Encyclopedia Brown

Be the detective. In this story, read as a detective would: look for the clue.

One word, four meanings. The word case can mean:

• a situation: 'Lalit said he could not sing, but that was not the case' (that was not the real situation);
• a matter for a court: 'The lawyer was waiting for the case to be taken up in court';
• a container: 'My pencil case is a gift from my grandmother';
• a writing format: 'The subject of a formal letter is written in title case'.

The title, 'The Case of the Fifth Word', uses the court-and-crime meaning: a mystery to solve.

Meet Encyclopedia Brown. He lives in Idaville, USA. His father is the Chief of Police. Though he is only in the eighth grade, he often solves mysteries the police cannot, and he does it at the dinner table.

When Chief Brown meets a case he cannot solve, he acts at once: 'He cleared his desk, put on his hat, and went home to dinner. Encyclopedia solved the case for him before dinner was over.'

Nobody talks about it.

• Chief Brown would love to tell everyone, but who would believe that the best detective alive was an eighth grader?
• Encyclopedia never speaks of the help he gives, because he does not want to seem different from other boys.

The nickname. An encyclopedia is a book (or set of books) full of facts from A to Z. So was his head! He read more books than anyone in Idaville, and never forgot a fact. His pals said he was 'a library and a computer rolled into one'. Only his parents and teachers call him by his real name, Leroy.

Tuesday night. At dinner, Chief Brown stares at his soup. His wife and son know what that means: a mystery he cannot solve. 'Tim Nolan died yesterday,' he says, in a matter-of-fact manner (plainly, without showing feeling).

The facts:

• Five years ago, two masked men held up (robbed with a threat of violence) the Diamond Mart on Sixth Avenue, and got away with a million dollars' worth of jewellery;
• Nolan was questioned, not arrested. Chief Brown always believed Nolan and a friend, Daniel Davenport, did it, but there was no proof.

More facts:

• Nolan and Davenport met in prison in South Carolina and became friends because of shared interests;
• Nolan got out first, settled in Idaville and started a small palm-tree nursery (where young plants are grown to sell) that barely earned him a living;
• Davenport came to live with him a week before the hold-up, and has not been seen since.

Why no arrest? During the hold-up a mask slipped, and a clerk thought she recognised Nolan, but she was not sure and refused to testify (give evidence in court). The jewellery never turned up (was never found). Officers Lewis and Maloney had just searched Nolan's house: nothing.

The will. Nolan had a bad heart. Yesterday morning he had a stroke. Knowing he was dying, he used his last strength to put his will on the kitchen table, leaving everything, including the nursery, to Davenport.