Sixty-Second Solutions 12

The moving truck backed up to Samantha Spade’s garage, its tires spinning in the freshly fallen December snow.

Samantha lifted the garage door. She had a book bag slung over one shoulder; inside were her copies of The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, and her two-volume Complete Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

Her father, Kent, jumped out of the driver’s side of the truck and almost slipped. He had left earlier two hours earlier to pick up the truck and cancel various utilities around town, including the electricity and telephone service.

“How you doing, sport?” he asked Samantha, adjusting the knot of his tie. “Did you get all that stuff stacked?”

She nodded her head. Behind her, on the concrete garage floor, were boxes filled with all their material possessions. Kent, a computer systems installer for CompuStall, had finished his work for the Sallami School System two weeks earlier

By this time next week, they would be in sunny New Mexico, where his next CompuStall job, wiring a security system for a Fortune 500 Company, was waiting. Kent had made Samantha stack all the boxes in the garage according to size, instructing her not to go inside the house until she had finished. The job had taken the better part of two hours.

The prospect of moving didn’t thrill Samantha. She and her dad had moved many times in the past few years, following Kent’s work across the country. He had been in the city of Sallami for longer than any past jobs, and Samantha had made quite a few friends.

She was going to miss Billy Archer, Flo Mason, Andy D’Brillo and the rest of her pals. Heck, she was even going to miss Vinnie Furnier, the teenager who lived across the street. He had given her some grief during her first few months in Sallami but had turned into a pretty decent sort after Samantha solved a mystery that allowed him to keep his job.

Solving mysteries was what Samantha did best. She was Sallami’s number one amateur detective, a title she relished. Now, she would have to start all over again, building a reputation in Newbury, New Mexico.

“What came in the mail?” Kent asked.

“The usual,” she answered glumly. Her steel-trap mind could have rattled off each envelope: A farewell card from Billy, two pieces of junk mail, an envelope from CompuStall, and a yellow envelope from a local company called TechSec.

“I’m cold, Dad,” Samantha said. “I’m heading inside.”

Her father opened the yellow envelope. “Sure, whatever,” he said.

Samantha had just stepped inside the back doorway and flipped on the light switch, brightening the kitchen, when her father sprinted after her.

“Hey, Sam, hold up for a minute, huh?” he gasped. “I forgot, there’s a box on the front porch that I need your help carrying.”

“Whatever,” she groused. “I’ll just go out the front door.”

“Better not,” said Kent. “You’ll just track the place up for the next owners. Come around this way.”

Together, they walked back down the sidewalk and around the side of the house, the wind gusting snow in all directions. Samantha noticed several sets of footprints leading to the front door.

“What’s this?” she asked.

Kent looked down at the footprints and said, “Must be from me carrying all those boxes out to the garage earlier this morning. Come on.”

Kent trudged up the front porch steps, still gripping the yellow envelope in his gloved hands. Samantha followed but continued to stare at the footprints, even as she walked over them.

Suddenly, she stopped and smiled.

Kent turned, saw her grin, and said, “Hey, Sam, we don’t have all day.”

“When were you going to tell me, Dad?”

“Tell you what?”

Sam ran to him and hugged him tight. “About your new job at TechSec, where you went for a final interview today, and how we don’t need to move after all. And how all my friends are waiting inside to surprise me with the news.”

WHAT SIX CLUES GAVE SAMANTHA’S FATHER AWAY? SEE BELOW FOR THE FINAL SOLUTION TO OUR SERIES.


Samantha picked up on six clues.

First, her father was wearing a tie when he came back with the moving van, slightly overdressed for that kind of work. Secondly, he was supposed to have all the utilities turned off, but when Samantha flipped on the light switch in the kitchen, it still worked. Third, Kent opened the yellow envelope from TechSec before he opened the letter from CompuStall, his employer. Fourth, all the tracks in the front lawn went toward the front door; none came back the other way. Fifth, her father had been gone for two hours, more than enough time for the three inches of new snow to cover the old tracks. Finally, Kent had not wanted her to walk through the house to get to the front porch; she would have seen her friends waiting there and spoiled the surprise.

Kent had been secretly interviewing for a new job to keep him and Samantha in Sallami. He didn’t want to get her hopes up, so he didn’t tell her about the interviews earlier. Meanwhile, he and Samantha packed for his next assignment.

When Kent went to his final interview, he learned TechSec had mailed a copy of his contract in a yellow envelope the day before. On the way home, he dropped off a key to the front door to Billy Archer and told him to call all Samantha’s friends for a surprise “Welcome Home” party while Samantha stacked boxes in the garage. He still picked up the moving van to keep Sam off guard until the very end.

But there’s yet to be a mystery that Samantha Spade, the Sixty-Second Solution, has been unable to crack, even when it involves her directly!

The End

So, this is the last installment of Sixty-Second Solutions. I enjoyed revisiting these, and I hope you—whoever you are—enjoyed reading them. 

I still have one more serial, Dog Daze, to share here. I'll put it on my radar for 2024.