Mr X Michael James

(Pseudonyms have been used to protect the innocent)

Mr X, P.I., was carried to his grave on a wave of disappointment. It was not disappointment that killed him; in fact he expired from perfectly natural causes in due course, not one of them painful. No, he was not disappointed; the disappointment arose in those he loved, his parents and his two sisters. They had been at a loss to understand the refusal of Mr X to charge what they felt was due, a large fee for discovering the perpetrator of one of the shortest-lived crimes of the century, the abduction of the daughter of the city's wealthiest oligarch and benefactor, Mr Y or Yee as some called him.

The entire city considered as unquestionable the opinion that Mr Y had been targeted by the abductor because of his wealth. That was not a premise Mr X was willing to accept. He imagined someone fortuitously in a position to take advantage of circumstances way beyond his control but not beyond his ability to use to his advantage. He imagined Miss Y the teenage daughter of Mr Y, running away with a young, attractive, penurious, and already married Mr A. And indeed, the owner of a bright yellow VW microbus, already well-known to the local police and press, was observed speeding southward from the last known location of Miss Y and her attendant who had left the girl in her car for a moment to buy a coke. Their elopement had been filmed by a reporter for a society rag who went by the name of "Z" to avoid retribution for his peering into the private lives of the rich and famous.

Mr Z often worked closely with Mr X on cases, and so in this case too he slipped a copy of his video to his P.l. friend on his way to turning it in to his publisher. Mr X's friends on the police force, determined the owner of the yellow VW microbus right away and broadcast an APB on the man and his vehicle. They caught him the following day approaching a southern frontier and put up a road block. Mr A pretended to have no idea why he was being stopped but when the cops searched the micro bus they found Miss Y hiding under a pile of old dog blankets unharmed.

After the dust had settled, X,Y and Z got together for a catered hoot at the Y mansion, to which were also invited A through T. X was toasted and offered a position as security guard in one of Y's downtown businesses. He said he would consider the offer but died before accepting it.