The Case of Bailey’s Bubble

At 4 am on the 3rd of July Brad was at his house on Cherry Lane sleeping when he heard his phone ringing. As he picked it up, he listened to his assistant manager. Apparently Bailey’s Bubble, the ice cream shop he owned, had been broken into.  He quickly told his assistant manager. “I will be right there.”

Brad would have to skip his regular morning routine of a stop at the Yum Yum Shop for his coffee and gingerbread man.  He headed straight to the store.  He zoomed to the shop as quick as a lion would catch his prey. Brad went in and found that the door to the shop open.  He noticed a Berklee sweatshirt sitting on top of the counter. That sweatshirt belonged to Jess, the manager of the shop, but he hadn’t worked in two days.  He looked around to find all the ice cream was gone. He couldn’t believe it.  Who would take all the ice cream?

He knew he had to call James, the best and only Wolfeboro detective. James answered his phone, “James P Sullivan, detective.”  James listened to Brad and knew they needed to meet.  This was an important case to solve. Bailey’s Bubble ice cream was one of the most important things in Wolfeboro.

James said, “Where do you want to meet, the Downtown Grille?”

Brad agreed and told him, “Anywhere this is really important.” At 8:00am Brad met James at the Downtown Grille.  James saw the usual people.  A few families who had just come in for breakfast on their boats, the old cranky man eating his usual pumpkin muffin, and a few tourists asking about good things to do in town.   James noticed the cranky old man get up at once leaving half of a pumpkin muffin. James wondered why he was in such a rush, but realized he would have to worry about that later.

James found Brad and asked, “What happened?”

Brad told him, “Someone broke into Bailey’s Bubble.  My assistant manager called me early this morning to tell me.”  He kept going, “The real problem is there will be no ice cream left for the 4th of July festivities that will start tomorrow.”

James asked, “Do you know anyone who might want to take the ice cream?”  Brad could not think of anyone, but the town would be filled with people tomorrow and he knew they needed to find the ice cream or a lot of people would be upset. Brad told James that his manager’s sweatshirt was at the shop and that was the only thing left behind.  James told Brad he would begin his search and start at Bailey’s Bubble.

Brad and James went back to Bailey’s Bubble so that James could begin looking for clues. When they arrived at the door there was a ransom note that said “I will give you the ice cream, if you give me the freedom to go wherever I want to go tomorrow.” Sincerely AU

Brad said, “That must be the initials of someone’s name.”

James said, “The only person is Adrian Usher, which it can’t be. Does he have any problems with Bailey’s Bubble?”

Brad looked at the note and looked back at James.  “Not that I know of. He is cranky all the time. He always is mumbling when he walks by, but that’s it.”

Brad and James looked outside using James’ invention the Footprint-O-Matic, which detects patterns in footprints.  It detected hundreds of footprints, but only a few that had a pattern leaving Bailey’s Bubble.  You see most people move back and forth at the ice cream window, but one set left the door of Bailey’s Bubble and went straight towards Black’s Gift Shop. James told Brad to stay where he was to see if anyone came by in case the person who took the ice cream planned to leave another note.

“Brad if anything looks strange, just pretend you’re looking at the shop. I don’t want to scare anyone away and have to give up on solving this case.”

Brad stayed put as James walked to follow the footprints.  James was hopeful he would find another clue.  Just as he came up to the stairs of Black’s he looked down and saw a Lindt wrapper on the floor ~ pumpkin flavored.  He wondered if that might help us so he asked Peggy, who was standing at the cash register.  She always knew who came in and out of her store.  She would know who the candy wrapper belonged to.  She said she gave two to the 2 little Miller boys and one to Adrian, the cranky old man. James I went back out and told Brad that we might have a lead.  James knew that Adrian Usher should be at the Yum Yum shop for his mid-morning coffee and gingerbread man.

Brad and James went to The Yum Yum Shop looking for more clues or for Adrian. As James and Brad walked in, right in front of them, they saw his daughter Sabrina Usher and started talking to her.  Everyone knows everyone in the small town and Brad and James began a conversation with Sabrina. Brad told Sabrina about the stolen ice cream and Sabrina’s face went white.   James quickly asked Sabrina if she was ok. She looked at them both. clearly not ok, but said, “Yes I am fine just have to get to a meeting.”  She grabbed her coffee and rushed out the door.  James grabbed his notebook and added Sabrina as a clue. James knew they had to follow her.  She knew something.

James and Brad followed from a distance and saw Sabrina was heading towards her father’s house.   Adrian lives at the end of the road in the old historic Wolfeboro Train Station. As James and Brad came up the street they saw Sabrina and Adrian talking on his front step.  James went up to the two and asked if they knew anything about the ice cream that was stolen.   Sabrina looked scared. James just looked at her and she blurted out, “My dad stole the ice cream.”

Adrian looked at her and then to James and Brad. “Yes I did.  I am sick of Bailey’s Bubble.  The road is always blocked with long lines of people and I can’t get my car out and onto the road. I shouldn’t be stuck at home on the 4th of July.”

Brad looked at Adrian and said, “ Of course you shouldn’t be stuck.  I didn’t know that our lines were causing such a problem.  Why didn’t you come talk to me about it?”

“I should have, but I was super frustrated and apparently you were too busy helping customers.”
“Adrian, I would have talked to you if you said this is important. I always heard you as you walked by but you never seemed to want to talk.”

Adrian asked for them to come inside and showed them he had all the ice cream and would bring it back.  Brad was mad at Adrian for stealing the ice cream, but he also felt horrible that his shop was causing such an issue for Adrian.

Chief Brian showed up just as they all were walking out.  He was there to arrest Adrian for stealing the ice cream, but it seemed like it was a big misunderstanding between two men.  So instead Adrian had to work at Bailey’s Bubble for 4 weeks and they would put cones out so Adrian Usher could get out of his house. So that is how James, the best and only Wolfeboro detective, solved one of the hardest cases in Wolfeboro, home to Bailey’s Bubble.

3 thoughts on “The Case of Bailey’s Bubble”

  1. Hi Landon,
    Thanks for sharing your mystery. You included all the parts of mystery, right down to the red herring. You did a great job developing your setting and giving your story a sense of place. You developed that characters and gave them real personality.
    You resolved the case and left readers with a satisfying ending.
    Your mystery was well planned, revised and written.
    Thank you for your time and effort.
    🕵🏻‍♂️📝🙌🏼Mrs. Eaves

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