National Adult Literacy Database

April 01, 2002

The following "murder mystery" was written by a class in Sydney, Nova Scotia. The story was brainstormed by the whole Cape Breton Literacy Network NorthSide Day Class. They developed the characters, setting, plot and one of the students, Pauline LeMoine wrote the story.

Murder at the NorthSide Day Class

by the NorthSide Day Class

It was a Tuesday, a cold and blistery day in January. Mrs. Punctuation arrived at the NorthSide Day Class as usual around 8:30 a.m. Everything seemed normal. The lights were on and the door unlocked. Great, she thought. Mr. Protractor is here before me. I hope he has his own photocopying done! "Good morning," she calls out. No response. Her voice echoes through the large building. Behind her a voice hollers out,

"Good morning, where's Mr. P?" (Mrs. Punctuation faints.) As Bobby Thunder reaches down to help Mrs. Punctuation up off of the floor they see something dripping through the ceiling. Mrs. Punctuation looked in horror. "That looks like blood," she said to Bobby Thunder. "No! It couldn't be," he replied with confusion in his eyes. "Its probably paint spilt over in the attic from all the wind last night." Then he dashed out the door.

Mrs. Punctuation walked over to the red pool on the floor, there was more still dripping from the ceiling. She thought it doesn't smell like paint and it looks too thin for paint. So she walked up the two sets of stairs leading to the attic. As she slowly walked in she looked around, it was so gloomy and dusty she could barely see.

Suddenly Mrs. Punctuation tripped over something. When she looked down to see what it was she let out a shrieking scream. There was a blood soaked hammer buried inside the skull of Mr. Protractor. He was sitting in a huge pool of blood. Mrs. Punctuation ran down the stairs and called the police.

Once the police arrived they secured the building with yellow tape. They went up to the attic, took pictures, they put the hammer in a plastic bag and took Mr. Protractor to the morgue.

"I'll need to ask you some questions, Ma'am. So please stick around!" said the officer to Mrs. Punctuation.

As Mrs. Punctuation tried to contain herself the Big Khuana and the Little Khuana burst inside the doors. "What's going on here? Why are there so many police here?" the Khunanas screamed. Before Mrs. Punctuation could say anything a big hefty officer rushed over. "I'll have to ask you to leave, this is a crime scene and you could disturb evidence." Big Khuana and Little Khuana walked outside in a daze.

Outside Big Khuana ran into another officer. "What's going on?" she demanded in a panic. "I cannot give out that information until further investigation," the officer replied.

Meanwhile inside the big husky officer bought Mrs. Punctuation a glass of water. "Hi, I'm Officer Doeboy, come in this room with me so I can ask you a few questions, Ma'am." Mrs. P sat in a small chair in the office. "OK, Mrs. Punctuation, I need to know if Mr. Protractor had any enemies," said the officer.

"ENEMIES!" Mrs. Punctuation exclaimed. "No, not that I know of. There was a few people upset with him but I don't think enough to kill him." "Please tell me who and why these people were upset with him," said the officer.

"Well," said Mrs. P, "there was Summer Day. She was upset because he ate her lunch every day. There was Amanda Hugnkiss. Mr. Protractor preformed a science experiment with her and it turned her hair green. There was Bonnie Beeswax. He used to borrow her pencils and chew the ends off. Also, Susie McGillicutty, he borrowed her glasses and now she can't find them."

"Thank you!" the officer said and left the building to find the suspects in the crime. First he went to Summer Day's. She had an alibi; she was at MacDonald's eating lunch at the time of the murder. She didn't want to bring it into school anymore because Mr. Protractor always ate it on her. Next Officer Doeboy went to see Amanda Hugnkiss. She was at the beauty salon getting her hair fixed at the time of the murder. Next he went to see Bonnie Beeswax. She stated that she was at the office supply depot getting new erasers at the time of the murder. Finally he went to see Susie McGillicutty. She verified that she was at the eye doctors getting new glasses at the time.

Just as the officer was leaving Susie's house his cell phone rang. "Officer Doeboy, how can I help you?" he spoke into the phone. It was Mrs. Punctuation and she sounded frantic. "Officer Doeboy, I was so upset I forgot to mention that when I walked into the building this morning I was startled by Bobby Thunder. Come to think of it, he was there before me. I arrived at 8:30 he wasn't supposed to show until 10 a.m. He seemed nervous, and when I noticed the blood he made an excuse of for it saying it was probably paint and left in a hurry."

"Can you think of any reason why Bobby Thunder would want to kill Mr. Protractor?" the officer asked.

"Well, Mr. Protractor did a science experiment on him and took away his thunder and left him with lightening," replied Mrs. Punctuation.

Officer Doeboy raced to Bobby's house. When he knocked on the door, Bobby answered. When he saw the police Bobby tried to run. The police grabbed him and said, "You killed Mr. Protractor, why Bobby, why?"

Bobby Thunder started to shake and yelled, "YES! Yes I did it. He took away my thunder and left me with lightening. I couldn't take the shocks anymore and the smell of my hair burning. I called him this morning at around 7 and told him the photocopying machine was broken and asked him to come in and fix it before Mrs. Punctuation arrived. When he showed up I cornered him and demanded my thunder back and when he objected it stirred up my lightening and I killed him." The police arrested Bobby Thunder and put him in jail. His call was padded with rubber, no more lightening for Bobby.

Everything got back to normal except for Mrs. Punctuation; she had to go to therapy. To this day she has not entered the building where Mr. Protractor was slayed.