Wednesday, January 13, 2021

"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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4 comments:

  1. I've liked what I've read of Leinster's science fiction. I need to read more of his work.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He was one of the pioneer SFF writers who managed to weather the changes wrought in pulp fiction over time. Always worth a read, whether in SFF or crime fiction.

      By the way, I tried to place a comment on Vintage Pop Fictions about MOON ZERO TWO a while back but got kicked out for some reason.

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    2. By the way, I tried to place a comment on Vintage Pop Fictions about MOON ZERO TWO a while back but got kicked out for some reason.

      That's weird. Comments there aren't even moderated, except on old posts. I can't find your comment in the waiting moderation or the spam folders. It may have been a temporary Blogger glitch.

      What I find does sometimes happen with Blogger is that if you try to preview a comment it just disappears into the void.

      Delete
    3. "if you try to preview a comment": That's exactly what happened. It's even happened here. Go figure.

      Delete