The Lonely Heart

Originally Aired: April 10, 1956 Suspense #645, "The Lonely Heart," centers on the baffling disappearance of Esther Leach two years earlier. Chief Inspector Finch brings in her husband, Stanley Leach, a gentle-seeming elderly bird shop owner, for questioning about his wife's vanishing. Despite suspicious circumstances—a violent quarrel overheard by neighbors the night before Esther disappeared, her ownership of the shop before their marriage, and destroyed postcards supposedly sent from her travels—Leach maintains his innocence and claims his strong-willed wife simply left to wander. With no body and insufficient evidence to make an arrest, Commissioner Blaine demands results, though Finch worries that bringing Leach in prematurely has put their suspect on guard. As Finch investigates further, he interviews Esther's nephew Richard Cade, who insists his stubborn aunt would never have left London and points the inspector toward a new lead: Ada Willis, a beautiful young woman who works at Selfridge's toy department and may have been involved with Stanley Leach. The case deepens as Finch begins pursuing this unexpected connection, hoping it will finally lead him to the truth about what happened to Esther Leach.