The Magnolia And Honeysuckle Matter

Originally Aired: April 13, 1954Johnny Dollar #210, "The Magnolia And Honeysuckle Matter," finds the freelance insurance investigator heading south to Charleston, South Carolina, where the Ambrose Cooper Paper Company has suffered its second suspicious fire in two years. This blaze has claimed the life of secretary Felicia Farrell and threatens to cost Johnny's company a hundred thousand dollars. Lieutenant Hervey of the Arson division shows Johnny clear evidence of arson at the scene, with deep charring indicating an amateur torch job using inflammable liquid. The mystery deepens when Johnny learns that Felicia was found dead in the office of Norman Cooper, son of policyholder Alice Cooper, at four in the morning.Norman Cooper had taken Felicia to a company dance the night before, then supposedly left on a midnight hunting trip and hasn't been seen since. When Johnny visits the elegant Alice Cooper and her brother-in-law Robert at their mansion on Le Guerre Street, Robert bristles defensively at any suggestion of Norman's involvement, dismissing Felicia as merely wild oats. With Norman conveniently absent and questions mounting about what Felicia was doing at the plant in the early morning hours, Johnny must untangle a web of Southern gentility concealing potentially deadly secrets.