"Seed Tape Strangles Grow Hose " It
wasn't
much of a headline, but it would do until
a
better one came along. The night was
young.
An un-named reporter from "Half-
Dead", the recently launched true
detective
style magazine, slouched back in his
leather
chair, his feet propped up
on the edge of
a
sagging desk. A thread of silvery smoke
curled upwards from the cheap cigarette
dangling over the edge of an
upturned
sheriff’s badge, now serving its time as
an
ashtray.
Groaning under a pile of papers and
photographs, that spilled off unto the
floor, the corner of the desk caught the
edge of a flickering neon cascading down
one wall. The lurid glow was barely
relieved by a splatter of raindrops
reflecting against the fly blown blinds
hanging like fading parchment in the
stale air.
“Nothing much to report” sighed the
reporter into the bakelite receiver, the
terse, barking voice of the hard boiled
editor ringing in his ear. “Just another
mfd murder - back page stuff”.
As he expertly flicked the gaping
drawer
shut with the tip of a brown brogue,
the
missing bakers file caught in the breeze,
the names of Farmer John and UnaBubba
focusing momentarily.......