The House Across the Street

Dave Joslin is the Managing Editor of the Star Chronicle newspaper under Publisher J.B. Grennell. While Grennell can admit Joslin is good at his job, the latest issue that is giving Grennell proverbial indigestion is Joslin's potentially libelous stories on Matthew Keever, a presumed racketeer charged with fraud. While Joslin is equally hard on the police for the incident, the latest story concerns the murder of the key witness, Villman, five days before the start of Keever's trial, Joslin who as much as places Keever behind the murder. Under threats of legal action by Keever and his lawyer, Grennell wants Joslin either to tone down his stories or has no choice but to reprimand him in a meaningful way. Believing that Joslin will eventually tow the line, Grennell, unable to fire him under their contract, places him in another editorial position, that of the newspaper's lonely-hearts columnist, known by the pseudonym Dolly Trent. Joslin himself used that tactic of assigning work as Dolly Trent to one of his reporters and sometime girlfriend Kit Williams when she made a major faux pas working on the city beat. Not buckling under the pressure in believing he having some leverage as Dolly Trent, Joslin stumbles onto an item coming through the Dolly Trent desk that may be a lead to concrete evidence against Keever for Villman's murder. Joslin, with Kit by his side, follow that lead, which may place them in danger if Keever truly is the murderer and believes they are getting too close to that evidence.