[ WP ] In the middle of the night , a piece of paper is slipped under your door . It says , `` DUCK ! ''

**The Curious Case of the Duck in the Nighttime** 
 
 & nbsp; 
 
 Life as a private eye is tough. There are only so many times you can get thrown into a dumpster by a cheating spouse's new lover before you start to feel like garbage. 
 
 A cold shower washes off the stink, but there's no such thing as a deep-clean for the soul. Sleep sometimes helps. The problem, I've found, is that when you sleep, time keeps moving. Things have a way of catching up to you when you do n't move. 
 
 And that's how I found myself, on the morning of March 3, groggily staring at a note slipped under my bedroom door. The writing was practically chicken-scratch, but I could just make out a single word: “ Duck. ” 
 
 I looked around to see if anything was heading for my, well, my head. Nothing moved. I felt silly, but in my line of work, you learn that even though psychics ca n't tell the future, they have a way of making things happen. 
 
 Duck. Huh. The message meant nothing to me, but it was clear that someone had been in my house, and that's almost never a good sign. 
 
 Without any other clues, I went to the bathroom and washed my face. As I looked up from the sink, I found another note taped to the mirror. It could have been the same note, just “ Duck ” in the same handwriting. Curiouser and curiouser. 
 
 I threw on a shirt and jeans and went to the kitchen. There, just standing on the table, I found a large white bird. 
 
 “ You, ” I said, “ are definitely a goose. ” 
 
 Things were just getting interesting.
