“Mrs Derringer?” Officer Menzies flashed her badge when the woman opened the door. “Guess you know why I’m here.” She’d found starting this way could elicit some interesting reactions.
The old lady gasped. “How did you find out? I’ve been so careful.”
Menzies raised a questioning eyebrow.
“You don’t know what it was like living with that man. He was cruel in every way. I just couldn’t take any more.” Her eyes teared up. “I suppose one of the neighbors suspected …?”
“Mrs Derringer,” Menzies interrupted gently. “I’m here to tell you your driver’s license is expired. Time to renew.”
thedrabble.wordpress.com 
Oops. Actually, I know from personal experience that the police don’t personally visit you when your driver’s license expires. It just expires. If you don’t notice, you’ll find out the next time you try to use it for ID.
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Thanks for your comment, James. Wasn’t getting any feedback so I checked this morning to see if there was any. You are right; they’d never come to your door for something so trivial. I’ll have to think of some other reason if I use this story again.
I read a short account of a real-life investigator who started out this way when he knocked on door. He said it’s surprising what people with guilty consciences will blurt out. So I decided to run with that idea.
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It’s a good idea and you’re right. Sometimes a good bluff works surprisingly well. I’ll have to consider that idea for a future story.
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Damn! Totally surprised me.
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Thank you. Sorry for my slow response — I’m doing Nanowrimo and letting everything else slide. 🙂
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Good luck!
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Great, unexpected ending!
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I like them with a twist in the end
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I do, too, though it’s sometimes hard to manufacture something realistic. 🙂
Thanks for your comment. sorry to be late replying.
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Thank you.
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Cleverly done. Hopefully Officer Menzies is used to women getting confused about husband bumping off and licence renewal.
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Thank you. I read about a real investigator who’d say something like this at the door. He said it’s surprising what people confess to. 🙂
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Lovely short short, Christine.
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Thank you. For some reason I wasn’t getting feedback comments for this post, so good thing I checked this morning.
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