The Case of the Sick Shovel

"Indian Sign."
By William Cunningham (1901-67).
First appearance: Collier's, December 10, 1949.

Reprinted in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, May 1952; EQMM (Australia), July 1953; and EQMM (U.K.), July 1953.

Short short short story (1 page, 1 illo).
Online at UNZ (HERE).

     "He could see when we were blind and speak when we were dumb."

When a young woman inexplicably goes missing, the best forensic investigator on the case will be someone who's never heard of latent fingerprints, much less a gas chromatograph . . .

Resource:
- FictionMags about William Meredith Cunningham: "Born and educated in Oklahoma; author of numerous detective stories in pulp magazines; active in leftist causes; director of the Federal Writers’ Project in Oklahoma; worked for Tass, the Soviet news agency in New York City 1940-1948."

The bottom line:

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