Crime and Punishment #18

Released from a seven-year stretch, "Little Arnie" Lowry returns to the underworld with a scheme he cooked up inside: organize the local criminals under his protection, skimming a cut of every job in exchange for bail money and safe passage from the law. When a blackmailer threatens to expose his operation, Arnie's carefully calculated empire begins to unravel in ways he didn't anticipate. The cops close in, records fall into the wrong hands, and a small-time crook learns that brains and organization can only carry you so far when the law is determined to catch up.

A jealous ex-lover murders Nathan Illis on his honeymoon night, believing he can win over the bride—but a sharp country sheriff named Les Morrissey spots a telltale clue: a cushioned heel print at the crime scene. As the killer waits nervously for the lawman's investigation to close in, Morrissey methodically checks the shoes of every man who courted the widow, racing toward a confrontation that will determine whether careful planning or keen detective work wins the day.

When a forger attempts to pass a bad check at a supermarket, his nervous accomplice flees the scene—but Mac T. Elton, the calculating criminal mastermind behind the scheme, refuses to let anyone abandon his operation. As police close in on the case, Elton's desperate gambit to complete the job puts him on a collision course with Lieutenant Johns and a manhunt that won't stop until the trail leads to the very top of the forgery ring.