"It Was All So Needless, So Utterly Stupid!"

"Pay for Your Peanuts."
By Tom Thursday (pseudonym, 1894-1974).
First appearance: Crack Detective, May 1943.
Short short story (6 pages).
Online at Pulpgen HERE.

"Andy Dann was a rookie cop who had unorthodox ideas about the way a police officer should treat the taxpayers. And, whether the rest of the force liked it or not, Andy’s methods paid off!"

A girl can't be held responsible when a man is consumed with jealousy, can she? Snippets:

. . . Farr was lying face to the floor. The two bullet holes in his head were almost within an inch of each other. It couldn't have been suicide because no gun was found.  . . .

. . . The dead attorney was a peanut addict. He had not missed a single day without buying a bag of nuts . . .

. . . strange things happen to the human mind. A person may be an honorable citizen for years; then, a cog misses in his brain, and he or she goes off his base.  . . .

. . . "I understand that it is the duty of all officers to be on the alert and I think I have a sound theory about the murder of Thomas Farr."  . . .

. . . Shafts of moonlight half-lit the apartment. All was quiet. Then his nostrils caught a distinctive odor. There was no other scent precisely like it. Andy knew it was blood.  . . .

Resources:
- Wikipedia HERE and FictionMags HERE.

Category: Sometimes virtue can be more than its own reward