August 17, 2025 • 43 mins
CBS Radio Mystery Theater was a noteworthy attempt to revive in American radio dramas like Inner Sanctum (1941-1952) and Suspense (1942-1962). Radio dramas were widely considered "dead" 12 years prior to this series. CBS Radio Mystery Theater, or simply Mystery Theater, was created by Inner Sanctum creator Himan Brown and ran on CBS from 1974-1982. The show, much like older radio dramas, was introduced by a host (E.G. Marshall in this program), who steers us through the creaking door to start the episode. Many voices from the golden age of radio were featured, including Richard Widmark, Bret Morrison, Agnes Moorehead and many more.
Hope you enjoy this episode of Mystery Theater! Find all our OTR radio stations and podcasts at theaterofthemind-otr.com - Audio Credit: The Old Time Radio Researchers Group. - All Podcasts @ Spreaker | Apple | YouTube | Spotify | iHeart | Amazon
Hope you enjoy this episode of Mystery Theater! Find all our OTR radio stations and podcasts at theaterofthemind-otr.com - Audio Credit: The Old Time Radio Researchers Group. - All Podcasts @ Spreaker | Apple | YouTube | Spotify | iHeart | Amazon
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Mitsy Theater presents Come in.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Welcome.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
I meet G. Marshall, and I know I meet G.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
Marshall.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
The reason I stretched it is because the world seems
to be suffering from an identity crisis. People are turning
to the Orient in a search.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
For their real selves.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Others turn to drugs, and others to new forms of
consciousness raising. Today's story is titled a Question of Identity,
But in this tale, the search is not for oneself,
but to identify the right husband.
Speaker 5 (00:54):
What do you want of the Hillary woof Prove to
me that you are the real good christis the man
of ault. Prove it with memory, the little things only.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
You and I would know, things I've tried to forget.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
Hillary.
Speaker 6 (01:08):
This is no place for reminiscing it.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Well, there's a tony tourist still hanging around.
Speaker 5 (01:14):
You can't use him as an excuse anymore.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
He's easy, yes, and he's also leaving that expensive camera
case behind. Come on, who he wrout our mystery drama
A Question of Identity was written especially for the Mystery
(01:38):
Theater by Murray Burnett and stars Joan Lovejoy. It is
sponsored in part by Buick Motor Division. I'll be back
shortly with that one. We live in a world filled
(02:01):
with kidnapping and skyjacking. Unfortunately, these crimes have become so
common that we almost accept them as part of the
perils of today's living. Of course, we all know that
the motive for kidnapping or skyjacking is either political or
involving money for ransom, and sometimes both. Today's stories starts
(02:22):
with the kidnapping, which had neither of these motives. Indeed,
it was so unusual that it seemed to be motives less.
Speaker 5 (02:36):
My name is Hillary Cummings when I'm divorced. I like
them this only because it plays such an important part
in an incredibly strange things that happened to me. It all
started on an ordinary Wednesday, as I left my apartment
in New York City on my way to my job.
Was cooked in a l It was rainy, no chance
to tab by me, so I opened my umbrella and
(02:59):
started the bus stop on the cooling two men ranged up,
one on each side of me, and sell.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Returning, Yeah, they like you to come with us. H
h who are you? I'll I'll be explaining when we
get where we're going our cars ride over there.
Speaker 5 (03:16):
Well, thank you, but my buck is right over here.
You can ride with me and explain.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
That's not satisfactory of sunning. Let's go with my armor off, scream,
let's go.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
We do we do? You know we'll fring me a car.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Oh, I'll give a chance to have resting if he
can scream. If you wait, it won't do you any good.
Speaker 5 (03:41):
I was being kidnapped. I dressed the notion are they
dressing me? And then followed quickly by anger. And it's here,
particularly when the man who had been doing all the
talking you attempted to know who assuring me.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
I give you my word that no harm will come
to you. The simple to Donna ask a favor of you.
Speaker 5 (04:02):
Well, for people asking favors, you go about it in
a calculated way to get a refusal.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
I've already apologized this. Uh kidnappings, Uh, you.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
Got it all wrong.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
You'll understand everything when we reach our bits nice and well.
Speaker 5 (04:15):
The policeman they know a kidnapping when they hear a
lot more talking.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
And I've shut up when you want to be gagged or.
Speaker 5 (04:25):
There was no question that he meant what he said,
So I obeyed, and you Gord travel fast up the
West Side Highway across the Henry Hudson Bridge into Riverdale,
turned off at Kidston, came to a stopping the driveway
of a gracious old mention my captors, who lightly ushered
me in through large double doors, and then into a
(04:46):
panda's library. A gray haired man with tweakling blue eyes
in the face of a cherub rose from behind a
large disk.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Oh, Miscomings, I'm delighted to see you. Please sit down.
Uh would you care for some coffee, tea or rather
excellent croissant?
Speaker 5 (05:04):
Right, I'll tell you exactly what I'd like to get
out of here and down to my job.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
What do you think is going to happen when I
don't show up or call in nothing?
Speaker 2 (05:14):
I assure you everything has been taken care.
Speaker 5 (05:17):
Of, and I'm supposed to take your word.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
For that one not at all of you, which you
may call and speak to your superior mister Springsteen. I
believe who are you and what do you want to
Who I am is of no importance. What I want
is well simple. I want a small favor from you,
one which will do your country a great service.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Are you telling me that you're with the government?
Speaker 4 (05:41):
That's right?
Speaker 5 (05:42):
Then, why didn't you just call and ask me to
come and see you.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Well, there were considerations time for one security for another security.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Look, are you sure you have the right room?
Speaker 4 (05:56):
Mmm?
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Hillar Cummings is your maiden name, and some time ago
you were missus Robert CHRISTI grt.
Speaker 5 (06:02):
Oh my marriage to Bob has something to do with
my being here then?
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Mm, it has everything to do with it. I have
no choice, believe me this comings you would uh, you
would know your husband if you were to see him again, now,
wouldn't you?
Speaker 5 (06:18):
I like, I'm not sure you know he had some
plastic surgery done after the after the accidents. I haven't
seen or spoken with him since we're aware of that.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
I can only tell you that the plastic surgery did
not alter his looks that much. What is much more important,
I think, are the things that remained constant, such as
memories that were shared by only the two of you.
Speaker 5 (06:43):
I I'm getting a very bad feeling. I don't know
whether I'm Alice in Wonderland or a character in a
James Bond story. I would like to leave now, may
I No, I'm a prisoner.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Well only until you hear me out. Just please listen,
and if you then decide you don't want to help us,
or you'll be perfectly free to leave.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
Do we have a deal?
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Do I have a choice?
Speaker 2 (07:09):
I'm the head of an intelligence operation one you'd never
heard of, an intelligence gathering outfit.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
And how does Bob connect up with this?
Speaker 2 (07:18):
But he's done some work for us at during his times.
No one can question his extensive traveling because of his
regular job as a hotel management consultant. He makes an
ideal courier. You know, someone who carries messages.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
You know, I've read enough spy stories to know what
a courier does.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
So we we come to our problem. Some weeks ago,
we were told about an important message that were shortly
coming out of Vienna. Our sources informed us that the
message had extraordinary importance. We therefore decided to use your
ex husband to pick up the message and bring it back.
Bob was legitimately visiting Vienna at that time, and we
(07:54):
pre arranged with Bob to send us a postcard setting
up a time and place where he would deliver this
message to us. I've mentioned it's importance before, so you
you may understand our consternation when in the past three
days we received three different postcards, all presumably signed by
your ex husband, setting up three different times.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
And places for us to accept delivery.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
As much as it embarrasses me to admit it, h
there must have been a security breach of significant proportionals.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
But what has all this to do with me?
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Well, in order to make absolutely sure we get the
right message, we need you to identify the right Bob Christy.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Mister uh uh Smith.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
The smith will do.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Mister Smith.
Speaker 5 (08:41):
Now, I hope you will be upset if I say
that what you just told me is the most absurd.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Story I have ever heard.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Why absurd?
Speaker 5 (08:49):
You have employed a man as a courier for some years,
and yet you expect me to believe that you can't
identify him.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Bob Christy and I have never met. Actually, he's only
had contact with two different operatives who'll spend more than
five minutes with him.
Speaker 5 (09:02):
But you must have pictures or or finger prints.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Of course you you must have his print.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
We had both in his file and in our computer banks,
but unfortunately his file is missing and something has happened
to foul up the computer tape.
Speaker 5 (09:18):
Well, I'm afraid I can't help you. It means that
I I'd have to see Bob again.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Well, that would be painful.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Yeah, I know, I know.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
I've read the court record of the divorce proceedings.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Court records.
Speaker 5 (09:32):
They don't begin to tell you anything. There's no record
of the last words I spoke to Bob Christy, Is
there no? Well, I've never told this to anyone, and
I'm only telling it to you so that you'll understand
why I must walk out of here.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Right after the accident, I I went to the hospital.
Bob was lying there in his bed.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
If he saw me come in or heard me, he
he didn't say anything. And I went to the bed,
leaned over and whispered, damn you forever, Lord Christy.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
I hope to God you'll die.
Speaker 5 (10:12):
And now you are asking me to meet with this
man and identify him for you.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
I have to.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Are are you sure that Bob heard those words you
said to him in the hospital?
Speaker 4 (10:25):
All I.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
I suppose he did. I never thought about it.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
I just know I said that perhaps he was unconscious.
I'm not saying he was, but well he might have been,
then he would never have heard them.
Speaker 5 (10:38):
Suppose I suppose I identify the wrong man.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Nah, it's hardly likely. You're not going to be meeting
a stranger. One man will undoubtedly have the memories that
only you two can share.
Speaker 5 (10:51):
You'll see you talk us as though I were I were.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Going to do it.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
We checked on your background. You have a strong conscience.
You can't walk away from listen, leave with yourself, particularly
when I tell you the the moment you appear on
the scene, you become a pawn and perhaps suspendable.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
And what has that to do with conscience?
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Your record also shows you have courage.
Speaker 5 (11:14):
Huh, I'd like a little more time.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Come in, uh very well, a passport marry the name
of Robert Christy's on TWA's flight thirteen with a stop
in Sweats one.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
He's due to arrive at.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Candidate at three pm.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Thank you, and I'm afraid you've run out of time.
It's comings. Your first appointment is four o'clock this afternoon
in the Blue Sky Lounge of the Metropolitan Hotel.
Speaker 5 (11:50):
All motels and near airports have the same air of incurbinens.
I looked for the third table on the list and
anxiously tried to recall every to be hurry.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Briefing up Jim.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Now, it's really a simple procedure.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
Miscommings.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
You'll go to the sky Blue lounge, and be sure
to take the third table.
Speaker 6 (12:07):
On the left.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
I suppose someone's sitting here.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
Better not be.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
It's been reserved in your name. Now you will give
the captain your name and order a slow gin Fis.
I love them, but you don't have to drink it.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
Just order it. Now.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Here's your copy of Great Hostelries of the World. I'm
sure you have it open so the title shows. And
then wait for the contact. And for your sake and ours,
let's hope that he's the real bomb Christie. Your part
will be finished after you drop the message off, as
you've been instructed. But what if you you have the
phone number for all other contingencies right, There'll be somebody
(12:41):
at that phone twenty four hours a day.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Good luck.
Speaker 5 (12:49):
So there I was sitting at the third table on
the left with my book opens directed and nothing happened.
I look at my watch for fifteen still nothing. I
decided to wait a little longer. I I'd given him
an hour, so I continued to read the gin Fis untouched,
(13:11):
and then the waiter handed me a sealed envelope. This
was not according to plan, however, I opened it. It read,
if this is your idea of a joke.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
It's sick. This is no laughing matter, so get out.
Speaker 5 (13:28):
It was unsigned, and I looked around the room but
saw no one remotely resembling Bob. I glanced up at
the waiter. He was obviously expecting an answer. I simply
shook my head and tore the note to shreds. It
wasn't more than ten minutes later.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
I never heard him. I I was reading, and the
only way I knew he was there was when his
hand closed the book and he said, yeah, just as
stubborn and spiteful as always. If you have an explanation,
I'll listen. Everyone knows that love is blind, but how
(14:11):
about hate? In the case of Hillary Cummings, she's been
asked to identify her.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Own husband, a man she hates.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Will this hatred lead her.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
To make a mistake?
Speaker 6 (14:23):
And I'll leave that shortly with that too.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
I'd recognize him anywhere. How often have we said those
words without thinking? And what is there to think about? Certainly,
it's a simple matter to recognize someone you've known intimately,
even if you haven't seen or spoken with him in
a dozen years. Unless there are three remarkable look alikes,
each one of them claiming to be your ex husband.
Speaker 6 (14:59):
That was hillary Coming problem.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
She is face to face with the first claimant and
desperately unsure. I'm still waiting, Hillary.
Speaker 5 (15:09):
Well, the plastic surgeons did a good job.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
You look just just as you should. I want to
know why you're sitting at this particular table, in this
particular lounge, at this particular time, because Robert Christie is
supposed to deliver something to me. Agencies who must be
scraping the bottom of the barrel if they have to
use you as a pickup compact.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
Here here's a message.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
I can't say it's been nice. See wait just a minute,
there's more no not for me. There isn't suit yourself.
Speaker 5 (15:41):
It will make it easier for me when I talk
to the other two men who claim to be Robert Christie.
What the agency received three postcards setting up three different meetings.
But that's why, as you so charmingly put it, they
scraped the bottom of the barrel and came up with me.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
You always were a liar. I don't know how you
found out as much as you did, but I do
know the agency has my prayer.
Speaker 5 (16:09):
Your file is missing, and somebody was also able to
mess up the computer tape.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Somebody's given you all the answers you can check. I'm
going to right now.
Speaker 5 (16:21):
He left to phone the agency. I suppose he could
have been Bob. He'd had plastic surgery, and maybe this
is the way Bob would have looked after aging twelve years.
And he talked just as viciously as Bob had. But
somehow that bothered me. I wondered if he'd been coached,
(16:42):
shouldn't the years have taken some of the edge off
his bitterness?
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Straighten me out, unjust what you want from me? You're oh, damn, well,
I'm Bob. How about the other two men? They're imposters. Well,
I'll admit you.
Speaker 5 (16:57):
Look about the way Bob might have considering the plastic search.
You seem to have many of Bob's characteristics. But I
don't wanna pass judgment until I'm absolutely sure.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Oh what a clever little trap. I don't have my
birth certificate with me, But do you like to peek
at my passport?
Speaker 5 (17:15):
That scar above your lip, that's new, isn't it it?
It doesn't look as though it came from plastic surgery,
and Bob didn't have any scar there.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
It was very observant.
Speaker 6 (17:27):
And I got this from a dog.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
Oh but Bob hated dogs. You're right again. But you see,
there was this girl. It was a good friend of mine.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
She had a poodle.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
One day, the little mutt picks a Doberman pincher to
fight with and trying to separate them. I was the
only one bit I see.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
What do you see? If you had any eyes or.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Brains, you'd know that I'm Bob. We were married in
the Church of the Good Shepherd on January through first,
nineteen sixty one. Fred Stone was my best man. Your
old college roommate, Gloria Humphreys was your maid of honor.
There was a blizzard, but we didn't care. We were
going to the Bahamas for our honeymoon.
Speaker 5 (18:13):
Well, very convincing, But if you were an impostor, you
might have been coached.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Okay, you want absolute proof, I'll give it to you.
The hotel has rules upstairs. I'll register, we'll go up together,
and i'll prove it.
Speaker 4 (18:34):
That's enough.
Speaker 5 (18:37):
And I suppose you'd suggest that I make that test
with all three of you.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
You wouldn't have to, I promise I'll convince you. No,
thank you, Okay, I'm gonna report your refusal to the
agency somehow, I don't think they'll like it.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
Yes, hello, hello, oh, yes, miss.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Oh, oh, it is you. I was afraid I had
forgotten the number.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
I told him this one rape man twenty four hours.
Well how did it go? Uh?
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Miserably?
Speaker 4 (19:23):
You didn't get the message? Oh?
Speaker 5 (19:24):
Yes, yes, he gave me the message just the way
you told me. I I mailed it immediately.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
Good, I take it he wasn't R Bob Christie.
Speaker 5 (19:32):
Well I'm not sure. He did know an awful lot
about the past. Well, now what do I do about
the next appointment?
Speaker 4 (19:39):
I was hoping it wouldn't be necessary. You'll find all
the information you need in out a little which is
how I was waiting your apartment.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
I was completely miscast as a female James Bond. Instead
of feeling excited or curious about my meeting with the
second man who claimed to be my my ex husband,
I dreaded it. I hated the frightening spy jargon of
the instructions. You will proceed to the Central Park Zoo.
(20:11):
You will arrive at the fifth bench from the south
entrance to the zoo not before one thirty or after
one thirty five. It has been arranged there will be
no one sitting on that particular bench. You will seat
yourself and prominently display the book review section of last
Sunday's paper. A copy has been furnished you. A man
(20:33):
will sit next to you who will say the following
words exactly. I never can understand people who judge books
by reviews, to which you will answer exactly. I much
prefer judging them that way than by their covers. I
pretended to read the book review section while trying to
spot someone who looked like it might be Bob. Finally
(20:58):
a man approached, and I blinked. For a moment, I
thought he was the same man I'd seen at the airport,
and then I noticed he was a trifle stouter and
his hair.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Was a little thinner.
Speaker 6 (21:11):
Hillary, I, I, I it is you, isn't it?
Speaker 3 (21:15):
But yes, it is, of course, But but I don't
I'm s oh, excuse me. I I never can understand
people who judge books by reviews. I much prefer judging
them that way than by their covers.
Speaker 6 (21:29):
Hillry, there there must be something very wrong.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
It wasn't that the proper identification. I I don't mean
that they must have had some reason to involve you,
but they shouldn't have. Hillary, How did you get into this?
I'll tell you if you explain to me how you
got that scar on your lip?
Speaker 4 (21:45):
Hillary, This is no game.
Speaker 6 (21:47):
You're right in the middle of something dark and dangerous.
Speaker 5 (21:50):
Oh that's a switch you trying to make me believe
your concerned about me?
Speaker 6 (21:55):
Still small like? Okay, cheering man? The scar I got
it from a dog bite a dog, not mine. I
broke up a fight between two dogs.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
How look, I'd like to turn over the message to
say goodbye.
Speaker 5 (22:09):
I wish it could be that easy. The three different
men claim to be Bob Christie. The agency asked me
to discover which one is really Bob.
Speaker 6 (22:18):
I can't.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
I believe that the agency agency has goofed.
Speaker 5 (22:22):
They've lost the file containing Bob Christie's records and fingerprints.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
You're saying, I have no cover any long someone knows
all about me why I'm carrying That's even worse than
anything I could imagine.
Speaker 5 (22:34):
Hi, if you're really Bob, you have nothing to worry about.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Have you any idea what will happen to the two
men you brand as impostors? They'll go to jail if
they're lucky, but likely they'll turn up in a morgue.
Now you're exaggerating.
Speaker 6 (22:48):
Would you ever stop the check on whether or not
you were followed when you came here?
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Sure, of course not.
Speaker 6 (22:54):
I've never occurred to you.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
Just look around, look and see if you recognize any
as many hairs as you can. Oh, that's ridiculous. Shouldn't
my head examined for staining this long?
Speaker 6 (23:04):
Goodbye, Hillary, and good luck.
Speaker 5 (23:06):
You are the ones going to need the luck if
you go before. You've proved to me that you really
are bob brother.
Speaker 6 (23:11):
I just found a new version of health.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
I'm chained of the woman I divorced twelve years ago,
chain more securely by fear than I ever was by marriage.
Speaker 6 (23:22):
All right, Hillary, what do you want of me?
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Proof? Prove to me that am I the first of
the three?
Speaker 4 (23:27):
Men? U?
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Man, No, you're the second.
Speaker 6 (23:29):
Oh that's good.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Well, what's good about it?
Speaker 6 (23:32):
It proves you weren't sure about the.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
First guy felling the royld support you over there, look
leaning against the tree with the camera. You see him?
Speaker 4 (23:41):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (23:42):
Yes, he's obviously a tourist, so obvious that he bothers me.
He's just been standing there full him with his camera
ever since.
Speaker 4 (23:50):
I sat down.
Speaker 5 (23:50):
Oh relax, now, look, if you are Bob, you would
remember moments we shared that only the real Bob Christy
would know.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Things that I've tried to put out of my mind
the past dozen years. Oh that's a cop out. Why
isn't that phony tourist going on about his business?
Speaker 4 (24:07):
Why is he still right?
Speaker 3 (24:08):
All right? All right? If you can't give me anything,
all right, Hillary, Houses for openers? Uh well, Philadelphia, the
playhouse in the park, remember the the the play star
Spangled Girl.
Speaker 6 (24:19):
We left early and got lost.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
We couldn't find our way out of Fairmount Park. No
one asked directions, We laughed or we had to stop
the car and seriously debate going to sleep.
Speaker 6 (24:29):
Right there in the park.
Speaker 5 (24:31):
It's not bad, not completely that you can relax that
phony tourist.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
As you call it. He's leaving.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Well, I'm leaving that expensive camera case behind. Come on, Hillary,
I don't have a stupid question home.
Speaker 6 (24:57):
I don't know now, maybe you'll believe me.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Let me barm which meant for me, there are other
countries in foreign foreign agencies, and they want the real
Bob Christie dead. That's the truth.
Speaker 5 (25:09):
Is it possible if these other guy who want the
woman who who can identify and dead.
Speaker 6 (25:14):
Also, you're not very good at your job.
Speaker 5 (25:17):
Just tell me something that will prove to me beyond
any doubt at your bomb.
Speaker 6 (25:20):
Oh Hillary, you too much.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
If someone just tried to kill me and you're still
asking for romantic reminisces.
Speaker 5 (25:27):
Not necessarily romantic, just something something so personal that only
you and.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
I would know about it.
Speaker 6 (25:34):
Okay, look would anyone?
Speaker 3 (25:38):
But I know about the crazy nocean you had, the
death somehow eyes when you run out of memories, I
I think you'll have to kill me inlay.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Come on, you know.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
We both left to walk ramble around the city, exploring,
and frequently we'd come to a street that held memories
for you. These the old fashioned ice cream show where
you had solos when you were a kid, or maybe
they did the house where your old high schoach have lived.
And you'd always say, I wonder and one day, maybe
if you live in one city, your whole life can
(26:12):
store up all those memories and then suddenly there's nothing left,
no more memories. I think that's when a person finally dies.
Now what anyone that may have known about that really did?
Speaker 5 (26:31):
It's certainly what I asked for, but I still can't.
I can only say you've given me something to think about.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
There is nothing more untrustworthy than an autobiography. Make a
little test, Find an old friend and reminisce recall some
incident that happened to both of you more than.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
Ten years ago.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
Our wager you'll have two very different versions, and each
will honestly believe that his is true. That, more than anything,
is Hillary's problem.
Speaker 6 (27:15):
I'll be back shortly.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
Shakespeare said, it's a wise father that knows his own child.
Shakespeare never wrote anything about a woman knowing her own husband.
Of course, he had also never heard of plastic surgery,
which made Hillary Cummings problem of picking the right husband
from among three claimants more than ordinarily difficult. It was
also becoming dangerous. Do you know about the bomb that
(27:50):
exploded in the park? What about the bomb?
Speaker 4 (27:54):
The second Bob? Christy?
Speaker 3 (27:57):
I'm not sure That's why I'm asking about the bomb?
Speaker 4 (28:00):
The cats? Two things, one that you pose a threat
and two other the information that is as important as
we were to believe.
Speaker 5 (28:06):
Couldn't it prove that the man I I was with
was the real Bob and someone wanted him dead?
Speaker 4 (28:12):
Or humans comings. I'm concerned you should be two? Do
you fast? You can tell me this man is my
husband or this man isn't? The better off will be?
Now about the uh second man? Why won't you eliminate him?
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Well?
Speaker 5 (28:28):
He he knew something about a silly superstition of mine.
I uh uh a way I had of thinking about
memories and places?
Speaker 4 (28:37):
Or was it something unusual and uh uh personal? Oh? Yes,
wasn't that really conclusive?
Speaker 5 (28:43):
But unhesitating for two reasons. One is that any organization
that could steal Bob's file and get into your computer
set up certainly would have the resources to check into
my life and come up with a number of incidents
and and then instruct the impersonator when.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
You use them.
Speaker 4 (28:58):
Yes, that's a possibility.
Speaker 5 (28:59):
And secondly, this man used the phrase how's this for openers?
Speaker 3 (29:05):
Now?
Speaker 5 (29:05):
Not only was that a jarring speech pattern for Bob,
but he hated cards and card playing. Opener's is a
word Bob would never have.
Speaker 4 (29:14):
Used twelve years ago?
Speaker 3 (29:16):
Well?
Speaker 6 (29:16):
Is that?
Speaker 3 (29:16):
Of course?
Speaker 5 (29:18):
So that's why I must keep the next appointment with
the third man. The Red Rooster was one of the
smarter east Side restaurants. My instruction said the man would
carry the identifications. He would be seated with an ice
bucket for a champagne, but there would be no bottle.
(29:40):
He would also have a cigarette holder in his mouth,
but no cigarette. The table was to be reserved in
the name of John Christophel. The Naida d led me
toward a man sitting at a rear table. He looked
up and smiled. He didn't seem as surprised as the
others had, and we sat for a short while inside gents.
(30:01):
I began to feel nervous, so I asked a rather
silly questions. Aren't we supposed to have something to say
to each other?
Speaker 3 (30:13):
You mean that nonsense about the proper identification with passwords?
Speaker 6 (30:19):
Okay, here goes I hope I remember it.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
You see now, don't you feel that there's something sad
about empty ice buckets and empty cigarette.
Speaker 5 (30:28):
Holders only if they're empty unintentionally?
Speaker 6 (30:32):
Really, who do you think makes up these silly bits
and power?
Speaker 3 (30:37):
Now that the formalities have been taken care of, let's
order a marvelously expensive dinner. After all, it's on the agency.
Speaker 5 (30:44):
Where did you get that scar on your lip? It's
not from surgery, I know.
Speaker 6 (30:48):
Are you feeling all right, Hillary, Maybe meeting me after all.
Speaker 5 (30:51):
These years, meeting you hasn't bothered me at all. You
are the third man claiming to be Bob Christy, and
quite frankly, in my opinion, the least likely because you're
giving the worst impersonation.
Speaker 6 (31:04):
Maybe that's because I'm not trying.
Speaker 5 (31:06):
M very clever, but still unconvincing. Why because if the
other two were putting on an act, they obviously were
better coached than you. I was more shaken than I
cared to admit. This man did look more like what
I had expected Bob to look like after twelve years.
(31:27):
And then he shook me even more when he ordered
not only Bob's favorite dishes but mine.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
Also a house of food delicious. Now, how did you
get that scar?
Speaker 4 (31:39):
Well?
Speaker 3 (31:39):
This I got the scar trying to be a peacemaker
between two fighting dogs and three men, Three.
Speaker 6 (31:46):
Scars, three tales of a dog fie.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
Mmm, you seem to take this very likely. We Oh,
I know who I am, and I know who you are,
and I know what I'm carrying. I'll give it to
you and you make your own decision.
Speaker 5 (32:00):
I like more specifics on our paths before.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
I make up my mind.
Speaker 6 (32:04):
I'm sorry, I refuse to oblige.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Is shoes or can't?
Speaker 4 (32:09):
Oh, poor Hillary, You.
Speaker 6 (32:11):
Were attracted to me, and you resent it.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
You resent it because of the quarrels and bitterness that
made us break up.
Speaker 6 (32:16):
But why should I dredge up the paths to prove
to you that I'm Bob.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
You could set your mind at rest and make me
very happy by using the final irrevocable test. No, absolutely not. Yes,
I expected to be turned down, but really not quite
so emphatically.
Speaker 5 (32:34):
The reason I am so emphatic is the real Bob
simply wasn't as charming as you.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
You have a short memory, love, not as short as yours.
Speaker 5 (32:45):
You've forgotten that night when the neighbors called the police, and.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
You've forgotten the three great years, for two years at
Lake Dumore, and all the other times before before what
gone before David died, before everything went rotten, before you
blamed me for David's death.
Speaker 5 (33:05):
I beg you not to take David in that horrible
jacket up fourth card, but you did.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
You always forget that it was the other car that
jumped the divider and hit us, and you hadn't been
going more than eight miles, And how it, wouldn't it.
Speaker 6 (33:21):
Please please start me.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
No, No, listen to me, Listen to me, please, I'm
I'm not Bob Christie.
Speaker 6 (33:29):
I never was your husband.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
My name is Charles Shelburne, and I I can't stand
to see you cry.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
What what are you saying?
Speaker 3 (33:40):
Look, I'll prove it and wet the napkin and rub
off all the fakes cars. Look see, I'm not Bob Christie,
and I'm sick of a stupid MESSI raide.
Speaker 6 (33:52):
I wish I'd never started with it.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
Then why did you?
Speaker 6 (33:58):
Because I'm an idiot?
Speaker 5 (34:01):
Could you say your name was Charles shelgrin the Charles
Shelgren who wrote Eagles Victorious six years and.
Speaker 6 (34:09):
Not another line since, at least not another line I like.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
But what has that to do with with your being here?
Is in trying to fool me?
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Oh?
Speaker 6 (34:21):
That's very simple.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
If you're a writer who's had a smash it novel
right off the bat, and then you find out that
somehow nothing seems to come, nothing, nothing close. So you
run away, as I did, to a little town in France,
and you teach English.
Speaker 6 (34:40):
And all the time you're you're at yourself, and and
then suddenly an old college jump turns up.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
You haven't seen him in twenty years, and he tells
you he's with the government or very hush hush, and
you'll be doing the country.
Speaker 6 (34:53):
A big service.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
And maybe you could even get an idea for a book.
Or because I happened to look like I, there might
be a guy called Bob Christy.
Speaker 5 (35:06):
If I hadn't read Eagle's Victorious. I don't think I
d I believe what you're telling me. You're a romanticist.
Speaker 6 (35:14):
I think sucker is a better word. What I thought
was gonna be sort of a lock turn up to
be something else now that I've met you.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
Oh, this is ridiculous.
Speaker 5 (35:28):
What's going to happen to you when your old chum
finds out that you've told me the truth?
Speaker 4 (35:32):
Huh?
Speaker 6 (35:33):
I haven't thought about that.
Speaker 3 (35:34):
Here, I'll give you the message, but you can tell
whoever you report to there's a phony. Aren't you afraid
that something? I suppose the stakes are high, but I
can't see how.
Speaker 6 (35:42):
Hurting me will help 'em.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
Well, what are you going to do? Go back to
my hotel, the Berkeley Plaza, stay there.
Speaker 6 (35:50):
For the next two days, and then go back to
France and teach.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
What about your writing?
Speaker 6 (36:01):
If you were really interested in you know where to
find me.
Speaker 5 (36:10):
I do remember exactly how I got back.
Speaker 4 (36:13):
To my apartment.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
My head was in the world.
Speaker 5 (36:16):
The real Bob now had to be one of the
first two men i'd met.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
But which.
Speaker 5 (36:23):
And what would happen to the last Bob Charles Shelburn
if I could believe his story, and I did so
desperately want to believe. I didn't even look up after
I closed the door to my apartment.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
Welcome home, my Laurie. How did you get into my apartment?
I'm here because I wanna know exactly what you're going
to tell the agency. None of your disneys entirely my business.
I was able to get in here with the key
I had made because I got nervous. I saw you
running around interviewing perspective ex.
Speaker 5 (37:03):
All right, he's stronger than I am. But you've just
given yourself away. Now I know you're not the real Bob.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
Are you?
Speaker 3 (37:15):
Damn you forever? Bob Christy.
Speaker 6 (37:18):
I hope to God you die.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
You really really are, Bob.
Speaker 5 (37:28):
You remember what I whispered to you in the hospital.
Why didn't you tell me just right away? At the airport.
Speaker 3 (37:35):
Oh oh, come on, Hillary, when you told me there
were two other guys pretending to be me, and I
knew the Agency wouldn't involve you unless they were willing
to take your work, and remembering how you felt about me,
I figured there was a good chance you'd make a mistake.
Speaker 5 (37:52):
On purpose and hope the agency would kill you for me.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
Go to the head of the class. I could still
do that, though, couldn't I. And that's why I'm here
to give you a reason to tell the truth. That's
almost funny to need a reason to tell the truth.
How would you like fifty thousand dollars?
Speaker 5 (38:20):
You mean you're that frightened you're offering me fifty thousand
dollars because you think.
Speaker 3 (38:27):
I'm not offering you any This money will come from
my employers, from the agency or agency.
Speaker 4 (38:34):
This is my own deal.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
I've been planning this for years. The Agency ran me
all over the world like an errand boy and paid
me peanuts. I made my contacts. I knew someday something
really big would come along, and it did. This message.
My employers are anxious to make sure the agency gets
(38:57):
it and believes it. I warned them that this whole
elaborate charade with three different Bob Christie's was too much.
Speaker 4 (39:07):
They felt it.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
Would guarantee the agency believing it. Hum are you telling
me that you're a traitor? I'm me. I drive cars
too fast, spend too much, lived too hard, and never
I'm really happy. And now I'm taking the ultimate gamble.
(39:32):
I'm offering you fifty thousand dollars for just telling the truth.
Speaker 5 (39:46):
This is Hillary Cummings, mister Smith. This is the last
time I'll be talking to you. I'm leading the country. No,
I can't make up my mind.
Speaker 4 (40:00):
Course which one You're trying to protect myself? Who threatening you?
Speaker 5 (40:08):
You need to protection from myself? And thoughts of revenge.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
And riddles are exclusively your area of mister Smith.
Speaker 5 (40:20):
All right, I'll make it very simple. You can stop
worrying about which is the right message, because all the
messages are false and designed to mislead you all.
Speaker 4 (40:33):
But then that means that Bob Christie is it.
Speaker 5 (40:37):
Bob Christie is no longer my problem, mister Smith. Whatever
he is, he's all yours.
Speaker 3 (40:51):
One of the in things today for people seeking identity
is to spend two weekends or sixty hours that are
transcend dental meditation affession. Hillary Cummings did it faster and
perhaps easier, but not everyone has given the opportunity to
play Manta Hai.
Speaker 6 (41:10):
I'll be back shortly.
Speaker 3 (41:22):
Spy stories go back as far as twenty four hundred BC,
when a party of spies under the command of Joshua
were dispatched by Moses to bring back reports of conditions
in the land of Canaan. They did, and the reports
were in conflict. Ever since then, the intelligence services of
the world have recognized the importance of the gathering of
(41:44):
information and the distribution of misinformation.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
You can trust me not to misinform you.
Speaker 3 (41:52):
Our cast included Joan Lovejoy, Robert Dryden, Joe Silver, and
Ian Martin. The entire production was under the direction of
Hyman Brown. And now a preview of our next tale.
I went downtown to your office building. I got to
look at her. Oh they're a good look clip me assuring. Really,
(42:13):
I've only seen her exactly three times, and all three
times she was at my dance, and at no time
did I see her for more than two.
Speaker 4 (42:19):
Or three minutes.
Speaker 7 (42:20):
All she requires the idea of her, the seductive idea
of her, has been planted in your soul driver from
your mind.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
Mommy, if I don't bring in proof of how Daddy died,
I can be forced to quit my job.
Speaker 3 (42:34):
That's that would be for the best. But I have seniority.
You're not forty.
Speaker 4 (42:38):
You a pension plan of forty years old.
Speaker 3 (42:40):
I mean, where could I go to start over again?
Speaker 7 (42:42):
You know me, you have a great amount of ability.
Speaker 3 (42:44):
You can get a good job anyway. Why won't you
tell me what daddy died? It's getting late. I think
I'll go to bed.
Speaker 4 (42:50):
Don't you understand you're gonna fire me?
Speaker 7 (42:53):
Well, dear, who knows, after all, it may just turn
out to be for the best.
Speaker 4 (43:00):
Is e. G.
Speaker 3 (43:00):
Marshall inviting you to return to our Mystery Theater for
another adventure in the macabre? Until next time, pleasant stream.
Mitsy Theater presents Come in.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Welcome.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
I meet G. Marshall, and I know I meet G.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
Marshall.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
The reason I stretched it is because the world seems
to be suffering from an identity crisis. People are turning
to the Orient in a search.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
For their real selves.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Others turn to drugs, and others to new forms of
consciousness raising. Today's story is titled a Question of Identity,
But in this tale, the search is not for oneself,
but to identify the right husband.
Speaker 5 (00:54):
What do you want of the Hillary woof Prove to
me that you are the real good christis the man
of ault. Prove it with memory, the little things only.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
You and I would know, things I've tried to forget.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
Hillary.
Speaker 6 (01:08):
This is no place for reminiscing it.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Well, there's a tony tourist still hanging around.
Speaker 5 (01:14):
You can't use him as an excuse anymore.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
He's easy, yes, and he's also leaving that expensive camera
case behind. Come on, who he wrout our mystery drama
A Question of Identity was written especially for the Mystery
(01:38):
Theater by Murray Burnett and stars Joan Lovejoy. It is
sponsored in part by Buick Motor Division. I'll be back
shortly with that one. We live in a world filled
(02:01):
with kidnapping and skyjacking. Unfortunately, these crimes have become so
common that we almost accept them as part of the
perils of today's living. Of course, we all know that
the motive for kidnapping or skyjacking is either political or
involving money for ransom, and sometimes both. Today's stories starts
(02:22):
with the kidnapping, which had neither of these motives. Indeed,
it was so unusual that it seemed to be motives less.
Speaker 5 (02:36):
My name is Hillary Cummings when I'm divorced. I like
them this only because it plays such an important part
in an incredibly strange things that happened to me. It all
started on an ordinary Wednesday, as I left my apartment
in New York City on my way to my job.
Was cooked in a l It was rainy, no chance
to tab by me, so I opened my umbrella and
(02:59):
started the bus stop on the cooling two men ranged up,
one on each side of me, and sell.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Returning, Yeah, they like you to come with us. H
h who are you? I'll I'll be explaining when we
get where we're going our cars ride over there.
Speaker 5 (03:16):
Well, thank you, but my buck is right over here.
You can ride with me and explain.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
That's not satisfactory of sunning. Let's go with my armor off, scream,
let's go.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
We do we do? You know we'll fring me a car.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Oh, I'll give a chance to have resting if he
can scream. If you wait, it won't do you any good.
Speaker 5 (03:41):
I was being kidnapped. I dressed the notion are they
dressing me? And then followed quickly by anger. And it's here,
particularly when the man who had been doing all the
talking you attempted to know who assuring me.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
I give you my word that no harm will come
to you. The simple to Donna ask a favor of you.
Speaker 5 (04:02):
Well, for people asking favors, you go about it in
a calculated way to get a refusal.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
I've already apologized this. Uh kidnappings, Uh, you.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
Got it all wrong.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
You'll understand everything when we reach our bits nice and well.
Speaker 5 (04:15):
The policeman they know a kidnapping when they hear a
lot more talking.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
And I've shut up when you want to be gagged or.
Speaker 5 (04:25):
There was no question that he meant what he said,
So I obeyed, and you Gord travel fast up the
West Side Highway across the Henry Hudson Bridge into Riverdale,
turned off at Kidston, came to a stopping the driveway
of a gracious old mention my captors, who lightly ushered
me in through large double doors, and then into a
(04:46):
panda's library. A gray haired man with tweakling blue eyes
in the face of a cherub rose from behind a
large disk.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Oh, Miscomings, I'm delighted to see you. Please sit down.
Uh would you care for some coffee, tea or rather
excellent croissant?
Speaker 5 (05:04):
Right, I'll tell you exactly what I'd like to get
out of here and down to my job.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
What do you think is going to happen when I
don't show up or call in nothing?
Speaker 2 (05:14):
I assure you everything has been taken care.
Speaker 5 (05:17):
Of, and I'm supposed to take your word.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
For that one not at all of you, which you
may call and speak to your superior mister Springsteen. I
believe who are you and what do you want to
Who I am is of no importance. What I want
is well simple. I want a small favor from you,
one which will do your country a great service.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Are you telling me that you're with the government?
Speaker 4 (05:41):
That's right?
Speaker 5 (05:42):
Then, why didn't you just call and ask me to
come and see you.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Well, there were considerations time for one security for another security.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Look, are you sure you have the right room?
Speaker 4 (05:56):
Mmm?
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Hillar Cummings is your maiden name, and some time ago
you were missus Robert CHRISTI grt.
Speaker 5 (06:02):
Oh my marriage to Bob has something to do with
my being here then?
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Mm, it has everything to do with it. I have
no choice, believe me this comings you would uh, you
would know your husband if you were to see him again, now,
wouldn't you?
Speaker 5 (06:18):
I like, I'm not sure you know he had some
plastic surgery done after the after the accidents. I haven't
seen or spoken with him since we're aware of that.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
I can only tell you that the plastic surgery did
not alter his looks that much. What is much more important,
I think, are the things that remained constant, such as
memories that were shared by only the two of you.
Speaker 5 (06:43):
I I'm getting a very bad feeling. I don't know
whether I'm Alice in Wonderland or a character in a
James Bond story. I would like to leave now, may
I No, I'm a prisoner.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Well only until you hear me out. Just please listen,
and if you then decide you don't want to help us,
or you'll be perfectly free to leave.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
Do we have a deal?
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Do I have a choice?
Speaker 2 (07:09):
I'm the head of an intelligence operation one you'd never
heard of, an intelligence gathering outfit.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
And how does Bob connect up with this?
Speaker 2 (07:18):
But he's done some work for us at during his times.
No one can question his extensive traveling because of his
regular job as a hotel management consultant. He makes an
ideal courier. You know, someone who carries messages.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
You know, I've read enough spy stories to know what
a courier does.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
So we we come to our problem. Some weeks ago,
we were told about an important message that were shortly
coming out of Vienna. Our sources informed us that the
message had extraordinary importance. We therefore decided to use your
ex husband to pick up the message and bring it back.
Bob was legitimately visiting Vienna at that time, and we
(07:54):
pre arranged with Bob to send us a postcard setting
up a time and place where he would deliver this
message to us. I've mentioned it's importance before, so you
you may understand our consternation when in the past three
days we received three different postcards, all presumably signed by
your ex husband, setting up three different times.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
And places for us to accept delivery.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
As much as it embarrasses me to admit it, h
there must have been a security breach of significant proportionals.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
But what has all this to do with me?
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Well, in order to make absolutely sure we get the
right message, we need you to identify the right Bob Christy.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Mister uh uh Smith.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
The smith will do.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Mister Smith.
Speaker 5 (08:41):
Now, I hope you will be upset if I say
that what you just told me is the most absurd.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Story I have ever heard.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Why absurd?
Speaker 5 (08:49):
You have employed a man as a courier for some years,
and yet you expect me to believe that you can't
identify him.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Bob Christy and I have never met. Actually, he's only
had contact with two different operatives who'll spend more than
five minutes with him.
Speaker 5 (09:02):
But you must have pictures or or finger prints.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Of course you you must have his print.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
We had both in his file and in our computer banks,
but unfortunately his file is missing and something has happened
to foul up the computer tape.
Speaker 5 (09:18):
Well, I'm afraid I can't help you. It means that
I I'd have to see Bob again.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Well, that would be painful.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Yeah, I know, I know.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
I've read the court record of the divorce proceedings.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Court records.
Speaker 5 (09:32):
They don't begin to tell you anything. There's no record
of the last words I spoke to Bob Christy, Is
there no? Well, I've never told this to anyone, and
I'm only telling it to you so that you'll understand
why I must walk out of here.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Right after the accident, I I went to the hospital.
Bob was lying there in his bed.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
If he saw me come in or heard me, he
he didn't say anything. And I went to the bed,
leaned over and whispered, damn you forever, Lord Christy.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
I hope to God you'll die.
Speaker 5 (10:12):
And now you are asking me to meet with this
man and identify him for you.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
I have to.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Are are you sure that Bob heard those words you
said to him in the hospital?
Speaker 4 (10:25):
All I.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
I suppose he did. I never thought about it.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
I just know I said that perhaps he was unconscious.
I'm not saying he was, but well he might have been,
then he would never have heard them.
Speaker 5 (10:38):
Suppose I suppose I identify the wrong man.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Nah, it's hardly likely. You're not going to be meeting
a stranger. One man will undoubtedly have the memories that
only you two can share.
Speaker 5 (10:51):
You'll see you talk us as though I were I were.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Going to do it.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
We checked on your background. You have a strong conscience.
You can't walk away from listen, leave with yourself, particularly
when I tell you the the moment you appear on
the scene, you become a pawn and perhaps suspendable.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
And what has that to do with conscience?
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Your record also shows you have courage.
Speaker 5 (11:14):
Huh, I'd like a little more time.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Come in, uh very well, a passport marry the name
of Robert Christy's on TWA's flight thirteen with a stop
in Sweats one.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
He's due to arrive at.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Candidate at three pm.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Thank you, and I'm afraid you've run out of time.
It's comings. Your first appointment is four o'clock this afternoon
in the Blue Sky Lounge of the Metropolitan Hotel.
Speaker 5 (11:50):
All motels and near airports have the same air of incurbinens.
I looked for the third table on the list and
anxiously tried to recall every to be hurry.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Briefing up Jim.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Now, it's really a simple procedure.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
Miscommings.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
You'll go to the sky Blue lounge, and be sure
to take the third table.
Speaker 6 (12:07):
On the left.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
I suppose someone's sitting here.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
Better not be.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
It's been reserved in your name. Now you will give
the captain your name and order a slow gin Fis.
I love them, but you don't have to drink it.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
Just order it. Now.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Here's your copy of Great Hostelries of the World. I'm
sure you have it open so the title shows. And
then wait for the contact. And for your sake and ours,
let's hope that he's the real bomb Christie. Your part
will be finished after you drop the message off, as
you've been instructed. But what if you you have the
phone number for all other contingencies right, There'll be somebody
(12:41):
at that phone twenty four hours a day.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Good luck.
Speaker 5 (12:49):
So there I was sitting at the third table on
the left with my book opens directed and nothing happened.
I look at my watch for fifteen still nothing. I
decided to wait a little longer. I I'd given him
an hour, so I continued to read the gin Fis untouched,
(13:11):
and then the waiter handed me a sealed envelope. This
was not according to plan, however, I opened it. It read,
if this is your idea of a joke.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
It's sick. This is no laughing matter, so get out.
Speaker 5 (13:28):
It was unsigned, and I looked around the room but
saw no one remotely resembling Bob. I glanced up at
the waiter. He was obviously expecting an answer. I simply
shook my head and tore the note to shreds. It
wasn't more than ten minutes later.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
I never heard him. I I was reading, and the
only way I knew he was there was when his
hand closed the book and he said, yeah, just as
stubborn and spiteful as always. If you have an explanation,
I'll listen. Everyone knows that love is blind, but how
(14:11):
about hate? In the case of Hillary Cummings, she's been
asked to identify her.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Own husband, a man she hates.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Will this hatred lead her.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
To make a mistake?
Speaker 6 (14:23):
And I'll leave that shortly with that too.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
I'd recognize him anywhere. How often have we said those
words without thinking? And what is there to think about? Certainly,
it's a simple matter to recognize someone you've known intimately,
even if you haven't seen or spoken with him in
a dozen years. Unless there are three remarkable look alikes,
each one of them claiming to be your ex husband.
Speaker 6 (14:59):
That was hillary Coming problem.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
She is face to face with the first claimant and
desperately unsure. I'm still waiting, Hillary.
Speaker 5 (15:09):
Well, the plastic surgeons did a good job.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
You look just just as you should. I want to
know why you're sitting at this particular table, in this
particular lounge, at this particular time, because Robert Christie is
supposed to deliver something to me. Agencies who must be
scraping the bottom of the barrel if they have to
use you as a pickup compact.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
Here here's a message.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
I can't say it's been nice. See wait just a minute,
there's more no not for me. There isn't suit yourself.
Speaker 5 (15:41):
It will make it easier for me when I talk
to the other two men who claim to be Robert Christie.
What the agency received three postcards setting up three different meetings.
But that's why, as you so charmingly put it, they
scraped the bottom of the barrel and came up with me.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
You always were a liar. I don't know how you
found out as much as you did, but I do
know the agency has my prayer.
Speaker 5 (16:09):
Your file is missing, and somebody was also able to
mess up the computer tape.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Somebody's given you all the answers you can check. I'm
going to right now.
Speaker 5 (16:21):
He left to phone the agency. I suppose he could
have been Bob. He'd had plastic surgery, and maybe this
is the way Bob would have looked after aging twelve years.
And he talked just as viciously as Bob had. But
somehow that bothered me. I wondered if he'd been coached,
(16:42):
shouldn't the years have taken some of the edge off
his bitterness?
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Straighten me out, unjust what you want from me? You're oh, damn, well,
I'm Bob. How about the other two men? They're imposters. Well,
I'll admit you.
Speaker 5 (16:57):
Look about the way Bob might have considering the plastic search.
You seem to have many of Bob's characteristics. But I
don't wanna pass judgment until I'm absolutely sure.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Oh what a clever little trap. I don't have my
birth certificate with me, But do you like to peek
at my passport?
Speaker 5 (17:15):
That scar above your lip, that's new, isn't it it?
It doesn't look as though it came from plastic surgery,
and Bob didn't have any scar there.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
It was very observant.
Speaker 6 (17:27):
And I got this from a dog.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
Oh but Bob hated dogs. You're right again. But you see,
there was this girl. It was a good friend of mine.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
She had a poodle.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
One day, the little mutt picks a Doberman pincher to
fight with and trying to separate them. I was the
only one bit I see.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
What do you see? If you had any eyes or.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Brains, you'd know that I'm Bob. We were married in
the Church of the Good Shepherd on January through first,
nineteen sixty one. Fred Stone was my best man. Your
old college roommate, Gloria Humphreys was your maid of honor.
There was a blizzard, but we didn't care. We were
going to the Bahamas for our honeymoon.
Speaker 5 (18:13):
Well, very convincing, But if you were an impostor, you
might have been coached.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Okay, you want absolute proof, I'll give it to you.
The hotel has rules upstairs. I'll register, we'll go up together,
and i'll prove it.
Speaker 4 (18:34):
That's enough.
Speaker 5 (18:37):
And I suppose you'd suggest that I make that test
with all three of you.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
You wouldn't have to, I promise I'll convince you. No,
thank you, Okay, I'm gonna report your refusal to the
agency somehow, I don't think they'll like it.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
Yes, hello, hello, oh, yes, miss.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Oh, oh, it is you. I was afraid I had
forgotten the number.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
I told him this one rape man twenty four hours.
Well how did it go? Uh?
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Miserably?
Speaker 4 (19:23):
You didn't get the message? Oh?
Speaker 5 (19:24):
Yes, yes, he gave me the message just the way
you told me. I I mailed it immediately.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
Good, I take it he wasn't R Bob Christie.
Speaker 5 (19:32):
Well I'm not sure. He did know an awful lot
about the past. Well, now what do I do about
the next appointment?
Speaker 4 (19:39):
I was hoping it wouldn't be necessary. You'll find all
the information you need in out a little which is
how I was waiting your apartment.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
I was completely miscast as a female James Bond. Instead
of feeling excited or curious about my meeting with the
second man who claimed to be my my ex husband,
I dreaded it. I hated the frightening spy jargon of
the instructions. You will proceed to the Central Park Zoo.
(20:11):
You will arrive at the fifth bench from the south
entrance to the zoo not before one thirty or after
one thirty five. It has been arranged there will be
no one sitting on that particular bench. You will seat
yourself and prominently display the book review section of last
Sunday's paper. A copy has been furnished you. A man
(20:33):
will sit next to you who will say the following
words exactly. I never can understand people who judge books
by reviews, to which you will answer exactly. I much
prefer judging them that way than by their covers. I
pretended to read the book review section while trying to
spot someone who looked like it might be Bob. Finally
(20:58):
a man approached, and I blinked. For a moment, I
thought he was the same man I'd seen at the airport,
and then I noticed he was a trifle stouter and
his hair.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Was a little thinner.
Speaker 6 (21:11):
Hillary, I, I, I it is you, isn't it?
Speaker 3 (21:15):
But yes, it is, of course, But but I don't
I'm s oh, excuse me. I I never can understand
people who judge books by reviews. I much prefer judging
them that way than by their covers.
Speaker 6 (21:29):
Hillry, there there must be something very wrong.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
It wasn't that the proper identification. I I don't mean
that they must have had some reason to involve you,
but they shouldn't have. Hillary, How did you get into this?
I'll tell you if you explain to me how you
got that scar on your lip?
Speaker 4 (21:45):
Hillary, This is no game.
Speaker 6 (21:47):
You're right in the middle of something dark and dangerous.
Speaker 5 (21:50):
Oh that's a switch you trying to make me believe
your concerned about me?
Speaker 6 (21:55):
Still small like? Okay, cheering man? The scar I got
it from a dog bite a dog, not mine. I
broke up a fight between two dogs.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
How look, I'd like to turn over the message to
say goodbye.
Speaker 5 (22:09):
I wish it could be that easy. The three different
men claim to be Bob Christie. The agency asked me
to discover which one is really Bob.
Speaker 6 (22:18):
I can't.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
I believe that the agency agency has goofed.
Speaker 5 (22:22):
They've lost the file containing Bob Christie's records and fingerprints.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
You're saying, I have no cover any long someone knows
all about me why I'm carrying That's even worse than
anything I could imagine.
Speaker 5 (22:34):
Hi, if you're really Bob, you have nothing to worry about.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Have you any idea what will happen to the two
men you brand as impostors? They'll go to jail if
they're lucky, but likely they'll turn up in a morgue.
Now you're exaggerating.
Speaker 6 (22:48):
Would you ever stop the check on whether or not
you were followed when you came here?
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Sure, of course not.
Speaker 6 (22:54):
I've never occurred to you.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
Just look around, look and see if you recognize any
as many hairs as you can. Oh, that's ridiculous. Shouldn't
my head examined for staining this long?
Speaker 6 (23:04):
Goodbye, Hillary, and good luck.
Speaker 5 (23:06):
You are the ones going to need the luck if
you go before. You've proved to me that you really
are bob brother.
Speaker 6 (23:11):
I just found a new version of health.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
I'm chained of the woman I divorced twelve years ago,
chain more securely by fear than I ever was by marriage.
Speaker 6 (23:22):
All right, Hillary, what do you want of me?
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Proof? Prove to me that am I the first of
the three?
Speaker 4 (23:27):
Men? U?
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Man, No, you're the second.
Speaker 6 (23:29):
Oh that's good.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Well, what's good about it?
Speaker 6 (23:32):
It proves you weren't sure about the.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
First guy felling the royld support you over there, look
leaning against the tree with the camera. You see him?
Speaker 4 (23:41):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (23:42):
Yes, he's obviously a tourist, so obvious that he bothers me.
He's just been standing there full him with his camera
ever since.
Speaker 4 (23:50):
I sat down.
Speaker 5 (23:50):
Oh relax, now, look, if you are Bob, you would
remember moments we shared that only the real Bob Christy
would know.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Things that I've tried to put out of my mind
the past dozen years. Oh that's a cop out. Why
isn't that phony tourist going on about his business?
Speaker 4 (24:07):
Why is he still right?
Speaker 3 (24:08):
All right? All right? If you can't give me anything,
all right, Hillary, Houses for openers? Uh well, Philadelphia, the
playhouse in the park, remember the the the play star
Spangled Girl.
Speaker 6 (24:19):
We left early and got lost.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
We couldn't find our way out of Fairmount Park. No
one asked directions, We laughed or we had to stop
the car and seriously debate going to sleep.
Speaker 6 (24:29):
Right there in the park.
Speaker 5 (24:31):
It's not bad, not completely that you can relax that
phony tourist.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
As you call it. He's leaving.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Well, I'm leaving that expensive camera case behind. Come on, Hillary,
I don't have a stupid question home.
Speaker 6 (24:57):
I don't know now, maybe you'll believe me.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Let me barm which meant for me, there are other
countries in foreign foreign agencies, and they want the real
Bob Christie dead. That's the truth.
Speaker 5 (25:09):
Is it possible if these other guy who want the
woman who who can identify and dead.
Speaker 6 (25:14):
Also, you're not very good at your job.
Speaker 5 (25:17):
Just tell me something that will prove to me beyond
any doubt at your bomb.
Speaker 6 (25:20):
Oh Hillary, you too much.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
If someone just tried to kill me and you're still
asking for romantic reminisces.
Speaker 5 (25:27):
Not necessarily romantic, just something something so personal that only
you and.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
I would know about it.
Speaker 6 (25:34):
Okay, look would anyone?
Speaker 3 (25:38):
But I know about the crazy nocean you had, the
death somehow eyes when you run out of memories, I
I think you'll have to kill me inlay.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Come on, you know.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
We both left to walk ramble around the city, exploring,
and frequently we'd come to a street that held memories
for you. These the old fashioned ice cream show where
you had solos when you were a kid, or maybe
they did the house where your old high schoach have lived.
And you'd always say, I wonder and one day, maybe
if you live in one city, your whole life can
(26:12):
store up all those memories and then suddenly there's nothing left,
no more memories. I think that's when a person finally dies.
Now what anyone that may have known about that really did?
Speaker 5 (26:31):
It's certainly what I asked for, but I still can't.
I can only say you've given me something to think about.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
There is nothing more untrustworthy than an autobiography. Make a
little test, Find an old friend and reminisce recall some
incident that happened to both of you more than.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
Ten years ago.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
Our wager you'll have two very different versions, and each
will honestly believe that his is true. That, more than anything,
is Hillary's problem.
Speaker 6 (27:15):
I'll be back shortly.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
Shakespeare said, it's a wise father that knows his own child.
Shakespeare never wrote anything about a woman knowing her own husband.
Of course, he had also never heard of plastic surgery,
which made Hillary Cummings problem of picking the right husband
from among three claimants more than ordinarily difficult. It was
also becoming dangerous. Do you know about the bomb that
(27:50):
exploded in the park? What about the bomb?
Speaker 4 (27:54):
The second Bob? Christy?
Speaker 3 (27:57):
I'm not sure That's why I'm asking about the bomb?
Speaker 4 (28:00):
The cats? Two things, one that you pose a threat
and two other the information that is as important as
we were to believe.
Speaker 5 (28:06):
Couldn't it prove that the man I I was with
was the real Bob and someone wanted him dead?
Speaker 4 (28:12):
Or humans comings. I'm concerned you should be two? Do
you fast? You can tell me this man is my
husband or this man isn't? The better off will be?
Now about the uh second man? Why won't you eliminate him?
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Well?
Speaker 5 (28:28):
He he knew something about a silly superstition of mine.
I uh uh a way I had of thinking about
memories and places?
Speaker 4 (28:37):
Or was it something unusual and uh uh personal? Oh? Yes,
wasn't that really conclusive?
Speaker 5 (28:43):
But unhesitating for two reasons. One is that any organization
that could steal Bob's file and get into your computer
set up certainly would have the resources to check into
my life and come up with a number of incidents
and and then instruct the impersonator when.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
You use them.
Speaker 4 (28:58):
Yes, that's a possibility.
Speaker 5 (28:59):
And secondly, this man used the phrase how's this for openers?
Speaker 3 (29:05):
Now?
Speaker 5 (29:05):
Not only was that a jarring speech pattern for Bob,
but he hated cards and card playing. Opener's is a
word Bob would never have.
Speaker 4 (29:14):
Used twelve years ago?
Speaker 3 (29:16):
Well?
Speaker 6 (29:16):
Is that?
Speaker 3 (29:16):
Of course?
Speaker 5 (29:18):
So that's why I must keep the next appointment with
the third man. The Red Rooster was one of the
smarter east Side restaurants. My instruction said the man would
carry the identifications. He would be seated with an ice
bucket for a champagne, but there would be no bottle.
(29:40):
He would also have a cigarette holder in his mouth,
but no cigarette. The table was to be reserved in
the name of John Christophel. The Naida d led me
toward a man sitting at a rear table. He looked
up and smiled. He didn't seem as surprised as the
others had, and we sat for a short while inside gents.
(30:01):
I began to feel nervous, so I asked a rather
silly questions. Aren't we supposed to have something to say
to each other?
Speaker 3 (30:13):
You mean that nonsense about the proper identification with passwords?
Speaker 6 (30:19):
Okay, here goes I hope I remember it.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
You see now, don't you feel that there's something sad
about empty ice buckets and empty cigarette.
Speaker 5 (30:28):
Holders only if they're empty unintentionally?
Speaker 6 (30:32):
Really, who do you think makes up these silly bits
and power?
Speaker 3 (30:37):
Now that the formalities have been taken care of, let's
order a marvelously expensive dinner. After all, it's on the agency.
Speaker 5 (30:44):
Where did you get that scar on your lip? It's
not from surgery, I know.
Speaker 6 (30:48):
Are you feeling all right, Hillary, Maybe meeting me after all.
Speaker 5 (30:51):
These years, meeting you hasn't bothered me at all. You
are the third man claiming to be Bob Christy, and
quite frankly, in my opinion, the least likely because you're
giving the worst impersonation.
Speaker 6 (31:04):
Maybe that's because I'm not trying.
Speaker 5 (31:06):
M very clever, but still unconvincing. Why because if the
other two were putting on an act, they obviously were
better coached than you. I was more shaken than I
cared to admit. This man did look more like what
I had expected Bob to look like after twelve years.
(31:27):
And then he shook me even more when he ordered
not only Bob's favorite dishes but mine.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
Also a house of food delicious. Now, how did you
get that scar?
Speaker 4 (31:39):
Well?
Speaker 3 (31:39):
This I got the scar trying to be a peacemaker
between two fighting dogs and three men, Three.
Speaker 6 (31:46):
Scars, three tales of a dog fie.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
Mmm, you seem to take this very likely. We Oh,
I know who I am, and I know who you are,
and I know what I'm carrying. I'll give it to
you and you make your own decision.
Speaker 5 (32:00):
I like more specifics on our paths before.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
I make up my mind.
Speaker 6 (32:04):
I'm sorry, I refuse to oblige.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Is shoes or can't?
Speaker 4 (32:09):
Oh, poor Hillary, You.
Speaker 6 (32:11):
Were attracted to me, and you resent it.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
You resent it because of the quarrels and bitterness that
made us break up.
Speaker 6 (32:16):
But why should I dredge up the paths to prove
to you that I'm Bob.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
You could set your mind at rest and make me
very happy by using the final irrevocable test. No, absolutely not. Yes,
I expected to be turned down, but really not quite
so emphatically.
Speaker 5 (32:34):
The reason I am so emphatic is the real Bob
simply wasn't as charming as you.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
You have a short memory, love, not as short as yours.
Speaker 5 (32:45):
You've forgotten that night when the neighbors called the police, and.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
You've forgotten the three great years, for two years at
Lake Dumore, and all the other times before before what
gone before David died, before everything went rotten, before you
blamed me for David's death.
Speaker 5 (33:05):
I beg you not to take David in that horrible
jacket up fourth card, but you did.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
You always forget that it was the other car that
jumped the divider and hit us, and you hadn't been
going more than eight miles, And how it, wouldn't it.
Speaker 6 (33:21):
Please please start me.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
No, No, listen to me, Listen to me, please, I'm
I'm not Bob Christie.
Speaker 6 (33:29):
I never was your husband.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
My name is Charles Shelburne, and I I can't stand
to see you cry.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
What what are you saying?
Speaker 3 (33:40):
Look, I'll prove it and wet the napkin and rub
off all the fakes cars. Look see, I'm not Bob Christie,
and I'm sick of a stupid MESSI raide.
Speaker 6 (33:52):
I wish I'd never started with it.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
Then why did you?
Speaker 6 (33:58):
Because I'm an idiot?
Speaker 5 (34:01):
Could you say your name was Charles shelgrin the Charles
Shelgren who wrote Eagles Victorious six years and.
Speaker 6 (34:09):
Not another line since, at least not another line I like.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
But what has that to do with with your being here?
Is in trying to fool me?
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Oh?
Speaker 6 (34:21):
That's very simple.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
If you're a writer who's had a smash it novel
right off the bat, and then you find out that
somehow nothing seems to come, nothing, nothing close. So you
run away, as I did, to a little town in France,
and you teach English.
Speaker 6 (34:40):
And all the time you're you're at yourself, and and
then suddenly an old college jump turns up.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
You haven't seen him in twenty years, and he tells
you he's with the government or very hush hush, and
you'll be doing the country.
Speaker 6 (34:53):
A big service.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
And maybe you could even get an idea for a book.
Or because I happened to look like I, there might
be a guy called Bob Christy.
Speaker 5 (35:06):
If I hadn't read Eagle's Victorious. I don't think I
d I believe what you're telling me. You're a romanticist.
Speaker 6 (35:14):
I think sucker is a better word. What I thought
was gonna be sort of a lock turn up to
be something else now that I've met you.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
Oh, this is ridiculous.
Speaker 5 (35:28):
What's going to happen to you when your old chum
finds out that you've told me the truth?
Speaker 4 (35:32):
Huh?
Speaker 6 (35:33):
I haven't thought about that.
Speaker 3 (35:34):
Here, I'll give you the message, but you can tell
whoever you report to there's a phony. Aren't you afraid
that something? I suppose the stakes are high, but I
can't see how.
Speaker 6 (35:42):
Hurting me will help 'em.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
Well, what are you going to do? Go back to
my hotel, the Berkeley Plaza, stay there.
Speaker 6 (35:50):
For the next two days, and then go back to
France and teach.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
What about your writing?
Speaker 6 (36:01):
If you were really interested in you know where to
find me.
Speaker 5 (36:10):
I do remember exactly how I got back.
Speaker 4 (36:13):
To my apartment.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
My head was in the world.
Speaker 5 (36:16):
The real Bob now had to be one of the
first two men i'd met.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
But which.
Speaker 5 (36:23):
And what would happen to the last Bob Charles Shelburn
if I could believe his story, and I did so
desperately want to believe. I didn't even look up after
I closed the door to my apartment.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
Welcome home, my Laurie. How did you get into my apartment?
I'm here because I wanna know exactly what you're going
to tell the agency. None of your disneys entirely my business.
I was able to get in here with the key
I had made because I got nervous. I saw you
running around interviewing perspective ex.
Speaker 5 (37:03):
All right, he's stronger than I am. But you've just
given yourself away. Now I know you're not the real Bob.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
Are you?
Speaker 3 (37:15):
Damn you forever? Bob Christy.
Speaker 6 (37:18):
I hope to God you die.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
You really really are, Bob.
Speaker 5 (37:28):
You remember what I whispered to you in the hospital.
Why didn't you tell me just right away? At the airport.
Speaker 3 (37:35):
Oh oh, come on, Hillary, when you told me there
were two other guys pretending to be me, and I
knew the Agency wouldn't involve you unless they were willing
to take your work, and remembering how you felt about me,
I figured there was a good chance you'd make a mistake.
Speaker 5 (37:52):
On purpose and hope the agency would kill you for me.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
Go to the head of the class. I could still
do that, though, couldn't I. And that's why I'm here
to give you a reason to tell the truth. That's
almost funny to need a reason to tell the truth.
How would you like fifty thousand dollars?
Speaker 5 (38:20):
You mean you're that frightened you're offering me fifty thousand
dollars because you think.
Speaker 3 (38:27):
I'm not offering you any This money will come from
my employers, from the agency or agency.
Speaker 4 (38:34):
This is my own deal.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
I've been planning this for years. The Agency ran me
all over the world like an errand boy and paid
me peanuts. I made my contacts. I knew someday something
really big would come along, and it did. This message.
My employers are anxious to make sure the agency gets
(38:57):
it and believes it. I warned them that this whole
elaborate charade with three different Bob Christie's was too much.
Speaker 4 (39:07):
They felt it.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
Would guarantee the agency believing it. Hum are you telling
me that you're a traitor? I'm me. I drive cars
too fast, spend too much, lived too hard, and never
I'm really happy. And now I'm taking the ultimate gamble.
(39:32):
I'm offering you fifty thousand dollars for just telling the truth.
Speaker 5 (39:46):
This is Hillary Cummings, mister Smith. This is the last
time I'll be talking to you. I'm leading the country. No,
I can't make up my mind.
Speaker 4 (40:00):
Course which one You're trying to protect myself? Who threatening you?
Speaker 5 (40:08):
You need to protection from myself? And thoughts of revenge.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
And riddles are exclusively your area of mister Smith.
Speaker 5 (40:20):
All right, I'll make it very simple. You can stop
worrying about which is the right message, because all the
messages are false and designed to mislead you all.
Speaker 4 (40:33):
But then that means that Bob Christie is it.
Speaker 5 (40:37):
Bob Christie is no longer my problem, mister Smith. Whatever
he is, he's all yours.
Speaker 3 (40:51):
One of the in things today for people seeking identity
is to spend two weekends or sixty hours that are
transcend dental meditation affession. Hillary Cummings did it faster and
perhaps easier, but not everyone has given the opportunity to
play Manta Hai.
Speaker 6 (41:10):
I'll be back shortly.
Speaker 3 (41:22):
Spy stories go back as far as twenty four hundred BC,
when a party of spies under the command of Joshua
were dispatched by Moses to bring back reports of conditions
in the land of Canaan. They did, and the reports
were in conflict. Ever since then, the intelligence services of
the world have recognized the importance of the gathering of
(41:44):
information and the distribution of misinformation.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
You can trust me not to misinform you.
Speaker 3 (41:52):
Our cast included Joan Lovejoy, Robert Dryden, Joe Silver, and
Ian Martin. The entire production was under the direction of
Hyman Brown. And now a preview of our next tale.
I went downtown to your office building. I got to
look at her. Oh they're a good look clip me assuring. Really,
(42:13):
I've only seen her exactly three times, and all three
times she was at my dance, and at no time
did I see her for more than two.
Speaker 4 (42:19):
Or three minutes.
Speaker 7 (42:20):
All she requires the idea of her, the seductive idea
of her, has been planted in your soul driver from
your mind.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
Mommy, if I don't bring in proof of how Daddy died,
I can be forced to quit my job.
Speaker 3 (42:34):
That's that would be for the best. But I have seniority.
You're not forty.
Speaker 4 (42:38):
You a pension plan of forty years old.
Speaker 3 (42:40):
I mean, where could I go to start over again?
Speaker 7 (42:42):
You know me, you have a great amount of ability.
Speaker 3 (42:44):
You can get a good job anyway. Why won't you
tell me what daddy died? It's getting late. I think
I'll go to bed.
Speaker 4 (42:50):
Don't you understand you're gonna fire me?
Speaker 7 (42:53):
Well, dear, who knows, after all, it may just turn
out to be for the best.
Speaker 4 (43:00):
Is e. G.
Speaker 3 (43:00):
Marshall inviting you to return to our Mystery Theater for
another adventure in the macabre? Until next time, pleasant stream.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Law & Order: Criminal Justice System - Season 1 & Season 2
Season Two Out Now! Law & Order: Criminal Justice System tells the real stories behind the landmark cases that have shaped how the most dangerous and influential criminals in America are prosecuted. In its second season, the series tackles the threat of terrorism in the United States. From the rise of extremist political groups in the 60s to domestic lone wolves in the modern day, we explore how organizations like the FBI and Joint Terrorism Take Force have evolved to fight back against a multitude of terrorist threats.