The Moonlight Boy | Ferry's Tale # 1

Detective work

"That's it! I've had enough!" said Matilda, catching her breath.

After the fright they've been through in Mrs. Cobbs's garden, they needed to stop at the playground, now almost empty.

"We must go to the police! We must tell what we saw," said Ben in between gasps.

"And what is it we saw, Ben?" asked Ferry.

Matilda seemed furious with his remark, "Isn't it obvious? Mrs. Cobbs is behind the disappearances. Somehow, with the help of an accomplice maybe, she kidnapped the people in town and holds them hostage in her basement! Who knows? Maybe she even murdered some of them. She says the Unseen were to blame but in fact, she's trying to hide away because she is the one to blame."

And Matilda stopped talking so she could breathe. A cold breeze blew between the trees at the playground, giving them the chills. The shadows of the night seemed now even closer, and the memory of the howl in Mrs. Cobbs's basement still resounded in their ears.

"I don't know, Matt..." Ben said. "If I come to think of it, Ferry is right. And besides, we don't have any evidence."

"Evidence?! Why would we need evidence? Didn't you hear the moan? Something wrong is going on in that house."

But Ferry shook his head, "Ben is right. What if we send the police and they find nothing? I don't even know what I've seen. Maybe she has a wild animal in her basement. You know Mrs. Cobbs is a bit... eccentric."

"Then we should keep Mrs. Cobbs under observation for a while," Ben suggested.

⃰

There was no time to waste. Operation VDS had to continue. So Mrs. Cobbs's house was put under observation the next day, after school. The three little detectives thought it would be best to stay together. If one of them had gone for help, the other two would have stayed to watch the house until the police arrived.

But the observation proved to be boring. Three days passed, and nothing out of the ordinary happened. Except for Tootsie, Mrs. Cobbs's niece, nobody went in or out of the house.

"That's it! I'm going home," said Matilda rising from the bush in front of Mrs. Cobbs's house. She was just about to leave the observation spot when Tootsie came out of the house.

In her grey, large clothes, Tootsie always walked keeping her eyes down, avoiding everyone's gaze. She was over sixty years old, and she's never been married. She was raised by her aunt with austerity after she lost her parents at a very young age. Ever since, she dedicated her whole life taking care of her old, strange aunt.

"Let's follow her," Ben suggested. "Maybe Mrs. Cobbs is sending her to do the strange work in her place."

So the children followed Tootsie easily since she never paid attention to anything around her. But even this pursuit proved to be boring. Tootsie bought some fruits from the market, and then she entered the grocery store with the children following her steps.

They crowded near the candy machine, pretending they were interested in the new caramel candies but in fact,  they didn't let Tootsie out of their sight. She acted like she was invisible. She never talked to anyone, and no one talked to her. They saw her buying some cheese, detergent, and some razor blades, as well as shaving cream, which the salesman put in a paper bag.

She then came out, her gaze to the ground and headed home, with the little detectives following her closely. When Tootsie went into the house, the children were already debating the woman's strange shopping list.

"What did she buy?" asked Matilda, trying hard to keep her voice down.

"I didn't see too well," said Ben, wiping out the lens of his glasses with his shirt. "I thought she bought razor blades and shaving cream..."