WA 7 Final

The world famous food detectives, Mr. and Mrs. Condolez, had just finished their daily rounds at the local all-can-eat Asian buffet when they were stunned to see a lone man at their office door’s window.

“Mr. and Mrs. Condolez!” the voice repeatedly shouted.

Mr. Condolez motioned for the man to enter and I took note of the approximate time of the encounter, 9:37 PM.

“I’m sorry to bother you at such an hour sir, but it is urgent,” exclaimed the man.

His punctual moustache and confused French accent was a dead give away. This was the five star chef, Monsieur Martel. Once again, I scrawled my notes, in all caps, on off-yellow construction paper.

“It is outrageous! I no longer am getting the business I once did. Even my most trusted customers fail to show,” cried the clearly distressed man.

That’s when I knew Mr. and Mrs. Condolez would take the case. As aficionados of sea food cuisine, I knew they couldn’t resist the opportunity of a free sushi meal. In unison the Condolez couple stated:

“We all gotcha covered.”

“You have my most sincere appreciation.”

It was nearly nine the next morning when we hopped in the Condolez couples 1994 Ford F-250. The truck bed was loaded with the usual. Ph strips, microscopes, several coolers of varied import beers, basics tool kits, nothing out of the ordinary. I took my seat between Mr. and Mrs. as I did every weekday morning and slept the entire ride.

Around half past nine I awoke to the sour smell of fast food coffee and greasy biscuits. The familiar stench somewhat revolted me but there was little I could do.

“What’s the hold up boy?” the Mr. exclaimed while exiting his precarious perched vehicle.

I climbed down the side and took extra caution not to step off the ledge that Mr. Condolez unthinkingly parked next to. Looking over my shoulder I could see that we were at the Frenchman’s fish fillet restaurant, La Poubelle. Indeed, his store’s parking lot was completely empty. The usual morning crowd was no where to be found.

“I am so relieved you have come to my humble restaurant. Sit, sit, s’il vous plait,” Monsieur Martel stated as he motioned for us to take our seats.

“Hon, I think the easiest place to start would be with a sample of every course,” said Mrs. Condolez

“Every course?! Oh-la-la this will take quite some time to prepare for you. Almost all of my employees have left me,” shockingly but quietly Monsieur murmured.

“Please just do as my wife says. We are experts you know.”

Ten minutes passed by before our first course of meals came. Mr. and Mrs. Condolez stuffed themselves quite quickly. Sweat perspired from their skin as they ate at a feverish pace. To cool himself Mr. Condolez lifted his cap and patted his brow with a brown recyclable napkin. I only ordered a Spiderman ice cream pop.

“I can’t find anything wrong. Should we check somewhere else?” Mr. Condolez inquired.

“Let’s check in the back,” whispered Mrs. Condolez to Mr. in order to stay out of earshot of Monsieur Martel. safe. I pointed this out to Mr. Condolez and he walk off to talk to Monsieur Martel in privacy while I continued browsing. The clock slowly ticked by only disturbed by Mr. Condolez’s friendly, yet loud, southern voice. Finally, after nearly an hour of waiting and casually looking I stumbled upon several strange vials in the freezer. These were unmarked, small, clear, and most certainly suspicious. I quickly extracted a small sample with my pipette eye-dropper and photographed the scene. It wasn’t until mid-afternoon that we arrived back at the office. At this point I displayed the vials to Mr. and Mrs. Condolez.

“Nice work! I trust that you can do a full inspection with the proper documentation on this vial without my aid,” Mr. Condolez said as he patted my head.

The work was hard and required long hours. From morning till bed time I tested for DNA, examined chemical structure, and studied the vials properties. In a weeks time I made my first breakthrough. The vial and its contents were designed to obscure the real contents, a rare strain of bacteria, through complex chemical measures. I later identified that this salmonella like strain of bacteria had over a month long incubation period. What I had feared most matched the stores records. From the beginning of December, almost exactly a month ago, the number of customers eating at La Poubelle has sharply declined. Monsieur Martel had been intentionally poisoning his customers and had now infected the top food detectives in the Midwest. The mystery had been solved, but was it too late for Mr. and Mrs. Condolez?

After a thorough survey of the kitchen, freezer, and office, Mr. Condolez’s trained eye spotted a security flaw. There were absolutely no cameras within the store, not even by the cash register and