A Complicated Murder. Vance Horton was an unpleasant fellow, the kind whose name afflicts even hard-boiled men of the world with cold shudders of disgust. He had no friends, but, to counter-balance this, could count on a whole host of enemies. So much so that, when someone more impatient than usual decided to murder him, the police, to say nothing of two amateurs, had suspects to burn.