Live Long and Prosper

"hey, danny boy! gimme a plateful of something good," cardigan yelled at blake as he walked into the Pub, shaking off the rain.

"sausage biscuits," blake replied. "homemade sausage patties on maddog's buttermilk biscuits."

"life doesn't get much better than that, danny boy. thanks," cardigan takes his pint and walks toward the others. "howdy, y--"

FEVER dooooog
scratchin' at my back door...

cardigan stopped as Mysterious Lurker began belting out the song made famous in the movie "almost famous," the karaoke machine blaring at her feet. cardigan groaned. "not karaoke, please."

"shhhh! be quiet cardigan, she's doing great," sierra waved him over to an empty chair.

got to spit it out
the taste of the hair
of the feverrrrrrrrr dog...

cardigan watched the Lurker singing and swaying, lost in the moment. "i hate karaoke, charles. i'm not doing it."

the Lurker was taking her bows as everyone applauded, danny whistling in appreciation as he brought over cardigan's food. the Lurker walked over and handed him the microphone. "you sing something, danny."

danny backed away. "no thanks. i have work to do." he retreated to the back of the bar and began wiping glasses and other bartenderly things of that sort.

"we need more people," marian lamented.

"hey, burkie! send in more people!" sierra called out.

"sure thing," burkie replied, walking through the door with tucker, the darter, ben franklin, and the judge trailing behind.

the Lurker handed the microphone to ben franklin. "sing us a song, mr. franklin."

"why, thank you, miss. i'm told i have a nice baritone." he stepped forward and began to sing:

i like big butts and i cannot lie
you other brothers can't deny
when a girl walks in with an itty bitty waist--

"stop that!" the judge strode over and took the microphone away. "ben franklin does not sing 'baby got back!' he does not know 'baby got back!' he's never heard it before! burkie, stop doing this!"

at that moment, there was a great boom of thunder, a flash of light, and then all the lights went out.

"sit tight, everybody," danny cautioned. "i've got some candles here somewhere."

there were sounds of danny moving things around, and then a heavy thump. a moment later, the lights came back on and sierra screamed. everyone looked toward her, but she was pointing toward the end of the bar. spock lay on the floor in a puddle of blood, an icepick sticking out of his temple.

cardigan rushed over to feel for a pulse, then shook his head. "he's dead." he stood up. "somebody murdered spock, and it was somebody in this room."