The Perfect Crime #15

Steve Duncan, a licensed investigator, takes what he thinks will be a routine job picking up a package from Professor Arthur Enright—but walks straight into a violent robbery in progress. After subduing the attacker, Duncan finds the professor oddly reluctant to hand over the package, setting off alarm bells that deepen when a mysterious figure attempts to kill both Keller and Enright on the street outside. Forced to dig into a web of secrets involving his employer Thornton Keller, the elegant Kitty Baxter, and a stranger named Willard Galt, Duncan must uncover the truth behind the cryptic assignment before the next attempt on his life succeeds.

Spider Jackson thinks he's too clever for his own good—a hood who knows every angle, right up until he robs the wrong man at the waterfront and decides to eliminate his only witness to keep the full score. But when he boards the Florida Special to escape, he discovers that brute strength and a long memory can be far more dangerous than a criminal mind.

When gang leader Smiley Cardoni decides his rival Ace Dirken needs to disappear, he hires professional assassin Lex Wheatley from Chicago to do the job for ten grand—but a case of mistaken identity at the crucial moment sets off a chain reaction that neither man could have predicted. As Smiley and Lex find themselves caught in a web of their own making, Detective Gregory closes in, and fate has other plans for who walks away from this night of violence. A taut 1951 crime tale where no amount of careful planning can outrun the consequences.

Phil Jerden prides himself on reading people through their faces—a gift that's made him a successful small-time crook operating solo across the country. When he reunites with his old associate Ed in a diner and spots what he judges to be an easy mark, the unfortunate assessment sets off a chain of violence that leads both men straight into the hands of justice. Jim Reilley's artwork captures the tense cat-and-mouse that proves Jerden's confidence in human nature dangerously misplaced.