Crime Writer Margot Kinberg

Can you describe the person who rang up your groceries the last time you shopped? Unless you know that person, or that person did or said something very unusual, you probably can’t. We often don’t pay attention to people in certain positions like that; we treat them politely but take little notice of them. It’s an interesting phenomenon, and it can be very useful for fictional criminals. The less notice people take of a criminal, the less likely they’ll remember that person later, when the police are interviewing them. Sometimes, a witnesses’ ‘I didn’t notice anyone,’ really means, ‘No-one really caught my attention.’ And that can mean a criminal’s more likely to get away with a crime, at least in crime fiction.

One of G.K. Chesterton’s short stories features exactly that point. In fact, it’s called The Invisible Man. Successful business executive Isidore Smythe is found murdered in his home shortly after telling an acquaintance that he felt his life was in danger. There was no-one else in the home, and witnesses don’t remember seeing anyone entering or leaving the house or even going near it. It’s an odd puzzle, and on the surface, it seems like an ‘impossible’ crime. Father Brown gets involved in the case, and he soon works out how someone could enter and leave the home without being seen. It was a case of the phenomenon of simply not noticing certain people.

In a few of Agatha Christie’s stories (no titles or sleuths – no spoilers here!), killers are able to strike because nobody really pays attention to them. They’re in positions that people often take for granted. That means that they can commit murders without being noticed. It also means witnesses don’t remember those people being in certain places at certain times. So, when they’re talking to the sleuth, they don’t remember things accurately.

In Anna Jaquiery’s The Lying Down Room, we are introduced to Police Commandant Serge Morel of the Paris police. One day, he is called to the scene of the murder of Isabelle Dufour, who was killed in her home. She wasn’t close to her family, nor was she especially wealthy. So, there doesn’t seem to be much motive for murder. What makes matters even more complicated is that witnesses don’t especially remember suspicious strangers around. Then, Morel and his team learn that the victim had recently lodged a complaint against evangelists who came to her house to leave pamphlets. The police follow that lead and soon discover that three other women lodged similar complaints. Then, there’s another murder. Now, the search for the evangelists intensifies. It’s going to be hard, though, because a lot of people don’t pay close attention to people like evangelists who go from door to door. They don’t learn names or notice physical descriptions.

Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza’s Alone in the Crowd features Rio de Janeiro Inspector Espinosa. One day, he’s busy in a meeting when he’s informed that Dona Aleta Sales Reibeiro would like to speak to him. He can’t break free at the moment, so he asks her to come back later, and she agrees. Not long afterwards, she falls (or is pushed) under a bus. Espinosa feels guilty that he didn’t listen to what the woman had to say, so he decides to try to find out what she wanted. He retraces her steps and learns that, just before she went to the police station, she went to her bank, Caixa Econômica Federal, and was seen by a nondescript teller named Hugo Beno. He’s not at all the sort of person you would notice if you saw him, say, in a grocery store. He doesn’t call attention to himself, and he sees that as an asset. As you can imagine, he falls under suspicion when Dona Aleta dies. As Espinosa continues to investigate, he finds that this case is related to both his own past and that of Hugo Beno.

And then there’s realtor William Heming, whom we meet in Phil Hogan’s A Pleasure and a Calling. He’s not the sort of person you notice. He’s just a house agent who lets people in and out of homes and answers questions. Once the transaction is done, most people don’t even remember him. But he remembers them. Heming is very smart and observant, and he knows all sorts of things about the clients. He keeps a key to each house that he sells, and he keeps tabs on the homeowners. Most people don’t think about him, though, and that’s the way he likes it. Then, a body is discovered in one of the yards. Mr. Heming is as concerned as anyone. After all, if anyone thinks about him or starts to link him to anything, they’ll take notice of him. And that’s not something Mr. Heming wants…

Sometimes the best disguise is to be inconspicuous. The less notice people take of you, the more you can potentially get away with, if you think about it. And that can be an asset for a fictional murderer.

*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from Bob Dylan’s Like a Rolling Stone.