Disclaimer: I don't own Ellery Queen, books or TV show.
Drabblicious piece for the Ellery Queen TV show episode The Comic Book Crusader. No real spoilers though for anything that doesn't happen in the first five minutes. Explanation at the bottom for people that don't know what's going on.
Inspector Richard Queen, homicide division, tiredly unlocked the door to his apartment and stepped inside, flicking on the lights as he did. One could only sit at a desk waiting for leads that weren't coming for so long.
His stomach growled angrily at him. Sitting at a desk waiting for leads also didn't lend itself to eating. He hung up his coat and hat and made his way towards the kitchen to make a sandwich for dinner. The apartment seemed unnaturally quiet and empty without the clacking of the typewriter or the angry growls of a frustrated writer. Those sounds weren't always in existence, but tonight their absence was particularly noticeable.
For what remained of the late evening, the absence of Ellery made itself even more painfully known. The kitchen sink contained the dirty dishes for two breakfasts and one dinner, not the two breakfasts, two dinners, plus a lunch for one that it should. There was only one toothbrush in the bathroom, and no greetings of good night.
The morning paper remained on the kitchen table, open to the offending article. Richard glanced at it, then ripped the newspaper up and threw it in the trash. And as he tucked in for the night he cursed Flannigan, he cursed the commissioner and the deputy commissioner, he cursed public opinion, and, most importantly, he cursed Ellery for going along with Flannigan's rabble-rousing and attention-seeking. He cursed the day he first heard the name Frank Flannigan, and he decided that Flannigan had better make the letter of the law his best friend, or else Inspector Richard Queen, homicide division, was going to come down on him and make him rue the day he wrote that thrice-damned column.
So basically the dying message is misinterpreted and accidentally frames Ellery for murder. Richard tries to ignore it but Flannigan gets wind of it and publishes knowledge of the "evidence" and testimony of someone who was there when Ellery was arguing with the victim. Which results in Ellery volunteering to spend half the episode in a jail cell in order to get his dad off the hook. It's my favorite episode on the disc. Reviews are much appreciated!