It was a cold , foggy morning , another one of those days in 93- Hemming street, East London, where i sat at my desk behind the door marked ' Private eye detective, Agent Murphy ' . Having cracked an easy case, ' The missing sink ', it was high time I got a case worthy of my intellectual standards. My typewriter was currently out of order, and to make things worse, all the pens I had seemed to have decided to stop working for the winter. In fact -
Knock knock knock.
It was a fast, but low audibility knock, which i could easily categorise as a knock coming from a person who was in urgent need of a solution, and not to forget , who wanted it to be kept a secret. You see, my expert detective sense could now judge a person's state of mind well before i even heard the person's story or saw the expression on his face. After all , wasn't i -
Knock knock knock.
"Come in" , I said in my proffessionally dominant tone.
I saw a medium height , frail man , entering the door, cautiously looking around , and looking in grave need of help. He sat down on a chair and i courteously offered him a glass of water.
" Coming straight to the point sir ", the man said, ignoring the glass , " its a piece of cake - "
"Well , considering my accurate detecting senses , and renowned analysing skill , anything I assure you, sir, is a piece of cake for me.. ".. I said , gratefully acknowledging his compliment.
"No, " , he said, " you don't understand... I mean it IS about a piece of cake . "
With the compliment taken back , and the case beginning to sound like another one of those petty lost and found cases where they would be spending more in hiring a private eye detective than in buying the lost item again, I was beginning to wonder if I would ever get a case worthy of my name . It was just a family's honour these days, to retrieve a lost item even if it meant sacrificing a lot more, than settling for another . Not that an easy case , well paid for, is frustrating, its simply that its just not challenging. Affiliated to the department P.S.S.T , Police Secret Service Team , it was beginning to be -
" Sir ? "
" Yes , go on please. "
" Let me tell you the whole story in detail sir. Its not just any ordinary piece of cake, sir . See I own a huge bakery specialising in cakes and
the past week I have got threats from a caller who claims to have any cake he wants, poisoned with cyanide . You see, I never took the calls seriously until this cake I brought home for my wife's birthday , turned out to be the reason for a sudden illness for both of us. On check up done soon, the medical staff arrived at a conclusion , food poisoning by very trace amounts of cyanide. Very soon , the caller called again and said that it was just a warning... The next time it would be in quantities enough to be out for good ."
"And what does this mysterious caller want exactly ? ", I asked, realising this case was suddenly turning out to be quite interesting.
" Fifty thousand pounds " , came the reply, he said , with a worried look on his face .
" Do you have any suspicions as to who this could be ? Have you notified the Police Headquarters ? " I asked.
" Yes, I have , and I think this is the doing of our arch rival , Lincoln Bakeries . He must have got someone to poison our cakes. I have to get to the bottom of this before he does it again and one of our customers ends up dead ! "
"Hmmm....."... I thought , rubbing my chin , while going over the last few minutes of our conversation.
I took down the address of his home and his factory and other details concerning the case like the number of men employed at the bakery. Twenty one of them, to be precise , and it could be simply anyone, from the man who was preparing the dough to the delivery man who could have poisoned the cake on his way to a house. A case worthy of my time, indeed.
I told Mr. Mennington that this was a case for me, Agent Murphy , and no one could stop me from getting to the bottom of this. He thanked me and left my office as quickly as he had come in.
I closed my eyes to help me concentrate on the case at hand . Such highly ranked detectives such as I could hardly afford to be distracted by the happenings of the world. When we have a case at hand , it is our utmost priority to give it highest priority even if it means ...
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I suddenly woke up with a start and realised I had been sleeping for a little over two hours. I tried to remember everything about the case again... and helped myself to a little black coffee. I wore my thick raincoat, and stepped out into the mist.....