"Where Is Alice?"

Sometimes the solution to a mystery isn't out there but in here.

"The Memory of Mars."
By Raymond F. Jones (1915-94).
First appearance: Amazing Stories, December 1961.
Novelette (32 pages in PDF).
Online HERE.

The doctor can't believe it:

. . . "The woman you brought in here last night—your wife—is completely un-normal in her internal structure. Her internal organs cannot even be identified. She is like a being of some other species. She is not—she is simply not human, Mr. Hastings." . . .

. . . and neither can Mel:

. . . "It must not be Alice. But if that's the case, where is Alice?"

"That might even be a matter for the police," said Dr. Winters. "There are many things yet to be learned about this mystery." . . .

And then there are the dreams:

. . . THE nightmare came again that night. Worse than Mel could ever remember it. As always, it was a dream of space, black empty space, and he was floating alone in the immense depths of it. There was no direction. He was caught in a whirlpool of vertigo from which he reached out with agonized yearning for some solidarity to cling to.

There was only space.

After a time he was no longer alone.  . . .

Resources:
- Wikipedia's article about Jones is HERE, ably supplemented by The FictionMags Index HERE and the ISFDb HERE.

Several of Jones's stories were combined to make a movie.

Category: Science fiction

"It Was Perfect, You Rotten Little Snake, Perfect"

(1) "Footprints."

By C. K. M. Scanlon (a Standard Publications house pseudonym).
First appearance: Popular Detective, September 1935.
Short short short story (1 page).
Online at the Pulpgen Archive (HERE).

Like Othello, a man succumbs to "a jealousy so strong that judgment cannot cure"—mistakenly thinking that two bullets might be the solution:

. . . “Bart Tyson,” the sheriff announced, “has been found dead—shot in the back by some yellow-livered skunk!” 

(2) "Blood for Breakfast."

By C. K. M. Scanlon (a Standard Publications house pseudonym).
First appearance: Popular Detective, December 1935.
Short short short story (2 pages).
Online at the Pulpgen Archive (HERE).

Sometimes when you win, you lose:

. . . “You were a fool to flash a roll as big as you did in a strange town. I seen it when you bought them cigars.”

Category: Biters get bit

"A Crimson Fountain Cascaded Up From the Low Cut Neck of Her Black Dress As She Slumped Down"

"Crime by Chart."
By Harl Vincent (real name: Harold Vincent Schoepflin, 1893-1968).
First appearance: Exciting Detective, March 1941.
Short story (11 pages).
No longer online.

"Detective Jerry Cochran Traces a Sinister Murder Pattern and Spikes a Wily Killer's Design for Dying!"

An industrial accident or murder? What do you think? This story is an instance of where the author's knowledge of mechanical engineering has a bearing on the plotline. A few passages follow:

. . . Where the coupling had been, there wasn’t anything but smashed flooring and twisted girders underneath. There was a big hole in the brick wall behind, where they said a hundred pound chunk had bulleted through and landed two hundred feet away out in the yard. Another chunk, about the same size, had just about torn off MacDermott’s head. Funny, he happened to be there just at the right time.

~ ~ ~

. . . “Chauncey MacDermott died today.”

“So what?” Jerry snapped. “And who’s he?”

“He was General Super of the DeLacey Pump Works, just outside of Frankford. And he had a straight life coverage for fifty thousand bucks. For six months he held it, and now he’s supposed to be croaked by an accident in his own shop. Double indemnity, too.” Dudley’s voice became almost hysterical at the end.

“Don’t cry about it,” said Cochran, sighing. “So I suppose there’s a one-year suicide clause in the policy. And you want to prove he bumped himself off, is that it?”

“Anything you can learn, Deke,” Dudley said. “It’s fishy, somehow—a hunch of mine.”

~ ~ ~

. . . “Hey, you!” The snarled words were almost hissed in his ear.

The investigator whirled to walk right into a vicious punch that caught him under the chin and snapped his head back. He saw a million stars and sat down abruptly. A kick in the ribs tipped him over.

~ ~ ~

. . . "I’m the undertaker," said Jerry, mournfully. "The guy who finally caught up with you."

Resources:
- Read the Wikipedia article about Harl Vincent HERE, the Online Science Fiction Encyclopedia about him HERE, and The FictionMags Index of his short fiction HERE.

Category: Another one of those incredible bumpoffs with perfect timing

"I Sometimes Defend Men Who Are Accused of Crime"

"The Case of the Irate Witness."
By Erle Stanley Gardner (1889-1970).
Found in Collier's Weekly, January 17, 1953.
Collected in The Case of the Irate Witness, A Perry Mason Mystery and Other Stories (1970) for sale HERE.
Short short story (5 pages).
Starts online HERE and finishes HERE (scroll down to page 39).

"Perry Mason refused to believe the proof against his client. The district attorney was too smug. The evidence was too good . . ."

As it turns out, the witness has a right to be irate when Perry Mason proves he's in possession of payroll money stolen from a large corporation's safe:

. . . "They're laying for you up there," Paul Drake warned. "Better watch out, Perry. That district attorney has something up his sleeve, some sort of surprise that's going to knock you for a loop."

. . . "I'm going to issue the subpoena," Judge Haswell said, testily, "and for your own good, Mr. Mason, the testimony had better be relevant."

Resource:
- We recently encountered our author writing about real life crime HERE.

Artwork by Mort Drucker

Category: "Perry Mason" says it all

True Crime from Erle Stanley Gardner

". . . the most important clue in the case was invisible to all human eyes."

"The Case of the Invisible Circle."
By Erle Stanley Gardner (1889-1970).
True life crime account (5 pages).
Found in Mercury Mystery Book-Magazine, July 1956.
Online HERE.

"A beautiful coed is raped and murdered. Only one clue is found, and that so small that it is invisible to the naked eye. Here, Erle Stanley Gardner recounts how one tiny lead enabled the police to bring a murderer to justice . . ."

The creator of Perry Mason, Lester Leith, The Patent Leather Kid, and other memorable fictional characters helps to solve a real life crime:

ANY VETERAN INVESTIGATOR WILL tell you that it's very easy to overlook the most significant clue in a murder case. I remember one such case where the most significant clue was a circle on the naked right hip of a beautiful young coed. This girl had been murdered in a sex crime. The significant thing about that circle on her hip was that no one ever saw it.  . . .

. . . As it turned out that murder case had all of the weird, bizarre facets one could well imagine. There were clues so utterly perplexing, there was a mystery so completely baffling that it would make the wildest fiction tale seem tame in comparison.  . . .

"The Case of the Knockout Bullet."
By Erle Stanley Gardner (1889-1970).
True life crime account (5 pages).
Found in Mercury Mystery Book-Magazine, September 1956.
Online HERE.

"Almost everyone knows that Stanley Ketchel was one of the great boxing champions of all time, but many have forgotten that he was murdered—and under baffling circumstances. All the evidence pointed to a gambling syndicate yet the case was obscured by a missing diamond stickpin, a lucky bracelet, and a pretty cook. Here Erle Stanley Gardner relates how this strange case was solved by not following the logical clues . . ."

Once again jealousy rears its lethal head:

BY A TWIST OF IRONY, THE FAMED sports celebrity destined for death at the hand of a murderer, that autumn morning long ago, had been known to millions as "The Michigan Assassin."

It was an appellation in no way related to the crime of murder, in its customary meaning. Sportswriters had created it as a tag for a brilliant young boxer as he fought his way in the prize ring to a world's championship title.

So, oddly, in this case it was to be the "assassin" who would be the victim. And it was a bullet instead of the fist of an opponent that delivered the knockout that ended forever the career of Stanley Ketchel, world's middleweight champion of his day.  . . .

Stanley Ketchel, 1886-1910

Resources:
- There's plenty to learn about Erle Stanley Gardner on Wikipedia (HERE) and The Thrilling Detective website (HERE); the first of many pages listing his shorter works is on The FictionMags Index (HERE).
- As for The Patent Leather Kid, we covered some of his exploits HERE.
- Craig Rice was another mystery fiction author who wrote about real life crime; go HERE for more.

Category: True crime

"This Was the Secret, Scientific Death"

"The Puzzle Duel."
By Miles J. Breuer, M.D. (1889-1945[7?]).
Short short short story (4 pages).
Found in Amazing Stories Quarterly, Winter 1928.
Online (with typos and faded text) HERE (scroll to page 133) and HERE (FlipBook or PDF).

In his introduction to the story, a locked room mystery of sorts, editor Hugo Gernsback informs us:

OUR author, who is also a practicing physician, is well known to readers of Amazing Stories. Here Dr. Breuer has given us a most astonishing story with an novel theme and a surprising ending, thrown in for good measure. We promise you an interesting twenty minutes with this story.

However, although this is Amazing Stories, the flagship of science fiction magazines, "The Puzzle Duel" isn't really SF:

. . . Again my mind returned to the mystery. The only window in the room was closed and locked on the inside. Outside, five stories of smooth, gray brick wall stretched down to the ground, with a feeble wisp of ivy here and there. There was no exit save through our sleeping room; this had one door into the corri-dor, locked on the inside. No one could have gotten in or out unobserved. What a foolish idea! Of course no one had gotten in or out. This was the secret, scien-tific death . . .

. . . I stood off from the crowd and reflected. Things seemed to balance now. Appropriately, by the hand of a man several days in his grave.

Resources:
- You can find a lot more information about Miles Breuer on Wikipedia HERE and the ISFDb HERE.

Category: Fiction with science but not science fiction

True Crime from Craig Rice

"People are not murdered by strangers. They are murdered by their friends. And often by their best friend."

"The Murdered Magdalen."
By Craig Rice (real name: Georgiana Ann Randolph Craig, 1908-57).
True life crime account (5 pages).
Found in Mercury Mystery Book-Magazine, October 1955.
Online HERE.

"Craig Rice, best known for such mystery fiction as her 'Home Sweet Homicide,' has also delved often into the realm of true crime. Here, in a tale possibly even stranger than many of her famous fictional stories, Miss Rice tells of a young prostitute whose determination to go straight led her, ironically, into a fiery death . . ."

When Craig Rice took an interest in real life crime, she brought her fiction writing skills with her:

BOOGIE-WOOGIE JAM SESSIONS IN A deserted farmhouse, murder by fire, and a manhunt that rivaled anything ever seen in a movie thriller, combined to pro-vide the police of a dozen cities and the Federal Bureau of Investigation with a neat puzzle in crime detection back in the Fall of 1945.  . . .

"The Air-Tight Alibi."
By Craig Rice (real name: Georgiana Ann Randolph Craig, 1908-57).
True life crime account (5 pages).
Found in Mercury Mystery Book-Magazine, February 1956.
Online HERE.

"If young and beautiful Minnie Tucker had been unfaithful to her husband, you could hardly blame her. Felix Tucker, after all, had been a cruel man. But the fact that he beat his wife was not conclusive evidence that he might also have killed her. Besides, there were two other men in Minnie's life . . ."

Life abounds in ironies—and so does death:

WHEN BEAUTIFUL, YOUNG MINNIE Margaret Tucker finished her washing that May morning in 1942 and poured out the water over the side of the porch, she did not know that she had just set the trap that would catch her murderer.  . . .

Resources:
- If you'd like to read more about Craig Rice, the crime fiction author, go HERE, HERE, and HERE; a list of her shorter writings is HERE.

- Jeffrey Marks's definitive biography of Rice, as both Kindle and discounted paper texts, is HERE.

Category: True crime