DOA, Chapter 23

“Gosh! Do you really think those teeth marks on the femur are Dale’s, sir?”

“I’m positive, kid. What do rats do? They get into your garbage. And Dale had the perfect opportunity to grab that leg while all the Chips were down for the filming of The Clipopalypse. He’s not a Chip, and no one was around to see him.

“But, sir, why would Dale have dumped the leg in the crock-pot of creamy chipped beef and cheese?”

“Ah. That stumped me, too, until I looked again at our recipe. You’re supposed to reserve half the shredded cheese until the end, sprinkle it on top of the creamy chipped beef, and then serve it once the cheese has melted. Because the crock-pot wasn’t hot, the sprinkled cheese never melted. Yet, most of it was gone by the time we had arrived, except for some along the edges of the pot.”

“I remember that, sir. But what does the cheese have to do with Jay Dee One?”

“It has everything to do with him, kid, because Dale swapped one for the other.”

“You mean?”

“Yes, Dale took the cheese because that’s what rats do. Rats take the cheese. But he had to put down the leg first, and that, kid, is how Jay Dee One ended up in the creamy chipped beef!”

“Hi-ho, the derry-o, Dale took the cheese! It all makes perfect sense to me now, sir!”

“Glad to hear it, kid.”

“But why would Dale have held onto that leg for almost a year and then abandon it for some shredded cheese?”

“Although we can predict a rat’s behavior, we can’t always understand its motives. Nor do we have to, necessarily. All we need to keep in mind is that a rat’s a rat, and that’s that. [Cf. William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act III, scene iv.] Now that that’s all settled, it’s time to reveal our killer!”