title: Doll Studies: Forensics
author: Carol Guess
description: Carol Guess is the author of the fiction collection DARLING ENDANGERED (Brooklyn Arts Press); the novels <em>Seeing Dell</em> (Cleis Press) and SWITCH (Calyx Books); a memoir, <em>Gaslight</em> (Odd Girls Press); three poetry collections, FEMME'S DICTIONARY (Calyx Books), DOLL STUDIES: FORENSICS (Black Lawrence Press) and TINDERBOX LAWN (Rose Metal Press); and a collection of essays, MY FATHER IN WATER (Shearsman Books). She teaches Creative Writing and Queer Studies at Western Washington University and lives with her spouse, writer Elizabeth Colen, on the Washington coast.
zlib_text: The Case of the Footloose Doll
  Erle Stanley Gardner
  
  Chapter 1
  AT FIFTEEN minutes past two o’clock that afternoon, Mildred
  Crest’s world collapsed about her in a wreckage which left her so
  completely dazed that her mind became numb and her reasoning
  faculties simply failed to function.
  At two o’clock that afternoon Mildred had been one of the happiest
  young women in the bustling town of Oceanside, California.
  The expensive diamond which flashed from the ring finger of her
  left hand betokened her engagement to Robert Joiner, head accountant at
  the firm of Pillsbury & Maxwell, the big department store which had
  branches located in half a dozen southern California cities.
  Joiner had arrived in Oceanside something over two years before.
  He had started in as bookkeeper and his advancement had been rapid. He
  had a quick, resourceful mind, was instantly adaptable to any new
  situation, and above all was not afraid of responsibility. He had complete
  confidence in his own judgment and soon his e