Excellent Crime in a suburb. FOW Play by Marvin Calloway

Amanda Doherty, clutching two large canvas bags with one hand and holding the handle to the bank's entrance door with the other, figured the best way to hang on to her purse was to clench the strap between her teeth. She performed these acrobatics to allow Police Lieutenant, George S. Brennan, to walk, unencumbered, into the bank. Once inside, the height-challenged detective paused, gazed about the aging interior and spoke into his hand-held recorder: “Arrived, Wilton Savings and Loan at . . .” When he tried to add the time of day, the face of his watch was inconveniently hidden by his coat sleeve. To remedy the problem, he raised his left arm into the air, to no avail. He tried moving the sleeve back with his chin, also with negative results. Finally, he nudged the stubborn garment out of the way with his recorder and resumed dictating. “One-twelve p. m., Friday, August fourth, 2015, with my associate, Police Grade III, Amanda Doherty, at my . . . where in the . . . Amanda! Disregard those last few words,” he shouted into the recorder, clicked it off and looked around for his missing assistant. Brennan avoided using the word, 'partner' to describe his relationship with Ms. Doherty. He never thought of her as an assistant, either. To him she was a necessary evil--the person selected by the head of the homicide department, to make sure this murder/robbery case wouldn't consume too much of the understaffed department's time. The 'S' in the Lieutenant's name was for Samson, a name begging to be made fun of. But the majority of his underlings labeled him, 'Stickler,' because of his preoccupation with over-examining every minor detail he encountered in what usually turned out to be an open and shut case. Being assigned to assist 'Old S.B.,' Amanda's pet name for the soon-to-be-retired detective, was just what she had been hoping for. The head of the department was quick to explain exactly why she had been chosen. “. . . to keep 'Stickler' from getting caught up in endless minutia,” which was his usual Modus Operandi. Author Notes More to come.

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