An Unusual Set Of Clues
Hanna spent the morning looking at the shed from every angle.
The roof was intact. There was no broken slat. There was no removable panel.
Then she noticed it.
The back wall of the shed was right up against the back fence of the garden, with a narrow gap between them — about ten centimetres wide. From the outside this looked normal. From the inside, the back wall of the shed had a small horizontal slat, low down, that Hanna had never paid attention to before.
She got down on her knees inside the shed. The slat was hinged. It was hinged from the outside. From the inside, you could see the hinges if you knew where to look.
Hanna pushed it. The slat opened — outwards. Into the gap between the shed and the fence.
The opening was about thirty centimetres tall and forty wide. A small person could fit. A bicycle, on its side, could fit. With careful tilting.
Hanna sat back on her heels.
Somebody had been using the back of the shed as a private door. Probably for some time.
She looked harder. There were marks on the floor where a bike had been pushed through, repeatedly, on its side. Not yesterday — those marks had been wiped — but older marks underneath.
She looked at the gap behind the shed. The grass there was a little flatter. There was, in the soil at the base of the fence, a small smudge of bicycle oil.
The thief had not come in through the front door at all. They had