Murder, interrupted

The collection opens with Frank Howard, a wealthy financier who has cheated his way to success and now wants his wife out of the picture. He hires Billie Earl Johnson and offers $750,000 for the job. After the shot goes wide, the hired killer and the man who paid for it become enemies, each fighting to stay alive. The second story follows Dee Dee Blancharde, a well-known figure in her town, whom television coverage portrays as a selfless single mother caring for her chronically ill, wheelchair-bound daughter. When the teenager Gypsy Rose discovers she has never been sick and that her mother has deceived everyone for years, she sets out to get even.