Swish swish ........swish swish……..swish swish……..swish swish. That is the sound the windshield wipers made as Inspector McFarland drove through the pounding rain in his bright blue Ford Fairlane. He turned on his radio and this is what he heard:

“…has just been a million dollar bank heist at the North Dallas Bank just over an hour ago.” (McFarland smirked). “The police are tracking down the culprit as we speak. What? What was that? Oh, and my partner, Jon, right here just told me that the police are saying they are going to hire an inspector with the name McFarland. Also, the police are think…” McFarland had pressed the OFF button on his radio.

Inspector McFarland was exhausted, as he had worked for the past week on important business. He drove the rest of the way back to the apartment. His apartment was a modest sized home. He had a kitchen with a refrigerator, a small oven, and a coffee pot. He also had a small bedroom and a couch in the corner. He went and flopped down onto his bed, his tall six foot five body partially hanging off the end, and fell asleep.

The obnoxious ring of his phone woke him up. He clumsily got out of his bed, still in his clothes from the previous night, and walked over to his phone hanging on the wall.

“Hello?” McFarland said into the phone. “This is Inspector Samuel McFarland speaking.”

“Hello Inspector. I am Frank Wheeler, head of Dallas’ main police squad. I heard you’re the best detective in Dallas. Heck, I’ve even heard that you’re the best detective in all of Texas and I was wondering if you could help us out on finding the culprit from the, whatchacall, bank heist,” said the officer.

“I would be honored to, sir. Do you want to meet somewhere to talk about this some more?” said McFarland.

“That would be, whatchacall, great. How about meeting at Hank’s Coffee shop downtown in about half an hour,” said the officer.

“I’ll be there.”

“Alright, I’ll, whatchacall, see you there!”

The inspector took a shower and put on fresh clothes. When he looked at his watch he started to panic. He had to be at the coffee shop in ten minutes. He ran to the door and took the stairs two at a time. He got out onto the street and waved down a taxi and hopped in, with his brief case and his note book (the two things he always had with him). When he got to the coffee shop he stepped in and saw a short red haired man with a badge. He walked over to the man and asked him,

“Are you Frank Wheeler?” the Inspector said.


“Yes sir. I take it you’re Inspector McFarland?”

McFarland said yes and the two sat down and discussed what the deal was going to be. The officer showed McFarland documents, photographs, and interesting things they found at the scene of the crime. When they were done talking, they shook hands and departed. McFarland was going to catch the culprit!

The first thing McFarland was going to do was go to the scene of the crime; the bank. He pulled up he ducked under the CAUTION tape that was around the whole perimeter of the bank, and then he waved his badge to the patrolling policeman. McFarland inspected the area, talked to some of the policemen, and even once he walked over to the security control box and had seen that there were markings on it and that some of the wires had been tampered with, but he had just closed the box and walked away. One of the policemen, which apparently was guarding at the time the robbery supposedly took place, told the inspector that when the alarm went off he called reinforcements and waited outside the building for someone to come out, but they never did. The inspector wrote this down in his notebook.

When he was done at the scene of the crime, he went to talk to some more witnesses at their houses. One house he went to and sat down (with his notebook at his side) with a witness named Thompson Carter. What he said was very interesting,

“I was standin’ right dar’ on me porch and all a suddin’ I here dis alarm a whalin’. By da time I done got to me car and drove to da bank, nottin was dar’!”

“Anymore more details that you might have noticed?” asked McFarland.

“Come to tink about it while I was a drivin’ to da bank a car passed me. It was a Ford. I remember dat. But I can’t really remember what color it was, though. Well, it might have been blue, but it was dark, so don’t count on dat.”

“Thank you for your time and cooperation. Goodbye,” said McFarland.

After he had talked to eleven witnesses, he had gathered that the robbery was most likely an inside job. Inspector McFarland went back to his apartment and fell asleep.

The next morning he got up and looked up the workers that were currently working at the bank. First, he went to Martha Kelly’s house, a bank worker, and asked her if she was holding up financially, did she know anybody that would have the motive to rob the bank, and questions of that nature. When he was done talking to the girl he went to Bob Rivers’ house (another bank worker) to ask him questions.

He went through the day interviewing bank workers, and writing down interesting clues. By the end of the day, he had three main suspects: Bob Rivers, Jeanette Henson, and Arthur Robinson. Bob Rivers was about to undergo foreclosure on his house; he had to feed his family of five, a wife and three kids, and the night of the heist he was working a late night shift, so he was at the bank when the robbery occurred. He had also been seen withdrawing thousands of dollars out of his checking account at the bank. He claims he didn’t see anybody come in or go out, but he did say that he saw someone let into the back of the bank by the bank manager.

Jeanette Henson and Arthur Robinson were both in the same type of financial condition, but were not as clue-heavy as Bob Rivers appeared to be. Inspector McFarland decided to dig up some more information on Bob Rivers. He started out by going to the bank to see exactly how much money Rivers had in his account and how much he took out at a time.

When he got to the bank he got a hold of documents that revealed this information. It turned out Bob Rivers had deposited five hundred twenty seven thousand six hundred and thirty two dollars in the bank the previous afternoon. Also, he had withdrawn fifty thousand dollars this morning. McFarland decided it was time to have another talk with Bob Rivers, but first he was going to go back to his apartment and get some rest.

When he was about to get into his bed, the phone rang.
“Hello? This is Inspector Samuel McFarland speaking.” The person on the other side of the phone said,

“Hello Sam. This is the bank manager.”

“Oh! Hello Johnny! Is something wrong?” McFarland said in a nervous voice.
“No, I just wanted to make sure everything is going smoothly.” said the manager.
“Yes sir, everything is fine.”

“Good. Have a nice evening.” said the manager, relieved.

“You too. Goodbye.”

The next morning he got up and went to Bob Rivers’ house, before the bank opened, and rang the doorbell. Bob Rivers opened the door and greeted McFarland (not too happily) and told him to make himself at home. The first question that the inspector asked Bob Rivers was where he got the money. Bob simply answered,

“My grandfather died a week ago and I inherited a million dollars and his beach front estate in Florida. My family and I are moving there next month!” McFarland couldn’t believe it. He was so close to busting Bob Rivers. McFarland got a hold of documents and called Bob Rivers’ relatives and friends. It was true. Bob was innocent.

McFarland went back to his apartment and called the bank manager.

“Hey Johnny, its Sam. I’ve hit a dead end. I can’t bust him. I just don’t have enough evidence. I have to resort to plan B.” said McFarland.

“If that’s what you have to do. That’s what you have to do. Good luck to you.” said Johnny and he hung up.

Inspector McFarland walked over to his small safe in his closest. He opened it and started loading the stacks of one thousand dollar bills into his brief case. Then he picked up the phone to call his close friend, Robert, an airplane pilot.