Patricia Sargeant

Where’s the Crime?

Several years ago at a former job, I was promoted to a supervisory position. The transition was rough. Management was making stupid decisions. Direct reports were (understandably) rebelling. I was in the middle. Fun times. One morning, I was leaving for work. I turned the key in my ignition—and nothing happened. My first thought was, “OMG! Someone planted a bomb in my car!”

Yes, that was my first thought.

Obviously, I was mistaken. I turned the key again and the car started just fine. All good. (Seque: I’ve since reduced the number of dark crime dramas I watch. Just a little; not a lot.)

That experience helped me to realize I have a penchant for interpreting “crime scenes” in what appear to be perfectly innocent, ordinary settings.

Earlier in the week, I’d stopped my car at a red light. Over on the sidewalk, I saw a boot. It was a single, worn, black ankle boot. I immediately wondered where was the body?

During one of our visits to our local library, my husband and I were walking out of the parking garage. It’s an ordinary, three-story, cement structure; nothing fancy. We were a few yards from the exit when I spotted a blue denim jacket hanging off a silver metal pole just outside the garage. There must have been a simple explanation for how that jacket got there. Someone probably took it off to do … something … and they forgot about it. They may even have been on their way back to the library, having realized they left it behind.

But as we got closer to the jacket, my steps slowed. I imagined a struggle occurring at that very moment on one of the garage’s higher levels. Two people engaged in a life-and-death fight like a scene out of a Mission: Impossible movie. In my mind, during the conflict, one combatant’s jacket had been stripped off and fell to the sidewalk below. The jacket’s owner could be about to follow that very same fate.

Cue the music!

I put my hand on my husband’s arm to stop him. “Um, I wonder how that jacket got there?” I was trying to sound unbothered. I think I pulled it off. Not sure.

Michael shrugged and continued walking. “Someone just forgot it.”

“Yeah, that’s probably what happened.” I walked faster to keep up with him. But don’t think for one moment I didn’t look up to see if someone was falling off the top level of the garage. Of course, nothing like that happened.

My husband’s used to my perhaps dramatic hypotheses. On a few occasions, he’s even brainstormed with me, like the time we saw two T-shirts beside a creek in a nearby park. He thought a couple was “getting busy” in the bushes. I wanted to file missing persons reports.

I sense you looking at me out of the corners of your eyes. People used to ask all the time where I got my ideas for my crime fiction novels. These examples may provide some insight. Or maybe not.

Readers: Have you come across a seemingly ordinary situation that made you wonder whether there was an extraordinary explanation or backstory?

32 thoughts on “Where’s the Crime?”

  3. The strangest thing I’ve ever seen is a pair of sneakers, knotted together by the laces, and draped over an electrical wire at least fifteen feet above a street. The potential stories there are intriguing.

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  6. Of course! All the time. I’m a mystery writer, too. And I would never look sideways at you. I’d help develop the scenario. At a recent family gathering, a couple of people in the room were asked questions to do with their expertise. My doctor son was asked a medical question. My electrical engineer daughter was asked a computer question. Then, with perfect timing, I got called from the next room to answer their burning question–Mom, how many deaths does it take to be a serial killer. I was so proud. sigh….

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      1. I think you need three murders to be a serial killer, but they have to be three separate murders, committed at different times. If you kill a bunch of people all at once, that’s a mass murder, which is different. But you know this, right? Right?

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  7. Oh my goodness, Patricia, I do that all that time! I must come up with a crime/mystery/murder scenario in my head most every day in my head while simply walking around the neighborhood. Is that not normal? 🙂

    As for those shoes, I see them frequently. I used to believe the stories that it signifies a drug deal or something nefarious that occurred in that spot (and maybe it did originate as that), but now I think it’s simply people with old shoes they don’t need who want to show their prowess at being able to get them to stick up there on the wires.

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  8. That’s a hazard of being a mystery reader as well. I have to remember to keep some of those thoughts to myself. But when I’m around other mystery people, it’s such fun to let those thoughts out.

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  9. I relate to this so much! There’s been flooding in Austin and we live on a creek. I was watching the waters rush by and I’m a little embarrassed to say that I checked for DB’s floating downstream and had a whole idea for a mystery novel based on it! Ah, the mystery writer’s mind.

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    1. Hi, Grace! Thank you so much for visiting the blog and for sharing a comment. It’s such a pleasure to chat with you. I’m glad you rarely picture criminal intents behind ordinary scenarios. LOL! Thank you also for being an avid mystery reader. Is it the puzzles that keep you coming back?

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  11. Patricia, please excuse my late entry into the convo–I was on the road all day yesterday. (And when I say “all,” I truly mean it–a little Friday road construction in MA goes a long way, sigh.) But loved your post–this will definitely be an IRL game for us! I loved the (fake) crime scene forensic setups detectives used to set up for us at Crime Bake. All of us authors thought we had the scenario nailed with our individual theories, but…nope!

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