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The Vanishing Victim

Short Story (2,710 words)

An art teacher has been bludgeoned to death and robbed while painting at a lake. An idiot boy who acts as a parking attendant has been arrested. He has the victim's purse in his pocket and bloodstains on his shirt. Can he be innocent?

The story is characterised by a lengthy and gentle interrogation carried out by a policeman and doctor which shows a fairly advanced understanding for its time of somebody we would now describe as 'having learning difficulties'.

John Bull, 15 April 1961

Included in the collection Crime and Detection, ed. John Higgins.