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It was the light of day now, and I had gone home to retrieve my ever-prevailent costume that had become a significant part of my life. I walked the streets of the bustling city where traffic was backed up for miles, and the honking of cars sounded tirelessly through the city air. I walked along the streets now, intent on finding the local candy store where this "Tomfoolery" show had been broadcast.
The address that Tim gave me was hastily scribbled on a small, ripped piece of paper, almost illegibly reading, "1356 Melville Lane." I read it, memorized it, and placed it back into my pocket.
Soon enough, I came to the building with the same exact address, surprised to find a yellow, police line warning caution to passerbyers, as well as a few glowing police squad cars parked around.
"Hm, they actually came," I stated, slightly impressed.
The building was quite ordinary, but through the clear glass window, which sported a giant red and white swirled lollipop, an abundance of colorful candies could be seen all around the shop. It looked quite tasty, those sugary substances which were so savory to the taste buds, but I had a job to do. Plus, any one of those things could be holding potential poison.
I tried to enter the area but was halted by a patrolling policeman.
"Hey, you can't get in here!" He said, discontinuing my progress.
"I'm an investigative journalist, I'm here to investigate."
"Says who? Lemme see ID."
Then it hit me, I never made a press pass for the Face. This would be harder to do than I thought. But all I needed was a piece of evidence from the store to have analyzed, at least for now. And the time soon came right, as one of the younger, more clumsy looking police officer's who sported oily spots of acne on specific places on his face, held a ziploc back of contaminated candies in his gloved hands.
This was my chance, and I took advantage. As the young policeman walked over to who was undoubtedly the chief before me, I let out an unsuspecting foot in his path. He tripped, and the intended effect worked. As he plowed to the ground, the ziploc back was not completely sealed, and spilt out some of its exponents. As the chief helped to raise the young officer up to his feet, I grabbed a piece of candy and was on my way.
"You okay, Vinnie? I swear you're the most uncoordinated cop on the force. How did you make it here?"
Vinnie rapidly tried to retrieve all the evidence. He spoke in a raspy, teenage voice. "Well, Uncle Masden, you were the one who..."
Realizing his forgetfulness, Uncle Masden interrupted. "Ah, ah nevermind. I need to..." as he turned to push me off the property once again, he was surprised to see that I had already left.
As I marched down the sidewalk of the thriving, brightened city, I wondered how I was to analyze the piece. Who could I turn to? I didn't know the first thing about finding poison on a piece of candy. It was a small, green gumball that I held, and I didn't think it could have held too much toxic substance. It looked quite ordinary. The only thought that came to my mind was the Chemistry Professor at my university, Doctor Raphael. I decided to pay the Doc a little visit.
Doctor Raphael was surprised to see me. She was a former professor of mine, and only saw me occasionally on the campus throughout the years. I told her the reason I was there, that I had confiscated a gumball from the candy store where the local children were said to have been poisoned.
"How did you get this?" she wondered, examining the piece with gloved hands.
"Well, my boss told me to retrieve one for a story we're doing on it... it won't do too much harm if they're missing one piece of candy. As long as it's locked up..."
"I don't approve of confiscating evidence at the scene of the crime, but I'll help you analyze the poison if you report it to the police."
The Doc swabbed the gumball and slid it across a microscope tray, proceeding to examine it under the scope. I wasn't sure that you could spot a poison that way. But after a few moments of examination, the doctor was aghast with shock.
"This is no ordinary poison."
"What?"
"It's not a poison at all."
"Then what could it be?
"There's E. Coli bacteria on this thing. I don't know where someone could've gotten a sample of the disease..."
I was at a loss for words. I wondered how this connected to something that the Daily Times posted in the past. I reached into the funnel of memories that were running through my mind at the moment, seemingly to reach in deeply and pull out the exact acquaintance with the current reality.
"Wait a minute, I remember in our newspaper, about how the local petting zoo was found to have animals contaminated with the E. Coli bacteria. Maybe that's how this culprit got to the sample..."
With the information needed for this round, I went off once again.
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