Chapter 4 – Eggs-amining the evidence
Back at CSA, Dave sat down on his reclining office chair and pulled a pack of mints from the desk drawer. “Right Brian, what do we have so far?” as he skilfully flicked a mint in the air and caught it in his mouth. “We don’t have very much. We have a bunch of headless chickens who didn’t notice that a hundred eggs had been taken right from underneath their beaks; we have all the sheep bar one, none of the Barn sisters, none of the Bacons and only Pumpkin the pony who maybe heard the farm van and some footsteps”
“Calm down Brian” urged Dave. “We’ve made a good start but got plenty more stones to turn over before we get to the bottom of this one.” Dave went on, sensing that they still had work to do to solve the case, “I just think we need to take a step back and work through what we know already”.
Dave got up from his chair and ambled over to the big white board on the wall. This is where the agents would display their clues and try to see connections. Dave picked up the non-permanent marker and began to scribble. “So we know that all the hens except for Sophie Benedict were in the coop between 11pm and 7am. We know that the eggs were taken between those times, and we know that someone or ones were near the coop around 3 or 4 am. We don’t have any witnesses, no evidence of the eggs and at this stage no motive. So what do you think Brian?”
“That’s what I was trying to say. We have nothing…, nada…., zip. I wanna know more about the movements of those in the farmhouse – the Hensworths, Colin the Collie and Sophie” said Brian impatiently. “So you think this might have been an inside job Brian?” “It’s got to be possible. I mean where were Richard Hensworth and Colin when we were at the farm earlier. Don’t you think it’s a bit odd that they were nowhere to be seen?” “We’ll get to them tomorrow” confirmed Dave assuredly, “No one gets ruled out until they are ruled out” Brian looked at Dave with a slight air of disbelief that Dave might actually believe his own rhetoric was some sort of profound philosophy.
“We need to get a closer look at that van, and check whether the farm had CCTV. I also wanna know what that cocky young rooster was doing after he left the coop” snarled Dave. “And we also have to rule in or rule out Frank Fox and the Tumbles. Foxes and chickens don’t mix”. “I agree Dave, but I would have thought that if the fox was behind this, he wouldn’t have stopped with the eggs, he would have taken the chickens too” “Maybe, but also a little too obvious as well. And as for the rabbits, I think highly unlikely” Dave pondered, “And of course we have check whether there was a break in. But what would someone want with 100 eggs? It’s not like the Great Train Robbery where you could live abroad on the profits. I think there is more to this than meets the eye.”
“Aye, boss. You’re probably right. All this talk of eggs is making me starving. Can we go downstairs”? What Brian meant was whether they could go to the Chinese Restaurant for their dinner. “Come on then, let’s get some scran and some shut-eye, we’ve more invest-egg-ating tomorrow”. Brian attempted the eyebrow, and while poorly done, Dave realised that he had cracked a terrible egg yolk (this is in fact also a terrible pun).
The restaurant was unusually busy for a Tuesday. They ordered their usual favourites – sweet and sour prawns for Brian, and deep-fried shredded beef for Dave – both with fried rice. Suddenly, Dave began to cough, and then choke with his jaw swelling up. He gestured to Brian to his coat pocket. “Surely a mint isn’t going to help in this situation” thought Brian, but soon realised that Dave needed his epipen, as he was having an anaphylactic reaction to the food. But this was the meal that Dave had had hundreds of time before. Dave injected the pen, and after several minutes, began to recover his normal breathing. “There must be egg in the rice” he stuttered. He was surprised as the fried rice was always without egg unless you specifically ordered it. Madame Chu, the owner, came over to apologise. “I’m so sorry Mr. Woolfe, we didn’t realise that you were allergic to egg”. “I’m normally a suspicious dog, but assume that since I wasn’t behind on the rent that you weren’t trying to get rid of me” Dave joked. “But just out of interest, why the egg?” Madame Chu went on to explain that they had an unexpected delivery of extra eggs which meant that they had more eggs for the dishes they were serving than usual.
“Brian, are you thinking what I’m thinking? Brian couldn’t be absolutely sure, but to be on the safe side assumed that Dave was making a connection between the extra eggs and the theft. “I’m not assuming it was the Chu’s but we need to know if these are the eggs” Dave went on to explain, “but I think we might have found some of our evidence. Go and see if she has any of the eggs left and we’ll get forensics to take a look at whether these are a match for the Foghorn hens”. Brian hadn’t ruled out the possibility that the Chu’s were worried that Agent Dave might be on to them and so deliberately spiked his rice with eggs. On second thoughts, even he had to admit to himself that this was a little farfetched. “You were right Dave”, as Brian returned with an egg, “Madame Chu, said that they were going cheap”. “Brian, I’m not in the mood for one of your bad jokes”, said Dave chastising his apprentice. “No joke intended Dave – its what she told me, she said that they had had an unexpected delivery earlier and the price was too good to be true”. “Did she say who had sold her the eggs?” “She said it was one of Frank Fox’s staff, but she didn’t notice what they were driving”. “Sounds like we have a suspect Brian. Well done.” smiled Dave.
“So tomorrow Brian, let’s see if we can trace down that van, and follow up our interviews with all those that we missed today. I think that’s enough excitement for one day”. Dave bid Brian good night and went back up to CSA (which also converted into a studio apartment at night time). “Night Dave” said Brian “and try not to ingest any more eggy products”. He laughed to himself as he ran back to his flat. Tomorrow was going to be an interesting day.
Comments
Post a Comment