On Saturday night, Team Adventure left downtown Wilmington in a taxi cab. Adventure Paul doesn’t support drinking and driving so we planned ahead that night and left the vehicles at the apartment. To see what we did that night view the photos on the Adventure Paul Facebook Page.
As I’m leaving the cab, I look down and see Drew’s phone on the floor so I fish around to make sure nothing else was left behind. I grab what I think are his keys.
But it turns out they are not.
The Case of the Missing Car and Person
We went to the Neptune High cafeteria and caught up with a girl I heard about a few weeks ago and said, “Excuse me.. are you Veronica Mars?”
She said, “Let me guess.. you need a favor.”
The mystery had begun–how were Team Adventure going to find the owner of those keys? First thoughts were:
1) Drive through every apartment complex in Wilmington until we saw someone sleeping on their front porch.
2) In the process of doing this, continually hit the Panic button on the key chain until we heard an alarm go off on a car.
First Clue: Pool Pass with a number on it. That number could be traced to the owner of the keys–but where is the apartment complex?
Maybe the pool pass is for UNCW.
We go to the Student Union. It’s Sunday and the place is empty but unlocked. Someone had been manning the front desk recently–we could tell because his Bojangle’s trash was fresh–still ice in the drink.
Drew hacks into the computer system (moved the mouse and untoggled the screen saver) and started searching for a database of pool pass numbers associated with student ID’s. I get on the phones and call national Ford Headquarters thinking perhaps I could give Ford the serial number on the back of the keychain unlocker and track down what car it belonged to.
Just then a dainty fingered boy walks into the Student Union (probably had just finished using the bathroom after eating Bojangles) and says, “You can’t be back there!”
Team Adventure softens his hostility with a smile and a warm hello and we explain the mystery to Spirit Fingers.
Spirit Fingers: “You can just leave them here in Lost and Found…” and he takes the keys from Drew’s hand.
Adventure Paul: “But why would someone come here to search the Lost and Found if they weren’t here last night? We don’t even know if it’s a student anyway. This is just our first clue…” and I take the keys back from him.
Spirit Fingers: “Oh wait a minute.. I recognize that pool pass. It’s from the Avalon Luxury Apartments,” and he proceeds to give us directions.
And we’re off..
Spirit Fingers: “Uh hey guys–just for the record you can’t be behind the desk…” His voice fades to a distant whisper as we head down the hallway.
About midway into following his driving directions I say, “This guys full of crap–he gave us a dead lead.” But a minute later the road name he said to turn right on appears and we see the apartment complex.
We followed the original plan of driving around clicking the Panic button until–BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP–a white truck is going off.
Found Your Keys
The alarm stays on for a few minutes (yes, at 9am on a Sunday morning) in an attempt to catch the owner of the truck’s attention.
Instead it got the attention of a large older black woman who asks us if we had seen her dog, a small gray York-terrier named Pebbles.
I said, “Don’t worry ma’am. We’ll find your dog–just as soon as we finish this first mystery.”
Our next step is to knock on nearby apartment doors asking if anyone knows whose truck that is.
After asking several neighbors, Drew eventually finds the owner of the truck–a guy who still looks hung over when he opens the door.
“Did you lose your keys bud? That your white truck?”
“Yeah, oh yeah. last night. Alright.” –takes the keys and shuts the door.
I was surprised he wasn’t the least bit curious to discover who we were, why we had his keys, or how we found him. But either way–the deed was done.
You’ve done it again Veronica Mars.
The next mystery begins immediately with The Case of the Missing Pebbles.
“Peeeeeeebbles! Peeeeeebbbblllleeeess? Pebbles?”
After an hour we were beginning to think there was more to this mystery than just a missing dog. Perhaps it was a dognapping or a government conspiracy.
We catch back up with the lady. “So how long has Pebbles been missing? How far do you think he could have gotten?”
“I’m just worried sick about him. Pebbles went missing in 1989..”
The End.
