Nancy Drew to the Rescue

Well last night was a jarring reminder why my family cannot be in the same place for a prolonged period of time. I'm not talking about my immediate family.. we are always together, I'm talking about either side of my parents relatives (Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents, Cousins, etc.). Anyhoo yesterday was my brothers birthday and the only thing he wanted to do was to have a BBQ at the house with the family and a couple of is friends (cute huh?). I knew things were headed south at approximately 11:30 a.m. when my father phoned that he was going to pick my grandmother (his mom) up and bring her over already. My mother and I looked at each other puzzled and enraged. Not that my grandmother is a horrible person who is unbearable.. but she just kinda needs attention ALL the time. And, since we had so much to do before the festivities that night we didn't need that extra chore of pretending we were listening to her oh so fascinating stories about the Beauty Salon or the Doctors Visits. But, we bit the bullet and finished cleaning the house with her chit chattering into our ears the whole time. Flash forward a few hours.. Burgers are on the grill, there is a spread on the table, and the cake is set up in the living room. Things appear to be going well and we all enjoy our yummy BBQ.. but this my friends was just the calm before the storm. At about 8.30 p.m. my Aunt, Grandmother (mom side) and Grandmothers Sister (dunno what to call her lol) leave the getty. Ten minutes later the phone rings and a crime is reported, someone has stolen some cash from both my Grandmother and Aunts purses... but who? Upon receiving the information I decided to take on the case head-on, the problem was that no one was feeling especially cooperative.. and by 'no one' I mean the parents. Plan B soon took the lead...After leaking the information to a few choice people I began to observe the body language and 'words' that people were choosing.. I began systematically pointing the finger at different people to see what kind of reaction I got. I had my main suspect within the first fifteen minutes, but darn, no proof. Several solutions were suggested but my parents felt it was an invasion and an insult to make everyone a part of the 'find the thief' assembly line. I myself saw it in a different light.. I thought people would be delighted to prove their innocence to everyone else.. like I would have.. but alas all our ideas were shot down. I decided to divulge my main suspect at this time.. hoping that my reasoning and observances would force their suspect to confess.. but no bite. I did, however, bring several points to the table and got the masses talking. Everything seemed to be going smoothly until the unforeseeable happened.. my other Grandmother (who was literally sitting beside her purse the entire time she was at my house) and my other Aunt (who also didn't leave her purse alone) announced that money was missing from their purses also. Well when I heard this I decided to throw the case away.. this was turning into some kind of 'I need attention so I'll say what the other Grandmother and Aunt said an hour ago' thing.. and I was certainly not going to be a part of it. I washed my hands of the entire ordeal and decided instead to have a nice cup of coffee with my friends in the kitchen and chat about other assorted topics. The only thing I can say about my family is that we should not be together for very long. *cheers*