The Case of the Missing Diamonds

The Spy Ring started about two years ago, innocently enough. Andy and Evin, age 8 at the time, found a unique interest in codes. Andy created a special code that only he, Evin, and eventually Braxton and I knew. That year we stayed in the same hotel for Christmas, and we would find “spy notes” passed to us under the door morning, noon and night. Of course, we reciprocated with notes that gave missions, like retrieving some free lemonade from the lobby in order to receive your next instruction. Later that year Andy built a “spy tool” for Evin to use in order to encode and decode messages more quickly on the computer. The Spy Ring was born.

Now Lynnae, having an interest in math and science, is also very interested in spies. So, when she was asking for details about the cousins earlier in the fall, I might have let it slip that she had a cousin named Evin who loved spies and was the leader of our little Spy Ring. She asked if she could join, and I told her that she would need to ask Evin, but if she asked nicely he would probably say yes. She asked how she would know, and I told her that Evin would assign her an agent name when she was accepted. (I’ve been agent 99 for years.)

They met on Christmas morning. And by Christmas afternoon, Evin was giving Lynnae (Agent L) and Braxton their secret mission. It went like this:

“Dear Spy Friends, I need your help! 2 really bad people are on loose. There names are Jorden and Liel. They stole 65 tons of diamond from 2 local jewlary store. The diamonds were as big as an adults heart. From, the Master.”

Imagine my surprise, when presented with this letter as a Spy Friend, to learn that my brother and sister were thieves! (Not to mention that 2 local jewelry stores carried 65 tons of diamonds the size of an adult’s heart!)

The kids donned spy costumes, (Lynnae was pretending to be a chef,) and grabbed Evin’s new attaché case. (I believe it carried a bunch of DS accessories and was delivered by Santa.)

Did they solve the case?

I wish I knew... I’d sure like one of those diamonds!