"If You Had Nothing To Do with It, You’ll Show Me What I Want To See, and Then I Can Go"

"Ink's Jinx."

By Anthony Clemens (Emile C. Tepperman, 1899-1951; HERE and HERE).

First appearance: Secret Agent X, September 1934.

Short short short story (3 pages).

Online at Archive.org (HERE; scroll down to page 119).

   "The incident of the pen had been annoying, but he’d covered every angle of that."

The ink hasn't had a chance to dry on his perfect crime, you might say, before the killer discovers that one little thing that he's overlooked. His prospects? They're written on the wind . . .

Main characters:

~ The victim: Jake Banff.

~ The perp: Kemmerer.

~ Others: Stoner, the cop on the beat at the Banff Metal Works; Mrs. Freling, the landlady, and Mr. Freling; Mrs. Reilly, from downstairs; and an unnamed police detective.

References and resources:

- "in the squalid tenement on the lower east side":

  "The bulk of immigrants who came to New York City in the late 19th and early 20th centuries came to the Lower East Side, moving into crowded tenements there." (See Wikipedia HERE.)

- "the red Parkinson pen":

   Probably an indirect reference to the Parker ink pen. "From the 1920s to the 1960s, before the development of the ballpoint pen, Parker was either number one or number two in worldwide writing instrument sales. In 1931, Parker created Quink (quick drying ink), which eliminated the need for blotting." (See Wikipedia HERE.)

- Roy Glashan has compiled an impressive collection of Emile Clemens Tepperman's stories at his deluxe library (HERE), two of which we've already covered: "Sleuth of the Airwaves" (HERE) and "The People Rest" (HERE).

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

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