by David Lewman
Hannah and Ben kept laughing.
“Okay, I guess it was a little funny,” Corey confessed.
“Not only is the dream funny,” Hannah said, catching her breath, “it’s also pretty hilarious that you try to eat in your sleep too!”
They reached Stan’s. It was the only business around. The rest of the buildings were houses and apartment complexes. Stan’s dated back to a time when you could still open a business right in the middle of a residential neighborhood.
There was nobody parked out front. Things seemed quiet at the grocery store.
The doors slid open, and the trio walked in. Stan’s had that grocery store smell: a mix of fruit, vegetables, cardboard, and air-conditioning. They looked around for an employee. Stan’s never had a lot of people working, but this early in the morning, there was hardly anyone there at all.
Ben spotted a cashier in an apron near one of the checkout lanes. She was rearranging the magazines on a rack.
“Excuse me,” Ben said.
The cashier looked over and smiled. “Yes?” she asked, walking toward them.
“Do you think we could speak to the manager?” he asked.
“Sure,” she said. “But if it’s about applying for jobs, forget it. He’s not hiring.”
“No, it’s not about a job,” Hannah assured her.
“It’s about tofu,” Corey said.
The cashier looked puzzled, but pointed toward a door at the back of the store. “He’s in his office.”
“Thank you,” Ben said politely. “Oh, um, could you tell us where the tofu is?”
“Sure thing,” she answered. “Aisle six. On the right.”
“Thanks,” Hannah said.
“Have fun,” the cashier said, giving them a slightly confused smile.
On their way to the manager’s office, Ben, Corey, and Hannah stopped to look at the tofu. It was in an open refrigerated case.
“They’re keeping it refrigerated,” Corey said. “That’s good, right?”
Hannah picked up one of the packages of tofu. “Yes, that’s good. It’s packed in a sealed plastic container, so that’s good too.”
“Check the sell-by date,” Ben suggested.
Hannah turned the small package around in her hands until she found the date. “It’s fine,” she reported. “Several days from now.”
Corey looked at the few tofu containers in the case. “Not a whole lot of it, is there?”
“No,” Ben agreed. “Not that much.”
“That’s not too surprising,” Corey said. “I mean, how many people eat this stuff, anyway?”
“You did, for one,” Hannah reminded him. “In meat loaf form.”
“True,” Corey said. “But that was complete ignorance on my part. I really had no idea what I was eating.”
He picked up one of the tofu packages. “I thought you said there were lots of different kinds of tofu. These all look the same.”
Hannah shrugged. “I guess they carry only one kind.”
“Come on,” Ben said. “Let’s go talk to the manager.”
They walked to the back of the store. Hannah gently knocked on the office door. A man’s voice said, “Come in.”
Hannah opened the door. A tall, dark-haired man was sitting in a chair at a desk covered with papers and an old desktop computer. He turned around in his chair. “How can I help you?”
“Are you Stan?” Corey asked.
“No, I’d have to be pretty old to be Stan,” he answered. “He was my grandfather.”
He swiveled in his chair and then pointed with his thumb toward an old framed photo hanging on the wall. It was of a group of men and boys standing in front of the grocery store.
“He’s Stan. These two men standing next to him are my father and my uncle. And these two boys are me and my brother.”
He turned back to face them. “So I’m not Stan. I’m Jack. But I run Stan’s.”
“Does your brother work here too?” Hannah asked.
“No,” Jack said. “He, um, moved away. I’m the only member of the family left here in Grandpa’s store. I’m in charge of purchasing, marketing, accounting, and, now and then, mopping the floors.”
“That’s why we wanted to talk to you,” Ben began. “We’re Club CSI from Woodlands Junior High School.”
Jack looked confused. “CSI?”
“We just wanted to ask you about some tofu you sold recently,” Hannah explained.
“Something wrong with it?” Jack asked, frowning.
“That’s what we’re trying to find out,” Ben said. “Our cafeteria supervisor, Mrs. Collins, bought tofu here to make meatless meat loaf.”
Jack thought a moment. He then nodded, remembering. “Oh, right. I remember her. Didn’t seem real thrilled with the idea of making meatless meat loaf. She came in with a list of ingredients she needed to buy early that morning. I recognized her. She’s been shopping here for years. Not for all the school’s food, unfortunately. But when she needs something kind of unusual, she’ll come in. I think it’s because we’re close to the school, and she knows we’ll help her find things. We’ll even deliver. The big grocery stores won’t always do that. Or if they do, they charge you for it! They don’t care about customer service the way I do. . . .”
“And you helped her find the tofu?” Ben asked, bringing the conversation back on track.
“Right,” Jack said. “Bought all we had.”
“But you’ve got some out there now,” Corey said.
“New shipment,” Jack explained.
“Did you deliver the tofu to the school?” Hannah asked.
“No, she took it with her,” he answered. Jack then asked, starting to turn back to his paperwork, “Is that all you needed to know?”
“One more thing,” Ben promised. “We looked at Mrs. Collins’s receipt, and it seems as though the amount of tofu she bought wouldn’t be enough to make meatless meat loaf for the whole school.”
Jack nodded. “Yeah, I don’t have room in the case to carry a whole lot of tofu, and there isn’t that much demand for it here.”
“Or maybe anywhere,” Corey added.
Ben looked puzzled. “If you didn’t have enough tofu for Mrs. Collins, I wonder where she got the rest of it.”
“I happen to know the answer to that,” Jack said. “When Mrs. Collins mentioned that she’d need more tofu, I called the new health food store over on Silver Street. They had what she needed, so she said she’d get the rest from there.”
“Wow,” Hannah said. “That was nice of you, sending someone to a competitor.”
Jack shrugged. “Anything for the customer.”
“Hey, I’ve heard of that health food place,” Corey said. “My mom was talking about it. She was saying that it was really nice inside, and it was doing great business. I heard her telling my dad that it was probably going to take a lot of business away from Stan’s.”
Then Corey remembered who he was talking to. “Oops.”
A quick scowl flashed across Jack’s face. “You know, that place is part of a giant chain. And the chain isn’t even owned by Americans. The owners are this huge European corporation. I don’t know what people are thinking when they decide to give their money to—”
Jack stopped himself. He took a breath and then smiled. “Well,” he said, this time in a voice that sounded a little too cheerful, “a little friendly competition never hurt anyone. And like I said, that’s where I sent Mrs. Collins to buy the rest of her tofu.”
“Maybe we should go talk to someone at the health food store,” Ben said.
“Sounds like a good idea,” Jack replied, then added, gesturing toward all the papers covering his desk. “Now, unless there’s anything else I can help you with, I’m afraid I’ve got a lot of work to do. As you can see.”
Club CSI thanked Jack and then left him to his work. Once they were outside, Hannah asked, “Should we go to the health food store right now?”
Ben looked at his watch. “No, we’
ve got to get to school,” he said. “Is after school all right?”
“Yep,” Corey said. “No practice today. But it won’t be easy.”
“Why?” Hannah asked as she headed down the sidewalk toward school.
“Right after school is when I’m at my hungriest,” Corey explained. “And this place is, you know, a health food store.” He made a face.
Hannah laughed. “I think you’ll survive.”
In forensic science class later that day, Miss Hodges took the students through a unit on facial characteristics. She explained that sometimes investigators have to determine whether two photographs are of the same person, even if years have passed between the pictures.
“You can grow a beard or get a tattoo,” she said. “But unless you get some pretty serious surgery, the bones in your face will stay the same.” She explained how the ridges under your eyebrows, cheekbones, chin bones—even the shape of your nostrils—can help an investigator match two pictures of you.
She passed out pictures and had the students carefully examine them to figure out which ones were of the same people—if any. It was tricky, but if you really looked closely at the pictures, and managed to keep them in your mind, it was possible to match up some of them.
One of the hardest pairs to match was of a guy when he was a kid and when he was a grown man. Only Ben caught that one.
After school the three investigators met by Hannah’s locker. As they were heading out, they passed Miss Hodges in the hallway. “Hi, Miss Hodges!” Hannah said. “Great class today!”
“Thanks, Hannah,” Miss Hodges said, smiling a little. “Let’s hope it won’t be my last.”
Ben looked worried. “What do you mean?”
“Oh, I probably shouldn’t say anything,” she said. “But I doubt it matters much now. Principal Inverno will be back in school tomorrow.”
“That’s good,” Corey said, puzzled.
“Yes, he’s finally well again, so that’s great,” Miss Hodges agreed. “But he wants to meet with me and Mrs. Collins first thing in the morning. I’m sure it’s about the meatless meat loaf. Anyway, I— I shouldn’t be talking about this with you. Don’t worry. And thanks for telling me you enjoyed class! Have a nice evening.”
Before they could say anything else to her, Miss Hodges turned and then walked into the science lab, closing the door.
“Poor Miss Hodges,” Hannah said. “She seems really worried that she’s going to get fired.”
Ben looked determined. “We’ve got to solve this case before tomorrow morning—before Principal Inverno does anything drastic.”
“Then we should get over to that health food store right away,” Corey said. “Coach says I need to work on my conditioning, anyway, so . . .”
He took off running. After a second, Ben and Hannah ran after him.
The new health food store—along with a dry cleaner, a sporting goods store, and a place that sold pool supplies—was located in a strip mall on Silver Street. The parking lot was full, and the health food store seemed busy. Lots of people were going in carrying empty cloth bags. Others were coming out carrying cloth bags full of fruit, vegetables, and other organic food.
“Maybe I’ll just check out the sports store real quick,” Corey said, heading toward it.
Hannah grabbed his arm. “You can go in there after we talk to the manager at the health food store. Come on.”
Inside, the store was bustling with customers. Everything was beautifully displayed and well lit. Ben asked an employee if they could speak with the manager.
“You’re in luck,” he said. “You can talk with the owners. They’re in the back.”
As the employee led them through a door and into the back of the store, Corey whispered to Ben, “The owners? Are we going to talk to a bunch of guys in business suits?”
But the owners of the health food store turned out to be a friendly middle-aged couple, Bill and Laura. They were casually dressed, and they seemed perfectly happy to answer any questions about their new store.
“It’s a nice day, so why don’t we talk outside?” Bill suggested. They followed him to a tiny yard behind the store, where employees could sit at a picnic table for lunch or if they wanted to take a break. Everybody sat down, the owners on one side of the table and the investigators on the other side.
“So, what would you like to know?” Laura asked. “Are you doing a report for a class?”
“Or your school newspaper?” Bill guessed.
Corey thought those might be good cover stories for the future. He mentally filed these ideas away, hoping he’d remember them.
“No,” Ben said. “This is for school, but it’s not a report. More like a project.”
Corey thought that was a good cover story too.
Ben explained how they were taking a forensic science class at Woodlands Junior High School and how the three friends had formed Club CSI.
Then Hannah jumped in, giving a little background on the attack of the meatless meat loaf.
“Oh dear,” Laura said, looking anxious. “Did someone buy the ingredients for that meat loaf here at our store?”
“Just one of the ingredients,” Ben said. “The tofu.”
“I see,” Bill murmured, a serious expression on his face.
“What kind of tofu do you sell here?” Hannah asked.
“A couple of different kinds,” Laura said. “We have it in small plastic packages that are sealed. Many of our customers buy it that way because they don’t need large amounts. We also sell it in bulk.”
“You mean in barrels of water?” Ben asked.
“Yes,” Laura said. “Just like in an authentic Asian market.”
Ben and Hannah exchanged a look. “You know,” Hannah said, hesitating a little, “we’ve been doing a bunch of research on tofu. And we’ve read that it’s tricky, making sure that tofu stored in open containers of water isn’t exposed to any kind of contamination.”
“You have to be really careful to make sure no bacteria get into the water,” Ben said.
Corey was afraid that Bill and Laura might be offended by Ben’s comment. Sometimes he could be a little blunt. He could even sound like he was lecturing you, if you didn’t know him well enough.
But the owners remained perfectly friendly. “You’ve really done your homework,” Laura said, impressed. “And you’re right. You have to be especially careful with tofu stored in open containers of water.”
“And we are,” Bill added. “Very careful. It’s one of the first things we teach our employees. The tofu has to stay at a low, refrigerated temperature the whole time, and so does the water it’s in.”
“Come on,” Laura said. “We’ll show you.”
They got up and went back inside. Bill and Laura led them through the small back storage area to the wide doors that suppliers used to deliver food.
“The tofu arrives in a refrigerated truck,” Bill explained. “So it’s cool when it gets here. We immediately bring it into this cooler.” He opened the door to a large walk-in cooler, but not before pointing to a thermometer on the outside of it.
“We constantly monitor the temperature to make sure it stays cool enough in here,” he continued as the group walked into the cooler.
“Chilly,” Corey said. “Must be nice on a hot day.”
Laura laughed. “Yes, on really hot days we all think of chores that need to be done in the cooler.”
Bill pointed to a plastic container of water. “This water has been waiting in the cooler, getting down to the right temperature for the tofu. Once we know the cooled water has reached the correct temperature, we put in the tofu. Then we carry the container of water and tofu out to the refrigerated case in the store’s bulk food area. Follow me.”
They went with Bill and Laura back into the store, following them to the bulk food section. In a refrigerated case, there was a container of tofu in water. The case also had a large thermometer, so that the temperature could be checked.
“So
as you can see,” Laura said, “the tofu stays nice and cool—and safe—throughout the whole process.”
“And some of our customers love being able to buy their tofu in bulk. They can get the exact amount they want,” Bill said.
“Great,” Corey said, wrinkling his nose.
But the three investigators were stumped. If the health food store was so careful with their tofu, how had bad tofu gotten into the meatless meat loaf and made people sick? Were they wrong about the tofu after all? Had all this questioning been for nothing? It was looking bad for Miss Hodges’s job. . . .
Then Corey thought of something. “Do you remember selling a bunch of tofu to Mrs. Collins from Woodlands Junior High recently? Jack from Stan’s grocery called to ask about it, and then she came over to buy it.”
Laura and Bill both thought, trying to remember. “I don’t think so,” Laura said, shaking her head. “And I don’t remember ever talking to anyone from Stan’s on the phone. The management at Stan’s has been less than friendly to us . . . ,” she started to say and then stopped herself. “Bill, does that ring a bell for you?”
“No, I don’t remember that,” Bill said. “But maybe one of our employees took the call and then helped her.”
“What day was this?” Laura asked.
“Last Monday,” Hannah answered.
“Okay, let’s see who was working that day,” she said, leading them to a tiny office area.
Bill went to sit at a small desk and used a mouse to click on the screen at a desktop computer. “Last Monday,” he muttered. “Let’s see. Well, Jim was working that day. He’s a new employee. And he’s here today.”
“May we talk to him?” Ben asked.
“Sure,” Laura said. “I think I saw him back in the stocking area.”
The five of them walked over to the stocking area, where they found Jim unloading a carton of nuts.
“Hey, Jim,” Bill said, giving a little wave.
“Hey,” Jim answered, not looking up from his work.
“These young folks would like to ask you a couple of questions,” Bill announced.
“Okay,” Jim said, straightening up and looking at the kids for the first time. He seemed a little wary. “What about?”