The No Police Procedural

No more fictional than the one
With the police. Maybe less so,
But absent accurate details
Of forensic science methods,

Since there are no methods, there are
No forensic scientists, no
Detectives, no police. The crime
Was the usual brutal tale

Beloved of procedurals--
Violence, a grisly murder,
A cover-up, that sort of thing.
But in this story, the crime worked,

Worked so well no body was found,
No crime was reported, no cops
Were ever involved, not so much
As a newspaper reporter.

You know such murders must happen,
Or you strongly suspect they do,
But where’s the fun in a story
With no story in it, unknown?

That question isn’t trivial.
This is the story you don’t know,
That disappears under the waves,
True crime tales murdered every day.

There is a place where story dies,
And when the story disappears,
That’s when the crime has really worked,
When there will never be police.