The Case

As always, all characters belong to CS, S/MP, NBC and the incredible cast and crew of Profiler. I'm just borrowing, I promise not to hurt them or make any money off of them, but comments to betha@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu are welcome.


The Case
by Beth Arritt
Copyright 1997

"Mom!" Chloe came barreling down the hallway. "Mom!" she repeated as she reached the kitchen.

Sam looked up from the sandwiches she was working on. "What, Chlo?"

"I can't find my other sneaker." She held the mate to the missing shoe in her hand.

"Well where did you leave it?"

Chloe gave her an exaggerated shrug. "I dunno. You're the detective."

Sam turned to the sink until she could control the urge to laugh. After a moment she turned back to her daughter with a smile. "Tell you what." Sam said as she crouched down next to her. "I may need some help on this case. How about being my special assistant?" Chloe nodded. "Okay. You're the missing sneaker."

"I don't want to be a sneaker. Can't I be a red dress shoe?"

Sam shook her head. "It doesn't work like that. If the sneaker is missing, you have to be the sneaker. If you're the red shoe, you'll end up either going barefoot, or looking really silly walking around in two different shoes." Chloe giggled.

"So you're the sneaker," Sam said again. "Where's your favorite place to hang out?"

"In the floor in my--oops, in Chloe's room."

"Maybe if the sneaker hung out in Chloe's closet more often than in her floor it wouldn't be missing." Chloe squirmed for a moment, then giggled again.

"So you're hanging out on the floor, minding your own business. Who do you see while you're there?"

"Chloe."

"Right. But we've questioned Chloe and she doesn't know where you are. Who else do you see?"

"Mom."

"Mom would have put you in the closet, not taken you somewhere else. So that rules her out. Anyone else?"

"Angel?"

"She has no motive. The shoe's too small for her, and I don't think she'd use it in her art, so..."

"Denzel?"

"Hmmm... What do we know about Denzel? He likes to chew on things like shoes, so there's your motive. And the shoe was in the floor instead of the closet, so he had opportunity."

"Denzel did it!"

"Let's see if we can catch the culprit." They tiptoed around the corner into the living room toward Denzel's favorite spot under Chloe's slide. Slowly they crouched down by the slide and peered underneath. The dog was happily licking Chloe's missing sneaker.

"Mom, look! Denzel's got my sneaker!"

"I believe this case is solved," Sam said as she wrestled the soggy sneaker away from the dog. "Thanks for your help, Special Assistant Waters." She shook Chloe's hand.

"That was cool, Mom! Can we do it again sometime?"

"We're not quite done yet. We still have to wrap up the case."

"But we caught him."

"Yes, and now we have to wrap up." She handed Chloe the slightly chewed sneaker. "Take those and put them in the washing machine. Then consider your paperwork done."