The Glass Ladder — Paul W. Fairman

Rick Mason, private eye, with the lucrative Global Indemnity account, had a hunch that all hell would start popping when heist-artist Mike Duryea was released from the penitentiary after serving five years for the Rajah Emerald haul. Global had shelled out $75.000 the rock had never turned up, and now sundry trigger-happy characters were all itching for the fateful day.

Though long missing, the giant emerald was now reaping a harvest of murder, starting with the mean death of a furtive, lonely stranger in a skid row rooming house. A corpse with no identity, except a bundle of clippings on the Rajah Emerald case. Rick took it from there, talked to Duryea's hard-boiled girl friend just before she died, followed the trail through to a respectable jewel merchant who blew the top of his head off rather than answer the questions, and puzzled over the strange behavior of an ex-bank messenger now turned Yogi and apparently unafraid of dying.

The Rajah Emerald was an evil green eye, with death in its wake, and Rick had to witness two more sudden deaths before the coveted jewel came to light, in the cunning cache of a secretive and seemingly naive person who had lived in its power for five long years!