A COIN FLIP
byDetective Julie Evans could barely keep her eyes open as she walked through the entrance of the community exhibition hall. The station had received the robbery call just as she got to work, and she had headed out before her first cup of coffee.
Before she had gotten 10 feet into the large room, Julie was accosted by a tall, slim man in a three-piece tweed suit. As she flashed her badge, the obviously agitated man said, “You’ve got to do something! It’s been stolen, and I’ll be ruined.”
“Now just hold on a second,” said Julie, in an attempt to calm things down. “Mr.—”
“Thompson, Howard Thompson.”
“Mr. Thompson, what’s been stolen?”
“The nickel!”
Julie shook her head. “You’re telling me that you called the police to report the theft of a nickel?”
“Not just any nickel, o
