Backyard Coolers



Superslueth Jane Goodman arrived at the remnants of a party, where guests still mingled around the backyard coolers. Music was jamming and the party site was the scene of the crime. Detectives had combed the place, looking for clues, but no clues had been found. There were still half empty beverage cans sitting around; maybe the perpetrator's DNA could be obtained from one of them, but that would take a lot of time. Special agents had also come and gone, each taking time to enjoy the party and get cold beverages for the road from one of the the ice chests. It must have been a heck of a party that no one noticed FooFoo, the family French Poodle, when she was flung into the pool to drown.



Nothing could drink that much, not even to save its life. The pool must have held 50,000 gallons, and an entire Keg of beer dumped into it wouldn't have been noticable. But there was more than beer missing. There were 12 cases of soda gone from the main storage closet. That closet was meant to hold party supplies so that the party went on and never had to stop. With picnic thermoses set up every 20 feet or so, there was no reason for anyone to run out of beverage to go with their hotdogs, hamburgers, chips and potato salad. And even if they did run out, there were still water coolers to drink from. Who ever had done this job, killed FooFoo, and made off with all the drinks had gotten away with it, so far.

Jane asked if there had been any tailgating at the party, but no one fessed up. Tailgating meant that uninvited guests could have snuck in to pull the job. Jane was getting a cold iced drink for herself and was engaging in small talk with a woman who had been there when it happened. The woman inadvertently mentioned that there had been a pickup truck backed into the yard last night. She said that the group of people standing nearby, the one's who had denied it, were crowded around it. Jane began calling them into the house for questioning. After they had all been questioned, she had most of her story. They all denied it at first, but with a little pressure to get the anxiety going, they all confessed.

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