Find It!

And so it was that Inspector Beauchard found himself needing to solve another locked room mystery.

In this case, the locked room was his cluttered studio apartment, and the mystery involved the location of his keys.

Given that authorities from far-off places often called upon his expertise, it would seem possible that his keys could get just about anywhere in the country, if not the world. This, however, contradicted a key piece of evidence: he himself stood, at this very moment, within his studio apartment. What’s more, the building had outfitted every door to automatically lock after clicking shut.

And yet: he did not see the keys anywhere.

He began contemplating a conspiracy, wherein someone had, during the course of the previous few days, freed the keys from his pocket, made a copy, and then returned them to him, all so they could sneak into his apartment while he slept and take his real keys. The minute he left the apartment looking for them, this villain would return, replace his keys, so that when he eventually came up empty handed and regained entry via the building’s superintendent, there they’d be, on the kitchen counter.

Paranoid, yes, but plausible, in terms of motive. This would call into question his judgment, which might undercut his testimony in an upcoming trial, allowing a criminal he caught to walk free.

One problem with this theory: why would he leave his apartment without his keys, knowing he needed them to gain entry?

Another problem: Inspector Beauchard’s tic. As his mind worked, piecing together clues, so too did his fingers, drumming upon his pocket. More specifically: the pocket that housed his keys, playing out a simple beat of muffled jingles. Were his keys to disappear from this pocket, someone would have to sneak under that drumming hand. Moreover, the feeling and the sound of the drumming would change while the keys were absent. Would he really not notice such a thing?

Luckily, Inspector Beauchard had a Verbatim My Finder Bluetooth Coin Tracker on his keys. It worked with his iPhone’s ‘Find My’ function. Taking out his phone, he was perplexed to find that the keys were, apparently, nearby. Next, he used the feature that allowed the Coin Tracker to sound out when within close range.

Sure enough, a noise came from the kitchenette. There sat his keys on the counter, not even under anything.

Huh.

Inspector Beauchard was relieved to be alone then. Because this certainly would call into question his skills of detection.