There's Always a Price Tag

There's Always a Price Tag is a crime thriller novel written by British author James Hadley Chase.

Synopsis

Small time freelance worker Glyn Nash rescues a drunken billionaire film director Dester from being run over, and soon gets appointed by the latter at his Hollywood residence, much against the wishes of Dester's glamorous and shady wife, Helen Dester. Glyn sees the employment as an opportunity to become rich and famous, not knowing what is in store for him.

Plot

Glyn Nash, a part-time multi-talented freelance worker, one day rescues Hollywood director Erle Dester from being run over in a drunken state. The director soon takes him home and impressed with Nash, appoints him as his personal assistant and chauffeur, much against the wishes of his beautiful but shady wife Helen Dester. She repeatedly tells Nash to leave by offering him money, saying that he will get into trouble, but this only encourages the chauffeur to stay back and find out what is going on in that house. SO he bluntly refuses to leave, and continues to work with Dester.

Soon Nash understands that Dester is a heavy drinker and is actually broke and in a few days time will lose all that he owns to his creditors. He also notes that Helen is a glamorous but dirty woman up to no good, and Dester has become like this only because of marrying her. He also investigates and finds that before marrying Dester, Helen was involved with another man in New York who also was killed mysteriously, and though she tried, she could not get his insurance money after his death. Dester takes Nash into confidence and tells him about his financial status. Nash also realizes that Helen wants Dester to die as soon as possible so that she can have 750000 dollars as his insurance money. Helen tries to kill Dester many a time but fails to do so because of Nash being around.

Nash then decides to play an evil game, wherein he can get Dester's money and probably get his beautiful wife too. He confronts Helen and tells her that he knows all about her, but is willing to work with her to get Dester's money. The two then conspire and try to figure out hoe to eliminate Dester ASAP. Unfortunately things take a different turn when one day Dester calls both of them to his room and tells them what he has planned. He says that he is going to kill himself, and if it can be proved as murder, then Helen will get his money after his death, but not if suicide. He also says that he has taken into confidence his lawyer and the insurance agent Maddux who is known to identify any fake insurance claims easily. Saying that, he shoots himself. The stunned and shocked Nash and Helen decide to cover up the suicide and make it appear as a murder.

The two of them hide Dester's body in the freezer, and decide to cover up his disappearance until they can think of a suitable way to make it appear as though he was murdered. They tell everyone that Dester is out of town on fresh business and will be returning soon. Finally Glyn comes up with the ides of making it appear as though Dester was very ill and always in his room in the house, and he decided to go to the sanatorium for further treatment, and on the way he and his wife were kidnapped for ransom, and so he has disappeared. They also appoint a housemaid Marian to act as witness in the house by telling her lies.

Fate has it that Nash soon starts to hate Helen because of her behavior, and now begins to turn his eyes on Marian, much to Helen's disapproval. Their plan of disposing Dester succeeds partly. They manage to get Glyn to act as Dester in front of Marian and slip out of the house, and then plan to drive to a remote area, where Glyn would tie Helen up and inform police about her missing, and soon the news of kidnap would spread.But then things turn bad for Glyn Nash when before tying Helen, he beats her black and blue to make her appear injured, and by doing so accidentally kills her.

To add to his amazement and shock, Nash also discovers Dester's will and finds that the latter has left everything in his name, including the insurance money. This makes things difficult as if the police find it, it would appear that Nash committed the murders to get the money. Nash now tries to twist the story. He hides the will, and he tries to cover things up by making it appear that Erle Dester murdered his wife and then committed suicide. More people get involved in the case, including the police chief, Maddux and Detective Steve Harmas (who has also appeared in other books of James Hadley Chase).

Glyn Nash then decides to make the case appear as though Helen and Dester were on their way to the Sanatorium against Dester's wishes, he killed Helen and then came back home and committed suicide. HE even confides in Marian and tells her everything. The shocked girl simply leaves the house. Nash manages to pull out Dester's preserved body from the freezer and put it in his study and create a suicide scenario with a fake typed suicide note. The police take note of the scene and leave. Nash then tries to escape from the city but the police soon get the wind of what Glyn has been up to, research about him, and he is soon nabbed.

Trivia

References


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1334254/
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