Trudi Baldwin - Sammy Dick, PI 02 - Acid Test for Yellow Flower

by Trudi Baldwin

  “Trying to track her e-mail or anyone else’s there is even more interesting. I can’t crack the firewall of Glory’s Organic Lotions. It’s one of the stronger firewalls I’ve encountered.”

  “That seems weird, Geo. Why would a lotion factory need so much security?”

  “I agree it’s weird, Sammy, so try to learn more from Gloria on the subject. Maybe they have lotion ingredient patents or something they are trying to protect. Who’s the head of Security there?”

  “I have no idea, but I can find out.”

  “That would be good. I’ll go back through Gloria’s papers and see if I can discover that too. On to the next person you encountered.”

  “That would be Carlita, the Cool One, as I’ve dubbed her. She has a big job as plant manager. She seemed competent and reserved. Also participates in a lot of aggressive, self-protective type sports.”

  “Exactly. Carlita Cordova is aggressive and self-protective. You hit the nail on the head. She has a restraining order against her ex-husband. No children. Actually, it’s one of those two-way restraining orders: he can’t visit her and she can’t visit him. Two reports show up where they both accuse each other of beatings and violence. Also, Carlita has a history of growing up in foster homes. She, too, might have a lot of pent-up anger. Maybe enough to inject acid in the lotion. Plus, she has easy access to commit the crime.”

  “Carlita is a likely suspect, except she seemed so committed to her work. Speaking of easy access, next I met Ancient Annie, the Line Leader as they call the supervisors there. I’d be surprised if she did it, but she has the easiest access of anyone.”

  “Ancient Annie, as you call her, has more probable motive than you might think. Glory’s Organic Lotions let her go for an entire year during the worst of the economic downturn as they were downsizing all of the supervisors. They laid-off half of them, thereby doubling the size of every remaining Line Leader’s team. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but results were bad according to the internal file Gloria gave us. Production slowed. Mistakes occurred and management was forced to rehire at least half of the supervisors they’d let go, or the company would have been in serious jeopardy. Annie was the first to be hired back, but it must have been a rough year. While Annie was out, no one was hiring in the Valley. My further research shows she had to resort to food stamps, after working for Gloria for twenty-four years and giving her best.”

  “I would have been pissed, if I were Ancient Annie.”

  “Yeah, so don’t give Annie a get out of jail free card just yet.”

  “I agree, Geo, Ancient Annie’s got motive and opportunity. I’ll keep my eye on her. It’s just that she takes pride in her work. So does Carlita. To me, that reduces motive.”

  “I’m just sayin …”

  I’d learned to listen to Geo, so I nodded, before we moved on. “Next, if we follow my actions for the day, Ancient Annie walked me through the steps and expectations to perform my job.” I briefly described my job to Geo.

  “I can’t imagine you performing that job for very long in real life. You’re addicted to constant variation, aka chaos, to keep you happy.”

  Bristling at the words addiction and chaos I retorted, “Well, so are you, Geo, in your own way.”

  “True,” he said benignly with a smile of acceptance that didn’t sit well with me, but he continued on, “let’s move to your next high potential suspect.”

  “That would be Hayden the Handsome or Hayden the Hipster. I haven’t fully settled on a name.”

  “You’ve only got a week to figure this entire case out. If you can’t even settle on a name, we’re in trouble.”

  Now all of his comments were beginning to piss me off. Mainly because they were so true. The short turnaround on this case put us under a lot of pressure to perform. I abruptly pushed my chair back surprising Snack who dropped his tennis balls and began desperately scruffling about under the table trying to retrieve them, his toenails scratching on the floor. “We’re in trouble on this one, Geo, regardless!” I stated the obvious, pacing and gesticulating as I circled the table to make my points. “A thousand people work at that plant and any one of them could have figured out a way to sneak in, in the middle of the night or on a Sunday or during break or whenever, and inject acid into the Yellow Flower line. I think it might be totally, one hundred percent hopeless!”

  “You do have a flair for the dramatic, Sammy, but in this case you may be wrong.”

  “How can I be wrong on the utter hopelessness of this case, Geo? Think about it. Take a thousand people and times that number by twenty-four hours in a day of endless opportunities to inject the acid and you’ve got like, like,” I tried to come up with some kind of sum in my head, “like two trillion opportunities to commit the crime.” I ended rather lamely. Math was Geo’s strength, not mine.

  Calmness was also Geo’s strength, not mine. “When you sit down, I’ll tell you why you may be wrong.”

  Okay, I have to admit I was interested in Geo’s explanation, especially since there was so much money at stake. By this time Snack had recovered both tennis balls after giving up on me as a resting place, since I’d been roaming around the table. He now rested his head on Geo’s knee and stared up at Geo full of love and pride, the two balls displayed across his grin. Geo stroked Snack’s head and began a low key explanation. I sat down and began to listen, which was hard to do because I still felt edgy and frustrated.

  “According to the information you received from Gloria, a lower level employee of the Quality Department discovered the acid during a routine check on a Monday morning. At that point, as per their protocol, that employee, whose name is Sally Snort …”

  “Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Her name’s Sally Snort? I’ve got a motive for you. Maybe Sally’s a coke dealer and is addicted to snorting coke and …”

  “Sammy, if we only have a week to solve this case, we can’t be joking around.”

  “Geo, I can’t live without joking around, besides that our investigative methodology hinges on joking around.” I could see he wasn’t in the mood, so I added, “Okay, okay, I’m listening. According to the records, what did Sally Snort do next?”

  “Sally, per their quality protocol, immediately reported her findings to her boss, the head of the Quality Department, Theresa Anderson. Theresa, as per protocol on something of this magnitude, bypassed all other personnel levels and immediately called Gloria. This occurred Monday afternoon, one week ago. Gloria responded with several, immediate directives. Stop all production. Stop all distribution. Gloria also advised Theresa to choose a few, highly trusted members of her team, including Sally Snort, to begin spot checking all the product lines. At that point, a random check revealed that approximately fifty percent of the bottles delivered to Distribution from the Yellow Flower line had been injected with the acid and zero percent of the other product lines. So, Sammy, what can we infer at this point?”

  “First of all, we can infer that you’re acting like a dumbass professor, but I’ll play along for yucks, Geo. We can infer that the point of injection is after the Mother Vat in the manufacturing process and specifically targeting the Yellow Flower line for some reason. Can we then pinpoint when the acid contamination occurred?”

  “Aha, my astute grasshopper of logical reasoning,” Geo responded, “you’ve almost had an epiphany.”

  I gritted my teeth to keep from retorting, but I was too interested in his research conclusions to shut him up.

  He continued, “That is the million dollar question, and according to the quick and intelligent work of the Quality Department, I think we can answer that question. The records indicate that all bottles of Yellow Flower manufactured on Friday delivered to Distribution were acid free, at least as far as their usual random sampling process would discover. And further, according to the report, the Yellow Flower production line then worked on Saturday because of increased production to meet the sky-rocketing demand for Yellow Flower. That was the only line working on Satur
day. Even the Quality Department wasn’t there and only a skeleton crew in Distribution of four employees, and I don’t really see how an employee in Distribution could contaminate nearly half of the thousands of capped and sealed bottles of Yellow Flower delivered to them on Saturday.”

  “Yeah, fourteen thousand bottles to be exact, if they worked a full shift on Saturday.”

  “I agree. It would be too obvious and time-consuming, unless all four of the Distribution employees were in on it and that seems highly unlikely. Even then, I don’t see how it’s possible. They’d have to open every bottle, inject the acid and close it back up somehow without machines.”

  “You are becoming more astute with age, oh little grasshopper. Notice I called it age and not maturity,” Geo added helpfully.

  “Geo, you are clearly the immature one among us and your behavior right now proves it. In fact, it’s a lot easier to prove that you’re immature, than it’s going to be possible to prove who injected the acid. Big deal. So we’ve narrowed the field of suspects down to a mere seven to ten people or so, if we count Ancient Annie and throw in the Distribution people there that day. That’s still a lot of people. I wonder if Carlita showed up that day?”

  “We can probably find out. I assume the employees swipe their badges upon entering the factory floor or somewhere in the process,” Geo interjected.

  “Yes, I have to swipe each time I enter the main factory floor. Carlita said an alarm sounds if you skip the badge swiping. I already asked Gloria if the facility has cameras and she said no. She plans on installing them right away, but that won’t help us this round.”

  “Also, Sammy, who was in your position before you were hired? Maybe the perpetrator has left or was fired. Did you consider that?”

  “Of course, I considered that,” I bristled. “Ancient Annie told me my predecessor quit three weeks ago, well before the acid incident. So you can count him out.”

  I was beginning to calm down. Geo’s narrowing of the field really did make it seem more possible that we might solve this case in a week. Plus he had a knack for honing in on the most important questions.

  “I wonder what all the employees thought when they walked in Monday morning and everything was shut down?” I ruminated.

  “Apparently, the Quality Department starts an hour earlier than everyone else for just this reason—so they can shut the lines down if any impurities or other problems are discovered. According to the official incident report in Gloria’s file, when employees arrived Monday morning for work, one week ago, a sign was posted on all entrances that read (here Geo pulled the actual memo from the file): ‘Contaminants have been discovered in the Central Base Solution. Employees will receive a paid day off, while the Central Base Solution vat is thoroughly cleaned. It is our policy to deliver the purest product available on the market today. Therefore, production is scheduled to resume at 8 AM Tuesday morning unless further notified.’”

  Geo placed the official notice back in the file and continued, “However, upon closer inspection and random sampling, it was determined that only bottles from the Yellow Flower Line were contaminated, so when all was said and done, the only vat and manufacturing equipment thoroughly cleaned was the smaller Yellow Flower vat and all subsequent manufacturing systems after that vat. The modified Quality Team did all the work and it was completed in less than a day. Work resumed as usual on Tuesday for all employees and the actual nature of the contamination was left specifically vague. Of course, losing an entire day of production, across all lines because they hadn’t yet isolated the acid injection line, must have been extremely costly for Gloria.”

  “You’re right, Geo. A very expensive loss.”

  “But without that immediate intervention the other alternatives are many times worse, for her and for her customers, and certainly the possibility of permanently shutting down her business.”

  “Which, I imagine, was the original intent.”

  “The Quality Team is now moving to install cameras at each flower essence injection site for all of the product lines and all entrances but the cameras have not yet arrived. The selected Quality Team members are, however, taking hourly samples from all production before giving the okay to distribute.”

  “But if the culprit is still lurking about, who knows what they’re cooking up and when they’ll strike again?”

  I was calming down because I had to admit Geo was on to something. Not only had he narrowed the field with his research, but he had a knack for honing in on the most important questions.

  “So did you run background checks on the other names I sent?”

  “Does Snack have balls?” Geo retorted.

  “No, he’s neutered,” I quipped right back.

  Geo finally cracked a true smile.

  At his point, Snack understood at least one very important word Geo had uttered: balls. He dropped the two tennis balls lodged in his grin at Geo’s feet, leaped toward the back of the house, and dashed back out the doggy door to retrieve more balls. Sometimes I’d lock him out during this mission, but I didn’t have the heart tonight, especially since I’d skipped Snack’s nightly exercise routine in favor of working with Geo. We began hearing the constant flapping of the doggy door as Snack brought in ball after ball and laid them at our feet. Then he’d stare at us wagging his tail hopefully, looking from one to the other of our faces. When neither of us responded, he’d bound back out the doggy door and bring in some more balls. Stare at us. Repeat process. The floor became a sea of balls.

  “Of course, I ran background checks, Sammy, at least on the employees who have alerted your spidey-sense, and here’s the weird thing, if we exclude Marissa and Fake Freddy, every single name you sent me has some kind of record or legal run-in, except the girl you call TMI Trinity.”

  “Whoa, that’s a lot of records for just one product line! What the hell is the HR department doing?”

  “Nothing, would be my guess,” Geo added dryly.

  “Wait a minute. How can Handsome Hayden have a record when his quote unquote dream,” at this point I wiggled my first two fingers on each hand up and down making quote marks in the air, “is to become an officer of the law?”

  “That’s probably still possible for him. His records are for numerous speeding tickets and tardy payments for those tickets. He had a lot of them until about a year ago and hasn’t had any this entire year. Plus he appears to be all paid up.”

  “Well, no more speeding tickets is just pure luck. He still drives like a bat out of hell, but maybe a year ago was when he made up his mind to follow his dream, he’s slowed down some and paid off all he owes,” I surmised.

  “Or maybe that’s when he concocted the acid injection scheme and wanted to divert attention off himself while he prepared to enact it.”

  “Point taken, Geo. I don’t think speeding tickets are a big deal, though, Geo,” knowing that I’d had a number myself. “So what are the legal run-ins for the other candidates I sent you?”

  Geo swirled his laptop monitor around on the Formica table top to grant me a look. He’d assembled a list of offenses for each individual I’d met that day where my intuition had gone on alert as a possible suspect and even some I didn’t really suspect. His index finger pointed to each name listed as he called out their crimes using my mnemonic names:

  Ancient Annie – shoplifting

  Carlita the Cool One – restraining order; domestic violence

  Handsome Hayden – speeding with unpaid tickets

  Lazy Larry – possession of marijuana

  Tattooed Tanya – stalking; disorderly conduct

  TMI Trinity – none found

  “The real criminal here is Fake Freddy in HR who’s been hiring all these people to work for Gloria.”

  “Maybe they’re on some kind of state-funded rehabilitation program called Reduce Crime, Hire a Criminal.”

  “Very funny, Geo, but this makes it really hard to narrow down the list of suspects.”

  “I don’t think we’
ve spent enough time discussing motive, Sammy.”

  “We haven’t spent any time discussing motive, Geo, so you are correct in at least one of your assumptions.”

  “Let’s discuss possible motives then for each of these individuals.”

  “That sounds like flying in the dark with a blindfold on considering how little we know at this point.”

  “Sammy, we only have one week to solve this case. Actually four working days left.”

  “Yeah, and Gloria wants me to drive back up to Sedona mid-week and report progress. I’ll drive back up there, open her front door and shout, ‘Nothing, nada, zilch.’ Then slam the door shut, kiss our big, fat paychecks good-bye and drive home again.”

  “Oh ye of little faith, high drama, and lack of imagination!”

  “No one has ever accused me of lack of imagination, Geo.” I ignored the other two accusations and changed the tempo of our approach. “I know, let’s liven this up and put some skin in the game. Let’s play Motive Monopoly, and the loser of Motive Monopoly pays the winner a thousand bucks. ”

  Geo and I sometimes played games to sort through our investigations. Some of the games worked and some didn’t. Well, actually, most of them didn’t work, but I was very attracted to game playing and they did seem to shake up our thinking, even if they didn’t work.

  Geo sat quietly with his head down looking at his laptop. Finally he said, “Okay, Sammy, I’ll bite. How do we play Motive Monopoly?”

  “Ah ha, I knew you’d be interested in playing.”

  “I’m not interested in playing. But I know how your short attention span craves variety, so I play along to keep the investigation rolling along.”

  I could invariably lure Geo into game-playing one way or another. I decided to accept his explanation without squawking, so we could start playing. I made the rules up as I went. “Well, I’ve written down the names of the primary suspects so far, and we each get five hotels to place on our suspects.” I drew a little hotel at the top of my list to show him what I meant. “You can place one hotel per suspect, three hotels on one, or even shove all five of your hotels on your top suspect. Then when all is said and done and we uncover the perpetrator, the one who placed the most hotels on the right suspect wins and the loser pays the winner a thousand bucks.”