Title: Package deal
By
Author: John M. Floyd
Tag line: Sheriff
Jones was right in thinking that Angela Potts could help him deliver a thief to
justice!
Police characters: Sheriff Jones and
amateur sleuth Angela Potts
The gist: A neighbor saw a delivery man leave a package
at her neighbor’s door. She then saw a
man dressed in dark clothes steal the package and walk into another neighbor’s
house, said property being a rooming house with four tenants. The neighbor was old, had bad vision, and it
was past sundown when she saw this.
Sheriff
Jones picked up Mrs. Potts and put her in the front seat of his squad car and
they drove to the rooming house. The
landlord gathered all his tenants, except for one who was not home at the
moment. All the tenants were men. Mrs. Potts told him it was not a good idea to
interview them as a group, but he said it would be fine. Sheriff Potts asked if
any of the men had seen anyone unusual around the neighborhood and explained
the missing package problem. They all
denied having anything to do with it.
Just then the 4th man returned home. Man #1 said he’s never stolen anything in his
life. Man #2 said even if he were
inclined to steal he wouldn’t do it that way.
Man #3 said he’s never been in trouble.
Man #4 said he wouldn’t steal a package right off someone’s porch.
Sheriff Jones
told Mrs. Potts she was right, he was going to have to interview them one at a
time. Mrs. Potts told him to not bother,
she knew who did it.
Crime scene: Neighborhood.
Clues: Only the thief knew the details.
Suspects: The 4 men in the rooming house and the
landlord.
Red herrings: None.
Solution: Man
#4 talked about not stealing a package off the front porch but he wasn’t there when
that detail was revealed.
My two cents: ((Yawn.))
Police
work: I don’t know what police academy
Jones graduated from, but he sure doesn’t remember any of his training. Even Mrs. Potts, a school teacher, knows enough
not to interview suspects in front of each other. I don’t even want to talk
about the fact that a civilian is in the front seat of a cruiser.
Gawd help
them all if he ever has to do a murder investigation. In fact, if you want to kill someone, do it
in his town. I guarantee he won’t figure
it out. Hey… how about we knock off
Mrs. Potts? Jones will just have to
retire I guess.
Motive: None given.
Clue: Yes, there was a clue. Same old stuff we’ve heard a thousand times
but there was a clue in the body of the story.
Writing: Nothing to write home about. You have to wonder why the landlord wasn’t a
suspect?
Character
work: Nothing remarkable. Nothing makes you say ahhhh! What fun!
Or … very clever! Now look what
you did. You made me use three
exclamation points. Tsk.
