Crime Suspenstories #24

In "Double-Crossed," a traveling salesman named David Volney finds himself caught in a terrifying twist of fate when the entire town mistakes him for the wealthy Edwin Jordon—right down to their identical faces. As David is drawn into Jordon’s life, even winning the affection of Jordon’s estranged wife, he schemes to eliminate the man and take his place. But when a murder unfolds that ties David to a crime he didn’t commit, the truth of his identity becomes a deadly trap.

In the icy reaches of Quebec, Bart’s secret affair with Lita spirals into murder when they kill her wealthy husband, Lloyd, and hide his body beneath frozen ice, counting on spring tides to carry the corpse away. Years later, with Lita now his wife and heiress, Bart is tormented by visions of Lloyd’s decaying face trapped in the ice—visions that grow more vivid as their ocean cruise takes them into a treacherous sea. When their ship collides with an iceberg, they find the frozen face staring back at them, frozen in time and vengeance.

In "Food For Thought," a desperate miner flees the scene of a payroll robbery, leading his coworkers to believe a gas leak forces an evacuation. Trapped deep underground when the mine collapses, he’s left with only his stolen cash and a dwindling hope of survival—until he realizes he might have to eat his fortune to stay alive.

In "More Blessed To Give...", a decades-long marriage reaches its chilling end when a husband and wife, grown weary of each other, each plot the other’s demise with chilling precision. He hides a bomb in their anniversary cake, only for her to catch him and disarm it—just as she’s already set a trap in the wine he’s about to drink. He, in turn, discovers her poison and begins to pour it out, unaware she’s rigged the bottle to explode. The story unfolds with quiet dread, as their final acts of betrayal collide in a devastating twist neither could have foreseen.