A Murder of Necessity

Originally Aired: March 24, 1952 Suspense #466, "A Murder of Necessity," Mark has reached his breaking point with Herbert J. Sachs, a corrupt private investigator who has been blackmailing him for years over a hunting accident that left a man dead. When Mark finally snaps and shoots Herbie in his office, he believes he's free at last. But then he discovers something chilling: Herbie's telephone receiver was off the hook during the murder, left open in a desk drawer. Someone was listening on the other line and heard everything. Now Mark must desperately track down the mysterious witness before they go to the police. Using names scribbled on Herbie's phone pad, Mark begins a frantic investigation, posing as one of Herbie's associates to find out who was on that call. He visits Lucius Collins, a henpecked husband paying blackmail over an affair, and then seeks out Janice, a waitress at a downtown bar. As Mark moves from one of Herbie's victims to another, he realizes the dead blackmailer had his hooks in many people—and any one of them could be the witness who will send him to the electric chair.