This, That, and the Other

“That sculpture is an heirloom, Detective,” Mildred Smythe said. “It’s irreplaceable. I trust you will conduct a proper investigation in the aftermath of this heinous crime.”

“I can assure you, Mrs. Smythe,” Detective Fred Morrisey said. “My investigation will be quite thorough. Can you please describe the stolen article?”

“It’s a chimera,” Mildred said. The detective got a blank expression on his face, so Mildred continued. “It’s a sculpture of a mythological, fire-breathing female monster with a lion’s head, a goat’s body, and a serpent’s tail. It’s priceless. Here’s a photo of it.” She handed the detective the photograph. “You must find it. You must!”

“I have already set up an ad hoc task force of some of the finest investigative minds in the state, Mrs Smythe. No stone will be left unturned,” Detective Morrisey said. “Can you tell me what the appraised value of the sculpture is?”

“It has great sentimental value,” Mildred said. “My husband, the late Mr. Wilhelm Smythe, acquired it for me on his last trip to the Far East. He paid one hundred and fifty thousand for it.”

“One hundred and fifty thousand dollars?” Morrisey said. “Wow.”

“Oh no, Detective, not dollars,” Mildred said. “One hundred and fifty thousand yen. He bought it from an artifacts dealer in Japan.

Morrisey took out his iPhone and Googled “yen to dollars.” Then he looked at Mildred and said, “There’s apparently been a miscommunication, Mrs. Smythe. My team gets involved with matters of grand theft, but ¥150,000 equates to less than $750. And in this state, that makes this a case of petty theft.”

“So what does that mean, Detective?”

“It means I’m outta here, Mrs. Smythe,” Morrisey said. “I’ll have Officer Hutchins from our minor crimes division contact you about your petty theft claim.”

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Written for these daily prompts: My Vivid Blog (heirloom), The Daily Spur (proper), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (replaceable), Word of the Day Challenge (aftermath), Your Daily Word Prompt (chimera), E.M.’s Random Word Prompt (ad hoc), and Ragtag Daily Prompt (apparent).