Join me every day at Noon EST for the continuing adventures of the bungling detective, N. Owl, in her quest to bring the mastermind, ~M, to justice!  If you’ve  missed any episodes, you can find them HERE!

Walt stood there for a moment, strategically studying his choices. He calculated distance from the set of doors to where he had entered the house. There had to be a connection, he was sure of it.

~M seemed to be getting a bit frustrated, tapping her foot, arms crossed, and sighing loudly. All distractions, Walt said to himself, as he attempted to shut out the noises. He finally made a decision, and turning to ~M announced that the third door from the left, was the door leading out. He heard what he thought was a gasp coming from ~M’s lips. He knew he got it right.

“How did you guess that so quickly?” she looked pale, as she tried to figure out how he did it.

“Simple” said Walt. “It’s the door that reflects the light coming through the window.”  Most houses are built symmetrically, so it only makes sense it would be across from there.”

Now ~M looked agitated. Something had gone wrong and she was furious. He never should have guessed the door. She would have to come up with yet another plan to detain this man, who showed up in a strange way, at a parade she had never seen him at before. After all, she knew all the band members, but not Walt. Realizing she lost this battle, she shrugged and motioned for him to lead the way. This time, Walt let her go first. He wasn’t falling for that again. Once outside, he showed her to the car and off they went.

I didn’t know where they were going.  I think it is probably better that way, for now.

You could hear the loud music coming from inside this small bar that was no bigger than a hole in a wall. In fact, that was the name of the bar, “A Hole in the Wall”. How original. But Walt didn’t lead ~M into the bar. Instead they made their way to the back of the building. There, ~M was confronted with candles, arranged in the shape of a heart, and piled on, you guessed it, dirt!. She was confused, Walt could see that by the look in her eyes. He was, after all, The Tennessee Poet, and there had to be a spark of romance in him somewhere.

Speaking of sparks, did I mention Walt was a renowned arsonist, known mostly from his fire antics? In fact, it was how we found him and then recruited him. He had set several small fires at different places around the country. He knew his stuff, but we had to be careful with him. He was a match waiting to be lit. This, was his dark side, the one we needed to keep in the light. And not the light of a fire.

He had something up his sleeve for ~M. I only hoped he didn’t get burned.

Stay tuned for more from this crime solving wordsmith…

July Writing Prompt – Antics of an Arsonist – Day 16/31

©2018 Dorinda Duclos All Rights Reserved
Photo via Pixabay CC0