Solve-it-yourself mystery
Detective Sal Morris and his partner, Dwight Allen, rushed into their small-town café—not to investigate a crime, but to escape the freezing cold and to have something warm to drink.
“We’ll have the usual, Kat!” Detective Morris called to the woman behind the counter, who smiled back and nodded.
“Two coffees, no milk, no sugar,” Kat recited in her usual cheerful voice. “Coming right up! It’s a little slow here today because of the cold and ice.” She had barely spoken the words when there was a loud noise just outside.
“That sounded like a car crash,” Detective Morris observed. Both he and Dwight quickly walked over to the picture window next to the front door, followed by the rest of the people in the café.
“Yep,” Sal sighed as he looked out. Just outside the window, two cars had collided and the two drivers were emerging from their slightly damaged vehicles. One of them, a young blond woman in a fur coat, was shouting at the other driver, a confused-looking middle-aged man who was rubbing his head.
“Looks like the young lady in the red car skidded into the wrong lane,” Kat said.
“Should we deal with this?” Dwight asked, turning toward his partner.
Reluctant to leave the warmth of the café, Sal Morris shook his head, pointing to the police car approaching the accident. “No…let’s leave it to them and just enjoy our coffee.”
The small crowd started dispersing from the window as the two detectives headed back to the counter to get their order. But when Kat opened the cash drawer to give Detective Morris his change, her face suddenly froze. “Oh, no—there’s not enough money in the till!”
“You don’t have change?” Detective Morris asked.
“No!” Kat’s voice shook. “I mean someone has stolen money from the drawer— almost $ 200 worth.” She pointed at one of the compartments that contained only a single twenty-dollar bill.
“So, someone took advantage of the commotion at the window,” Detective Morris said, turning to look at the guests in the café.
There were three of them, all men, and each of them sitting at individual tables alone. They all stared at Kat, in apparent shock. Detective Morris flashed his badge at them. “A crime has been committed, and this is now an investigation. I’ll ask each of you to join me one at a time in the kitchen for questioning.”
The first man breezed into the room confidently. “I was by the window the whole time, standing just behind the two of you,” he said. “To verify, I can tell you there was a girl in a red car, and it skidded into the wrong lane.
If you search me, you’ll find a few twenties in my wallet, but they’re all mine, I assure you.”
The second suspect seemed flustered. “How could I have taken the money? I was busy looking at the car crash! There were two cars that had collided head on—but since I’m color blind, I can’t tell you what color they were. The drivers were having an argument, the girl and that other guy.”
“I suppose it looks like I’m in trouble,” the third man said, wringing his hands. “I’d just been to the ATM before coming to this café, so I have a lot of cash on me. And I can’t prove my alibi when that money was stolen. Since there wasn’t much room at the window, I didn’t see as much as the others. But I did see the red car, and the blonde exiting it.
As soon as the last suspect left the kitchen, Detective Morris turned to his partner with a smile. “A clear-cut case, wouldn’t you agree?”