That made Francine’s expression even more concerned. “Yeah. Thatwouldbe the worst-case scenario.”
They pushed the basket of strawberries to where delivery trucks offloaded their cargo.
Beryl saw a pallet with three full crates of strawberries and an empty one. Sure enough, the side of the crate had a sticker that stated each container held twenty-four pints of strawberries.
Francine bent over and grabbed a piece of paper that was on the floor next to the pallet. She said, “This looks like it came with the crates. It says a bunch of stuff that I can’t read because of poor penmanship, but there’s a line here at the end about these four crates being misdelivered to the mine and forwarded to the Supernova Supermarket.”
“Do you see a stray pint of strawberries anywhere around here?” Beryl asked, scanning the vicinity and seeing nothing red. “If not, I’m going to have to round up a search party.”
Francine looked around and shook her head. “I didn’t see anything else opened up. Let me go look by the produce section of the stockroom and see if there’s anything over there.”
Beryl pulled her tablet from her pocket again and selected the inventory section, trying to see if she could find the entry log for the strawberries this morning and if indeed twenty-four had been put out, or twenty-three with an explanation for where the final one was.
After a frustrating two-minute search, she didn’t see any strawberries loaded anywhere in the system. This was a nightmare. She closed her eyes and counted slowly to five, hoping she’d have a better attitude when her eyes opened.
When Beryl popped her lids open, she jumped back a step in surprise. Jett, the eldest triplet and wiliest of all her siblings, stood in front of her, arms crossed, amused expression shaping his features. “What are you doing, sis?”
“I’m having a quiet heart attack because something bad has happened.”
“Anything I can do to help?”
“Actually, yes. Could you possibly explain to me why someone at your mine sent that pallet to my store this morning?”
“First of all, it’s our mine, don’t pretend you’re not part-owner, too. Second of all, I have no idea what you are talking about.”
Jett glanced down at the pallet, then his gaze moved over to the shopping cart of perfect strawberries. His response was a shrug. He picked up the handwritten note and turned it around to face her.
Before he told her what she already knew, she said, “I know what the note says. What I’m wondering is why a shipment of strawberries was ever sent to the mine before being sent here. I’d ask where they came from but I have a pretty good idea. Why didn’t they come off the Alpha-Prime air cargo ship and go directly to the basement of the Big Bang Truck Stop?”
Jett stared at her for a long moment, then pulled his phone out and made a call. “Let me check with whoever sent them from the mine. Okay?”
Francine came running back into the stock area. “Hey, I think I know where the other box of strawberries might be.”
“Where?”
“Unless you already checked, in the employee lounge.” Beryl’s expression must have told Francine she hadn’t thought to look there, because her friend took off. Beryl followed.
As the hurried to the breakroom, Beryl said, “Tell me a human didn’t eat those strawberries.”
“Okay. I’ll tell you that but I might be lying.”
They raced into the breakroom in time to see someone taking the container of strawberries out of the refrigerator.
“Hey, where did you get those strawberries?” Beryl shouted excitedly.
Startled, Clement tossed the strawberries in the air. They crashed to the floor, cracking the clear packaging wide open. Suddenly, perfect strawberries were rolling across the breakroom floor in every conceivable direction.
“Holy moly,” Clement said. He whipped around, his face turning as crimson as the berries escaping from him. “I was just moving them out of the way so I could get my lunch bag.” He pointed to the still open refrigerator door with a single brown paper bag waiting for him.
“Sorry,” Beryl said and calmed down. “These strawberries were recalled. I didn’t want anyone to eat any and get sick.”
“I swear to you on my mama’s life, I didn’t even touch them, except to move them away from my lunch bag.”
“I believe you,” Beryl said. Francine had grabbed the cracked clear container and scooped up most of the strawberries. Beryl helped her gather the last few and they were out of the breakroom and away from a traumatized Clement in no time.
When they got back to the storeroom, Jett said, “Hey, a guy in receiving at the mine said he was sorry. It was his mistake. He forgot where they had come from and sent them to what he considered the logical place they should go.”
“Do you believe him?” Beryl asked.
