Jack Johnson and the Missing Pizza

I had been getting calls about notes. Notes in a pizza box, from Domino’s and Little Caesars. I hadn’t found these notes myself because I can’t stand pizza. The cheese is just so gross. Anyway, something strange was going on; people were buying pizza and the boxes would contain either notes or different foods, like eggplants or sunflower seeds.

Oh, by the way, my name is Jack. Jack Johnson. I’m a private eye on the west side of Cantopton, but I solve cases all over. As a detective, I naturally know everything about almost anyone. When elephants forget, I remind them. My office is dark, because I let the light come through the half-closed window. The dark room is littered with papers; either newspapers, files about numerous people and businesses, or letters of cases someone needs me to solve.

I had read a letter just 5 days ago. Most cases were easy to solve, but this one was different. As I said, the pizza boxes were being filled with other things. That’s not a super big deal but this letter let on more. It was from the owners of both Domino’s and Little Caesars. Their cameras weren’t working and their bank accounts had been hacked, along with all the cash in the building robbed. Million dollar restaurants down to nothing at all. As a result, mass layoffs were happening around these restaurants that were being robbed. The letter was signed by a man named Brody and a woman named Amanda. Brody owned Little Caesars and Amanda owned Domino’s. I told them through a letter to meet me at the Coffee Café, a place that sells coffee and calls itself a café, if you didn’t notice. We all met there the next day.

When I got there, there was no one I wanted to see. However, with my detective research I did recognize the people there. Aiden, Charlie, and Samantha; three people who live on the West side of the city, like me. Aiden and Charlie worked at the Domino’s that was robbed, and Samantha worked at the Little Caesars that was robbed. They regularly came here for coffee. Since they worked for the restaurants that were hit, I thought they might know something about the case, so I asked them.

“Multiple employees have gone missing, but that’s all I know,” Charlie said. The others agreed.

“Interesting. Well, thanks for the help,” I replied as I watched Brody and Amanda walk in.

We found a corner booth, since they are the most private, but I made sure we talked quietly anyway because you never know who’s listening. Brody showed me the last video his camera had recorded before it went black. In the few seconds before, a man who I knew as Ricard walked into what looked like the hallway to the bathroom. Another man, Cornelius, just walked back from the bathroom hallway. A woman named Charlotte was working the counter, but all of the sudden she disappeared and a man with blond hair and glasses appeared.

“That’s weird. I never noticed that man before,” Brody said.

I ran through all the people I know who have blond hair and glasses in the area. Aiden lived close to the area and had glasses, but he had black hair. Ricard though, had blond hair and glasses. It made sense to be him but I needed to investigate more.

I asked Amanda for the video before her camera went out. It happened 6 days ago at 3:00. Charlie was working behind the counter. Aiden had just walked into the kitchen and then the guy with blond hair and glasses appeared from the kitchen. Charlie gave him a look of horror and jumped over the counter. I rewound the video a bit more and found Ricard walked out the door and to the right. The employee entrance was on the right of the building, so it would make sense if he snuck into the kitchen through there. However, he also came in through the right side. He could’ve done that just to fool anyone watching, though. He could have snuck through the employee entrance and tied up Aiden or knocked him out or something. Then he could scare everyone out and break the camera so that the could steal the money and be free to look around. I knew I had to look closer, though. I went back until I got the best angle of the customer who  ordered the pizza. It turned out to be my good friend Marcus. I knew where he lived so I headed over to talk to him.

“What did the guy who came out through the kitchen look like at Domino’s?” I asked.

“I was not looking at the counter when I heard Charlie yell. I was confused but I did a quick back check and saw a guy wearing a mask. I couldn’t tell who it was.”

“What did you see when you ran outside?”

“I saw a car pulling away and the employee entrance door was open.”

“What did you do after that?”

“I hopped into my car and drove away, but I saw the person wearing the mask take it off, and I’m not sure but it looked like a woman with black hair ran out of the employee entrance at the same time.”

“Ok, thanks for the help.” I said as I walked away.

If Marcus was right and there was a black haired woman, I would guess it would be Samantha Sally. She had been caught breaking into that very Domino’s three years ago and got out of the slammer only a year prior to now. She was also friends with Ricard. She might be paying Ricard to distract the pizza place with enough time to mess up the pizza deliveries, steal money, and maybe buy enough time to find the bank account password.

There was only one thing wrong with this theory. Why did Aiden and Charlie not mention this key part when I asked what happened? So far my suspects were Samantha, Ricard, Aiden, and also Cornelius since he worked for a costume shop, and had a wealth of masks at home. I only had to do three. more things before I would be getting nearly done the case. 1: Talk to my suspects, 2: Investigate the scene, and 3: Order myself a pizza (from Domino’s. It was back up and running, but Little Caesars was not). First, I talked to my suspects. My first conversation was with Aiden.

“What happened in the kitchen in the moments before someone came out of the kitchen?”

“A guy with glasses and a blond wig snuck up on me and just as I turned around he wacked me in the head. I only woke up three hours later..”

Reasonable. Next was Cornelius.

“Where were you at 3:00 6 days ago?”

“My shift only ends at 5:00. I was still at work.” He replied.

Makes sense. Next up, Samantha.

“When was the last time you saw Ricard, and what were you doing?” I asked.

“I was on my way to Domino’s when I saw him walking his dog.”

“What day and time was it?”

“6 days ago at 2:30.”

“Who was the masked man?”

“Who was who? I don’t remember a guy wearing a mask since last Halloween. I might have missed it though, because I left at 2:50.”

“When was the last time you saw Aiden?”

“When I ordered my pizza that day. He was at the counter until I ordered.”

He was, but that is still suspicious. I talked to Ricard next.

“When was the last time you were at Little Caesars.”

“4 days ago at 1:00.”

That was the same time the camera went out. That was why Little Caesars wasn’t back up yet, because it got hit after Domino’s.

“When was the last time you went to Domino’s?”

“I  never go there, because the staff is sketchy, but I did drive by about 6 days ago and I saw a man taking off a mask outside of it. It was the one on the West side of the city.”

Sort of suspicious. Finally, Charlie.

“After the blond, masked man came out through the kitchen, when did you go back into the kitchen, and what did it look like?”

“The next time was about 2 hours and 30 minutes later. I saw all our cash was gone, our files in the office that contained the bank account was gone, and the breaker box was blown up.”

“Was anyone else there?”

“Aiden was there, looking around at the scene too.”

I finished recording the notes and then headed over to Domino’s. Little Caesars was obviously hit by the same criminals so I didn’t have to look there. When I got to that Domino’s location, I walked in and looked at the cash register. No money. I went in the back to the kitchen. It looked all fine except the breaker box was blown up, like Charlie said. In the far back left corner was the office, but unfortunately it was locked.. I figured I should look at the video again.

I looked at the footage from Domino’s at the time of the Little Caesars crime. Marcus ordered a pizza and Aiden went in the back to make it. Charlie went in the back to check on him and 5 minutes later, came out with the pizza. Then another customer came in 15 minutes later and had a really complicated order, so when Charlie went in the back to tell Aiden the order it took about 10 minutes before Aiden came back with the pizza.

I reviewed the notes that night and found something that tipped me off and confirmed my suspicions. To make sure it was correct, I ordered a pizza from Domino’s, but under the name John Smith. John was a man getting in trouble with the law often. If they thought it was him, they might give him a secret message. I ordered it to be delivered to the park.

After 20 minutes the Domino’s van came and gave me the pizza. I took it and told them John was stuck in traffic, but since it is his, I will be sure to give it to him. Then, I didn’t follow through on that promise.

When I opened it, it had a note instead of a pizza and it said, “Join us. Meet us at the coffee café and call this number as well to lock in your spot in this job. 204-925-4114.”

I called that number to get to the bottom of this. After putting on my best imitation of John Smith, I typed in that number on my iPhone and  Boston Pizza picked up.

“Hello, Boston Pizza, Winnipeg. What do you need?” A cheery worker said.

‘I’m in.” I replied.

“Great. Break into Pizza Hut and bring their recipe to us. Also try to steal their money, get their bank account password, and kidnap their customers. Do it undercover though, because we can’t be caught. You get  50% of the money you bring in.”

“Alright, sounds good.” I lied. It didn’t sound good.

I was a little surprised they gave out a note like that, but they were expecting John Smith, a villain. Not a detective like me. Obviously a bad move on their part.

Boston Pizza was hiring people to take down pizza shops so they would be the last one standing! That way, all the pizza customers would flow through their doors. Now I just had to find out who was hired. As I said, I went over my notes I took from the conversation yesterday, and so now my suspect list changed. 1: Charlie, 2: Samantha, 3: Aiden, 4: Cornelius, 5: Ricard.

It had changed so suddenly because of two reasons. 1. Aiden said he was out for three hours, but Charlie said Aiden was at the scene checking it out 2 hours and 30 minutes after, and 2. When I checked the scene, the office was locked. I confirmed later that there were two keys; both always in Amanda’s possession. But she lost one key about a week before this happened. If there was only one key, how would Charlie see the bank account file was missing, since there was only one key that anybody could have. Two people could not have gotten in to a locked office unless they both had a key. There was only one key, which meant if Charlie got in the office, he was the one who stole the key. Obviously he had possession of the key, which meant he had to steal that folder.

I thought all I had to do now was go to the Coffee Café the next day, but things took  a turn for the worse. I got a call from Brody, who’s Little Caesars was still down.

“How’s the case going?” He asked.

“I almost have it solved.” I replied.

“Get it done before 9 A.M. tomorrow. I am losing too much revenue by being closed like this.” He said.

“That fast? Give me just one more day!” I said in shock.

“I need to keep Little Caesars running. I have to pay the bills. Get it done before 9 A.M. or you don’t get paid.” He said as he hung up.

I thought hard for an hour before I got a great idea. I had a lead, but I didn’t know for sure who it was. However, I was going to change all that. I headed over to Aiden’s house.

He opened the door and I asked, “What pizza did you make for Marcus when the blonde guy invaded?”

He took the bait. “Our new special; Peanut butter pizza.”

He was correct. About how it was a special, of course, not what Marcus ordered. Marcus was allergic to peanuts.

“Yeah right. Obviously you didn’t know what he ordered because you were too busy changing into a wig and glasses. Mind if I look around?”

“Actually, yes I do.” Aiden said firmly.

I forced my way through and looked around. First I saw a wig. Then I saw Charlotte and a bunch of other workers tied up. Next I saw a computer opened to Little Caesars bank account. I used my MMA skills to quickly get Aiden on the ground and then I tied him up. Next I walked over to the laptop and looked at who was signed in. Charlie Buehlmann , it said. Boston Pizza hired both Aiden and Charlie to rob Domino’s and Little Caesars. I walked over to Aiden.

“So you and Charlie were both hired by Boston Pizza, huh? You the muscles; Charlie the brain?”

“I’m not the brain, I’m the muscles” I heard a voice say. It was Charlie.

He walked up to me and got a quick punch in that made me stumble back. I scurried back to my house to call the cops, but my line was jammed. I got a message from Aiden on Facebook.

“Sry, jammed ur line. It will be back up if u give us 10G.”

I was wrong. Aiden was the brains and Charlie was the muscle. But they posed the other way to make it confusing! I knew I had to do something fast, so I ran to the gas station, popped in a quarter, and notified the cops, Brody, and Amanda. Long story short, they were sent to the slammer, along with Cal Rutherford; the owner of Boston Pizza.

Now, I’m reading the newspaper that came out today. It says,

“Aiden Fiola, Charlie Buehlmann escape prison and could be anywhere. Keep an eye out.”