One windy day, on Friday, October 13, Detective Angelina J. Fox stepped from the wet doormat into her brownstone house. She yanked off her soaked rain boots and socks. Then, she turned on the TV to Eyewitness News. The broadcaster was saying, “… criminal has robbed the famous Bank of Rockford. So far, no detective has yet to take this daring risk that could completely ruin their reputation. Because this person was seen to have a mask, it is almost impossible to figure out who the criminal is. Who will step up and try to solve the mystery?” Angelina clicked the “off” button on her remote, and the TV suddenly turned pitch black.

“I need to fix this,” Angelina said.

She reached outside, trying not to get any more wet than she already was, and grabbed the drenched newspaper. She then went to the sink and squeezed the newspaper until it was only damp. Most of the words were faded off and unable to be read, but Angelina made out this: Criminal… mask… Bank robbery… James Poundcracker… sleeping on job while bank robbery… fired… wakes up when beeping… calls boss… robbery… who do you think… has a mask… steals from column five… no detective… too risky… who will… to… it.

“If this person is wearing a mask, then there are three people it could be,” she said, trying hard to sound nice. (This is one of the things that she always did.) “One, Zeeky Mosheek, two, Felisha Zevari, or three, the worst of all, Flamingo Joe.” When she said the last name, her hands made fists, and her face started to quiver and get red. “Angelina, snap out of it. This is not who you are,” she said, putting her hands together and forcing a smile. Now, returning to her usual calm, sweet, nice, kind, and pleasant voice, she decided to go to John Roadsboss’ house to say hello.

When she got there, she sat down and said hi. John had someone with him. She tried to look through the black hat that nearly covered his entire face. She looked at him as hard as she could. Her eyes got very thin, to the point where they were smaller than a squint. She tried to guess what this person was like just by looking at him. She saw that he had the Pranganees sacred Dommy on his hand. This meant that he had been to Pranganova. She also saw that there was a mugshot of him in his pocket. He was looking proud of himself when he realized that Angelina noticed the mugshot. The person in the mugshot had a mask on. She was trying to see who it was, but the mask was covering too much of the face. All she could see were the eyes. Who could it be? she pondered.

“What are you doing?” John Roadsboss said to Angelina, surprised. “This is my friend from my old job as a coach. He was the assistant coach, James Poundcracker. He is telling me about the bank robbery at the bank that he works at.”

“Start again!” demanded Angelina.

The next day, Angelina went back into her house to see what the newspaper was saying about the bank robbery. The newspaper said that interviews have been going on with James Poundcracker.

“Mr. Poundcracker, what did you do the night that this happened?”

“I fell asleep and woke up when I heard the siren go off. I rushed over to the criminal and tried to stop him.”

Angelina slammed the newspaper on the floor with all her might. She was full of rage because she hadn’t asked questions about the bank robbery to James Poundcracker while she was there. Her hands were now fists, and her face started to turn red. She was so surprised with herself. She never sounded that way. What could this mean? It was hard to figure out when during the interview, James had only actually answered one question.

Some of these questions were, “What time of day was it when the bank robbery took place?”

“I don’t really remember, but it was at some point in the afternoon.”

“What is your boss’s name?”

“Logan Miller.”

“Do you remember what the criminal was wearing?”

“No.”

She thought for a moment about this. Then, it came to her. She thought about all the quotes that she replaced her words with.

“See the light in others, and pretend that is all you see.”

“If you are not willing to fail, you are not ready to succeed.”

“We can’t change the past or the future. All we can change is the present.”

“Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Til good is better and better is best.”

“Some days, she has no idea how she will do it, but every single day, it still gets done.”

“No beauty shines brighter than that of a good heart.”

She combined all of these thoughts. She had picked out these thoughts from her favorites on her laptop. This person had light in them but is just hiding it. This person will fail, and while being a criminal, it is hard to have a true success. I can’t stop him from doing this. I can just make the present better. This person is not giving in and neither am I, so I need to be better than best. I don’t know what I am doing, but I will get it done. This man has a good heart inside but just won’t show it.

She put all theses pieces together. She thought as hard as she could. Now, it was starting to make sense.

That night, Angelina and two large officers sprinted over to the Bank of Rockford. Angelina burst through the doors with the officers close behind her. She looked around, being very aware of her body. She knew that this case would be hard to solve. She was starting to doubt herself. She didn’t want the same thing that happened last time, when someone took credit for what she did. Her eyes immediately glanced quickly around the whole of the bank. Her eyes were pulled towards the dummy sitting in a chair. Angelina crept closer towards the desk. On the counter of the desk it said, “James Poundcracker.” Now she knew that this was his desk. She crawled through the small space between the desk and the ground. She got in and saw that there was a trapdoor on the wall behind the desk. She also crawled through the small door here. She saw some spider webs in the small area. She went to the end, only to end up back where she started — behind column five. She realized something. James Poundcracker must have replaced himself with a dummy, set off the alarm, and robbed column five. She went back to John Roadsboss because James Poundcracker was sleeping at his place. John had ran into James on the subway, and James told him about who he thought had robbed the bank.

“In my opinion, I think that Zeeky Mosheek robbed the bank. It’s what she is known for.” And John wanted to hear more about his case. “Can I stay at your house? Maybe I can tell you about the bank some more?”

“Sure,” said John.

Angelina soon got there and rushed through the house, almost forgetting it was 1:00 a.m.. She crept up to John’s room and saw something glowing under his pillow. She tiptoed closer to the bed and saw that this wasn’t just any glowy thing. It was a bomb! She rushed towards the pillow and grabbed the bomb and threw it out the window. It exploded immediately when it hit the hill with a boom. She went back down to where James was sleeping in the living room. She tiptoed to the chair (which he was sleeping on) and slowly rolled the chair out of the house. She saw the police officers and showed them the man. They greeted her and thanked her for what she did. There. Angelina J. Fox, woman detective, had done it.

THE END!