Avni is 10 years old and loves to writes mystery. Her hobbies include: fencing, swimming, dancing, singing, acting, and skating.
“It was Wednesday, December 1941 in London, England. The police and detectives were arriving to the Maplerose Mansion. Charlotte Maplerose had gone missing. But this wasn’t the main problem; this was the 5th Maplerose reported missing in the past months.”
It was Wednesday, December 1941 in London, England. The police and detectives were arriving to the Maplerose Mansion. Charlotte Maplerose had gone missing. But this wasn’t the main problem; this was the 5th Maplerose reported missing in the past months. This was on the headlines of newspapers. People were starting to think the Maplerose family was cursed or that their mansion was haunted.
The Maplerose manson was a beautiful piece of architecture. So beautiful that it rivaled that of the royals.
The Maplerose children were very, very spoiled, and very bratty.
All the Mapleroses were obnoxious people, and not many people liked them in town. So that increased the chances of people wanting to kidnap them.
If you entered the mansion at this time, you would find all of the Maplerose family crowded around the yellow crime scene tape that was marking the possible areas of where the kidnapper was, all of the children either scared or trying to figure out the mystery themselves. The mother of Charlotte whose name was Lilly would likely be weeping in her chair with almost all the Maplerose women crowding around her trying to calm her down, while most of the men were trying to get their search teams to look for all 5 of the missing Maplerose children. The father of Charlotte was yelling at the detectives and telling them to find his daughter. The detectives and police were running around trying to find clues and trying to get a sense of the house.
The Maplerose mansion at this time is complete chaos. After a while, the detectives had gathered some suspects in the Maplerose family. Before the detectives gathered their suspects, there were 3 Mapleroses who had excuses for not being there. Each of them were the outcasts of the family. The reason for the disappearances was not known. The detectives don’t know if someone kidnapped the kids or if the kids were running away and asking for money.
The first kid who disappeared was Elliot Maplerose, and he was 3 years old. The second kid who disappeared was April Maplerose; she was 8. The third kid who disappeared was Eden Maplerose, and she was 10. The fourth kid was Tom Maplerose and he was 15, and the fifth one, Charlotte Maplerose, the oldest, was 17.
All of these kids had disappeared with no notice at the dead of night and nobody knew how or why.
Each of the suspects didn’t live in the family mansion and rarely showed up to family events. They are: Arnold Maplerose. This retired army veteran always stayed in his house and rarely made appearances during the day, but people have reported him creeping and sneaking around the Maplerose mansion though he did not live there. Next is Beatrice Maplerose. To some people who were not in the family, she was accused of being a witch and doing witchcraft. And the last suspect, Geronimo Maplerose. This man was a little more out of the shadows than the others. This creep of a man had a rat shop. A shop from which you could buy real dead rats. I know, disgusting. But this man never talked to the Mapleroses because he was delusional, thinking he did not know them even though he was one of the uncles.
Once the police had interrogated each one, they rounded it up to one major family suspect: Arnold Maplerose. Why would he be in the dead of night circling the mansion? After all, the disappearances happened only at night.
But now it’s time for suspects that are outside the family. The police had gathered 3 suspects, just like before. The first suspect is Kristi Elezabeth. This woman was Charlotte’s mother’s best friend. But she was always jealous of her. Jealous of her husband, her house, and her happiness. Next is Cady Johnson. This lady was Charlotte’s dads ex-wife. She hated the Mapleroses because they supported the fact that they got a divorce, since everyone thought she was crazy. Lastly, there’s Morgan Marshalls. She collected vintage dolls and lived in a small wooden cottage. She was known as creepy doll lady to everyone. Also whenever she saw the Maplerose children, she would always say “Oh, how I wish I could just kidnap them!” and then laugh. Out of process of elimination, it was down to Arnold Maplerose and Cady Johnson. So the police interviewed them again. First, Cady Johnson.
“Where were you on the night of Wednesday, December 31st 1941?”
“Sir I was at home watching television in bed with my cats and eating dinner.” Cady replied.
“Was anyone with you at home?”
“Do cats count?’’
“No ma’am.”
“Ok, then no.”
Now it was time for Arnold’s interview.
“Where were you on the night of Wednesday 31st 1941?”
“Sir, I was about to visit my family, but I had decided at the last moment that it was for the
best if I didn’t show up with all the stress of the disappearances that I would just add on to their troubles.’’
“Why were you trying to pull open the back door at 1 a.m. in the morning?”
“Sir I was making sure it was closed! I would never want to harm my family in any way
even though I had rope in my hands.”
From what the police heard, they charged Arnold guilty. Although they still hadn’t found the kids yet. They charged Arnold 20 years in prison for kidnapping.
But after 4 months of Arnold being in jail, another disappearance had happened! Police were shocked. If Arnold was in jail, then how could there still be kids disappearing? Something was not right. If Arnold was not the kidnapper, then who was? They had to know the truth. So they handcuffed Arnold and asked questions.
“What do you know?’’ they shouted at him like they were in despair.
“Nothing,” said Arnold calmly. “All I know is that it was not me. They are my family; I
would never.’’
“What do you know?’’ The police asked again, this time with more frustration.
“Ok, if you really want to know I’m part of a secret agency who’s looking for these kids.
We have been trying to track this person, but all the information we have is from the cameras we set up, so we can track them and one thing I’ll tell you is that it’s not one that you would suspect. Tomorrow at the break of dawn in the rottweiler cave. I’ll see you there, don’t be late. Oh, and get this rope off me.’’
The next morning, the police went to the cave 5 minutes before dawn. But where was Arnold?
“Guys,” said a whispered voice. The police jumped back with their guns ready.
“Arnold, don’t do that!” yelled the police officer.
“Come with me,” said Arnold, leading them into the cave. He led them underground to the secret lair that he had.
“This is my lair. My team and I work here.”
They sat down and Arnold pulled out a VCR and played it. It was the security cameras for the Maplerose mansion. It was of a man carrying Charlotte outside, but something was not right. Charlotte was not doing anything. Not screaming, nothing.
“We suspect that the Mapleroses are just trying to get publicity out of this, because a regular person would scream or at least fight back if they were being kidnapped. So this is very strange. Plus her eyes are open and there both talking to each other.”
The police got up after watching about 5 camera videos. They were about to leave when Arnold screamed at the top of his lungs and yelled for the police to come see another video. It showed the kidnapper taking Charlotte just like in the video before, but this one was longer. After about 1 minute of the kidnapper and Charlotte disappearing out of the frame, the kidnapper came back with Charlotte. He opened the cellar door and threw her in there.
“That means the kids are in the house, they’re in the cellar!” Arnold said, while coming to realization about what was happening. But the video continued.
After it showed Charlotte going into the cellar, it showed the kidnapper locking the doors of the cellar and starting to walk away. Then he reached for his mask and pulled it off halfway, but then the camera froze.
“Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!” screeched Arnold and the police officers.
“We were so close!” said Arnold. “But we do know where the kids are. Call all of your troops to come we are going to check if they truly are in the cellar.” Then Arnold shut of the lights in his cave and left.
The police and Arnold met up once again but right in front of the cellar door.
“This is the moment of truth,” said Arnold. “In 3… 2…1!’’
The police broke the door open. When you think of a cellar you think a dark, dusty, gloomy and creepy place, but this one was different. It was a beautiful floor with tea sets, expensive beds, and rugs. It even had a bathroom and private bedrooms. And when they got in there, right in front of them were 5 wide-eyed children staring at them. “Listen, we are not here to hurt you but who is responsible for ‘kidnapping’ you because that’s what not what it seems?”
Not one of the kids spoke except for the youngest one, Elliot. “It was Daddy. He said he wanted more money so when the detectives and police can’t find us, he will sue them for money.”
The police were shocked. And all the other children were trying to tell Elliot to stop talking. The police told the children to come with them and then they busted the mansion’s front door open and arrested Liam Maplerose (the dad) for faking a kidnapping for money and fraud. Once Liam was arrested and fined, the whole Maplerose family got kicked out of London and had to live in a small apartment in Fiji and had to work day and night to make money. And as for Arnold, well he got to keep the mansion, and he got a job at the detective agency.
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