The moment the police arrived, they were confused.

The body of Thomas Hickman lay on the rough desert grass.

His hands tied and his mouth covered with tape.

But it wasn't helpless exposure to the New Mexico Sun that had killed him.

No, it was the bullet wound in his forehead.

The trouble was there was no gun near the body, so the police began to assume

Hickman had been murdered.

And yet the crime scene showed no evidence that anyone else had been there.

Just Hickman, his car, his tracks, and the vast expansive desert.

It was a murder mystery that would baffle the police.

For a while, at least.

At some point, you see, one of the officers noticed something white,

flapping around off in the distance, caught around a bit of undergrowth.

When they investigated it, they discovered it was a small gathering of balloons.

Each one filled with helium that had been tied to the most unexpected object.

A pistol.

And the moment they realized it, the pieces fell into place.

Hickman hadn't been murdered after all.

He had driven himself out into the desert, tied the balloons to his handgun,

and then assumed that when his body let go of it, the helium and wind would carry it far away,

leaving his family with a large life insurance check rather than the trauma of a suicide.

But that was Hickman's problem.

...