Colonel Thornton's sister has been shot by a .22 rifle. According to the Colonel, he regularly shot birds and rabbits from his bedroom window in the early morning and his sister usually stayed away from the shrubbery at that time. Today she thought he was going into town to buy more bullets, so it was just an unfortunate accident. Or was it?
Suspense, October 1960.
Reprinted as "The yellow-green
tassel" in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, October 1961.
Included in Crime and Detection, ed. John Higgins.