Madness at the Movies, Part 1

One day, Kurt Morris and Robbie Ransom were over at Jack Barnes’s house when the phone rang.  Mr. and Mrs. Barnes weren’t home, leaving Jack in charge of the phone.  “Hello, this is Jack Barnes,” he said, not realizing right away that the call would be for him.

“Hello!” said the caller.  “You’re in charge of the Tacoma Detective Club, right?”

“Yes, I am!” Jack excitedly replied.  “Do you have a case?”

“I do,” said the man on the other end.  “My name’s Scott Grissom.  I’m in run the Movieplex, here in Tacoma.”

“The Movieplex?” asked Jack.  “I go there all the time!”

“Yes, that’s the one I own,” said Grissom.  “It’s been doing really well, but lately, we keep having problems.”

“What sort of problems?”

“Well, for one thing, the picture keeps going out of focus during showings,” said Grissom.  “Also, we’ve had vandalism issues.  I’m convinced that someone’s trying to sabotage my business.”

“We’ll be right over!” said Jack.  Hanging up, he told Kurt and Robbie about the call.

“Nice!” said Kurt.  “Another person wanting our help.  This is just what we wanted!”

“It’s at the Movieplex, you say?” said Robbie.

“Yes,” said Jack.  “It’s not too far away.  We should be able to walk there.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” asked Kurt.  “Let’s—uh-oh.”

He had good reason for saying “Uh-oh.”  The sound of swift footsteps was coming from the stairs.  As there was only one other person in the house, that meant they must belong to—

Emma, Jack’s younger sister by five years, entered the room.  “When are you going to the movie theater?” she asked.

“Emma, were you eavesdropping on the phone again?” asked Jack.

“I was NOT eavesdropping,” said Emma.  “I had to make sure the phone got answered.  You didn’t pick it up right away.”

“Well, you should have hung up when you found out it was for me.”

“Sorry,” said Emma.  “Can I go?”

“No!” declared Jack.  “The guy at the movie theater called me, Kurt, and Robbie.  Not you.  You’ll have to—”

“Wait a minute!” said Robbie.  “Your parents aren’t home, right?  Emma’s not old enough to stay by herself.”

“Oh, that’s right,” said Jack.  “My mom will probably be home in an hour—”

“That’s too long!” said Kurt.  “We won’t look too good if we’re that late.  Besides, Emma’s not that bad a detective herself.  It won’t hurt too much to bring her along.”

Jack didn’t really want to bring Emma along.  He loved his little sister, but she could be annoying sometimes.  However, he had to agree with Kurt.  “Alright,” he said, “but don’t count on us taking you all the time, Emma.  Understand?”

“Yay!” said Emma.  Jack wasn’t sure how much of his comment she’d heard.

Anyway, that was why twenty minutes later, there were four youths entering the Metroplex.  “Mmm, I can already smell the popcorn,” commented Robbie.

“Hey, look!” said Kurt.  “That new comedy’s in!  Phil 2!  We’ve got to make sure we go see that!”

“You’re right!” said Jack.  “If it’s anywhere near as funny as the first one, it’ll be a hit.”

The theater wasn’t that crowded, as it was a weekday afternoon and nothing was opening that day, but there were a few people around.  Showing a movie didn’t cost very much, meaning the theater could afford to air films even when there was an afternoon crowd of four.  As long as evening attendance was higher, the cinema would stay in business.

A tall, huskily built man with a bald head but a long brown-gray beard headed over to the group.

“Are you all the Detective Club?” he asked.

“Yes, we are!” said Jack.  “I’m Jack Barnes, that’s Kurt Morris, and that’s Robbie Ransom.”

“I’m Emma,” chimed in a voice.

“You must be Mr. Grissom,” said Kurt.

“That’s right,” said Mr. Grissom.  He spoke in a booming voice and looked like he normally had a very cheerful personality.  Right now, however, he looked worried.  “I’m glad you all have come.  Let me show you around.”

“Yes, please!” said Jack.  Mr. Grissom took them up and down the hallways of the building, showing them where the different theaters were.  Jack and his friends had been several times, so this wasn’t new to them.  Then, however, Mr. Grissom took them up to the projector room of an empty theater.  As he did so, he explained a little about what had been going on.

“About three weeks ago,” he said, “in the middle of The Time Traveler’s Mistake, several people came to my office to complain that the projector wasn’t working in Theater 7.  I checked and found the focus way off.  You couldn’t even make out what the objects were supposed to be on the screen.

“I fixed the projector, refunded the money, and thought that would be the end of it.  The next day, though, the same thing happened again.  Only that time, it occurred in Theater 4.

“Since then, things have been getting worse every day.  This week, I can count on at least two projectors to suddenly lose focus during a movie.  In addition, there’s been some vandalism in the afternoons.  An abnormal amount of toilets backed up two weeks ago, someone slashed all the chairs in Theater 3 last week, and someone put graffiti all over the side of the building two days ago.”

“That’s awful!” said Kurt.

“Wait, they put graffiti?” said Jack.  “I’ve heard that you can tell by looking at it which gang is responsible for it.  Often, those gangs have their own symbols.”

“Yes,” said Grissom, “but it’s not a gang.  The police came and checked; they said it didn’t match any of the gangs around here.  It’s just a bunch of meaningless splotches.  All this trouble is really hurting my business, though.  Attendance is half of what it was last month.  I’ve been meaning to make some renovations, but if this stuff keeps up, I won’t be able to.”

“Do you think someone from another theater is trying to put you out of business?” asked Jack.

“It’s certainly possible,” said Grissom.  “I have a lot of competition in Tacoma.  Garman’s Palace and TTKN Theaters are the closest ones, but I have a hard time believing their owners would be unethical enough to do that.”

“Is there anyone else who might have it in for you?” asked Robbie.

“Not that I can think of,” said Grissom.

“Who’s in charge of the projectors?” asked Kurt.

“Good question,” said Grissom.  “Each theater has a projector, and David Nielsen is in charge of running them.  We’ve got a few other employees working on them too.  However, the projectors are automated, which means we don’t have a man in each booth all the time.”

“Oh, so someone could be sneaking in and tampering with it,” said Jack, “or it could be someone who works here.”

“It could be an employee,” admitted Grissom, “but I trust all my workers.”

“Should you, though?” thought Jack, but he kept it to himself.  Instead, he asked, “Have the projectors experienced any problems yet today?”

“No, they haven’t,” said Grissom.

“So whoever’s doing this is likely waiting to strike,” said Jack.

“Hey, this person must come to the theater a lot!” said Kurt.  “Maybe you could watch for someone who comes here frequently.”

“I have a lot of frequent customers, though,” said Grissom.  “Some people even come see the same movie three different times.  There are just too many like that for the idea to work.”

“How many theaters are there?  Eight?” asked Jack.

“Correct,” said Grissom.

“Hmm,” said Jack.  “A good way to catch this person would be to stake out the theater that gets hit, but there are only four of us.”

“Say, wait a minute!” said Robbie.  “Mr. Grissom, how many people do you have working for you?”

“Six, why?”

“That’s it!” said Robbie.  “Tell your workers to each guard a projection room.  That’ll cover six.  In the meantime, the rest of us will guard the other two, unknown to your workers.  Make sure they’re rather conspicuous, so anyone trying to cause mischief will notice them.  Meanwhile, don’t tell anyone we’re guarding the other theaters.”

“Good idea, Robbie!” said Jack.  “And that way, if someone strikes in one of the guarded theaters, we’ll know this is an inside job.”

“That does sound good!” said Grissom.  “Why don’t you try that this evening?  There are always a lot of people then, so you’ll just blend in with the crowd.”

“Sounds good!” agreed Jack.  Little did he know that before the night was up, something horrifying would happen!

[Catch part 2 next week!]