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DANA FELT QUEASY IN her stomach. “Ever had a moment where you’re looking at something? Like the answer is right there in front of you, but you can’t quite pin it?” she said to Katie.
“Sure. Happens all the time, why? What are you looking at, cuz?”
Dana tapped her pencil on her chin as she glanced at the article on the screen.
“Oh, that’s the story about the power outage, right? What about it, cuz?”
“Katie, the mayor had a large dent in the front of his white car that had been fixed recently. I saw it hoisted up at Gary’s Garage when I went to have my car serviced.”
“So?”
“Well, Troy mentioned that the mayor left him in his office for a while as he attended to a private call in another room. What if it wasn’t a private call?”
“But Dana that makes no sense. What are you getting at? Why would the mayor stage something like that?”
The article was sitting there on the screen, tormenting the cookies out of Dana. There was something very odd about it.
Truffles climbed onto her lap as usual. “Hey, sweetie. Mommy’s just trying to figure something out here. Wish I knew what I was looking...”
Dana’s eyes opened wide.
She re-read the old news story once again dated more than a year ago.
BERRY COVE GAZETTE:
Outage reduced power to 852 homes and businesses in the area.
Berry Cove Fire Department confirms a pick-up truck hit a utility box at Brock Street and Maple Avenue. Photos from the scene shows there was a fire after the crash. No word on injuries.
Dana’s heart leaped in her chest when she continued to read the story. Something struck a chord inside her.
More than 900 homes and businesses were without power Friday evening Berry Cove Utilities reported.
“More than 900 homes and businesses in the area were without power that evening,” Dana said, almost to herself.
Dana looked carefully at the map beside the article of the area where the outage occurred and she studied the distance from the utility box to the Town Hall.
Hmm.
“So what? Dana, stuff like that happens all the time,” Katie added, puzzled. “What’s the big deal?”
“That’s just it, Katie. Sometimes we never suspect the obvious. What a coincidence and a convenience for the killer that there was an outage at the Town Hall during the Christmas party. And I think I know how they did it.”
“Dana, you can’t be serious. I know you have a knack of coming up with the most unusual tales for your mystery riddles blog, but this is a bit far fetch, don’t you think? Not to mention implausible. Do you really think the killer rammed his truck into the utility box down the street knowing it would knock out power to...” Katie froze.
“Doesn’t sound so implausible now, does it?”
“But Dana, that’s crazy. It would take a good ten minutes to walk from the utility box to the hall to kill Shags then return to the scene. Not to mention, why would he risk killing himself by causing a fire or explosion or electrical shock? Think about it, Sherlock, you ram your vehicle into a utility box, you’re asking for serious trouble—you’re asking to meet your maker.”
Dana frowned. Katie did have a point. But something was missing. Something huge. It was staring her in the face but she still couldn’t see it.
She mulled over the rest of the article.
According to the utility's website, 1,126 customers lost power at 6.25 p.m. Friday afternoon. The utility said it was aware of the outage and worked to restore power.
The outage was centered in the area northeast of the corner Brock Street and Maple Avenue and Riverside Drive.
“We've heard reports that a car crashed into a utility box and caused a transformer to explode,” a witness reported hearing an explosion in the area.
Just then a eureka struck Dana.
“What it is, cuz?” Katie said noticing the expression on Dana’s face.
“What did you just say?” Dana turned to Katie, her face lit up.
“I said, what it is, cuz?”
“No. Before that.”
Katie shrugged. “I don’t know, you ram your vehicle into a utility box, you’re asking for serious trouble?”
“No, no, after that.”
“You’re asking to meet your maker.”
Truffles purred with delight.
“Bingo.” Dana flipped the screen to another web page on her MacBook.
“Okay, cuz, you’ve got me a bit worried now.”
“No worries, Katie. I think I’ve found Shag’s killer.”
Dana mulled over the information she’d found earlier and was able to put two and two together. Hopefully, two and two would equal four in this case. She really needed to get hold of Troy very quickly.
Dana then searched online for a website in Colorado.
Colorado. She tapped into some more information about anything she could find on Mayor Jones and his visit to Colorado.
Dana then whipped out her cell phone and dialed Troy’s cell.
“I do hope you’re going to have Troy and the boys in blue go down to see the killer,” Katie said, taking a sip of her hot chocolate in her holiday mug with the Santa Clause on it.
“Oh, no cuz. If there’s one thing I learned it’s that people are not going to open up to the cops so easily. Troy knows that, too. Of course, he’s concerned about my safety. He always tries to convince me to let his men handle it, but whenever I explain the situation to him, he agrees. And whenever I do go to speak to a person of interest, Troy’s near by to back me up.”
“Isn’t that a risk, Dana?”
“It is, but lives are at stake here, Katie. Including your freedom. We don’t want to risk letting the culprit slip away.”
“Of course not,” Katie agreed.