As a side gig, I do detective work from time to time. Aria has a low crime rate, so it's usually pretty slow, but today a serious crime was committed on the island. Lily came to my office in tears. Between sobs she told me the story of how she had left a cookie on the table to enjoy once she had finished with her morning walk, but when she had returned from the walk her cookie was missing. Not a single crumb remained. I was of course horrified to learn that such a crime had occurred on Aria of all places, so I promised Lily that I would get to the bottom of this case and find the perpetrator!
To get started, I needed to check out the scene of the crime. Lily told me that she'd locked the door when she'd went out but had left the window cracked. I checked the window and the plate Lily's cookie had been on, but I couldn't find any evidence left by the perpetrator. As we stepped back outside, something caught my eye. Lily's house had security cameras! She gasped when I asked about them. She'd completely forgotten they were there. We reviewed the footage from the camera on the front of the house first, but we weren't able to see anything useful. We then checked the camera on the back of the house, and at first it seemed like that camera hadn't captured anything useful either, but then, I saw it. For a moment there was something that moved past the corner of the frame heading to the right.
I jumped up and began to run in that direction, telling Lily to wait at her house. I couldn't see any footprints or tracks in the snow, and I slowed when I reached Bangle's house. If the perpetrator had continued in this direction, then maybe Bangle would have seen something? I knocked on Bangle's door. She wasn't home.
No matter, I continued heading right until I reached the beach where I came across a set of tracks heading straight to the ocean. They looked familiar, but at the time I couldn't recall what kind of creature makes such tracks. For some, this may have been a dead end, but I knew just what I had to do. I quickly ran home, changed into my wetsuit and snorkel mask, and into the water I went!
While swimming, I kept an eye out for suspicious activity, but my real goal was to find someone who I thought might be able to give me some information. And finally, I spotted him. Pascal! I waved him down and asked him if he'd seen anything suspicious. His answer was a bit cryptic, but I determined he was trying to tell me to that I needed to check the other side of the island. I gave him a scallop for his help and swam around to the opposite shore.
Pascal had been right! As soon as I reached the shore I saw tracks identical to the ones I'd seen on the other side of the island. I snapped a quick picture in case it was needed for evidence, and then I followed the tracks down the beach.
Aha! The tracks led me straight to a horseshoe crab! He denied the accusation of cookie theft at first, but he quickly broke down in tears, confessing to the crime. He said that they didn't have cookies in the ocean, and he'd always wanted to try one, so when he'd seen the cookie on Lily's table through the open window, he hadn't been able to resist. I sympathized with him a bit, a life without cookies isn't a life at all, but still, it was no excuse for theft! If he'd wanted a cookie he should have just asked!
In the end, Mr. Horseshoe Crab apologized to Lily and was sentenced to three days in the Gyroid Dungeon for his crimes. Hopefully the gyroids will be able to rehabilitate him.
Also, I baked Lily a fresh cookie!
Another case solved.
