(Pep Comics 006, 1940)
A man working in a London steam plant dies by falling into an industrial furnace. A horrible thing to happen! Why am I showing you this horrible thing?
I am showing it to you because it is not in fact a horrible accident but a horrible murder, and we know that because the murderer left a horrible little bit of doggerel in order to crow about what he did, and he signed it "Vulcan."
Our old pal Inspector Bentley of Scotland Yard is brought in on this case, and it's a lucky day for him because there are only four possible suspects: the four men who were in the immediate area when John Baker was killed, including his father, his brothers Rex and Bob and his romantic rival Barney Reyman. Like I said: lucky for Inspector Bentley because I'm beginning to suspect that he isn't a particularly astute detective when he doesn't have a guy in a rubber mask to hit with his cane.
Am I saying this because Bentley's only idea is to have everyone go back to where they were when the murder took place with the foreman standing in for his son and Pa Baker is basically instantly murdered too? Kind of, but it's more of an observation that his investigations are a bit brute force. For instance, once this second member of the Baker clan is bumped off, Bentley arranges for another one to stand in front of the open furnace.
Did Bentley know what he was doing? Was he calling Bob Baker's bluff in order to force him to confess by dodging the deathtrap he had set up for his family members (a button-activated swinging pipe, fyi)? It's possible, but I personally think that the "Vulcan = hatred for father and brothers" clue is some bullshit. Does Vulcan have more than his share of family drama? Absolutely, but no more than any other Greco-Roman god and frankly I would peg a guy named Vulcan as a potential matricide, if anything.
So was he right or just trying to winnow down the suspect list a bit? Inspector Bentley will never tell.
