The Case of the Grabbed Peach: An Encyclopedia Brown Mystery By Codex Alimentarius The man walked into into the Brown Detective Agency on a Friday afternoon and laid twenty-five gold coins on the gas can. Encyclopedia Brown immediately noticed that the man had a strong Italian accent. Not many Italians lived in Idaville, so Encyclopedia thought the man was probably from out of town. However, the man's dialect was Standard American English, like most people who lived in Idaville would use. The man said his name was Mario and that he wanted to hire Encyclopedia to find his peach. "A peach?" asked Encyclopedia. "Yes," said Mario. "Someone took your peach? As in the stonefruit produced by a prunus persica tree?" asked Encyclopedia. Encyclopedia knew the proper botanical names of all kinds of plants because he was always reading books about how to start your own orchard, and Encyclopedia never forgot anything he read. "That's right," said Mario. "I'm a plumber by trade and I was parked downtown at the Idaville Plumbing Supply picking up a couple of items for a plumbing job that I was supposed to do over in Hoovertown on Tuesday. I left the peach in my plumbing van together with the rest of my lunch items... but when I came back from the Idaville Plumbing Supply, someone had made off with the peach!" "Interesting," said Encyclopedia. Encyclopedia knew that peaches, like other stonefruit, should generally be stored in a cool environment to retard spoilage. A van in the hot Idaville sun didn't sound much like a proper stonefruit storage environment. "What's wrong?" asked Sally. Encyclopedia asked, "Mr. Mario, was anything else missing from your van apart from the peach?" "That's the strange thing," said Mario. "The rest of my lunch was still in the van, along with all of my plumbing tools, which were much more valuable than the peach. The thief had obviously been hungry, but, lucky for me, my crescent wrench was still sitting on the front seat!" "But what would a thief want with a crescent wrench, Mr. Mario?" asked Sally. "I can understand why someone would want a peach, but..." "That's easy," explained Mario. "A crescent wrench is an adjustable wrench used for turning soft iron pipes and fittings with a rounded surface. I use it every day in my work! It's a very valuable item." "And what kind of plumbing job were you going do to in Hoovertown?" Mario sighed. "I was going to go adjust some soft iron pipes and fittings at the Hoovertown Fruit Depository. But now that my peach has disappeared, I just don't think I can go through with it. I mean, I just don't feel secure in my van anymore with the thief at large. Who knows what might happen while I'm in the Fruit Depository? The thief might steal an apple, pear, acerola, grape, or tangelo!" "Yipes!" squeaked Sally. "That sounds like a big risk." "Yes," sighed Mario. "You can see why I have to cancel the job... unless someone can figure out who took my peach before Tuesday." Encyclopedia paused a moment. "I've solved the case, Mr. Mario," he announced. WHO WAS THE PEACH GRABBER? (Turn to page 89 for solution to The Case of the Grabbed Peach.) SOLUTION TO THE CASE OF THE GRABBED PEACH Encyclopedia knew from years of reading plumbing and HVAC maintenance manuals that Mario's description of the crescent wrench was actually carelessly pasted from Wikipedia's description of a pipe wrench. A pipe wrench and a crescent wrench are two completely different kinds of wrench, used for very different purposes. A true plumber would never make this mistake. Encyclopedia realized that Mario must not be a plumber at all. In fact, Mario must have made up the entire story in order to trick people into solving a series of puzzles. Confronted with this evidence, Mario confessed that he was actually an agent for Aperture Science and that there never was a grabbed peach at all.