 Officer Allard s Highway Patrol car is found abandoned and his body is discovered in the brush nearby. Auto painter Frank Handley tells Dan Mathews that Officer Allard was pursuing a car that he had been asked to paint quickly for no apparent reason. Dan learns that the car was registered to spinsterish bookstore owner Theo Nielson. Miss Nielson reluctantly reveals that she had recently given $10,000 to her "fiance" Larry Gardner and had loaned her car to his "brother" George. When Dan advises her that Larry Gardner is a convicted car thief and that George is the likely murderer of Officer Allard, she agrees to help set a trap for them. The two felons attempt to flee, but they soon find themselves bottled in by roadblocks.