Half-Dead

"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.......