"So what did you find?" Sue asked.
"What did you find?" Mya countered.
"Alright!" Myles exclaimed, exacerbated as he waved his hands. "How about you both say it at the same time!"
"That won't do any good! No one will hear anything!" Mya complained.
"Alright, I'll go first." Sue replied, trying to keep the peace in the room. Once she was sure everyone was paying attention, she continued. "About a day before Marleen purchased her ticket, someone switched out the real tickets for the fake ones."
Mya nodded. "That coincides with my news. I went out and purchased the exact same ticket, just from a different place. Here, look." She said as she held up the real ticket, and the ticket in question.
Sue studied both. "They're almost exactly the same."
"The key word, 'almost'." Mya replied. "The picture's exactly the same, but the font on the back is ever so slightly different, and the consistency of the scratch-off area is rougher on the fake one." She explained, passing them around the room for everyone to see.
"Why would someone to do this?" Myles asked, passing it on to Bobby.
She shook her head. "I have no idea. I don't see any purpose, other than to create chaos. When these counterfeit tickets get scanned, it says there's no such thing. No one will give them money, especially a large sum, like Marleen's."
"And surely whoever printed these up would know that we would look into it the first chance we find out about it." Bobby added.
"Yeah." Mya replied, then turned to Sue. "How about we find out who that someone is?"
Sue smiled and nodded, prepping the projector for all to see.
?-?
"Hey there." A man said, walking up to the counter. "I won $10." He said, handing the woman behind the counter his ticket.
She smiled at him through her mask. "Congratulations!" She said, then proceeded to scan the ticket in. The computer giving an error message, she frowned.
"Something wrong?" The man asked, seeing her frown.
"The computer is acting goofy, it's saying there's no such ticket, but I'm staring at it!" She complained to the ticket in her hand. "Good thing I'm a manager, I can override it, and get you your winnings!" She said, typing in her managerial code, opening the register and handing the man his money.
He smiled through his mask as he took the bill. "Thanks."
"No problem!" She called after him, then turned to the computer. "Now, to figure out how to get this thing registered!"
?-?
"He just walks in there!" Bobby exclaimed, seeing a young-ish man walk into the store with the counterfeit tickets, walk behind the currently empty counter, switch out the tickets, and walk out of the store. "Where's the employee that's supposed to be behind the counter?"
"He walked away for a second, probably to go to the bathroom." Sue explained, seeing what he said. "There, see? He comes back, none the wiser." She said as the footage continued to play.
"I'm going to run a facial recognition search on the guy." Mya said, pausing the recording and scrubbing to the point where the man was facing the camera. "It's a pretty good quality picture, with the exception of the mask, so hopefully there's enough markers, and his face is somewhere!"
"That's going to take a while. What are we going to do meanwhile?" Sue asked.
"We're going to call the authorities in charge, then pick up every single unsold ticket and hope this is an isolated incident." Jack explained.
"OK, what can I do?" She clarified her question.
"You can go home and work with your team. Unfortunately, there's nothing else I can have you do right now."
She gave him the saddest pouting face she could muster behind her mask as she got up and put on her coat. It wasn't what she wanted to hear in the least.
"But, if I think of any other way to finagle it, you will be the first to know!" He added, hoping it would help. She slightly smiled back, then left the room.
"Not exactly what you wanted to do there." Bobby said once Sue was gone.
"What do you mean?" Jack asked.
"You're supposed to make your woman happy, not unhappy." He replied, nodding towards the door that Sue walked out of.
"What was I supposed to do? There's not enough work for us to do on this case right now, other than wait, and how could I explain her disappearance from her real job if she just sat here with us?"
"We would've figured something out."
Jack stared at his friend. "Let's get to work. Maybe we will find something to being her back."
Bobby smiled. "That's the spirit!"
?-?
"YOU BACK!" Amy exclaimed, seeing Sue come down the den stairs. "YOU WHERE?"
"WITH JACK." She replied.
"DO-DO?" She asked, prodding with a romantic busybody look on her face.
Sue smiled, knowing what she was looking for. "FIRST, TRESURE SEARCH. SECOND, HELP WITH NEW CASE."
"We have a new case with Jack?" Tara excitedly asked, seeing what Sue signed.
"No, I just happened to be there, so I helped Mya with some surveillance footage." Sue explained, signing as well.
Everyone's shoulders dropped. "And I thought we were going to have some fun." Tara regretfully mumbled as she went back to work on her computer.
Amy waved to get her attention. "WE HAVE FUN SAME." She replied, smiling widely.
"No, it's not the same!" Tara said and signed.
"FOR ME SAME." She replied.
Sue studied Amy's smile as she settled down at her spot. "SOMETHING DIFFERENT." She signed when Amy looked in her direction, still thinking.
Amy smiled widely, embarrassedly looking down.
"YOU THINK WHAT?" Tara asked.
She looked from one friend to another. "DON'T KNOW NOT-YET."
Amy just smiled, seeing the two sign about her, not giving any information to help them in their ponderings.