"And That's How It Was, Officer"

A comic first-person account recounts how the narrator informs the police chief about a chain of absurd events: an eccentric scientist uncle testing a secret serum in a locked laboratory, the narrator's hurried marriage to a spirited young woman, and the sudden disappearance of the city's gangsters. A cast of quirky associates — including an assistant, a bell-obsessed friend, and an outspoken bride — contributes to misunderstandings, slapstick incidents, and unintended consequences that resolve with departures: a honeymoon, the uncle's expedition to Tibet to consult unfamiliar contacts, and the police left bewildered by a tidy cleanup of the underworld.