The Wagging Tail Case: A Dirk Malone Story

Written for Violet’s challenge where she has
asked us to include the following quote
into our writing: “A dog has lots of friends
because it wags its tail and not its tongue.”
Here’s my response to the challenge.

The rain hammered against my office window like bullets on a tin roof. I was nursing my third whiskey when she walked in …. red dress, redder lips, and trouble written all over her face.

“Mr. Malone,” she breathed, “my husband’s been murdered.”

I’d heard that line before. Usually meant the dame did it herself or knew who did. But her hands were steady as a surgeon’s. She wasn’t the killer.

“Who’d want him dead?” I asked, lighting a Lucky Strike.

“Everyone. He ran his mouth about everyone’s secrets. Business partners, city council, even the mayor.” She leaned forward like she had something important to tell me. “My father used to say, ‘A dog has lots of friends because it wags its tail and not its tongue.’ Edwyn never learned that lesson.”

I took the case. Fifty bucks a day plus expenses.

Five days later, I was standing over Edwyn Wheeler’s business partner in a meat packing plant across the river. He was singing like a canary with a gun to its head. Wheeler had been blackmailing half the city and his partner had finally had enough.

Nothing left for me to do so I called it in to Lieutenant Hayes. The widow collected the insurance money and took off for sunny Miami.

Me? I went back to my office, poured another whiskey, and waited for the next dame with the next dead husband to walk through my door.

In this city, I never waited long.

This is “Wag the Dog” by Mark Knopfler