A Calculated Risk

Guy Harding, a successful public relations man, was killed late one night in an automobile accident; his young wife, Sara, injured. The "accident" was soon revealed to be murder, plotted and carried out with diabolical cleverness. Paul Smith, the brilliant columnist of the weekly Sentinel, was the logical suspect. If Harding had lived, Smith would have been sued for libel, his career ruined. The young journalist had no alibi for the time of the crime, and there had been damaging gossip about his violent temper.
Hiram Potter, that most urbane connoisseur of crime,decided that some questions should be answered before he committed himself to a decision about Smith's guilt. It seemed curious, for example, that Sara Harding's first husband had also died in an auto acciddent.