The Little Brown Ikea Pencil of Doom: Part 1

The inspector looked around the brightly furnished living room.

"He must have liked Swedish design.." he said to himself, taking in the bright red sofa and strangely shaped tables.

"The body's upstairs sir" the uniformed officer told him.

"Found by the cleaner at 8:00 am this morning." he continued. "It looks like he was strangled with one of those paper tape measures that you get at furniture stores".

"What have we got on the victim?" asked the inspector.

"Nothing much sir, it seems that he kept himself to himself. Very interested in décor. Neighbours report lots of flat pack furniture arriving and sounds of hammering and swearing at all hours of the day and night."

The inspector wandered upstairs to investigate the corpse. The uniformed office took out his notebook and pencil. "Darn it", he muttered as the lead broke off the instant it touched the paper. He looked around the room and saw on the mantelpiece above the pine fireplace a little brown pencil. "Nobody will notice", he thought, as he picked it up and started writing....

(to be continued)