another beginning of something

Mar 15, 2008 - 22:02 PM PST

the broken window was only the beginning...

"I was sitting downstairs, watching TV, when I head a smash upstairs. I walked up and tip-toed cautiously into the study. And there it was, lying on the ground. This bundle of letters..."
Arnold Johnson was standing in the middle of the study. The window that the letters had been thrown through was behind him, a hole about the size of three of my fists in the middle of it. The floor near the window was sprinkled with glass. Arnold was holding the bundle in his hands, close to his chest. He had called me a little more than 15 minutes ago. My office is not very far from Arnold's house, it takes maybe 5 minutes to walk over. But when Arnold called me, a broken window and some letters didn't sound like an emergency to me. I walked leisurely over to meet him.
"I didn’t want to open them until you got here," he continued, "I thought a detective like yourself might be able to figure out whether they're important or not. So I waited."
"Well, let's open them now!" I love mysteries, and seeing the stack of old, browning letters tied up in packing string got me excited.
Arnold put the letters down on to the table. He looked nervous, almost as if he thought there was going to be a ghost in one of them. He finally took his hands off of the bundle and stepped back, motioning at it to me. I tried the knot, but it was as hard to untie as an elephant is to carry on your back. So, I took out my pocket knife and quickly cut it loose. As the string fell off the package, I instantly noticed that they were not old. The string had left no lighter spot where they had held the letters together. Where had these letters come from? Who had thrown them through poor Arnold's window? I decided to start my investigation by opening the top letter. I picked it up off of the pile of about 20 old, crumpled letters. The letters had been opened already, so there was no need to break a seal. I gently took the letter out of its envelope and began to read.
"Arnold, do you know anyone by the name of...



tell me if this interests anyone and i'll continue