The email was short and to the point. On the receiving end was self-proclaimed detective Steven Buchanan. He had been looking for a mystery to bring him into the spotlight because, at the moment, he was a complete nobody. Steven knew, of course, that this could not be helped because he had yet to actually solve any mysteries, but he had always believed his observations skills to be far above average. The email was from Steven's friend Ben who worked the afternoon shift at a popular electronics store. He had noticed that every Wednesday at the beginning of his shift there was a terrible odor in the store, and because he was curious about the source and knew that Steven was looking for a mystery, Ben requested his help.
While this wasn't the elaborate, mind-boggling mystery that Steven had been looking for, he could not pass up the opportunity to test his detective skills on this request. His mind was racing, coming up with dozens of unique reasons for the smell. Within a minute of sending the email Ben got a reply from Steven which said that he would be visiting the store later in the day to investigate.
Steven had always been clumsy, so it was no surprise when, as soon as he entered the store, he tripped on the store's trash can and slid no less than 5 feet across the floor. This landed him right in front of Ben, who was staring intently at his limp body. He helped Steven get up and put the trash can back in its place at the entrance. They exchanged greetings and Ben remarked on his surprise that Steven responded so quickly to the email as well as everything he knew about the odor. Ben worked in the warehouse section in the back of the store and rarely came to the front. Every Wednesday during his shift from 1:30PM to closing (the same as every other weekday), there would be a terrible stench in the warehouse, despite there being no other changes to the room.Steven suggested that it may be the food of another employee's lunch but Ben had heard that everybody ate lunch in the break room at the other side of the building, so that wasn't possible.
The only useful information that Steven got from this conversation was that the reason behind the stench had to happen between opening time and 1:30PM on Wednesday. This was because Ben would have been there to see it otherwise.
