopped when she finally saw she was getting on Jay’s nerves. 

School that day was pretty much uneventful, except for a math pop quiz that Ash was sure she had failed. But all anybody was talking about was the robberies. No one wanted to do anything fun.

After school, Ash went home, grabbed a snack, and headed over to Jay’s.

…

Bang! Bang! Ash pounded the door. Neither Jay nor his parents answered. She was just about to leave, when she heard a creaking sound, and saw Jay standing in the doorway.

“Sorry, I didn’t hear you from the backyard. I’ve been doing some work in the shed!” He grinned.  “I had a great idea! Want to hear it?” Jay dragged her towards the garden shed.  “I got the idea when you said that a crime happens every day here. It got me thinking, maybe we could help solve cases! We could be detectives, and people could hire us, and we could raise money for charity!” 

Of course, Jay would want this to have something to do with charity. But otherwise, Ash thought it was a good idea, and decided to help Jay turn his garden shed into an official-looking detective office. It was hard work, lugging things from place to place and sweeping everything up, but it was worth it. They would have plenty of cases to solve, right?

Wrong. Over the next two days, Ash and Jay tried contacting the police to help them find out who was behind all of the big robberies in the neighborhood. 

But all of the detectives seemed to think it was a joke. They either shooed them away without listening to a word or they sent them to another officer who shooed them away without listening to a word.

After they had been turned down by half the station, they decided that if the police wouldn’t share information with them, they would take it. The plan was all set. Jay would call them in a professional grown-up voice from the detective shed and say that he was a very good detective who would help them with the case.

Punching the numbers into the phone dial, Jay cleared his throat, “Hello? Hello. My name is Detective McFlamethrower. Yes. I am interested, yes. I have 12 years of life experience. No. Yes. Thank you.” 

Then, Jay paused, and Ash guessed he was listening to the person on the other end of the phone, talk. That life experience thing was the perfect line. It wasn’t really a lie, Jay had been alive for 12 years, and he had lots of experience with life.

  “No!” Jay exclaimed. “Oh, yes, I can explain that. Just a moment.” He covered the phone with his hand and whispered to Ash in a panicked voice, “He’s checking the phone number!” Then he continued talking. “Yes, Williams is my spy name. I know. Wait, wait, wait!” Jay put the phone down, looking disappointed. “Maybe we should quit the detective business,” He said.

“Or maybe, we can start the investigation from scratch. We can ask questions to the people whose houses were robbed and gather some clues. Once we have a good idea about who did it, we can do a little snooping around. Then we tell the police to arrest the thief. They can’t argue with proof. We don’t need the police. We’ll figure it out ourselves.”

 “Alright…” Jay looked doubtful. “But how are we going to figure out everything the police have found out? They’re more experienced, I don’t think we can figure out things that they haven’t.” 

By now, Ash had gotten all fired up about the detective agency, and she wasn’t about to quit. “Any better ideas?” she asked. It wasn’t like they could read the officers’ minds. 

“Well, no…” Jay admitted. 

“Okay, we’ll go with my plan then,” Ash wheeled out Jay’s whiteboard. She then drew a messy picture of their street and marked red circles for the houses that had been robbed on Halloween night. 

“When I came home from trick-or-treating, I saw a lot of people leaving their houses, and their houses were robbed later,” Jay said. 

“Yeah, I saw Mr. Chen leave his house. Even he got to eat the candy,” Ash said, remembering the golden wrapper. 

“So did Mrs. Andrews,” Jay added.

Ash tapped her chin. She figured that they were missing something, and was about to say more, but her train of thought went flying off the rails when Mrs. Williams, Jay’s mom, stuck her head into the shed door and told Ash that her mom was calling. While walking back home, Ash realized she had spent more time at Jay’s than she had thought and figured it was now dinner time.

When Ash entered her house, she washed her hands and sat down to eat her food. Tomorrow, they would go and ask questions to all of the people whose houses were robbed.

She was in the middle of an interesting thought when her older sister April came running into the room. For dessert, April grabbed a big shiny gold chocolate bar. When April went back to her room, Ash’s mom reminded Ash to do her homework. Grumbling, Ash pulled the crumpled worksheet from her bag and stumbled to her room to do it. 

She didn’t though, but it wasn’t exactly her fault. It took about ten minutes to find a pencil, but when she finally sat down to start, she remembered that she’d forgotten to take out the trash. So she did that. Then, she grabbed a snack from the kitchen. When she got back to her desk, she got distracted again. 

From the corner of her eye, she saw April rushing past the room, crying and complaining about a stomach ache. Ash rolled her eyes. What a whiner. A stomach ache didn’t require so many tears unless your appendix burst or something. Right after the sounds of running feet,  Ash could also hear throwing-up noises coming from the bathroom. 

…

After school, Ash and Jay grabbed their notebooks and pencils and went to do a little bit of poking around, instead of playing sports like they normally did.

First stop was Mr. Chen’s house. Jay’s job was to knock on his door and bring him into the office for an interrogation. Ash’s job was to ask the important questions.

They had done a professional job of setting everything up for the interrogation. They had even remembered to shine a light they had taken from Mr. Williams’ desk in Mr. Chen’s face, like on most crime shows they watched. 

Mr. Chen sat in the chair, even though it was too small for him, and looked around at the boxes and evidence bags they had created. (in case you’re thinking it looked like a normal shed, it actually looked very professional).

Too bad Mr. Chen thought it was a joke. “Good one!” he chuckled. You know, it’s almost like when I talked to the police when my house was robbed. We had insurance, so it wasn’t that big a deal. The only problem that couldn’t be solved is that Tim ate some bad candy and got a stomach bug. Those shiny gold ones, you kn-”

“How very, very interesting,” Ash interrupted in her best grown-up-police voice. “Mr. Chen, if that is your real name, what exactly was stolen?”

“Just a bit of money,” Mr. Chen shrugged. 

“And how do we know you aren’t a suspect?” Ash shone the light in Mr. Chen’s face, hoping he’d get scared. 

Mr. Chen squinted at the light. “Look, can I go home now?”

…

Ash and Jay admitted that it had been a bit foolish to accuse Mr. Chen of robbing his own house (it could have been for insurance fraud, but it was still silly). But they weren’t getting anywhere.

After Jay took charge of asking the questions to the people they were interrogating, they got a few more clues. They realized that everyone who had been robbed left their house to go to a doctor because someone got sick. Also, people who got sick ate the gold chocolate bars, including April, Ash’s sister.

The two of them stood in front of the big whiteboard, and Jay wrote down all the clues. 

• People ate candy
• People got sick and went to see a doctor
• While people were at the doctor’s, their houses got robbed
• Candy made you sick?
• Candy and robbery connected?

Jay decided that they would ask around the neighborhood and find out who gave out those gold chocolate bars.

The strangest thing was, they found that no one gave out that gold-wrapped candy. Ash had even brought some from her sisters’ stash to show, but no one recognized it.

…

“Then, how did people get that candy?” They were walking home now, and both of them were very confused. 

“Maybe someone put it in people’s bags before the kids came trick-or-treating?” Ash suggested. “Maybe whoever did it wanted to make people sick!”

“Yeah!” Jay nodded. “But how would they do that? After the box with candy to give out was all set up, no one would really have the chance to mess around with it. Unless…it was a trick-or-treater.”

“Hmm…” Ash thought. “Ooh! Maybe it was Pete! He was hanging back and picking candy out when we were all on the sidewalk! He would have the chance to do it.”

“Really, Ash, isn’t that kind of harsh?” Jay accused. 

“Think about it!” Ash explained. “He was carrying two bags on Halloween, but he only filled up one with trick-or-treating candy. Maybe the other one was full of throw-up bars! He might have swapped some normal candy for other ones that make kids sick. Maybe, Pete was even working with the thief! With all of the people at the doctor’s, no one would be home, and their houses could be robbed more easily!”

“I guess so…” Jay considered (Even though he thought it was impossible for such a tiny kid with such a squeaky voice to be a prankster, let alone a thief). Then he checked his watch. “I’ve got to go home for dinner. See you tomorrow!” He added, dashing off.

…

Ash normally didn’t really care for those grown-up programs on TV, but that night, she watched the news to see how far the detectives from the police station had gotten on the robberies.

They played some footage from Halloween night that had been recorded by CCTV cameras. It showed a kid-sized figure in a black outfit that looked like a ninja’s (just like Pete) sneaking around.

Okay, now Ash was definitely suspicious. The next day, she would bike over to Pete’s supposed house and catch him. Catching a crook! She was sure that it would be awesome. She could imagine the news headlines now. Kid Named Ash Stops Thief! Kid is a hero! Thief Busted By Kid! Oh yeah, thief busted by kids. Jay too.

The next day, Ash wheeled her bike out of the bike shed and went to confront Pete, or whatever his crook name was. It took a while, but finally, she found the house that Pete lived in.

And when he saw Ash, his eyes widened like full moons, and guess what? 

He ran away. How rude!

And then? He got in a big blue truck, and started driving! Pete was a grown-up!?!? 

What a plot twist. And here you thought he was some annoying 12-year-old.

After she got over the shock, Ash pushed off the kickstand of her bike and started biking after the big truck Pete had driven away in. She chased Pete around the park, before falling behind when Pete sped up. 

She pedaled harder but still couldn’t see the big blue truck. If she were a thief, she would go somewhere crowded, so no one would easily see her. If Pete was like that, he would probably be headed towards the farmers’ market, where there was always a big crowd. She decided to take a shortcut, looking ahead of her carefully, as her mom always told her to do when crossing the street. 

On the way, she passed Jay’s house, and had just enough time to yell, “Pete’s in a big blue truck! He is a thief! Grab your bike and let’s get-” before Jay was out of hearing range. 

Jay must have gotten his bike and pedaled very quickly after her because he caught up with her, and the two of them turned the corner. 

“Wow, I can’t believe Pete can drive!” Jay yelled.

“Believe it,” Ash said smugly. “I was right!” 

Jay rolled his eyes, and they started to pedal harder. They pedaled past the candy store, past Target, and past grumpy old Sam’s house (grumpy old Sam wasn’t really old, but grumpy Sam doesn’t sound as good, so the neighborhood kids added an extra word).

When they turned right, they could see Pete’s truck coming their way. But then he turned right, and Ash and Jay didn’t know where he went. Finally, they could see Pete’s truck on another street and started to pedal after it.

As fast as they could pedal, two kids could never catch up to a truck. But Jay had a realization. 

“That street Pete’s on just loops around back here!” he yelled. “Follow me!” 

And then he did what Ash thought was the worst idea in the world. He got off the bike, leaving it in the middle of the road, and ran to the sidewalk. Ash didn’t know why she did it, but she copied him. And sure enough, Pete’s big truck came zooming back the way Jay said it would. Ash could see Pete in the driver’s seat. She could also see a bald-headed guy in a police uniform making his rounds around the corner.

Like Jay had predicted, Pete hit the brakes, not wanting to crash into the bikes. Ash covered her ears as the tires screeched. But the car crashed into the bikes anyway, and the airbag deployed, stunning Pete. The police officer came running over.

“What’s going on?” He asked. 

“He’s a thief!” Jay exclaimed. “He swapped regular candy for candy that makes kids sick on Halloween, and when kids got sick, they left their houses. With no one home, he and his goons robbed the houses that were empty! That’s why so many houses were robbed on Halloween.”

The officer clearly didn’t believe them, and if there was one thing Ash hated more than dresses and a ruined Halloween, it was when people didn’t listen even when the proof was sitting right in front of their face.

 “Do you need a powerpoint presentation?” she asked. “Or can you just look in the truck to find the stolen loot?”

The officer, still not believing them, came around to the back of the truck, opened it, and took a look inside. Inside the truck, there were piles of money and valuable things, but what stuck out to the officer was a big shiny medal. 

“That medal was on the list of things stolen on Halloween!” He exclaimed, finally starting to believe Jay and Ash.

The officer checked Pete’s pockets and found his driver’s license. He immediately recognized the name. Apparently, Pete was wanted for a lot of crimes. The officer quickly cuffed him and took him to the police station.

A few days later, Jay was reading the newspaper in the car, and in big bold letters, the headline read: Thief Busted by Kids! Just like Ash predicted. Case closed.