Diary of a Junior Detective/ Ben Baxter's Private Diary , livre ebook

Austin Macauley Publishers - Richard Skinner

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92 pages

English

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It's Ben Baxter's 11th birthday, and he is particularly thrilled by one of his presents. An aunt has given him The Junior Detective Manual by Ricky Barton. He dips into it and decides he would definitely like to become a detective. His pal Johnny agrees to help. They decide: what could be easier than becoming store detectives? They enter a large store and start looking for possible thieves, catching the eye of the resident store detective who is convinced they are up to no good. Luckily, after a ride home in a police car and some friendly advice from a police officer, they have much greater success in solving several puzzling crimes. In this they are helped by Ben's sister Katie, a retired Major, Ben's rather odd uncle, who is an electronics wizard, and especially by his unusual pet Chippy, who certainly helps rescue them from more than a few scrapes.

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Publié par	Austin Macauley Publishers
Date de parution	31 janvier 2018
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781528916233
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

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The Diary of a Junior Detective
Ben Baxter’s Private Diary
Richard Skinner
Austin Macauley Publishers
2018-01-31
The Diary of a Junior Detective About the Author Dedication Copyright Information Acknowledgements Friday, 2nd July Saturday, 3rd July Sunday, 4th July Monday, 5th July Tuesday, 6th July Wednesday, 7th July Thursday, 8th July Friday, 9th July Saturday, 10th July Sunday, 11th July Monday, 12th July Tuesday, 13th July Wednesday, 14th July Thursday, 15th July Friday, 16th July Saturday, 17th July Sunday, 18th July Monday, 19th July Tuesday, 20th July Wednesday, 21st July Thursday, 22nd July Friday, 23rd July Saturday, 24th July Sunday, 25th July Monday, 26th July Tuesday, 27th July Wednesday, 28th July Thursday, 29th July Friday, 30th July Saturday, 31st July Sunday, 1st August Sunday, 1st August (continued) Monday, 2nd August Tuesday, 3rd August Wednesday, 4th August Thursday, 5th August Friday, 6th August Saturday, 7th August Sunday, 8th August Monday, 9th August Tuesday, 10th–Friday, 13th August Saturday, 14th August Sunday, 15th August
About the Author
The author was born in India, to missionary parents. He attended school at Eltham College and obtained degrees at Newcastle University and Imperial College, London.
He has worked in various parts of England and Wales as an environmental and farming consultant. He is married with three sons and has two grandchildren. His hobbies include reading, painting, gardening and playing the saxophone.
Dedication
For Darby and Daniel
Copyright Information
Copyright © Richard Skinner (2018)
The right of Richard Skinner to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781788231510 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781788231527 (Hardback)
ISBN 9781788231534 (E-Book)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2018)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd.
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Acknowledgements
Thanks go to my wife and sons, who have helped and encouraged me in the writing of this book. Thanks also go to my grandchildren, who are roughly the same ages as Ben and Katie; they avidly read the text and suggested some useful additions. Finally, thanks also go to Nessie Wallace for reading the script and her constructive suggestions.
Friday, 2nd July

bens diary SM
It’s my eleventh birthday today. Had to go to school, worse luck, but I’m now back home and things are looking up.
My sister Katie has just given me this bumper-sized diary as a present. She’s thirteen and a half and can be rather bossy. She said that keeping a diary would help improve my handwriting and English and in any case, it was a spare one which she had been given last Christmas. I think she’s a bit mean, not spending any of her pocket money on a present for me.
However, I got a really awesome book from my Auntie Maudie. It’s called The Junior Detective Manual by Ricky Barton. Wicked! I have started reading bits of it and have decided that I want to be a detective and track down ‘baddies’. I think I will have a go at being a store detective first, as it looks pretty easy. Perhaps I could get a holiday job doing it this summer.
My mum gave me a mobile phone; it’s what I’ve been wanting for ages. It will be useful if I spot any burglars breaking into houses or cars. I can dial 999 and call the police. I can also use it to take photos of suspicious people.
My sister has just come into my bedroom and has given me a bar of chocolate. She said that she had planned to give it to me all along and was just winding me up by giving me an old diary. She told me that I didn’t need to fill it in if I didn’t want to. Well, I told her that I had already started writing in it and was quite enjoying it and that she could have her chocolate back. It would help her keep her weight up! She stomped out of my room, saying she was not overweight for her age and if it had not been my birthday, she would have pulled my hair! At least, she left the chocolate behind, so I am going to stop writing and eat it before she decides to return and grab it back. She’s like that! Chippy might like a bit. I will write a bit about him when I get more time. He will make a good detective’s mate.
There is also my best friend, Johnny. He lives next door-but-one and might like to be my assistant. Detectives always seem to have someone helping them. He’s often calling me ‘defective’. In fact, this is his favourite rude name at present. Well, now he can help me be a detective !
Saturday, 3rd July

woodworths SM
I had a rather busy day today. I met a bearded lady and had a ride in a police car, which was good fun!
As I had to go to school on my birthday, my mum asked me if I wanted to do anything exciting as a special birthday treat today, it being Saturday.
I said that I would just like to visit the shops and buy the model aeroplane kit which I have had my eye on for a while. Granny A (the A is short for Acres) and Uncle David, who lives with her, gave me some money for my birthday.
I also wanted to go to Woodworths our local general store. It used to be called Woolworths and they sell practically everything from sweets to clothing and music. Nothing costs more than five pounds. I thought this would be an ideal shop in which to practise being a store detective, but I didn’t tell my mum that!
I have been reading how to do it in my Ricky Barton manual. He advises the would-be store detective to remain as inconspicuous as possible and watch out for strange-looking people with shifty eyes. He says that, typically, the shoplifter is someone who carries a large bag or wears baggy clothes in which to hide things and does not appear to buy anything.
I called for my friend Johnny and we set off down to the shops. First, we went to the toy shop and I bought the plastic model aeroplane kit I wanted. We then wandered along to Woodworth’s; once inside, we had a look at the toys. I had explained to Johnny earlier about being a detective and asked him if he would like to help.
“Cool!” was his reply and he added that he couldn’t wait to get started.
Well, after gazing at the toys for a while, we split up and started looking out for any strange-looking customers; likely shop-lifters. After about five minutes, I noticed a rather strange woman with short, unevenly cut, tomato-red hair. She was wearing a rather scruffy, oversized fawn mac and heavy black boots and was carrying a large green shopping bag. She didn’t seem to be doing much shopping.
Twice, I nearly walked straight into her, as I rounded the corner of an aisle. Both times, she gave me a very funny stare. I found Johnny and he said he had also noticed the same odd-looking woman. He also told me in rather a loud whisper that she had a bit of a beard. We went round the store together after that. The sweets looked rather nice and we were just deciding which sweets looked the tastiest when the strange lady came up behind us suddenly and shouted, “You’re nicked!”
It turned out that she was a store detective and had been watching us for the last ten minutes! We were marched off to the manager’s office as suspect shoplifters ourselves! Of course, we protested that we were not shop lifting, but the detective insisted that we had been eating their sweets. Johnny did have a sweet in his mouth, so the police were called. A policeman arrived shortly afterwards and I explained all about having this book by Ricky Barton for my birthday and that we were just practising being store detectives.
The policeman gave us a stern look and asked Johnny about the sweet he had been eating. Johnny explained that he had had a packet of wine gums with him before he went into the store. The policeman asked us to turn out our pockets. Johnny’s half-eaten packet of wine gums was found. It was of a type not sold by Woodworths so he was in the clear. Otherwise, nothing more was found on us apart from a few coins, a piece of rather sticky string (that was Johnny’s) and my lucky acorn. So, he decided we were innocent, much to the annoyance of the now rather grumpy store detective.
He told the manager and store detective that he would drive us home and have a few words with us about this sort of behaviour on the way. So that’s how Johnny and I came to have a ride in a police car.
The policeman was really very kind. On our way home, he said that his name was Mark and asked me about my detective book. He warned us that we should not try being store detectives without first asking permission from the store manager and that in any case, we were a bit young at present for that type of work.
He suggested that if we really wanted to help catch villains, what we could do was to join our local neighbourhood watch group. He also suggested we might keep a notebook and write down the details of any suspicious cars or people we saw. He told us to be careful when taking photos of people, because they don’t always like it and it makes it rather too obvious that they are being watched. He said if we did want to photograph people, we should practise ‘shooting from the hip’, this makes it much less obvious.
Johnny clapped his hands excitedly and repeated the words ‘shooting from the hip’ two or three times. Mark gave him a funny look.
Mark said, “If you need any help or find any possible wrong-doers, you can phone me on this numbe