Whodunit: Bye-Bye Bully
The following is a Whodunit by Hy Conrad. These mysteries are from The Little Giant® Book of Whodunits by Hy Conrad and Matt LaFleur. Can you solve the mystery before you read the solution?
(Image credit: Yumi Kimura)
A lot of towns have their neighborhood bullies. But few neighborhood bullies were as hated as Pete Weider of Cozy Heights and, luckily for the crime statistics, even fewer wound up like Peter.
A passing patrol car heard the screams and responded immediately. They found the burly corpse in his own backyard, with multiple stab wounds. There were signs of a struggle, and blood was everywhere around the fenced-in yard. The officers immediately went to question the neighbors and were surprised to discover that not a single one had heard or seen a thing.
"They're lying, of course," the homicide captain said when he heard the news. At least three men on the block had been outside when the murder occurred and the captain insisted on talking to them as soon as possible.
Blake Fromm had just finished painting his porch when the captain approached. A young, genial man, Blake wiped his hands on his nearly spotless jeans before shaking hands. The captain immediately noticed the cassette player on Blake's belt and the earphones draped around his neck. 'I've been outside all morning. The porch ceiling took forever. Pete lives two doors away. I really didn't hear or see anything," he added apologetically.
Nelson Olson had been in his garden, right next door to the victim's yard. "I was in and out of the house. Weeding. Planting bulbs for the fall." There was dirt on his hands and under his nails. "Inside, I had the air conditioner cranked up. It all must have happened when I was indoors. Sorry."
Kenny Kitchner's story was even less plausible. "I was on a ladder, washing my windows," the paunchy, middle-aged man admitted. His T-shirt was still wet. The captain could see that Kenny's yard overlooked the victim's. "I never looked over into Pete Weider's yard, nor did I hear anything. I had other things on my mind."
"Two of those guys are just lying," the captain muttered. "Protecting the killer. And I think I know who that is."
Whodunit? And what clue gave him away?
Show Answer
The whodunit above was provided by American mystery fiction author Hy Conrad.
In addition to his work in mystery and crime puzzles, Hy was also one of the original writers for the groundbreaking TV series Monk.
Currently, Hy is working on mystery novel series "Abel Adventures" as well as the Monk series of novels, starting with Mr. Monk Helps Himself (published by Penguin, order from Amazon here)
Check out Hy's official website and Facebook page - and stay tuned for more whodunits puzzlers on Neatorama from the master of whodunit mysteries himself!
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Comments (1)
The passing popularity of Friendster and MySpace as social networking sites may have presented a pattern to us, but Facebook is way more of a behemoth than they ever were. It's like saying that Google is a fad of a search engine because AltaVista and Ask Jeeves are now passé. If Facebook DOES lose its popularity, it won't be to Tumblr. Tumblr isn't really in the same website category as Facebook; it's a blogging service, so it focuses more on sharing content than connecting with others.
you can't say no to facebook because there are no other options and everybody is already on it
The piece isn't about the overall popularity of Facebook, it is about how younger people are starting to turn elsewhere for their networking needs.
"With more than 900 million users, Facebook remains the most popular online hangout. But some young people are turning their attention elsewhere.
Fickle young consumers can make and break social networks, as evidenced by pioneers such as Myspace and Friendster whose appeal faded as tastes changed.
In fact, 8 of 10 teens who are online use social networking sites — and more than 93% of those users have a Facebook account, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Millions more kids under the legal Facebook age of 13 fib about their age to use the service.
Still, older people are the ones driving much of Facebook's growth. Users age 50 to 64 made up nearly a quarter of Facebook's audience in March, according to research firm Nielsen."
it's not a lambo but it will get you to the post office.
tumblr, twitter, and other sites are more ego driven in their social networking capacity.
(also buzzbo has made a good point with his non-anecdotal evidence)
And so I became a FaceBook user.
Years later 'Join this game' and 'Hey, I took my dog for a walk!' or some political rant seem abound on my page. I'm down to checking it once a quarter for no apparent reason.
Off to shoo kids off my lawn and yell at a cloud!
http://www.google.com/trends/?q=facebook,+twitter,+tumblr&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0