Online, I never throw things out...

[chicating]

For Jacqueline, till I can get my detective ducks in a row...

“Dead Women Can’t Say Anything.”

Unattended death. Mostly about smell or paperwork than anything else, but Munch’s head was in a delicate state so he was grateful for the respite, if not the by-now customary partner hunt. He was still surprised when the newly-anointed Sergeant Kay came striding out and said she would come with him.

“Think of me as your lucky charm, huh?”

”Do I get to pick which part of you I get to rub for luck?”

“Enough of that, hmm?” Her expression turned to concern as she looked him over. “Jesus, John, you look like shit.”

He did what every pretentious dropout did in such situations and quoted William Blake. “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom, Kay.”

“If that means what I think it does, you must be the smartest man in Balmer.”

“Thank you, I think.”

The place was a neat little condo on the Inner Harbor, hardly the usual shooting gallery. The vic, a woman slightly younger than Kay, was rigored on her couch.
“Ok, Rogers, what’ve we got?” Kay said. Kay liked Sally Rogers, at least to get stuck in the women’s with. She had proven herself competent and not sloppy, both traits that went right to Howard’s core as a detective.
“Neighbor went over to borrow something, found her like this, knew not to touch anything from “Murder She Wrote,”

“God bless television,” Kay said.

“You’d think so,” Munch said, “But that last show didn’t do anything for her, did it?”

“There’s something...weird about this scene.” Kay said. “I can’t put my finger on it, but...”
“My place isn’t this clean and I’m alive.” Munch finished.

“Exactly,” Howard said.
“ Although I doubt we share a bohemian sensibility, seeing as how she was watching...” Munch crossed to the coffee table and found a DVD box which he held in his gloved hand.””Say Anything”. Somehow I doubt it does.”

An uncharacteristic squeal emanated from Officer Rogers. “Oh. My God. I love that movie. I’ve seen it twelve times.” You’re shivering. Are you cold?”
“No. I’m just happy.” John couldn’t believe that such an un-Howard line would cross the sergeant’s lips and, as was often the case with Kay, was torn between being frightened and aroused. He always sort of pictured her relaxing with Scorsese’s “Mean Streets” and a visit to the firing range. This was a whole new dimension.
“My...uh, niece, has one. She watched it a bunch of times when I was on the island last.”
”I thought your sister wasn’t the breeding type,” Munch pointed out, eyebrow almost raised off his face, “and with the cancer...”
“She’s my friend’s kid, okay? Not my blood niece. She really loves that Lloyd guy. Rates her little school friends to see if any of the boys are Doblers. It was always what she wanted to do. Next time, I get to pick, so we’re going to the gun range.”
John thought” That clunking sound is my equilibrium being restored.” But said “Where is this opus?”
“I’ll bet I know...” Kay said. “Wow, she was only thirty minutes in,” One of the few things Kay wasn’t neat about was leaving her videos in the player. She supposed it’s because she got interrupted so often watching one. Drove Ed Danvers crazy though; his movies were seperated by genre and used to be alphabetized till she let him have her one day up against the rack. After that, he loved the rack more than ever, but never regained much joy in alphabetizing, but the first time he scolded her for mis-shelving “Blazing Saddles” she knew they wouldn’t last.

Comments

At one time, I had this thought...

[chicating]

about, say, modern classic movies being the keys to solving a mystery. Which I still think is an excellent concept for somebody who writes quicker than I.

Oh, wow ...

[karlht]

Yeah, JZ would have loved this one.

Now I miss JZ and Belz.

Re: Oh, wow ...

[chicating]

Yeah....She liked it, as far as it got.
I had this whole thing planned... about how Kay could help pinpoint Time of Death because she, being a woman, would know more than the guys that nobody would stop "Say Anything" while Lloyd guides his date away from the glass. Right?
But I ran out of time to finish writing it.