Gumshoe Gus: The Case of the Missing Christmas Ornament

Three weeks before Christmas, my usual mailman Mel delivered an unexpected letter to me. When Mel hands you a letter, it’s accompanied by a crooked smirk on his face as if he knows all the secrets hidden in the envelope.

My name is Gustavo Gottem, better known as Gumshoe Gus, a private eye in a one-horse town named Lone Pony. I was counting snowflakes as they hit my office window when Mel arrived with my mail.

He sat down opposite of me, still smirking, resting his elbows on my desk with his hands supporting his head. His eyes kept looking at the mail, which gave away that he was hoping I would open it in front of him. 

The envelope had no return address, but my address was written in calligraphy. Only one person in Lone Pony has that artistic handiwork: Kitty LaCoocoo, the community organizer for town events.

“Mighty fine writing on this thing. What’s the letter say?” Mel asked, with a raised eyebrow.

“I’ve been invited to a ‘Christmas Caper Mystery Competition’,” I said, turning the letter over and checking its backside before perusing Kitty’s handwriting again. Apparently they’ve lost our municipality’s oldest ornament. She’s assembling a team of the top private detectives within a fifty mile radius to locate it. 

Both of Mel’s eyebrows went up now, and his eyes widened. “Lost the ornament! Well of course you have to look now, don’t you?”

My caseload being light, I RSVP’d I would attend, especially since I knew Misty Meanor would be there. Misty is my female competition two towns over. She’d had a good year in her career of case solving, but not as good as mine, of course.

Mel took my response letter and shuffled out of my office, wishing good tidings to me. I waved him out, then leaned back in my desk chair to think.

I knew all about Lone Pony’s oldest ornament. Ornate and deep blue, the small hanging globe had a special sheen that caused it to glitter as it rotated. One of the town’s founders owned it, but everyone acknowledged that it was an item to behold. 

Finding it would be quite a feather in my fedora, but where to locate it? That was for me to find out — to turn question marks in mysteries into exclamation points in solutions.

The meet-up place that weekend was at the Lone Pony Community Center, a building that reeked of one hundred years of musty odor — I’d heard some of my fellow townsfolk describe that stench as ‘welcoming’. I thought it was a dump, but I have to admit the plumbing in the bathroom stalls was five-stars, even with the rattling pipes.

I slushed along the three-block walk through the snow and as I entered the colorful, holiday-lit building, I saw a sea of crime solvers and event staff mingling with each other. Misty glared at me from within the crowd, and I glared back. I surveyed the room as Kitty rushed up to greet me.

“Hiya, Gumshoe, it looks like the competition is stiff in solving this mystery,” she commented, with a gentle elbow to my midsection.

“I like my chances,” I said with a snicker, glancing once more at the collection of sleuths.

Sheriff Cherub stepped up to the dais, arms raised high to draw attention. The room quieted.

“Sleuths and Sleuthettes, welcome to the first annual Christmas Caper Mystery Competition. As you know, Lone Pony’s oldest ornament has gone missing, and must be found! The first detective to find the illustrious item wins the event. This room contains all the clues you need. The church bells will chime when the case is solved. Good luck!”

My competitors and I scanned the room. 

A crossing sign hung from the rafters and a toy locomotive sat on a shelf. A kid was rearranging Scrabble tiles on a table. I flipped through a few “How To” books that were stacked on another table: How to Write Calligraphy, How to Collect Stamps, Organizing Your Space Like a Pro, and others. The books sat alongside a number of letters sticking out of envelopes.

“The train station has a mail box inside,” Misty Meanor exclaimed. “If it’s there, I win!” She dashed off into the dusky night to her destination. I rolled my eyes.

“Nonsense!” howled Sammy the Sleuth, pointing to the crossing sign. “There is a train set with a miniature crossing sign at the toy store. If it is there, I will be Lone Pony’s Sherlock Holmes.” Sammy scurried off in that direction.

Other private eyes scattered in different directions hoping to find the town’s Holy Grail.

I scanned the room one more time. The boy was rearranging two M’s, an L, an N, and a few vowels. Calligraphy. Collecting Stamps. Things were starting to come together.

The post office was too obvious. Still, the calligraphy book led me back to Mel — hadn’t he expressed interest in Kitty’s handwriting? And his name could be spelled out in the Scrabble tiles the boy was playing with.

I pieced together Mel’s name with the tiles and studied the ones that were left. I discovered the remaining tiles spelled out the name of Mel’s wife, Mina, who worked at the library.

“Kitty, what intersection is the library at?” I asked, eyeing the crossing sign and noticing Sheriff Cherub leaning in closer to be within earshot.

“On the corner of Main and Elm,” she answered.

My eyes widened as I focused back on the tiles and discovered that Mina and Mel, rearranged, also spelled Main and Elm. I filed that bit of reasoning under brilliant deduction number five-hundred and seventy-three.

I grabbed the books and rushed off to the library on foot with Kitty and the sheriff in tow. I still needed to locate the ornament inside, but I had an inkling of where to look.

I threw open the library door and strode toward Mina’s desk. I dropped the books onto it and asked her to lead me to the “How To” section.

Kitty listened, her head tilted to one side. “Why the ‘How To’ section?” she asked.

I waved a hand towards the books I’d brought back. “These are all due back today,” I said. “Pretty major clue, I’d say. Why not check out a few more?” 

Mina led me across the library to the long “How To” section and scanned the available books. I plucked the How To Solve a Good Mystery book off the shelf, opened it, and found the ornament nestled inside a makeshift pocket as cozy as a swaddled baby.

“Gumshoe Gus does it again!” cheered Kitty, with an agreeable nod from Sheriff Cherub.

The church bells chimed. The Christmas Caper Mystery was solved, and all was well once again in the one-horse town called Lone Pony.

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