Mary thought her brother Sam was a spoiled, little demon that was made to make life miserable for his siblings, especially Mary. Mary’s mother always thought that Sam was the nicest and sweetest little child she ever had. But behind her back he would do the most annoying pranks to Mary and her siblings Zack and Danny who were twins that were 11 years old. That little 5-year old kid was pretty smart, just in a bad way, though.
The worst thing he ever did was when it was Mary’s 14th birthday and Sam put a little meat in her cake. When it was time to eat the cake, Rufus, Mary’s dog, jumped up and ate the whole thing. Mary’s mom thought Rufus just ate the cake because he is a dog, but Mary could tell that Sam put meat in it because he had a little, evil smirk on his face, which was wiped off whenever her mom looked over at him.
Mary never showed her love for Sam and Sam didn’t show any love to Mary.
“Mary! It is time for school!” shouted mom.
“Ughhhhhh!” cried Mary.
Mary lived in a small town called Kingsbury in the middle of Kansas.
Sam was already up and ready to go to his kindergarten class. He was an organized kid and was easily the smartest in his grade. Maybe even in the 1st grade too. Mary was a straight B student. She got lots of B’s with an occasional A or a C.
The twins were already on their way to school as usual. They hadn’t been tardy or absent once this semester.
“Coming!” screamed Mary. She and Sam walked out the door, following the twins a mile behind them. It is about a 15-minute walk to Frankly School, named after the great Peter Frankly who invented the pocket size umbrella 67 years ago.
Once Mary and Sam arrived at school, the bell just happened to ring and they were just in time. It was another long day for Mary. Mary never liked school. There was nothing fun to do there, just stupid subjects like math or reading. When the last bell rang she rushed outside to wait for Sam. She kept on waiting and waiting and after 10 minutes flew by, she realized that her mom probably just picked him up from school.
When she arrived home she went upstairs to go watch TV. Then her mom yelled, “Hey, Mary and Sam!”
“Wait a minute?” Mary thought. “Mary and Sam? I thought that Mom picked up Sam from school. Whatever, maybe Sam is somewhere downstairs playing with his friends and was dropped off by his friend’s mom or dad.”
After about a half an hour, Mary decided to go downstairs and have a little snack.
She asked her mom, “So what friends of Sam’s are here?”
Her mom had a confused look on her face, “He has friends over? And he isn’t even downstairs. I checked. I thought he was upstairs with you.”
Mary hesitated to say anything, “I, I was just kidding around with you. He is upstairs. Umm… April fools!” Mary realized that it was May 21st.
“Uhh… I have to go upstairs,” squeaked Mary. She ran upstairs not knowing what to do. So she just sat there staring at a wall. After an hour of doing nothing she realized that her mom left to go shopping. She went downstairs and saw a pad of paper on the kitchen counter and it said:

Dear Whoever This Is,


I’m guessing you are wondering where your little friend Sam is. All I can say is that he is with me in a place where you will never expect. We’re not joking. Don’t worry; I am not going to hurt him. If you follow my clues, you will find Sam and I will give him back to you for free. All you have to do is to follow my three clues. Each clue will lead you to the next clue. The clues can be found anywhere. Here is your first clue:

This clue will be in a bank in your town, Kingsbury. This bank was founded in the year when Israel became a country. In fact, the owner’s name is Israel. But I know where you always are. So you can only visit one place. You can’t visit two or more places, so choose your place to visit wisely. Or else I will move it to another destination or I will keep Sam forever.

That is all I can say.






From,






Unknown
P.S. I give a hint in every letter that gives away the answer to where you will find the next clue.


Mary couldn’t breathe. She didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t just call the police and tell them because they wouldn’t believe her, like always. So all she could think of is to just start researching. She went online to kingsbury.org and looked at all of the links:

Ice Rinks
Schools
Stores
Train Stations
Banks

“There! Banks!” She clicked on the link and it showed all of the banks in Kingsbury, Kansas. There were so many, maybe 30 banks! So she clicked on the first bank, Higgins’s Bank. It said it was founded in 1995.
She thought to herself, “It can’t be Higgins Bank because Israel was founded somewhere in the 40’s or 50’s.”
She started to research about Israel and found out that it was declared as a country in the year of 1948. After about 20 unsuccessful banks, there were only 6 banks left. There was Klein’s, First Bank of Kingsbury, Kingsbury Bank, Novak, Derlinbread, and Money Bank. She clicked on Klein’s and read the whole biography,

“This is one of them! It was established in 1948 and the owner’s name is Israel Ishkabennerman!” Mary shouted. “O.K, one more bank.” The First Bank of Kingsbury, Kingsbury Bank, and Novak were all impossible to be it. Mary selected Derlinbread and read the history of it.
“Once again, this is one of them, too! Established in 1948 and the owner’s name is Israel Pesklaslovakiaderlinbreadsky!”
Mary laughed gleefully. But now Mary had to find out which one is the bank where the next note is going to be.
Mary was so happy because she figured out the two banks where the note could be, that she was running around the house having a great time, when she hasn’t even figured out the first clue yet! She had about an hour and a half until her mother was going to come home. She knew that she didn’t have enough time for three clues so she decided to go to the Kingsbury Library so she wouldn’t have to see her mother throw a tantrum that Sam was missing.

She kept on rereading the note that the mysterious person left. Then she noticed something. In the note, the unknown person had written, “We’re not joking.”
Mary remembered when she was reading about the history of Derlinbread and the motto of Derlinbread was, “We’re not joking.”
“That is it! The next note has to be in Derlinbread Bank!” She sprinted to Derlinbread Bank, which was a 20-minute run. She looked around inside. There was nothing there.
“Maybe it is in the restroom,” Mary whispered to herself. She went inside and once again, no notes were to be found.
Mary was as nervous as could be. If she went in the wrong bank, she may never see her little brother again and she would be grounded for a year, since her mother is like a magnet to Sam and can’t live without him. So far, she had checked every room in the bank, including the staff room! There was only one room left though, the boy’s bathroom. She took a deep breath and walked in.
As soon as she walked in, the smell of all of the yucky toilets rushed to her nose, which caused her to run out quickly. She knew she had to try again to find the note, so on her second try, she plugged her nose before she entered. She rushed inside and looked around. There was nothing there, once again. Then she checked inside the only stall, and there it was. An orange note was in the toilet.
“Why does the note have to be in the toilet?” she said to herself. She looked around for a plunger or something. All there was in sight was she and the toilet. Mary reached in with her hands, hoping that she could only feel a piece of paper, not a liquid. She grabbed hold of the note and sprinted out of the bathroom and then outside, next to a bench. She opened the note:

Dear Mary,


And yes, I now know what your name is. Don’t ask why. Since I know what your name is, I will tell you mine. My name is Jon. This isn’t my first kidnapping I have done. This will be my 112th kidnapping. See, all of my kidnaps are like games for me. I will give back the kid only if you figure out the clues. Out of my 112 kidnappings, only 94 people got their kids back by figuring out the clues. The rest of the kids are with me, in my house. I treat them like my own kids though. I give them a fair amount of food; breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and I read them stories when they go to bed. Every once in a while I ask them if they want to go back to their families and all of them say, ‘No.” Sam doesn’t hate me or anything, he actually is having fun playing with his new friends at my home. So here is my next clue that will follow you to the last clue. Here is your clue:
The next clue will be in a bowling alley in your city, Kingsbury.

That is all I can say.

Good luck!






Sincerely,







Jon

This time Mary wasn’t as panicked. First of all, her brother is ok, and secondly, she had already figured out the first clue. She went to the telephone booth to find all of the bowling alleys. There were only two in her area, Strike and 112 Alley. She hesitated, 112 Alley sounded really familiar. She recognized the name from the letter. “That is it! It is called 112 Alley and this is Jon’s 112th kidnapping!” she said with a big grin on her face. The only problem was that 112 Alley was in Gleeson Park and Gleeson Park was around 8 miles away. She couldn’t take a cab because she only had 6 dollars on her and a taxi ride costs about 20 bucks.

She knew just the thing to do. She remembered she had her cell phone in her pocket and called her brother’s old babysitter, Max, to drive her to 112 Alley.
“Hello? Oh, hey Max. Can you please drive your car to the Derlinbread Bank? Why? Ummm, well I will tell once you come over here. Thanks so so so so much Max! Three minutes? Ok, thanks! Bye!” After three minutes, Max showed up and said, “Hop in!” Mary rushed in and said, “Hi, can you please drive me to 112 Alley?” “Why?” asked Max. “Uhhhhh, I will tell you later” said Mary. “Whatever,” Max said. After 8 minutes, they arrived at the bowling alley.
“Max, can you stay here and wait for me? I will be out any minute,” asked Mary.
“Fine,” said Max. Max was such an outgoing person. He could only say, “Yes, sure, or fine,” That is why Mary’s mother fired him.
Once Mary entered the alley, she really didn’t know where to look. She went over by the arcade and looked around. Mary caught something in the corner of her eye. There was the third note, right in the Claw Machine. The instructions said 25 cents per turn. Luckily she had some money on her, but no quarters. Mary went up to the front desk and asked for some change. She got 24 quarters and that means she had 24 tries. She put all 24 coins in so she would have the 24 turns. After 18 turns, she felt that she didn’t have any luck in getting the note. Then there was no turns left and she was in no luck getting the note out of the machine. She walked away from the machine, sobbing in grief. She looked back and saw a little boy carrying the note in his hands with a big smile on his face.
Mary sprinted to the boy and asked, “Can I please have that note?” “No way, Jose!” screamed the little boy.

Mary wouldn’t let that kid get away with the note, so she found a cup of soda that was half full and once again asked the boy, “Ok, here, can I will trade you this yummy cup of soda for that little tiny note?”
“Are you stupid? Everyone knows I don’t like soda,” screeched the little boy.
Mary threw away the cup and just snatched the note away from the boy. The boy started to cry hysterically and his mother went up to him to ask him what was wrong. That was a sign to Mary that she should be leaving now.
She ran outside, into the parking lot, and found Max there waiting for her. She went in and said, “Thanks for waiting for me. Now let’s go to Derlinbread Bank.”
“I would really appreciate it if you told me what you are doing,” said Max.
“Well, too bad because I am not going to tell you,” said Mary. Max and Mary went off to Derlinbread Bank. Max dropped her off with a confused look on his face. She rushed inside and sat on a couch and read the note. It said:

Dear Mary,


I am very impressed on how well you are doing. The next and last clue will be in the bathroom of a restaurant. That is all I can say.







Sincerely,







Jon

Mary thought there was no way she could find the next clue. There was no clue in the note. So, she just tossed the note into the air and it landed on the back side of the note. Mary saw some text on it. It was the menu of the restaurant, Benny’s Diner.
“Benny’s Diner must be the place where Jon is holding Sam. But where is Benny’s Diner? I have never heard of it,” Mary whispered to herself.
She went up to one of the people who had a computer with her at the front desk of the bank and asked to search for the restaurant, Benny’s Diner. She searched for it on the internet and after a minute she said it is on Henway Street. Mary didn’t know where Henway Street was, so there was only one person she knew that had a GPS system. That was once again, Max. She called up Max and amazingly he came. He typed in Benny’s Diner into the GPS and they were off driving again. Once they arrived, Mary walked into the restaurant and rushed into the women’s room. There was Sam, just standing there waiting for Mary.
Mary ran to him and gave him a big hug. “I missed you so much, Sam. Are you ok?” asked Mary.
“Well, first, get off of me because hugging me is really gross and
second off, I had a really fun time. Dad was so nice to me,” said Sam.
“Dad? Well, don’t do that ever again. Why did you go with him after school?” asked Mary. “I didn’t, in the middle of school the office called and said that my father was picking me up. I was really excited because I haven’t seen Dad in my whole life. So I went outside and there he was, standing there with his arms out to catch me,” said Sam.
Mary and Sam had never met their father because he left his family right when Mary was born and Sam had a different father than Mary. Both Mary and Sam have met Sam’s real father and Sam knows his father as Mary’s real father.
“So, that was our dad the whole time?” asked Mary.
“Yes,” said Sam.
“So, where is he now?” asked Mary.
“Sitting over there by the register,” said Max.
Mary ran over to her father. “Dad? Is that really you?” asked Mary.
“Mary! So how did you like that little treasure hunt I gave you?” asked Mary’s father.
“Treasure hunt? You mean this was a little treasure hunt the whole time? So were you just joking then that you kidnapped 112 kids?” asked Mary.
“Yes I was,” said her father. “I called your mother and told her that I had Sam and that I sent you off to go find us.”
Mary was kind of embarrassed that she had fallen for the joke. But she was also proud of herself that she figured out all of the clues. She felt furious with her father that he would do such a mean thing like that. How could her father be like that? Mary was a little nervous to be with her real father, but accepted him. They went outside and Mary told Max everything. Then she told him to drive home while Mary and Sam went with their father.
When they got home, Mary rushed into the house before anyone else did and found a note on the kitchen counter. It read:

Dear Mary,


Hello! I have your mother with me in a place you will never find.

Good Luck!







Sincerely,







Jon

“I knew there was something suspicious about that cruel man!” screamed Mary.