Hipstaz part 2

For part 1 click here

For audio click here 
Holmes sat at his desk scratching his head. He had the three calling cards laid out on the desk. All identical, just one word, and one picture. No other clues. It’d been 5 days since he’d been called to that first hipster café and since then he’d been to two more, drank something they called coffee and listened to the same story from the managers. Cody told him there were three guys and maybe one girl, whereas Tommy was sure there was definitely a girl involved. Had Marty in Taché’s missed the girl or had she come late to the party? The first card had just come back from forensics, there were no fingerprints except his and Marty’s. He’d send the other two off but he wasn’t hopeful. The CCTV image from the second cafe showed a grainy gang of four hipsters emptying the tills and leaving 12 identical hipsters behind.

Holmes sighed. This was the perfect crime. When you look and dress like everyone else, it is very easy to hide in broad daylight. Café owners couldn’t ban people who looked like the Hipstaz because that would mean banning their whole clientele. While the price they charged for the coffee meant the gang were getting away with a fortune. It was perfect. He took a swig of his Nescafe and pulled a face, it tasted bitter, burnt. What had these damned hipster places done to his taste buds?

‘Jeff,’ Holmes looked up to see DS Daniels approaching him.  ‘We’ve got another one,’ she said.  Holmes shook his head in disbelief, grabbed his jacket and left the office. He hated to admit it but he was looking forward to getting a decent cup of coffee.

‘I’m DI Holmes and this is DS Daniels.’ Holmes said to the woman who greeted him.

‘Holmes, a good name for a detective.’ The woman said.
Holmes nodded, he’d heard it 100 times before.

‘I’m Carla,’ she said, holding out her hand.

‘I’d heard about it, of course,’ the woman said as she busied herself with the now familiar aeropress. ‘But we didn’t expect it, I mean they just looked like our normal customers.’ She handed Holmes a coffee and started making one for Daniels. Holmes watched her closely fascinated by this strange way of preparing coffee.

‘This is a Columbian bean,’ she said. ‘quite fruity you’ll find.’ Holmes tried the drink and nodded. He smiled at the manger, she was a pretty woman, about his age with a killer smile. She wasn’t quite as hipster as the others.

‘So you didn’t recognise them then?’ Holmes said remembering what he was here for.

‘No, we have a few regulars but these were newcomers and to be honest beneath the beards they could be anyone.’ She laughed ...alone. 

‘Shouldn’t that take longer?’ Holmes asked watching her push the water through the device for Daniels' coffee..

‘No, no, only 30 seconds for the aeropress. Why?’

‘Oh nothing,’ Holmes said. Daniels looked at him, since when had he become a coffee expert?

Carla continued with the story but she didn't shine much light on the case. But she did provided the pair with the best cookies they had ever tasted. 

‘Let’s go back to Tache’s,’ Holmes said when they left the café.

‘Why?’ Daniels asked.

‘I fancy a cup of coffee,’ Holmes said. Daniels shrugged still none the wiser.
For part 3 click here