It was a dark and stormy night;
She walked in. She was a sight.
In an instant a story unfolds.
Familiar, curious, sepia-toned, old and cold.
The nature of the crime – a person to be found…
The dank city office downtown.
Burning time as a low lamp shines on a bottle of wine.
In retrospect she shared the best of times.
A surveillance gumshoe investigating tracks;
A twist and a turn of improbable facts;
Neatly tied up in a package just right;
As the tiny room fills with dawn’s early light.
Beginning, rising action, conflict, resolution;
The due diligence leads to a solution.
No DNA, no technology, no database clues.
The newspaper arrives with the news.
A script on 20-pound bond at a manual typewriter;
Proof positive that the pen is mightier;
Rolling film on a Hollywood lot;
It almost writes itself…or maybe not.
