When the Songbirds Went Silent in Cheerytown

The only person who felt bad about the death of Menuhin was Bobby Bayly. It was Bobby who killed Menuhin with a single copper BB from his Red Ryder air rifle.

Bobby felt good at first about shooting Menuhin. He shot the bird to keep it from diving at his cat, Bandit, who had only one eye. Bobby was terribly worried that Menuhin would peck out the other eye, leaving Bandit blind.

When he first saw it happen, the bird diving, screaming at Bandit again and again, smacking her on the head from behind, the poor cat wondering what was happening, he ran across the yard shouting and waving his arms, but managed to scare only Bandit. Menuhin paid him no mind.

He decided then and there to get the air rifle from his closet and keep it on the porch.

Elimination (book report)

When I was in high school my dad ran in the Democratic primary for a state senate seat. I was his campaign manager. We didn't have any money and I didn't know what the hell I was doing, and we got the crap kicked out of us. If we'd had enough money we could have hired someone like Dev Conrad. I'd have been out of a job but my dad would have had a fighting chance--even if someone had tried to murder him.

Dev Conrad's the kind of consultant you want running your campaign especially if the race is so hot people try to kill your candidate. He's an ex-Army investigator and a second-generation political op and, unfortunately, only a fictional character. But his creator, novelist Ed Gorman, himself a former political speechwriter and TV producer, knows the game and the milieu so well his main character could step straight out of the novel pages and take a seat opposite Hardball interviewer Chris Matthews.