The Sherlock Society

The next morning, the group meets in Alex’s best friend Yadi’s uncharacteristically clean bedroom to review drone footage. Yadi explains his filmmaking passion began during the Pizza Impossible commercial shoot he participated in when he was younger. He has organized the footage into folders: hazardous waste, dead animals, and supplementary shots. Alex notices Zoe refrains from her typical sarcastic comments after her dinner outburst.

Following Grandpa’s investigative framework, they systematically analyze the footage. An establishing shot helps Alex map the crime scene. In closer angles, Lina deduces the truck’s path from tire tracks and flattened sawgrass. Zoe spots something metallic in the grass where the vehicle turned around. Yadi zooms in, and Lina identifies it as a hubcap, likely from the right front wheel—their first piece of physical evidence from the vehicle.

Analyzing footage of the dead alligator, Zoe observes it remains intact, meaning vultures have not yet detected it. Since vultures locate carrion by smell, the animal must have died very recently, narrowing the dumping time frame to within a day or two. While reviewing the trash pile, Lina notices a Styrofoam coffee cup bearing a logo. Alex immediately recognizes it as belonging to Bailey’s Bait and Tackle.

Moving to Yadi’s kitchen, the group discusses their next steps. The bait shop cup indicates the dumpers traveled from Miami via Alligator Alley rather than other possible routes. Lina suggests they might be concealing illegal chemicals. Yadi proposes visiting the bait shop to obtain surveillance footage by posing as student filmmakers documenting the Everglades.

Before departing, Grandpa establishes strict rules for his Cadillac, Roberta, after a frog, a stowaway from their trip to the slough, startled his date on the previous evening. His rules are no food within five feet of the vehicle, no unpaved roads, and shoes that touched Everglades soil must be removed before entering. He makes them pinky-swear to comply.

At Bailey’s Bait and Tackle, Yadi stages a mock interview setup within view of security cameras. Mr. Bailey emerges to investigate, initially suspicious but warming when he recognizes Yadi from the Pizza Impossible commercial. After letting Yadi conduct an on-camera interview and film drone footage of the canal, Bailey agrees to provide surveillance footage when Yadi frames it as needing time-lapse shots for the documentary and offers credit. Bailey allows Yadi to copy a week’s worth of recordings.

Back at Yadi’s house, the group divides the task of reviewing security footage from four cameras. After ninety minutes of tedious searching—and Alex accidentally reviewing footage from the wrong day—Lina discovers the suspect vehicle. Wednesday afternoon footage shows a white truck with a trailer parking at the lot’s far end. A man wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses, and displaying a tattoo sleeve, exits and enters the shop.

Yadi synchronizes the grainy exterior feed with the clearer interior camera. The man purchases coffee and beef jerky. When he briefly looks up at the checkout camera, Yadi freezes and prints the image. As the truck departs, they confirm it carries large drums matching those found in the slough, and all hubcaps remain intact at this point.

Zoe notices the KC logo on the man’s cap matches the blurry marking on the truck door. Yadi isolates the logo, enhances it digitally, and runs an image search. The computer identifies Kane Crystals, a sugar company. The website displays the CEO, Morris Kane, standing before a massive sugar mound with arms crossed. Zoe wonders aloud if he is their target.

The following morning, the group reconvenes at Grandpa’s storage unit. Lina officially relabels it 221B with a Sharpie, referencing Sherlock Holmes’s address. They review their evidence: the dumping occurred the previous day, involves someone connected to Kane Crystals, and the lab results remain pending. Research reveals Kane Crystals is a multigenerational family sugar operation in Belle Glade with additional holdings including several small newspapers.

Grandpa announces he has arranged an interview with Joe Moody, a former editor at one of Kane’s newspapers. En route, Grandpa teaches them to leave silence after responses to encourage subjects to elaborate. At a diner, Moody explains that working conditions deteriorated after Morris Kane succeeded his father. Moody discovered Kane was embezzling through fabricated expenses: billing newspapers for specialized materials they never used and even a state-of-the-art printing press that was never purchased. When Moody confronted him, Kane promised to investigate but forced Moody into retirement two weeks later. Moody believes Kane would dump hazardous waste for profit.

Alex wonders how to obtain proof, noting Kane rarely grants media interviews except when photographed with celebrities. Yadi suddenly announces he knows how to secure an interview with Kane.

Yadi outlines his strategy: create a fake documentary about legendary leaders of South Florida featuring powerful figures more famous than Kane, exploiting his ego to secure participation. Over several days, they build credibility by photographing themselves as a film crew at prominent Miami locations and creating a website, social media accounts, and blog. Yadi assembles a promotional trailer using found footage of the mayor, a rapper, and the Dolphins quarterback intercut with Miami landmarks.

They email Kane requesting an interview, marking the trailer as confidential. Within two hours, Kane’s office responds, agreeing to Friday morning at the farm despite his extremely busy schedule. Yadi announces phase two: equipment training. He assigns roles—Alex handles lighting, Lina manages sound, Zoe serves as producer and interviewer, and Yadi directs and operates the camera. Grandpa is not assigned a role on the film crew--this allows him freedom to investigate the property while appearing uninvolved.

That evening, the family shares dinner before their father’s Honduras trip. When their father reveals the lab results, they learn that the water contains expected agricultural waste but also industrial chemicals including chromium, lead, solvents, and waste ink—substances typical of print shops, not farms. After dinner, while washing dishes alone, Alex and Zoe simultaneously realize the connection to Kane’s newspaper business.

Friday morning, the group arrives early at the Kane Crystals farm in Belle Glade, but Morris Kane is thirty minutes late. While waiting, they scout the property. Grandpa and Alex notice a building labeled Marketing has unusual security features. Yadi flies the drone over it, but exterior footage reveals nothing suspicious.

When Kane finally arrives, he is charming and expertly pilots Yadi’s drone over the sugarcane fields, discussing his modernization initiatives. He explains that the company uses drones and GPS-guided tractors for efficiency and has imported a thousand barn owls for natural pest control instead of using chemical pesticides, presenting himself as a committed environmentalist.

Inside Kane’s office, the team professionally sets up their equipment. Alex and Lina find Kane personable. During the interview, Kane emphasizes his family legacy and environmental concerns, boasting about receiving a perfect score on a recent surprise inspection by water management officials. When Zoe asks about his newspapers, Kane dismisses them as inherited side businesses he wishes he did not have.

Suddenly, a man barges in, insisting he needs Kane urgently. Alex immediately recognizes him as the tattooed suspect from the bait shop surveillance footage. Kane snaps at the interruption but, noting the urgency, dismisses the film crew so he and the man can speak privately.

When Lina hesitates, Kane yells at her to get out. Outside, Grandpa points to the intruder’s white truck—it is missing a hubcap. The evidence connects the man who arrived to speak to Kane (later identified as Aaron Pettigrew) to the dumping, but Alex and Yadi are still impressed by Kane’s environmental presentation. Zoe counters that Kane is fraudulent, noting his office displays only self-promotional photographs and that he claimed credit for environmental practices his father implemented. Kane’s assistant soon informs them the interview is canceled and orders them to leave immediately.

Grandpa takes them to a taco stand but orders food to go, breaking his own strict car rules. While eating in the vehicle, he reveals they are waiting to follow Aaron’s truck. When Aaron speeds away toward Miami, they pursue him south on the highway. During the drive, Lina discovers online that Aaron Pettigrew serves as Kane’s director of security. Grandpa recalls Kane has a sister named Pettigrew, suggesting Aaron is his nephew. Alex confirms this with an Instagram photo.

Yadi theorizes Kane disposed of the waste before the surprise environmental inspection. They follow Pettigrew to the private Sabal Palm Yacht Club. Unable to follow inside without arousing suspicion, they prepare to leave when Lina confesses that, shocked by Aaron’s entrance, she forgot to stop recording and captured his entire conversation with Kane.

The group debates whether listening to the recording is legal and ethical. Zoe argues Kane signed a release form and the microphone was visible, making it permissible. Alex worries the conversation might concern personal family matters. Zoe proposes using a special master—a neutral party who reviews evidence for admissibility—a legal concept their mother employed in a previous case. Grandpa volunteers.

At Alex and Zoe’s house, Lina transfers the audio file to Grandpa’s phone. He listens privately while the others wait anxiously in the kitchen. After ten minutes, Grandpa returns looking disappointed, claiming the recording contains only irrelevant family financial discussions. Deflated, Lina deletes the file from her phone at his instruction. Grandpa drives Yadi and Lina home, pausing at Lina’s apartment to reassure her that Kane, not she, behaved inappropriately.

Once alone with Alex, Grandpa confesses he lied to protect Yadi and Lina from potential legal consequences. The recording is actually crucial to their investigation. Based on what he heard, they have less than twenty-four hours to solve the case. Grandpa explains he is not concerned about past illegalities but rather the illegal things they are about to do.