The Nine-Mile Walk
Page 2
The telephone rang at last. I picked it up and listened. Then I said, “Okay,” and turned to Nicky. “One of them tried to escape through the kitchen, but Winn had someone stationed at the back and they got him.”
“That would seem to prove it,” said Nicky With a frosty little smile.
I nodded agreement.
He glanced at his watch. “Gracious,” he exclaimed, “I wanted to make an early start on my work this morning, and here I’ve already wasted all this time talking with you!”
I let him get to the door. “Oh, Nicky,” I called, “what was it you set out to prove?”
“That a chain of inferences could be logical and still not be true,” he said.
“Oh.”
“What are you laughing at?” he asked snappishly, and then he laughed, too.
About the Author
Born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1908, Harry Kernel-man was the creator of perhaps one of the most famous religious sleuths: Rabbi David Small. His writing career began with short stories for Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine featuring New England college professor Nicky Welt, the first of which, "The Nine Mile Walk," is considered to be a classic (the Welt stories were later grouped into a collection with the same title). The Rabbi Small series began in 1964, with Friday the Rabbi Slept Late. It went on to become a bestseller, and won Kemelman an Edgar for "Best First Novel" in 1965. Kemelman died in 1996.