Rick Recluse and Larry sat at lunch across the street from the city’s art museum as they set up for “A Night with the Stars.”
“Have you seen the guest list for that event?” Larry asked. “I read that there are seven Academy Awards winners, 10 Forbes 30 Under 30 selections and one Nobel Peace Prize winner attending.”
“I also saw they’re expecting 400 chocolate mousses to attend,” Rick said, and when Larry looked at him strangely, added, “I read the menu.”
“I could never get in that room,” Larry said sadly.
“Sure, we could,” Rick said. “I’m a detective, and you’re my assistant. We just need there to be a crime or a murder, and we could get in there.”
“You think we march up to the front door and say, Hey, there’s a crime. Let us in?” Larry asked.
“No, we’d have to use the side door,” Rick said, pointing to a little entrance they could see. “We’d talk to the person guarding that door and say that we are here to investigate a major theft expected tonight.”
“Security would surely stop us,” Larry said.
“They don’t have security on the side door. They have security at the back door. You have to navigate systems at the back door. At the side door, they just have a guy who has way too much responsibility.”
“How else do you think we can get in the room?” Larry asked. He picked up a menu to see if the restaurant had chocolate mousse.
“Well, we could ask the catering company if anyone called in. We could see if any donation tables need volunteers. We could paint a masterpiece that gets submitted to the museum and go attend to it during the event.”
Larry thought about it for a minute. “You always go through the side door, don’t you?”
“You don’t become a great detective by following all of the protocols.”
The waiter walked by at that moment.
“Two Chocolate Mousse, please,” Larry called to the waiter and then said to Rick, “We can at least eat like the stars.”