Whodunit

"Murder is easy, if no one suspects you"- Agatha Christie

 It was barely light, and slightly foggy.  Still, she could see that something was not right. Pots were tossed here and there, soil spilled out, piled up and soggy. Limbs and twigs lay all strewn about, or buried under piles. The still morning belied the violence of the night before. In spite of all efforts, the murders continued.....

 The first plants were found, dug and discarded, one early summer dawn. They were distributed here and there in the cold frames. At first, there was no pattern at all. Later, the murderer seemed to remember easy prey and return night after night to the scene of his crimes.

Of course the community was already on high alert. Neighbors shared their own experiences and precautions. Some erected fences, some put up security lighting, some even went to the extremes of piping in talk radio as a deterrent. As a last resort, traps were set. 

 They'd been used to the odd squirrel here and there digging in pots to distribute the abundant pecan crop. It wouldn't have been a shock to find a little digging, but squirrels usually finish up the job and cover up. Mostly, no one even notices until the pecan seedling overcomes whatever the host pot plant was. Of course there are always rabbits to munch and nibble. When they had their nursery cat, the rabbits were in check. Since she's been gone, Peter and his brothers and sisters have taken over the place. But as suspects, they did not seem to have a motive to dig up the plants that fed them. 

Those in the southeast have seen the rise of the Armadillos- a Mexican gang whose members are growing and whose reputation was one of wanton destruction.

Circumstantial evidence pointed to the the armadillo gang. Several members were seen in the area at night without reliable alibis.
The evidence seemed to indicate that the Armadillo gang was, indeed responsible for the devastation, and the BOLO  was sent out for their capture. Yet the savagery continued even as the gang came under more and more scrutiny.

 Days went on with no relief, and the nighttime slaughter of newly transplanted grafts and cuttings continued.She felt sad, frustrated and more desperate. She spent hours shopping for chicken wire and tie backs and staples to try to set up  her own version of the border fence. Those hideous immigrants would destroy her tender young propagules with their indiscriminate foraging.

As a last resort, the armadillo trap, which had gone empty and useless for weeks, finally caught an unlikely suspect- Rocky...of the Racoons. Turns out, Rocky had been hiding behind the publicity and reputation of the Armadillos, and was just following behind to ravage the same plants that the armadillo gang had already approached.  In fact, Rocky had been swept up in the dragnet weeks before. He was questioned and released because the detectives had not asked the right questions: "Do you travel at night?" Do you eat worms and grubs and insects?" "Do you have the manual dexterity to climb over pots and remove three gallon sized plants from their pots without dumping over the pot itself?" 

But this time, Rocky had made the mistake of leaving a different, and telltale clue at the scene- a pile of small bird feathers. This time, our Miss Marple would do extensive research to lay out the case against Rocky. Racoons do forage at night; have immense manual skills; eat almost anything...including birds! He'd been caught in the trap, along with some of the newly excavated grafts. No matter how innocent those big racoon eyes looked, he was going down for the crime this time. Down to the woods off Marshall Store and off to find a new home.

"The tear rose in Miss Marple's eyes. Succeeding pity, there came anger - anger against a heartless killer. And then, displacing both these emotions, there came a surge of triumph - the triumph some specialist might feel who has successfully reconstructed an extinct animal from a fragment of jawbone and a couple of teeth." Agatha Christie- A Pocket Full of Rye