Wednesday, July 19, 2006

there's been a murder

Jacques Sauna-Lurker lay dead in the main hallway of the National Art Gallery of Fine Paintings. A three-foot-long codfish had been inserted forcefully into his gullet, blocking both oesophageal and tracheal tubes. This was no ordinary murder.In his own blood the dying man had written a single sentence in splashy, red letters:

THE CHATHOLIC CURCH HAD ME MURDERED!

For long seconds Donglan stared at the mysterious message. 'That, Dr Donglan,' said Tash, 'is why we have called you in at this time. That mysterious message.'
'It may,' said Robert, 'be an anagram.'
'We wondered about that,' said Tash. 'Can you decipher it?'
Donglan smiled. 'Of course. It is my speciality as an anagrammatologist. Hang on a minute,' he said, 'whilst I work this out.' He pulled out a small notepad from his jacket pocket and extricated a felt-tip pen from the row of wire hoops that held the pages together. In minutes he had worked through the possibilities and turned to the inspector. 'I think the curator was trying to tell us this.' He held his notebook up. On the leading page he had writeen:

H! THE 'CCC' COME HARD, HURDLE A COLT

The policeman looked at the sentence for a very long time. 'I see,' he said. 'What do you think it means?'
'We need to find out who "CCC" are - or is,' said Donglan. 'And establish whether the reference is to an actual colt, or a metaphorical colt. It seems clear to me that a sinister organisation of former communists murdered Sauna-Lurker, their motives being somehow tied up with a colt, possibly something called Project Colt, or something else along those lines. Inspector, I'd suggest you concentrate your investigation in that area.'
-Dan Brine, the Va Dinci Cod

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