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Note: A few words about 'free' - all these monologues are protected under copyright law and are free to read, free to perform and video as long as no money is charged. Once you charge admission or a donation, or include my work in an anthology, you need to contact me for royalty info.
If you just started this blog and want to read the earlier monologues, please
scroll down for the previous days or go to http://www.monologuestore.com/ -click on the Monologue Mania button please scroll down.
To start at the beginning - Feb. 13, - click here.
For a list of the blurbs from each day, click here
Help a playwright and get more great award-winning monologues - MonologueZone.com
Thank you for your comments - and for liking and sharing this site
------------------------------
Monologue Mania Day # 193 by Janet S. Tiger (Crime Scene Investigator part 2) Aug.24, 2014
(Crime Scene Investigator part 2)
A monologue by Janet S. Tiger © all rights a reserved
tigerteam1@gmail.com
(Lights up back up on our Crime Scene lady
presenter, and she is showing some of the pages she has collected.)
This
is just one example of the types of records that Mrs. Bertha Johnson kept.
It's
funny, on TV, our work looks so glamorous, but in real life, it is more like
going through piles and piles of paper looking for that one clue, that one key
that will open the door to find a criminal.
As
I told you, Bertha Johnson was what many people refer to as…. a hoarder....but
she was a very organized hoarder and because she had a farm, the hoarding can
be hidden by, in this case, a large barn.
But
let me go back a second to explain something......by the time I got to Bertha's
farmhouse and her barn, it had been almost a year since her murder. And
the only reason the farm was still there was because (still moved by
this) the entire town refused to let go of the idea that murderer would get
away with it, and they had delayed the process of the sale by the state.
In
that time, they had had car washes and cake sales and had raised a surprising
amount of money to hire me and pay all my expenses to come back live there to
go through Bertha's things, in the hope I would find
something....anything...that would help solve the case.
And
those people....were the only reason I took this case after my
retirement. There was something about it, something very special that
called out to me. So I turned down the archeological dig I was hoping to
attend in England, and flew out to Nebraska. To the middle of
nowhere....but when it comes to murder, it appears there is nowhere you can
find where some human being will not kill another.
For
those who know us, the reality of investigation is going through stuff, and
paying attention, looking for that needle in the haystack. With Bertha, this was literally true! You see, Bertha had grown up on the farm, it
was her father's and his father's before, and when I first looked, it seemed as
if all of them had kept every single piece of paper that had ever passed by
their hands! There was a normal looking
house, neat, well-taken care of, but in the back, in the barn, oh, my God!
It
was actually the second barn, actually the first built on the property, back in
the 1920s, so the newer barn actually housed animals. But the barn with all her stuff…..it was
stunning.
Here,
you can see for yourselves……
(She indicates a photo)
I
estimated there were over 50,000 individual pieces of information in that barn…..accumulated
over almost a century. Old bills,
records of every sort. They were in
perfect order, as her parents had been neat, so Bertha had been trained.
Bertha
had married a young man she went to school with, and they had two children, two
boys, good kids, on the football team,
good in school, with a love of the town, and the farm. Both had interest in going to agricultural
colleges, and from all accounts, they were as normal a family as you could
find.
By the looks of it, everyone was happy.
Until her sons had gone into town, and on the way home, a drunken truck driver
smashed into their car, and both her children had been killed instantly.
The
whole town was devastated, and then, within a year, her husband got cancer
and died. From what I was told, it was not a pleasant end for him,
and so, Bertha, at age 45, had no husband, and no children. She was a
survivor, though, and worked hard to hold onto the farm, becoming involved in
all the civic activities, making even more friends than she had before.
Sad
story, lots of happy connections after.
But
Bertha had one bad habit - any drifter who came by looking for a job, she would
hire them, for a week, a month, the summer, until they headed on their
way.
Now
Bertha had been raised on the farm, and she had seen her father hire people for
years, so it was not new to her, but others
in the town were horrified, as they figured it wasn't a very sensible or wise
thing to do, being a single woman. She
had been warned many times how dangerous this habit could be…..and I heard many
of these warnings repeated when I was there.
She
liked helping people, and she helped these drifters, who would stay anywhere
from a few days to a few months, finishing out the planting season, or the
harvest.
To
her credit, Bertha had amazing
intuition, and she made many friends amongst the men she helped......many of
which stayed in touch with her for years, visiting with wives and children,
some even moving to the area.
But
she was getting older, and maybe her intuition was starting to fade, who
knows? Two years ago, she had someone
stay with her, a drifter like the rest. He was there for a few weeks,
maybe a month. No one was ever sure, as now that Bertha had more arthritis,
and did not go into town that often, leaving the town chores to the helpers she
let stay.
Then
one Sunday, a neighbor came to get Bertha for church, even though Bertha had
not answered the phone the night before, the neighbor knew Bertha was getting a
bit hard of hearing, and certainly never understood the answering machine, so
the neighbor came.....and.....(deep breath).....found Bertha dead......stabbed.
She
had been dead for several days.
The
town was horrified......who could have done such a thing? And the
sheriff's office did the best they could, but all the leads fizzled
out...except the one about the drifter. The drifter whose name no one
could remember, the drifter who was so non-descript that he was described as
tall and medium and skinny and solid and with a beard....or clean shaven.
So
the sheriff sent the case to us.....but it was not big enough for us to look
at.....only one death, no clear leads at all.......until the town started
collecting money and went to some of the men who had once stayed at Bertha's.
Many
could not be found, of course, but several of them had done very well
after working for her, and a few contributed.....larger sums....... to the fund
......to find her killer.
(She steps back)
And
that's where I come in.......
I
need to take a short break to….. get
something I forgot. If you need a break, this is a good time to
take it. This is a long story, and I did
not rush when I was there, and I will not rush it now.
(She exits as lights dim on this for the
moment)
----------------------------------------------------
Note - This is part of a play I'm working on called CRIME - it has several other parts, and this may not be clear without the others. Will try to pull together one location with all the scenes, so perhaps it will be clearer. Thanks for your patience!
Note - This is part of a play I'm working on called CRIME - it has several other parts, and this may not be clear without the others. Will try to pull together one location with all the scenes, so perhaps it will be clearer. Thanks for your patience!
Janet S. Tiger 858-736-6315
Member Dramatists Guild since 1983
Playwright-in-Residence
Swedenborg Hall 2006-8
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