Lt. Blake Halliday and Sgt. Jess Crombie drove through the Kansas night, in silence. After they had been speed-ing along for perhaps five minutes, fat drops of rain suddenly impacted the windshield of their department car. Then a loud, prolonged growl of thunder sounded, and another.
Crombie cleared his throat and shook his head. "A thunderstorm...perfect!!", he growled. Halliday made no reply, but slowed the car's speed a little.
Four minutes later, as torrents of rain slanted down onto the dry tan earth all around them, the Buick's headlights picked a numbered sign out of the darkness. "That's the Widow Jenkins place," Halliday said.
They swept area with practiced gazes, then Halliday rolled to a stop ten feet from a closed garage door painted medium blue. Shrugging and pulling their collars up, they left the car and headed along a blue flagstone path to the shelter of a long eight-columned porch that was set at the facing westward side of Mrs. Jenkins' house.
Two minutes later, they were drinking tea out of cups with small pink roses painted on them, as Ada Jenkins told them about the intruder she had frightened off with the help of Boomer, her Great Dane. The two men glanced nervously at the huge brindle specimen who lay on a rag rug, grinning at them, watchfully.
"This may prove to be a long night," she told them, "but I think I know who my intruder was. My stars, I hope I'm not accusing an innocent person, of course."
"If you'll tell us just the facts, Ma'am," Halliday suggest-ed.
"O' course."
Ada lowered her voice. "Like I told you, I heard a sort of a scratching sound. And then a face appeared at the window, that one to your right, Lieutenant. And by the lamplight I could see how he was dressed!"
"How?" Crombie asked, receiving a glance from his superior that caused him to fall silent.
"He was dressed in a vampire costume," Mrs. Jenkins whispered. "Right down to fake fangs, cape and all, and a nice brown cowboy hat!"
"A very interesting observation", Crombie blurted. Then he looked at his superior and closed his mouth again.
"You're quite sure of what you saw?" Halliday asked. "I mean it was pretty dark,Mrs. Jenkins?"
"Oh I know what I saw all right," the old lady murmured. Then she piped up, "And I'll bet dollars to doughnuts it was Eb Foreman. He's been mad at me ever since I fired him last May. Laziest workman I ever had. You just check on his--what's that word--?" "Alibi", Crombie prompted.
"Yes, his alibi." Mrs. Jenkins sighed. "This is hard on me, Lieutenant. I mean, I'm eighty-six. All alone here once my hired man goes home for the night and all."
"Yes ma'am." Haliday scowled. "I think we may have a PSYCHOTIC CLOWN on the loose! Whether your mysterious intruder was Eb Foreman or not."
He asked a few more questions, then he and Crombie got a flashlight from their car and studied the ground beneath Mrs. Jenkins' window, the one through which her mysterious night stalker had peered. But there was no sign of footprints approaching the window nor retreating from it. The rain had wet the dusty ground in the past fwenty minutes; but there were no prints of shoes, bare feet, anything.
Halliday, who had been squatting on his heels, to take a closer look, eased himself upright and expelled a long breath. Crombie looked at him, bafflled, and waited. "Now if I only knew what I was doing," Halliday said, "I'd probably arrest Ada Jenkins for making false accusations, or something. I wish we hadn't answered tis call,
Crombie."
"You and me both, Boss," his partner said, shedding rain like a big St, Bernard. The rain pelted the two men for a full minutes, adding to the puddles in Mrs. Jenkins yard before he got up nerve to ask, "We just going to stand here awhile, huh?"
"Nope." Hallidays shivered and straightened his shoulders. "We take a turn around the house, looking for footprints. And if we find nothing--we're going home,"
Crombie nodded. "And Eb Foreman?"
Halliday shook himself as a dog does drying out his coat. "If he was never here, we have nothing to ask him. And if he flew in--leaving no footprints--I want to question him by daylight."
"Cause vampires can't stand sunlight?" Crombine asked.
Halliday stared at him; his mouth looked stormy. "I think we may have two psychotic clowns on the loose," he rasped. "Get back to the car, Crombie! And so help me, if you mention vampires once more--you're walking all the way back to the station, rain or no rain!"
2007-05-28 13:31:15
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answer #1
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answered by Robert David M 7
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A very interesting observation would be to observe a typical police station in a typical situation. Aside from the casual "If only I knew what I was doing" when they get their chance to disarm a bomb, policemen really get the hang of their jobs. Even storms won't stop them, as all they will think is "A thunderstorm......Perfect!!".
This is precisely what officer Larry Smith was thinking that night, apart from the usual "This may prove to be a long night", as he reported to chief Jane Williams the thing all policemen should have been focusing on all night.
"I think we have a psychotic clown on the loose!" He exclaimed.
"That's preposterous. There hasn't been one of those cases for a week now. Except if you count the kleptomaniac mime..." Chief Williams answered.
"This is much more serious" Larry affirmed.
"Are you sure?"
"Just the facts, ma'am."
And, at that, he left the chief, also leaving with her the familiar feeling of "This may prove to be a long night".
2007-05-28 12:40:01
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answer #2
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answered by Anonymous
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Dr Jekkyl was tinkering again in his laboratory: "This may prove to be a long night", he murmured to himself.
Suddenly, the glass window blew open and a very sultry and sexy vampire landed perfectly on the floor beside Dr Jekkyl and said sexily " That's a very interesting observation, doctor Jekkyl".
She placed her arms around him and whispered in his ears: "why dont we make it more interesting?"
Dr Jekkyl sighed and thought to himself:" I think we have a psychotic clown on the loose!" but said loudly "what do you have in mind? Just the facts , maam." - he was a scientist dealing with facts and figures, after all.
The vampire slowly touched the tips of Dr Jekky's lips and said: " how about going outside and I'll tell you about it under the twinkling stars?"
And just as they were walking outside the garden, the night skies above turned darker and splatters of rain began to fall...
"A thunderstorm...perfect!" sultry vampire sulkingly shouted.
She kissed Dr Jekkly goodbye and said: "maybe not tonight, my love". And she disappeared into the darkness of the night.
2007-05-29 05:21:06
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answer #3
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answered by yeye28 4
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