Three days later

"Still nothing?"

Sheldon looked up from the board of evidence, crossing off yet another line of enquiry.

"Nothing so far. Every thread leads to a dead end. Someone was very careful in orchestrating this"

"Well, for ten million dollars I bet they put in a lot of planning"

"Planning, yes. But nothing like this. Everything just stops. Fake ID, stolen credit cards, fake names. Nothing concrete. You know the saying that three can keep a secret only if two of them are dead?"

"No, but I get the idea – so you think this was all done by one person?"

"The only other option is an organisation with impeccably watertight security. Which would cost more than a few million dollars"

"So who could it have been?"

"That, my dear Penny, is the question. I've been looking at this from a different perspective. A friend in Astrophysics pointed out an interesting paper on Complex systems and Large Number theory for orbital dynamics. It holds that it is theoretically possible to reduce a Complex chaotic system to a much smaller and easily manipulated system – they've not published their full theory yet, but they managed to plot the course on an asteroid in the asteroid belt over three weeks to within 0.5% accuracy."

"That's impressive I take it? How's it help us ? you think the kidnapper was an asteroid?"

"Hardly likely. More likely is someone who profited from the whole spectacle. So I set about analysing the news media over that day, which led to the business news and then the stock market. I managed to pull together a few anomalous factors which came together to quite an interesting conclusion"

"You got a lead?"

"Quite possibly. I've a meeting this afternoon and may need some back up, would you mind accompanying me?"

"Rough and tumble? I'll get my gun."

"Hopefully it won't come to that"

That afternoon they get out of the Cab outside a massive chrome skyscraper.

Penny looks at the Corporate logo in the lobby "Kraft Heinz Foods Group?"

"Indeed. Now, please try not to shoot the lawyers"

They were met at reception by a very nervous but intense young man who led them to an high speed elevator and a meeting room high above the streets.

On the other side of an insanely glossy dark wooden table were three stern faced men in incredibly expensive looking suits

"Firstly, we must explain that this meeting never happened and we deny any and all involvement with any matters you may have raised."

Sheldon sighs "You have my word things will be kept confidential, I just need some answers"

"You've seen the police reports, I assume? Detective Hoffsteader would have been asking questions about the pallets of poisoned food, he was rather confused when every single check came up blank."

"Yes, we cooperated to our fullest but none of the numbers he gave matched a production run"

"That is because they were made as a warning – either someone has a factory set aside to making poisoned foods or someone used your own facilities to make a whole run of poison food without leaving a trace. I don't know which you find more worrying?"

Penny leans over, puzzled "you think someone was black mailing all those companies?"

Sheldon shakes his head "The clue was obvious when I started checking the products they chose. Every one is a product of the Kraft company, a fact your lawyers are working hard to keep from the police reports and the newspapers"

"Of course, we have to protect our brand image. Even tangential association with a crime of this sort could have a negative effect on our share value at this time"

"So they threatened to poison your products?"

His question is met with stony silence

"Come on, Kraft have a long history of cases like this; the use of Trans fats in products causing heart disease, Yellow 5 and 6 additives, Prop 37 about Genetically modified ingredients. Usually you fight. Why was this different? I know for a fact that none of the children were yours."

One of the men in suits slowly answers

"They threatened to kill all the children and provide a killer directly motivated by our food safety record"

Sheldon puts two folders down onto the table.

"last night, two men died. One, Joe Hiller, was a paranoid schizophrenic with a history of drug abuse. He recorded a video message claiming responsibility for the kidnapping then killed himself and set his house on fire. In the wreckage I'm sure they'll find the receipts for the school bus, order forms for the food, manuals downloaded off the internet for bombs and drugs and radio jammers, crazy shrines of religious icons and a cornucopia of pornography and firearms."

The other , Emil Wilbur, was a retired school bus driver. His wife recently died of cancer. They had one daughter, but she was born with a rare genetic disorder and died when she was 12. He tragically slipped and fell down some stairs, fatally fracturing his skull"

"If you had not paid up, this is what would have happened."

He slides a stack of evidence photos from Hillers file to Wilburs photograph.

"this is where the evidence you're so scared of would have been found. In the wreckage of a life destroyed by disease, just in time for the six o'clock news. With proof his life was poisoned by you and PGPR!"

One of the suits snaps "The FDA and Joint Committee on Food additives both agree that PGPR is safe for human consumption!"

"Indeed they do. But I had a look through your patents and in 1981 you patented a process for making it from Soy beans at lower temperatures. A much cheaper alternative. Officially you never used the process as there were problems with certification. But reading between the lines here it's clear that was used for several years – did you fudge a few tests, bribe a few people? You were sure it was safe and they were standing in the way of your profits. Then the long term tests came back and you didn't like the results, so your buried the reports and backdated the tests, claiming you've always used PGPR."

"Conservatively, if this hit the papers, could everyone who ate a Kraft product sometime from 1981 to 1985 and is now in poor health could sue you?"

"Now, tell me… what did they want from you?"

Walking down to the sidewalk, Penny shakes her head "All that for a few stock trades? How is that worth ten children's lives?"

"It's the precise timing. Knowing they're announcing the next big merger they have planned early will allow someone to ride the share price up and short competitor's shares down, profiting from a sudden unexpected shift in the markets. Conservatively you could make…

He pauses

"Billions"