The Lime Works

For five years, Konrad imprisoned himself and his crippled wife in an abandoned lime works where he conducted odd auditory experiments and prepared to write his masterwork, The sense of hearing. As the story begins, he's just blown his wife's head off with the Mannlicher carbine she kept strapped to her wheelchair. No one seems to know why, but the town is steeped in speculation. An unnamed insurance salesman attempts to untangle the hearsay from the truth behind Konrad's murderous motive.