Chapter 1: The Sleepytime Shift

Suggested Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_kf4AxGZ54

10:00 AM. I step out of the cab and find myself standing in front of the Pick-Ya-Up coffee factory. Unlike my office, it's just as grand as I imagined! A large brick building with two smaller ones on each side, imposing yet somehow… humble. As much as I'd love to stay and gawk, I have business to attend to. As I approach the front gates, a tired young man behind the entrance booth looks up with a jolt. "Hey, you Opal?" He asks in a drowsy and casual voice, catching me a little off guard.

"Yessir', that's me." I reply, flashing a smile to liven the mood.

"Cool. The boss said to let you in… sooo…" He says, pressing a button next to him and opening the steel gate to his side. Lucky me!

I bid the man farewell before entering through the gates, wishing him the best in his early-morning endeavors. After a short walk down a gravel path, I'm met with a set of brown front doors. I open them up and I'm immediately hit with the heavenly nostalgic smell of fresh coffee beans! I take a moment to bask in the aroma, reminiscing about the good ol' days of… yesterday. I'm greeted to a receptionist room, and as far as receptionist rooms go, it's pretty average! White tiles and manila walls, with a corner lounge consisting of two couches and a tv, which played commercials quietly.

Nobody but me was here, the receptionist desk deserted. My stomach gives a soft growl, and I realize that thanks to my whirlwind of a morning, I never had breakfast! I look over to the lounge and eye a vending machine, and decide to treat myself. I walk up to the provider of confectionaries and insert the straightest dollar I own. Soon, I find myself sitting down on the fine-enough leather couch, munching on soft, powdery doughnuts. As I get my fill, something on the TV catches my interest. The local news was on, and it's top story was… ironic, to say the least.

"Today is a real… do I have to say that? Fine… Today is a real… coffee catastrophe… (Who wrote this?) Pick-Ya-Up coffee factory under fire after it's discovered that their newest batch of instant coffee is actually… tea… (I don't get paid enough for this…). " The tired news host lazily explains the breaking story. Looks like he's suffering caffeine withdraw, a truly horrible fate! The program then cuts to a tall man with his hair in a ponytail and a long black mustache standing behind a counter. The words 'Jace Jess: Owner of Gray Squirrel Coffee' display under him as he speaks.

"This morning has been a real disaster for me. I just bought their instant coffee in bulk, but now I can't use any of it! People come here for coffee, nobody's gonna order tea…" Jace explains his dimela, a look of sorrow and disappointment in his eyes. But before it can cut back to the host, a familiar voice speaks up from behind the couch.

"Well that was fast, the news jumps at everything nowadays…"

I quickly snap my head around to face the newcomer and spy an old man. His face has more wrinkles than my brain, and he's supported by a fine wooden cane. The man is wearing a snazzy black suit and bowler hat, offering a sense of fashion and power. Connecting the dots in my head, I realize that this must be Bill Brew! I stand up, dusting winter wonderland of doughnut powder off my coat before turning to face him. "Good morning sir, are you Mr. Brew?" I ask, trying my best to be polite despite my critical lack of caffeine.

The man gives a smile, brightening up his face. "Yes, that's me. And are you Mr. Opal?" He replies.

"Yes sir that's me!" I return his smile, tipping my hat in greeting. I'm hit with a sudden sense of relief, he's a lot nicer than I expected, that's for sure. I was imagining a grumpy old man who's heartbroken over his company's incident. Mr. Brew walks around the couch and slowly sits down; and I quickly stash the few donuts into one of my jackets many pockets. "So…" I start. I have many questions to ask Mr. Brew, but I hesitate on what to ask first. "So… how do you know that this wasn't an accident?" I finally ask.

"How do I know?" Mr. Brew repeats the question, his face darkening a little as he frowns. "It's the supply dates. We get a new supply of coffee beans at the end of each month. We just received our last batch last week, and there's been no problems until last night. But then our freshly imported coffee beans suddenly turns into tea? I find it hard to believe..." He explains calmly. It's pretty admirable that he managed to come to that conclusion on his own, does he even need a detective?

"I see…" I nod affirmably, taking out my handy leatherback notebook and flipping through a sea of case notes and mediocre doodles. I proceed to write down a paraphrased version of Brew's story, figuring I'll need it later. I put it away once I hear a shuffling of papers from Mr. Brews direction; before I'm suddenly handed a map of the factory.

"Here, I figured you might want this." Mr. Brew explains. I flash a polite smile and place the paper in my case folder. He then hands me something else, some sort of card… "There's also this… Eyeee-Dee thing. I don't know how it works, but you can use it to get into restricted parts of the factory. I trust you won't try and sabotage anything?" He asks, only partly joking by the sounds of it.

"Of course I wont, sir!" I assure him. I didn't plan on messing up anything, though I'm sure it's bound to happen anyway. Once I take the ID badge and clip it to my collar, Mr. Brew stands up and tips his hat.

"Well, that's all. If you need anything, you'll find me in my office." He says, before walking through a set of doors to do who knows what.

Left to my own devices (and the ones he's given me), I get to work. I look over the map, planning out where to go first. It's a pretty simple establishment, consisting of four main buildings. I whip out my notepad again and make a simplified version of the map. The factory consists of five main sections: The receptionist area I'm in now, offices to the right, storage to the left, a large area behind reception where the coffee is made, and shipping/receiving in the back.

I decide to start in the offices for two reasons. Because I might find some important documents relating to the case, and there might be a coffee maker! I had those emergency packets, and I was gonna need all the energy I could get...

Around half an hour later, nothing. All I was able to find were abandoned pens, paperclips, and pencil grippers. I did manage to find a coffee maker on the way, and after downing a cup or two, I'm awake and ready for mystery! Now, with plenty caffeine in my system and a pocket stuffed to the brim with pencil grippers, I had more or less searched the entire office building. While some other novice detective may have given up at this point; I'm a super novice! There was still one last room worth checking out: The security office.

The security office was restricted, but with one swipe of my shiny new ID badge, and the door opened right up! The room was... compact, to say the least. A black office chair sat in front of a large counter, littered with napkins, wrappers, and litter of all sorts. Same could be said for the whole room, really. I didn't think it was possible for a room to be messier then my office, yet here we are! As expected, one of the walls was covered with around ten TV's, each showing a different part of the factory. One showed the front office I arrived in, one the front gate, even one for the security office itself! I decide to flick on the lights, making the room look… slightly more appealing. But the moment I did so, a surprised cried out from the center of the room.

"I wasn't sleepin'!" The voice says as a man suddenly jumps out from the chair. He was around my age, but had a freshly shaved chin that made him look slightly younger. He had a trail of drool dribbling down his chin from his slumber, and he wore a blue night guard vest. I didn't think anyone was in here, and his sudden appearance made me jump back.

"Oh!" I yelp, which makes the man do a double take. "Huh?" He asks, turning around. His head tilts as he sees me, as if sizing me up.

"Oh… you ain't the boss." He says with a heavy cockney accent.

"Er… yeah." I reply. I figure that this must be the night guard of the factory. Poor guy must have fell asleep, the night shift must be a fate worse than death! I decide to introduce myself to the man, hoping to make a good impression. "I'm Tanta Opal, detective." I announce. However, it looks like my impression was anything but good, my title as 'detective' appearing to surprise the guard.

"O-oh. It's nice to meet ya Tanta… You can just call me Cole." He replies. A modest name for a modest man!

"So uh… what's a detective doin' here?" He asks. Considering he's been asleep, I guess he hasn't heard the news!

"Oh, you don't know?" I ask Cole, prepared to enlighten him. I inform Cole about the drama his job is in, and by the end he looks shocked beyond belief.

"W-wh… I… how's that even…" He stutters, trying to comprehend how something of that magnitude is even possible.

"Well… I was hoping you could tell me." I reply. There's a reason I wanted to come to this office in particular, as I had a question I couldn't get out of my head: "According to your boss, the coffee was supposedly switched out with tea two nights ago… were you on duty during that time?" I ask. Cole pauses for a moment, his mouth open to speak but his mind still hung up on what to say.

"Well… y-yeah, but I didn't see anything on the cameras…" He confesses, which I begin to doubt.

"Because you were sleeping?" I push, making Cole give a sigh of defeat.

"Y-yeah… yeah I was… please don't tell the boss..." He begs quietly, scratching the back of his head. But before I could say anything else, he suddenly clears his throat. "I… my shifts over." He says before pushing past me and leaving the room.

"How convenient…" I mutter, taking a sip of my rejuvenating coffee. Well, now that Cole's gone, I'm sure he wont mind of I did a bit of snooping…

The only thing really worth checking out were the cameras. I took Cole's place on the… sticky chair and start clacking away at the keyboard in front of me. Mr. Brew would have a hellish time trying to figure this thing out, but I manage to work it just fine. Before I knew it, I was traveling back in time through the footage. As it rewound, I tried to look for anything of interest, but it was going too quick to see anything. I stopped rewinding once the date of the cameras matched with the night of the crime. I was expecting to see a nighttime version of the factory through the cameras, but instead… nothing.

Each screen was pitch black, with white blocky text reading 'Footage Missing' "What the..." I whispered, bug eyed from the result. How could the footage be missing?! The only way for the footage to be missing is if someone… deleted it. Someone with access to the room and who knew how to work it… someone like… a nightguard! There wasn't anything else in here of note, so I got up to leave when something caught me eye. A coffee mug sat still on the counter, halfway filled with a mysterious liquid…

To most, this would be uninteresting, but a footnote in the grand mechanical mastery of the factory. But… something about it reeked of interest to me. I grabbed the mug and inspected it, before throwing caution to the wind and taking a small sip. I was expecting hot coffee, sadly I got anything but… not only is it cold… it's TEA!

Not wanting to make a mess, I reluctantly swallow the cold torture with a shudder. Why I decided to take a drink of the damn stuff was beyond me. I quickly rectified my sin by downing the rest of my coffee. Well… that happened. There wasn't anything else of interest here, so I turned to leave. But then... I was suddenly hit with a heavy wave of something. My head went fuzzy, like when you stand up too quickly. I suddenly felt very… sleepy. I felt like crashing and taking a nap then and there; but luckily for me, the sheer amount of caffeine in my system prevented this!

"W-what the hell?" I mutter, grabbing my head and standing still. Slowly, the world came back into focus… I take a look back at the vile mug. Why does Cole, the night guard at a coffee factory have mug of sleep-inducing tea? I look back on our conversation, the retrospect of his nerves, the mysterious deleted footage, and the heresy of his drink putting him at the top of the suspect list… also the bottom. He's currently the only suspect, after all. Hopefully I can catch him later and question him… weather he committed the crime or not, he has some explaining to do.

I prepare to leave the office for real, but then I notice something on one of the TV's. On the bottom right screen (the receptionist), a woman leaned in front of the front desk. By the looks of it, he was giving the man behind the desk a hard time over… something! She must be a real ray of sunshine… I could only see her backside, but something about her was off. There's plenty of people like her around (I believe the youth has taken to calling them 'Karens'), but she seemed… professional? In a way?

As much as I really don't want to interact with this lady, she could easily be a lead. I whip out my trusty notepad and jot down this development, as well as the tea and lack of footage found in the office. And with that, I leave the security office. The air outside of it smells so much cleaner, everything was much cleaner in fact. But in this clean facility, a filthy crime has been committed. My questions are still unanswered, and many more questions are yet to be discovered. A factory, a sabotage, a layabout guard and a mysterious woman.

I'm gonna need another cup of coffee.