A Jr. Sherlock Holmes Society of a Rainbow Country Adventure: The Mystery at Joni Farm

By B.T. Clabby

Miss champion’s sixth-grade class is being introduced to the works of Sir Arthur C Doyle and cognitive reasoning. Living in North Bay, Ontario, six of her class form a group called the Sherlock Holmes Society of Rainbow Country and as school lets out for the Canadian Thanksgiving long weekend the group finds a man hurt coming through the woods. They must deal with getting help for this man and deal with a police detective that believes the children are behind the shooting of the man. To clear their names, they must find the true shooter. And the adventure begins.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Feb 8, 2022
• ISBN: 9781665596343

Book preview

Prologue

T he story of the old, abandoned farmhouse being haunted had been passed down for a few generations dating as far back to the 1930’s. Yes, many farmers, lost their lands during the depression but what made this one unique was the story of the farm family being slaughtered one fateful night. No one had ever been caught and charged with the deaths, so the case went unsolved as a multiple, homicide, suicide. As such the local catholic priest could not and would not allow the individual who committed suicide to be buried on hallowed ground claiming their soul was destined to walk this earth for eternity. Due to this tenet and the fact the police were unable to determine the culprit, both parents and two oldest children were buried separately on unhallowed grounds, while the three younger children, presumed to be innocent of the crime were buried in the local churchyard ceme trey.

The stranger had no idea of the farmhouse’s reputation, he just knew he had been driving for several hours in what was now a very heavy downpour of rain. He had hoped to beat the storm he saw on the horizon that morning but instead drove into the thick of it. As the rain grew steadily heavier and the wind picked up to about seventy kilometres an hour. His Toyota swayed back and forth along the two-laned highway, and his tires would sometimes hydroplane. He rightly figured it best to stop and get off the highway but where to be safe. It had been a few hours since he last saw a rest stop along the highway and he felt it unsafe to just pull up on the curve. Finally, in the flash of lightning, he spotted a farmhouse off to his left about a kilometre from the highway. Slowing down he came across the partially covered driveway. He turned up the driveway in the hope that the people in the farm would be willing to let him rest and get shelter from the storm. Instead, what he found was a broken-down farmhouse, all boarded up, with some broken windows on the upper level, obviously abandoned some time ago. There didn’t appear to be any way into the house itself, but he found a barn and decided to try and take refuge in that for the night. The door hanging from a single hinge almost fell off as he pulled it open and was immediately hit by the musty smell most people associate with long closed attics. It was in total darkness except for a few seconds of light from the constant lightning, but he used his Bic lighter to give some illumination. He did have a flashlight and his cellular phone back in the car but as he had gotten soaked just running the two or so metres into the barn, he decided against going to get them at this time. He decided that, if necessary, he would get them once the rain died down or in the morning whichever came first.

For now, he just wanted to find a dry spot where he could curl up and have some sleep. The barn roof had many leaks and finding a dry spot proved to be a task. Eventually he did locate some small spot in one of the stalls with some hay and as it was an old barn, the floor was of mud and dirt rather than cement. Thunder shook the barn as lightning flashed across the night sky all while the storm raged on. The stranger let his Bic lighter go out as he tried to hunker down for the night. The condition of the house and barn was such that it was unlikely he would be disturbed for the night and thoroughly exhausted from the day’s travel, he soon fell asleep amid the sounds of rain and thunder.

The storm did eventually let up during the night and the stranger awoke in the morning cold and sore, to the sounds of crows in the fields. They were loud and seemed close by. Stiffly he climbed to his feet as he saw sunlight beaming through the half down barn door. As he hit himself in the arms and legs to try and get his circulation going, he thought he was now hearing some sounds other than the birds. Maybe it was the farmer who owned the place and had abandoned the old farmhouse to build something new and improved. He hoped he could convince him that he had only slept in his barn to get shelter from last night’s storm and maybe he would be lucky enough to get a cup of hot coffee. He proceeded to the barn door and was just going through as a loud report from a gunshot sent the crows into the sky squawking. Then all was silent.

1

CHAPTER

T he sixth-grade class of Miss Champion were tidying up their reading group spaces as they prepared for the early dismissal from class followed by the Thanksgiving long weekend. Thanksgiving, in Canada is celebrated in mid-October. Miss Champion had just read to her class one of the adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur C. Doyle and several students were busy discussing the story as they were cleaning up. It was in one of these groups that brought a twinkle to Miss Champion’s eyes as she witnessed the students’ discussion trying to solve the mystery ahead of the famed detective. It was this sort of transaction that made her want to become a teacher in the first place, to challenge the young people to broaden their knowledge and to explore outside the box.

Tidying her own desk space, she watched and listened to this group of students as they rehashed some of the clues in the story so far to come up with the solution to the mystery ahead of the famed detective. A small smile came to her lips as she recalled her own attempts to solve such mysteries then approached the group just before the early dismissal bell rang.

You know, Miss Champion started I used to belong to a group called ‘The Sherlock Holmes Society’ in the big city (meaning Toronto) while I was learning to become a teacher. The group’s jaws just dropped in awe. After the shock wore off came a slew of questions from the group.

Did you solve the mysteries?

Did you know about Sherlock Holmes when you were our age?

Miss Champion was never a kid.

Ahem as Miss Champion cleared her throat and several of the group gave a small laugh. Then the bell rang and most of the class ran to get their coats and boots. We can talk about it more when you come back on Tuesday. In the meantime, everyone, have a safe and happy weekend.

The group gathered just outside their single-story school next to the playground and waited. There were five of us from Miss Champion’s class grouped together. There was Philip DuBois, whose Metis roots date back some three centuries. He was fluent in English, Metises as well as a good knowledge of the local Ojibway dialect. Then comes Roger McKay, at five foot ten the tallest and most sports inclined of the group, playing basketball and volleyball but he was also our horror story/movie intellectual. Also, there is Johnny Smythe, who with fiery red hair and freckles is the shortest of the group at only five feet two. The lone girl of the group was Josie ‘Starbright’ Moon, her family was of the local Ojibwa tribe that had also settled in the North Bay region of Ontario. Though the youngest of the group, not yet having turned eleven. She was as smart as a whip when it came to the MST, Math, Science and Technologies. She was the go-to person for computer information. Bringing up the rear is myself, Tom, or Thomas to my mom, who I admit I was not too book savvy or great at sports, but I did always give it my best and well, Miss Champion seems to have seen something in me or us to have