Post by dans on Jan 27, 2021 3:19:11 GMT
Clews with the Clue!
Old Acquaintance
Carol Clews and Dan Dare were sitting in their new office of the Daring Duo Detective Agency, having their morning coffee when the door opened a few inches and a a cop tentatively stuck his head in. An old cop, with white hair; a cop Dan recognized. "Why, Chris Dubard - I haven't seen you in over 40 years! Please come in!"
Dubard entered; there was the by-now-standard interplay between two old friends, one of whom had aged 40 years and the other only about 3 years since the last time they'd seen each other 40 years ago. "Chris, you look really great!" "Dan, you lucky guy, I heard about your long sleep. Wish I was still young!" "Well, I missed everything that happened in the last 40 years, and the world is way different, so it's not all as great as you think to still be a youngster. I've got so much to learn just to catch up!" Finally they wound down, and then Dan introduced his partner.
"Carol, you probably remember the San Diego Navy Yard case in 1940? You were investigating that WAC Captain that turned out to be a spy at the time, but I'm sure I told you about it." She nodded; in fact she'd just finished reviewing the case files. "Well, this is Chris Dubard - he was a just a rookie at the time, but he saved my life! Chris, this is my partner, Carol Clews."
"Wow, pleased to meet you, honey," the old cop practically fawned over Carol. "You sure are a looker! Wish I had a secretary looks like you!" Carol started a slow burn; that wasn't how she expected to be treated these modern days. And she wasn't a damn secretary any longer. But she held it in; this guy was an old friend of Dan's, and he had grown up in a different era. He probably thought he was treating her well.
"So, look, Dan, I'm going to retire in a few years. Right now I'm up for promotion, and if I get a promotion, it'll mean a nice bump in my pension. I'm trying to solve a case - corporate espionage - that nobody else can figure out. I wonder if I can tell you about it and you can give me some suggestions?" Of course, Dan was willing to help out his old friend.
Unsolvable Case
"Somebody stole some secrets from the Big Pharma Company and sold them to a rival, and the rival brought a pirate drug to market first that made them billions. But nobody knows who it was, there are a couple of dozen suspects, but none of them have shown any suspicious behavior since then, none of them has suddenly 'come into money' - nothing. We've investigated, even hired a big private detective agency to do a separate investigation - nothing. Not a clue."
The old cop talked for hours. He showed them pictures of all the suspects - every one of them thoroughly investigated and found clean, by police detectives and private detectives alike. There were group photos, reams of investigation reports, histories of all the suspects going back to their college days - none of them with the least clue. "We figure he's waiting until the heat dies down and then he'll run." Finally he wound down.
"Chris, I'm sorry, but from everything you've shown me, I've got no better idea who did it than you do," Dan admitted sadly.
"I think I..." Carol began, but Chris interrupted her.
"Are you sure, Dan? I've heard you're the best there is. If you can't help me, nobody can."
"I got nothing, Chris. But maybe Carol..."
The old cop impatiently interrupted his friend. "C'mon, what does a girl know, anyway?"
Carol stood up and deliberately dumped all of Chris's papers and photos on the ground. She grabbed one picture, a group photo of the Big Pharma Board of Directors, circled one man in the picture with a pen, and dropped the photo onto the pile of other documents and stormed out of the room, slamming the door. Chris left shortly afterward, and Dan spent a good couple of hours apologizing for his old acquaintance's behavior. Since it really wasn't Dan's fault, Carol eventually forgave him, and the episode was forgotten...
Unsolvable Case... Solved!
Until a week later, when the headlines of the day's paper told the world that SDPD Officer Chris Dubard, now Senior Detective Dubard, had solved a case nobody else could. Dubard had unerringly picked out the one suspect that no one else had been able to identify, and covertly established surveillance. Suddenly, with no warning, the suspect had purchased a plane ticket and attempted to leave the state, and Dubard had arrested him, grilled him, and this time, under Dubard's expert grilling, the suspect had finally admitted everything!
"And it's Angus McDoomsbane, the guy you circled in the picture!" Dan pointed out. "You nailed him! How'd you do it?"
"Well, there was a clue in that picture that everyone - including you, gumshoe - overlooked. On the table in front of this guy there was a pad of graph paper."
"And that was the clue? Give! I'm STILL clueless!" Dan was exasperated.
"Well... why would he have needed graph paper... unless he was plotting something?"