The Big Reveal – Where is Agent Zelda?

I had a blast writing the blog mystery, TWO AGENTS, ONE MOTORCYCLE, AND A GORILLA. In case you missed it, here are the links.

Part one. Part two. Part three. Part four. Part five.

The Big Reveal:

Agent Chloe and Agent Zelda had someone in common, other than the fact they were both agents.

 Robert Browning aka Barfy Bobby was an aspiring writer. He’d written a cozy mystery called, “The Oreo Cookie Killer”. He wasn’t a particularly skilled writer and abused –ing phrases and used the word – just – way too many times. He’d spent 10 years writing his  602,548 word story and had been rejected by almost every publisher and literary agent in the country. Agent Zelda had been his last chance. And she’d rejected him.

In a fit of desperation, he’d hoped to slip her his full manuscript at the conference. And he did. He’d followed her into the bathroom and slipped it under the door.

Unfortunately, Agent Chloe was using the bathroom at the same time and received the manuscript. She took it to be her assignment and assumed she needed to stop the Oreo Cookie Killer. This was Agent Chloe’s first assignment and unknown to her, a buddy from the CIA was not only dropping off the assignment but overseeing her efforts. The drop off point was the rather large potted fern. He was fairly new to the agency. Mistaking Agent Zelda for Agent Chloe he had slipped Zelda the assignment.  

Later that evening at the Meet and Greet, Robert Browning had volunteered to serve the agents. He had slicked his bushy brown hair back with way to much gel in his efforts to make a good impression. And in a fit of nerves had eaten a package of Oreo cookies – because he could never stop after just one, hence why Agent Zelda thought the black in his teeth was caviar. Agent Zelda had not contacted him about his cozy mystery yet, and he was somewhat peeved and looking for revenge.

He found his opportunity when a crazy writer had entered the room in a gorilla suit. While all the agents were throwing sandwiches at the poor guy, Robert Browning had refilled Agent Zelda’s glass with a sleeping potion. He had threatened in a letter to the agency that he would kill her, but had decided to drug her just enough that she’d miss the whole next day. If she wouldn’t read his manuscript, then she wouldn’t read any.

Agent Chloe’s associate, who we’ll call the man in black, figured out that Agent Chloe was following a red herring. She’d spent the evening shadowing vending machines. Her real job had been to shadow Agent Zelda, which was why Agent Zelda had dropped her glass. She’d been shocked, not only at the tight writing skills, but at the mention of her name.

The man in black had tested the cider in the glass and knew that Agent Zelda had been drugged. He figured the only way to keep her safe was to hide her somehow. So, in the middle of the night, he’d sneaked into her room and carried her off.

When Agent Chloe had captured the Oreo Cookie Killer she’d recognized him as Barfy Bobby. In a pitiful attempt, he’d sobbed about his dreams of being a published writer. Agent Chloe knew something about dreams and in a moment of mercy, decided not to arrest him. Instead, she sent him floating down the lazy river, duct-taped to an inner tube, at Coco Key – revenge for stealing her whoopee pie. It wasn’t until the next morning when the lady at the desk told her that a literary agent had gone missing that Agent Chloe realized she’d read a story manuscript instead of her assignment.

So now to the real question. Where is Agent Zelda? 

After the man in black dragged her from the room, she’d woken for a bit. She kept staring into his eyes and making weird comments about how they couldn’t have clandestine relations due to the fact he was a vampire. So he dragged the gorilla costume from the trash pile, helped Agent Zelda into it and hid her in plain sight in the lobby where Agent Chloe tripped on the gorilla’s fur.

Hope you enjoyed the story. I’ll announce the winners later today!

7 Responses to The Big Reveal – Where is Agent Zelda?

  1. kris May 18, 2010 at 11:06 am #

    You definitely need to write a mystery story. That was great! And I was clueless. I don’t think I read it carefully enough!

  2. Laura May 18, 2010 at 12:04 pm #

    Thanks Kris. The clue that allowed my daughter to figure it out was that I mentioned that it was the gorilla costume that Agent Chloe tripped on – so I had to take that out but leave references to it.

  3. Catherine A. Winn May 18, 2010 at 12:45 pm #

    This was great! Laura, I left a blogger award for you over at my site. Hope you like it!

  4. Kristin Gray May 18, 2010 at 2:34 pm #

    Laura, this was hilarious and well executed!! Thanks so much. And WHY is it one can never stop after just one Oreo? I can eat an entire row!!!

  5. Karen Lange May 18, 2010 at 8:47 pm #

    Loved this! You should write a mystery! Why not? Thanks so much for sharing this with us. And I agree with Kristin; it is hard to eat just one Oreo. 🙂

  6. Tina Lee May 18, 2010 at 9:13 pm #

    I have totally loved this whole thing. Keeping up with it all week and laughing out loud. But I didn’t go back to try and gather all the details at the end. I saw some of them and knew they were significant but in the end was too busy to gather them all together. Thanks, Laura. What fun. I’m with Kris and think you should write one of these!

  7. Laura May 19, 2010 at 12:19 am #

    I totally understand if people were too busy. I didn’t write the story for the contest. I wrote it for fun and wanted to promote some New England authors. Thanks for reading everyone! You’re all the best!

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