The Daddy Detective and The Case of the Cookie Caper - Part 1 of a mini-mini series

It was a dark and stormy night. There was a low growl that awakened The Head Crayon from his peaceful slumber. As his feet touched the ground to investigate, the growl came again even more threatening. Instead of jumping to his feet, The Head Crayon sighed as he realized that the growling was indeed his own stomach and not some crouching, snarling beast waiting to attack the sleeping household.

The Head Crayon stumbled into the kitchen, not daring to turn on a light for risk of possibly waking The Wrangler and getting chastised for eating in the night. It's not that The Wrangler got upset for his midnight indiscretions, it was more for the fact of being left out of a stolen meal. He peered into the fridge and didn't see anything that peeked his interest, so he turned and stealthily crept towards the pantry. Step by shuffling step, inch by anticipated inch he drew closer to the the pantry. He reached out to take a hold of the door knob and reveal all the treasures stowed away inside and startled at the fact that it was already open. At that exact moment, something brushed against his leg causing him to jump back for examination.

The object of his examination was a kitchen chair that had been pushed into the depths of the darkened pantry. He scratched his head and leaned down to examine the chair. It had been maneuvered into place with a skill that suggested intent and motive. But whose intent and motive? He reached to pull the chair back and his hand came to rest on something thick and sticky. He raised his hand to his face and saw the smearing on his hand and raced to the light switch, his heart pounding to unveil the dastardly deed. As the glare from the florescent tube flickered revealing his hand covered in chocolate, he declared "I sense some skulduggery!"

He wiped his hand on the clean towel lying on the kitchen sink and then went to place it out of sight of his persnickety wife. He turned back to the pantry to investigate what evil deed had been done. His eyes searched the shadows of the pantry and that is when he saw it. Oh, the horror of it all. It had been savagely ripped apart, its innards trailing all over the shelf, bits and pieces were lying everywhere...it was a cookie package.

He began to piece together the clues, determined to solve the case.

• A chair had been used to assist in the crime. That must mean that the perpetrator had been small in stature.
• The chair had been covered in chocolate drips. That must mean that the criminal drooled at the sight of chocolate.
• The pantry door had been opened. This means that the evil-doer had the knowledge and ability to implement that knowledge of door knob workings.
• The savagely ripped wrapper was left behind. The monster had no remorse or cognitive thought to remove the evidence.

An idea formed in his mind and he grabbed his flashlight and began to follow the trail of crumbs scattered on the floor. As his flashlight brightened the darkened room, the beam came to rest on the face of a sleeping child. A sleeping child with cookie crumbs surrounding her and chocolate smeared on her 4 year old mouth. He grabbed a wipe and removed the tell-tale sign of thievery and muttered..."If it weren't for these meddling kids, I could have had a cookie snack."

Stay tuned for another exciting episode of The Daddy Detective...Coming soon "Cereal Killerz" "Raiders of the Lost Pants"...and whatever these darn kids do.