• (page 71) That was the sort of technique cops used on suspects, not fellow professionals." Nudger's nervous stomach warns him that the police may not be buying his story, that he may be a suspect. Nudger contends that he discovered the body that morning and that Stone had to have been murdered the night before. What clue in the story so far might help conclude that Stone had been murdered not in the morning but some time at night?

• (page 72) Sometimes in detective stories the absence of something that should be present is a more significant clue than the presence of something that shouldn't be there. Which important item seems to be missing from the scene of the crime? (To have another look: review both Stone's actions in the beginning of the story and Nudger's account to the detectives about the arrangements he had made with Stone.)

• (page 73) Where do you think Nudger can possibly look that the police didn't because they couldn't see? (The police say they "already checked under the body" and "did everything but take the damn desk apart.")

• (page 74) This is a crucial clue: it is the message that Stone "scribbled hastily at the bottom of the paper he was working on." Try to decipher it. What possible meanings does each of what appears to be three distinct elements have for you? What possible meanings might they have in combination? What might they have meant to Dwight Stone?

• (page 75) If Stone was born during Eisenhower's first presidential campaign, that would mean that he was born in the year 1952. How does that fact help you with any other part of the message Stone scribbled?

• (page 76) Based on the specific details of this paragraph, what building has Detective Allen driven his partner and Nudger to? Why do you think Allen has gone there, of all places?

• (page 77) Can you answer Detective Byrnes' questions and solve the puzzle? Consider the possibility that Byrnes' questions contain red herrings (false clues) that have distracted you.

 

1. Detective Byrnes' first comment to Detective Allen after reading the combination of letters and numerals — DDS 10752 LIBRA — was: "Libra. Don't tell me this turns out to be another one of your damn zodiac cases." How did this comment influence the reasoning of all the detectives in the story who were trying to break the code of Stone's message? How did Byrnes' comment affect your trying to beat him, Allen and Nudger to the solution of the puzzle?

2. Sometimes when we look head-on at something we narrow our focus too much and get fixated on just one possible meaning. If we don't look from a different distance, angle, slant or perspective (this kind of thinking is called "lateral thinking"), we may miss out completely on the more accurate view from the sidelines. "Lateral thinking" encourages a kind of reasoning process that unlocks us from our traditional or automatic way of looking at things so that we don't jump to conclusions and block out other possibilities.

3. What does Nudger later offer as a second possible meaning of DDS? What connection does Allen make between Nudger's less-than-serious explanation of the meaning of DDS and what LIBRA might refer to? How is Allen making use of lateral thinking?

4. Byrne[s] asks Allen why Stone wrote LIBRA after the letters and numbers of the Dewey Decimal System. What explanation for LIBRA is Nudger, at last, able to supply?

This story features a "hotshot city-slicker P.I." (a private investigator by the name of Nudger) whose friend, another private investigator by the name of Dwight Stone, has been murdered. Officially conducting the investigation, however, is a team of two policemen (homicide detectives) employed by the small town in which the crime has taken place.

When it comes time for you to create your own detective character, whether he or she is a police officer, private investigator ("P.I." or "private eye"), or detective, you will need to decide not only what kind of portrait to paint but also how visible that portrait is. In other words, some writers of detective fiction have very detailed detectives and others are barely sketched in.

In this story, you might have expected Nudger to solve the crime since he is the one who realizes that the rolltop desk 's top needs to be examined. But it is actually Detective Allen who makes the connections in the body of evidence necessary for understanding the meaning of DDS 10752 LIBRA.

In preparation for creating your own detective, list in separate columns the character traits and personality features that are stated or implied in the story "DDS 10752 LIBRA" that help you to distinguish among the three "detectives" in its cast of characters.