The Dropout Detective - A Comedy Mystery

11. Shady in red

Sunday 4th Feb 2018

3am.

I'll say one thing for those stuffy professors, they know how to party. The evening went on very late and I was kept up even later by the others who wanted to sit in the kitchen and natter when we got back. Eventually I excused myself, but it wasn't to go to sleep. I was feeling far too disoriented to even contemplate it.

I don't get how I was supposed to recognise that agent. I kept my eyes open. I looked at every person who attended that event, including the staff members. No-one was wearing a helpful 'It's me' badge. There wasn't anyone acting suspiciously (for example, looking furtively over their shoulder before sneaking through a fire escape door).

In any case, a secret agent's job is to stay hidden. If I could recognise them then they're obviously shit at their job. And surely Mana wouldn't hire shit people.

Except me that is. I'm hoping they'll hire me and so far I've been pretty shit at this.

No wait, the trouble is I was too good at solving the first task and that's why Adam gave me such a horribly hard one for the second. He probably trusted me to pass this one with flying colours. Instead, I'm crawling away from the finish line in 50 shades of no luck.

Note to self: Check whether Tesco's are still hiring.

Morning

I woke with a brilliant idea! My secret agent career might still be salvageable. Layla took tons of photos of the event — perhaps there's something in the scenes she captured that will help me to identify the agent?

Spurred on by fresh hope, I bounded out of bed without delay and knocked on her bedroom door. It was Dylan who answered. And when I say answered, I mean that he opened the door a crack, growled at me and then slammed it shut again. It was only then that I checked the clock. 7:50am. Oops.

I was too excited to sleep again so I pottered around aimlessly and ended up in the kitchen. Layla's camera was lying on the table but I was terrified of touching it in case I did something wrong and accidentally wiped the memory card.

I was on my second coffee when Tessa appeared. She bounced in and greeted me with her standard level of enthusiasm. Must be a fine day for science. She opened her mouth to say something else, but then her attention was caught by the coffee machine. Frowning, she darted over and spent a good few moments fiddling with the settings, her dark curls bowed in concentration as she squinted 2 inches away from the display. I watched her in for a few moments. "You're welcome to take coffee. I made a pot."

No response.

Suddenly, she turned whirled to face me. "Sophie, did you disrupt the heat immersion ratio?"

That combination of words didn't mean anything to me. "Huh?"

She sighed. "It's okay if you did, Sophie, but I'd just like to point out that the water temperature and filter timing have a significant impact on the intensity and flavour of the coffee. Layla and I worked out the optimal settings together and we prefer to keep it that way."

Her glare was seriously intimidating. I shook my head emphatically. "Honestly Tessa, I haven't changed any settings on the coffee machine. I only pushed the start button." Something struck me. "We brought a friend back here for a coffee late last night. Maybe he changed something?" I had a vague memory of Ethan fiddling with the coffee machine.

"Hmm. Obviously someone with no regard for well-made coffee." This inexcusable disruption to her well-ordered existence had obviously ruined her morning. She didn't take any of the sub-optimal coffee, instead pouring herself a bowl of muesli and adding various types of seeds from neatly labelled jars.