Consideration

Originally Aired: February 2, 1950

Suspense #370, "Consideration," stars Rosalind Russell as Ellen Forrester, a woman whose gambling addiction has devastating consequences. When her husband Charles reveals he's embezzled company funds to cover their expenses and needs ten thousand dollars before auditors arrive, Ellen must confess a terrible secret: she's lost all their money betting on the horses. Twenty-two thousand dollars gone in a single month of compulsive gambling. Charles faces prison unless he can replace the funds immediately.

The next day, Charles tells Ellen not to worry, that he's worked out a solution to their financial crisis. He begins spending long hours working alone in his garage laboratory, and Ellen's anxiety mounts. When their insurance agent Bill Dover visits and Charles insists on tripling their life insurance policies to thirty thousand dollars each, Ellen notices the murder clause in the paperwork. Strange sounds come from the locked laboratory at night, and Ellen discovers a letter from the City Health Department about an autopsy performed on their dog, testing for poison. Ellen realizes with growing horror what Charles's "solution" might be.