Detective John Sanderson knocked on the door frame, wincing at the pain shooting through his hand. Damn arthritis. The captain looked up and gestured him in with a wave, never making eye contact.

“You asked to speak with me, Captain?” John eased himself into a chair. The captain finished off his note and closed the file on his desk. Purple flag, John noted. Must be dealing with the recent escalated gang activity.

“I wanted an update on the First National Bank robbery. Any leads on the case?”

John flipped open the black notebook he always carried with him. “Some. This is the most complex case I think I’ve ever dealt with, Captain. In all my years, I’ve never seen anything like it.” He scanned the page. “Are you familiar with ‘social media’? Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest?”

“I have two teenage daughters, Sanderson. What’s the link?” The barest hint of a smile graced the captain’s lips. John nodded briskly.

“It seems the robbers used something called a ‘hashtag’ to connect with the gang members for the heist. And the instructions themselves were all coded but if you know what to look for, it’s all laid out. Crystal clear.”

The captain leaned back in his chair, fingers tented before him. “How did you figure it out? Can’t say you strike me as a tweeter.” The smile ghosted across his face again. John forcibly relaxed his jaw before speaking.

“One of the new recruits was talking about this ongoing thread on Twitter involving the hashtag #secretpiefridge. Pretty funny stuff if you see them in isolation. He showed me a few then opened up the whole thread. If you have them continuous on a screen a coded pattern emerges laying out coordinates, exits, security, cameras…It’s a primer on bank robbery in some respects” John looked up from his notes to see the captain staring at him. Clearing his throat, he continued. “I’ve set the IT department on tracing the various IPs and pinpointing the key accounts sending the messages. It’ll take time to get it.”

“Good work, Sanderson.” The captain flipped open the file on his desk again, dismissing him. John stood up, groaning under his breath as his knees popped. As he turned to leave, the captain spoke.

“Nice to see even us old dogs can learn new tricks.”

“Yes sir.” John smiled as he walked out.

~*~*~

Every in-joke has a backstory, a moment when events coalesce into something memorably funny.

But you had to be there.

I know not everyone is on Twitter, so bear with me here. #hashtags can be fun, whimsical, serious, informative. We have one: #writeonedge. Hashtags can also function as a kind of code, a public nod to a private joke.

Sometimes they pass you by and you pause. “What? What was that?” And you can’t help but wonder what inspired that hashtag.

In that spirit, for Friday write a 400 word or less scene which shows the event(s) which led to this hashtag:

#secretpiefridge

And because I just can’t pass up the fun of a prompt I’ve used primer from this week’s Inspiration Monday over at BeKindRewrite.