Alibi for Death

Where is the 'get out of jail' card when you are arrested as the only suspect in a locked room murder you did not commit? This scenario faces Dr. James Donaldson when a fellow physician was brutally murdered in the office building they share, and the keycard system indicates only Donaldson and the dead man were in the building. Donaldson's boss is Tom Bolling, chief of staff at the hospital where both men worked. Tom thinks the answer is to get the assigned detective, Rocky, off the case and get his friend, Homicide Detective Ron Looney, to investigate. Bolling and Looney both hail from Arkansas and share a time of active duty service in the Air Force. Looney is opposed to the suggestion for several reasons but agrees to at least interview Donaldson. That encounter convinces him that Donaldson is likely innocent. Such belief pushes Looney to meet with Rocky to persuade him to give up the case. Rocky is opposed to the concept initially, as is the head of the detective division, the tough, and strict Captain Thorason. Looney, however, has devised a highly unusual end scenario that gains Rocky's approval and the grudging nod from the Captain. After getting an official sanction for his involvement, Looney and his partner, Gene, face the task of solving how Donaldson could be innocent. Looney does figure out the 'locked building' conundrum using observational skills and analysis. But that leaves the detectives faced with finding an elusive Other Dude that committed the murder. Plus, it occurs to them that the murdered man may not have been the real target. They try to determine whether Donaldson was the target; they seek motives of other suspects who might want to pin the murder on him. Their investigation uncovers a sizeable number of people who potentially have motive for the murder, and they face some difficulty obtaining corroboration of alibis because of the nature of medical practice and care processes. Coincidentally, while the detectives are straining to understand the medical work of the dead man to develop a motive, Tom Bolling stumbles on what appears to be a medical miracle cure for leukemia in the dead man's research file. Uncertain whether this cure has anything to do with the murder, Looney's partner, Gene Novalchek, who has a degree in chemistry, joins forces with the hospital pathologist to determine the mysterious treatment. Once the miracle cure is identified, Looney pieces together a chance remark from early in the investigation with a visit to a local practitioner and a reinterpretation of a handwritten note in the researcher's laboratory notebook. These actions give him insight into a motive for the killing, and he plans an elaborate 'outing' with key suspects and hospital personnel. Explanations of police and medical care procedures provide texture and depth.