Please click here for, ‘The Mystery of The Deforested Woods (Chapter 3: Suspects)’
They all thought hard. “I know!” shouted Pete. “I think I know the person who cut down the trees in the woods. Henry! It should be him. It can’t be Ivan; because if Ivan cut down the trees, there won’t be any noise so we won’t be hearing the clattering sound. But first, we need to find out more information about Henry and Ivan. All lumberjacks in this country must be members of the Lumberjack Club and we can check their resumes at the club office,” continued Pete.
Safora and Mic volunteered to go to the Lumberjack Club to check if Henry and Ivan are members of the club. An hour later, they returned to Mic’s house with good news.
“Okay,” started Safora. “We have good news. They are both members of the Lumberjack Club and here is what we found out about them.” She took out her note-book and read, ” Henry is now 57 years old. He was born in Dillenburg, Netherlands. And Ivan is now 53 years old. He was born in the lands of Kolomenskoye, Russia.”
“And I have another good news,” said Mic excitedly. “Tomorrow my father is going to Russia and he is taking Reen and I along for a holiday. We’ll try to see if we can find more information about Ivan as our father will be meeting his old friend, a lumberjack named Akbar over there. Akbar was born in India but he now lives in Russia. Our father said that some of Akbar’s fingers had turned crooked or pointy, I can’t remember which; so he wants to visit him and see if he can help Akbar.”
“Where was Akbar born, Mic?” asked Pete.
“Agra, near the Taj Mahal. And I’ll try to ask him questions to find out if he came to Woodsland recently,” answered Mic.
The next day, Mic and Reen were very excited; they could hardly wait for the time to go to the airport. Their flight to Russia would be departing from the Woodsland International Airport or WIAIR at 12 o’clock noon and they were going to the airport two hours earlier. Mic and Reen said goodbye to Pete and Safora, and they promised to bring back something special from Russia for their friends.
“When will you be back from Russia?” asked Safora.
“We’ll be there for six days and we will be arriving back here at 7 o’clock in the morning on Monday,” answered Mic. “I have never been to Russia before and I hope that it is going to be fun over there,” continued Mic. Safora and Pete said goodbye to Mic, Reen and their parents as they departed for the airport.
Six days later at 7 o’clock in the morning, an AeroBratsk aeroplane landed on Woodsland International Airport’s runway from Russia. Fifteen minutes later, out came some Russians from the aeroplane. Then a boy with his little brother walked out from the aeroplane together with their parents, followed by an Indian man. It was Mic and Reen and their parents. They came back to Woodsland together with their friend Akbar.
Two hours later, Pete, Safora, Mic and Reen got together at Mic’s house. They were so happy to see each other again. Mic and Reen told Pete and Safora about their experiences in Russia and gave them some beautiful Russian Nesting Dolls, snow globes and some Russian postage stamps. Akbar saw the children talking excitedly to each other in the garden, so he walked towards them. Reen introduced Akbar to Pete and Safora and as Akbar decided to join them, they could not discuss about the mystery. Looking at each other, they wondered, who could be the lumberjack who cut down the trees in the woods ….
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