Arrest Made at Rico's Chicken

I posted more of Pecaw’s Gift, Chapter 34, “Astros”, a while ago. It’s a trip back in time for me as I get to re-read some of my own life. I know, Pecaw’s Gift is a novel and so it’s a piece of fiction. The nice part about fiction is that you don’t have to go around proving each and every item down the list in the event someone wants to call you on it. So a great deal of the book I wrote so many years ago, guess what, it really happened.

Take the mention of a burglary at Rico’s Chicken; when I searched the building, and it was a very small building, it didn’t turn up anything at first glance. The suspect was small enough that he had tucked himself away inside a small box so he became invisible, at least for a short while. The box looked out of place and that was what gave him away. The picture was taken by the CSI, a friend of mine, as a souvenir and I scanned it so I could share.

I had a chance to remember a time when the Astros played in the Domed Stadium and when smoking had yet to be banned there. In this chapter the main character has to use a wheel chair; a substitute for when I had banged my knee up playing softball and had to get around on crutches for several weeks. Unfortunately the Astros are playing poorly and stranding runners in scoring position, so, not much has changed there. Most of the chapter is true also, all except for the murder incident referred to; that was made up. The Killer Dr. Pepper Machine; that’s a true story and I actually volunteered my rookie to do the homicide investigation because he needed the experience.