"You're Pinched"

SUICIDE OR MURDER? In real life what looks like a suicide sometimes turns out later to be murder, and vice versa. In today's story a smart policeman will be confronted with that conundrum, but to solve it he will have to consider the importance of a . . .

"Transfusion."

By Murray Leinster (Will F. Jenkins, 1896-1975).

Illustrator unknown.

First appearance: Popular Detective, February 1944.

Reprinted in Popular Detective (Canada), December 1944 and Triangle Quarterly, Fall 1945.

Short short short story (4 pages).

Online at Archive.org (HERE).

(Note: Text faded but readable.)

     "But the aspirins ain't aspirins."

It certainly looks like suicide, but a police investigator thinks the circumstantial evidence points another way . . . .

Principal characters:

~ Anna Martin:

  "He barged in, smashed some windows, and found his wife with her head in the gas-stove oven."

~ Bob Martin:

  "Suspecting him's absurd."

~ Harrison:

  "But you can't arrest a man if his wife commits suicide."

~ Murphy:

  ". . . looked at the written order, nodded, and went out once more."

~ Detective-Sergeant Larned:

  ". . . the darndest people do the darndest things! This is the dumbest trick I've ever seen. Killin' sticks out all over it."

Reference and resource:

- "Pajamas, toothbrush, and a box of aspirins.": "Aspirin is one of the most widely used medications globally, with an estimated 40,000 tonnes (44,000 tons) (50 to 120 billion pills) consumed each year." (Wikipedia HERE).

- About a year ago we highlighted Murray Leinster's Cold War SFFnal thriller, "The Psionic Mousetrap" (HERE). We will be checking in with the incredibly prolific Leinster (pronounced "Lenster") in the future.

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