Let the Lady Die is the sixth (of 9) Steve Craig private-eye thrillers. This was published by Herbert Jenkins Ltd. in 1957. Text begins on page 9 and culminates on page 192. The jacket cover art is unsigned. A book club edition also exists, so First Edition collectors out there BEWARE! Granted, if you are collecting purely for the cover illustration, who cares!
The blurb on the jacket reads:
Late one night Steve Craig was summoned to a desolate hide-out to meet a man named Baker who had gone into hiding from the police. Baker urgently protested his innocence of the charges of robbery and murder and Craig, though only part-convinced by the man’s story, was sufficiently interested to check on the main facts.
His first contact was a girl named Eve. Eve was pretty enough to please even Steve’s high standards of feminine contour and, what was more, she had unplumbed depths to her character that piqued his lively curiosity. Her employer also had depths. She was Roxanne Corvic, a bewitching lovely who bossed a big finance house and, given the opportunity, would have bossed Steve, too. She thought she had him all weighed up when she offered him more than money as remuneration for a little job of sleuthing, but there were other considerations of which she as yet knew nothing. Principal among these was the hostility that could glint from Kitty Callaway’s violet eyes when designing females made passes at her boss.
Steve Craig soon found himself in a world of intrigue peopled by smooth crooks and curvaceous jezebels, and the sequence of his adventures–both amorous and hazardous–quickly developed into one of the most vigorous and surprising cases of his eventful career.
The meat of the blurb is essentially accurate. Baker however is a fake name. He got in trouble once and changed his name in order to start a clean slate. His real name is Dick Sewell, a former war-mate of Steve’s when he used to fly a B-29 during WW2. Baker obtained a job and wanted to get into the trucking industry. Succeeding, he meets a girl and plans to marry her. Only, fate intervenes.
He receives a call, requiring him to pick up an order and transport it. He does his job but next day, police investigate a theft and murder. Seems his tire iron was found at the warehouse where he picked up the goods: stolen furs. The man on duty had his brains bashed in. Baker’s (Sewell’s) claim of innocence has holes shot through it as crooked cops and attorneys rewrite history to fit their needs for a patsy. Baker is arrested but escapes when the vehicles overturns. Like a scene out of The Fugitive, he escapes and the manhunt is on.
Fast-forward. Craig receives a summons from a mysterious entity over the phone. He’s not interested in answering with no-names attached until the anonymous caller mentions the WW2 history. Craig is now dialed in and abandons his San Francisco investigation. Making the half hour drive to (the fictional town) Coten, California, Craig is brought inside a rundown restaurant. Sewell is on a divan, arm bloody from the flipped vehicle accident. The man that phoned is present, his cousin. Sewell has a gun in his possession, stolen from a cop. Craig confiscates and directs the cousin to ditch it, bury it, or toss the gun in the river. The police are already kill-happy; no need to give them a reason to stitch Sewell with lead if he foolishly pulls a gun. Learning of the frame doesn’t appeal too much to Craig. He realizes his primary job as a licensed detective would be to turn Sewell over to the authorities, but he does owe the man an undisclosed favor from the war years.
Sewell flees the premises and foolishly steals his cousin’s wheels when the police are heard to be in town, looking for him. Steve takes the case and makes the drive out to Trenton, California. Ironically, a real town, not fictional like Coten. He tries to interview Sewell’s girlfriend, Eve. She’s not home. Some meathead is, claiming to be a repair man. Craig knows he’s a phony and departs. Phones her at work and sets up a time to meet at his car after she’s finished at work. Then goes to a local eats where Sewell hung out. Talks to the owner who takes a liking to removing Craig’s head from his body until Craig convinces him that while he is a P.I., he’s not interested in arresting “Baker” but is an old friend. Finally convinced, the lug gives over everything he knows, which doesn’t seem like much.
When Eve fails to meet Craig outside her employment, he goes inside to search for her. Instead, he meets her boss, a bombshell named Roxanne Corvic. She informs that Eve departed minutes ago. He returns to his car to find her already inside, waiting. Eve discloses that Baker clearly had different ideas about their relationship. She’s not engaged to him, nor had he even asked her. Yes, she is holding $2,800, his money, but only because he asked and was incapable of saving money. She’s not convinced of his innocence, given his past. Craig drops her off at an address and then spies on her. She enters a room, a man admitting her. The same man who claimed to be a repair man at her residence.
Craig visits the warehouse to learn about their security precautions, etc. He notices a bloke with one eye. The stolen cases were furs. He’s surprised to learn that Roxanne Corvic is involved with the shipment. Seemingly innocent, now he finds the luscious blonde vixen possibly somehow tied to the case. But, how? Retracing his steps to where he dropped off Eve, he knocks on the door. The faux repair man opens up and Craig forces his way in, finding Eve present. She states the pair are a couple. The guy (Jackie Rosche) tries to get rough but Craig adroitly manhandles the chap. Eve’s not pleased that her beau couldn’t handle Craig, but the lad clearly didn’t want his arm broken.
Returning to Craig’s office, he’s intercepted by Sergeant Taggart, one-half the tag-team that had arrested Baker. His partner supposedly is still in the hospital. If true, who is in the patrol car? And why didn’t that cop also come upstairs to Craig’s office? After all, they are supposed to work in pairs. Craig smells a rat but Taggart is unusually calm. He wants to know why Craig is working with Baker. Yup; after locating the stolen car, they traced it back to his cousin who revealed Craig was present. Taggart is baffled as to why a P.I. wouldn’t report to the police. Craig keeps everything close to his chest. Doesn’t reveal Baker’s real identity, etc., but admits he thinks the man was framed. Taggart departs displeased.
Craig drives home to his pad and while working, looks out the window, for a flat-footed shadow. Instead, he spots a slick Cadillac pulling alongside his complex. Ringing his bell is Roxanne Corvic, dressed to kill. Sashaying in, she plays the sexual seductress and offers Craig $20,000 to abandon Baker and trace the stolen furs instead. Roxanne wants the furs back, claiming they are not finished products, which could net her millions. Craig plays dumb. He knows the furs are insured but is equally intrigued by the 20k, which may be real or a blind. If he can somehow find a way to earn that dough, too, why not?
She departs and Craig takes a drive around town to lose his shadow, then hops a taxi, and walks the rest to the greasy spoon restaurant that Baker introduced to Eve. He’s certain Baker is holed up there. Knocking at the back door, as the place is shuttered for the night, the owner cracks it open and tells Craig to blow. Baker left less than an hour ago, and even he isn’t pleased at the prospect of Baker holing up with him, and less that he is foolish enough to take a walk at night.
Craig goes home to sleep, only to be wakened by a phone call from Eve. She’s angry and frightened; seems Roxanne had a talk with her and revealed she knows Eve was holding Baker’s cash, etc. Eve reveals that Roxanne was a Vegas girl and that her bookkeeper might actually be the boss pulling the strings. They’ve been living together for four years. Craig arranges to meet Eve at a nearby joint. Driving there, he finds himself potentially stood up for a second time by Eve. Frustrated, he drives to her place and finds the door lock taped back. Pushing inside, he finds a brutally beaten-to-death Eve. Who did it? Her lover, Jackie Rosche? Was it Roxanne Corvic and/or her boyfriend, the bookkeeper? Eve had been scared to death of her. Or worse: could Baker / Sewell learned of her deceit and in a fit of rage murdered her? Craig realizes he needs to quickly ascertain who manhandled Eve. Realizing there is nothing to be gained from reporting the killing to police and being thrown in jail for withholding evidence (at this stage), he drives home to obtain his gun. It’s about time to start carrying his death-dealer.
Then he drives out to have a one-on-one conversation with Jackie Rosche. Only, he doesn’t open the door. A very large thug does. Craig convinces him he wants to chat with Rosche, so he is admitted. Rosche throws a fit, and goes for a concealed gun, but Craig’s a step ahead. Tosses the man aside and snatches the rod from the man’s jacket, then proceeds to interrogate. Only, neither man seems to comply very much until he reveals Eve’s demise. Then the pair forget Craig’s presence and get too chatty. The large beast (Verne) figures Baker did the deed. They do a couple of name-drops, then realize Craig is present and decide to vanquish him. The pair get the drop on him and a free-for-all ensues until Craig surprises them by drawing his own gun, too. The pair flee out into the rain and drive away. Craig quickly pulls his bloodied self together, slides out, and into his wheels to attempt pursuit. He lucks out and the duo hook up with a third person. They all haul what appears to be luggage. Craig can tell from the way the men handle the cases they are either empty or very lightweight. Then the trio drives off, but not before Craig realizes the third person is the eye-patch bloke from the warehouse.
Entering the third man’s establishment, he locates clothes for the airfield. Likely the ones used to dupe Baker when he dropped off the consignment of furs. Then he locates newspaper clippings and a paperback book authored by a jailed hoodlum who wrote about his entire life story. Various passages are marked, so he reads them. It’s not long before he begins to see daylight in this adventure. How the book and the newspaper clippings align. Craig realizes the current thieves hit upon the autobiographic novel and used it as a source of inspiration in their own heists. The clippings also hit upon a bank heist from months ago that has remained unsolved. Craig now realizes that this group of persons were involved with that crime.
A scratching noise arises from the window. Dark and stormy and rainy outside, Craig can’t see out, so he quickly douses the light. He’s certain the trio have returned, spotted the light “on” and have placed one man at the window and the other two are prepping to rush inside. Locking the door to hinder their approach, Craig’s baffled when he hears the window open, and a man slides inside. Craig shoves his gun into the man’s back and is nonplussed to find Baker (Sewell) in the room.
Turns out Baker had been trailing Craig, trying to intercept him. Baker had been mentally reviewing the facts as he knew them and realized he’d identified one of the two fake tunicked men at the airfield. Only, Craig’s already figured that out, too. They compare notes, then Craig drags Baker’s heart through the mud by revealing that Eve had never been in love with him. She’d made him the patsy in the whole case. Craig drops one last bombshell: her murder. Baker is in shock and angered by her murder, despite realizing he’d been played.
Craig departs, leaving Baker to hole-up in this now abandoned shack. He returns to Jackie’s pad to take on two of the three men from the shack. Jackie is not present. Just Verne and the one-eyed man. All 3 men draw their sidearms and Verne is clipped in the arm by Craig, causing his shot to plow into the one-eyed man, while the latter’s shot is knocked awry and nearly misses Craig. Craig interrogates Verne. Learning they don’t have the looted furs discloses further surprises. There were no stolen furs. The boxes contained cheap imitations but more importantly, money from a bank heist from months ago.
Craig now has a more complete picture. Phoning Sergeant Taggart during the midnight hours, Taggart isn’t at the police station so they suggest his home. (Seriously? Did cops simply give out fellow officer’s phone numbers to anyone over the phone, even if they do ID themselves as a private eye? I doubt it.) Taggart is home and irate for the late-night call but cools off once he’s dealt in on the operation.
Craig departs Jackie’s pad, leaving the recently arrived Baker to keep watch over Verne and the one-eyed chap. He drives to Roxanne and her partner’s ritzy pad only to find two corpses and one more left for dead, or more appropriately, “believed” dead by the ultimate killer.
I dare not spoil the rest of the plot, but suffice to say, there are plenty more deaths and multiple double-crosses at work that one never could totally initially foresee. The novel comes to a very fulfilling, shocking climax as Bevis Winter works his web-work magic across every single person in the novel.