Sounds Like a Mystery

Whit sponsors a traveling Celebration of Liberty exhibit in McAlister Park. Its centerpiece is the recently discovered six-inch model used for the original design of the Statue of Liberty, now valued at nearly eight million dollars. Sergeant Beverly Collins and her security agency guard it, but a small explosion creates a diversion and the priceless statue vanishes during the confusion.

Police receive a description of a young man running from the exhibit who looks exactly like Nick Mulligan. Whit initially insists that Nick has worked behind the Whit's End counter all afternoon, but security video reveals him sneaking through the back door shortly after the theft. Nick admits that he secretly left for ten minutes to meet an attractive tour guide, though he denies taking the statue.

Because Nick lied about his whereabouts, Captain Quinn takes him in for questioning. Whit believes he is innocent but explains after his release that dishonesty has damaged their trust. Nick asks forgiveness and wants a chance to rebuild it.

The following morning, Whit and Nick discover shattered glass and a rope beneath the Whit's End skylight. Someone has broken into the building, disabled the alarm, and stolen the security videotape without touching the cash register or safe. A chair has also been moved beside a downstairs window.

Whit's experimental backup system has converted the building's telephones into motion-sensitive microphones. The recordings capture the intruder landing through the skylight, walking downstairs, opening a bathroom door and paper-towel dispenser, then leaving. A distinctive sneeze follows the automatic release of a strong macadamia-scented air freshener.

Nick remembers that Rodney Rathbone is allergic to macadamia nuts. At Rodney's clubhouse, he and Whit find rope burns on Rodney's hands and frosted glass from the skylight embedded in his shoes. A spray of the same scent produces the recorded sneeze. Rodney finally confesses that the Bones dared him to steal the statue.

Rodney set off the diversion, grabbed what he thought was the valuable model, and hid it inside the Whit's End paper-towel dispenser when police sealed the area. He returned through the skylight that night to retrieve it and has since used it to support his television antenna. Captain Quinn takes him to the station.

The recovered object is only a souvenir replica. Rodney believed he had stolen the original, but someone had switched the two before his theft. He faces lesser charges and community service, while Nick again becomes a suspect because he lied about leaving Whit's End.

Reviewing older audio, Whit and Nick discover a second intruder hidden inside the Bible Room hours before Rodney entered. That person opened the Armor of God display, stole the security tape from Whit's office, moved the chair, and escaped through the side window. Ripping fabric and a falling metal button provide the final clues.

The button matches Sergeant Collins's security uniform. Whit confronts her with the recordings and reconstructs the crime: Collins replaced the genuine statue with a replica, carried the original after the television interview, hid it inside the Armor of God display when Rodney's mistake intensified the search, then waited in Whit's End until dark and escaped with it.

Collins admits enough to reveal her guilt and orders Whit out of her car on a lonely highway so she can reach a private plane. She does not realize that Whit's open cell-phone connection has allowed Nick to hear everything. Nick alerts Captain Quinn, whose roadblock stops Collins and recovers the statue before she escapes.

The genuine model continues to Chicago, Collins faces prison, and Rodney serves one hundred hours of community service. Nick's original lie placed him under suspicion, but his alertness and truthful action help solve the real crime. Whit tells him that he is already well on his way to earning back the trust he lost.