PROFESSOR DETECTIVE by Bruce Cook
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Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2021 4:35 pm Post subject: PROFESSOR DETECTIVE by Bruce Cook
PROFESSOR DETECTIVE — a story concept by Bruce Cook
I came up with this today and just felt like sharing it. Hopefully by daughter, Ticket2theMoon will like it.
An elderly college professor who was once a respected police detective — now retired — is teaching a class in criminology at major university.
But he is struggling to convince his class of young students that his life-long methods actually work. They don't even believe that he was once a famous investigator back in his prime!
But one day a former colleague (who is himself close to retirement) drops in to plead with his old friend to help solve a new series of cases which might well have been committed years ago by the same young killer whose cases were never solved!
The killer would now be middle aged, and the M.O. of the recent crimes fits the former unsolved murders. The professor's former colleague is convinced that his former mentor could finally catch this brutal killer!
The professor is intrigued by the possibility that his illustrious career might finally include the solution to these infamous, unsolved crimes. He jumps at the chance to tackle the problem!
The professor selects three of his best young students to be his assistants — and in doing so they can learn criminology "first hand" from their investigation while they assist their beloved teacher.
However, when the professor generously offers his services to the police, the cocky young newly-promoted head of the homicide division scoffs at the suggestion that this elderly professor join the force!
The young police captain has never even heard of the professor before, so he scoffs at the idea that the professor can solve these new cases using his old fashioned methods!
The professor, in turn, disdains the new hi-tech procedures the police now use . . . until his three young students begin to show him that modern technology — combined with his time-honored methods — can prove to be powerfully effective!
The combination of the professor's vast experience and his young assistants' knowledge of modern technology turn out to be a power combination . . . and they solve the cases, finally bringing the killer to justice!
I think this would make a great movie AND a wonderful TV series.
Gord Green
You know that Conan Doyles inspiration for Sherlock Holmes was his old medical school professor Dr. Joseph Bell.
Bell taught Doyle the importance of deductive reasoning in reaching conclusions. Also he stressed the power of deep observation in solving problems. Doyle of course took these traits further and applied them to solving crimes.
Your "Professor Detective" seems to embrace that idea while his students are more adept at DNA, fingerprints and more "scientific" methods.
Great stories would come from the blending of all these methods while also causing conflicts between them in solving crimes!
Good springboard for some interesting tales!
There comes a time, thief, when gold loses its lustre, and the gems cease to sparkle, and the throne room becomes a prison; and all that is left is a father's love for his child.
trekriffic
Starship Navigator
Great idea but it sounds a lot like the TV series Instinct.
https://www.cbs.com/shows/instinct/[i]
A former CIA agent turned college professor is recruited by the police to team with an attractive female detective to help catch serial killers. Your idea adds the twist of finding a serial killer from the protagonists past but otherwise I think your idea is similar. Having said that I agree it would make good fodder for an entertaining television show or streaming.
Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2021 12:44 pm Post subject:
Thanks for the compliments, guys!
Part of the appeal for me is the idea that many of the professor's students and all the young detectives think he's just an old man whose investigative methods are obsolete and whose mind is well passed it's prime.
The fun parts in the story will be in the scenes when he uses his experience and instincts to come up with leads, while the young cops are dancing their hands around on their keyboards and trying to make the computers do all the legwork.
But the professor's three loyal students are even younger than the cops, and therefore they've been raised on the newest high-tech devices. They would combine their own skills with the professors old-school instincts.
This team of old-and-young minds would frequently trump the young detectives by combining the best of both worlds.
Add to this the fact that before the professor retired from the police force, he spent several years trying to find the serial killer. Even though he didn't succeed, he learned many important things about the killer, and he has theories about the man that aren't in the police files — or they're just being dismissed by the young cops as "unsupported suspicions".
The "leg work" for the professor and his team is often supplied by the three devoted students, doing things like going to local libraries and looking up archived newspaper stories NOT in digital form, written by reporters who dug into the case.
Based on info uncovered by the energetic and bright young students, the professor would go out and talk to the retired reporters themselves, along with any surviving relatives of the victims, asking them questions related to the professor's "gut feelings" about the case.
The very fact that the professor is a charming old man — and the students are attractive, intelligent, likable young people — would often work to their advantage when talking to folks who might possess valuable info that they were reluctant to share with "the cops" during the original investigation years earlier, as well as the people now being questioned about the current murders.
Throughout all this, the relationship between the professor and his young assistants is always one of teacher-and-students. The professor would constantly be "guiding their thinking" when they discussed clues and formed conclusions, rather than just telling them what the clues might mean.
After they'd been working on the case for a few weeks we'd see the professor asking questions just as often as he'd be giving orders. In other words, instead of saying —
"John, go to city's Hall of Records and find out who owned the house across the street from the house which the fifth victim lived in."
— he'd say instead —
"Here's the problem, my young Sherlocks. What's the quickest way to find out who lived in the house across the street in 1962?"
The students' hands would shoot up, just out habit, and they'd blurt out their suggestions.
"The gas company's database!"
"The pastor at the church we saw down the street!"
"The property tax records at city hall"
The professor would smile proudly and then say, "I'll buy lunch for the person who calls me first with the information."
And the three students would race out of the room, dodging around the desk where the startled young detectives are working on their computers.
One of these young cops has been openly critical of the old professor's "obsolete methods", and he turns to him with a scornful look as he says —
"They'll have a hard time getting people to talk to them. They don't have badges."
The professor leans back in his chair, pulls out his pipe, and starts packing it as he smiles and replies, "They don't need badges. They've got charm."
I would have him say-
"Why not just walk down the street and talk to the first senior citizen you see sitting on their front porch?
Ummm . . . right.
So, you think that senior citizens who lived in an old neighborhoods fifty years ago will be "sitting on their front porch" (something which houses rarely have anymore) and could still remember the names of people who lived across the street . . . a half-century earlier?
Gord, I suspect your reply is not entirely serious.
But all replies are welcome here on All Sci-Fi, because otherwise I'm just sitting here all alone, hoping I'm stimulating intelligent discussions with my posts.
Like this one, which I just had.
Suppose my story is set in Los Angeles, and most of it takes place in the LAPD Homicide Special Section (HSS).
One of the detectives there is an elderly man who is close to retirement. But he was a rookie cop back when the professor was a young detective working on the serial killer case, and he remembers the professor well.
We'll call him Lt. Robert (Bob) Sinclair.
The Chief of Detectives is a middle-aged man who's made his way up through the ranks, and he's been around long enough to have witnessed the change in police work that modern technology has caused — like cell phones which transmit fingerprints to the FBI database and receive near instant results!
We'll call him Capt. Neal Johnson.
These two men are completely sympathetic to the professor's struggle with the negative attitudes of the younger detectives, and both of the older men respect the professor's long history in law enforcement.
I guess I should give my aging hero a name, too. We'll call him Professor Arthur Remick.
The two detectives establish a friendly relationship with Prof. Remick, and the captain — who receives approval for his request to make Prof. Remick and his "assistants" official consultants on the serial killer's case, based on the professor's credentials as a retired detective who has worked on the case in the past, and the fact that he's a respected criminologist who teaches at a prestigious university.
This would give Prof. Remick and his students a protected status within the department, and it would polarize the opposing opinions of the older detectives and the younger ones, so that a fierce competition would develop.
The point of all this, guys, is that now we have two groups of people within the Homicide Special Section with opposing opinions of Prof. Remick's involvement in the investigation.
The young college-educated detectives think that the "old guys" like Capt. Johnson and Lt. Sinclair ought to retire soon, so that some of them can be promoted!
Meanwhile, both Johnson and Sinclair are hoping that Prof. Remick will catch the serial killer, close their decades-old case, and teach the young detectives that they aren't as smart as they thought!
The young guys would feel insulted by the imprecation that the experienced guys are smarter than they are, while the older guys are desperately hoping to put the cocky young up-starts in their place by solving the crimes themselves!
Meanwhile, the three students are happily consorting with the young detectives (both male and female), charming them into revealing info the detectives have learned in connection with the case. They manage to do this despite the fact that the young detectives are reluctant to share their info with their "competition" — the Old Guard, in the form of the captain, the lieutenant, and the professor!
Obviously I'm suggesting that the three students are either two guys and a girl, or two girls and a guy.
I'm leaning towards two girls and a guy, with one girl being blond and flirty — but surprisingly smart! The other one is brunette and beautiful — but so brilliant and independent that she intimidates the male detectives.
This puts the one male student in an awkward situation. Both girls are absolute gems . . . and despite his own intelligence, good looks, and confidence, the male student obviously has strong feelings for both the ladies!
The two girls know this, and they enjoy driving the guy crazy with flirtatious behavior on a regular basis.
And here's one last thought for today.
After our group of young-and-old investigators brilliantly crack the case and stun the LAPD, Prof. Remick opens his own private detective agency and hires his three star students to work there — earning enough money to eventually pay off their student loans and graduate from college with degrees in criminal law!
Just a thought, guys. Just a thought . . .
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