Swamped

"Maybe it's been planted," she continues. "It's illegal, right? So maybe someone hid it in the hospital to try to get them in trouble."

Minnie shakes her head.

"That's a little too weird to work. Investigators would ask, why is it in a hospital. The first thought they come up with is maybe there's some elaborate scheme between the hospital and somebody else, so they go poking around and try to figure out who the partner is. But if there's no actual partner, they're more likely to find evidence of who snuck in and left the fake contraband there. There are way easier stories to sell if you're planting evidence, and you want an easy story so they don't dig too deep. I'd buy that if it were in a ship's cargo hold, but..."

And then it clicks for you.

"And what if that's where they wanted it to be found?" you ask. "There's a specific ship they're waiting for. The hospital's just temporary storage."

"That's more plausible," Minnie concedes. "I mean, I don't know why they'd pick the hospital to hide it in, but there could be any number of reasons. Maybe they just think it's not likely to be searched."

"Well, it's not that far from the harbor, and come festival time, there's a lot of rowdy sailors who might need a stay. You probably don't even need to provoke a fight," you muse. "At night, there's not that many staff, so it's pretty easy to move about unnoticed. And the storeroom's not especially well-guarded, plus there's some medicinal wine in there. Serves as a decent excuse if you're caught. So I can see it..."

"I think you're both overlooking the real question," Arlene interjects. "If they're waiting for a ship, which ship is it?"

"I dunno," you shrug. "I'm not from around here. I've got no idea which ship someone might think is important enough to frame for sausage-smuggling."

"Oh," Minnie says suddenly. "I think I know. Haven't lived in this town for a long time, but there's one ship I remember hearing about a lot. Only ever docked here for the festival, but it was always a big deal when it arrived."