As an avid Sherlock Holmes fan, we thought we’d spice up the blog with an homage to the greatest sleuth to ever live. Can you solve the case before Dr. Silverman?
The sun was already scorching as Dr. Silverman walked briskly towards the east entrance of his practice at 6600 France Avenue South. The heat provided a nice reprieve from two straight days of rain, but the temperature was approaching 90 degrees and it was barely 10 am. An early riser, the late arrival to his practice was unusual, but a morning tele-conference with some members of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons forced him to push back his morning appointments.
The east entrance to his clinic provided Dr. Silverman with a scenic view of the flowers that surrounded the building, and he thought it was a shame his patients didn’t get the same view when they entered the business complex’s main entrance, which provided access to a handful of other businesses housed inside the compound. Dr. Silverman was mentally preparing for the day’s surgical procedures when he was snapped back to reality by the sight of broken glass near the entrance. As he stared dismayed at the scene before him, Dr. Silverman heard footsteps behind him. He turned around in time to see his assistant Anne striding towards him.
“Oh my goodness,” said Anne. “What happened to the window?”
“Your guess is as good as mine,” replied Dr. Silverman, still taking in the scene. “It looks like someone broke into the place.”
Dr. Silverman continued to take in the scene as Anne proceeded through the unlocked door and into the practice’s waiting room. He knew she’d do a better job assessing if anything was missing, so Dr. Silverman stayed outside and studied the crime scene. The broken glass lay inside the waiting room, suggesting that whoever struck the window did so from the outside. He doubted there would be any fingerprints, especially after a night of rain. He did however note a rather discernible footprint in the mud near the window.
As his finger lingered over the “1” button on his cell phone, Dr. Silverman heard Anne calling for him from inside the practice. Moving carefully to avoid the broken glass, Dr. Silverman waited for the 911 operator to pick up as he strode into his practice to find Anne.
“Hello 911,” a female voice said. “What’s your emergency?”
“It appears that someone broke into my clinic last night,” said Dr. Silverman as he neared Anne, who was standing behind the reception center. “Could you please send someone over?”
“Was anything taken from the clinic?” the dispatcher asked.
The words were barely out of the dispatcher’s mouth when Anne turned and looked at Dr. Silverman, her complexion paler than moments before.
“They took the box of shoes that were meant for the Our Hearts To Your Soles event,” said Anne. “And the box of custom orthotic insoles.”
Dr. Silverman handed the phone to Anne as he took in the scene. Who would want to steal 400 pairs of shoes and a box of custom orthotics? The shoes could be resold, and although custom orthotics were expensive, reselling insoles that were custom built for someone else’s feet seemed like a lot of trouble for only a modest payoff. He continued to ponder the motive when he remembered the footprint out front. He took a foot measuring tool from his office and bound back to the east entrance, determined to record the evidence before someone accidentally disturbed the scene.
Dr. Silverman crouched down next to the footprint as a squad car pulled into the parking lot. He recognized the officer almost immediately; it was Sgt. McGinty, a regular at Dr. Silverman’s philanthropic events. A small smile crossed Dr. Silverman’s face as he knew Sgt. McGinty also contributed to the Our Hearts To Your Soles event. Dr. Silverman knew he’d make this case top priority.
“Sorry to hear about the break in Lance,” said Sgt. McGinty. “Did they really get away with the shoes for the charity event?”
“Afraid so,” said Dr. Silverman, “But they left something behind too.”
A bead of sweat dripped down his forehead as Dr. Silverman measured the footprint in the dried mud. It had to be getting close to 100 degrees outside, and there wasn’t a cloud in sight.
“Couldn’t the thief have picked a cooler day to bust into your practice,” Sgt. McGinty chortled as he wiped his brow with a handkerchief. “Has to be one of the hotter days in years.”
The sergeant’s musing fell on deaf ears, however, as Dr. Silverman was engrossed in measuring the footprint.
“A size 9,” he exclaimed, knowing that the footprint was likely left by the thief. “I wear an 11 and Anne is a size 6.5, so this footprint is probably from our guy.”
“Any chance you have video surveillance of the property?” said Sgt. McGinty.
“The building has a camera facing the parking lot, but I don’t have any inside my practice,” said Dr. Silverman. “Hadn’t really seen the need for them.”
The pair walked inside the lobby and down a set of stairs to the building manager’s office. They were greeted by a short, scruffy-looking man who looked at them with questioning eyes.
“Whattaya want?” the man asked.
“We were hoping to take a look at the security tapes from last night,” said Sgt. McGinty. “There was a break in last night on the east side of the building.”
As the man got up and moved across the room to the pair of security TVs on the far wall, Dr. Silverman noticed that the man’s shoes were caked in mud.
“What time you want me to start the tapes from?” the man grumbled.
“Let’s start at 8 pm and go through the morning,” said Dr. Silverman, remembering he left the clinic late after preforming an hours-long total ankle replacement the night before.
The man rewound the security tapes to 8 pm and then proceeded to fast forward until something happened on the screen. The first visitor appeared around 9 pm, and although the camera clearly caught a picture of the man’s face as he approached the clinic, the angle of the camera didn’t allow the trio to see if the man was the one who smashed the window.
“That’s Barry Appelbaum,” said Dr. Silverman. “He’s one of my patients. What was he doing here so late?”
Dr. Silverman made a mental note of Barry’s appearance at the clinic as the building manager continued to fast forward. The man stopped the tape when another person came into frame, and Dr. Silverman was again able to identify the man, although he had only met him moments ago.
“That’s you, isn’t it?” said Dr. Silverman, speaking to the property manager. “What were you doing here after hours?”
“I forgot something,” the man snapped, with more than a hint of anger in his tone. “But I didn’t have nothing to do with any break in. Heck I didn’t even enter that door.”
Dr. Silverman knew what the man was saying could be true. The angle of the security camera only showed the parking lot, and although you could see people heading towards the clinic, they also could have been visiting any of the other businesses on the property. In fact, if a person were to try the east door, they’d likely head towards the main entrance and then walk around the building on the nearby sidewalk, which was out of view of the security camera.
As Dr. Silverman grew frustrated with the lack of concrete video evidence, the man fast forwarded again, this time stopping shortly before midnight. Although it was dark, Dr. Silverman again identified the man walking towards the clinic.
“Thomas Rhone,” said Dr. Silverman. “He had just been to the clinic earlier that day.”
The security manager fast forwarded again, but this time the tape remained empty until daybreak, when a host of the business center’s employees showed up for another day at work. Figuring that the crime had been committed during the cover of night, Dr. Silverman surmised that one of the three men he had just seen on screen was the likely culprit.
“Do you have contact information for Mr. Appelbaum and Mr. Rhone?” Sgt. McGinty asked. “I’d like to have a word with them.”
“I do back in my office,” said Dr. Silverman. “Why don’t we go grab it.”
The pair began to walk out of the office when Sgt. McGinty turned back around.
“I think you better join us too,” Sgt. McGinty said to the property manager.
***
Two hours later the three questionable characters sat in Dr. Silverman office. To his dismay, all three men had mud around the base of their feet.
“This won’t be as easy as I had hoped,” Dr. Silverman thought to himself.
One by one, the men were brought into Dr. Silverman’s office, which had been turned into a makeshift interrogation room. Dr. Silverman and Sgt. McGinty began with Mr. Appelbaum.
“Why were you here so late?” Sgt. McGinty asked.
“My daughter injured her ankle last night during a soccer game,” Mr. Appelbaum answered. “I didn’t have my cell phone on me so I tried to swing in around 9 pm to see if the doctor was still in. The main doors were locked, so I walked around to the east entrance to see if a light was on.”
Dr. Silverman’s ears perked up at the mention of the east entrance. Sgt. McGinty didn’t miss it either.
“There was a break in on the east entrance last night,” Sgt. McGinty said. “The person left a shoe print in the mud, mind showing us your kicks?”
Mr. Appelbaum paused for a moment before slipping out of his shoes. As he handed them over to Sgt. McGinty, he said “They’re a size 9.”
“Same size as our suspect,” Sgt. McGinty said with a look of content on his face. “That’s all for now, Barry.”
Dr. Silverman guided Mr. Appelbaum back out into the lobby and called for Mr. Rhone. The disheveled man picked up his briefcase and started towards the doctor.
“What’s this all about?” Mr. Rhone asked. “I’m supposed to play golf in a half an hour.”
“This should only take a few moments,” Dr. Silverman replied, guiding the man back towards his office.
Mr. Rhone slid into a chair and adjusted in glasses. “You still haven’t told me what’s going on.”
“Someone broke into my clinic last night,” Dr. Silverman said. “We’re trying to figure out who it was. Why did you come back to the office so late last night?”
“Lost my cell phone somewhere yesterday. I was re-tracing my steps,” Mr. Rhone said. “Thought I might have left it in your waiting room, but I looked just now when I was out there. No luck.”
“What size shoe do you wear?” Sgt. McGinty asked.
“Size 9,” Mr. Rhone said. “But I plan to throw this pair out. They got pretty muddy in the storm last night.”
“Thanks for your cooperation, Mr. Rhone,” said Sgt. McGinty. “That will be all.”
Dr. Silverman ushered Mr. Rhone back out into the waiting room, and when they arrived, they heard the other two suspects talking.
“I heard you’re asking for people’s shoe sizes,” the property manager bellowed. “I’m a size 9.5 and I don’t have time for this. I want to get back to my office.”
“Thanks,” Dr. Silverman said. “I was just about to ask.”
Dr. Silverman glanced over at Sgt. McGinty, who had a puzzled look on his face.
“I trust you know who to arrest,” Dr. Silverman said with a wry smile.
Sgt. McGinty stood still for a second. “Mind helping me on this one doc?”
“No problem,” Dr. Silverman said. He raised his finger and pointed in the direction of one of the men. “He’s the one who stole the shoes and the insoles.”
Who did Dr. Silverman point to? Post your guesses in the comments, and check back on Friday for the answer!
Answer
Friday is here, and so is the answer to the mystery! Were you able to identify the crook? The answer to the mystery is that the property manager stole the shoes and the inserts. Dr. Silverman knew that when mud dries, it contracts to a slightly smaller size. Knowing that the dried footprint was a size 9, Dr. Silverman surmised that the thief’s shoe was slightly bigger than a size 9. The property manager was the only suspect to fit the bill.
We hope you enjoyed the story, and have a great weekend!