I unzipped the envelope and pulled out a typewritten letter:

Mr. Levin,

Funny story:

I was driving through Crellin about a month ago and stopped at a small market. To tell you the truth, I needed to use the bathroom. The woman at the register was kind and directed me to the facilities without insisting that I buy something, but it didn’t seem right not to. So on my way out, I looked for a small item to purchase.

I’d skipped lunch so the platter of baked goods on the counter caught my eye. None looked particularly appealing with one exception: a lone, sugar-covered, hole-less doughnut. I asked the woman what was inside. “Butterscotch cream,” she said. This meant nothing to me. I’ve been in this country for many years now, but I’d never even heard this word, butterscotch. The woman said it tasted a bit like caramel, which I like very much, so I decided to take a chance. I assumed I’d take a bite and throw the rest in the trash.

I was surprised when the woman handed me the doughnut wrapped in a napkin, no bag, as if she knew that I’d want to eat it right then and there, and to my surprise, she was right. The second I held it in my hand, I felt compelled to take a bite, something about the weight and the smell demanded that it be eaten that very second.

It was the best doughnut I’d ever tasted, and before I knew it, I’d eaten the whole thing standing right there at the counter.

“Good, right? They’re from The Doughnut Stop in Petersville,” the woman said. “We order as many as we can, and we always sell out. We’d probably be able to sell three times as many, but they’re small batch, you know.”

An amazing product made right here in upstate New York that keeps selling out? I had to learn more. Right then, I sent an email to my assistant back at the office asking him to get me all the information he could on The Doughnut Stop.

By the time I got back to my desk, my assistant was waiting for me with a stack of research and print-outs of two emails—the one you had sent me about investing in The Doughnut Stop and the one Majani sent you declining the opportunity. Quite by accident, my assistant had run a search for “The Doughnut Stop” on our internal server and the emails had popped up.

I must confess, I receive too many emails to review them all. I leave it to people I trust to decide which emails make it to my desk. In the case of yours, a mistake was made. In their defense, they’d never tasted the doughnuts.

I am hoping to rectify this mistake now. Please excuse the delay. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Your friend,

Alhaadi Okello

“So?” Duke said. “What is it?”

“No way!” Josh had been reading over my shoulder and was jumping up and down.