Whodunit: The Disabled Lookout

The following is a Whodunit by Hy Conrad featuring Jonah Bixby, a twelve-year-old crime solver and son of a police detective. Can you solve the crime?

Meet Jonah Bixby

(Image credit: David Monniaux)

For half his life, Jonah Bixby had been doing his homework in police stations. He would walk to the precinct house right after school, say hello to Sergeant Brown at the front desk, then make his way to some unused room and keep himself busy until his mother got off duty.

One day in late October, Jonah sat alone in an observation room, working on some boring math problems. There was a one-way mirror between him and the interrogation room, and when the lights went on and people started entering the interrogation room, Jonah flipped the microphone switch. He knew he shouldn't do it, but he couldn't resist. It was just like having his own private police reality show.

Jonah was surprised to see his mother beyond the one-way mirror. She was talking to another officer, and Jonah was able to piece together the details of their current case. There had been a robbery that afternoon at a warehouse. The police were tipped off by a silent alarm, but when they arrived on the scene the perpetrators had escaped.

"They obviously had a lookout who warned them," Detective Carol Bixby told her partner. "The area around the warehouse is pretty deserted, but we did manage to round up three suspicious characters. I think we should question them together."  

Jonah knew this was unusual. The police almost always preferred to question suspects separately. But when the three men walked into the interrogation room, he saw that this was a highly unusual situation.

The first suspect wore sunglasses and walked with a white cane. He was blind. The second was accompanied by a civilian police employee.  They signed back and forth with their hands, and Jonah quickly deduced that this suspect was deaf. The third had his right arm in a plaster cast.

"I guess you should all introduce yourselves," said Detective Bixby. Then she stepped back and watched the almost comical scene as the deaf man signed his "hellos" to his interpreter who spoke them aloud.  Then the injured man held out his left hand instead of his right and the deaf man shook it, and the blind man held out his own left in a different direction, trying to find the injured man's hand, and finally... Finally, all the men had exchanged names and greetings.

The deaf man was the first to speak, although his hands did all the talking. He had been on the corner of Spruce and Industry, waiting for a bus. He had seen the police cars driving by. Their lights were flashing, but of course he had no way of knowing if their sirens were on. "I certainly didn't call and warn anyone. How could I?"

The injured man had just come out of his doctor's office when he was picked up. "I broke my arm this morning and just had the cast put on." Carol Bixby felt the plaster and could tell it was still wet.

The blind man said he'd been on his way to a seeing-eye dog facility in the area. "My last dog died two weeks ago," he told the officers. "I can get around without a dog, but it's not easy." He claimed he heard the sirens passing by, but had no idea if they were police or fire trucks or ambulances.

"We'll check out their stories," Carol told her partner. "But we have no cause to hold any of them right now." As she said this, she was standing by the mirror and could hear a light rapping on the glass. It was a code, Jonah's secret code, and Carol Bixby instantly knew her son was on the other side.

"Excuse me," she said to her partner and the suspects. "I'll be right back."

WHICH SUSPECT WAS THE LOOKOUT?

WHAT CLUE DID JONAH CATCH?

Show Answer


The whodunit above was provided by American mystery fiction author Hy Conrad.

In addition to his work in mystery and crime puzzles, Hy was also one of the original writers for the groundbreaking TV series Monk.

Currently, Hy is working on mystery novel series "Abel Adventures" as well as the Monk series of novels, starting with Mr. Monk Helps Himself (published by Penguin, order from Amazon here)

Check out Hy's official website and Facebook page - and stay tuned for more whodunits puzzlers on Neatorama from the master of whodunit mysteries himself!

Love games and puzzles? Visit NeatoPuzzles for more!

Comments (2)

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when I asked if I could help them the potential interviewer replied, "I have an interview with a black woman named Yolanda" Pasty white, Polish Yolanda was standing behind me and said, "No, you don't."

I never could figure out why they would be that stupid.
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I had an interview in Washington DC and used google maps for directions and on the way there I got a speeding ticket and then I couldn't find the place and called my interviewer and was trying to figure out where she was located when she let me know I was on the South East part of the street not the North West part. So I totally missed the interview because I didn't have enough time to drive all the way over to the North West side. Also I got lost in South East DC. Moral = NEVER use google maps for Washington DC directions.
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I was interviewing for a management position at rental car company, and after the standard questions, the interviewer asked me how many hours I'd be willing to work. I said 40 or 45, like I would for any other 9 to 5 job. She responded with a look like she'd just swallowed raw sewage, and asked how I felt about working 50 to 60 hours a week, not including lunch breaks. I'm glad they didn't call me back.
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I interviewed for a job once where the department manager's overbearing micromanaging boss insisted on conducting the interview "to make sure it's done right". The bozo pulled out a tape recorder to "keep me honest", then proceeded to grill me like I'd been accused of a felony. Questioned everything on my resume from the assumption that I had lied about everything.

It was awful. My mind was made up pretty early in the meeting that there was no flippin way I'd be working there, even if I were offered the job. If I had been a little bolder, I would've stripped the tape out of that cassette, wadded it up & thrown it at the blowhard. If.
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I've always had a response in mind for the stock interview question "can you describe some accomplishments you are most proud of" :

"Staying sober for 6 months, 2 days"

I'd love to deliver that with a beaming grin and see their response.
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I took the photo, and I clearly have the license to it displayed on my Flickr account. I was never once asked permission to use it by the author of this blog.
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I was hiring for positions which were very much in demand. We had short listed based on applications but still had lots of interviews,and lots of excellent candidates.
Anyway, a kid (20ish) came in, hat on sideways, skateboard under his arm and flopped in the shair where he slouched through the entire interiview (which he bombed). Then at the end he says "so, is that whatcher looking for?"

just love NOT giving jobs to someone's little prince or princess.
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A friend of mine who works for MLB.com received this email the other day in response to an ad they have on Craigslist for a part time web producer. all spelling and grammar was left alone, i only removed his name. at first i thought it was a bit endearing -- everyone loves the underdog -- but then it gets out of hand.

"hi my name is [withheld], i am replying to your ad on craigslist. to be completely honest i have no expereince in a profesional setting for your ad, i am a chef. but i am a baseball junky, i would like to say i know everything about the sport, but love that i still have things to learn. in lieu of my resume which is filled with restaruant expereience (if you want a copy i can send it along) i thought i would share what i love about baseball and some things i hate: i am life long cubs fan (100th anniversary !!) i love every team (except the fucking cardinals) am a former astros season ticket holder will watch any baseball game (even little league) i recognize the existence of the american league even though they have a bullshit rule for all the hate i have for bud selig he has avoided a players strike twice now scott borras can suck my cock josh beckett is the purest man in the game today i feel bad for clemens and am pissed at andy i wish the nationals franchise had gone to montery mexico i recently made my first visit to the hall of fame and stayed for 7 hours if you can’t tell i really love baseball. let me know if any of this interests you, if not thanks for your time, i understand. and have a good season."
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PJ - not to derail from the excellent Bad Job Interview post, but hey, people do care. Gank stuff, and people will bristle. Ask nice, and give props for works, attribution and linkback, and people will fall all over themselves to contribute pro bono and rejoice. Spread the 'sphere love. It's easy. :)
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I've always noticed that bad interviewers pull out the questions from textbooks or reference materials when it comes to information technology and expect the answer to be the one written in the textbooks. The most favorite question in information technology I've always liked is the network and number of hosts questions used for subnetting since this information can be obtained from anywhere now while working on your job or career.
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While reviewing applications for customer Service positions...I once had a fellow write on his application...."Don't call my last job...that bitch never proved I stole anything". Needless to say...we didn't call him in for an interview.
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Our HR director felt obligated to interview someone who'd volunteered with our non-profit for years. He was an alcoholic; though he'd cleaned up for the interview and didn't smell of alcohol, he did look pretty rough.

He had a scabbed over scrape on his face that he kept picking at unconsciously during the interview. Eventually he succeeded at pulling a part of the scab off, which he then popped in his mouth!
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Before I landed my first grown up job, I sent out a boatload of cover letters and resumes, only to realize later that I didn't sign any of the letters. Sigh...
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A woman came in to apply for a job as a server at a restaurant I worked at. While she filled out the application, she pulled her teddy bear out and held it under her other arm.
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Worst interview I ever had:

The boss discarded any resume that didn't have the little accents over the 'e's.

During the interview, she mentioned a former employee running off to the bathroom and crying. I wondered what the boss had done to her to make her cry.

The "woman" I would be replacing was 16 years old.

The position was for "office manager". Managing FOUR offices.

The pay was $10,000 a year. Gross.
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Many, many stories:

Had one guy pad his resume by claiming that he served in the "US NAVE". Yep, misspelled "Navy".

Scheduled a 9:00AM interview. Applicant showed up at noon, then asked if I could postpone it another hour so he could get some lunch.

One guy flipped open his cell phone and called someone.
He told that person my salary offer and then said the "other" job offer is offering him more. He would need seven thousand more to consider working here. I told him to take the other offer as I ushered him out.
His parting words, "Okay how 'bout just five thousand more...I really want to work here."

"Just to let you know, I'm non-denominational and will be taking all religious holidays off."

"Excuse me?"

"Yes. All the Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and so forth. Even the Satanist holidays too. It's against the law for you to discriminate on the basis of religion."

"The tools you let me use...I can take those home with me? 'Cause at my last job they fired me for stealing when I did that."

"No you can't take the tools home."

"Aw man. Can I at least borrow them? 'cause I have this side business racing motorcycles."
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