Super-Mystery Comics (Vol. 3) #4
Doctor Nemesis
Doctor Jim Bradley gets a call from Nurse Mary Strong who is on a private case and asks Jim to come and see her patient in her home. Jim arrives shortly and is introduced to Mrs. Mara, a wheelchair-bound old woman who insists that there is nothing wrong with her. Checking her pulse, Jim suggests that they give Mrs. Mara a mild sedative and takes the opportunity to ask Mary out on a date, but she says she is busy.
Jim returns to the hospital where he finishes his rounds and heads home for the night. Down in the subway, he’s surprised when he sees Mary fight through the crowd so she can jump onto the tracks, saying that she doesn’t want to live. Quickly, Jim leaps down and pulls Mary out of harm’s way just moments before the train rolls through. Jim asks Mary why she tried to commit suicide and she tells him that if she doesn’t kill herself now the police will find her soon enough once they have discovered that she murdered Mrs. Mara. This revelation comes as a shock to Jim who asks her why she did it. Mary goes on to say that she intentionally poisoned Mrs. Mara but doesn’t remember why she did it. Jim tells her that suicide is the coward’s way out and that there must be a reason she killed the old woman and suggests they investigate the scene for clues.
When they arrive at Mrs. Mara’s home, the old woman turns out to be alive and she is furious that Mary abandoned her. That’s when there is a knock at the door. It turns out to be Doctor Blair, Mrs. Mara’s physician. After introducing himself, Jim confirms that he prescribed Mrs. Mara a sedative, Doctor Blair examines it and proclaims that Jim actually gave the woman enough strychnine to kill a herd of elephants. Jim insists that he didn’t leave strychnine and once again asks Mary if anyone else had been by the house, however Nurse Strong still can’t remember. As Doctor Blair calls the police to report the situation, Bradley thinks that there is something suspicious going on. When Blair tries to blame everything on Jim, he knocks out the doctor and hangs up the phone. This convinces Mary that Jim must have been responsible, but he ignores her and drags Blair into another room. There, Jim changes into Doctor Nemesis and hides when the police arrive. Nurse Strong tells them that Doctor Bradley escaped and probably went back to the hospital. When the police leave, Doctor Nemesis watches as Mrs. Mara lets in a man in a turban who calls himself the Swami.
He tells Mrs. Mara that he has been in touch with her wife in the afterlife and then puts both Mara and Nurse Strong under a hypnotic spell. He tells Nurse Strong to confess to murdering Mrs. Mara to the police, Mary said she tried but failed. Coming out of hiding, Doctor Nemesis quickly injects the Swami with his truth-telling serum. The Swami confesses that he has been trying to convince Mrs. Mara that he has been talking to her husband in the afterlife in order to get her to change her will and leave her entire fortune to him. After she did so he switched her medicine with poison so he could pin her murder on Nurse Strong. However, something went wrong and he decided to come back and try again. Doctor Nemesis deduces that the sedative he gave Mrs. Mara earlier put her to sleep and when Mary came out of her hypnotic trance thought she had already completed her orders to kill Mrs. Mara and that’s what threw his scheme out of whack. While Doctor Nemesis is busy trying to wake up Mrs. Mara, the Swami shakes off the effects of the truth serum and smashes a chair over the Doctor’s head. The force of the blow also knocks Mrs. Mara out of her wheelchair. When Doctor Nemesis wakes up, the Swami uses his hypnotic powers to force the hero to dig his own grave in the back yard.
Back inside, Nurse Strong comes out of her hypnotic trance and upon seeing Mrs. Mara laying on the floor is convinced that she killed the old woman. Running for her coat in the closet, she finds Doctor Blair tied up in the closet and start screaming. Hearing Mary scream snaps Doctor Nemesis out of his trance and hits the Swami with his shovel, knocking the conman out. Soon the authorities are called and Doctor Nemesis explains everything as they take the Swami away. Changing back into his civilian guise, Jim gets an apology from Mary and Mrs. Mara tells the two that they should enjoy their evening together.
Recurring Characters
Doctor Nemesis, Mary Strong
