Crime Must Pay the Penalty #45

Albert Long is a meek inventor obsessed with his electrical experiments, but his grand ambitions and mounting debts keep driving him to marry wealthy women for their fortunes—only to lose everything when his wives tire of financing his "nonsense." When his latest wife, Clarissa, cuts off his funding and traps him in financial despair, Albert hatches a new plan that requires him to be in two places at once. As his carefully constructed alibi begins to unravel, the mild-mannered tinkerer reveals there's far more to him than anyone in town ever suspected.

Curt Magnus runs his criminal operation on a strict and unusual code: he only pulls jobs on holidays, convinced his superstition is the only thing keeping him alive. When the police catch on to his pattern and set a trap on Labor Day, Magnus and his restless gang attempt a heist in a nearby town instead—but his elaborate precautions and his crew's desperation set in motion a chain of events that threatens to unravel everything he's built his luck upon.

Trick Bronte runs a slick fake accident insurance racket with a crew of skilled performers—until one of his own, Bat, gets pinched during a job and threatens to expose the whole operation. When Bronte moves to silence him, he sets off a chain of events that might finally catch up with a crook who's always had an answer for everything. This hard-boiled 1955 tale follows a criminal mastermind who learns that even the cleverest scheme can't outrun its own consequences.