The last instalment.

And,yes, it's time for the last instalment. So who nicked the money? Who made the tire tracks? Find out now. [Or as soon as you've read it.]

Chapter 9

William looked at his watch and yawned. It was another meting at the R.H.S. and just as boring as last time. Another augment had popped up and all three sides were happily proclaiming that they were right. This latest ‘conversation’ was about what to do about the hole in the flower bed. One side said that the hole should be filed in and more to go on top of it. Side two announced that they should take advantage of it and position a new load of flowers on top so as to make a new attraction[ this was criticised by the fact that Kew gardens is not a theme park]. And the last side commented that they were all wrong and they should leave the hole as it is as its part of the gardens history. This was followed by a volley of pencils, rubber bands and paper planes, all of which came hurtling through the air at well over thirty miles an hour. William took up the safest position possible,

Under the table. Then William remembered something from the lawn back at Kew gardens, behind every one of the small foot prints was a little hole. ‘Hello’ thought William to himself, ‘I think that they’ve finished that fight of theirs’. They hadn’t. William then hid under the table again, just as a rubber band propelled plane whizzed over his head by a few centimetres before embedding itself in the wall behind him. ‘Hey thought William to himself ‘you can see everyone’s shoes under here’ There was the secretary’s galosh’s, Sara’s sneakers and the head gardener’s hiking boots. William stuck his head up to have looked at proceedings. He gave a sigh of relief when it was discovered that they had all ran out of ammunition. Now it had become a staring match. The only problem was that everyone had gone cross eyed because they were trying to look at two people at the same time. Then the end of the meting came and everyone left at the same time as they were still staring at each other. William then thought over the evening, trying to extract all the clues he could. Then he remembered something from under the table. It was about the head gardeners boots. ‘Hang on,’ said William ‘I know who did it!’

Chapter 10

It was a sunny morning in Kew gardens and everyone was standing in a semicircle. There was Sara Botheringam, the head gardener, the chief inspector, the car expert and William. ‘Now’ said William stepping forward from the crowd of suspects ‘last week, a lot of tyre tracks appeared in the grass of Kew gardens, and a few days later, a large hole turned up in flower beds. But before all this happened, there was a robbery at the Natwest bank in the outer skirts of London. Now it’s time to tie all the lose ends together. First of all, you see those big shoe prints on the grass, now you may want to observe the boots of the head gardener.’ Everyone peered downward at the head gardeners boots which were actually, very large. ‘So, the head gardener could have done it.’ At this the head gardener looked very worried. ‘But he didn’t. This can be deduced by the fact that he always has a bath at ten o clock and then goes to bed. It could have been the car exert, as his car was spotted going at one hundred and thirty miles an hour and away from the police car which was in driving very quickly after it. You could also have wanted the money to keep your cars running, but you didn’t because you always give one of your cars a quick spin in the evening. It could have been Sara Botheringam, as you might have wanted the money for your new garden design and then called a detective in to try and make it seem as if you were innocent. And it was.’

‘But I don’t have any boots that size.’ She protested. ‘I know’ said William ‘but you do have a pair of very muddy high heels which are the smaller foot prints. The bigger foot prints were made by your colleague, who is Ted Dolton.’ Everyone stared except the head gardener. ‘Good grief’ said the head gardener ‘not Ted! He can hardly push a wheel barrow without making a mess.’ [Ted Dolton by the way is the rather stout gardener from chapter3 in case you were wondering.] ‘you both stole the cars from Dublin motors, drove to the bank, stole the money, drove to Kew gardens, berried the money, called in a detective, then drove back a few days latter and picked up the money. Now you may remember on that first day, that the wings went missing from the expert’s bonnet. You will also notice one thing about Sara’s car, all of it is muddy except for the wings on the front. Now, on that day as we all went to the car park, Sara remembered that her car was really the one that she used in the bank job so she had to disguise it.’ William then reached down and pulled the wings of Sara’s car. Below, there was an image of a jaguar, which looked a lot grumpier than usual. Now if, there are any problems then you’ll have to send your letters to Yorkshire as I’m going on holiday for the half term.’

‘See’ said the chief inspector to the head gardener ‘I told you that he’d solve it!’

Chapter 11

The next morning, William got in a cab and went off to King’s Cross station. It had been a peculiar kind of mystery. A bit like that time in Switzerland with the Swiss Roll Company [the one with the underground Swiss roll factory.] but that’s a different story. At the moment, the damaged part of Kew gardens had to be closed off so no one noticed the mess the Jaguar had left. William thought that was understandable enough, but the armed security guards were perhaps a bit much. As the cab stopped at the car park, William got out, paid the fares and went in to the station. He boarded the train to Yorkshire and sat down. It had been a good mystery, well performed, well thought out and –above all- very well solved.

Case closed.