Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for October 14, 2021

Good morning™, all!

I wanted to believe that Ms. Rose might be legit, but I should have considered the fact that she wasn’t taking any kind of notes that we could see. (I know you guys told me that.) Way, way back, Breathless Mahoney also posed as a [student] journalist and, although she did have a notebook, there was nothing written in it.

Not only did she keep Tracy busy for a short time, she was also about to distract Diet Smith the same way. She must be Ace’s “distraction,” after all.

While long and sometimes winding this is turning into a very interesting tale…..

Light dawns on marblehead.

Son of a gun! Looks like quite a few of us were right about ol’ Briar Rose! I wonder if Jonathan K is going to change his avatar again?

I’m actually surprised that Tracy or any other police officer would give such an interview without verifying the reporter’s credentials in advance. But the needs of the story will always outweigh the needs of proper procedure.

That Tracy! He’s such a media whore!

The police department doesn’t vet people claiming to be reporters wanting an interview until after the interview is over? That makes no sense. And, if their routine procedure is to grant interviews to anyone who wanders in off the streets and asks for one, why did Tracy feel a need to look up credentials after the fact?

What a shame we didn’t verify her credentials before the interview! But then where would our story be?

What a shocking turn of events! Who would have guessed? Well, most of us.

Wouldn’t be shocked if this is another Flattop relative, given the slight physical resemblance.

Despite his obvious chagrin over this turn of events, Tracy’s nevertheless keeping his hat cocked at a jaunty angle (panel 3).

Too many characters in this story. It jumps from one to another. To see when Ms. Rose was last seen, you have to go back to September 19th.

There is no way Hollywood could take this story line and make a movie of it…no way!

Notebooks are a must. In any of my P.I. stories, when one of them poses as a reporter, in order to dredge up information, they ALWAYS keep one handy. The theory (which always pans out) being that it helps the interviewee give more information than they would have without the prop.

1-CHIEF: I need to talk to you about our line up practices, Tracy.

DT: What’s the problem, Chief? We almost always get a confirmed I.D.

2-CHIEF: I’m told, via hundreds of law suits against the city, that it’s the way you populate the line up. You find one person who fits the suspect’s description, say a red-headed girl with freckles and then load the rest of the line-up with black and brown people, blondes and maybe even a couple of MEN. You gotta start putting in people who ALL fit the suspect’s general description from now on.

3-DT: That’s really gonna hurt my clearance rate, Chief.

CHIEF: Not necessarily, boy-o. You’ll just have to work the witness during the I.D. process.

DT: Like, tell them it’s Number 3?

CHIEF: Something a little more subtle. I like to fake a “telling” cough when they land on the person I like for the crime.

DT: Gotcha. Like ”cough cough THAT’S THE ONE cough”

CHIEF: YOU GOT IT!

“I remembered her as a kid in a gang lineup, years ago.” Of course you did. (And here I thought that interview was just an excuse for Tracy to admit he’s 110 years old. Who knew it would advance the plot?)

“A hot redhead is coming to interview you. She’s also evil.”

“Niiiice! But I can’t hook up with evil women anymore. The last one framed me for murder.”

No-o-o-o-o! Say it ain’t so! My dream girl is a bad girl.

Maybe this is a sign. Possibly the girl I encountered years ago (to whom Briar Rose bears a strong resemblance) might have taken the same route.

The line up….her face….she must have been a shop lifter. While it might be possible, I cannot see her there for writing bad checks.

“That reporter, Ms. Rose was an imposter”. While Tracy gave her general information, in the back of his mind does he wonder if anything he told her could be used against him. Chief Patton steered her to Tracy so he does not come away from this with clean hands either.

Well,looks like the cynics were right about the “reporter”.I hate it when cynics are right.

Time to install an old fashioned “Dick Tracy Teleguard” camera in the time machine room;self-powered and tamper-proof from Apparatus t ricks.Let the old protect the new.

….yes, warn that cigar-puffing, sentimental, over-trusting old fool…..she’ll steal his heart away!!……….

I had some suspicions.

MOVIE QUOTE—-

“Where’s that ‘all for science’ attitude?

“I left it in my other suit”——“THE TINGLER”—-1959.

The (as it turns out) insidious Ms. Briar Rose is, I suspect, mostly a device to get Tracy involved with his old pal Diet Smith and sussing out that the Time Drone is at risk. I don’t think the red-headed wench will otherwise actually do very much in the rest of the story, unless she is even more evil than we are being led to believe at this point.

Is she another card trick, undercover for Ace of Spades, or is she operating for some other entity? I don’t think she is a solo act, in any case….