by PD Kiernan
Suzie and Cassidy swung by Peter’s house, who finally came out when they told him they were headed back to Lillian’s for ice cream again. Suzie had to think, and ice cream always seemed to help. They ended up back in the same corner booth and they ordered the same thing from Suzie’s mom. When she walked away Suzie almost erupted out of her seat.
“Ya know, now that I’m thinking, I can’t believe that guy!” she said. “He calls himself a detective? He didn’t even listen to what I had to say about the case! Maybe I already solved it? Did he even think of that?”
“Did you?” Peter asked excitedly.
“No!” she exclaimed. “But he didn’t know that.”
“Yeah, he didn’t care at all,” Cass said. “You could tell. He was probably getting back to his doughnuts and crossword puzzles, or whatever.”
“Yeah, right!” Suzie agreed. “And he probably didn’t even read Tommy’s report.”
“Filed it right into his garbage can,” Cass said.
“Ha! You got that right!” Suzie said as she leaned back and growled at the ceiling. She pulled out her notebook. “Well, at least Sergeant Joe was nice enough to give us the addresses of the other stolen bikes. That should help try to come up with a reason, a pattern, something.”
“Maybe there is no reason. Maybe it was just mean people,” Peter said.
“It was mean people. We have to figure out a way to stop them. What we need-” Suzie stopped talking as she looked up and saw something out of the corner of her eye. She sprang up and ran passed all of the tables, grabbed something from a small plastic holder on the wall by the front door, and came running back. “What we need is a map!” She unfolded a large map of Richmond Hill put out by local businesses listing them and other points of interest.
“Nice!” Peter said.
“I know, I should have thought of this before,” Suzie said.
“No. I mean nice, the ice cream is coming!” he said.
Suzie’s mom showed up with three dishes of double-scoop desserts with all of the toppings.
“If all detectives work like this, I’m doing this for life!” Peter said and dug into the hot fudge and marshmallow topping.
“Okay, c’mon, let’s check this out,” said Suzie. She flipped open her notebook. On the map she put a little chocolate chip down on each spot where a bike was taken. They seemed randomly spread out. No pattern. “It doesn’t make sense.”
“What if you put them out day by day,” Peter suggested.
“That’s not bad, Pete,” said Suzie. She did that but there was still no pattern.
Cassidy leaned over and spoke with her spoon still hanging from her teeth, “What about by the bikes with a lot of speeds?”
They did that, and still no pattern. Sitting there was a bunch of random chocolate chips all over the place. They all sat there and kept eating. They would think a little, eat some ice cream, and think some more. Ice cream definitely helped them concentrate, Suzie concluded. Still, there seemed to be something they were missing.
“Wait a minute!” she said. “Let’s sort things by night and morning. We’ll leave out the ones who aren’t sure about the time.”
She used gumdrops for the daylight, and chocolate chips for the night. One by one they went on the map until the gumdrops still looked scattered, but the chocolate chips looked a little different. Suzie leaned up on the seat, curling into a ball as she leaned over the map. She never let go of her intense gaze on the little chocolate chips, even as the curls of her red hair started to drop over her face.
“There it is,” she whispered. ‘We have it! There it is in plain sight!”
“What?” Cass said as she leaned in closer. “It looks like a jagged mess.”
“It does, yes, but it has a purpose. You see,” Suzie said and placed her palm slightly over the map. “It starts over here, right before Atlantic Avenue. But see, it cuts through. Looks random, yes, but see how it cuts back down and over, and back again, all going in one general direction.” She motioned with her hand across the map and as Pete and Cass watched, the little chips did start to make sense now. It was as she said. They had a direction.
“Oooooh!” Pete and Cass said together.
“Yes, and the day ones are still pretty random. What does that tell you?” Suzie asked.
“That the day ones taste a little bit better,” Pete said as he reached over and snatched up a gumdrop and gobbled it up quickly.
They all laughed as Suzie rolled her eyes a little and continued. “Yes, that and the thief had a purpose at night. The thief was going somewhere, a lot. I would bet you dimes to doughnuts this thief works the night shift somewhere.” She reached into her detective’s kit and pulled out the sliver of green plastic she found in Jimmy Nelson’s driveway and held it up. “I bet wherever he does work, he is around plastic soda bottles, and lots of ‘em.”
“Like the food store!” Cassidy yelled out.
“Or a deli!” Peter added.
“I’m thinking somewhere where they either make these bottles, or move a lot of them around. Anyway, when he would finish his shift he would pass by many a bike left on the side of a house on his long walk home. He realizes, hey, there’s an easy way to get home faster.”
Cass and Pete looked at each other and back at Suzie.
“So that’s how it started. What a lowlife,” Cass said.
“That’s right,” Suzie said. “That’s how it started, but that’s not how it ended.”
“No, he kept right on going,” Peter added, shaking his head.
“Yup,” Suzie continued. “I’m guessing he was able to sell the bikes, or something like that, because it must have seemed like easy money all of a sudden.”
“What a thug!” Cass said loudly. A little too loudly, as a few people looked over from the other tables and she quickly hid with a whimper behind Peter.
“Then he moved his operation into the morning, see. The day ones are all recent,” said Suzie. “He didn’t have to stick to a certain route. He wandered around, picked up bikes he could see in the early morning light, before anyone was up. It was probably too easy.”
“Or so he thought, until snagged by the Snaggletooth!” Cass called out raising her fist above the table.
“Well, we didn’t get him yet,” Suzie said. “We still don’t know where he’s was going to, and where he’s coming from, but we’re on the trail.”
“Here’s to the trail!” Peter said as he picked up his dish and drank the melted ice cream at the bottom.
“Here’s to double scoops!” Cass said as she did the same.
Suzie was still preoccupied staring at the map. Where are you going next, Mr. Thief?
Chapter 10