Venus #16
Where Gargoyles Dwell!
Venus takes a taxicab to the Graycar building on West Fifty-First St. She asks the elevator operator to bring her to the Corpo Construction Company on the thirteenth floor, but the operator tells her that there is no thirteenth floor to the Graycar building. She gets off on the fourteenth floor and finds a small stairwell that takes her down to an area between the two floors. She opens the door to room 1319. Inside, the room is in shambles and there are several dead bodies on the floor. A gargoyle bust calling itself Gara, King of Gargoyles springs to life and tries to kill Venus. She manages to avoid the flying stone bust and leaves the building.
Venus contacts her friend Whit Hammond and explains what happened. Whit, in turn, telephones the police who show up at the Graycar building to investigate the matter. However, they cannot locate the thirteenth floor. The stairwell that Venus used earlier has disappeared. The police lieutenant chides Venus for sending him on a wild goose chase and warns her to leave him alone.
Venus returns later that evening and scales the cables of the elevator shaft until she finds another entranceway to the elusive thirteenth floor. The room is still in shambles, but the gargoyles appear to be inert. Inside the room is Sylvia Corpo, the daughter of Henry Corpo, the founder of the Corpo Construction Company. Sylvia professes that she is the Queen of the Gargoyles and is responsible for bringing the statues to life. However, the gargoyles have since turned against her and they now wish to kill her. Venus and Sylvia fight one another, during which time Gara and the other gargoyles return to life. They begin chasing Sylvia until she stumbles and falls into the empty elevator shaft. The elevator car snaps and plummets down crushing Sylvia and the gargoyles.
Recurring Characters
Venus
Whitney Hammond
The Ashes of Death!
In the town of Corona Way, a crematorium owned Mr. Natas has a new client: a recently married widow who has come to cremate her recently deceased husband. Natas has his client witness the cremation from a protective screen. After he hands her the ashes of her late husband, Natas tells her that she will need to fill out some paperwork, however, the woman is never seen again.
The number of missing persons gets the attention of Whitney Hammond the owner of Beauty Magazine who assigns Venus to investigate the case. Venus has found a link between all the disappearances: That all the missing people had recently had a family member die and used the same crematorium after interviewing the family of the most recent missing woman. Venus then pays a visit to Mr. Natas' crematorium pretending to be doing research for a mystery novel. Falling for this story, Natas agrees to show Venus around. After showing her around, Venus begins probing him about the missing people in the area, and a furious Natas throws her out of his business.
With the investigation hitting a dead end and with people continuing to disappear, Venus is still convinced that Natas has something to do with it. They enlist the aid of Della Mason to pose as a grieving sister and Venus pretending to be a dead person needing cremation. They put on the ruse and Natas falls for it, even though he is surprised to find the "dead" woman is the woman who harassed him the day before. To get Natas out of the room, Della pretends to be faint. While Natas is treating her, Venus leaves the coffin and Whitney fills it with dirt. When Natas goes to incinerate the coffin he is unaware that there is nobody inside.
After the coffin is burned, Natas then gives Della a drink to "calm her nerves", but it really knocks Della out. Natas then places her in another coffin and is about to cremate her as well when Venus suddenly appears. Venus confronts him with his crimes saying that she has found evidence that some of the bodies he has cremated were not embalmed. She then points out that Natas is a sick man, pointing out that his name is "Satan" spelled backward. She further shocks Natas by showing that Della is conscious. His mind having snapped, Natas tells Venus that he is really Satan and to prove it he jumps into his own incinerator and apparently to his death.
However, when the authorities arrive and investigate the crime scene they find no traces of Natas in the incinerator, leaving Venus and Della to wonder if the claims of Natas were true.
Recurring Characters
Venus
Whitney Hammond
Della Mason
The House of Terror!
Venus asks her co-worker Betty if she'd like to go to lunch together but notices that she looks tired. Asking what's wrong, Betty explains that her mother is apparently going mad after she married Betty's stepfather and moved into an old house. Her mother has claimed to have seen ghosts and other strange happenings in the house since they moved in. Venus offers to see what she can do to help.
Venus and Betty go to visit Betty's mother and step-father, Venus finds that Betty's mother is close to the breaking point. Her new husband scolds them for working up his wife. Venus decides to spend the night and is surprised when her room suddenly begins to spin around. The room returns to normal when Betty goes to check on Venus. When they tell Betty's stepfather about it in the morning he dismisses it as another paranoid delusion. However, Venus finds it all suspicious and begins searching the basement of the house.
Later that night, Betty's stepfather, the real cause of her mother's growing insanity, goes into the basement to use his machines to create more illusions. Suddenly, ghosts appear before him and the stepfather becomes unhinged. Believing that Betty and Venus have been toying with his devices that he used, he tries to flee down the stairs and ends up tumbling to his death. Venus and Betty, however, had not located the devices and are left wondering if the house is really haunted. With her stepfather dead, Betty decides to take her mother to a sanitarium to be cured.
Recurring Characters
Venus
Whitney Hammond
