05 – Pato and Miss Jennifer

When, at the age of 97, the incredibly successful amateur detective Mrs Sycamore passed away, she revealled in her will that over the last ten years she had had a correspondant with whom she shared ideas, and indeed had helped to solve many of her most difficult cases.  They were addressed to someone called Pato, and Mrs Sycamore, having amassed a decent little fortune over the years, had left a large chunk of it to Pato “in the hopes he would be able to make good use of it”.  So, the executors headed off to the small village of Oldbrook-in-the-Willows to locate, Miss Jennifer Nettles – a woman who apparently managed Pato’s letters.

When they got there, they were in for a surprise – they found Miss Jennifer easily enough, an intelligent young woman a few years out of collage and she agreed to take them to Pato.  They were however greatly surprised when she took them down to the village duckpond.  Pato it seemed was a little white duck.  Although the people were aware that this was preposterous and the duck was infact saying “PatoPatoPatoPato”, they somehow realised they understood him to actually be making astute comments in a sophisticated and good natured way.  Miss Jenny, it seemed, would come and do the writing for him, as there are some things to which it is too much of a strain on a duck’s anatomy.  With the newfound wealth, Pato hired Miss Jenny to be his personal companion and assistant, and they set off on the 3 o’clock train that afternoon for London, and then preceded to travel far and wide across the continent by train, unravelling crime and solving mysteries as they went as the worlds greatest detective and his best friend.

 Thankyou to Megan for her part in the birth of Pato!  While on holiday in Seville, we noticed the word for “duck” in Spanish was “Pato”, which is a great sounding little word.  It is perhaps the similarity to “Poirot” that led to Pato developing in this direction.   I image Pato is very much in the Agatha Christie school of crime solving – it would always end with the remaining suspects in a room where Pato reveals how he deduced the murderer, with some help from Jenny of course!

Category: 2011, Drama, Fantasy