Things were peaceful in sleepy Alphabet Town, where crime was all-but-unheard of.
Each day, Mr. A ran his grocery store, Mr. B his dry-cleaners, Mr. C his shoe repair and so on.
One night, their bucolic existence was interrupted. Henri Blanc and Marcel Rouge, two violent members of the Saychellian Mafia, escaped from prison and hid somewhere within the Alphabet Town shopping district.
The storekeepers were afraid to open their businesses the next day; who knew which store the escapees might be hiding in?