12 lines · 129 words · 1:01 read aloud
Diamonds gone from a locked room, and one guard with clean boots
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Rain all night. By morning, the diamonds were gone from a locked room.
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Detective Rosa Kane had three people with a reason, and a key.
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The nephew. Broke, and not hiding it.
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The cleaner. Twenty years in the shop, and a key on her ring.
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And the night guard, who found the room empty and called it in.
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Outside, the mud was ankle deep.
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The nephew and the cleaner had just walked in through it. Their boots were caked.
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The guard's boots were spotless.
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He swore no one came in all night, and he never left the building. Rosa believed him.
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Because if no one came in, no one took the diamonds out.
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She unscrewed his thermos. Under the coffee, something glittered.
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Case closed. The coffee was cold anyway.
