Murder, Singular & Plural — Andrew Dequasie

He finds those bland pages useful for inducing the fitful sleep his insomnia allows him.

And the fitful sleep, in turn, helps to keep his mind working on the case at hand.

Investigating a suspicious death for his client in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, he finds what he calls a rat turd and tells the client that he doesn't have to find a whole pile of rat turds to know that a rat was there.

In the end, the rat claims to be a lion, but what's a rat's opinion worth, anyway?

Along the way, Elmer finds a remedy for his insomnia and finds good cause to relocate his PI business from Brooklyn to Vermont.