She put down the book and looked around. The walls were spotless and perfectly clean. The women that sat in chairs all around her were all relaxing in massage chairs, with their feet in a foot bath, cucumbers on their eyes, and their hair in towels. They all seemed to be completely relaxed, but everything is not always as it seems. Ladies flicked and fluttered all over the place carrying various beauty supplies. Some were paining nails, while others were styling hair. Its funny how a place that seemed so normal could turn into a place full of suspicion.

Mandy Thompson had decided to go the spa to just get a day off of all of the hustle and bustle of being a detective in a big city. Ever since moving to New York City, she had been constantly on the go being on case everywhere. Mandy needed a break from her crazy, hectic life, and she had heard of this new spa, so she decided to leave the city behind, and see what the spa was all about. Mandy had been staring contently at her book for the past hour or so. The words seemed to dance across the page and began to make Mandy slightly sleepy; out of the blue, a shrill scream pierced the peaceful air. “My necklace! It’s gone!” a lady shrieked, and caused Mandy to suddenly look up from her book. It seemed as if everything at that moment, came to an abrupt stop. The scene seemed to be frozen in time. Then panic struck. Women’s screams penetrated the silence, but Mandy seemed to be the only one who remained calm.

Setting her book down on the table beside her massage chair, Mandy decided that she was the only one who knew what to do. Taking a deep breath, she stood up and said, “It’s okay guys it’s not like a thief could have gotten in here so fast. We were the only ones here, so it appears that someone here must be the thief.” Gasps and accusing glances shot across the room. No one seemed to know whom they could trust.
“Everyone please. We shouldn’t make accusations unless we know for certain who the suspects are,” Mandy exclaimed.

“And how would you know?” questioned one of the workers, Hannah Choi. The whole group of ladies muttered their agreeance.

“Well… Let’s just say it’s good you have a detective with you,” Mandy explained.

“Oh my word!” cried one of the ladies. “I can’t believe we actually have a detective with us! This case is going to be so exciting!”

The ladies began to surround Mandy asking her questions and trying to see if she had any leads yet. From out of the mass of people, Mandy observed that one person seemed to be especially quiet. This lady had been a long-time employee of the salon and had always been especially reserved. Mandy, being a detective, was always very observant and appeared to be the only one to notice this lady, Li Su. Another observation Mandy made was that the lady who had lost the necklace, Sarah Thompson, was extremely talkative, very jittery, and appeared nervous. Although, it appeared as though she wasn’t just anxious because of her missing necklace, but there seemed to be another reason, and Mandy intended to find out just what that reason was.

The thing about suspicions is that you can never know for sure who the true suspect is until you observe them closely and ask them questions. First, Mandy decided to approach the suspicious employee. She went up to the lady, and by reading Li Su’s body language; she could tell that she was very anxious.
“I’m sorry to say this, but you are on my list of suspects. You seem to be very anxious and you distance yourself from others. I would just like to know why?” questioned Mandy.

“I’m… Sorry…” muttered Li. “I just haven’t been myself lately. It’s just my dog recently passed away and I loved it so much. Her name was Lillie. The reason I distance myself is because I feel that no one understands. I’m sorry you think I’m your crook, but I swear I’m not your necklace thief.” Li replied in her broken English. The thing was that Mandy believed every single word the poor girl was saying, and she knew she wasn’t the thief. She was just broken hearted from loosing her dog, so Mandy was left with only one more suspect.

Mandy spotted Miss Sarah Thompson standing in the middle of a group of women, sobbing. “I can’t believe I would loose my grandmother’s necklace. She gave it to me on her deathbed,” she wailed. Mandy headed over to Sarah and said to her, “When I first revealed that I was a detective you appeared to be very jittery and even more tense then you were before. May I ask why that was?”

“Well… That necklace is very important to me. I was given to me by my grandmother,” Sarah sobbed. “I would certainly hope that you wouldn’t accuse me of making this whole thing up.” Sarah appeared to have been completely truthful throughout the duration of her story.

“Ah! The stinkin’ water won’t drain in my foot bath!” yelled one of the ladies.
“Hey guys! Maybe it’s the necklace! Maybe it fell off and went down the drain!” Mandy exclaimed. An employee went over to see what the problem was. She had to disassemble the whole foot bath and the pipes. “Oh my gosh!” screamed the employee. “Guess what I just found!?”

“What?” everyone replied.

“The necklace!” said the employee.
“See guys I was right it did go down the drain, and no one was our thief.” Mandy affirmed. As it turned out, the necklace had accidentally fallen off, and had slipped down the drain. Mandy was right, and had solved yet another case, even while not on duty. No one had stolen the necklace, and everyone went home happy from their day at the spa.