Terror Street

U.S. Army Major William Rogers takes an unauthorized thirty-six-hour trip to London to visit his wife Katie, whom he has not seen in a year. When he enters his apartment, however, he finds it abandoned. He questions his friend and neighbor, Pam Palmer, who reluctantly informs him that, after Bill spent a year on what was supposed to be a three-month training course in America, Katie took an apartment in the West End. Bill goes there and catches the doorman, Harry, listening in on tenants' phone conversations. Bill blackmails Harry into giving him a key to Katie's apartment. Once inside, he takes out his gun and thinks back to how they met: Bill admires Katie, a beautiful Norwegian officer, at a railroad station, and is disappointed when she rebuffs him. They meet again on a train, however, and quickly fall in love. Within months, they marry and take an apartment in London, where Bill secures a job as a flight instructor. When an opportunity arises for Bill to take a training course in America which will advance his career, he lies to Katie that it will only take three months, but Katie fears being left alone and insists that he resign. They argue for the first time, and although they make up, she is still upset after he leaves. In the present, Bill passes out drunk just as Katie comes home. She is startled when customs officer Orville Hart steps out from his hiding place behind the drapes and asks her for "them." When Katie refuses, he shoots her with Bill's gun, puts the gun in Bill's hand, calls the police and leaves. Bill wakes to hear the police outside and, quickly realizing what has happened, grabs the gun and flees outside, where he crawls through the window of mission worker Jenny Miller. Although she is at first frightened, she believes Bill's story and hides him from the police. Meanwhile, the police inspector on the case questions Harry, who fearfully admits nothing, and then instructs his men to locate Bill, who they believe is in America. After sleeping at Jenny's, Bill, knowing he has only two days left to catch Katie's killer and clear his own name, learns from Harry that a customs officer named Hart was a regular visitor to Katie's apartment. Bill visits Hart and coyly reveals that he believes the killer was looking for the key to a safe-deposit box, which Bill has. After Hart refuses to speak to him, Bill asks Jenny to pose as Katie in order to open the safe-deposit box and discover what is inside. She reluctantly agrees, but as soon as she enters the safe, Hart arrests her for forging Katie's name. Instead of bringing her to the police, however, he takes her to her house and lies to her that Bill killed Katie to protect his smuggling ring. Meanwhile, Bill returns to his apartment, where he fends off an attack by young Henry Slauson, who reveals that he loved Katie and was urged by Hart to avenge her death. Bill convinces Henry that he is innocent and learns that Hart has been blackmailing Henry's uncle, a diamond smuggler. Henry gives Bill a letter from Katie, which he has been hiding for months, and which details how Hart coerced Katie to gather information about smugglers, and then used that information to blackmail them. When she discovered Hart's plan, she tried to quit, but he threatened to expose her, prompting her to ask for Bill's help. After reading the letter, Bill calls Jenny, who is forced by Hart to lure Bill to the mission where she works. There, he is jumped by two of Hart's henchmen posing as policemen, and after he knocks them both out, he accuses Jenny of double-crossing him. Bill and Henry visit Henry's uncle, who tells them that Katie recorded Henry confessing to his uncle's smuggling business. Although Katie claimed to have destroyed the records, Slauson conjectures that Hart must believe that the recordings are in the safe-deposit box. Just then, Hart steps out of the shadows with a gun, but Slauson grabs it. Bill offers Slauson the safe-deposit box key in return for Hart, but before they can make the exchange, Hart seizes the gun again. Bill then incites Henry's rage by describing Katie's slow death, and just as Henry attacks Hart, Jenny and the police arrive and arrest Hart. Later, they open the safe-deposit box, and discover that Katie really did destroy the recordings. Bill prepares to return to America, but asks Jenny if they can keep in touch.