“Dad, can you clear up something for me!” Jonathan asks his father, the famous detective Alfred Bates.

“What is it that you want to know?” Bates asks casually while reading a newspaper.

“I was going through some family albums and found a lady resembling Ma wearing a police uniform in one of the photos,” Jon asks.

“That is because your mother was in the police force, and before we met she was doing quite well too,” the detective replies to his son.

“How come I didn’t know that?”

“Your mother left active duty before you were born and joined the academy as an administrator,” Bates tells his son. “That’s why you don’t remember her as a cop.”

“So did you meet on the job?”

“Of course we did,” Mrs Bates says as she enters the room.

“Woah!” Jon exclaims as he gears up for the story about his parents’ first meeting.

Mrs Bates tells Jon. “It was a huge case considering no one was able to solve it before your father and I teamed up.”

“You two worked on a case together?”

“It so happened that the police got a tip that someone will rob multimillionaire Mr Johnson’s safe on New Year’s Eve and we sent most of the officers to his place.”

“The job was performed by a Mr Crabtree who was dressed as a cop and switched his position with one of our colleagues,” Alfred Bates continues the story, and then looks at his wife who is anxious to tell her version. “Sorry dear, I will listen, you go ahead.”

“Thank you,” Mrs Bates starts to narrate, “Mr Crabtree was arrested after one of the security cameras showed him leaving the building but he claimed that he was not even near the crime scene at that time. His chauffeur also vouched for his whereabouts.”

“You believed a chauffeur... that’s weak, Ma!”

“That’s where we were baffled because he had an excellent track record. What was his name?” Mrs Bates says as she looks at her husband.

“Matt Kirby. He was with your mother at the academy so she trusted him.”

“He was an ex-cop?”

“No, he couldn’t clear the final test at the academy and joined an agency that provided people with handy jobs,” Mrs Bates continues the story with excitement. “He claimed that he was with Mr Crabtree and they drove their limousine to a pizza joint outside the city at that exact time.”

“Who was the culprit?” Jon asks.

“Ask your father. He solved the case!”

Mr Bates explains to his son how he did it, “I asked Matt whether Mr Crabtree ordered pizza on that trip or not?”

“And that was helpful ... how?”

“They didn’t order anything on that trip and that was my first clue as I deduced that the trip was meant to be a distraction so that Mr Crabtree can prove his innocence.”

“Matt was in the academy ... he would have noticed had it been Mr Crabtree in the car or not. Right?

“Right, but Mr Crabtree was planning this for a long time.” Bates continues to explain. “He made his friend, Mr Jameson, sit in the car behind the chauffeur with a voice recording of directions to the pizza joint. Since the chauffeur never saw the passenger who chose to sit in the dark, he assumed that Mr Crabtree was the passenger and the voice he heard was coming from him, not from a recorder.”

“What gave them away?”

“Your mother helped me in the interrogation room and it was her past association with Matt that stopped him from going crazy. It was she who said ‘Who goes to a pizza joint and comes back without eating pizza’!” Bates replies.

“We traced Mr Jameson through Mr Crabtree’s cell phone,” Mrs Bates says as she joins in, again. “I was in the group of police officers who arrested him — he was driving around the precinct and trying to act as a concerned citizen.”

“And he confessed to his involvement to the crime in the interrogation room; it was he who pointed out where the looted amount was — in Mr Crabtree’s home, stashed in a hidden room behind his bookshelf.’ Alfred Bates completes the narration.

“You people were a good team.”

“We were the best. A few days later they promoted your mother to the Detective Force and that’s where I proposed her.”

“You should have continued to be a detective, Ma’! Jon says.

“Maybe someday in the future; right now, my job is to look after you, the house and the academy,” Mrs Bates says as she checks the watch on her wrist. “It’s way past your bedtime young man. Enough of the story. Go to your room!”

Published in Dawn, Young World March 25th, 2017