Pay-Off #1

Sonny Sloan makes a desperate bargain in Sing Sing prison, agreeing to inform on his accomplices Frankie Gates and Knuckles Fenton in exchange for early release—but word of his betrayal spreads through the underworld faster than the authorities can contain it. Now free but hunted, Sloan finds himself caught between the vengeance of the men he betrayed and the relentless grip of the criminal world he tried to escape. In this 1948 crime tale, a stool pigeon discovers that singing to the law is only the beginning of his troubles.

In 1948, a scheming woman known as Diamond Lil transforms herself from a troubled girl into a ruthless operator, establishing a thriving roadhouse with her partner May. When a handyman named Henry falls for Lil and dreams of building a life together with real money, she devises a sinister plan involving life insurance policies and a carefully staged accident to secure his death benefits. What unfolds is a cold-blooded murder plot wrapped in the veneer of small-town roadhouse life, where Lil's ambition and cunning will be tested by circumstance and the attention of those around her.

When Mrs. Dell invites her guest Miss Cole for a late-night swim to cool off on a sweltering evening, a tragic accident unfolds in the darkness of the pool area. What begins as a casual invitation turns into something far more sinister when a crucial detail is forgotten—with deadly consequences. A crime story that hinges on the thin line between accident and intent, "The Swimming Pool Murder" asks whether the night's tragedy was truly what it seemed.