“We can’t really know that — unless you can help us prove it,” Jupe said without missing a beat.
It was clear to everyone that his mind, as usual, was working well ahead of the conversation.
“What kind of scheme do you have in mind, Jupe?” Bob asked.
“It’s simple,” Jupe said. “We’ve got to find out if Big Barney knows about the Multisorbitane in the Drippin’ Chicken recipe. Any idea how we can do that?”
“I know how,” said Juliet. “My father keeps the recipes for his products in a safe in his office.”
Jupe snapped his fingers. “I was hoping he did. Can you get it for us?”
“I don’t know the combination of the safe,” she replied. “Only Big Barney knows it.”
“Well, that’s no good,” Jupe said. “We have to get the recipe without Big Barney knowing it. He can’t suspect what we’re doing.”
Juliet suddenly smiled. “How about Dad’s secretary?” Juliet asked. “She probably knows more about him than he does. She might know the combination.”
“Let’s go,” Pete said.
“No. I want to go by myself,” said Juliet. “I’m not even sure I should be doing this. Dad’s recipes are top secret — you’ll have to promise. ”
“Of course, of course,” Jupe said. “Now, when do you think we can expect you?”
“A couple of hours,” said Juliet.
Two hours came and went. The Three Investigators and Kelly spent the time doing what Juliet had suggested. Eat her food, watch her TV, relax. The third one was too difficult for Jupiter.
Another hour passed.
Finally the door opened and Juliet came in, carrying a piece of paper and giving everyone a large smile.
“I’ve got the recipe,” she whispered, looking around to be sure her father wasn’t home. “There’s no mention of Multisorbitane in Drippin’ Chicken’s ingredients. See? My dad isn’t some kind of crazed killer.”
Jupe grabbed the paper quickly and started reading it.
“Looks like our case is going down the tubes,” Pete said.
Jupe folded the paper and put it in his pocket. Then he looked at Juliet. “If no one is poisoning the chicken, then why did you say so in your sleep? And why was it so important to you to find your briefcase? And why was this report about Multisorbitane, with Pandro Mishkin’s stamp, in your possession?”
“I don’t know,” said Juliet.
“We don’t know either,” Jupe said solemnly. “But there are a few things we do know. For one, our list of suspects is shrinking rapidly. Your father seems to be out. Michael Argenti is out, because we have nothing to connect him with Multisorbitane or with this report from Pandro Mishkin. Pandro himself is a question mark. He could be innocent, he could be involved. But the suspect I’m most interested in is the person who didn’t want us to find this report. the person who sent Mr. Sweetness to scare us off. the person who invented Drippin’ Chicken in the first place. Don Dellasandro!”
“What now?” Kelly asked. “Call the police?”
“No. We need proof,” Jupe said. “We’ve got to get into Miracle Tastes and find out exactly what Don Dellasandro is hiding.”
“Jupe, the place is a Class A security nightmare,” Pete warned.
“Okay, then we’ll have to go in there late tonight,” said Jupe, “when the guards are half asleep.”
“You’d better make that early tonight,” Juliet said. “My dad’s secretary reminded me of something else I forgot. There’s a big press party planned for this evening. Big Barney is going to introduce Drippin’ Chicken to the world! Everyone will be eating the stuff,”
“Oh, no!” Kelly exclaimed.
Remembering Big Barney’s own words, Jupe said, “The American people won’t know what hit them!”
At 5:00 p.m. the investigators were sitting in Bob’s car, parked inconspicuously across the road from the Miracle Tastes office and warehouse building in Long Beach. They had stopped first at home to change into black jeans and black T-shirts. Jupe also brought with him a small, mysterious black leather case, which he held carefully on his lap. It was something Pete and Bob had never seen before.
“As soon as Dellasandro leaves, we make our move,” Jupe said, cradling the black box.
“How do we know he’s in there?” Bob asked.
“His car is there,” Pete said. “I recognize it.”
“When did you see it?” Bob asked, surprised.
“After the taping of Big Barney’s new commercial. I followed Big Barney, remember?” Pete said. “And he came here, to Miracle Tastes.”
Little by little, the parking lot at Miracle Tastes emptied out. But it wasn’t until 6:00 p.m. that Don Dellasandro’s gray Cadillac Allante rolled out and headed up the road toward L.A.
“He’s probably going to Big Barney’s press party,” Pete said.
They got out of the car and ran across the nearly empty Miracle Tastes parking lot. When they reached the entrance, Bob kept watch as Pete and Jupe examined the door.
“Will you look at that security system?” Pete moaned.
All six of their eyes focused on a small electronic panel with a lighted keypad. It was located on the chrome wall beside the glass doorway. Just inside the door was a security guard’s station, but no one was there.
“He’s probably still making rounds,” Bob concluded. “Let’s make this snappy.”
From the look of the keypad, the Three Investigators decided that it worked something like their own security system at Headquarters. A special combination had to be entered on the keypad before the door would open. But who knew what would happen if the wrong codes were entered?
Jupe unzipped his small black leather case. “Luckily for us, I’ve been constructing an electronic lock combination decoder for weeks,” Jupe said. “Once I connect the decoder to the keypad, my device will read the combination. I’ve tried it at Headquarters and it works.”
Jupe quickly unscrewed the cover plate to the keypad and attached the decoder’s two alligator clips to two special wires in the security system. His heart was pounding. He flipped a switch, and after some beeps and flashes the decoder gave Jupe a combination of numbers.
“Okay, let’s try it,” Pete said, moving toward the door.
But Jupe grabbed Pete’s shoulder. “Wait! Something’s wrong.” Jupe nervously fiddled with the black decoder.
“I’ll say it is,” Bob agreed when he looked at Jupe’s device. “It’s giving you the wrong combination. That’s the combination of our security system at Headquarters!”
Jupe flushed red with embarrassment. “There must be a flaw in the capacitor. or the impedance could be incorrectly calculated. ahh, I’m sorry, guys.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Bob said. “Just put that thing away — quick! Here comes the guard.”
Jupe stuffed the decoder in his shirt and the three of them tried to look casual as the security guard approached the front desk. Before he got there, Bob reached up and rang the night bell.
The guard opened the door only a crack, eyeing them up and down. “What can I do for you?” he asked cautiously.
Jupe was determined to make up for his failure with the lock decoder.
“Three Guys in Black T-Shirts Messenger Service,” Jupe said. “We’re supposed to pick up something in Mr. Dellasandro’s office. He said it was a matter of life and death.”
“It takes three guys to pick up a package?” asked the guard suspiciously.
“Well, I’ve got the job,” Jupe said.
“But I own the car,” added Bob.
“And I have a road map,” said Pete.
“I thought the Three Stooges were dead,” muttered the guard. He opened the door and let them in. “Get your package and get out of here.” He motioned impatiently toward a hall.
The Three Investigators followed the guard’s directions, taking the carpeted hallway to the left, which led to offices, rather than the concrete hallway to the right.
At the end of the hallway they came to a large walnut door marked executive suite.
Don Dellasandro’s office was spacious, with ceiling-to-floor windows on two sides. It smelled of fresh-cut flowers, even though there wasn’t a single bloom in the room. The central feature of the room was a large rosewood desk with a built-in telephone and computer. There was also Nautilus exercise equipment in one corner. All over the walls were mementos and awards from Dellasandro’s past flavoring achievements. Labels from candy bars, salad dressings, babies’ rubber pacifiers, frozen mixed eggplant and zucchini, and more were framed and displayed.
The awards didn’t impress Jupiter, but the thoroughness of Don Dellasandro’s filing system did.
“What are we looking for?” Pete asked, going through Dellasandro’s king-size executive desk.
“A jar of Multisorbitane would be helpful,” Jupe said, opening another file cabinet. “But I’ll settle for any evidence that Don Dellasandro has tampered with the ingredients of Drippin’ Chicken.” Jupe’s fingers flipped through one file folder after another.
“He has a computer terminal in his executive washroom,” Bob said from the bathroom, trying a splash of one of Dellasandro’s expensive men’s colognes. He reappeared in the room. “Does it make me smell like a million?”
“A million what?” Pete asked.
“Brominated pseudo phosphates!” Jupe exclaimed.
“Watch your language, Jupe,” Bob said. “Pete’s at an impressionable age.”
“Brominated pseudo phosphates is one of the ingredients in Drippin’ Chicken,” Jupe said. “At least, according to the recipe Juliet got for us.”
“It sounds more like something Pete put in my car engine last week,” Bob said.
Jupe slammed the file cabinet closed. “But I have just gone through two years’ worth of purchase orders, invoices, and inventory lists. There’s no evidence that Miracle Tastes has purchased or manufactured any of that ingredient! We’ve got to get into the warehouse immediately.”
They ran back down the carpeted hall and found the same security guard, dozing at the front desk. He woke up with a start. “Get your package?” he asked.
Pete and Bob looked to Jupe to supply an answer.
“No,” Jupe said. “He said it would be right here in the warehouse office, but it wasn’t.”
“Warehouse office?” sputtered the guard. “That isn’t the warehouse! Does this look like a warehouse? Don’t any of you boys have any common sense?”
“The fourth guy has common sense,” Bob said. “But he didn’t want to come tonight.”
“Go down that concrete hallway. Walk through three red doors. That’s the warehouse,” said the guard. “Do you know what a door looks like?”
“He does,” Pete said, pointing to Jupe.
Down the hall, through three red doors, the Investigators found themselves catching their breath in a cavernous room filled with pyramids of sealed drums full of chemicals.
“Spread out and check every label,” Jupe said.
“What time is it?” Bob called.
“Almost seven.”
“Don’t forget the press party starts at nine,” Bob reminded them. “We’ve got to hurry.”
Pete and Bob wandered separately up and down the aisles, surrounded by drums of powdered acids.
“Hey, guys, over here!” Bob suddenly called.
Pete and Jupe worked their way through the maze of barrels to reach Bob. Their shoes squeaked on the clean, painted concrete floor. They found Bob standing in front of a stack of barrels. Each one was marked in big letters — BROMINATED PSEUDO PHOSPHATES.
“Here’s what you’re looking for, Jupe,” Bob said. “But what does it prove?”
Jupiter examined the barrels carefully. “Look at the received dates on the barrels,” Jupe said.
“They came in a couple of months ago,” Pete said.
“How could they?” asked Jupe. “I just went through his invoices. They clearly indicate that in the last two years he hasn’t ordered or stocked a single pound, a single ounce of brominated pseudo phosphates. Let’s get a sample out of these drums. I’d like to know what’s really in them.”
“Bottom line? I think you can guess the answer to that question,” said a voice behind them.
The Investigators whirled around. Don Dellasandro stood behind them. “I was hoping we wouldn’t have to interface like this,” he said. “I was hoping that you’d drop the ball on this investigation, but instead you’re impacting on me — negatively.”
The guys froze in fear.
“I’m sorry,” Don Dellasandro said, drawing a gun from his pocket. He aimed the gun at the Investigators, at about heart level. “You guys are expendable. I’ve got to waste you.”
Holding his gun on the detectives, Don Dellasandro quickly looked at his watch. “Okay, there’s a little time before Big Barney’s party at the Beverly Hilton.” He reached into his other jacket pocket.
What now? thought Jupe.
Slowly Dellasandro pulled his hand out of his jacket, but he kept the hand closed. “We can network for a few minutes,” he said. “Want to do some market research before you go belly up?”
“What do you mean?” asked Jupe, staring hard at Dellasandro’s fist.
He opened his hand. He had more wrapped candies. “Try one,” he said.
“It’s poison, Jupe,” Pete warned.
“Would I poison someone with taste buds like his? It’s a shame I have to kill you, pal.”
Jupe looked at Dellasandro, then at the gun, then at the candy, then at the clock on the wall. What good would it do to stall? The police weren’t on their way. No one was coming to rescue them.
“I’d really value your input,” Dellasandro said. “Unless you’re in a big hurry to die. Tell me what you taste. Are my flavors on target?”
“Okay,” Jupe said reluctantly. “I’ll try it. But it’s going to cost you.”
“Everything has a price,” Dellasandro said. “I used to think being a scientist was a noble profession. But without marketing skills it’s just bottle pouring or germ breeding. Today if you can’t tune into your channels, what good are you?”
“You can always get hooked up to cable,” Bob said.
“Watch it!” Dellasandro said, suddenly wheeling toward Bob in anger. “I hate people who treat business like a joke! You’re lucky your friend here is such a genius in the taste bud department, or you’d already be dead meat.” He took two deep breaths to calm himself down and then added, “Dead meat is one of my best flavors, by the way.”
Jupe held very still, as it dawned on him that Dellasandro was more than a little unhinged. Maybe he’d ingested too much Multisorbitane over the years.
