Title: Lights out!
By
Author: Tracy Green
Tag line: Everyone
was in the dark about who had robbed the jewelry store!
Police characters: Detective Angela Chu
The gist: In the middle of a city-wide power outage the
city’s most famous jewelry store had been robbed. Police speculated that only a
skilled thief could have pulled off that stunt, someone who familiarized himself
with the work habits of the partners, became familiar with the building layout,
and understood the state-of-the-art security system. At the time of the blackout and the theft, the
night before, there were only two people in the building; one of three partners
(Kirk) and a trusted security guard. Kirk claimed he had been working late to get
the books in order for the accountant who was coming the next day. As he was preparing to leave the building, the
lights went out. He said he called for the security man but he wasn’t at his
station in the lobby. He said he was concerned
for the guard, as he was a bit elderly and went to look for him. He took the elevator to the parking basement
and found him in his car passed out drunk.
He said he was agitated and just left the man in the car, and he went
home.
Partner #2 (Lincoln),
who was not present when the theft occurred, said he and the partner #3 (Paul)
had attended the gem and mineral show at the convention and had been there the
entire day. He said he went home after
the show and assumed Paul did, too. Lincoln told Det. Chu that Kirk has a large
art collection and had recently been scrambling to gather money to purchase a
painting he desperate wanted. Det. Chu
thought perhaps Lincoln was telling her this to divert suspicion from himself. Chu also learned that partner Paul had hefty
alimony payments.
When Det.
Chu interviewed partner Paul he told her that partner Lincoln had a gambling
problem and that the jewelry store was insured to the max.
Det. Chu
spoke to the security guard who admitted he had been drinking and even left the
premises for awhile to meet his friends in a bar. He said he had had too much to drink and
decided to sleep it off in the car, never thinking he’d be found. He told Chu that Paul had overseen the
installation of the new security system and had bothered the technicians with
endless questions.
Det. Chu
knew who her man was.
Crime scene: jewelry store.
Clues: the power outage.
Suspects: the three partners, or the security guard.
Red herrings: Paul’s detailed knowledge of the security
system. The fact that the accountant was
coming in the next day to look at the books. Det. Chu’s thoughts on Lincoln trying to throw
her off the track.
Solution: Kirk is the thief. He said he took the elevator to go check on
the security guard, but the power was out, so how could he? He took advantage of the outage, and when it
came back on he found the guard, so he used him to lie about how the events
unfolded.
My two cents: I guess no one has
ever heard of backup generators. This is
a high-buck jewelry store in a multi-level building that has an elevator and a
lobby, with a state-of-the-art security system -- that goes down and leaves
them vulnerable when the power goes out.
Backup generators keep the security system operational, the emergency
lights on, and the elevators running and are part of every “state-of-the-art”
system. This is where the author made
his/her biggest mistake. He/she should
have kept it a bit low key in the security department.
The tag line
was cute but the title was ho-hum. I
know these are not the author’s doing.
Sometimes we
have no red herrings; here we have three good ones.
Well, every-single-body
had a motive here. I sure can’t squawk
about ‘no motive’. Gambling problems,
pesky alimony payments, art lust. Everybody pointing fingers at everybody else. And
to top it off they have a drunk for a security guard.
I have to give this story 3 stars. The pacing was good, no problems with the
writing, and it had motive out the kazoo, but the clue was not believable and
the characters were all sharks and drunks.
A bit over the top. Sort of a 180
from last week’s story that had blah characters and no motive.
