Solution #4

            Ned rang the doorbell with a sense that everything would soon be falling into place.  All the evidence pointed in one direction.  He had already done follow-up interviews with all the other suspects, and on one crucial point they were in agreement.  Would the man with the monkey give the same information?

            No one answered.  But clearly someone was there, because Ned could hear footsteps somewhere in the trailer.  Actually the steps of more than two feet, suggesting that someone was chasing someone else.  He was patient.  Still, he checked his watch and saw that it was two minutes since he last rang the bell.  He rang again.

            Silence.  Then footsteps coming closer to the door.  The man with the monkey opened, but without the monkey, and clearly he was surprised to see Ned again.

            “Oh, you!  I wasn’t expecting you back.”

            “Sorry, but I’m afraid I must ask you a few more questions.  May I come in?”  That was a polite way of putting it; they both knew Ned would come in whether welcome or not.

            “Yes, I suppose.”

            Ned entered the trailer and saw at once that things were in disarray as if there had been a tussle, but there was no monkey in sight.  The place still smelled of bacon, and in fact the smell was even stronger than last time.  Ned steeled himself as he sat down.

            “So what do you want to ask this time?”

            Ned heard scratching noises in a back room.  Ah, that’s where the monkey was.  Scratching noises, then rattling sounds, as if someone–or some monkey–was playing with a bunch of marbles.  But probably not marbles.

            “Do you still have the invitation that Susan sent you?”

            “Sure, somewhere.  At least I think so.”

            “You think so.  Well, do you remember much about it?”

            “Oh, yes.  I looked at it carefully.”

            “Were there any photos on it?”

            “Yes, I remember that clearly.  She said when we met at the aquarium she would be wearing exactly what she was wearing in the photo–and she certainly looked gorgeous.  That was a big part of the lure.”

            “So tell me–in that photo was she wearing any jewelry?”

            The man paused.  He thought he knew where this was going.  Could he evade the question?  Probably, but Ned would eventually demand to see the invitation, and it sounded as if he already knew the answer to his question from what other people had told him.  “Yes.  She was wearing a large pendant.  Large and obviously expensive, even if you didn’t know it was solid gold.  I had never seen it before, but she had told me about it, and she said she wore it only for special occasions.”

            “I see.  And what was the shape of this pendant?”

            “I think you already know.  It was a large golden banana, partly unpeeled.  Very attractive.”

            “I’m sure.  But when you got to the aquarium and saw her on the floor, was she in fact wearing that pendant?”

            “No, she wasn’t.”

            “Good–that’s the same answer all the others have given me.  But do you know where the pendant might be?”

            The man was perspiring now, and not just from the heat.  “I . . .  I’m not quite sure.”

            “Well, let’s try a different line of inquiry.  When you got to the aquarium, was your monkey with you?”

            “He had been.  But before we got to the aquarium he seemed very excited, and he rushed on ahead of me.”

            “And when you went inside the aquarium and saw Susan, was your monkey there?”

            “No, he wasn’t.”

            “Tell me, is that monkey particularly strong, and can he get aggressive?”

            “He’s one of the strongest creatures I’ve ever seen.  But with me he never gets aggressive.  Maybe sometimes with other people, but only when they have something he wants.”

            “Like a golden banana pendant?”

            The man said nothing, but breathed deeply.

            “May I see what that monkey is doing at the moment?”

            There was no point in resisting.  The man stayed sitting on his sofa but pointed toward another room.  Ned got up and went through a low doorway that led into a bedroom.  There on the edge of the bed was the monkey, with its back to the door.  He was sitting there with a large cache of clearly expensive jewelry, and he was playing with it, tossing necklaces and bracelets and broaches up in the air and letting them fall on the bed or the floor.  But there was one bit of jewelry that he did not toss around; he paused every now and then to look at it and fondle it.  Immediately Ned knew what it was and how the monkey had gotten it.  The mystery was solved.

• Richard Kieckhefer