Johnny Taylor
9-22-98
R.L.A.

The Watermelon

"Interesting", mumbled the famous detective Dean Homesly. "Very interesting" he exclaimed again. He was looking at a extremely large watermelon with a knife sticking in it. Amazingly it was in the watermelon all the way so you did not see the blade. All you saw was the gruesome handle sticking out.
Detective Dean was a younger man in his thirty's, with a slight dark brown mustache right under his nose. Slick, master of disguise, famous, he had heard all those descriptions before when people were talking about him. Such a good detective he was , nothing was known about him except he was a former Navy Seal and a war hero. Suprisingly, this case was stumping him. In his mind he went over the details. It went something like this.
It was the day before the big county fair watermelon contest. Everybody entered wanting to win the five thousand dollar prize for the biggest watermelon there was. Bob Sanders a rich, bank owner grew watermelons in his back yard as a hobby. This year he thought he had another prize winner. He had won the contest numerous times, so the money prize did not matter to him, it was for the sake of winning he was after.
He had just dropped the huge watermelon off at his booth where later in the day he would be giving bank loans to the public. As he was tidying up the booth, he almost tripped on the watermelon that was laying on the floor. Carefully he rolled it over to the safe that was full of money for the loans he would be giving out. When he was finished cleaning up the booth he went to where the food was being sold to get a bite too eat. As he was waiting in line, his girlfriend came up and asked him if he wanted to go ride some of the rides. He eagerly exclaimed "SURE"!!! "But I first have to go grab my coat from the booth". "Then I'll go with you" she excitedly yelled. On their way to the tent the were talking very loudly. When they came within ten feet of the booth they saw the figure of a teenager dart from the little tent and limp away at a fast speed. The couple immediately ran into the booth to check the damage. They saw a knife in the melon and thought immediately "sabotage." That was all the clues the detective had.
Dean exclaimed "bring in the suspects"! The suspects were Harry, a youth of seventeen. Harry was supposed to be a good kid and he had no record with the police. The other suspect was an older youth of about nineteen named Chubbs. His police report was gigantic, from grand auto theft to robbing gas stations. But he claims "I am going straight now."
Dean held up the watermelon and yelled "does this knife belong to any of you two"? Chubbs exclaimed "naw it ain't belonging to me, now member I am going straight now".
Harry eagerly exclaimed "No, No its not mine, my knife is about four inches longer than that one sticking out of the watermelon".
"Send them away" yelled Dean.
"Do you know who the guilty one is Dean" exclaimed Bob anxiously. Dean announced "though this case was one of the harder ones to solve I have finally come up with the verdict". "What is it, what is it" exclaimed Bob. "That my friend, you have to figure out for yourself".