Who’s the Culprit?

“Who’s the Culprit?” is one of the outstanding stories of the first biannual International Short Story Contest 2018 written by Yong Kean Loon, Sri KDU Primary School, Malaysia.

Who’s the Culprit?

Shawn and Alex were in their classroom. They were just about to leave. Suddenly Shawn heard someone calling from the corridor.

“Shawn! Alex! Come here!”

Shawn and Alex went to the corridor and saw Mr George standing there miserably.

“You guys are good at solving mysteries, right? I need your help,” said Mr George.

”One of these three students here had stolen the answer sheet for the English test next week.” Mr George explained to Shawn what had happened and he suspected three of them because only they were in the classroom during break time.

Shawn turned around and looked at the three students. The three students were Fred, Ted and Tod.

“It’s not me. I was sleeping on my desk and know nothing,” cried Tod.

“I was talking on the phone with my sister. I couldn’t have done it!” exclaimed Fred.

“No, they’re telling lies! They were playing near the desk while I was doing my homework!” claimed Ted.

This lead to a full-blown argument.

Tod said, “It was Fred!”

Fred said, “It was Ted!”

Ted said, “It was Fred and Tod!”

The noises were making Shawn’s head spin.

“SHUT UP!!!” exclaimed Shawn. All of them were silent. Shawn who called himself Detective Shawn, put up his glasses slowly and talked to Mr George, “Can we split the three of them into three different classrooms for half an hour? It’ll make this easier.” Alex helped to send them away.

Shawn eventually started his investigation and decided to scan across the classroom. Mr George followed Shawn worriedly and wondered what he was going to do. Shawn happily chirped, “Don’t worry, Mr George! After this, we will know who the culprit is.”

After a while, Alex came and whispered to Shawn. Shawn smiled. “Mr George, let’s go to Fred first,” said Shawn.

“Why did you say it was Ted who stole the answer sheet?” “What was the time you called your sister?” “Why you were near the desk?”

Unexpectedly, Fred was able to answer every single question. “Tod and I were playing together, so there’s no way either of us could’ve stolen the paper!” “You could check my phone – my sister and I were talking for almost 15 minutes!” “We were playing soldiers! We needed the teacher’s desk as our camp base!” The boy even dared to add, “If you don’t believe me, check the CCTV to see if I am lying or not!”

“Hmm…okay…we will look into it later.” Shawn and Fred looked at each other.

Then, they went to Tod.

“I was sleeping and don’t know anything, Fred woke me up and we only played together for a couple of minutes,” said Tod.

Shawn asked, “What time did you fall asleep, Tod?” “I slept once the bell rang,” answered Tod.

Finally, they came to Ted. “Ted, why did you say that Tod and Fred were the one who stole the answer sheet?” “It was them because the answer sheet was very near them, so that’s why I suspect them,” answered Ted.

“Ted, this is your last chance, please tell the truth,” said Alex.

“I am telling the truth!” shouted Ted.

“Mr George, can we go and watch the CCTV footage now?” Alex asked.

“Yes, you may,” Mr George answered. He brought all of them to the security room. After that, the truth was revealed. The mystery was solved. The real culprit was TED. Ted was not doing anything at all.He snuck past Fred and Tod and stole the answer sheet.

Unwillingly, Ted eventually admitted to his wrongdoing and was punished by Mr George. Everyone went home – all except Ted who had to serve detention.