A Murder Mystery

It was a quiet morning on the 5th June 1973. Inside Happy Valley Secondary School, nothing special was happening. “It is a nice day,” Martha So, the school librarian thought. She closed her eyes and took a rest. Suddenly, she heard a noise. “Did anyone enter the library?” She wondered. She peeked around and saw the principal, Mr Lam, tiptoeing towards a row of old books near the back of the library.

“Good morning, Mr Lam.” She said. Mr Lam nervously jumped. He quickly hid something behind his back. When he turned around and saw Miss So. “Good morning, Miss So.” He smiled. But Miss So could feel that he was trembling with fear. She felt strange but didn’t ask him if there was a problem. “I must go now. Goodbye, Miss So.” Mr. Lam muttered and rushed out of the library quickly. Miss So was puzzled. “Is there something wrong?” She asked herself. She looked around the shelves and noticed something strange. She saw a book on the table. The book was called “The Chans- Hong Kong’s richest family”. It was an old book and the pages in the book were dirty. Miss So checked the book and found a page was missing. “I remember there was no missing page in this book. Did Mr. Lam tear it out?” She thought.

Mr Lam was sitting in his office and looking at the paper he had torn from the book. The page said that the Chan family was the richest in Hong Kong. Unluckily, all the family had died in an accident, except Adam Chan. The book had a code that Adam Chan had left after he died. “I must solve the code. There must be something.” He studied the code carefully but he couldn’t find any hints. He decided what to do next. “Give up or ask someone to help me?” He thought. He couldn’t trust anyone since he thought the code was a big secret. Suddenly, a person came to mind; a most suitable and dependable person!

Helen Ho was the school secretary, who also liked solving puzzles. She managed the school affairs very well and Mr. Lam trusted her. She was typing on the computer. “Helen,...