Wicked, Wretched, Wizened and Wordzzle.... 28 weeks, that's half a year, right?

Stop by our high priestess of wordzzle, the amazing and charming Raven at the Raven's Nest if you're new to our weekly foray into literary challenge. She has all the rules (guidelines really) and you can check out everyone else's offerings on her Mr. Linky.

Should you dare to tarry hear at the Bloggerhood, you'll find yourself involved in a continuing tale of intrigue, love, lust, greed and worst of all MURDER! I'm warning you now; be careful, it's not for everyone.

The words for this week's ten word challenge were: pogo stick, ant farm, psychic, tin box, wall safe, Waterloo, surge protector, pneumonia, ravages of time, turtle

And for the Mini Challenge: Swollen ankles, opera singer, toothy grin, oil paints, potter’s wheel

Should you require background to keep up with the players, then go here for past episodes.

This weeks offering: Life is full of surprises

Sgt Johnson was busy reviewing the last murder scene photos from the Miami site. Included in the pile of toys found at the front of the property were some unusual ones. He looked again at the close-ups and noticed that the ant farm looked to be occupied. Juxtaposed with the pogo stick the two children's amusements seemed mundane but somehow out of place. The ancient tin box in the next photo contained what looked to be tubes of oil paints and a tiny doll with an extraordinarily toothy grin. Why would a vicious murderer go to such links to set up a murder scene? It didn't fit in with any of the possible profiles. He began to wonder if that was the point. Was all this just a clever diversion?

The Sgt's cell phone buzzed and he answered. It was Gail from forensics in DC. She was 8 months pregnant and first regaled him with how hard it was to work with swollen ankles and how with her huge belly it was now impossible to get close enough to her potter's wheel to continue her hobby. "I'm sorry you're feeling miserable Gail" Johnson commented. "What have you got for me?"

"We went through everything from the Miami crime scene again as you asked" she replied. "Nothing new turned up from the contents of the wall safe." "But we did get a hit on the toy turtle from the front yard" she added. Johnson leafed through the photos till he came to one showing the turtle. In was in tough shape and looked as if the ravages of time and the hands of the many kids who must have played with it had taken their tolls. "That turtle belongs to the Dept of Justice" she continued. "It was taken as evidence from one of the houses at Wounded Knee." "What year was that Gail?” the Sgt asked. “1973" "So that turtle has been sitting around somewhere for 35 years and just turns up at our crime scene, huh?" "Looks that way to me" she replied. "How do you suppose that happened?" she added. "I'm a profiler not a physic" the Sgt jokingly answered. "Who have you told about this besides me?" he asked. "You're the first" Gail said. "For now, let's leave it that way." "I've got to do some checking."

Johnson hung up with Gail and bent down to turn on the surge protector for his computer. His laptop was ill according to Jason in tech support. "It's like your computer has so many viruses it's in bed with pneumonia" the geekster had told him. So he was using this ancient Dell desktop from his home office. Since so many other valuable things were on the hard drive he always brought his surge protector with it. Included in the files were the locations of evidence storage in the Justice system. "Someone on the inside is about to meet their Waterloo" he mused.

He told himself the fat lady hadn't sung yet on this case. "Or as the politically correct would say: The spatially challenged female opera singer has not concluded her performance" he joked aloud.

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"Not bad" he thought. "I ought to tell that one to McCool."