The Case of the Time-Capsule Bandit by Octavia Spencer

From now on, please visit one of these businesses whenever you want a few freshly cut flowers. Since you’re new to the neighborhood, you might not be aware that there are many fine florists within a few blocks of your home. on the morning of June 15th, you were photographed stealing tulips from a garden on Bergen Street. Then she typed out a note on her computer.Īt 6:10 a.m. She folded the pictures and stuffed them into an envelope. Finally, Randi had proof.Īnother case closed. However, until now, the evidence against him had been circumstantial. Front-yard flowers had been disappearing every morning since the man and his family had moved into the neighborhood. He’d been her prime suspect for quite some time. The man in the pictures lived three blocks away. Randi downloaded the photos onto her computer and printed out a few of the best. How many old ladies have woken up to find their pansies plucked and their rosebushes ransacked? How many kids won’t get to enjoy the first flowers they ever helped plant? How many lives have you made a little less beautiful? All because you’re too cheap to buy your flowers from a florist. How many gardens have you destroyed? she thought.

The only thing left behind were a hole in the ground and a sprinkling of soil on the sidewalk. The pretty pink tulips she’d planted as bait in front of her house had been ripped up at the roots. And when the pair hurried off around the corner, she zoomed in for a close-up of the mess that the dastardly villains had left behind. Randi snapped several photos of the man and a few more of his prissy white Pekingese. She’d been on a stakeout for over an hour, never budging from her post while she waited for the man to show up with his dog. Most of Randi’s Brooklyn neighbors were still snuggled up in their beds, but Randi had gotten up at the crack of dawn, just as she had for the past three days. Now smile real big for the camera.ĭown on the sidewalk, three stories below her bedroom window, the man in the navy suit checked over his shoulder to make sure no one was watching.

The Case of the Time-Capsule Bandit by Octavia Spencer