Stan Marley, epi. 1, part 1

Announcer: [average sounding] Good evening folks, and welcome to Stan Marley in…

[dramatic sounding] "The Sinister Cinderella"!
*Cue dramatic organ music*

[Average sounding again] Starring…

[Insert name here] as detective Stan Marley
[Insert name here] as Slick
[Insert name here] as officer Dingy Willis
And Garrenn as Sylvia

With music by [insert name(s) here]

This production was not recorded in front of a live studio audience, but we like to pretend it was!
*Cue audience clapping*

Now on to our featured program…
*Cue dramatic organ music*

Stan: Sunday, July 15th, 1945...the time was 3:24 PM. I walked toward one of our many local banks here in South Bellville. Light bounced off the gold trim that surrounded the place making it look as ritzy as it was.  Men in business suits came pouring through the revolving doors carrying brief cases full of paper work as they headed to who-knows-where in the name of their trade.

I had received a call from the local police to meet them down there. Apparently a theft had taken place. Fifty-thousand dollars were missing, and not a single sign of a struggle could be found. It wasn't all too surprising, though, at least not for me. While I hated to degrade the local police, they tended to be less than adequate.

As I entered, I was greeted by the soothing sound of a small fountain in  the dead center of the place. It was surrounded by cute little plants that matched the area. In the background behind one of the many desks I could see the safe open and police searching it, looking for any clues that might be there. Chances are that even if there were, they would be lazy and leave them all for me to go through. Figured. Suddenly my face was attacked by the cheerful grin of officer Dingy Willis.

Dingy was a goofy-looking little man with a bushy mustache and a gap between his teeth that gave him a look to match his personality. I often found him being put on the same cases as I was, which was a great displeasure to me. This was because he was rather incompetent and a mediocre cop at best, not to mention downright cheerful to the point of annoyance. Needless to say, I could do without seeing him myself.

Dingy: Stan! You're here! It's about time. My boys don't know what they're doing at all…

Stan: I'll say. Have you found anything at all yet?

Dingy: No, sir. Who ever did this knew what they were doing.

Stan: Maybe, but I do have a suspect in mind. One who would know what he was doing…

Dingy: You mean ol' Slick? Yeah, he seems to elude us pretty often!

Stan: That's the exact one.

I had to admit, I had had my mind made up as soon as I heard it was a theft. This was because Slick, as we had taken to calling him, was quite the master thief and often a person of interest. Slick was an elusive fellow indeed. Dingy and I knew this all too well, as he had botched up many of our cases and gotten away with the loot. Slick was mostly known to get away because he was just so mysterious. He always kept his face covered with his trench coat upturned and his hat pulled down low. All you ever saw of his face was a shadow with eyes peeking out of it. No one knew his name either, thus coining the nickname "Slick" from our boys. He took up with it immediately and has used it as an alias ever since. If anyone was responsible for this case, it was more than likely him alright.

Dingy: Well, you're probably right. You gonna go after him?

Stan: Not until I have sufficient evidence, since it'd be a waste of time otherwise. Of course, with nothing really to lead on, I may have to go with my gut instinct.

Dingy: Well, you're the dick here, not me. Feel free to look around for all the clues you want.

Stan: I'll get right to that Dingy…

And so I did. Dingy was right. Whoever had done this had used gloves, so no prints where left behind, and it was a simple enough trick that anyone could've done as well. There were no foot prints either, like whatever shoes they had been wearing were petite and very clean. I had never seen quite a lacking in evidence before. I decided to check and see if there were any witnesses. There weren't. While the crime had been committed in broad day light, whoever done it must have done so subtly as not to draw attention to themselves. It was apparently done by an everyman.

With nothing left to go on, I figured I would do as I promised Dingy and go on my intuition. Even though I lacked the evidence to convict Slick, or even arrest him for that matter, I could still get a lot of information by questioning him. Even if he were innocent by some chance, he could give me a look into the mind of a criminal.

The ultimate problem now was finding him. It wasn't like he would go out hiding his face all the time, and if that were the case, none of us knew what he looked like. I decided that I'd have to get clever with this one. Think of something that would really lure him in…
*Cue dramatic organ music*

Announcer: And now, folks, a word from the people we are pretending to be our sponsors!
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[At this point I will put in an authentic vintage radio commercial, most likely for coffee or cigarettes…maybe one for both. This will end part one of episode one making it somewhere around eight minutes according to my word count, and leave way for part two to start…]