Raven's Challenge 65

Today's Link
Abraham Lincoln's Provocative Prose

Today's Saying
What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly. ~Richard Bach

Today's Picture
Finally -Oiur Hanging Garden

It is Saturday and time to play with words supplied by Raven's Wordzzle

This week's ten word challenge will be: parasite, meals on wheels, crows, it's my fault, everything but the kitchen sink, on sale, patriotism, the love of my life, library card, common sense
And for the mini: blackmail, California, stethoscope, postage, crank

The Mega Challenge as
The Ongoing Adventures of Agent 012

Agent 012 spent two days at an old Indian temple before the Agency realized the entire message was phony.. It was the internet equivalent of a crank call. While this was going on the mute agent known only as the Parasite had stolen everything but the kitchen sink from the California Meals on Wheels program. And their best intelligence which was equal to that of the CIA said he was going to hit the local area next. So they called Agent 012 back to headquarters.
He stopped at home to see “ the love of my life” , give his son his library card which he had taken with him, and leave some money for postage which had gone up again. He also took the time to drive the crows out of his garden or what was left of his garden. “Weren’t you supposed to keep those dang birds out of the garden ?” he asked his son.
“So now ! It’s my fault there are crows in the garden” his son snapped back.
“Common sense says that if you had done what I asked they wouldn’t be there” Agent 012 screamed.
“ I was going to build that scarecrow as soon as the materials went on sale” his son screamed back.
“Calm down both of you. I don’t need a stethoscope to know your blood pressure is up..” Agent 012’s wife said in a very quiet voice.” What materials do you need?”
“ Well I wanted an uncle Sam hat and shirt for the scarecrow so the garden would have a patriotism theme.” the son said in a much softer voice.
“ I don’t care what theme you want. I want that scarecrow up by the time I come home or I will take away all your video games”. Agent 012 responded but also in a much softer voice.
“ That’s blackmail” his son said in disgust.
“ Blackmail or not I have to go to work and it better be done when I get back.
So Agent 012 went off to chase the Parasite on a day that so far was not looking like his day.

The Ten word challenge-By the Gut
The story continues -You can see the first part HERE.

Common sense told Chief Ican that the DA was guilty. His gut told him possibly she wasn’t. It was the look on her face when he pulled out the gun. It was a look of surprise. It was not the kind of look that said “ I’m caught and it’s my fault . Why did I put the gun there?”No! It was the look people get when they see something they didn’t expect to see. Like the man at an auction when an item comes on sale that he didn’t expect . He turns to his wife and says “look at that” and he has that expression on his face. Now the gun didn’t surprise the Chief. He had seen in safes everything but the kitchen sink. But unless the DA was a great actress her look was one of surprise.
So Chief Ican was going back over what he knew.
He had the murder weapon. But it had no fingerprints. If she was the murderer and had put the gun in the safe to which only she had the combination then why wipe off the prints. The moment the safe was opened her guilt would be obvious. It made no sense.
She had been cheating on her husband who saw her as “ the love of my life”. But he swears he didn’t know that. But if he did there was motive.
He also swears he didn’t know the combination but if she didn’t put the gun in the safe somebody else had to know the combination.
She was there when the murder was committed . But she swears she got scared when somebody shot and she just ran.
Meanwhile the parasites from the press were acting like crows around road kill. They tried the DA on the front page of the paper and found her guilty. They even printed that she had used her library card to take out a book on safe gun use. They maintained that she had no patriotism as she cheated on a Vietnam vet. Chief Ican thought that his staff should be at least half as good at finding material as the press but of course they weren’t.
His thinking was interrupted at this point by the noise of the meals on wheels truck delivering a meal to the old lady next door.” Why do they bother” he thought “ she just sticks them in the refrigerator and never eats them.”

The mini challenge-Questions

Sitting at his desk in the little room he called his office Chief Ican decided it was time to get out and ask questions. Questions were for a detective like a stethoscope for a Doctor. With them you could collect valuable information that might crank out some answers and give you some possible solutions. When he was a tyro detective he had gone to a seminar on blackmail in San Francisco , California. Over and over the leader of that seminar stressed the importance of asking questions and listening to the answers. According to that leader even lies can be helpful in seeing the whole picture. The best postage money he ever spent was on the card he sent in for that seminar.
So off he went to ask questions. He started with the DA. “Who else had the combination to the safe “ he asked.
“Nobody” she responded “ but it wasn’t always locked. I wanted my uxorious husband to see the love letters. But I knew he would never look.”
Chief Ican filed this away. It had never occurred to him that the safe might have been left open but he had a feeling she was telling the truth.
Next he would interview the Mayor’s housekeeper and see who the visitors were after the murder. But he was beginning to think the Mayor could be the killer.
To be continued next Thursday.

All fifteen words in one sentence

Say no to blackmail

Parasite Crows, from California, known country wide for his patriotism and common sense while running the meals on wheels program thought “ It’s my fault I had to put everything but the kitchen sink and personal postage on sale to pay the blackmail to the man who found my stethoscope, and library card at the murder scene where the one I called “ the love of my life” was beaten to death with a crank from an automobile when I’m not guilty”.

Of course the dragons were busy today you can see them HERE.

News from Pigeon Falls

The little town in my basement where the trains still run, dragons fly, and life is back to normal
It’s Saturday and time to look back on the week in Pigeon Falls.
Monday– Wink’s Woods had one of its famous sales where everything but the kitchen sink was on sale for 20% off. Mrs. Smith said that she should get postage stamps for 20% off because the add said everything in the store. They tried to explain to her the postage machine belonged to the Post Office but she kept pointing out it was inside the store. When she makes up her mind about something it is hard to change. Just ask the meals on wheels people. Finally Wink gave her the stamps at 20% off. “ It’s my fault” he said,” I will have to be more careful with the next add.
Tuesday-The DNR was disturbed to find some crows dying from a parasite they had never seen before. They took the odd looking tick like creature and sent it to the State Agricultural Lab. They used common sense sterile methods to collect them as they didn’t know if humans could be infected by the little bugs.
Wednesday-With the Fourth of July not far away Tommy TW used his library card to check out several books on patriotism. He is thinking of making one of the characters in his next book very patriotic.
Thursday– Freddy tried to blackmail Tammy by threatening to tell Tommy TK that he heard her say that Tommy TK was “ still the love of my life”. Freddy now has a black eye. But he did learn a valuable lesson. Never try to blackmail a girl that can beat you up.
Friday-The Nurse Practitioner at the local clinic ordered a new stethoscope form a California based company with the odd name of Jose Crank and Brothers. She says she has ordered from them before and their products are always up to the highest medical standards.

Wrap Up

It has been a busy day. I updated the Church website with a new bulletin, the June calendar, and the June Newsletter. I visited everyone who was on Raven's Linksy. Then we went out for lunch and went shopping at Pick and Save. Coming home I visited all the blogs that left comments on this blog yesterday. Now I need a breathing treatment.
GBYA

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