MYSTERY: "The Date"

Boulder, Colorado has some of the most scenic vistas to be found anywhere in America. Mountaintops are everywhere and each one is a sight. Sit at one of the outside tables at Zolos and the view is one of the best in Boulder, which makes it one of the best in the world. It was Saturday February 2, the night before the Super Bowl and I was enjoying one of the best views in Boulder. With my back to the mountains, I was seated across the table from the CFO of Wonder Cream, Cynthia Hogarth. She easily trumped any mountain view in Boulder. Even better, she had a brain and a personality to go with her looks. Best of all, we seemed to be having a good time on our first date. I was going to have to thank my friend for setting us up on this blind date on my visit to Boulder.

The night had been going well since we met, when suddenly she reached across the table and grabbed my hand. I thought she was being forward and I loved it. Then she pointed out that it looked as if my hands were awfully dry and rough. I told her that living in Cleveland will do that and that nothing I had tried seemed to make a difference. That was when she reached into her bag and pulled out a small, unmarked jar of something. She proceeded to rub some of it into my hands. I was enjoying the attention, so I just let her do it. It took me a while to realize that it was not just because she was rubbing my hands that made them feel so wonderful. Whatever she had put on my hands instantly made them feel better.

In the background I heard the song “some guys have all the luck” and thought to myself “Well Uncle Buck, seems like you finally are having some luck”. That of course was when her cell phone rang. Since it was her corporate cell phone, Cynthia apologized and answered it. I heard her tell someone that she could be there in five minutes. I thought, so much for my having all the luck. I asked her what happened. She said that her CEO had just called and told her that someone had stolen the secret formula for the company’s recently launched product. Her CEO wanted all the key people in the office immediately to try to figure out who could have stolen it.

Given that I am a pretty well known private detective in Maryland, I felt honor bound to offer up my services. At least, that was what I told her. Truthfully, I did not want the date to end. Besides, I figured if I solved the crime, I could certainly wrangle a second date. She took me up on my offer and off we went to the headquarters. On the way, I asked her what was so special about this new product. “In a nutshell, it is a 100% natural skin care product. We have developed the first ever natural skin care product out of emu oil.” Emu oil, I ask incredulously. Isn’t that the big bird like an ostrich? “Yes it is. Much as fish oil is rendered from various fish, we render oil from emus. It has virtually magical properties in terms of getting rid of dry skin. If the competition gets this formula, we are ruined because they are much bigger than we are. Since we have the only product, they would pay a fortune to get it.” I asked her if the product actually worked. She asked how my hands felt because it was what she had put on my hands. Since my hands felt amazing, I knew the product formula was worth a fortune.

We arrived at the corporate headquarters and found three others there. These were the other top executives of Wonder Cream. Diane is the CEO. Kristin handles the operations and Bob handles the sales. Diane immediately filled us in on what had happened. A little while earlier, at 9:35 pm, she had come into the office and found the company safe open. Given that only a handful of employees had the combination and there were no signs of it having been cracked open, she immediately knew an employee had stolen the formula. Her first thought was to go check the security video to find out who had opened the safe last. To her surprise, someone had erased the video for the time period of 5:00 pm till 7:00 pm Saturday evening and then turned it off. Obviously, the theft occurred during that time. At that point, I stepped forward and introduced myself and offered to take over, since I was the only one who could not have taken the formula.

I decided to start with Bob. After all, it seemed logical whoever had stolen the formula would be taking the money and running. I asked him why he had a suitcase with him. “I am just getting back from a weeklong trip to Japan. I was setting up distribution of the new skin care product in Japan. They love natural products over there. I took the redeye back.” Having flown cross country many times, I knew that the redeye was the late night flight that got in to the destination early the next morning. I asked him if he had his flight information with him by any chance. At that point he pulled out his passport. Sure enough, it was stamped as departing Tokyo on Friday Feb 1. He also showed me his flight information. His flight departed Friday night at 7:35 pm, landed in San Francisco about 11:50 am, departed at 3:25 pm and arrived in Denver at 7:25 pm. Having flown in a few days before, I knew that Boulder is about an hour from the Denver airport. Bob said that he was in the cab on the way home when he got the call to stop at the office and came right here. Thus, he had his suitcase with him. That seemed logical to me.

Moving on, I asked Diane why she was in the office on Saturday night at 9:30. She told me that it was a ritual with her. Her husband is a doctor who works a 24-hour shift in the ER starting on Saturday night. Thus, every Saturday they go to dinner and a movie before she drops him off at work at 9. Then she swings by the office to pick up the weekly reports to work on during the day on Sunday while he is at the hospital.

I moved on to the next suspect. Since I was hoping it was someone other than Cynthia, I had to quiz Kristin. Where was she from 5 to 7 that night?With a huge sigh of relief, Kristin said that she taught a yoga class every Saturday night from 5 to 7.

While, Cynthia had been with me from 6:30 pm on, that did not give her an alibi prior to that. I asked her what she was doing from 5:00 till we met. She said she was home alone. Sadly, no one had seen her during that time.

With no other clues, I asked if we could watch the video from 4:00 on just in case someone came in earlier. We watched as at 4:45, Cynthia pulled up in her car and entered the building. She did not leave prior to 5:00. Suddenly afraid it was Cynthia, I asked her what she was doing there. She replied that she liked to carry some of their skin cream with her at all times in case she ran into someone who needed to try it. She had run out and stopped to pick some up. Finally, Cynthia said, “There must be another employee who had access to the security tapes because I did not do it.” Diane was livid at the thought that her good friend was the thief and said that we had to call the police immediately. I thought of how much fun we had on our date but obviously the date was not what I thought it was. With no other option, I told Diane that yes, we had to call the police since I had found the thief.

.................................................................................................................. SOLUTION: When the police arrived, Diane immediately pointed them to Cynthia. I told them that they were arresting the wrong person. First of all, the thief had to be available after 7 pm to erase the tape. While Cynthia had no alibi prior to 6:30, I knew she could not have erased the tape at 7 pm. Thus, she had to be innocent. Assuming their stories checked out, Diane and Kristen had pretty secure alibis, so they were off the hook as well. That was when I turned to the police and asked them to arrest Bob. Everyone said that he had a solid alibi as he was on a plane. That was when I reminded everyone about the date. Because of the International Date Line, when he flew back on Friday night, he arrived in Denver not on Saturday night, but on Friday night. He had been back all day. He knew that he could steal the formula, have Diane come in and find the open safe and then pretend he had just arrived in Denver. Now it was time to finish my date. ..................................................................................................................

Posted in: Mysteries