{"id":9962,"date":"2012-11-17T23:50:10","date_gmt":"2012-11-18T04:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/?p=9962"},"modified":"2012-11-18T07:28:08","modified_gmt":"2012-11-18T12:28:08","slug":"a-nose-for-danger-part-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/?p=9962","title":{"rendered":"A Nose for Danger, part 16"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m not the neatest elephant you&#8217;ll ever meet.  Sometimes it can take me up to a week just to wash the dishes.  Not saying I&#8217;m proud of this, just telling it like it is.  But on this occasion, I made sure to have a clean cup and saucer for my guest.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Good morning Mr. Smellephant.&#8221;  Rebecca greeted me with a big smile.  &#8220;I&#8217;m glad you wanted to chat.  It&#8217;s a bit early in the day for you, isn&#8217;t it?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll manage,&#8221; I said brightly, trying to look more awake than I felt.  I had a long day ahead of me.  &#8220;Can I offer you a cup of tea?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That would be lovely, yes.&#8221;  She sat prettily while I boiled some water.<\/p>\n<p>When at last we were sitting down &#8212; tea for her, strong coffee for me (with an added shot of something even stronger, and very uncoffee-like) &#8212; I went over the progress of the case, and the search to find the whereabouts of her mysterious sister.  Omitting, of course, the inconvenient fact that at one point I had known her sister&#8217;s whereabouts rather precisely.<\/p>\n<p>After seeing Rebecca to the door, I carefully wrapped the teacup in a clean white cloth.  I&#8217;d already wrapped up the glass Lulu had used earlier in the week.  It was time to test my theory.  The coffee was already clearing my head, and a good brisk walk to the crime lab finished the job.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Smellephant, it&#8217;s always great to see you.&#8221;  Hu was her usual chipper self.  Surrounded by beakers and lab instruments and various mysterious pieces of glassware, she seemed completely in her element.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re in a good mood today,&#8221; I observed.<\/p>\n<p>She laughed.  &#8220;I&#8217;m often in a good mood when I see you.  You bring me interesting stuff.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I put the two wrapped items on her desk.  &#8220;Think you can pull prints from these?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>She carefully unwrapped the two bundles.  &#8220;Sure, it&#8217;s what I do.  I like this real crime stuff.  Better than filling out reports all day.  When do you need them?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;How soon can you get them?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Sometime later today I think.  Shiny things are easy.  What are we looking for?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I smiled.  &#8220;Don&#8217;t want to influence you.  You&#8217;ll tell me, ok?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Sure thing!  Did the owl send you?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Yeah.  How did you know?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;For some reason he ends up steering a lot of work my way.  Lord knows why.  Maybe it&#8217;s my winning personality.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Yeah Hu,&#8221; I nodded, &#8220;that must be it.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m not the neatest elephant you&#8217;ll ever meet. Sometimes it can take me up to a week just to wash the dishes. Not saying I&#8217;m proud of this, just telling it like it is. But on this occasion, I made sure to have a clean cup and saucer for my guest. &#8220;Good morning Mr. Smellephant.&#8221; &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/?p=9962\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;A Nose for Danger, part 16&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9962"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9962"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9983,"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9962\/revisions\/9983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}