In The Daily News, the Headline Read...

Posted on Wed 13th Dec, 2017 @ 12:15pm by

440 words; about a 2 minute read

Mission: A Phaser as Deadly as a Candlestick
Location: Pale Moon Books
Timeline: MD 3, 1345

Kenichi MacBeth was standing behind the counter of his shop, Pale Moon Books, when Sam Clement came through the door. "Afternoon, Ken," Clement said, then nodded to the man on the other side of the counter. "Ben."

"Sam," the two men said, returning the greeting, though Ben Frankel's may have been edged with something less than complete welcome.

"How's Aiko?" Sam asked.

Kenichi shook his head. "She's upstairs with the Doctor now."

"Quite a shock," Sam said, reaching into his jacket pocket and pulling out a cigar tube.

"Not in here, please, Sam," Kenichi said, eyeing the stogie. "Books will hold that smell forever."

"Mmm," agreed Sam, putting the tube back in his pocket.

"I was surprised not to see you around the body this morning," Ben said, eyeing Sam.

Sam shrugged. "I was up late last night. It was Halloween, you know." His hand moved toward his pocket again, but he stayed it. "I heard the Addams shindig went well, though."

Kenichi and Ben glanced at each other. "Story going around is that they had some kind of vision of the murder," Ben said, sounding deeply skeptical. "Bunch of kvatch, you ask me. Bredye."

Sam nodded. "Can I quote you on that?" he asked, amused at the man's use of Yiddish.

Ben waved a hand dismissively. "Find someone who was there."

"That's proving a little problematic," Sam admitted. "I can't seem to find anyone who will admit to having been there, or even personally knowing anyone who was. So far it's just a lot of 'you know what I heard?' From their accounts, the gory corpse rose right up out of the table, dripping with ectoplasmic goo, and shouted 'what knockers!'"

Kenichi tilted his head. "Yeah; that does rather sound like what I've heard."

Ben scoffed. "What kind of newsman are you?"

Sam chuckled, his hand starting to drift toward the pocket of his jacket again. "The kind who uses a reproduction 1814 Koenig press to run off five hundred copies of a single-sheet newspaper every day for the amusement of the tourists," he answered. "You want news, find Caroline Post. You want to look at a ferry schedule that hasn't changed since I've lived in the Village, grab a copy of the Daily News."

Ben scoffed and looked away. Sam waited a moment, then looked at Kenichi. "I'll let folks know Aiko's shook up, but she'll be okay?"

Kenichi nodded. "Thanks, Sam."

Sam waved and walked back out the door, his hand dipping into the pocket that held the cigar tube. "Would make a decent headline," he mused as he stepped out. "'What Knockers!'"

 

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