SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: CLANCY AND THE SUBWAY JUMPER

 "Clancy and the Subway Jumper"  by "Robert L. Pike" (Robert L. Fish) (first published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, December 1961)

Robert L. Fish (1912-1981) was a consulting engineer who, in 1953, was sent to Rio de Janero to oppen a plastics factory.  He stayed in brazil for nine years, using the experience as the background for his ten novels about policeman Captain Jose de Silva.  His first novel, The Fugitive, featuring de Silva, won the Edgar Award in 1963 for Best First Novel.  Fish also garnered an Edgar for his short story "Moonlight Gardener" (Argosy, December 1971).  Under his own name, Fish published five books about Kek Huuygens. a Polish smuggler using a Dutch name and an American passport.  His Murder Lreague Trilogy features three elderly down-on-their-luck mystery writers.  As "Robert L. Pike," he wrote three books about Lieutenant Clancy, a gruff New York cop.  The first book in that series, Mute Witness, was transformed through the magic of Hollywood, into the Steve McQueen film Bullitt, in which -- unlike clancy -- Steve McQueen drove cars.  (I saw Bullitt in a movie theater when it came out while I was dating Kitty; we here holding hands and, at a certain point in the film, Kitty jumped, startled, and nearly ripped my thumb off; I still have not forgiven McQueen.)  Also as "Pike," Fish wrote four books about San fRancisco cop Jim Reardon, a character from the Bullitt film.  Among his amny other books, Fish completed The Assassination Bureau, Ltd., an unfinished novel by Jack London, and a biography of soccer star Pele.  Since 1984, the Mystery Writers of America have awarded the Robert L. Fish Award for the best first short story by an american writer.  

(Of all Fish's writings, the stories of Schlock Homes of 221B Bagel Street are dearest to my heart.  Narrated by Homes's friend Watney, these parodies are pitch perfect and unroariously funny,) 

"Clancy and the Subway Jumper" was the first of four Clancy stories to appear in EQMM and marks the first appearance of the character in print.  Clancy had just been transferred from the 47th precint to the 52nd the week before and had not yet been able to get close to his men,  While standing in back of a squadroom poker game, he got a callabout a subway jumper on the 86 IRT.  Rather than disturb the game, Clancy decided to take the call himself.  The mangles body was unrecognizble, but the corpse's wallet showed him to be Caper Kelly, an almost legendary crook who drove a cab as a front for his less than legal activities.  Kelly was never known to be in this part of the city, preferring his own turf.  He also drove his cab everywhere and never used the subway sytem, so why had he been here?  Witnesses stated that he just jumped in from of the subway car without warning.  There was no one around him, so he wasn't pushed, and the witness said he did not trip.  Everything pointed to suicide but that was something no one could imagine Kelly doing.  Kelly's cab was found a few blocks away, a new model.  Two things stood out:  the ashtray in the back of the fromt seat was missing, perhaps stolen by someone, and the overhead light did not seem to work -- for a car that new, both items seemed strange.  In his workman-like manner, Clancy solves the mystery before the night is over.

A brief and perhaps minor story, but it gives a glimpse of a by-the-books, honest cop who methodically works at doing his job and does not participate in wild car chases over the streets of San Francisco.