The Postman did it!

The retirement village was nestled amongst rambling gardens and native trees with winding paths throughout. It was a pretty village with many facilities for use by residents and had the added bonus of being a secure village – which meant it was surrounding by walls and gates all of which blended in with the garden. There were security guards too, tho they didn’t really need the extra security, but it made the residents feel safe.

Until the robberies that is. Seven houses were robbed of all their jewellery, homeowners were aghast. How could this happen in their village with all the security they had. There were backyard conversations with many theories being put forward. Was it the lawn man? Was it the woollies delivery man, and what about the postman?  There were those amongst them who thought perhaps one of the villagers may have done it, but that was too close to home so that theory didn’t last long. Of course, there were also recriminations. Where were the security guards when these robberies took place? And what about the security cameras? Why weren’t they working?

Although these robberies weren’t solved, all the villagers soon settled back into normal routines, but they did all make sure their doors were locked, and they were wary when deliveries were made. Well, they didn’t all set back into normal routines, Edith was on a mission to find out who the robber was. At 76, and five foot nothing, she was quite a force to be reckoned with.  She bullied many a villager into playing bingo and going to the quiz nights, these were her favourite activities, but it was always better when there were more people present. She also loved solving things and was always up to date with the latest novels and movies where she always knew “who done it” before anyone else did.

Edith decided she would investigate these robberies, but she’d need an accomplice or two. She wanted to do this secretly so her reputation wouldn’t be affected if she didn’t solve it. Alison, at 82, was a fellow reader and she always did well at quiz nights, and was very quick witted, but she was in a wheelchair and so couldn’t move around easily, but then who would suspect her of trying to investigate the robberies. Arthur, at 72, was a great dancer and very fit, always first and last on the dancefloor at their regular dances, and although he was a terrible flirt, and she’d have to watch her p’s and q’s with him, she decided he would be the third person.

Edith held a little soiree where she provided sherry and hors d’ouvres and was glad that Alison and Arthur could both come. She laid out her ideas to them, and, although they at first thought she was joking, they soon realised she was quite earnest about the investigation, and both agreed to her plans. Edith and Alison would be the brains and Arthur would provide the brawn.

They set about writing down all the theories they had heard so they could systematically address them. They then listed all the delivery companies that they had ever seen in the village, and all the service people that attended the village.  Edith and Alison were to investigate the delivery companies and service people and Arthur would make himself useful by following any delivery van he saw and take note of how much time was spent on the delivery. With such a huge task ahead of them they decided they would meet weekly over some sherry to discuss where they were each up to.

One thing Arthur noticed was that the postman always seemed to be around when a delivery was made. He was such a friendly fellow, always stopped for a chat with the villagers, and if they had a dog with them, he always gave the dog a treat. He was happy to tell the group at the next meting that he was sure the postman couldn’t have done it because he was always so busy and so nice to everyone. And besides that, it had been the same postman for years, so why would he all of a sudden start robbing villagers? Alison and Edith agreed, though Edith did raise an eyebrow when she heard about him giving treats to dogs.  What if he were just getting friendly with the dogs so that they wouldn’t bark when he broke into their homes? Edith kept this thought to herself for the time being, and then she and Alison gave their reports, and they decided they needed to take the next step. They would get some things delivered to them, and Arthur would watch for any funny business.

Three days later, Edith was having some pizza delivered. Not that she liked pizza, but she and Edith had worked out that the delivery boys were often youth who needed to make extra money and they might think robbing an old person’s home might be easy takings. But nothing happened. Nor did anything happen the day after that when Alison had some fish and chips delivered. How many times would they have to eat fast food before they could catch the robber?

And then it happened again. Dear old Mrs Smith had her jewellery stolen, and she didn’t have anything delivered at all. Where had they gone wrong? If it wasn’t a delivery person who else might it be. Edith called on Mrs Smith to see if she was all right and asked her if she’d had anything delivered during the past week. No, food delivered at all. Edith called another meeting to discuss some more ideas. Should she tell them of her suspicion of the postman. But wait, Mrs Smith said shed had no food deliveries, what if she had a parcel delivered.? She quickly, well as fast as she could go at her age, went back to Mrs Smith to ask her if shed had any parcels delivered. Yes, she had, by the lovely postman, he even took it inside for her.

Edith, Alison, and Arthur all agreed that this was a breakthrough and that they should call the police and give them their findings. But instead of being grateful for their input they were quite dismissive of them. How rude! And not only that, before they left, they saw their postie coming out of the Sergeant’s office shaking hands with him. What was going on? The postie then came over to them. Was he going to have a go at them for dobbing him in? But instead of that he reached out to Arthur and handcuffed him. Edith and Alison were now besides themselves with apoplexy and as Arthur was taken away, the postie explained.

The postie was in fact a retired policeman and through his postal role was helping the police and had done on many occasions. He had been suspicious of Arthur for some time now, always flirting with the women at the dances and then walking them home. It was a great way to get to know what jewellery they had and where it was kept.

Edith was aghast. How would she ever live this down. There she was accusing the postie when it was he, in fact who solved the robberies.