Crime Does Not Pay #98

Chip Gardner, private eye, races to Hyattsville after a frantic call from a woman named Susan Boyle—only to find himself ambushed on a fog-shrouded road and hunted through the countryside by armed thugs. Meanwhile, back at his office, his assistant Wendy faces her own danger when an intruder demands papers he believes she's hidden. Gardner must navigate a deadly web of traps and deception tied to a county treasury case—and an unexpected corpse—to save both himself and Wendy before time runs out.

Broke con artist Mark Reamer spots opportunity in tragedy when a subway wreck leaves him bruised—and he seizes it by faking paralysis to extort a massive insurance settlement from the city. But as Reamer plots his escape with newfound wealth, a mysterious killer in a red mask is systematically eliminating witnesses, and Reamer discovers he may have bluffed his way into something far deadlier than debt.

When a struggling vaudevillian's theatrical career crumbles, Henry Gompel concocts an audacious insurance scheme—creating a phantom wife named Eliza to pull off what he believes is the perfect swindle. But the meticulous con that seemed undetectable becomes his undoing when the law closes in, proving that sometimes the most carefully laid plans collapse under their own weight.