Sherlock Holmes in the kitchen

The crime scene was brutal. On the kitchen counter a murdered plastic horse dripped with 'blood'.

Next to the carcass was a note. It read:

I've killed this horse for dinner! 

There are so many carnivores in this house, you'll never figure who I am! 

Bwahahaha! 

Signed, 'L'

From across the kitchen, a Fisher Price toy screeched, "It was terrible! I saw the whole thing! There was a loud roar, then a flash of brown, then the horse was dead! Oh somebody help!"

Sarah, Matthew and Daniel came running in to the kitchen, and with surprised glances at each other took in the entire scene. They read the note and investigated the carcass.

Daniel solemnly proclaimed, "Yup, it's dead alright." Matthew whispered, "How can plastic be dead? It never lived!" Dan replied with finality, "No, no. It's DEAD."

The witness toy sobbed and begged for the criminal to be found. He proclaimed no toys would sleep safely that night with the crimnal on the lose. (By the way, this toy's name is BobJohn.)

The letter was bagged as evidence to use in court, and the children dashed to every room of the house, searching each toy box for brown carnivores and arresting them on suspicion for murder. They did a thourough job of it. Our police lineup included tiger puppets, plastic lions and lion puppets, two T-Rex dinosaurs, stuffed dogs (including a Doberman wearing bunny ears....he's trying too hard to look innocent, I think!), and our cat, who was caught sulking under the couch (isn't that very suspicious behavior?).

The line up of suspects

Saffron topped the list of suspects

The 'policeman' (who was really Matthew), asked BobJohn to recall the crime scene. What exactly did he see?

"He was running on four legs and moving really fast!" (The kids removed the innocent citizens during the monologue, so the T-Rex toys were set free at this point, even though I would never trust a T-Rex.)

"He was all brown...I didn't see black markings anywhere." (The tigers, a pug, and the doberman were shown the door.)

"He was twice the size of me!" (Goodbye teeny plastic lions, huge lion puppet, and the live cat.)

It was narrowed down to a lion puppet, Sir Scruffyneck. Sir Scruffyneck wailed and demanded to call his lawyer.

Amazingly, the court was unscheduled that afternoon, so the trial was set to commence in 5 minutes. (Oh I love the efficiency of imaginary judicial systems!)

The prosecuting attorney scrambled to build his case agianst Sir Scruffyneck, and the list of witnesses was assembled.  While I ran to the kitchen to get dinner into the oven (and think up the arguments that would be presented in court) the children constructed a courtroom out of dollhouse furniture.

Oh this is too much fun! What a fun game to play! I think I'm having as much fun as the kids!

The trial itself will begin in Part 2 of this story.