Bathed in Autumn's Glow

A huge golden sycamore leaf had drowned in the bird bath.

It was a real mystery. Columbo would have loved it. He'd have shuffled over in his raincoat, regardless of the weather, and declared it a Moida.

The squirrel would no doubt be too busy to be interviewed, nuts to bury and bird feeders to plunder. But he would reluctantly listen to Columbo's theories about how the old sycamore leaf came to an early end, despite the fact he was only a week or two away from becoming mulch anyway.

He'd then have a scotch on the rocks, offer Columbo one and then politely tell Columbo to bugger off as he had an airtight alibi that the elusive woodpecker could verify. If he could ever be found.

Columbo would thank the squirrel for his time, then remember 'One last thing...'

Squirrel would get a bit annoyed, have another scotch and roll a cigarette, then explain that he simply had no idea how the leaf came to drown in the bird bath and Columbo would simply have to prove otherwise.

Columbo would already know of course that Squirrel was innocent; he was hoping to put the real leaf slayer off guard.

Meanwhile Magpie would cackle away to himself thinking he'd got away with it. He hadn't meant to moida the leaf; he'd thought the gold and red colour glinting in the sunlight was a treasure and as he plucked it for himself and realised it was just a leaf, he'd carelessly dropped it and it had floated gently down and straight into the bird bath...

But Columbo would already have deduced this and the magpie would soon be Doing Bird for moida!