The Case of the Missing Bird

Mrs. O’Leary lived in a small blue and white bungalow just two miles north of the Shelbyville city limits. Being a widow, Mrs. O’Leary found a friend and much

companionship in her pet bird, Henry. Henry was a large, white and yellow Cockatoo that liked his home and spent many hours adding new words to his

vocabulary. Henry’s favorite game was hide and seek. He was always searching the house for new places to hide. He played his game with Mrs. O’Leary every

day, but Mrs. O’Leary always found Henry no matter where he was hiding. This was because no matter where Henry was, he would repeat his favorite phrase,

"bet you can’t find me," over and over and over again until Mrs. O’Leary would find him and take him back to his perch.

One day when Mrs. O’Leary returned from shopping, Henry was not on his perch. Mrs. O’Leary searched the house and listened for the familiar phrase "bet you

can’t find me". She heard nothing but the wind gently blowing against its frame. She ran to the window and peered out. It was early spring and the trees had not yet

started to grow their leaves. The air still held the cold nip of the passing winter.

"Where could he be?" she cried. "It’s too cold out there for him! I must find him before nightfall."

Even early spring can bring freezing nights. She was worried. She knew she needed help as she ran for the phone.

Mrs. O’Leary called the police, but they said that they couldn’t help here. She tried the pound, and they told her that no one had reported a lost bird, but that they

would keep an eye open for one. She didn’t know what else to do. She cried for two straight days and still she couldn’t find Henry. She posted flyers around

town. She offered a one hundred dollar reward. That was all she knew to do.

Because a reward was offered for Henry, many people of the town were out looking for Henry. Everywhere around town, you could hear people calling for

Henry. Mrs. O’Leary woke early and decided that if she were to find Henry she would have to get someone else to look for him, but who? Just as she was leafing

through the phone book, a knock sounded at the door.

"Who is it?" called Mrs. O’Leary.

"Mr. Colmes," came the answer from the closed door. "Your new neighbor from up the road."

She opened the door to a cheery greeting of a hello from the neighbor. Mrs. O’Leary though normally very cheerful herself did not feel much like talking to anyone. She sadly missed her friend, Henry.

"Hello, Mrs. O’Leary, I saw your flyer when I was in town and would like to help you find Henry."

Mr. Colmes went on to tell Mrs. O’Leary that he was a retired investigator and had just moved to Shelbyville from New York City. He explained that he would

enjoy getting involved with a good mystery. It would be a case that would help him pass the time and there would be no charge. He would enjoy helping out his

neighbor if he could. What Mrs. O’Leary didn’t know was that he had been given countless awards for solving cases that no one else could solve. She couldn’t

have picked a better man for the job. If anyone could find the missing Henry, then Mr. Colmes could.

So Mrs. O’Leary told Mr. Colmes that yes, she would work along with him during the day. She so wanted to do something to help find her Henry!

It was decided that they would rest and then begin looking for clues to Henry’s whereabouts the very next day. Early the next morning they were up bright and

early to begin their search for Henry. They looked everywhere. They looked in alleys, trash cans, the park, and other places. Still, no Henry could be found. Mrs.

O’Leary was so upset that she didn’t know what to do. Mrs. O’Leary started to get suspicious that someone had actually taken her bird. She started to look in

people’s records that had worked with her in the past.

Mrs. O’Leary and Mr. Colmes searched all of Mrs. O’Leary’s back employee’s records for a clue. Maybe someone did take Henry and opened the window to

cover up the dirty deed, then Mrs. O’Leary would think that Henry flew out the window. However, Mrs. O’Leary knew that even if Henry did fly out the window,

he would never go far and was sure to be home when he became hungry. So where was Henry? Of course! Mrs. O’Leary almost screamed into Mr. Colmes’ ear.

Let’s try to find some information on Jake Simms.

"Who is Jake Simms?" asked Mr. Colmes with a confused look on his face.

Mrs. O’Leary answered as if she was convinced she was on to something, "Why he's the only person that I know that did not like Henry. He worked as my

gardener last year and disliked Henry because he felt that I paid too much attention to him. I do believe he was jealous of Henry. I fired him because he liked to

sleep under the old shade tree when he should have been working. He did say that he would get even!"

So the two of them went to some of Mrs. O'Leary's old files of business. They found Jake Simms file and they looked in the file and took it down to the police

department. The police looked it over really well. They all piled into the police car and went to Mr. Simms house.

When they got there, he answered the door with a terrified look upon his face.

"Where's Henry?" asked Mrs. O'Leary demandingly. Jake looked at her with a perplexed face.

She asked him again. "Where's Henry?" This time she said it with an outrage in her voice.

He said, "I don't know what you are talking about!" he said loudly.

"Look, there is evidence," she said. There were feathers on the floor everywhere.

" I had no idea that the bird was missing," said Jake.

"Sure," she said. "I guess that is why I see all of those feathers."

Then she said, " Wait! Those are not the colors of Henry. Would you mind if we came to take a look, Sir?"

"I don’t mind at all,’’said Jake. "When I was gardening at your house I loved to watch and listen to Henry, so I decided to get one of my own."

The Policeman, Mrs O'Leary and Mr. Combs all entered Mr. Simms's house. I see gray feathers all over the place, I know they can't be Henry's. He is as

white as snow. As Mrs. O'Leary was telling Mr. Simms what happened to Henry, Mr. Combs was busy gathering the gray feathers from the floor and

quickly putting them in his pocket.

" I declare!" stated Mrs. O'Leary. "I see feathers everywhere but I don't see your bird. Where do you keep it? Is it afraid of strangers?"

"IT is a girl and her name is Samantha, and I call her Sam for short," I went on to explain to Mr. Simms.

Mr. Simms replied rather smuggly, "She is not here right now. She had a bit of a cold and I took her to the Vet over in Memphis."

"My, My!" Mrs. O'Leary cried, "How dreadful! You must be very worried."

"Oh she is getting much better now. I was over to see her yesterday and the vet said she should be well enough to come home in a couple of days."

"Well, we won't keep you any longer. I just thought that you might have seen Henry while you were out working," Mrs. O'Leary said.

She felt disappointed that she did not find Henry.

She was sure that Mr. Simms had known something about Henry's where abouts. Now she would have to start over.

The Policeman, whom up to this point had been inspecting the empty make shift bird cage that stood in the corner, asked Mr. Simms, "What kind of bird is Sam?"

"Why she is a Cockatoo, just like Henry except she is gray."

"Well, thank you very much for your time," the Policeman told Mr. Simms.

"We should be going now, we have a lot of work to do. If you should happen to see Henry please let us know right away," Mrs. O'Leary said with a smile to hide her disappointment.

"I will," Mr. Simms said.

They all piled back into the police car and headed back to the station. When they had driven some distance from the house, Mr. Combs who had not asked any questions of Mr. Simms at all, sat back in the seat and said with a slow voice, "Mrs O'Leary, you are the expert on Cockatoos. How many different colors are they?"

The only Cockatoos I have ever seen have been white with some yellow.

"What are you getting at Mr. Combs?"

"Well, I have seen many Cockatoos also, but never a gray one. Where do you think Mr. Simms purchased this most unusual bird?

"Well, there aren't many pet stores around here. I'm not exactly sure where he could have gotten, Sam," said Mrs. O'Leary. They went and looked in the yellow pages for any pet stores around. They called each one to see if they had sold any gey cockatoos lately. They asked if they even existed.

Each and every pet store that they talked with agreed that there were no gray Cockatoos that they had ever seen. Suddenly, Mr. Colmes had an idea. He quietly slipped away and went back to visit the bird. As he took just a very small bit of turpentine on a cloth and wiped gently at the bird, he could see the gray begin to fade. He then begin that detective work he was so famous for performing. After some tracking, the mystery was solved. Henry had flown out of the window. He had somehow landed in gray paint that Mr. Green was using to paint his store just beford leaving on his vacation. Not knowing whose bird this was, he took it to the nearest pet store where they attempted to remove the paint. They had not wanted to use anything that would hurt the bird and had not considered even using a tiny bit of turpentine. They decided to just leave the bird a gray color figuring that it eventually would wear off. The pet store then tried to find an owner but had been unsuccessful as they mistakening advertised a lost female instead of the correct male bird. Not finding the owner, the pet store sold the bird to a Mr. Simmons. After the bird became sick, most likely from paint, Mr. Simms took the bird to the local vet. After Mr. Green came home from vacation, Mr. Colmes questioned him about Mrs. O'Leary's bird getting lost. Mr. Green was sure that it was her bird and called her right away.

Mrs. O'Leary was so excited. She gathered her new found friends and drove quickly to the vet's office. When Mrs. O'Leary walked into the room, the bird became so excited and said, "bet you can't find me". With that everyone laughed and agreed that this mystery was solved. All's well that ends well.

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