The Parked Cars
Sunday, May 18th, 2025“Looks pretty suspicious to me, Molly,” growled private detective Sam Diamond, peering out of the window at the parking lot below through two slats he held apart in the blinds.
“What do you mean, suspicious?” asked Molly with a worried tone. She stood up to join Sam at the window, bending over to look.
“Don’t you see those cars over there in the shadow area of the street light?” said Sam, adjusting the pistol in the holster hanging inside his jacket.
“I see some black cars,” said Molly, “but what’s so suspicious about them?” Among Molly’s ample gifts there wasn’t a great deal of imagination.
“The way they’re parked, of course,” snarled Sam, peering more closely with his nose touching the window pane.
“I just see nine black cars parked side by side in a zone with white stripe marks for fourteen cars in the street,” said Molly, “and what’s so suspicious about that?”
“So why are they all parked together with the other five spaces empty, eh?” said Sam, “I tell you, Molly, something funny’s going on.”
Sam pulled out his gun and left the office to go investigate, and Molly sat down, blonde curls dangling over her bewildered face.
Do you think Sam had any reason to be suspicious on seeing the arrangement of nine cars parked side by side in a small parking zone intended for fourteen cars, considering the accidental probability of such a configuration?