Król CASE XX Partial Partners

Król and Hough first meet around age nine and become best buddies into adulthood. They become partners in solving crimes and often use the help of others to do so. In this one, the Króls move to State College near Penn State, and he first meets his lifelong friend and companion. Here the boys stumble upon suspicious activities around the university during 1967. under construction in 2026

I awoke in my own bed for the first time for the first time in over three years. The light of dawn was streaming through the bare windows in my bedroom.

Winter was losing its grip on this Monday. The windows showed a view of an approaching sunrise over the neighborhood houses. I smiled as I thought of how wide the view was compared to the cramped room I used for sleeping with two long windows which had shown the house next door. One frosted window, probably the bathroom, would light up and shine into the bedroom.

I must have lain in bed a good half hour before getting out of bed. Finally, I overcame the Bettschwere with an exhilarating thump on the floor of my new bedroom. I knew I would be walking to school along a different road, but it shouldn't take much longer on the same street from the opposite direction.

My bedroom led into the kitchen. An old coal stove sat next to gas burners. The table sat opposite to my left. I pulled a bowl from the cupboard with a spoon. I opened the back door and retrieved the milk from the window sill. I came back in, sat down, and poured cereal into a bowl.

"Buddy, are you up?"

"Yes, Mom."

Continued  

Author's Note: Since I began writing mysteries in the summer of 1977, I never considered the origin of my protagonist. Now in forced semiretirement, I have time to write his origin. In this mystery, he moves into a new neighborhood and meet his best buddy to solve the first mystery. They were like brothers until the tragedy of the Cynical Syndicate some thirty years later. (C) Alopex, 2026 

Król speaks to a neighborhood boy named Hayden on a Sunday morning.

These pictures are not permanent with this story. In thought, Buddy Król is the freckled blond, his buddy Don Hough is ginger, and Tom Lupino is the strawberry blond. Artel makes them handsome, which is fine with me. Ashley was a small coal town in the anthracite region of Pennsylvania next to Wilkes-Barré. There are woods around the area, especially at the lounge between Nanticoke and Wilkes-Barré.

The boys stumble upon a mystery in May 1967.