1997 - The Chocolate Money Mystery by Alexander McCall Smith Read Free Book Online Page A

walls of their parents’ study. There was a very interesting book called Two Hundred Simple Disguises . This book could itself be disguised! If you turned it upside down it looked exactly like a cheese sandwich, and if you laid it on its side it looked like an old hairbrush! But their favourite one of all was called How to Follow People without Being Seen—Ever . This book had been written by Mr and Mrs Twist themselves, and there was a large photograph on the back cover just to prove it.
    In their spare time, when they were not reading books about private detection, the two children liked to play a game called Cluedo. This was tremendous fun, as it involved trying to find out who had committed a crime just by asking questions and writing down the answers. Max and Maddy were soon so good at it that they won every time they played with other people. And when the local newspaper announced that there would be a grand Cluedo competition to find the champion player of the year, it was no surprise that Max and Maddy both entered.
    It was not all that easy. They found themselves up against very stiff competition, but at last, after a grand final filled with nail-biting suspense, the judges announced that the first prize had been won jointly by the two of them.
    Mr and Mrs Twist were extremely proud.
    “This proves it!” crowed Mrs Twist. “Detective talent runs in the blood. I’ve always said that!”
    It was wonderful to have won the competition, but what happened next was even more exciting. Just a few days later, when the postman brought the mail, there was a letter for them with an unusual stamp on it.
    “Look,” said their mother, handing Maddy the letter. “A letter from Switzerland. Do you know anybody there?”
    Maddy shook her head, and started to open the letter. As she read it through, her jaw dropped with surprise.
    “What does it say?” asked Max, in a very excited voice. “Read it out. It’s addressed to me as well.”
    Maddy read the letter and now it was Max’s turn to be astonished. For the letter from Switzerland was a very exciting one indeed. The person who wrote it, Mr Conrad Huffendorf, a well-known and very rich Swiss banker, had read about their success in the Cluedo competition and asked them whether they could possibly solve a mystery for him.
    “If you can play Cluedo so well,” he wrote, “then I’m sure you’ll be able to solve a mystery for us here in Switzerland. I am a banker, as you may know, and I am very worried about what has been happening. There have been some very large bank robberies, and the police just cannot seem to solve the crime. Do you think you could help? After all, you’re terribly good at Cluedo.”
    Max and Maddy looked at their mother.
    “Do you think we could?” they asked. “Poor Mr Huffendorf sounds terribly worried.”
    Mrs Twist thought for a moment. Most parents would say no, of course, but then most parents don’t run ice-cream parlours with thirty-seven flavours.
    So Mrs Twist said, “Yes, of course you can go—”
    She had been a private detective, you see, and she knew that you could never turn down a real mystery. Never.
    Suddenly Maddy noticed a tiny P. S. to the letter, and she read it out carefully. This is what it said:
P. S. Of course we’ll reward you handsomely for your help. We can either pay in money (we’ve still got a bit left) or, if you prefer, in bars of chocolate. Switzerland, as you know, makes the best chocolate in the world. So you just decide. Money or chocolate, but not both!
    Which would you have chosen, I wonder?
    Really! Is that your answer? Well, well!
    And which do you think Max and Maddy chose? Read on, please. You’ll find out later.
     

Chapter 2
    Wanted for Bank Robbery!
    “Welcome to Switzerland!” said Mr Huffendorf, taking off his hat and giving a small bow.
    Max and Maddy, fresh from their journey by plane and train, saw a small, rather round man standing in front of them. He was wearing a black coat with a