The Momomo Caper is dedicated in loving memory to Roscoe
On a quiet spring morning Mrs. Kroesus neatly arranged the flowers, morning paper, and a hearty breakfast for her husband Mr. Kroesus. She does this for him each Sunday so he can enjoy a lazy morning and have breakfast in bed.
But what's this? As she enters the bedroom she notices that Mr. Kroesus is not awake. Quickly she notices that not only is he not awake but he is actually quiet lethargic, hardly responding to her calls and looking very sickly!
Mrs. Kroesus quickly called Dr. Quaksalber to come over to the house. Dr. Quaksalber takes some blood for later testing. Even though the doctor doesn't know the specifics, yet his diagnosis is clear.
“Mr. Kroesus was poisoned! We must get him to the hospital immediately!”
“Who could have done something like that?” screams Mrs. Kroesus, “we must call CCSI at once!”
Half an hour later, Detective Klug and Inspector Spuren arrive. Taking turns they inundate Mrs. Kroesus with questions.
“Who saw him last? What has he eaten? Who served him the food? Who holds a grudge against him? Who might benefit from his death?”
“I don’t care”, she cries, “my poor Momomo.”
“What’s with the name?” asks Detective Klug, “ I thought his name is Paul Kroesus?”
“It’s his nickname” answers Mrs. Kroesus “he would always say ‘more money, more, more, more’ - so the staff started to nickname him Momomo and it just stuck.”
“Ah” exclaims Inspector Spuren “so I gather he is very rich?”
“Oh yes, he owns the biggest mouse hunting grounds around, and his exotic lizard head collection is priceless! He is the richest cat around here by far!” explains his wife.
“There we have a possible motive, money!” says Detective Klug. “Inspector Spuren take traces of all the food in here and send it to the lab. But he obviously hasn’t touched his breakfast, so let’s check what he had for dinner. And get some more blood from Mr. Kroesus to run a toxicology check.”
While Inspector Spuren puts on his gloves and gets to work Detective Klug questions the victim’s wife a bit more.
“Tell me about last night. What did he eat? When did he go to bed?”
“We had dinner together” his wife remembers, “we both ate the same things. Then we went to bed, we have separate bedrooms. He usually has a cup of nip tea served in his room before he sleeps.”
“And who serves that?” inquires the Detective. “Usually the maid” Mrs. Kroesus replies. “But sometimes the kids bring it to him.”
“OK, let’s round up the suspects.” decided Detective Klug. “Get the maid and the kids in here for questioning and send his tea cup to the lab for a toxicology check!”
"No” deny the kids Paul Junior and Eva Maria in unison when they are questioned awhile later “we did not bring him anything, we actually left the house before dinner to go to a lizard BBQ at some neighbors.”"Yes" admits the maid, "I brought him his nip tea after diner as usual. But I did not poision him, I would never do something like that, and she starts sobbing.
“Detective Klug” interrupts Inspector Spuren, “the lab just called and they found traces of a pesticide in the tea cup and the toxicology report shows the same pesticide in Dr. Kroesus blood! They are trying to pin down the exact brand and find out who recently bought it.”
“OK,” concludes Detective Klug, “it was the tea. Now if the maid didn’t do it then who did? Where did the tea come from?” he asks the maid.
“I get it from an old lady at the edge of the forest. She collects all kind of herbal remedies and sells them to make a modest living.
Off they go to pay the Herbal Lady a visit. They arrive at the little house at the edge of the forest and knock but there was no answer. They knock again, louder this time. No answer.“Look at this,” shouts Inspector Spuren, “ I can see her sitting in her chair. Something is not right! Let's break in!”
So they break down the door and find the old lady stooped over in her chair. She is barely breathing and very pale!
An ambulance is called immediately, and after Inspector Spuren checks her thoroughly he exclaims “She is poisoned too!”“Take samples, Inspector Spuren, and let’s see if this is the poisonous nip.
"It is strange though” Detective Klug wonders “that the Herbal Lady would poison herself. Let’s see if we can find out where she actually got the nip.”
But the old lady is in no condition to speak, so the CCSI team decides to take a look around and see if they can figure it out for themselves.
“Look Detective” says Inspector Spuren “here are her walking shoes. They have a very distinctive sole pattern and there is a lot of clay in the crevices. We can just follow the trail from her house. Maybe it will lead us to the nip!”And so they do. They follow the narrow trail from the herb lady's house into the forest and sure enough, after only ten minutes they come to a clearing which is covered with nip.
“That must be it” says Detective Klug. “So where does the poison come in?”“I might have an answer to that” explains Inspector Spuren. “The lab just called, they found the manufacturer of the specific pesticide that poisoned Dr. Kroesus and most probably the old Herbal Lady too then checked their client list. The only big sale in the last several months went to the local government here.”
“So” says the Detective “let’s give them a call!”
And wouldn’t you know it, the government admitted that they were worried about some little weed upshots in their local forest and decided to just root them out. They ordered massive amounts of pesticides and sprayed the whole forest with it. Without telling anybody because they thought no one lived there, so everything would be fine.
They agreed to pay for all the medical bills for Mr. Kroesus and the old Herbal Lady who are both to be expected to recover. They will also issue a public apology and create a department for non-toxic environment management. Mr. Kroesus donated the start-up money for that. The CCSI team was honorably awarded the first of the newly created “Fighter for a Non-Toxic Environment Award”.
ENDE GUT, ALLES GUT (End Good All Good)
Whereas this story was inspired by a true event all characters are strictly fictional and any resemblance to existing entities is totally coincidental. The ending alone is proof that this story is entirely a work of fiction! by Karl
