Crime SuspenStories #15

In "When the Cat's Away..." from Crime SuspenStories #15 (1953), Jay finds escape from his turbulent marriage at a friend’s house—only to discover the friend is having an affair with his wife. With a cold calculation, Jay sets a trap, manipulating his wife’s fragile health and staging a deadly scene that could make murder look like tragedy. The story unfolds with a quiet dread, built on deception and the fragile line between guilt and control.

In "The Screaming Woman!" from Crime SuspenStories #15 (1953), Jo stumbles upon a haunting mystery when she hears a woman’s voice pleading from beneath the earth in an abandoned lot. The eerie melody that follows—hauntingly familiar—leads her to uncover a long-buried secret tied to her father’s past and a forgotten song once written by Helen Nesbitt.

In "Water, Water, Everywhere..." from Crime SuspenStories #15 (1953), two prisoners flee a South American island prison only to be lured into a deadly trap by their pursuers—left with a boat that has no water and little gas. As thirst drives one man to madness, his friend makes a terrible choice, leading to a grim final act. The story’s haunting twist reveals the boat was floating in fresh water all along.

In the scorching heart of the Sahara, two escaped prisoners flee in a stolen jeep, only to run out of gas miles from the sea. Dehydrated and desperate, one man vanishes into a shimmering mirage, while the other, driven to the edge, chooses to end his suffering—only to find the bullet’s path through the jeep’s radiator unleashes a sudden, unexpected trickle of water.

In "Hail and Heart-y!", Anna’s frustration with her idle husband Ben reaches a chilling peak when she learns he’s been faking a heart condition. With a neighbor’s quiet kindness as her only relief, she takes a dark turn—turning Ben’s absence into something strangely useful, one icy sidewalk at a time.