“Dum da-dum dum…”
Prologue
Previous Dragnet Episode
Return to the Scene of the Crime
So far this spring, I had not seen Blackie and assumed he emerged from hibernation and resumed his community service in the neighbor’s pasture. We’d had three successful broods of baby bluebirds and soon there would be three more. One of the early broods hatched in the house of the original crime scene, and another was due to hatch shortly. But on the evening of June 8th, as Bill and Cricket returned to the house from our evening walk—I walked a longer route and wasn’t with them—Bill found a black snake trapped in the bird netting. Blackie! Or a look-alike copycat predator.
Bill documented the crime scene with photos.
Blackie’s nest-raiding crime spree came to a fatal end. He’d been pardoned from death by garden hoe and given the rare opportunity to turn his life around. Tragically, he just couldn’t overcome his addiction to bluebird eggs and babies.