Strange Bargain 1949_PARENTE_Noir

Feeling financially undervalued in being a loyal, knowledgeable, and hard working employee of the same brokerage for twelve years, assistant bookkeeper Sam Wilson asks his boss Malcolm Jarvis for a raise so that he and his wife, Georgia Wilson, will be able to afford the little luxuries for their two children. In speaking to Jarvis, Sam instead learns that he is being let go from the company as it needs to downsize, because it is bleeding money under Jarvis' control; he also is deep in personal debt despite his outward appearance of wealth. In Sam being frank about his own personal situation, Jarvis suggests to Sam that he help him commit fraud in what would be for them a somewhat win-win situation, at least according to Jarvis; Sam turns down the request. But Sam gets caught up in the fraud unexpectedly. In carrying out his end of Jarvis' plan, Sam is not as well prepared as he might have been if he had agreed in the first place. Beyond possibly being caught by the police or Georgia who would not understand committing such a crime, Sam has to decide what to do especially as it looks as if someone else could be charged with murder, namely Jarvis' honest business partner, Timothy Hearne who had been wrestling with Jarvis for control of the company.