Has the mysterious Leon been heard after all?

I am rather exasperated that I forgot to address one other intriguing element in The Daring Decoy. It’s just possible that Hamilton’s supposed secretary Leon was heard sometimes, after all.

An unidentified man talks to Hamilton on the intercom in Hamilton’s office, letting him know of an arrival to see him. Hamilton thanks him and says to send him in. Was he talking to Leon? Unless he has more than one male secretary, or had a male receptionist at one time, it’s likely.

This fellow had a very deep voice, which is a bit difficult to equate with the image of Leon I designed in my mind. Actually, I had a different image of Leon before I tried drawing him, and when I drew him, I ended up with someone a lot younger (and with wilder hair!) than my original envisioning. And now that that character is an established part of my stories, I’m a bit unsure of what to do about this deep-voiced person in canon who may be the real Leon.

I guess it’s certainly possible that even the version of Leon I ended up drawing could have a deep voice, going against type. But it’s certainly going to be hard to start hearing him with that voice in my mind, since I’ve been hearing him with a much different voice. I wish I’d remembered (or that someone else had remembered and told me) about that bit in The Daring Decoy before I designed Leon. And I’ll have to look through other early episodes to see if Hamilton speaks with this person at any other times. I’m very curious now!

I had thought I was drawing nigh to the conclusion of The Malevolent Mugging. It was scheduled to launch directly into a sequel, possibly called The Gruesome Graveyard. Hence, a lot of loose ends were to be left open as it closed. But upon reading and re-reading the proposed final chapter for The Malevolent Mugging, I just couldn’t feel good about closing the story there and marking it “Complete”, even though I would be immediately starting the sequel to continue things.

At this current time, I have determined that, like some novels, The Malevolent Mugging will be one big story comprised of two parts. The chapter I just put up today marks the end of Part One, and the next chapter should be the beginning of Part Two. Since I have publicly announced these intentions in the story itself, I hope I won’t end up changing my mind and reverting to the separate sequel idea again.

Part Two will continue the threads of plot that have been left open, including one of the important writer-created character’s disappearance and the continuing aftermath of Deputy Sampson being attacked. Various clues and plot threads will also entangle Daniel Conway and his nemesis Warner Griffith from The Daring Decoy, and the characters will discover that those people’s problems will have a direct bearing on the case at hand.

Instead of further confusion with Daniel and Sampson looking so much alike (considering that there’s already the Amory and Andy thing), I have half a mind to have either them or people around them think that they do not resemble each other that much, and be perplexed when anyone suggests it.

Also present will be a mysterious woman named Virginia, who claims to be a distant relation of the Petersons’ and demands inclusion among the recipients of a departed Peterson family member’s will. She quickly becomes a fixture around both Amory Fallon and Daniel Conway, seeming to be trying to stir up trouble for them both while coming across as completely innocent and oblivious. Amory suspects she is trying to drive him mad by making it look like they’re having an affair, while with Daniel she appears to be attempting to frame him for illegal activities.

I’ve been attempting to write for Deputy Chamberlin, furthering my idea of him and Sampson being friends. I’m finding, however, that Chamberlin is difficult to get a voice on. While it’s true that both he and Sampson canonically spouted dialogue written for Hamilton, Sampson delivered it with more flair and personality and it was fairly easy to find a unique voice for him. Chamberlin still doesn’t feel very developed, no matter how I try to work with his character in scenes. I’m hoping that as it goes on, I’ll be able to figure it out.