The scene--the living room of an apartment somewhere in Jackson. Green sauce is splattered on the walls and floor, and a large bloodstain and the taped outline of a body is in the middle of the room. On one wall, about five and a half feet up, "RACHEL" is written in green sauce. Miss Mospheiran, Angie, and Officer 2 enter.

Angie: "Wow, that’s a lot of green sauce."

Officer 2: "Yes, it is."

Miss Mospheiran, Angie, and Officer 2 step gingerly further into the room to examine the outline.

Miss Mospheiran: "Exactly what do you think we can do for you here?"

Officer 2: "I don’t know. I guess I’m just playing a hunch. The green sauce is certainly suggestive. Is there anything you see or can think of, that might help?"

Miss Mospheiran: "You mean, aside from looking into the Rachels he might have known?"

Officer 2: (laughs) "Actually, that’s in progress. I just haven’t mentioned it to Officer 1. But doesn’t it seem odd that the murderer would write her own name on the wall?"

Angie: "Maybe he wrote it as he was dying, to let us know."

Officer 2: "It’s awfully high up on the wall for that. He was pretty badly injured--he’d have had to be standing up straight to write it. And you can see there isn’t any blood on that part of the floor. If he were standing there after he was stabbed, there would certainly be some blood there."

Miss Mospheiran: "Finger prints on the murder weapon?"

Officer 2: "No, the potato peeler he was stabbed with is clean. Well, as far as fingerprints go, anyway."

The three consider the stained walls silently for a few moments.

Miss Mospheiran: "I’m not sure I can be much help. Unfortunately, there’ll be a lot of suspects in this case. He was a very unlikable man. His wife was divorcing him, he’d been arrested several times for vandalism and arson, and he didn’t bathe regularly."

Officer 2: "That’s amazing. You can tell all this just by looking at his living room?"

Miss Mospheiran: "No. This is my cousin Jack’s apartment. Cousin by marriage, anyway."

Angie: "Nasty man. He groped me at the Independence Day picnic last year, and then asked me if I wanted to go behind the bandstand and participate in a work of performance art criticizing the sexual mores of middle-class Mospheira."

Officer 2: "Okay, so why the green sauce?"

Miss Mospheiran: "If you ask me, the green sauce is a red herring. There’s just too much of it to be for a recipe--my guess is, it was a work of performance art criticizing his landlord’s demands that he pay rent. "RACHEL" is probably just the beginning of whatever he intended to write on the wall before he was interrupted by the murderer."

Officer 2: "That leaves us back where we started."

Miss Mospheiran: "Not necessarily. I think you’ll find that Rachel is Rachel Chang."

Officer 2: "Not the Rachel Chang who took second place in the Harbor Foods Bakeoff last year with her recipe for Easy Cheesy Potatoes."

Miss Mospheiran: "No. The Rachel Chang who took second place in the Harbor Foods Bakeoff last year with my cousin Jack’s recipe for Easy Cheesy Potatoes. "

Officer 2: "Are you serious?"

Miss Mospheiran: "Completely. My cousin Sally told my mom all about it."

Officer 2: "No way."

Miss Mospheiran: "Yes way."

Officer 2: "Oh, my God."

Miss Mospheiran: "It’s kind of sad, really. He was thrown out of art school, he couldn’t hold down a job for more than a month or so, and he had a thing for burning down abandoned buildings. But he was a really talented cook. Or so I hear. I wouldn’t ever try anything of his, because he never washed his hands, and you never knew if what he was giving you was a delicious appetizer or a work of performance art criticizing your ability to keep your supper down."

Officer 2: "So do you think this has to do with the Harbor Foods Bakeoff?"

Miss Mospheiran: "Definitely. Unless I miss my guess, that’s a half-eaten Delightful Damighindi Muffin over there on that table."

Officer 2 walks over to the table in question and examines the muffin without picking it up.

Officer 2: "That wasn’t here before."

Officer 2 goes over to the door.

Officer 2: "Officer 273! Could you come in here please?"

Enter Officer 273.

Officer 2: "Officer, did anyone besides us come in here this afternoon?"

Officer 273: "Yes, Officer."

Officer 2: "Who was it?"

Officer 273: "Oh, it’s all right, Officer. It was just Mrs. Tyers. She said she was just looking out for us under-appreciated police officers, and she brought some of those Delightful Damighindi Muffins."

Miss Mospheiran: "Did she ask to come in here?"

Officer 273: "Yes, she did. She said she was curious, and after all, she is the president’s wife."

Angie: "Not to mention the third-place winner of last year’s Harbor Foods Bakeoff."

Officer 273: "That, too. But that had to be a fix. Those muffins should have won first place."

Officer 2: "Thank you, Officer."

Officer 273 exits.

Officer 2: "I’m not sure I like the way this is going."

Miss Mospheiran: "Well, you’ve got somewhere to start now."

Officer 2: "That I do. Can I take you ladies home?"

Angie: "Actually, we were planning to go to the firing range."

Officer 2: "In that case, can I take you ladies to the firing range?"

Miss Mospheiran: "That’d be great, thanks."

Officer 2: "My pleasure."