No 13017, Tuesday 18 Aug 20, Gridman

Solution to 26A has been deliberately left unsolved and is to be answered only by a non-regular/novice commenter, with proper annotation. Those who have answered earlier in the week, please give others a chance.

ACROSS
1   Short-cut, cut vegetable (7) PARSNIP {PARe}{SNIP}
5   Hint the point’s broken (3-3) TIP-OFF [DD] (Correction {TIP}{OFF} - See comments)
9   Talisman loses edge in racing site (5) ASCOT mASCOT
10 Poet has no direction for Indian dish said to be stew (9) POTPOURRI {POeT}{POURRI}(~puri)
11 See old boy’s ill-written verse (7) OBSERVE {OB}{VERSE*}
12 Farmer is hospitable after admitting fifty (7) PEASANT PlEASANT
13 Slow rate is sticking point with learner (5) CRAWL {CRAW}{L}
14 Dismounted — in no position to control (3,6 ) OFF SADDLE [C&DD]
16 Fair goal (9) OBJECTIVE [DD]
19 Brother beginning to appreciate a relative’s foundation (5) BASIS {B}{Ap...e}{SIS}
21 Hardy of the French mob lacks a follower (7) DURABLE{DU}{RABbLE}
23 Was somehow greeting on Long Island in a foreign language (7) SWAHILI {WAS*}{HI}{LI}
24 Being lax, I got a blob for musical accompaniment (9) OBBLIGATO*
25 Continue to play with stick? (5) BATON {BAT ON}
26 Lives once site’s cleaned up by removing a bit of encumbrance (6) ?X?S?S  (Addendum - EXISTS {EX}{SITeS}* - See comments)
27 Real networking goes on forever (7) ETERNAL {REAL+NET}*

DOWN
1   Instrument of a key player with some squeeze (5,9) PIANO ACCORDION [CD]

2   Tricks have ferreted out old transport vehicle (7) RICKSHA [T]

3   Brown’s up on mountain that is unspoiled (7) NATURAL {TAN<=}{URAL}
4   Sausage found to be no peppier (9) PEPPERONI*

5   Infant raised to do a simple sum (3,2) TOT UP {TOT}{UP}
6   Expert sailor’s up with a fair share arrangement (3,4) PRO RATA {PRO}{TAR<=}{A}
7   Presumptuous female or child (7) FORWARD {F}{OR}{WARD}
8   Gesture to the barber to cut one’s hair? Not exactly (8,6) DISTRESS SIGNAL [DD]
15 Releases quality type of fruit (9) FREESTONE {FREES}{TONE}
17 Not one new hurt! Fight in court area (4,3) JURY BOX {inJURY}{BOX}
18 Drivers who get hailed from a pickup line (7) CABBIES [CD]
19 Bush’s beginning on leisurely walk (7) BRAMBLE {Bush}{RAMBLE} Bush in defintion and wordplay

20 Struck by a Pole with a glove (7) SMITTEN {S}{MITTEN}
22 PM’s tests? (5) EXAMS {EX AM's}

Reference List
Direction = E, Old boy = OB, Fifty = L, Brother = B, Of the in French = DU, Follower of A = B, Sailor = TAR, Female = F, New = N, Pole = S

Dr RKE's TalePiece

Chris FREESTONE was in the restaurant of the Royal Berkshire Hotel near ASCOT.  This was a historic country mansion converted to a hotel. The fragrance of the POTPOURRI could just about offset the musty odour from the aging carpets. A lone Negro PIANO ACCORDION player sat in a corner playing a haunting melody. This muscular musician had a clean-shaven face and pate. While he waited for his order of roast PARSNIP and PEPPERONI to be served, he was turning over in his mind the disjointed facts of the case he was investigating.

Chief Inspector Freestone, from the Homicide Squad of the Scotland Yard, had been called by the Berkshire police, after a PEASANT had discovered a young woman’s body by the blueberry BRAMBLE in his farm. Freestone had OBSERVEd that she seemed to have been bludgeoned with a BATON. Murder for gain was not the OBJECTIVE as all her jewellery and wallet were intact. She had not been sexually assaulted. Something did not TOT UP. The only TIP OFF was her phone, from which she had called a number 3 times, in about 10 minutes before being murdered. She had probably wanted to send a DISTRESS SIGNAL but to whom and why? The local police had done a commendable job in tracing her identity from the phone as Elizabeth Hill, 24, a receptionist at the Royal Berkshire Hotel. They had been stumped by the fact that the last called number belonged not to a person but to the local taxi aggregator service. In his enquiry with the cab service, Freestone had learned that the moment a call was placed on that number, the location of the phone would be shown up on their computer system and that every call would get recorded. Freestone had to take the help of the whiz kids in Cybercrime to probe those records. They clearly indicated a change in location from the first call to the third of about 4 miles. Obviously, she could not have been walking and must have been in a car. Why would she call a cab while already in a car? And why didn’t she call the police or a trusted friend if she had felt threatened? This NATURALLY meant that she was riding with someone she knew but did not trust. He wondered if the BASIS of such an unusual act could be to mark the route of her final journey. Freestone then EXAMined the photos on Hill’s phone and one hirsute African was seen with her in many selfies. “I have seen this face somewhere, where, where?” wondered the inspector. In a lightbulb moment the answer came to him as he looked around the restaurant. He made a few more enquiries without attracting attention and then he knew.

The accordion player having finished his performance went over to each table to be tipped by the customers. He came to Inspector Freestone’s table. The Inspector arose unhurriedly and in a gesture of shaking hands with the performer, suddenly handcuffed him. “Mr.John Levine, you are under arrest for the murder of Ms.Elizabeth Hill”.  The man muttered a curse in SWAHILI but caved in without protest.

PS: It was later revealed to those in the JURY BOX that Levine had been SMITTEN with love Ms.Hill. He was incensed when he had caught her in an intimate moment with her new boyfriend. The new boyfriend was the one who operated the computer at the cab service, to whom she had sent her location while on her last journey.