Chapter 1
“Filo, have you seen my necklace?”
The 8-year-old’s ears perked up when his older sister called his name. He hobbled into her room, where the sister, Harper, rummaged through a shelf.
“No, where did you put it, Sis?”
Harper closed the current drawer with a resounding thud, the one she was so sure she put her necklace in. She turned to face her brother, who looked confused and worried. “I remember putting it in this drawer,” Harper replied, before checking the drawer below, just in case. She looked at Filo, who was still silent before she sighed loudly.
“Aww man,” Harper exhaled, “Guess I have to call the police to report the sighting,”
Filo lit up as soon as he heard those words. “Wait!” he yelled before running out of the room.
“Careful not to trip,” Harper called as she waited. After some time, Filo came back with a different attire. This attire consisted of a slouch hat and a brown jacket, capped off with a wooden rod attached to a glass disc.
Filo put his fists to his hips, proclaiming, “Detective Filo is on the case!”
“Detective Filo! Thank goodness you are here! I think my necklace has been stolen,” Harper followed.
Filo grabbed a stool and walked towards the drawer. “Don’t worry, Si- I mean Ma’am. Take me to the scene of the crime.”
Harper pulled back the first drawer, thus revealing the scene of the crime. She backed off and allowed her brother to place down the stool and step up on it. He looked in the drawer. It was oddly empty, with a few pages and books scattered around. However, what caught his attention was a gilded wooden box, open and revealing groove in the wooden base, indicating that something was indeed placed in there, with that something missing. There is nothing there that can serve as a clue.
With the naked eye, of course, but Filo has something better, a glass that can magnify his sight tenfold, a “magnifying glass,” as one would say. Filo took the disk and put it below his eye, and suddenly a whole new world was revealed on the box. Something, in particular, caught his eye, and it appeared to be a crumb. He then found another and another, showing that there was a trail. And it was leading out of the drawer.
Instantly, Filo dropped on all fours, scanning the ground and crawling wherever he discovered a trail. It took him out of Harper’s room, to the living room, and towards the coffee table, where the trail ends. However, something caught his eye, and he saw a slip of paper sticking out. Filo pulled the piece of paper and noticed it was half a slip, where the bottom contents meant to be hidden by the wood slab were not there. Filo flipped the tag over to see what appeared to be writing as Harper arrived downstairs.
“Roberta’s Bakery. It looks like the thief likes to eat at the best bakery in the world.” Filo says before standing up and heading towards the door. “I’ll be on my way.”
And thus, the 8-year-old opened the door and exited the apartment, closing the door in the process. Harper remained inside for a few seconds before there was a knock on the door. She opened it to reveal Filo, who was looking at her sheepishly.
“Can…can you take me there?”
