Solution to the 5-Minute Mystery
"The killer had the combination to the safe," J.J. told Lt. Abadie. "How do you know that Fontenot hadn't opened it hisself?" "Because somebody wiped the safe clean," J.J. said, then added sarcastically, "I doubt that Fontenot would have bothered." "So where does that leave us?" Abadie asked. "All of these folks probably know the combination." "But three of them knew that the envelope with the bearer bonds had a coffee stain on it. Which means they would not have had to tear open the other envelopes to find the bonds. That leaves us, I'm sorry to say, with Miss Silver." Abadie was confused. "I thought we proved she didn't know about the bonds." "Fontenot wasn't killed for the bonds," J.J. said. "This was a revenge murder, set up by the drug dealer Jimmy Plata. It was probably one of his associates who played the role of Cardoza. Miss Silver is, what, Plata's wife, daughter?" The secretary glared at J.J., her brown eyes as hard as marble. "Sister," she said. "Man oh man, Lejern," Abadie said, "how the hell did you make that connection?" "It's easy if you've ever gone bargain huntin' in Mexico," Officer Bergeron said. "'Plata' is Spanish for 'silver.'" Congratulations to R. G. Collarini for being the first to solve this edition of the Five Minute Mystery. |