The Mysterious Buckle

3 times Kine ran into a dead end and how she dealt with it:

1. Kine ran into a dead end when she asked Donna about Hans being a chef. Donna responded that she didn’t know because she hated to cook, so Kine had to look elsewhere. She found a food blog that mentioned chef Hans Jordi and gave a description of him and the food he served. Kine wrote to the author and asked about Hans and got more information about him from there. 
2. After speaking to Sadie, she learned that he hadn’t spoken or seen Hans in decades. Kine then went back online and found a message board on wedfoodprose.com that had a post regarding Hans Jordi by a man named Chef Carl. She found Chef Carl and called him to get more information. She learned that they went back many years and started their chef careers together. This didn’t help her, but a comment from Chef Renee on the website did. Robert Bland was a recognizable name to Renee, so Kline followed that lead instead. She learned about the Robert Bland Culinary Competition that might have Robert Bland and Hans Jordi at that upcoming event so she decided to go to Phoenix. 
3. Hans wasn’t at the meeting of culinary chefs where she hoped to meet him. However, Chef Renee calls her over and introduces her to different chefs. He sets up a meeting with her and Hans so that she can finally meet the man she’s been searching for. She finally gets to give him the belt buckle back and he is very excited to have it returned to him. 

3 additional things that Kine learned about:

1. Hans never gave A’s but had compassion for a poor, working class boy. He was a cowboy because of how Sadie saw him in the bar that one night. Kine later learns from Hans that he actually was a cowboy and worked at a ranch. She also learned about Bob Xix and how he was very important to Hans and gave the belt to him as a gift, specially made, but it was stolen during a break in. 
2. She learned that Jimmy Turk found the buckle near the bushes and not in a gutter like Carson had said when he told the story. 
3. Chef Renee is from Ecuador, part of mass migration of European chefs who immigrated to southwest. She also learned about the Culinaries history of serving at fancy resorts to now wherever they could host it.