The Mystery of Charlie Graves

Mystery book for Children 10-15 years

Karen and Jodie are two 12 year-old girls about to start school holidays. Everything should be neat, yet by the time the last day of school is over a catastrophe has happened. Jodie's mother has vanished.

   When Charlie Graves—the town psycho—confesses, the police are certain they know what happened. But Karen’s mum knows more about Charlie than anyone, and helps the girls solve the disappearance.

   Karen uses her intuition to help solve the mystery, but not everyone believes her. All the same, both Karen and Jodie are in for some big surprises before the end of the story.

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We spent an hour trying to think of something, without getting anywhere. We decided we may as well go to the beach for a swim. We couldn't think of any way we could ever find this mysterious Coochie.

We took our boogie boards and came in on some great waves, but Jodie was still thinking about Coochie. I figured she was thinking her mum might have run away with this Coochie. Maybe she might not see her again. Or maybe it wasn't Charlie Graves who murdered her, but Coochie.

'Guess who's coming.'

'Not Ron Rocco?'

'You did guess!'

'He's sure to be annoying.'

'Hi Jodie, Karen. I thought you'd be down at Warwick Bridge. They got two lots of digging going on now, Rozzer's Greyhound Kennels, and under the Warwick Bridge. You must really hate that Charlie Graves.'

'Of course,' Jodie said without much feeling.

'I always knew he was a murderer. My brother says there are hundreds of skeletons buried in his backyard.'

'Not hundreds, Ron. And they are not people, they are animals, poor, sick animals that were dying.'

'He kills stuff all the time. My brother reckons he kills kangaroos with his car, drives smack into them and then drags them home and eats them raw.'

'Ron, did you know that Charlie doesn't have a car?'

'Well ... of course! I mean when ... he steals a car. Anyway I know something about. . . '

'What?'

'Well, this is top secret, see my brother knows Ken Snook, and his brother is a copper, and he saw that confession that Charlie Graves did. Reckons he is stark mad. Charlie confessed to killing a whale with a bazooka! Oh man that is so gross!' And despite Ron Rocco's best efforts to hold it in, he laughed joyously.

'Sure. Huh, we got to get going.'

'Yeah. See ya. And don't worry about your mum, Jodie, coz my brother says they are sure to hang Charlie Graves.'

'And that will bring my mother back?'

'Nooo. But you'd feel better wouldn't you?'

'I'd feel better if I didn't have to go to school, but that doesn't mean it's what I should do.'

'Huh?' He stared at Jodie, trying to figure out what she'd said, after a long pause he said, 'Did you hear about the dolphins?'

'What about the dolphins?'

'Well there was a plod swimming around off—'

'A pod.'

'That's what I said, a plod of dolphins, and one of them swam right up the beach.'

'No it didn't,' Jodie said. 'Dolphins can't swim on sand.'

'I mean it swam in and ... then the waves washed it onto the beach.'

'Is it still there?'

'No, the lifesavers towed it off about half an hour ago. They tied something onto its tail, towed it right back into the water. But now the plod are trying to swim onto the beach. You can see them over there.'

I looked out past the breakers and I could see them leaping and thrashing about. The lifesavers were out there in a rubber dinghy, trying to keep them from coming in onto the beach.

'I hope one of them dies on the sand,' Ron Rocco said, 'because my brother reckons they have souls.'

'Why would you— '

'I could look at its eye when it dies and see if the soul comes out.'

'Really?' I said in disbelief.

'Sure. My dad said that the eyes are the windows of the soul. So if you are looking at its eye when it dies, you can see the soul come out. You knew that didn't you Karen?'

And for once I didn't know what to say. 'Yeah. Maybe, but I wouldn't want to see a beautiful dolphin die just to see its soul.' I looked across at Jodie, and I was thinking that maybe she felt the dying dolphins were somehow connected with her mother.