Mysteries of Lawndale - Night of the Coffee House - Part 2

 Night of the Coffee House – Part 2

Twenty five minutes later, the group arrived at the scene of the crime in Trent’s car.

 

“Ms. Morgendorffer?” One of the officers on the scene asked.

 

“Daria,” she said holding out her hand.

 

“Officer Xanthe Peterson,” the officer said. “The officers I spoke to in Highland PD spoke quite highly of you.”

 

Daria just gave a Mona Lisa smile.

 

“And who are these with you?” Officer Peterson asked.

 

“My assistants, including some members of the Lawndale High Mystery Club and siblings of same. You can check with Ms. Li for the existence of the Club,” Daria answered.

 

Officer Peterson chuckled. “Ha, no! Ms. Li rarely cooperates with LDPD. It’s like she has something to hide.”

 

“Mind if I take that down?” Daria asked, holding her notebook down.

 

“I don’t mind at all,” Officer Peterson answered.

 

Daria wrote down the tidbit about Ms. Li’s lack of cooperation with the Lawndale Police Department and then followed Officer Peterson into the remains of the cybercafé.

 

 

“As you can see, all the electronic equipment was taken. The computers, the register, the modem/router, switches, even the cabling, keyboards and mice,” One of the other officers stated.

 

“And they gained entrance by smashing a window, and went out through the door?” Daria asked.

 

“Yes.”

 

“Fingerprints?” Daria asked.

 

“Only a few partials, and they weren’t in the system,” Peterson answered.

 

“Mind if I take a copy?” Daria asked.

 

“I’ll show you where they are.”

 

 

“A few prints on the counter,” Peterson said, indicating said counter. “Other prints in the girl’s bathroom.”

 

“Eww, They needed to go while breaking into the place?” Stacy asked.

 

“Any evidence of urination outside the bathroom?” Daria asked.

 

“None,” Peterson said.

 

“Quinn,” Daria indicated.

 

“Sure,” Quinn said. She dusted the prints on the counter and applied sticky tape to copy the prints.

 

“You have done it before,” Peterson observed.

 

“You think?” Quinn asked with a smirk.

 

“Many times, in Highland,” Daria added.

 

Quinn gave the copied prints to Daria, who placed them in the specially prepared bag. “There,” Quinn said.

 

“And the bathroom?” Daria added.

 

“Sure,” Peterson said.

 

 

“Can I do it?” Stacy asked, as Quinn once again prepared to take print samples.

 

“Not yet,” Quinn said.

 

“Oh!”

 

“We could train you,” Daria offered.

 

“Yes, please!” Stacy said.

 

Officer Peterson rolled her eyes. “Can we get back on task at hand please?”

 

“Sure,” Daria said. She exchanged a look with Quinn.

 

“Right,” she started dusting the prints.

 

 

Soon, they had finished. “Thanks for offering to help,” Peterson said to Daria, once they were back outside.

 

“Come again?”

 

“I must be frank with you. The LDPD isn’t as ‘clean’ as I would like it to be,” Officer Peterson said.

 

“Why are you telling me this?” Daria asked. She noticed that they were out of earshot of Peterson’s colleagues.

 

“I have heard things about your Mystery Club from my nephew. During your short time in Lawndale, you have caused quite a stir.”

 

Daria nodded and then said. “Evasive.”

 

Xanthe chuckled and said. “You’re very perceptive. I guess that’s why you’re a detective.”

 

Daria gave her another look.

 

“I have noticed officers on the take. My superiors think I’m paranoid. There is more I don’t want to risk telling you.”

 

Daria nodded “We can meet again tomorrow to update.”

 

“Yes,” Xanthe said. Daria could tell that the officer wanted to say more about the LDPD’s cleanliness, or lack thereof, but was afraid.

 

 

The group returned to the Plymouth. “Back to our place?” Trent asked Jane.

 

“Daria?” Jane asked.

 

“Take the bikes out of the trunk,” she said.

 

“We’re going to investigate this street?” Stacy asked.

 

“Yes,” Daria answered.

 

“Sure,” Quinn said as she took one of the bikes out of the trunk.

 

“We’re going to find out if the other businesses have noticed anything unusual,” Daria added.

 

“I can do that,” Jane said.

 

“What if they don’t answer, and say ‘beat it, kid!’?” Stacy asked.

 

“You’ll just have to move to the next one,” Daria said. “But remember to write down what happened, and the name of the business, so we know that they may not be cooperative in the future.”

 

Reassured, Stacy nodded.

 

“Let’s move out,” she said.

 

 

Forty minutes later, they returned to the Plymouth.

 

“The counter people at Dan’s Stationers say that there have been suspicious characters hanging around the cybercafé around lockup time for the last few weeks,” Jane said.

 

Daria looked across the street at the establishment mentioned, then back at Jane. “Did they say anything else?” she asked.

 

“Nothing relevant. One in particular bemoaned the fact that modern technology has taken the personal touch out of personal communication,” Jane added. “I agree with that. Hard to write artistically in an email.”

 

“It also makes identifying someone hard. Handwriting analysis is easy compared to trying to identify someone from a printout or electronic file,” Daria said.

 

“You have experience with that?” Stacy asked.

 

“Hardly,” Daria answered. “It’s a very intense field of forensics.”

 

“Oh,” Stacy stated.

 

“What did you find?”

 

“Not much, except that the clerk in Viv’s Videos said something similar to what Jane said,” Stacy explained.

 

“I see,” Daria said. “Too bad the Council is not as much for surveillance as Ms. Li is.”

 

“Huh?” Stacy asked.

 

“Surely you have noticed the CCTV camera’s at the school?” Daria asked.

 

“Yes,” Stacy answered.

 

“There aren’t any in the streets. Nor are there any in the cybercafé,” Daria stated.

 

“What about the stores?” Quinn asked. “Only a few of the ones I checked had them.”

 

“Most likely they wouldn’t have picked anything up,” Daria said. “They would be focused on protecting their own merchandise.”

 

“The stationary store didn’t have any,” Jane added.

 

“Nor did any of the stores I checked,” Trent said. “The people working there didn’t notice anything either. I’m pretty sure.”

 

“The video store does, but none of the others did,” Stacy said.

 

“We should go there,” Quinn suggested. She looked to Daria.

 

“It’s worth a shot,” she said after a moment of thought.