I love this one, I think I was channelling Sue Grafton. Thanks, Sue.


THE CASE

I am at a complete loss to explain this whole thing. The case should have been cut and dried. Everything was done strictly by the book: crime scene handled perfectly, yellow tape up right where it should be. All the grisly pictures taken by the lab techs printed up in the usual 8 x 10 black and white glossies, appropriately labeled and stuck in the file. The fingerprints we ran, and the matches found are in there too.

The murder weapon’s in a plastic bag down in the station basement with the rest of the evidence. That weird purplely lipstick found in Mr. K’s pocket matches the lip prints on the champagne glass in the kitchen.

My partner Eddie and me have gone over it all a hundred times and have agreed that it was a definite crime of passion. Mrs. Karowlski came home early from work and found her husband in the kitchen with that hooker, Irlene. She probably didn’t expect her husband to be there since she had to use her key on the front door. He always left it unlocked for her when he got home first.

Eddie and me decided she whacked out when she stepped into the kitchen and saw them there, all cozy in the little love nest that should have been the center of her happy marriage. We think she grabbed that big old, #12 cast iron frying pan off the stove and started smashing whatever was in front of her, including both their noggins, the kitchen windows, and the refrigerator.

Eddie maintains that he doesn’t understand why she’d smash everything out of the refrigerator door. I’ve tried to explain my theory to him that rage is just the flip side of lust. Once it’s all fired up it just keeps on going till the fury is burnt out.

Well, you know then she went upstairs, pulled that little 38 out of her night stand and shot her self in the head.

Now we got nobody to prosecute and nobody to confirm what I believe was the truth. A lot of it’s circumstantial. See, based on the fact that under that tight skirt Irlene the hooker was really a guy and that the lipstick in Mr. K’s pocket was also found on what was left of his lips, and that his closet in the garage was full of real big frilly dresses – I think Irlene was a drag queen, Mr. K was a cross dresser and the lipstick was his. Irlene was just there to give Mr. K some girlish tips and maybe be his friend. That’s what I think.

Too bad Mrs. K didn’t take the time to check out her husband’s closet or catch the show at the Bijou. Like I said the case should have been cut and dried.