Case of the Missing Salmon

A pacific salmon is missing from the Platte River Fish Hatchery in Beulah. Detective B. Stealthy is on the case and is gathering bits and pieces of evidence, most of which he has scribbled helter-skelter on odd scraps of paper. Piecing together the detective’s notes will help you to solve the crime and put you on the trail of the missing salmon.

Background Notes…

1. Five area cats (Lucy, Mr. Bigglesworth, Sebastian, Phoebe and Mozart) were seen in the vicinity of the Fish Hatchery around the time of the heist, but only one was actually at the scene of the crime.
2. The five cats, each a different breed (Persian, Siamese, Angora, Tabby and Himalayan), each wear a tag with a different ID number on it (127, 268, 382, 417 and 503).
3. Each cat fled to a different area trail (Beulah Village Park, Platte River State Forest - Honor, Betsie Valley Trail - Beulah Trailhead, Betsie Valley Trail - Mollineaux Rd. Trailhead and Railroad Point Natural Area) when they learned their name was on the suspect list — one cat had the salmon with him/her.
4. Inspection at the scene of the crime turned up a cat’s ID tag; the detective found it an odd coincidence that the number on the tag was the same number that had been assigned to the missing salmon.

Collected Facts…

1. Lucy is the Persian cat.
2. Mr. Bigglesworth, who is not the Himalayan, wears number “503″ on his tag.
3. Phoebe, who is not the Tabby or the Himalayan, wears number “127″ on her tag.
4. The cat who wears number “268″ did not flee to either the Village Park or Railroad Point.
5. Mozart’s tag is not numbered “417″ or “382″.
6. The cat who escaped to Platte River was not the Himalayan.
7. Phoebe is not the cat who fled to Railroad Point.
8. The Tabby cat ran off to the Beulah Trailhead.
9. Sebastian is not the Angora.
10. The cat who fled to Platte River, who was not Lucy, wears a tag numbered “382″.

Finding the Letterbox…

Once you have pieced together the information and completed the additional research to deduce which trail the guilty cat headed to, make your way there and use the following clues to find the spot where he hid the salmon:

Follow the trail straight ahead from the main parking area. You will come upon a large inscribed memorial stone. From this rock, walk at 150 degrees to the edge of the trees. Due East, find the salmon hidden under bark in the center of a triple trunk cherry tree.