THE PRINTS AND THE POPPER ~ ~ Epic*sode 6 ~ ~ "I SEE THE LIGHT" ~ By Absolutely*Kate and Harry B. Sanderford of Harbinger*33

~ PRESENTING OUR

   MYSTERY*MATINEE ~

 "THE PRINTS

AND THE POPPER"

  

FROM WHERE WE LEFT OFF

 IN LAST WEEK'S CLIFFHANGER

 *AT THE BIJOU*

CATCHING UP ON CLIFFHANGERS?

JUST CLICK EPIC*SODES BELOW ~

Epic'sode 5: "Lucky Shot"...Epic'sode 4: "Hi Jinks"   

Epic'sode 3: "Groping Against Grope"... Epic'sode 2: "Clot Thickens"

 THE PRINTS AND THE POPPER

 

~ ~ EPIC*SODE 6 ~ ~

"I See The Light"

~ By Absolutely*Kate 

and

Harry B. Sanderford

"That was Kate just chatting? Chatelaine AT THE BIJOU?"

 

"If you mean the dame who runs the movie-house next door under the guise of gall and gusto and brought a dilapidated theatre to a recharged life with extra wattage juicing uptown spotlights -- the one who ups the ante of bottom-line businesses by urging ticket sales on talent's tales to stellar showcases of Double*Feature Tuesdays and Thursdays plus Weekend Matinees -- the dame who just dashed? Yep, that's Kate. Wonder what her hurry out of here was?"

 

"You get anything for a plush plug to her posh place with a smooth soliloquy like that to newcomers?"

 

Anthony Venutolo, ever astute profiteering proprietor of the local Lucky Shot Bar & Grille  grinned the grin which globally conveys an in-the-know slice of Yeah, y'know, then added a twist to his own splash on the rocks, "I get a decent percentage and she sends thirsty traffic back my way. That's how this town runs ~ on give & give. So what are you in Hazeltown for? What's your story? Say, you seen that hustler gal Kate was shooting pool with? She was just over there by the remains of the seemingly bottomless Mexican Martini pitcher."

  
Several leaning Lowenbrau cans took a tumbled topple behind the savvy owner of The Lucky Shot. A soft breeze stirred saloon air. Across the room, the soft spill of a gal under a green felt billiards table felt a tug on her sleeve that just wouldn't leave the percussion in her mind to its own rim shots.

 

"You feel that breeze?", muttered the Kozel beer sipping solo patron of a warm afternoon in Hazeltown. "Well mate, make my pleasure bourbon now and allow me to introduce myself. Paul Caracas, InterNoir."

 

"InterNoir?"

 

"Rather like you Yanks' concept of Interpol, but a pre-strike crime investigation branch comprised of those in the know of Noir."

 

Drying martini glasses in counterside contemplation of a good evening crowd, Anthony V was intrigued. "So you talkin' writers? You write about some crime in progress? This some get-good-material flim flam for fictionists?"

 

"No, no, no ~ on the contrary. We're an up and up thought-evoking provoking group called in when a chain of mysterious occurences begin their beguine. We change the observation of the crime scene to plausible twists, turns, plots potentially underway. Ostensibly, that's our way."

 

"Interesting. Who do you work for? Who hires you?"

 

Caracas one-fingered an affirmation to leave the bottle, sipped thoughtfully, judged well, and looked up into Anthony's seen-a-lot-of-life gaze. Solemnly, "Why the highest bidder of course."

 

"Ahhhh".

 

The Phantom of the recent can-can show themed to make an apparition appearance apparent to one of BIJOU's prime patrons, Carrie Clevenger, silenced his own spirited exhale. This spiffy dressed feller, puttin' on his smooth talking to Ant was going to be hot-shot news to Ms Kate over AT THE BIJOU, most likely mid-hip-deep in the pile'up of murder, mayhem, disappearing acts, bloody trails sinking in and the keystone ~ cops all amuck at what was usually a light and laughable hangout for lively townsfolk plus those passing through, tipped off by the affable Lucky Shot barkeep. Best to head her off at the pass on this one once he made an accomplice out of the no longer passed out Carrie. There. Better. She was comin' round after going 9 rounds to see if liquor loosened the lock on what she realized she knew, wondering if others did too. Don't know why the other BIJOU folks sometimes dub her bravado actions scary. Wish more were like her. Open. Wary.

"C'mon, walk with me girl ~ THE BIJOU needs us. NOW! C'mon Carrie ~ here's what you do. Leave a tip for Ant and smile him up so all is solid copacetic. Then, if you can jostle the feller on the barstool as you turn to leave, I've got a ghost of a chance for a reach-and-grab, but you'll have to take and tuck my pass-off under your linen blazery garb, got it?"

Carrie took this in with not much time to do much else, hazed as she was in Hazeltown from the MexiMart pool shoot which hadn't ended up the way she had set it up. "Barkeep," she endeared with a slow-mo wink at an Anthony worth plenty of more lingering lookovers, tendered a few bucks and then tried out her luck at The Lucky. Spun to the left toward the door, let her sandal foot catch her leg to the leg of the stool of the man of the moment, some Euro-looking type from what she'd seen in movie castings. "Sorrrrrrry sir", tumbled breathless as charm on a spree as she caught her balance on his sleeve. Mmmm, nice material, class. 

 

Swell, The Phantom had made his swoop. Carrie doubled over, took the lateral to her linen lining. "G'day Gents!"

Out under the light of day, Phantom telepathed his say, "You get it?"

 

"Got it. Saaaay, how'd you ask me that? Do that again?"

Hustling up their steps up towards the front steps AT THE BIJOU, The Phantom side-mouthed ~ "Well, what IS it? I had to go for the slim package, but that gent's genuinely packing.

 

"You mean -- "

"Yes Carrie." 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Kate saw that the incoming call was from Jeanette and could hear background noise but not her friend. She hit the redial after hanging up and was immediately connected to her friend’s voice mail. She left a message for a call-back but had an eerie feeling she couldn’t quite put her finger on. Kate had learned not to ignore these feelings and that is why she left The Shot . . . well, like a shot. Quizzing Carrie on what she figured for Phantomy feelings would have to wait. She double-timed it back towards THE BIJOU and when she spotted the ambulance and fire truck just pulling away and the police cruisers that remained, she picked up her pace.

Sugar spotted Kate coming quick and she and Zelda rushed to catch her up. Laurita leaned into the fast femme filling-ins, saw that Joey had a leash of a hold on Jinx and followed the ensemble in the rush of no hush through the mahogany double doors AT THE BIJOU.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Eddie was somewhat hesitant to reveal Miss Kate’s secret to Detective Davenport but it was either that or face explaining their way past all the cops up front. He decided he was just going to have to trust him. “This way!” he said and shouldering his pack he led him back inside through the secret wallway. No stranger to doing his own detecting undetected, Leon had to give the boy credit for stealth.

They emerged from the secret passageway to find the theater empty. “Where’d everybody go?” asked Eddie.

“My guess is Constable Phillips and his boys are up front stretching yellow tape. The Prof is probably headed to the hospital and your new projectionist to the morgue. What do you know about him anyway, this uh, what was his name, Sparkler?”  

“Sparky, Sparky Denton.” Eddie replied.

“Right, Sparky, how long has he been AT THE BIJOU?”

“He’s new, well was new anyway I guess. He just started last week, filling in for Chester while he finishes up his community service over in Alice.”

“That’s right, ol’ Chester. I read about that in the Holler.” 

The Hazelton Holler was the local newspaper. Aside from reporting breaking news like that of Chester Hookem’ Hanks being arrested for fishing drunk without a license for the fourteenth time, “It ain’t the three dollars and twenty-five cents,” he told anyone who would listen, “it’s the dang principle of the thing!” The Holler also kept citizens abreast of school lunches, church socials, Garden Girls meetings and maybe most importantly, the movie schedule AT THE BIJOU.

“Hookem’ just can’t resist them fat cats over in Alice,” Leon remarked with his trademark chuckle.

“So where should we start Mr. Davenport?” Eddie asked steering them back to business.

“Well Jun… er, Eddie I mean, I think we better have ourselves a look around the projection booth and I need to know everything you can tell me about this feller Sparky.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jeanette might have sat there and cried were she not fit to be tied and the fact that she already was, only served to make her madder. She wanted to scream but she knew it would do her no good. So she focused her fury on her confines. She no longer felt the pain when she yanked her arms against the ropes. She pumped back and forth, lunging forward then pulling back like a girl on a swing pumping to go higher. She felt the chair rock and she built a rhythm with each tug. The front legs cleared. She now understood the exhilaration of a foolish schoolboy balancing his desk for attention. Upon settling back she leaned forward bringing the back legs up. She was rocking now and when she arced backwards again she twisted with all her might, balancing briefly on one rear leg before toppling over sideways. 

The crash slapped her head to the floor and dazed her a bit. It also loosened the arm of her wooden prison. The ropes had gone slack and she was able to work her hand free. Triumph may have been postponed but it was only sweeter for the delay. Before even freeing her other hand she yanked the gag from her mouth and pushed the blindfold up from her eyes. Even without the blindfold it was too dark to make sense of her surroundings, the only illumination a horizontal slit of light below what she knew must be a door. As she struggled to free herself completely, she focused on this sliver of light. Her passage out. Her escape.

Just as Jeanette untied the last rope from her right ankle, her beacon blinked out, only to be replaced by a new vertical and widening strip of light. This time Jeanette did scream.

* C * L * I * F * F * H * A * N * G * E * R * !

* AT THE BIJOU * 

Please return to next Saturday's Matinee

for the next gut-gripping epic'sode!

" The Prints and The Popper "

THE PRINTS AND THE POPPER ~ Epic*sode 3: "Groping Against Grope" ~ By Absolutely*Kate and Harry B. Sanderford of Harbinger*33

~ PRESENTING OUR

   MYSTERY*MATINEE ~

 "THE PRINTS

AND THE POPPER"

  
FROM WHERE WE LEFT OFF

 IN LAST WEEK'S CLIFFHANGER

 *AT THE BIJOU*

LAST WEEK'S CLIFFHANGER?
for Epic'sode 2: "The Clot Thickens"  {{ *CLICK* HERE }} 

FOR THE VERY FIRST PRINTS & POPPER CLIFFHANGER?

{{ *CLICK* HERE }} 
 

~ ~ EPIC*SODE 3 ~ ~

"Groping Against Grope"

~ By Absolutely*Kate 

and

Harry B. Sanderford

With all eyes batting 20/20 at the balcony, Eddie silently hustled his backside in motion, carefully, carefully . . . when he reached it, sliding ass'wise backwards against the BIJOU wall, his fingers went on the grope for the woodmolding Ms Kate had wallpapered over to conceal a doorway that only the staff really knew existed. She kept trying to get everyone to call it the wallway and he had to admit, it was catchy enough to catch on. Ms Kate was like that with words that took more a turn to meaning what they said. Ms Kate was also rather fond of folks havin' a good laughin' time AT THE BIJOU. Though she loved edge-of-the-seat excitable action, Eddie the Popcorn Popper, intrinsic boy detective, knew it took no Sherlock-brains to decipher she would consider the screamin', dying, bloody messes and disappearing acts goin' way too far on the topple over the top. He had to get to his locker in the staff room for the Super Spy Private Eye fingerprinting kit stashed safely on the top shelf. He could be and should be the one to figure all these disturbing goings-on out, make AT THE BIJOU safe and entertainingly happy the way Ms Kate joyed at it most. He might still be a junior at Mathews High School, but guldarnit, he was going to give it the college try now!

Whewww, through the wallway into the BIJOU lobby behind Ms Sugar's Candy*Land! He made it! With all the ruckus still wreaking the other side of the double doors to the main theatre, this was a clean getaway. Remembering Mr Leon's patronizing PI talk, Eddie smirked, patted his pocket's slight bulge from his purge below Ms Jeanette's special Row #9, and walked a frenzy of a hurry into how he walked his walk.

"Is that a pistol in your pocket or are you just glad to see me, Ed?", mugged the warm stance and teasin' temptin' smile-style of his main squeeze, Mary Lou. "WHATEVER is goin' on with all the police vehicles blockin' the BIJOU? I came 'round back, parkin' next to your Charger, like you tole me I should when I get a chance. Dairy Queen's grand season-opening is such a delicious success that Mr Martin gave us hour shift breaks and said to come back and scoop double duty into the evening hours. So what's the scoop here, and you gonna smooch me or what?" 

Eddie gave her a distracted smack and when her reflexive deflection met thin air rather than Eddie’s customary grab at a grope, Mary Lou knew something big was up. Lord help Eddie if they ever dusted Mary Lou for prints. “You know, I didn’t have to come here on my break.”, she said giving him a push and snapping her gum.

“Aw c’mon, I’m sorry baby.” He tried groping in earnest now but she was a ninja. It was too little, too late. Eddie fished the object he’d found beneath Jeanette’s chair out of his pocket and held it up for her to see. “I am glad to see you Mary Lou, but it wasn’t a pistol in my pocket.”

“You got an IPhone!”, she squealed with glee beyond any rational explanation. Eddie, his hands suddenly quite full of Mary Lou, would hold off breaking the news that it was technically evidence. 

 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

When The Prof failed to respond to the second round of queries Harry decided it was time to shine some light of his own. He headed for the balcony stairs followed by Sergeant Stine. Lieutenant Philips signaled and the uniformed officers snapped to action, joining the procession up the stairs. In his haste Harry banged his knee into the arm of the first chair and cursing an inspired streak of mostly matriarchal familial vulgarities, hopped the rest of the way to the far wall and switched on the lights. The illumination revealed only what Sergeant Stine had suspected in the dark. The candle holder and its extinguished waxy stub stood on the armrest between seats 4 and 5 in Row 2. The Professor, was not standing. 

Sergeant Stine nudged him with his boot and the beloved BIJOU academic roused, muttering, "Let not the perfect be the enemy of the good!"  

Stine called down to the constable, “Better grab one of those medics before they clear out.” Stine knelt down to the prone Prof, "Better tell me slow and low what you mean by that mutter Matt, before too many on the scene misconstrue what should be safe between . . . just me and you."

Sugar took Zelda to the Gent’s Room to help her clean up and calm down. Lieutenant Phillips instructed the patrolmen to scour every inch of the balcony, if there was a jujube he wanted it tagged. Leon was the only one to take a head count and notice Eddie’s absence and in his spectral way found the shadows and created his own.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Meanwhile, as the two young lovers grappled in their gropings unaware, a struggle of a more untangling nature was chiseling away the knot at wit's end. A woman in her right mind with an emery board in her left pocket can always get by, a determined dame on the ropes, undaunted by how circumstances had tied up her day to what felt like a New Hampshire Hitchcock, given the back back slat and pillow placement, reeled in self preservation ambiance. 

Thoughts back and forth, thoughts forth and back, the orangewood emery board pressing in the same progressive rhythms to its unravel of what felt like…theatre cords before an opening gala? Hard to be certain, blindfolded as she was, but whatever her binds, They do seem looser, a no longer tightly strung Jeanette gleefully assessed.  With just a few more strands undone, I might just be able to wriggle my wrist free and get to my I-phone pocket!

* C * L * I * F * F * H * A * N * G * E * R * !

* AT THE BIJOU * 

Please return to next Saturday's Matinee

for the next gut-gripping epic'sode!

" The Prints and The Popper "

THE PRINTS AND THE POPPER ~ By Absolutely*Kate and Harry B. Sanderford of Harbinger*33

THE PRINTS
AND

THE POPPER

BY
~ Absolutely*Kate

AND 
Harry B. Sanderford

with Matt Magda plot turns

By all appearances, Eddie led a quiet life. He attended Mathews High School where he was junior class treasurer. He dated Mary Lou Jennings and had a special spot to park his car at McDonald's when the gang went out for quarter-pounders, fries and chocolate shakes after basketball games. He liked how it angled them into the shadows where Mary Lou's hand lingered in his. He worked after school on Tuesdays, Thursdays and weekend matinees AT THE BIJOU. Like I said, by all appearances, Eddie led a quiet typical teenage life.

Eddie was excited about going to work on this particular Tuesday because just yesterday his Super Spy Private Eye Finger-Printing Kit had finally arrived in the mail. He’d ordered it from the back of his Super Spy Private Eye magazine and he aimed to put it right to use. Chief among his duties AT THE BIJOU were: popping the popcorn, making sure the butter flavoring and nacho cheese dispensers were topped off, and that the napkin dispensers were never empty. Folks' fingers get good and greasy grubbing on a BIJOU Double-Feature Bucket.

On this particular Tuesday, fate was twisting a churn into Eddie's good news day. He'd hurried through the poppin' and had it all fluffy light and flyin' high the way Ms Kate had explained Ms Carrie favoured it. And God and the local Phantom knows Ms Carrie was the biggest popcorn clutching customer AT THE BIJOU ever did see. He liked her. She always tipped him an extra buck, leaned in and shared him somethin' scary about how she knew what she knew and then whispered, "Listen Popper, don't tell our Ms Kate I told you that. She likes a world where bad guys don't kill everyone off." How he laughed at that. Ms Carrie sure knew Ms Kate alright. So with a grin on his face and his duties easily covered all over the place, Eddie slid comfortably into the seat in the back red velvet row he favoured when bringin' Mary Lou around. More smoochability, y'know. 

With an anticipatory sigh, Eddie slid this month's issue of  Super Spy Private Eye from his hip pocket, smoothing it flat. Ms Kate said he could do what he wanted 'round the BIJOU when what he had to take care of was taken care of,  just so long as he kept a watchful eye on things. She trusted him that way, and guldurn if he'd ever let her down. Now though, he wanted to go over the directions one more time on how to shake and spread powder from his Super Private Eye Finger-Printing Kit, tucked safe on the top shelf back in his locker in the staff room. The handy-dandy silver magnifying glass, in his other Wrangler pocket was waiting steady for Eddy to finally use it, and boy oh boy was he itchin' to do just that. Impress Mary Lou too with his deducing ways to figure a situation out.

While he was hunched over page 33, he could tell without much deducing powers at all that Ms Jeanette was waltzin' in to the theatre. Eddie tipped his touseled mop of hair along with the appreciative twinkle young man eyes shall ever hold for a real lady's graceful glide. Hers was always to the 9th row where she enjoyed all the action of reviewing every show, telling whomever would listen that life was like innings and you had to let the full game play out to really know the score. Eddie figured Ms Jeanette always knew the score. And like most others, he was fond of her caring ways.

"How are you keeping your grades up Eddie? Mary Lou treating you nice and sweet?" 

He gave her usual quick wink a smug smile and a thumbs-up, remembering that thing his Mom said when sprayin' on perfume before a big dinner date with Dad. Even bein' a mom, she still knew how to let her eyelashes do their business and would say real soft when Dad came up behind her, "My Windsong will stay on your mind." Wonder if that's what Ms Jeanette had squirted all over herself. He could always tell when she was shifting seats, turning in her greets to other regulars AT THE BIJOU. It was a real pretty smell that went swell with how she laughed. All the other BIJOU folk liked that too.

THE SCREAM CUT THROUGH ALL HIS CAREFUL CONCENTRATION ~ more high-pitched than any movie sound could move around the surround-sound system that Mr Harry had set up to make folks' listening pleasure all the more jumpier. Mr Harry was like that too ~ always tryin' somethin' new out. Boy oh boy, man oh man, Eddie sure wished Mr Har was jawin' jokes in the staff room today, 'cause he woulda liked another sturdy feller handy to investigate the blood curdle of that freakin' sound. Yikes! Ms Jeanette was down front. He'd better jump into action and check things out!

The scream came from behind him so Eddie told Ms Jeanette to sit tight and sprinted  up the aisle for the lobby.  Bursting through the double doors he found Sugar scooping Milk Duds back into the box from the counter where they’d spilled.  “Are you alright Ms Sugar?”,  Eddie asked hoping to appear calm, something he never found easy to do around Ms Sugar. 

“Other than scattering a brand new box of my favorite candy all over I’m fine. What the heck was that?  Just about scared the pants right off me!”  The image this conjured was not helping Eddie with his outward calm.

"Well if it wasn't you, and it wasn't Jeanette..." the boy detective thought out loud.

“Are you alright is maybe a better question? Why you look like you’ve seen a ghost,”  Sugar was teasing but it hit them both at the same time. 

“The phantom of THE BIJOU!”  They aha-ed in unison.

Eddie bolted for the projection booth stairs. Sugar vaulted the candy counter and followed close behind. Eddie covered the red carpet two stairs at a time but Sugar was no slouch; he could feel her pretty close on his Nikes. Their gasp was collective. The greasy grisly scene on the floor  before them floored them. A body sprawled face down. A tub of buttery BIJOU popcorn adding spill to sprawl, already on the congeal. Eddie's hand jutting towards the contorted body of what looked like or was the new projectionist was stopped in mid-jut to Sparky Denton's blue denim sleeve by Sugar's  high pitch squeal.

"Don't you DARE touch Sparky, Eddie! Who knows what's happened here?! Call 911, c'mon hurry!"

Eddie whipped out his Droid as sexy Sugar's more motherly side kicked into gear, body-blocking his view, swift-glancing for a discernible clue, steering the boy clear of what appeared to be death by popcorn. The low hum of the projector accompanied the still rolling film, a 1945 rare noir cut of Detour, which Jeanette had requested before the regular crowds rolled in for Tuesday's packed-house Double*Feature. Long'ago heart-throb actor Tom Neal playing nightclub pianist Al Roberts let loose his cynical worldview snipe: "That's life. Whichever way you turn, fate sticks out a foot to trip you."

"Yep, Al, someone sure took a face-smack here", Sugar mumble-quipped back while her mind sizzled in fast-forward mode -- determining the most logical way to proceed, keep Eddie calm and both of them safe.

Eddie's thoughts, now that the dispatcher had assured him help was speeding on its way, were turning over the most logical way to proceed, to keep Ms Sugar calm and both of them safe. He couldn't suppress the grin though when Sugar couldn't suppress her habit to mimic movie stars. In perfect Ann Savage pitch, with hand to hip, she became Vera the hitchhiker: "Life's like a ball game. You gotta take a swing at whatever comes along before you wake up and find it's the ninth inning."

"THE 9th INNING! THE 9th ROW! JEANETTE!!", their thinking and their hepped-up voices aha'd unison once again, before Eddie's magnifier had a chance of a glance to hone in on the suspicious spittle around the sparkless Sparky to confirm his guess that suspicious could be malicious . . . The deducing duo were off on a tear down the stairs once again. Sirens were heard and sounding closer, but their heads and hearts were headed in another direction away from the main doors, back to the theatre. 

Police, fire and paramedics poured through the front doors as Sugar and Eddie hit the bottom stair. Eddie pointed back up to the projection room shouting, “It’s Sparky, he’s up there!”, without breaking his stride. Sugar hit the double doors first and Eddie was through before they could swing shut behind her. In the ninth row Eddie picked up Ms Jeanette’s Mead Square-Deal journal from the seat with her favorite blue Montblanc Starwalker still clipped to the cover. A single drop of indigo fell from the pen and landing squarely on the armrest, mingled with the drops of crimson already there. Ms Jeanette was nowhere to be found.

* C * L * I * F * F * H * A * N * G * E * R * !

* AT THE BIJOU * 

Please return to next Saturday's Matinee

for the next gut-gripping epic'sode!

" The Prints and The Popper "