Just no telling

SOLVE-IT-YOURSELF Mystery

- Anna Kittrell

Samantha Davis, The Springdale News photographer and social reporter, plopped down onto a chair at her best friend’s kitchen table. The early phone call from Katie had set off alarm bells.

“You sounded upset. What’s going on?” she asked.

Katie, visibly distressed, swallowed hard before answering. “Someone’s extorting me…for $3,000,” she blurted.

“Wh—what?” Katie gave a long sigh.

“Last Saturday, I was out on my lawn, and my next-door neighbor happened to be out too. I told her I sold my great-grandmother’s antique tea set for $3,000. She had the nerve to tell me that was a lot of money for someone’s old junk. Can you believe that?” Her nostrils quivered in anger.

“I haven’t spoken to her since, but she must’ve blabbed to my other neighbors. This morning there was a note in my mailbox demanding $3,000,” Katie slid the note across the table.

Pushing aside her clipboard, Sam scanned the note. “‘Or else I’ ll tell everyone about the pie.’ What does that mean?”

“Everyone knows all the women in my family—except me—are fantastic bakers,” Katie said sheepishly. “On a dare, I entered my lemon meringue pie in a contest at last summer’s festival—except I bought the pie at Ingrid’s Bakery. There were a bunch of taste-testers, so I didn’t pay them any attention, but one of them must’ve been a neighbor. The pie came in second, so I got a ribbon, but at least I wasn’t embarrassed.”

Sam studied the note. “Very neat handwriting. Judging from the slant of the letters, I’d say the writer is left-handed. Do you know all your neighbors?”