Authentic Police Cases #38

Wilson Ames, a retired government engraver, is kidnapped along with his wife the night before their California road trip by an underworld mob led by Caesar Terranova, who forces him to create counterfeit currency plates at a hidden farmhouse. As authorities—including the Secret Service and FBI—piece together clues from a hijacked truck driver and launch a nationwide manhunt, tension mounts among the criminals themselves, threatening to unravel the conspiracy from within. This eight-page crime story follows the parallel hunts: law enforcement closing in, and the mob's own members turning against each other as heat from the investigation intensifies.

Detective Leo Cahill stakes out a secondhand clothing shop after spotting three known criminals entering without making purchases, only to discover the owner dead—shot and dragged to the basement with his safe cleaned out. As Cahill interrogates the trio of suspects, he must piece together the timeline of who entered when, what each one took, and which of them pulled the trigger.

Rutzie Rinehart, a former Chicago hit man who traded his tommy gun for running a floating crap game a dozen years ago, finds his quiet life upended when the crime boss Arnold sends him a deadly package—a Thompson submachine gun with orders to eliminate a stubborn businessman named Lily White. When Lily's men nearly force Rutzie off the road, the old killer's bloodlust returns and he sets up an alibi to complete the job. But nothing goes according to plan when Rutzie discovers his trusted associate Clippy has already pulled the trigger, leaving him caught between the law closing in and a world he thought he'd left behind.

When a paroled ex-con named Bill Nevins is identified as the thief of a valuable Russian emerald and then gunned down before trial, Detective Pat Carlyle suspects the frame-up runs deeper than the homicide squad realizes. Investigating Nevins' sister and the antique shop owner Sam Brodick, Carlyle uncovers a scheme to pin a fake robbery on an innocent man—and collect insurance on a gem that was never stolen at all.

When ex-model Margo Shelton helps unemployed make-up man Marty Augustin escape with a stolen mink coat, she sees opportunity rather than coincidence—and proposes they become partners in crime. Using Marty's skills at disguise and Margo's nerve for impersonation, the pair launches a brazen scheme of robberies across Manhattan's wealthy elite, but their partnership grows increasingly desperate and violent as they pursue bigger scores. "Murder in Mink" traces how ambition and greed transform two desperate strangers into fugitives, with each crime raising the stakes beyond what either can control.