The butcher rose from his chair with a slow grin.
"It seems to me,” said he, “as if that ox-gall was what you might call a blind, eh, sir?"
And Thorndyke smiled an inscrutable smile.
* * * *
When we returned to town on the following day we were a party of four, which included Mr. Harold Stopford. The verdict of “Death by misadventure,” promptly returned by the coroner's jury, had been shortly followed by his release from custody, and he now sat with his brother and me, listening with rapt attention to Thorndyke's analysis of the case.
"So, you see,” the latter concluded, “I had six possible theories of the cause of death worked out before I reached Halbury, and it only remained to select the one that fitted the facts. And when I had seen the cattle-truck, had picked up that sequin, had heard the description of the steers, and had seen the hat and the wounds, there was nothing left to do but the filling in of details."
"And you never doubted my innocence?” asked Harold Stopford.
Thorndyke smiled at his quondam client.
"Not after I had seen your colour-box and your sketch,” said he, “to say nothing of the spike."
Copyright (c) 2008 R. Austin Freeman
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Department: SOLUTION TO THE MYSTERIOUS CIPHER
The last resting place of the body was a mere indentation in the forest floor, in appearance as peaceful as the hollow left by a sleeping fawn.
—Kathy Lynn Emerson
From “Death by Devil's Turnips” (AHMM, December 2003)
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Department: THE LINEUP
Terence Faherty, a former technical writer and pilot, has won the Shamus and Macavity awards for his short fictions and been nominated for the Edgar, the Anthony, and the Derringer. He is the creator of the Owen Keane and Scott Elliott series. He lives in Indianapolis, Indiana, with his wife, Jan.
David Edgerley Gates grew up in New England and now lives in Santa Fe. His short fiction has appeared in AHMM, A Matter of Crime, Story, and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, and anthologized in Best American Stories and World's Finest Mystery and Crime. He has been nominated for both the Shamus and Edgar awards. His forthcoming novel is titled Black Traffic.
Booked & Printed columnist ROBERT C. HAHN reviews mysteries for Publishers Weekly and New York Post, among other places, and is the former mystery columnist for the Cincinnati Post.
Robert S. Levinson's latest novel is In the Key of Death, published in March by Five Star. His AHMM short story from last year is the title piece of the new anthology, A Prisoner of Memory and 24 of the Year's Finest Crime and Mystery Stories. His play, Murder Times Two, premiered in June at the International Mystery Writers Festival at RiverPark Center in Owensboro, Kentuckey.
Author of the Herbie Sawyer series of stories set on Cape Cod in Massachussets, D. A. McGuire is a science teacher and writer from Bridgewater, Massachusetts. “Catch Your Death” is her twenty-second story for AHMM.
J. Rentilly is a Los Angeles-based journalist who covers film, music, and literature for a variety of national and international publications.
Darrell Schweitzeris the author of the novels The Mask of the Sorcerer, The Shattered Goddess, and Refugees from an Imaginary Country, as well as hundreds of short stories, mostly in the fantasy and science fiction field.
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Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine (ISSN:0002-5224), Vol. 53, No. 10, October 2008. Published monthly except for combined January/February and July/August double issues by Dell Magazines, a division of Crosstown Publications. Annual subscription $55.90 in the U.S.A. and possessions, $65.90 elsewhere, payable in advance in U.S. funds (GST included in Canada). Subscription orders and correspondence regarding subscriptions should be sent to 6 Prowitt Street, Norwalk, CT 06855. Or, to subscribe, call 1-800-220-7443. Editorial Offices: 475 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016. Executive Offices: 6 Prowitt Street, Norwalk, CT 06855. Periodical postage paid at Norwalk, CT and additional mailing offices. Canadian postage paid at Montreal, Quebec, Canada Post International Publications Mail, Product Sales Agreement No. 40012460. (c) 2008 by Dell Magazines, a division of Crosstown Publications, all rights reserved. Dell is a trademark registered in the U.S. Patent Office. The stories in this magazine are all fictitious, and any resemblance between the characters in them and actual persons is completely coincidental. Reproduction or use, in any manner, of editorial or pictorial content without express written permission is prohibited. All stories in this magazine are fiction. No actual persons are designated by name or character. Submissions must be accompanied by a self-addressed stamped envelope. The publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or artwork. POSTMASTER: Send changes to Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, 6 Prowitt Street, Norwalk, CT 06855. In Canada return to: Quebecor St. Jean, 800 Blvd. Industrial, St. Jean, Quebec J3B 8G4. GST #R123054108.
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