Charlie Chan, Jimmy and Birmingham are on a bus trip to San Francisco, where he's about to investigate for an insurance company the strange and gruesome deaths of a couple of newly wed young women - all 'torso killings', where the head's been cut off from the body; and now another victim has been found, and the lady who sits next to him on the bus explains to him that she makes the trip in order to find out if it's her missing granddaughter. Meanwhile, the bus has got motor trouble, and the passengers are forced to spend some time in a little shack - where a shot is fired at Charlie from outside, and it's only the watch Jimmy had given him for his birthday that saves him from the bullet! Then, a young man shows up who declares he's on leave from the Marine Corps to see his girl in San Francisco; but it's obvious that he left WITHOUT a leave... Then, when they arrive and Charlie goes to the morgue to see the body (whatever's left of it), he can reassure Mrs. Conover that the dead woman is NOT her granddaughter, because of a scar from an appendectomy which 'little' Mary has never undergone. And the same day, in the hotel restaurant, Charlie recognizes in the pretty young waitress the missing granddaughter, who's dyed her hair blond - and is obviously hiding from something or someone...
As it turns out, Mary is also the girl Joe, the young Marine corporal, is searching for: he'd fallen in love with her, but she'd turned him down because she was afraid - and at last, when Charlie gets hold of her, we learn the reason for her fear: she'd been working for an escort bureau, and she'd become suspicious when her boss had suggested to her to marry Joe whose father is rich, and if she'd get him to take out a high life insurance policy, they'd soon make her a rich widow! And now, it's up to brave little Mary to play the decoy in order to find the boss of the 'torso murder gang'...
A very unusual and suspenseful entry in the 'Charlie Chan' series, with an excellent cast (what a shame that most of their names are almost forgotten by now...), and as always some wonderful jokes and mishaps from Jimmy and Birmingham; a great piece of good, clean crime entertainment!
