“Good evening, ma’am. We’re looking into a possible homicide. I’m Walker. This is my partner, Smith. May we come in?”

“Sure. But you’ll have to excuse the mess. I’ve been… Wait a minute. You’re not detectives.”

“No. But now that we’re in here, our ‘possible homicide’ has found its victim.”

Richard Black is an attorney and writer in Washington, D.C.