Jean Leslie. Shoes For My Love (1948) 189 pp.
Barry Barlow, a San Francisco shoe manufacturer, owns a house at Washington and Leavenworth that has been converted into four apartments. After hearing a gunshot one evening, he discovers a beautiful woman in the apartment of one of his tenants, a psychiatrist named Ozzie Fenwick. She has red hair, appears to be drunk, and is standing over the fallen Fenwick with a gun in her hand. Barlow impulsively leads her into his apartment, puts her in his bed, and decides to cover for her when the other tenants come downstairs to investigate. The next morning the woman—who he calls Rusty—says she does not want to go home so he takes her to Fleishhacker Zoo to hide her while he attends to his business. When she then disappears from the zoo, Barlow, irrationally convinced of Rusty’s innocence, begins to investigate. His search takes him all over the city and makes him a prime suspect of the police. Barlow learns that Rusty is really Laurel Winters, a wealthy socialite with a strange family background. After two more murders, Barlow uncovers a sinister conspiracy between Ozzie Fenwick, Rusty’s brother, and a killer.