Title: Kid Kill * Author: Ed McBain * Year: 1953 * Genre: Short story - crime story * Description – a summary of the plot: The story takes place….. At the same time as it is written, It takes place on a very cold day in a smaller town in a police station and in the home of the family. In the beginning of the story…. We are at the police station where we meet the detective Art Willis and his partner Ed Daley. Then…… The detective arrives at the home of a mother and her two sons.
She is a widow, and lost her oldest son in the last war, but it is getting worse, her youngest son Ronald was accidentally shot by his brother Jeffry. The two boys were according to Jeffry playing in the attic. They found a gun that the oldest brother sent them during the war, and played with it, when it suddenly went off, and Ronald was hit. At the end of the story Art Willis tells Ed Daley that he don't believe a word Jeffry said to them. There are too many in con sis ten cies. He believes that Jeffry killed Ronald on purpose(popose), and that he had it all planed out for quite some time.
Setting:In the beginning of the story, we are at the police station, shortly after the detectives go to the “crime scene”. There are 3 settings in the house. The kitchen where the detectives talks to the mother, the attic where they investigate the crime scene, and Jeffry’s room where they talk to Jeffry. At the end of the story, the detectives are in the car, on their way back to the police station. The people who are in the story Art Willis - Detective/first grade.
Very observant, but are not very good to give informations. Ed Daley - Partner. Not as observant but very good at sharing his information.Connerly – Local police officer at the crime scene. Mrs. Owens – The mother of the boys Jeffry – The shooter Ronald – The victim Perry – The older brother who died in the last war Narrator The narrator is 1.
Person omniscient (Art Willis), but he knows a lot more than he tells us. This we can see from p. 104 l. 26 “I walked over to where Connerly was standing, and took the box from the shelf. He had carefully restrained from touching it. The box was covered with a fine layer of dust.
There were two clips in the open box, and they too were covered with dust. I lifted one of the clips out, running my eyes over the cartridges.Eight. The second clip had only seven cartridges in it. ” Art Willis lets us know here that he is on to something, but not exactly what.
You get the feeling that this is an extraordinary discovery he have made, but you don’t know why. (Was it a murder or an accident? ) According to Jeffrey it was an accident P. 106 l. 27 “Well, we were upstairs playing with the trains, and then we got sort of tired. We started kidding around, and then I found Perry’s – that’s my other brother, who was killed in the war – I found Perry’s Luger and we started foolin’ around with that” p.
07 l. 14 “We found the bullets, and I took one from one of the magazines, just to fool around I think it was a murder, because the boy said that he found the bullets today. Page 107 line 1-4. Well. Then we found the bullets in the box.
i... you didn’t know the bullets were there befor this? No, again Jeffry stared at me. No, we just found them today But.
.. when the police men found the box with the bullets, where there a coat of dust on it, and it is not possible that there would come a new coat of dust in such a short time if Jeffry should had touched it today.P.
109 l 4. “”The kid said he found those magazines for the first time today. He said he took a cartridge from one of the clips and stuck it into the gun. Tell me how he managed to handle a dust-covered magazine without smearing any of the dust. ””Why, he…””He didn’t, that’s the answer. He took that bullet from the clip a long time ago, Ed.
Long enough ago for the box and the magazines to acquire a new coat of dust. This was no spur-of-the-minute job. No, sir, not at all. ”” So i think the boy is lying to protect himself.
