Be Careful What You Wish For

The professor at my university was getting excited. One of his famous authors was writing a new book. Agatha was writing it by hand and producing a manuscript. No one knew what the story was about or anything else about it. But every time Agatha wrote a manuscript, it became a hot property. The last three manuscripts had made millions from having the book published.

This time seemed no different. Agatha had been working on her book for three months. It had gradually been growing. It now contained over six hundred pages, all carefully written by hand. No one knew what Agatha was writing about, but it kept her busy every day.

Bristol University was very proud of Agatha. She had done her degree in creative writing at their university. Then she had continued to produce book after book that all became best sellers. People hoped this one would be no different.

But in the university were three spies for other universities who wanted to get their hands on Agatha’s manuscript. One from Japan, one from Austria and one from Brazil. All of them wanted to have the money that they could generate from the manuscript. It would help their university to generate a lot of money that would cost them nothing. Bristol University had this earner from the manuscripts that they had become used to.

That night, Agatha announced she would finish the manuscript in another three days. She locked the manuscript away as she always did and went home to her little house for the night. In the morning Agatha arrived at the usual time nine am, unlocked her office door and went to her desk to get out her manuscript, only to find that there was no manuscript. There was a loud scream from Agatha. A passing lecturer found out what the problem was and phoned the rector. The rector arrived, asked Agatha a few questions, then said, ‘get me Arthur Ratcliffe, he will know what to do.’

Arthur Ratcliffe was a lecturer in the university, who was very good at solving problems. He had helped the university many times when things had gone missing. A short man, five feet five and a half inches, with black hair and very handsome. Arthur was in his classroom giving a lecture when the rector’s secretary and a replacement lecturer arrived at his classroom.

‘Arthur, you are required by the rector,’ said the rector’s secretary, Mable.

‘Must be important or you would not have brought a replacement lecturer,’ replied Arthur.

‘It is and you must hurry,’ replied Mable.

‘Give me a few minutes to hand over to my replacement lecturer,’ replied Arthur. After a few minutes, Arthur had handed over and he left, accompanying Mabel.

Arthur rushed to the rector’s office. ‘Come in Arthur, I have a problem for you to solve,’ said the Rector. He explained about the missing manuscript.

‘Leave it to me, I will get it back,’ said Arthur. ‘I hope this will help establish me as a private detective. That is my wish.’

The rector smiled. He knew Arthur wanted to become a private detective. ‘Be careful what you wish for, Arthur, since it may become true.’

Arthur first went to see Agatha. But all she told him was, ‘I locked it in my desk last night and this morning it was gone.’

Arthur observed signs around the lock, showing that someone had tampered with it.

‘Agatha was the desk locked this morning when you came into your office?’ asked Arthur.

Agatha replied, “Yes, I found it locked.”

‘Has someone tampered with any of your room?’ asked Arthur.

‘Let me have a look around,’ said Agatha, and rummaged through her room. She replied, ‘Yes, someone has moved some of my things. It looks like they looked through all of my books looking for the manuscript.’

‘Who else knows about your manuscript?’ asked Arthur.

‘You do, plus several of the people in the class I teach.’

‘Do they know how much money that we make out of it?’ asked Arthur.

‘Not really. They know I guard it and keep it under lock and key and do not let anyone else look at it.’

‘I will check out the pupils in your class. That is where I think the culprit may come from.’

Arthur went off to ask a few contacts. Agatha prepared for her class at ten o’clock. All of her class arrived on time, except the one from Brazil. Agatha started to teach her class and sent a message to get Arthur.

Arthur knocked on Agatha’s door, and Agatha excused herself from her class. ‘Santos from Brazil is missing from the class. No one has seen him today. He is normally always on time,’ said Agatha.

‘How many pages approximately was your manuscript?’ asked Arthur.

‘Oh, that is easy,’ replied Agatha. ‘It was 612 pages. I checked it last night.’

‘Thank you,’ replied Arthur.

Arthur got the key for Santos’s room in the university halls. He opened the room. It was easy to see that he had left in a hurry, with clothes scattered all over the place. He kept on checking the room but could find nothing else. Arthur had always wanted to be a private detective. Now was his chance to show what he was capable of. Arthur contacted one of his many contacts who said he would check on the flight records out of the London Airports yesterday and this morning.

His contact was back quickly. Santos flew out of Heathrow to Rio De Janeiro. He was on loan from the University of Rio De Janeiro. Arthur checked the flights, then booked himself on the next available flight to Rio. Then he went to see the university admin officer and found out all about where Santos was based in Rio.

That evening Arthur took off for Rio, with all the addresses and contacts he required. The flight took fourteen hours to reach Rio. On landing Arthus booked into his hotel he had booked in advance and slept, glad to get his feet back onto Terra Ferma.

The following morning Arthus went to the university to find Santos’ supervisor. He explained about the missing manuscript.

The supervisor, Carlos, replied, ‘I saw Santos going to the university this morning. We can check his room while he is out.’

They made their way to Santos’ room. Hidden in his suitcase under the bed, Arthur found the missing manuscript. He replaced it with the one he had created that had 612 pages and an identical cover and first few pages. The rest of the pages were old papers Arthur had picked up.

On leaving the residence, Arthur made his way back to his hotel. Packed his few belongings, booked himself on the next flight back to London that night. On arriving back in London, Arthur delivered the manuscript back to its owner. Then went to see the Rector.

‘Thank you, Arthur, we have decided to give you a cut of the profits of the book you have just rescued. This will enable you to establish your own private detective agency, which the university will be affiliated with. We can provide you with facilities, and it will contribute to the teaching of criminology.’

‘Thank you so much,’ replied Arthur.

‘I told you to be careful what you wish for,’ said the rector, smiling.