Written for a 6th grade writing assignment...
The last roars from the crowd had echoed off the old warehouse walls hours before, leaving only an occasional hot dog wrapper to pass by, whipped by the breeze coming through the gated fence. What had been a brightly lit, frenzy people-filled place was now a dark, damp, and downright scary dump. It smelled of hot dogs, sweat, and death.
At least six half-eaten dogs lay around him, dropped where the people who had been eating them simply let go when they couldn’t eat any more. He watched as one was pricked by the tiny fingers of a probe and disappeared into a zip-lock baggie. Something in a white suit, he couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman since it covered them from top to toe, made its way over to another hot dog and - zip- it too was gone. Soon they would all be gone and maybe some of the smell would catch a ride on the breeze and hike out of there.
The death had been picked up and placed in zipper baggies too, only a lot larger. And its smell would take a lot longer to disappear. Six people had eaten those dogs, now one was dead and the others possible poisoned. Was it an accident, or deliberate? That’s what he was here to find out.
Standing over behind one of the dugout walls was the owner of the home town team, the concession owner, the public relations director, and the two hot dog sellers. He walked slowly over to the group, glad to be away from the stink of the rotting hot dogs, although the whole place really smelled like one big hot dog.
“Evening, gentlemen” he said as he approached. “Sorry this had to happen. I hope the rest make it.”
“We all do.” replied Mr. Cornucopia, the owner. “We can’t believe someone would poison the hot dogs. For what reason? Just to scare everybody, or to get someone, which seems unlikely since they would not know who would buy the poisoned one.”
“Yes, that seems true enough.” he answered. “Mr. Johnston?” he turned to the rest.
“I’m Johnston.” answered the concession owner.
“What can you tell us about the hot dogs? Where did you get them? How did they get to those people?”
“Well, we always get ‘im from the same place, my brothers meat packin’ plant over in Westin. These were fresh, came in just this morning. As for how the people got ‘im, well, I use hawkers to sell the dogs, these two guys here ’s a matter of fact.”
He looked at the two sellers. “I would like to talk to each of you alone, please. You first.” Pointing to a clean-cut young man. The others in the group shuffled over to the other side of the dugout.
“How long you been working here?”
“Just started today. Matter of fact, both of us did.” He said, pointing to the other seller. “We came in at the same time, although I got my rack and left about 5 minutes before he did. For some reason, he said he had something to do.”
“How long have you been selling?”
“Oh, I don’t know…4-5 years I guess. I’ve seen a lot of games during that time. I was at that game when Jim Barry dropped the pass from the guy in back of the plate. Incomplete it was, too bad… it could have been an easy basket point.”
“Ummm. Yes. Well, I’m asking you to not leave the park until I tell you. Go over and send the other seller.”
“Okay.”
“Yes sir?”
“Been here long?”
“Oh, not really. I mean I just started today, if that’s what you mean. This is only my second job and I’m just learning. I thought I’d get to see the game, what with being in stadium and all, but we just don’t have the time. I’m so busy selling, I ain’t get five minutes to sit. Shoot…I even missed that 6-4-3-1 triple play! First one ever done here, and I missed it! Shoot!”
“Alright, you can go back. I know who did it. I just don’t know why.”
“The first hawker is the killer. He didn’t know anything about the game, although he probably had time since he wasn’t really selling hot dogs, just waiting for the time when the person he was after would ask for one. When everyone in the group wanted a dog, he couldn’t be sure which one would get the poisoned one, so he poisoned them all. Nice Guy.”
(edit: The rule was no more than 2 pages - I was going on 16 pages when I quit. I felt I could go on forever. Now that feeling is gone...)
