Rehearsals for the play called "the clown" were taking place in the village where the theater was rehearsing the enthusiasm was great, everyone was waiting for the premiere.
A few days before a mountain of actors arrived in the village, they were people that no one had seen yet, some of them were strange and reserved.
The rehearsals took place for about 2 days, having as the main protagonist an actor who would play the clown and would star in hilarious moments in a fun contest for adults and children, telling in a fun way how he had become a clown.
A group of village kids, Sam, Marie and John, got the idea that they liked being detectives and started investigating whenever they found something strange.
Every day they would meet in the attic of John's house, where they would talk about the next matter to investigate, once they found out who had stolen the bananas from Mrs. Smith.
They discovered that it had been a monkey that had been brought to the village by Mr Peter and he took care of him but he would leave the house and without anyone seeing he would put himself under Mrs Smith's bench and with his long arm he would start eating the bananas there.
There were only two days left for the play's premiere and something strange happened.
While Sam was with Marie by a fountain in the village they saw someone strange passing by the theater area, someone who didn't want to be seen it was around 9pm and it was already getting dark.
A figure of a man in a gabadine, dressed to the feet with a brimmed hat that covered his face, ran from place to place, hiding and spying to see if he was being seen until he entered through a back door of the theater.
"Sam saw what I just saw," Marie said quietly so as not to be overheard.
"Yes Marie, something strange is going on and one thing I can assure you is not good."
"We have to go quickly to the attic, call John, we have to tell him that we saw something about to happen."
It was around 10pm and the three friends were together in the attic.
"John today while we were near the fountain and as it was getting dark no one saw us, we saw a figure of a man in gabadine dressed to the feet and hat on his head hiding and peeking into the theater through the back door. Something serious is going to happen, We have to find out who this man is." she excitedly told him about the situation she had seen with Sam.
They arranged the next day without anyone seeing them enter the theater and see if they discovered anything strange backstage, they had to try to infiltrate without anyone seeing them, so they agreed that they would go in together at lunchtime when there was a break and the actors went to the cafeteria.
So it was the next day that the three friends met by the lake and as soon as it was noon and saw the actors leaving, they approached the theater door.
"Sam, see if the door is open," Marie was saying.
Sam tried to open the door, but it was closed, it was a tall solid wooden door with big locks.
"Marie, I can't open it, we'll never be able to get in" Sam said in a disappointed voice.
"Listen, you didn't say the figure of that suspicious man came in through the back door, let's see if the door is open" suggested John.
"Good idea, let's go, but carefully we don't know what might be inside." said Marie, always cautious.
As they tiptoed toward the back of the theater, they saw the form of a man that at least appeared to be a man walking through the back door – the same figure that Sam and Marie had seen the day before.
"And now?" asked John.
"We have to follow him, we have to see what he's hiding." said Sam.
So the three entered the theater inside it was very dark, it looked almost like a haunted room, there were many artifacts dressed in masks it looked like something terrifying.
The only light that existed was the stage light, everything else was dark. The three friends entered the exclusive wardrobe area, and heard something fall to the floor, it felt like something heavy, as soon as they heard the noise, a sound came a few steps away, it was footsteps.
Sam, Marie and John hide behind the dresses.
The figure started to approach and they saw that he was sabotaging all the actors' dresses, with something pointed he made several rips in the clothes and when he got to the clown mask he painted everything with red paint.
Someone didn't want the play to happen, someone was thirsty for revenge, and now they had to tell the police what they had seen.
They waited until they could no longer see the figure and very quietly left the theater.
Sam, Mary and John ran to tell the police what they had seen, but the police didn't seem to believe them very much.
A little over an hour later, screams began to be heard inside the theater and the police were called to the scene.
In the theater it was total despair. The actors, the director and some popular people couldn't believe what had happened.
The kids were right, the theater had been sabotaged, the dresses turned and painted and the clown mask was unrecognizable all painted red.
The police soon began to carry out the first interrogations that lasted all afternoon, between actors and the artistic director, everyone was called, but the children were also heard by the police who came to believe in them.
Marie had a plan to catch the criminal.
"We are going to set a trap, we are going to put posters around the village saying that the theater has been postponed due to what happened to another day to buy new dresses and that they would arrive the next day to the theater, but everything is a lie just an act, we also put a van to pretend he's unloading the actors' dresses and we wait for dusk hidden between the theater room chairs to see if the figure appears." Marie described the plan like this.
As absurd as it sounded, the police agreed and so it was done.
The posters were posted in the streets and a van with the inscription "theatre addresses" parked at the door and were intended to unload the new theater dresses.
The police hid among the theater chairs and waited for something to happen.
Finally, around 10pm, footsteps and a door slamming, a figure entered the theater stage and went to the dressing area.
The police waited until the figure suddenly returned to the stage and then Sam, Marie and John, who were also hiding, turned on the stage lights and the police caught this mysterious person in a gabadino dressed and a brimmed hat on his head.
When his hat was taken off, to everyone's amazement, it was Nathan the former actor who was supposed to play the clown, but was fired because he had already been caught stealing from the other actors.
He wanted everyone to pay for his dismissal and he wanted to sabotage the theater.
The police took the same to the prison, and the theater was postponed but after a week it really happened.
All thanks to the kids, the little detectives John, Marie and Sam.
