Danny
the bread baker“From 5:00 to 6:00 I was standing at the big oven, pulling out fresh loaves of sourdough every ten minutes. I never left the kitchen.”
Case file
The case
Case closed
It was Danny.The power was out from 5:00 to 6:00, and the bakery's ovens are electric, so they were off and couldn't bake anything. Danny's story about pulling fresh loaves out of the oven every ten minutes is impossible. Danny took the recipe card.
The Bakery Blackout
Before sunrise at Sweet Rise Bakery, someone took the gold-trimmed recipe card for Grandma Rosa's famous cinnamon rolls from the corkboard in the back office. Rosa saw the card on the board at 4:45 a.m. At 5:00, a storm knocked out the power on the whole block, and the bakery sat dark until the lights came back on at 6:00. By then the card was gone. Rosa likes to brag that the bakery went all-electric last year, right down to its two big ovens. Only three employees were in the building that morning.
The suspects
Mei
the cake decorator“When the lights went out, I sat at a table by the front window and waited. It was too dark to decorate anything.”
Hank
the delivery driver“I was out in the parking lot loading boxes into my van with a flashlight. I came back inside once the power came on.”
Who took the secret recipe card?
Hint: Think about what in a bakery needs power to work.