In a Lonely Place

Originally Aired: March 6, 1948 In Suspense #287, "In a Lonely Place," Dixon Steele is a former Air Force pilot turned aspiring novelist, trying to adjust to civilian life in post-war Los Angeles. When he reconnects with his old war buddy Brub Nicolai, Dix discovers that his friend has become a detective with the LA police force. The reunion seems pleasant enough, but there's an underlying tension as Dix leaves abruptly after giving Brub his phone number. That same foggy night, Dix encounters a young woman waiting alone at a bus stop on Camden Drive, and their chance meeting takes an ominous turn. The next morning, Dix wakes to find a newspaper headline screaming "Strangler Strikes Again." As he prepares for dinner with Brub and his wife Sylvia at their beach club, the implications become clear. Dix is a man harboring dangerous secrets, and now his closest friend from the war is a homicide detective. The hunter and the hunted have become intertwined in what Dix himself describes as "amusing and more exciting than anything that had happened in a long time."