Friday, December 26, 2014

Appearing in issue #52, December 29, 2014


Title:  A difference of opinion
By Author:  Tracie Rae Griffith
 
Tag line:  Investigating a suspicious death, the detectives wished the deceased could speak for himself!   
Police characters:   Detective Kristine Kay, Sgt. Bill Hunt
The gist:    A call comes into the station and Det. Kay answers. A novelist, Graham Harris, was found dead by his secretary. Det. Kay turned to the sergeant and said, “Okay, Bill let’s go.”  When they arrived at the home a visibly shaken woman answered the door and pointed them to the den where the body was. She explained that she was supposed to work half a day today and came in after lunch.  She has a key.  She said she found him unresponsive, checked for a pulse and called the police.  Det. Kay told Sgt. Hill to stay with the secretary while she checked the body out.  She found Harris, a burly man, slumped across his desk, and an empty coffee cup by his right hand.  There was an empty container of prescription sleeping pills in the trash can next to the desk.
The secretary asked if it was a heart attack and was shown the RX container.  “More likely suicide,” said Det. Kay.  “I suspect sleeping pills in his coffee.”  The secretary was alarmed. She said she had picked up those pills for him yesterday and she produced a to-do list from her purse.  The list was in Harris’s looping handwriting (Det. Kay had seen his handwriting on some papers in his office) and it said “cancel dentist appointment, return reference books, take car in for oil change, pick up prescription.” When asked if Harris had been depressed, the secretary said it was just the opposite; that he was writing well, and lately had gone on a diet.  She added, “He finally decided to end things with Victoria.” Victoria turned out to be Harris’s money-hungry (according to the secretary) wife.  Just as they were speaking of Victoria, she showed up at the house.   Seeing the police she asked what was wrong. When told her husband was dead, she asked, “Was it suicide?” She claimed her husband had been depressed, that his books hadn’t been selling well, that his health wasn’t good, and their marriage had been having problems.  She added that she told him she would stay with him if he got rid of his secretary, who she claimed was causing problems in the marriage.  She said he agreed to fire the woman and was going to give her a month’s salary.
Det. Kay knew it wasn’t suicide.
Crime scene:    Author Harris’s home.
Clues:    The list of things to do.
Suspects:  The wife or the secretary.
Red herrings:    None.
Solution:  Victoria killed her husband by putting sleeping pills in his coffee.  Harris had not been depressed.  A man who is contemplating suicide does not have the oil changed in his car. By killing her husband before the divorce, the wife would get all the money. 
My two cents:    What a great clue.  I didn’t figure it out. So refreshing to have a decent clue that makes sense.  We have two suspects. We have motive, both women disliked each other and wanted Harris.  This was well written and the pacing was good.
Now here’s my gripe about the police work.  The police are a paramilitary organization, in other words organized similarly to the military.  They have a ranking system.  Sergeants do not get ordered around by mere detectives. 
 First of all, Det. Kay would never answer the phone from a citizen.  Those calls go through dispatch; dispatch sends out a unit, the patrolman would see the body and then call in the detectives.  There’s a system they follow.  Det. Kay could get the phone call from the officer at the scene, but not the reporting party.
 
Next, Det. Kay would never say to her superior, ‘Okay, Bill, let’s go.”  He might say that to her, as it’s his decision to take either take the call himself or hand it off to another detective.
 
Then Det. Kay tells the sergeant to stay with the secretary while she goes and views the body.  It would be the other way around.  The sergeant makes those calls. He might still choose to stay with the woman and continue interviewing her and send the detective in.
 
Det. Kay is telling a possible suspect her thoughts on the cause of death.  This is just not done.
 
But other than the police ‘stuff’ I thought this was a spot-on story.  The average reader won’t even pick up on the police protocol boo-boos.  This is a 5-star story, and I hope we see more from Ms. Griffith.

27 comments:

Julia said...

Loved this story. Clue was great. I agree with your point, Jody, the average reader is not going to understand the way police work is organized, so those lapses won't bother her (or him). Tracie - great story, fast read, and clever, clever clue. Happy New Year and may you keep on writing and amusing us in 2015.

Jody E. Lebel said...

Mary Jo is having trouble posting, so I'm doing it for her.

"I just read your review of Tracie’s mini-mystery. Well, guess what, thanks to all the TV cop shows, I always thought the Detective was the top guy, way above any sergeant. Have you ever discussed the protocol of rank before? I did get the clue...hey, why is he getting the oil changed, to throw people off the suicide?...but I thought the secretary did it. Well, I’m not the detective and I cannot even write a salable mystery story."

Let me clear that up. Sgt. Hill is also a detective. They both work in the detective bureau, he just has more rank than she does. He's her boss on their shift. She's probably "detective first class" or something. I don't think Tracie Rae ever gave us her rank. His official title is Sergeant Detective William Hunt. Can you imagine a private in the Army telling his sergeant to go get him something? Same thing here.

Tamara said...

Jody, now you have a possible Wednesday blog topic: "The protocol of rank."

Jody E. Lebel said...

@ Tamara. :)

BTW I'd be glad to take suggestions for blog subjects that any of you have questions on.

Elizabeth said...

Traci Rae Griffith had a romance in the Dec. 22 issue. As I recall the story was O.K. I really don't care for romance ... wish I did, as the pay scale is a little higher, at least at Woman's World. Now I'm off to try to find the Dec. 29 issue at the store.

Jody E. Lebel said...

@ Elizabeth.
WW publishes 'ahead' so I believe the Jan 5th issue is in the stores now. If you missed the 12/29 issue sometimes Chris has it scanned and can send it to you...

Joyce Ackley said...

Great story! I picked up on the clue about the oil change and the suicide, but I was in the dark about the police rank and protocol.

I don't think the average reader would pick up on that, and it didn't affect the story.

I am still waiting for news about my mystery, and I have a romance almost ready to go. I'm pleased with it and can't help but think, "This may be THE one!" but I've felt like that a hundred times before, only to receive a rejection. It pays not to get your hopes up; just do the best you can and send it off.

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year! May it be a good one for us all.

Jody E. Lebel said...

@ Joyce. I'm still waiting for a mystery reply also. I sent out two in August. We must be in a pile on someone's desk. :)

RE: your romance story. Isn't it fun to send out a good story? Crossing fingers for you.

Mary Jo said...

I have to wonder how much work is being piled on the editors in the WW fiction department. I had a story out since May and heard nothing about it so I resubmitted it a month ago. Another story, both of them romance, submitted the first of July, was rejected, so I know the editors are still working.

Jody E. Lebel said...

@Mary Jo. I've heard others talk about lost stories from May. I have to wonder if a pile got misplaced somewhere. I'd love to take a tour of their office. I bet it's not what we think it is.

Tamara said...

I think those new pubs Johnene told me about has slowed things down. Everyone seems to be waiting longer periods that usual for their news from WW.

Mary Jo said...

Well, you consider that the WW main office is in New Jersey, Patricia is in North Carolina, I think, and Johnene is in Washington state. They could hardly get farther apart. You can see how mail could go astray. I don't want much...just read my stories, ladies, and buy them. I really am surprised they don't make more use of the computer.

Jody E. Lebel said...

@ Tamara What new pubs? Do you mean the children's mag?

Jody E. Lebel said...

@ Mary Jo. I know, right? Baur Publishing isn't computerized? Please. Step into the 21st century folks.

Jody E. Lebel said...

Tracie Rae must be on vacation...she usually gives us some insight on her story. Anyone heard from her?

Chris said...

Not sure if I've got Elizabeth's email address to forward the scan, Jody. Happy to do so if she wants it though...

Tracie Rae said...

Hi!

I'm glad you liked the clue.

As to who outrank who -- in my head detective Kay and the sergeant live in a very small town, and Kay is the plainclothes detective while sergeant Morgan is a uniformed officer that has to help her because of economic circumstances.

Well, this might not be how things really work, but I think we have to allow for poetic license in such a short story.

Keep writing everyone!

Tracie Rae

Elizabeth said...

Thanks, Chris, you sent me a scan before of a story I missed. Luckily I managed to find the Dec. 29 issue at the dollar store today.

This story absolutely deserves five stars!

Jody E. Lebel said...

@ Tracie Rae. I bet that frosts the sergeant's cookies. :) You seem to have a winning combo with these two characters... WW has bought them before... so keep on turning out those good stories and pay no attention to my pet peeve.

Liv B. said...

Yea, I finally got a clue!
Mostly agree with police protocol comments. However in a small town, with a possibly suspicious death (unexpected at least) and a high profile person (famous author), it's not unusual for a detective to go on first call. S\he wants to see the fresh scene and make sure initial investigation is handled right.
Just my experience in small-midsize communities as a reporter who at times had cops beat.
Great blog!

Jody E. Lebel said...

@ Liv B Thanks for stopping by. I hope I get to slice and dice one of your stories someday. :)

Tamara said...

Jody, one of their new pubs is Closer, and I'm not sure what else, but Johene told me that they had some new ones and stories were being misdirected. I had six submissions out and wasn't hearing anything, and she told me that.

Jody E. Lebel said...

@Tamara. Arrrrggghhhh...NOOOOOooooo. When did she tell you this? Should we be worried about August submissions? May submissions? Is this Closer mag buying fiction?

Tamara said...

You can read about Closer here:
http://magazines.bauermediaadvertising.com/magazines/detail/closer
Looks like they have an online UK version. I finally got my responses for the six stories; one had gotten completely lost and the others were late. Since then I've gotten two more rejections, and they were almost on time. I seem to hear--on this blog and from one of my friends who submits--that responses are late. Johnene told me about the new pubs early last year.

Jody E. Lebel said...

@ Tamara. Bauer also has a new Closer Weekly here in the US that is in competition with In Touch...it's all about the stars and who's doing who. Or is that whom? haha. But I don't see any fiction in it.

Tamara said...

Yes, I meant that exactly and that they appear to have one online that is in UK. I've noticed Closer Weekly on newstands. I wonder what the other ones are -- Johnene said pubs, plural. Be nice if they had more fiction or some sort of freelance articles, but I bet they don't.

Susan said...

Great story, Tracie Rae! (And the romance story, too.)

Jody, I still have a mystery out that I mailed on August 11th. I am hoping it didn't get lost and is on Johnene's desk.