Case File: Golf Shores Animal Testing Lab

It wasn’t long before were in the back of some pickup truck hiding behind some wood crates holding on for dear life. The truck was going faster than expected, considering we weren’t on any roads. Apparently it was truck that took all the packages to the building they were supposed to go to. It wasn’t a long ride and when the truck stopped right in front of the lab Reba and I jumped off and ran for cover. Two men got out of the truck and took out some boxes. They placed them in front of the door got back in and drove away.

I got out and looked around. The lab looked bigger on T.V., I was kind of surprised how small it was. It looked like an ordinary building well if you didn’t count the scorch marks on the side from the fire that was set to all the data. The one thing I didn’t get about this was why set fire to the data? They would just then do everything over again. Why doom twice as many animals by making them do it all over?

“Well no use trying to enter through the front.” Reba observed, “There are ton of people and we would be kicked out in an instant.”

“Then lets look for a back entrance,” I said hopefully, “some one got in here without being caught once. Why can’t we do it again?”

“I’m starting wonder if we aren’t as bad as the criminals.” Reba joked.

“Who knows,” I said, “maybe we are worse!”

We looked around careful to avoid being seen which wasn’t hard because everyone was gathered at the front. Press, police, employees, all gathered at the front. Looking around we found it was our lucky day! Some idiot had left a door wide open, just sitting there inviting everyone in. What were the chances of that happening?
I walked in and found I was in a hallway. White walls with pictures of various things framed and hanging, and plain white square tiles with blue speckles; a classic hallway. At the end of the hallway was a glass door. From what I could see there were metal bared cages beyond that door. Bingo! Act one, all the animals were stolen.

“Reba, we’ve got the first part of our crime scene!” I said in a business like way. “Let’s get started.”

“You’re the boss!”

I looked beyond the glass door to see no one had cleaned up after the incident. I thought it strange; if this was a place of business shouldn’t they all ready be trying to set up again? Well no matter this was good news for me. Even if the chances of me finding something the police didn’t were slim, they were better chances than if the room had been cleaned up. I pushed on the glass door and it opened right up. My lucky day again!

Cages were everywhere, all left empty and lying around. It was like the room was Reba’s father’s office and the cages were papers. Looking around I could tell they were in a hurry. Everything was done with haste; some cages’ doors were bent up and broken. Somebody had enough of the cages. Reba walked in and immediately got on her knees.

She crawled around looking at the floor. So I started looking along to the top shelves. I could barely see and I had to jump to get a good look. Another thing real detectives had that I didn’t; height. I ran my hand long the top as best I could when I felt something cold and metal. I grabbed it and took it down so I could take a look. It was a long black metal flashlight that was cool to the touch. I tried to turn it on only to find that it wouldn’t turn on. It must have dead batteries or be busted. Looking at the flashlight I realized I had seen it somewhere, it looked exactly like the one in my dad’s tool box. Maybe Chris had done this after all.

“What do you have there?” Reba asked, “Something good?”

“Can’t tell,” I said casually, “For all I know this has been here for months.”

I told myself to calm down; there must be thousands of flashlights just like this one in the world. Just because the kitchen maid uses the same brand of knives doesn’t necessarily mean she used it to stab anyone. I put the flash light in my bag and continued to look around. I couldn’t see anything else other than the multitude of cages. Then Reba got up.

“I got something!” She said happily, “Take a look at this!”

Reba laid her palm out flat to show me her find. I walked closer to get a good look. Leaning in I saw that is was a small green keychain ordinary in shape with bold yellow lettering on it. No key was present on the keychain which I though made it look incomplete; a keychain without keys is like a door without a doorknob. The key chain read “John’s trees and Shrubs” with a picture of a tree next to the words.

“Remember that name Reba it might come in handy later.” I said more to make a note than to make an order. “And we better keep that, good work!” I high fived Reba and we continued to sweep the room. After some a few more minuets and no more finds we decided to look around the building again.