Notes stuck on our front door

The nasty notes continue to be stuck on our front door. They usually just say, 'Bog off' or 'Get lost'. There's only been one with a letter on the back, 'Dear Amy... You bitch. You smell in the sun, you smell under the moon.' Just weird rubbish, just kids...

I expected Amy to be upset, instead she seems to be caught up in it all, this is her summer holiday adventure. She and her friend Tayba, who lives next door, are investigating spies. When a new note is stuck she's told me not to put it in the bin because she needs to check for clues.

When one came yesterday she said, 'I need to see that, let me check for brass rubbings. Can I have a coin?'

So I gave her a coin, unfortunately she didn't find the vital brass rubbing to pinpoint the evil note stickerer.

She and Tayba have linked these nasty notes to the disappearance of Tayba's scooter from her front garden a week ago, and also the loss of Amy's Tamagotchi from Amy's school bag in June. They fear it may be linked to the 'person who did kidnappings,' he was in the paper. They spend a lot of time discussing how to catch the thief, note-writer, and potential kidnapper, and bring him to justice.

The thing is I'm caught up in it too. The last note was stuck with glue instead of white tac, why was that? And the weirdest mystery is that Amy knows Tayba and Matthew on her road, but no one else, yet the note used her name. Who else could know her name? And who could want to be mean to her?

It can't be Matthew, who's only 5 and would never be allowed out unsupervised. This means the prime suspect has to be Tayba, but she's a nice girl, and Amy's new best friend. It doesn't seem likely, but who else could it be?

Yesterday Amy screamed as a handwritten letter was posted through the door. She shouted, 'Mum, quick!' So we both ran to the window to see if we could see who'd posted it.

Tayba was in the street, she saw us and gave a sheepish wave. I picked up the letter, and opened it nervously. It was an invite to the sale of some toys. And now I had another clue... A sample of Tayba's handwriting!

But I didn't even need to hold her letter near one of the nasty notes, her writing was obviously different, her writing was neat, the notes were messy scrawls.

So it obviously wasn't Tayba. But as I was putting Amy to bed, she told me, 'Tayba told me she used to be friends with Matthew, but she stopped being friends when Matthew stuck rude notes on her door.'

TO BE CONTINUED...

Is that what they say in Columbo or Murder She Wrote? I wish it wasn't still going on, but as it is I'm going to solve this. I'm thinking sand on the doorstep, we'll get footprints. Amy knows what kind of trainers Matthew wears. Or we might get lucky and find a brass rubbing on the next note...