"Who?"

"The Detective Inspector. . . uh, hold on." Walatson began typing up a google search and was soon rewarded with answers.

"Detective Inspector Hollow. He's been the head of the police department for five years now."

"Never heard of him."

"Course you haven't, ya recluse." Walatson glued herself to the computer screen as she did more research. Spudlock wandered around the room and waited to hear of her findings, not bothering to put the whiteboard away.

A few minutes later, Walatson had skimmed through the Inspector's Wikipedia page. "He solved a big murder case a few years back involving a clock maker who was murdering people with his hand-made clocks. Something about poison. Does that ring any bells?"

"No."

Walatson sighed. "Of course it doesn't."

"Who buys hand-made clocks anymore anyways?" asked Spudlock, looking around and seeing only digital timekeepers.

Walatson was about to answer when there came a knock on their door. She leaned around the whiteboard to stare at the door in confusion. No one ever knocked at their residence, not even the mailman after Spudlock had scared him away.

Walatson and Spudlock looked at each other, perplexed, and a long enough time passed for the person at their door to knock again.

Walatson got up, dodged around the whiteboard, and walked to the door. When she opened it, she found the man whose picture had been on the Wikipedia page she had just been looking at.

"Hello," she said politely.

"Hello," he returned. He brought a police badge out of his coat pocket and brought it up so that Walatson was staring straight at it. "Detective Inspector Hollow. May I come in?"

Walatson nodded and stood aside to let him pass.

"That was quick," she remarked as she closed the door. "Didn't you just send me an email this morning?"

"I sent that email five days ago."

"Oh. Well. . . um. . ."

"She's been busy with writery stuff," said Spudlock, regarding the Inspector suspiciously.

Hollow raised an eyebrow at 'writery stuff', but he didn't comment.

Walatson, who had started blushing slightly, merely muttered "Deadlines," as she walked back to her computer.

"I understand you've been looking into this case about the. . .um, the stolen potato."

"Yes, the Great Potato Chase," said Spudlock. "We've been doing some research."

"'Research' as in trespassing in a crime scene? I could give you a fine just for that, but instead, I want you both to come down to the station with me."

"What for?" asked Spudlock.

"Are we in trouble?" asked Walatson, closing her computer and turning in her seat to face the Inspector.

"You're not in any trouble, no." He turned to Spudlock. "I've heard of your expertise in solving mysteries and unraveling crime scenes. I believe you could help us with this case."

"Why should I?"

"I'm willing to offer a generous sum of money for your assistance."

"We'll take it!" said Walatson, cutting off anything that Spudlock might have been about to say. She walked to the corner of the room and grabbed her coat off of a coat hanger, prepared to leave that instant.

"But I don't-" Spudlock tried to protest, but Hollow cut him off before he could get much further in his sentence.

"We found the potato."

Walatson grabbed Spudlock's coat as well and threw it in his general direction before turning to grab her keys. Spudlock caught it without even looking, still staring at the detective.

"Lead the way."

. . . . . . . . .

Fifteen minutes later, they were exiting Hollow's police car (Spudlock had to be let out of the backseat) and walking into the station. They were greeted by a nice secretary before they went down a hallway to the left and down a flight of stairs.

"Where's the potato?" asked Spudlock as they were walking.

"It's in a safe downstairs. But that's not where we're going."

"No? And where are we going to?"

Hollow didn't answer, but instead lead us inside a room with a gurney and a body bag in the middle. The room had several counter tops, and the wall space was mostly taken up by what looked like square metal lockers.

They walked over to the body bag.

"This woman was found holding the potato. We believe she may have died in order to keep it with her, but her death is very unusual. We think the manner in which she died may be important to the case."

And with that, Hollow proceeded to unzip the body bag.