This is from The Usual, which was published in Enter the Maze, my short story collection. Re-reading the passage, I feel it needs a re-write…
From The Usual:
“A case of frogs arrived in New York on day. When the case was delivered, all the frogs were dead. It was a huge crate. Four foot squared, maybe more. Filled with frogs. They were shipped by boat from Japan. They’re a type of frog that can change gender if needed. We think they did while on route. There was no food, no space for the frogs to move, but they found a way to procreate. There were tadpoles, all dead. The adults tried to eat each other. Most suffocated. It was nasty. We were called in because the delivery man was found with a bullet hole in his head right next to the crate.”
“Why is it unsolved? Sounds pretty cut and dry to me.”
Robert took a slow sip of beer. When he set it down, he twirled the glass on the bar, making the condensation circle bigger. “There was a bullet hole with no gun powder, no exit wound and no bullet. We couldn’t figure out how the hole got there, but it looked like a bullet. We never found the person who ordered the frogs. They used a fake name and used off shore accounts to pay the people in Japan. No leads. Dead case.”
Cat Stark 