three

Episode 3 of 4

Ruth prodded the frog with her finger. "If you give me warts, I'm going to
beat the living hell out of you. You sounded like a bullfrog. Is it really
you?"

The frog flicked out its tongue and snared an ant. "That's Janet.
She'll eat anything." Joanne pointed at the frog's forearm. "Look, there's a
birthmark just like Janet has."

Lucy finished her drink, waved at the waitress and held up four
fingers. "I'll bet there are more frogs where those girls disappeared. I
heard a girl disappeared from Mulberry Street yesterday. The poor thing is
over there hopping around wondering what happened to her."

Ruth touched the frog's rear leg. "Nice pretty fat legs."

"Don't even think about it." Lucy pulled the frog closer to her
side of the table.

Joanne waited until the four drinks were on the table. "What do
you supposed happened? How did she become a frog?"

Lucy took a big drink, leaned forward and lowered her voice. "You
guys have heard of Jack the Ripper, haven't you? What we have here is Jack
the Frogmaker. Somehow he kisses the girls and they turn into frogs."

"Buuuullruuum!"

"Did you hear that? Janet's agreeing with me." She used her straw to suck up
some gin and blew it into the frog's mouth.

"Buullruuuum, buuullruuum."

"Oh, my God, it is Janet. Janet always makes noises after drinking a gin and
tonic." Joanne lowered her face to get closer to the frog. "Janet, what ever
happened to you?"

"Buuullruuum!"

"Janet wants another drink." Lucy hurriedly blew gin into the frog's mouth.