The Man Who Wouldn’t Die

Late at night, three men drive away with a body and secretly bury it on the mansion grounds. They think they are unseen, but their actions are being watched. The buried corpse becomes the first dark clue that haunts the Wolff household.

Kay visits Anna and announces that she has married Roger Blake. Dudley Wolff and the others react with suspicion, fearing a gold-digging husband. After Kay leaves, Mr. Wolff warns that Kay must not know what happened that night.

That night, a man enters Kay's room and fires a gun, waking her in terror. Her screams summon her father and stepmother, while Dudley discovers a clod of dirt in the bathroom. They return to the grave only to find it empty, deepening the mystery.

Kay hires private detective Michael Shayne to investigate the case. Because her father is under Senate scrutiny, Shayne is asked to pose as Kay's husband to avoid suspicion. He begins unraveling the tangled events surrounding the night's incidents.

Shayne finds a bullet embedded in a bedpost, then traces the trail to Dr. Haggard's laboratory. He sits in a chair connected to equipment and is saved from electrocution by Haggard, revealing dangerous secrets behind the case.

Haggard admits he once owned an automatic pistol, though he claims to have lost it. This confession raises the stakes and hints at a deeper conspiracy behind the murder and blackmail plot.

Wolff recalls a violent visit from a former partner who demanded money. He insists he did not involve the police and that he took precautions to protect himself, hinting at hidden pressures on the household. The story grows more tangled as secrets pile up.

The burglar alarm is turned off and Dr. Haggard is shot. Shayne chases the killer but encounters the caretaker, and the murderer escapes in Meek's car. The mystery tightens as the danger moves from the inside to the road.

Chief Meek questions Wolff and the others as the alarm sounds again. The killer steals Meek's car, and a shortcut known to Meek allows Shayne to force a high-speed chase, ending with the killer's death in a crash. The case appears solved—at least on the surface.

Shayne visits his magician friend Great Merlini to learn about the buried-alive act. Merlini's scrapbook yields photos of Zorah Bey that resemble the dead man, shifting the investigation toward a more theatrical culprit. The thread connects the murder to show business rumors and old crimes.

Meek, contacted by Shayne posing as a reporter, checks the body only to discover it has vanished from the morgue. The missing corpse deepens the mystery and signals a conspiracy larger than a single murder.

Shayne returns to the Wolff mansion for a private briefing with Wolff, Kay, and Dunning. He has deduced that Wolff met the dead man the previous night and that blackmail documents were the true motive behind the scheme. The tension among the family members grows as the truth edges closer.

Zorah Bey shows up at the mansion, and Shayne knocks him out. He places Bey in sight beside Anna’s doorway, setting the stage for the night’s revelations. The confrontation exposes a tangled history of betrayal and love.

Shayne reveals that Anna is actually Zorah Bey's wife and that Bey had returned to the U.S. intending to blackmail Wolff. Anna and Haggard had pretended to bury Bey, but a caretaker witnessed the ruse and Bey misidentified Kay as Anna on the first night. The scheme unfolds into a deadly clash of loyalties.

Shayne lays out the full conspiracy: Zorah Bey killed Haggard during the attempt to blackmail Wolff and is ultimately exposed. The buried-alive ruse is explained, the killer is neutralized, and the tangled web is resolved as the truth prevails.