Even though it was Winter, the weather at Tumbling Twinns was very summery and as a result the Twinns had all tentatively changed back into their summer clothes, ever mindful about how quick cold weather can come along in spite of predictions by so called weatherwise groundhogs. Dawn was sitting on the balcony one morning, cleaning her gun and just enjoying the warmth under the shade of her umbrella.

Just then Skye came along, "Morning Dawn. Are you expecting to meet any bad guys?"
"Morning Skye, nah, this is one of those guns that has a flag that comes out with "Bang" written on it."
"Phew, thats a relief. Are you enjoying the nice warm weather?"
"Definitely, it's such a lovely day today. It looks like that sister of yours was spot on with her weather predictions again."

"Yep, Jessie is really good at it, even long distance weather isn't too much of a problem. I like your umbrella, its really nice."
"Oh, you mean my Dolly Brolly?"
"Is that what it's called?"
"Yes, and it does have a kind of sentimental value to it. It comes from one of our early cases."

"You mean the famous "Lost Umbrella" case?"
"That's the one, the owner gave it to me after we had recovered it."
"Wow, that's mighty generous of them. Don't you want to tell me the story? I like to hear these things so that I can get my detecting procedure smoothed out. I have to write an exam on it one of these days if I am to get my Dolly Detective Silver Grade qualification."
"Well, I haven't got much else to do this morning, and I have just finished cleaning my gun. Pull up a piece of carpet, and lets adjust the brolly a bit so that it shades us both and I can tell you all about the lost umbrella."

"One day, shortly after we had opened up C&D, I got a call from some guy called Jeeves. He said that his master had asked him to contact a detective as he had a mystery that needed solving. And could we come right away?"

"Caitlyn was at the records office researching some guy who had reneged on his pet licence tax so I had to make the trip uptown to the apartments where this guy lived. I buzzed myself in and caught the lift up to the 42nd floor. Jeeves opened the door and showed me into the office where his master seemed to spend his day. The client was Oliver Philpot-Smythe, famous socialite and playboy."

"This guy was as smooth as polished ice Skye, he was still lounging around in his smoking jacket when I arrived and I suspect he spent a lot of time in it."
"I will come to the point detective. My man Jeeves, found your name in the yellow pages and the only reason he engaged your services was because Acme didn't answer the phone and Bravo were too busy. I hope that you will not disappoint us."
"That immediately got my gander up, but it seemed as if he wasn't being nasty or hoity-toity, just stating the facts."
"I need you to please find my brolly detective, I seem to have misplaced it."
"Your brolly? you mean your umbrella?"
"That's the one. It is a fold up one, short and black with a roundish handle and it has "Air Canada" written on it in red. It has sentimental value. I suspect I left it at the airport when I returned from my last trip to Canada to see how my latest lumber plant is doing. Naturally I will give you a letter of authorisation to claim said umbrella if you find it, and under no circumstances must this umbrella be opened."
"Naturally I wondered why he just didn't phone the lost property office at the airport instead of hiring a detective, but who was I to question his motivation? I decided to accept the job on behalf of C&D and swiftly got his signature on the paperwork and a retainer."

"I then caught a bus to the airport and quickly found the lost property counter. A young Twinn was working at the counter. And, lucky for me it was somebody we all know today as Amanda. She was helping out between studies and this is where I first met her."

"Amanda was kind enough to show me to the "Lost Umbrella Division" at the Lost Property Office and I rummaged around there for 2 hours. Skye, you would not believe how many different shapes, sizes, colours and types of umbrella's there are".

"Eventually I managed to narrow the field down to the foldup section and finally found the missing Air Canada umbrella that Oliver Philpot-Smythe was after. Once I had that all I needed to produce to Amanda was the special letter from Olie to say that I was authorised to claim said umbrella and return it to it's rightful owner."

"Amanda swiftly drew up the paperwork and by the afternoon I was knocking at the door of the penthouse. Jeeves let me in once again, his nose in the air and his voice like ice. "I have the missing brolly Jeeves. Let me see Mr Philpot-Smythe please." Once again Oliver Philpot-Smythe was sitting in his leather chair in his smoking jacket".
"Well detective? have you had any success?"
"I sure have Mr Philpot-Smythe. I have your brolly right here, as far as I can ascertain it has not been opened either". I handed it over and he quickly pushed a button which unfolded the handle. A piece of paper fell out of the handle.
"Aha! it's still here! thank you detective."

"I was dumbstruck. Inside the handle of the umbrella was the winning lottery number! no wonder Oliver was so desperate to get his brolly back! He would have lost out on $20 million!"
"Goodness gracious." Skye said, "what a strange person. Naturally he never told you about that ticket before he sent you searching."
"I don't really blame him. I often think what would have happened if I had opened the brolly and found that ticket, or if Amanda had."
"Well, I am sure both of you would have handed it over to it's rightful claimant."
"You are correct Skye, that's what a proper detective does. Although there are days when I wish I had opened that umbrella and found that ticket."
"Anyway, what happened then?"

"Oliver paid me what he owed C&D, plus he added a small tip and as an after thought gave me the umbrella as a keepsake."
"And what happened to Oliver Philpot-Smythe? did he get to claim his millions?"
"Yes he did, but the funny thing is that he had to give it all to the taxman as he had some back taxes which needed settling. He ended up working as a hamburger flipper at "Al's Burgers and Dogs." while Jeeves is working as a cocktail waiter at a sleezy joint downtown. I occasionally pop in to see Olie, he didn't turn out to be such a bad guy after all and he does make a mean garlic burger. "