February 26, 2026 • 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. Find more classic, old-time radio series at Theater of the Mind - OTR | Spreaker | Apple | YouTube
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Enjoy all six of our commercial-free internet radio stations at theaterofthemind-otr.com - Do you want to discover more of these classic, old-time radio series? Search "Theater of the Mind - OTR" on your favorite platform or visit Theater of the Mind - OTR | Apple | Spreaker | YouTube | Spotify | Amazon | iHeart
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
CBS Radio Mystery Theater presents, come in.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Welcome.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
I'm e. G. Marshall.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
How old were you when you first said I'm going
to run away and you'll never see me again, and
then you'll be sorry. Everyone has said it so, some
did not say it out loud. Some have run and
returned the same day, Some have never got round or
running at all, and some have run and stayed away.
It is one of these who gives us the title
(00:47):
of our story, The Man is Missing.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
The letters get smaller, the pressure of the pen gets lighter,
the lines get thinner. Man is not well?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Are you sure?
Speaker 4 (01:02):
Peas aren't crossed in a few places, See the loops
aren't completed.
Speaker 5 (01:07):
Perhaps he's not sick, Perhaps he's only hysterical, or perhaps
perhaps he's mad.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Our mystery drama The Man Is Missing was written especially
for the Mystery Theater by Elspeth Eric and stars Anne
Williams and Larry Haynes. It is sponsored in part by
Berwick Mortor Division and Contact the twelve hour code capsule
I'll be back shortly with Act one. Within the huge
(01:56):
New York City Police Department, there's a small coterie of
men who wear no uniforms They are the investigative Detectives.
They have one captain, one lieutenant, and five sergeants.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
They receive about.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
One hundred calls every day. Out of sixteen thousand cases,
they have solved better than ninety nine percent. They are
known as the Missing Persons Squad. I looked up and
there she was back again. I told her, and told
her over and over. But there she was, same bright smile,
(02:30):
same eager look, like she knew I could do something
and she was just hanging around waiting for me to
do it. My name's Wiley, called Well, and I'm Captain
of the Missing Persons Squad.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Good job, I like it.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
We know I stopped if I didn't say so myself,
as perhaps I shouldn't run away kids. We handle a
lot of those. And old people, the ones who get
tired of feeling useless and unwanted and just want raw.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
We get a lot of those two.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
However, there she was, back for the emptienth time to
ask me for the emptyent, time to find her husband.
Speaker 6 (03:08):
Captain Caldwell, May I talk to.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
You, missus mc laughlin.
Speaker 6 (03:11):
Why don't you call me here? We know each other
pretty well by now that we do, so call me.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Me here, please, okay here, But the answer is the same.
We've checked the fires, we've called them Morgue, Lawrence McLaughlin
either place. So he's not in jail, he's not in
the hospital, he's not dead. What more do you want?
Speaker 6 (03:32):
But where is he?
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Out there somewhere?
Speaker 6 (03:36):
Can't you look for him?
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Is he under eighteen?
Speaker 6 (03:38):
Of course not?
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Is he over sixty five?
Speaker 6 (03:42):
He's twenty nine?
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Ah?
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Well, then even if we could locate him, we couldn't
do anything about it. We couldn't bring him in. Why
couldn't you because we would be violating his civil rights. Understand, unless,
of course he's mental, than we could take him.
Speaker 6 (03:59):
Is he Is he mental?
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Office rocker r out of his mind? Nuts? No, all right,
then we can't touch him. I know it's hot on you,
but I must break the nose there. Husband's run off
all the time? Is Laurence seven? Don the vanishing act before?
Speaker 6 (04:16):
Certainly? Not?
Speaker 3 (04:16):
All right?
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Probably you'll never do it again, provided, of course he
comes back. Now you run along home and wait to
hear from him. Okay, I have heard from him. You
have he sent me some money? Well, then you're all set.
Speaker 6 (04:31):
But he doesn't say where he is.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
What he's thinking of you. Ah, Orry, wouldn't be sending
you the money, would he? You see, he's worried about you.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
He loves you.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
You're his wife and he loves you. So why don't know.
Speaker 6 (04:44):
Where he is?
Speaker 5 (04:46):
Oh?
Speaker 6 (04:46):
Please captain call her? Please?
Speaker 4 (04:49):
I know you can find him for me if you
just try. You're the Bureau of Missing Person said, Larry
is missing, and I want you to find him.
Speaker 6 (04:56):
If I can't you, I won't you.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
All right now?
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Quick quick crying and they're just gonna do any good.
You know that, all right? I stopped crying him.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Why won't you help me?
Speaker 1 (05:10):
I'll tell you what. I'm gonna turn you over to
one of our detectives, Ben Chase. His name is. He's
a very nice man, very fatherly type.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
You like him?
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Can you tell him all about your missing spouse and
maybe he can take her something? I'll that be okay, Okay,
Then come on this way. He's right in here.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
Ben.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
I've got a lady here I want you to meet.
This is Mia McLachlin. Yeah, this is Detective Benjamin Chase.
Take care of the little lady, Benna.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
She was the prettiest thing I've ever seen in my
whole life, skin like pink and white alabaster, dark brown
hair with a shine to a big round eyes, the
exact same color as the blue jeans she had on.
It was like spring. I just walked through the door
and me fifty eight years old. I'm Ben Chase, detective,
(06:11):
third grade Missing Persons Squad. I was a patrolman for
fifteen years. Then I did a hitch with public morals
for a short time, and then somebody smiled on me
and I landed here. What a swell job. I mean,
here is where you really get the feeling you're helping people.
Speaker 6 (06:29):
Please find my husband.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Your husband's missing? Is that it?
Speaker 6 (06:34):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (06:34):
And don't tell me about his civil rights.
Speaker 6 (06:38):
I want to know where he is.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Well, we could probably locate him all I want, but
we couldn't make him.
Speaker 6 (06:43):
Come back to you. I just want to know where
he is.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
We can check the files, hospitals, the mos.
Speaker 6 (06:51):
Oh he's alive. I know that. I don't think he's sick.
See I got this from him this morning.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Oh you got to let her from him?
Speaker 2 (06:59):
It had honey, Is it okay?
Speaker 3 (07:01):
If I take a look at him?
Speaker 6 (07:02):
Sure?
Speaker 4 (07:02):
Look, Look it was mailed right here in New York.
You can tell me the postmark.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Oh yeah, yuh mind if I read it? I don't mind,
Darling Mia thought you might be sure to cash love
Larry Well. I'll say, now, this sounds like he thinks the.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
World of you.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
But what are you so worried about it? He'll come back?
Speaker 6 (07:25):
But where is it?
Speaker 3 (07:27):
What happened to? Oh? Missus mclaughliny?
Speaker 6 (07:29):
You can call me miya if you want to.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Husbands do get this urge once in a while to uh,
you know, take off, be on their own for a while.
Not just husbands either, wives get it too. I have
to say, I can't see why anyone would go off
and leave a lovely girl like you?
Speaker 6 (07:49):
Well he did you?
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Uh? You do know you're very pretty, don't you?
Speaker 2 (07:55):
I guess you guess?
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Don't you know?
Speaker 6 (07:57):
I'm a model, photographer's model. You have to have some
kind of looks for that.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
I guess if you've got more than some kind of looks.
Speaker 6 (08:06):
No, thank you a lot more.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Look.
Speaker 6 (08:10):
Can you help me find Larry Well? I?
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Uh, I can try.
Speaker 4 (08:14):
I can't sleep, I can't eat, I I can't go
out of a job.
Speaker 6 (08:17):
I just think about him all the time and what
could have happened?
Speaker 3 (08:20):
To him. Yeah, well, I uh, i'd have to do
it on my own, you understand, I mean, it wouldn't
be an official police case. And uh, it'll take a
lot of legwork, a lot of time too, and I
don't have too much free time. I don't know if
my wife will care for my taking on any outside work.
Speaker 6 (08:39):
Are you married?
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Oh? Oh? And mine married? Twenty five years married, is
what I am. So I know about husbands getting the
urge to take off.
Speaker 6 (08:47):
Did you ever do it?
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (08:48):
No, no, no, no I never did. But that doesn't
mean I never had the urage. No. I'm married to
a wonderful woman. Irma is about the best wife anybody
could imagine. But well, yeah, I've had urges now, and
then you're.
Speaker 6 (09:03):
Very nice to try to help me.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Yeah, listen, you mind if I take this envelope home.
Speaker 5 (09:09):
With thee no, take it if it'll.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Help, and the note inside? Can they take that.
Speaker 6 (09:15):
Too, Yes, but don't lose it. I want it back.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
You'll get it back, all right.
Speaker 6 (09:22):
It's all I got, is all right?
Speaker 3 (09:23):
All right, Now, don't cry. We'll find them, that is,
I'll find them, I hope. So yeah, now I got
to run along home. Irma will be wondering what happened
to me, and we don't want her to think that
she's got a missing husband, not do we.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
I'm Irma Chase, fifty two years old, married twenty five
years to Benjamin Chase, Detective, third class, husband, first class
all the way. We've never had children, but we never
really needed children to bring us together. We were together
from the start. There have been times, a few of them,
when I felt that Ben's eye was roving and that
(10:05):
he'd kind of like to roll with it. He doesn't
know that I know about those times, and I wouldn't
let him know that I know, because he'd feel terrible
if he thought he'd.
Speaker 5 (10:12):
Hurt me in any way at all. He's just that
kind of man.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
And at fifty two, my waist is a good bit
thicker than it was when I married him, and the
hair has gray in it, and I almost have a
double chin unless I remember to stand right.
Speaker 5 (10:28):
So when he came home that night.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Her am, I, yeah, I'm home.
Speaker 5 (10:33):
Well, you don't say i'd never.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Get all right, don't be fresh, give me a kiss?
Speaker 5 (10:37):
Okay?
Speaker 4 (10:38):
Oh, now your beer's next to your chair, and there's
some good cheese to go with it.
Speaker 5 (10:42):
Really, sharp cheddar.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Ah, you're a great girl.
Speaker 5 (10:45):
Of course I am a little late tonight, aren't you.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Yeah, yeah, well, what happened? A girl came into the office.
See that is Captain Caldwell brought her in, turned to
robe it to me. Seems she's been boring him for
quite some time. Missing husband.
Speaker 5 (11:02):
Oh one of those.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Yeah, he's been missing for some time anyway, cold Well
check the files. The morgue didn't come up with anything,
but Na kept coming back, coming back, Mia. Yeah, that's
her name, Nea McLachlan. Anyway, I talked to her as
she showed me this note she got from him. It
was mailed right here in the city, and there was
money in it.
Speaker 5 (11:23):
He wrote a note.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
Yeah, yeah, sounded very concerned about her having some money.
Speaker 5 (11:27):
I'd like to see that note.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Erm are you still hung up on that stuff?
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Okay, okay, No, you can't blame me if I try
to be part of your work.
Speaker 5 (11:38):
Oh can you?
Speaker 6 (11:40):
Or do you?
Speaker 3 (11:40):
I should say?
Speaker 5 (11:41):
If you'd rather butt out, just say the word.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
I'd like to remind you that Rafael Sherman, oh please
not a Rafael Sherman was attached to the Crackout Police
Force from the start of the century till nineteen hundred.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Herma, please you've got Rafayel Sherman on the brain.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
Rafael Sherman started collecting envelopes when he was a little boy.
Speaker 5 (12:01):
Well, so did I when I was a little girl.
I never played with dolls.
Speaker 4 (12:05):
I just looked at handwritings on envelopes, fascinating all different,
some beautiful, some ugly, and everything in between. And like
with Shermann, after a while, I started to find things
that some handwritings had in common. And when I knew
the people those handwritings belonged to, I found out that
(12:26):
those people.
Speaker 5 (12:27):
Had certain things in common too.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
Then people with heart trouble write differently from people without
heart trouble over, but the psychological differences, that's where it
gets really interesting. You can read a person's whole personality
in his handwriting, his whole life, then everything that's happened
to him. You really expect me to believe that Sherman
(12:50):
could do it.
Speaker 5 (12:51):
He did it over and over, and he did it
for the police.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
I don't say that I'm as good as Sherman, but
I did know something about it.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Okay, okay, take a look at this. Thank you, well
say anything this man is sick. What Look, the letters
get smaller. You see the pressure of the pen gets lighter,
the lines get thinner.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
No, no, wait, maybe he's not sick. Maybe he's only hysterical. Well,
maybe maybe he's mad.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Raffael Sherman had no peers in his day.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
After him came Michael Fischer and the French clairvoyant Madame
Lucy v d. And among the medical men who have
used graphology to ferret out posed to mental or physical ailments,
we find Eerlen Meyer, Hauser Dupartie Jean's and charcol famous
head of the parasoal Pictrieer.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
I'll be back shortly for that too.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Captain Wiley, called Well of the Missing Persons Squad, has
been bothered by repeated visits from Mia McLaughlin begging him
to locate her husband, who has disappeared. Wiley has turned
the girl over to Ben Chase, Detective third grade.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Ben shows the note to.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
His wife Irma irma aspiring graphologist deduces from the calligraphy
that MIA's husband is sick, hysterical, or even mad. Did
I know what I was doing when I turned that
dumb little chick over to Ben Chase? I thought, of course,
he'd feed her alone, maybe pick up a close someplace
(14:50):
from some connection. In other words, get her off my back. Also,
though there is the chance that her husband would show up,
a very good chance, because she was a very neat
little dish. The fact I felt sure that my friend
Ben had not overlooked entirely. Now I'm a friend of Ben's,
and I also know his wife, Breman, a marvelous woman.
(15:13):
I me is I thought a little interference for me
on her behalf wouldn't be a.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Miss Yeah, yeah, I see, that's all you can tell me,
Missus Downes. Yeah, yeah, well it's something anyway, fat.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Pi captain. Who's sir Missus downs Oh her? Yeah? Huh
oh is she? Well?
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Actually she's me his mother, Leah mclaughlan's mother. That's so. Yeah.
I thought maybe she could give me a lead to
go on the Gina. Now she says they got along
grade he was crazy about her. Seems he wanted to
be a Peter, a serious type. Pater gave it up
and with the commercial art right after they got married.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Maybe he regretted it.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Well, me as a model, you know that. That's how
they met. He Uh, he was living in this artist
colony upstate in the Catskills, uh Brayden Falls.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
You've heard of it where all the artists stopped together.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (16:12):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Anyway, Nea was a model up there for one summer.
She posed for him for nothing. Now he was even
broken than the others. They fell in love and they
got married. He went with an ad agency. She became
a fashion model. Everything was hunky dorry till uh till
he cut out. And her mother hasn't got the foggiest
idea why have you? No, I can't say I have
(16:36):
why anyone for fant to leave a girl like like Nea? Course, Uh,
Irma says, uh, I, I don't put any stock in that.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
What is Ema saying?
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Well, I I don't know if you know this, captain,
but Irma's very into this uh graphology stuff.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
I didn't know that now, Oh yeah yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
She U practically worships a guy named re refae El Shermann.
He's an Austrian. He's dead now, but he was official
handwriting expert for the Central Law Court of Vienna when
he was alive.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
What's wrong with that?
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Well, nothing's wrong with that. But outside his regular job,
he had this hobby. Yeah, it was more more like
an obsession that he could read people's characters from their handwriting,
and not only that, but their past and their future.
I cann't you tie that?
Speaker 1 (17:24):
That sounds interesting?
Speaker 3 (17:25):
And before he died people said he could tell a
person looked just by his handwriting.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Yeah, well, anyway, I showed Irma the note Mia got
from her husband.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
It was only a line or two, and Irma learned
onto it like it was a hot clue. I mean,
she set the handwriting told her that the guy is
sick or hysterical or maybe even crazy. She saw all that,
She thinks she saw all that.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
What if she's right, would explain a lot with it.
If the guy had lost his marbles, all.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
Of us, a crazy man doesn't send money, Old captain, how.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Would you know a crazy man does? Why don't you
admit the possibility that AM's got something there? Better help you?
Speaker 4 (18:06):
Now?
Speaker 3 (18:07):
I'm doing it all right?
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Now you're not?
Speaker 3 (18:09):
Are you waiting to see?
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Okay? Ben? Okay? One more thing. You're spending too much
time on it. I phone call to the girl's mother.
You made that from here unofficial time. The girl's been
here almost every day talking to you onofficial time. The
way you look you've been spending an awful lot of
your off hours on the case. Two, am I right?
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Quite a lot? Yeah, we'll cut it out.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
I don't like it. I don't think your wife cares
too much more in either, I.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
Was shook up when the captain walked out. Part of
what he said was true. I was spending a lot
of time trying to locate me his husband. I'd gone
down to the Art Students League and talked to the
teachers down there. A lot of them, remember them from
the olden days, nice fellowday, all said, big strong, very outgoing,
no sign of any kind of ailment, no instability, certainly,
(19:04):
no signs of being demented. But so much for what
Irma thought she saw on his handwriting, Irma, what about Emma?
Speaker 6 (19:14):
What was our last crack?
Speaker 3 (19:15):
The captain had made about him not liking the hours
I was giving to the case, and Irma not liking
it either. She hadn't said she didn't like it, She
hadn't raised any objections. She was too busy going over
that little scrap of paper. But if I didn't find
him soon, was she gonna begin to wonder? The hell
(19:36):
I was beginning to wander myself? Just like that. I
made up my mind I was gonna take myself off
the case. I should never have taken it on in
the first place. I'm crazy about my wife. I had
my mind all made up to tell me I was
letting go of the case when she walked in.
Speaker 6 (19:53):
Hello, oh, hi, hi, hi them man.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Yeah, sit down, I want to talk to you about.
Speaker 6 (19:58):
U and cold will mad at me about something?
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Well, it's getting mad exactly, and not at you.
Speaker 6 (20:04):
Oh look look what I got this morning?
Speaker 3 (20:06):
Oh brother letter?
Speaker 6 (20:08):
Yeah, this one had money in it too, okay to
read it?
Speaker 4 (20:12):
Sure, it's about the same as the first one.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
Oh yeah, yeah, so I see.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
A neat Look where it's mailed from.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
Braiden Falls.
Speaker 6 (20:23):
That's where we met, Larry and me.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
Yeah. Yeah, tell me about Braidon Falls.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
Well, it's a very romantic place in the mountain. Sometimes,
certain times a day the mountains turned blue and purple.
Speaker 6 (20:41):
Oh, that's beautiful. And then there's the falls.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
Yeah, yeah, Braiden Falls.
Speaker 4 (20:46):
They come tumbling down from way higher fish match some places.
You can't hear what people are saying.
Speaker 6 (20:52):
The falls are so loud. It's just beautiful.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
Larry and I used to go on picnics which is
and stuff and listen to the falls and.
Speaker 6 (21:03):
Make love.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Why do you suppose he went up there not just
to mail a letter.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
I think I think he went there because it's where
we were so happy.
Speaker 5 (21:18):
He wanted to remember how it was at first.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
Then you weren't so happy later on? Is that it?
Speaker 4 (21:25):
Oh? Well, we had fights, not very many, not very often,
just sometimes.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
Well when what about you mind telling me?
Speaker 6 (21:33):
Oh, I don't know. I never knew.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
Everything would be going along just fine, and then all
of a sudden we'd be arguing and I wouldn't know why.
Speaker 6 (21:44):
I just know that I was losing, losing, losing what
the argument? It was going to turn out? He was
right and I was wrong every single time.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Yeah, look, neah, I might as well tell you I was. Uh,
I was. I was gonna give up upon this case.
Not fine, Well, it isn't official business, and it's taken
up a lot of time.
Speaker 5 (22:12):
But you have to now this.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
Is uh, this note from Braiden Falls. I having a
follow up on that.
Speaker 6 (22:19):
You mean, go up to Braiden Falls and.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Look for him. Oh yes, yes, Well Mars day.
Speaker 6 (22:26):
I'll go with you. Well, well, I can show you
around all the different places.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
And and the falls for Larry and I used to
go for picnics.
Speaker 6 (22:34):
Oh, your wife wouldn't mind, would she?
Speaker 4 (22:41):
That little piece of paper hadn't been out of my
sight for days. I picked it up from time to time,
and now and then I got what I hoped where
flashes of illumination. Other times I sat down with it
under a good light and let my unconscious mind just
play with it. It's a tricky thing, the unconscious, his mind,
(23:01):
much trickier than anyone imagines.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
I'm uh, I'm home, good, be right there. Where's my beer?
Speaker 6 (23:10):
I'm getting it?
Speaker 3 (23:11):
I really need it.
Speaker 6 (23:14):
Do you have a hard day?
Speaker 3 (23:15):
Yes? Sort of?
Speaker 5 (23:15):
Well, drink your beer.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Where's yours?
Speaker 5 (23:19):
I don't want any?
Speaker 3 (23:20):
But you're going on a wagon or something.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
No, I just want to keep my mind clear. Psychographology
is a very exacting work. Psycho what psychographology Raphael Shermann did?
Or I'm trying to do? Analyzing people from their handwriting?
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Are you still doing that?
Speaker 5 (23:40):
Of course I am, And don't try to stop me.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
I'm not trying to stop you. Wiley Carlo says, I
should encourage you. I don't know if I can go that.
Hopton Coldwell said, there, yeah, I told him that you
said Larry McLaughlin might be psychotic, and he said you
could be right. Of course, he doesn't know any more
about it than I do or you.
Speaker 5 (24:00):
I'm beginning to know more all the time. Pretty soon
I may be able to give you a pretty accurate
description of the man.
Speaker 6 (24:07):
To get it, I can't.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
Wiley thinks I'm putting in too much time on the case.
It's not official business, you know.
Speaker 5 (24:12):
But you can't stop now, I've got nothing to go on.
May let me help you.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Well, I give it a couple more days, just long
enough to track down one more clue. It might mean something.
Speaker 6 (24:23):
What what clue?
Speaker 7 (24:24):
Well?
Speaker 3 (24:24):
Mia brought this in today. It's another note from her husband.
Speaker 6 (24:28):
Let me see it.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Yeah, there was money in this one too. Doesn't sound
like a man who's fed up with his wife. According
to Missus Downs, McLachlan was crazy about his wife. Who's
Missus Down MIA's mother. She says McLachlan gave up being
a serious artist so he could support his wife. Oh,
by the way, you'll notice that the note was mailed
from Braden Falls. That's the uh artist's colony placed up
in the mountains. Will the McLachlan's met there and fell
(24:53):
in love there. Mia did some modeling for him and
I I thought that since tomorrow is my day off,
I would go up there.
Speaker 6 (25:05):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
Yeah, take a look around m hm and Mia is
going with me. Mm hmm. Got all right with you?
Don't you put that feet down them? I put the
letter down and listen to me.
Speaker 5 (25:22):
What are you so mad?
Speaker 3 (25:24):
I'll tell you I'm going off for the day with
a young girl, a young attractive girl, And you've got
no objection my day off, my one day off, the
day we go to the beach or the movies or
do something special. I'll tell you, I'm going off to
the mountains with a young girl used to be a
marvel and you don't care.
Speaker 6 (25:37):
Then I was right.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
The person who wrote this letter has something wrong with it, lung.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
What are you talking about?
Speaker 4 (25:44):
For Pete's saying some kind of respiratory disease, trouble with
his breathing.
Speaker 5 (25:48):
Now look look here.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
Now you see the little pauses in the writing, pauses.
I know they're hard to see, I can see them.
But they were in the other note too. But I
wanted to be careful. I wanted to be sure and
here they are again.
Speaker 5 (26:02):
It is if every so often he.
Speaker 4 (26:04):
Had to stop and lean on his pen, take a
little rest before he goes on. Oh Ben, give me
a little more time, and I'll be able to tell
you all about the person who wrote this note.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
A violin in the hands of an average person will
have an ordinary sound.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
The notes may all be correct.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
The stops, all, the proper length to speed, and volume
all is prescribed. But the same violin in the hands
of an artist will take on the quality of real music.
Such is the power and the sensitivity of the human hand.
I'll be back shortly with Act three. Psychographology is a
(27:03):
fairly recent word. It describes the process by which character
and personality can be deduced from the analysis of handwriting.
Irma Chase has been attempting such an analysis from two
notes written by the missing husband of Mia McLaughlin. Among
other things, she has inferred that the writer of the
notes is emotionally unstable and has some sort of trouble
(27:25):
with his breathing. She has not trying to keep her
husband from using his day off to travel to a
place called Braden Falls, high in the mountains, accompanied by
the young girl, in search of the missing man. Maybe
I shouldn't have put it in. I thought Ben Chase
(27:45):
was a good man, a good cop for a fine record.
As far as I know, he was a good husband too.
I've met Aarma Chase a few times, been to their house,
they've been to mine. All I can say is she
seemed like a happy woman, very content.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
With a life.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Seems she had this interest in what she called psychographology,
almost an obsession according to Ben. But what was the
harm in that? Actually there might be a.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Lot of good in it.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Anyway, When i'm a Chase called and said she wanted
to come in and talk to me, I said, come ahead,
How are you wiley? I'm fine, said I'm What can I.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
Do for you?
Speaker 5 (28:25):
I don't exactly know.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Maybe nothing is it about Ben?
Speaker 6 (28:31):
Well?
Speaker 4 (28:32):
Yes, mostly he went off this morning with that young
girl near something or other Maglachlin McLaughlin.
Speaker 5 (28:39):
They went up to Braiden Falls together.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
I don't think you got a thing to worry Abron,
You don't. She's a very pretty young girl. But I
know Ben. I don't think he's really interested in it.
And VNA Braiden Falls because that's where the girl's husband
wrote his last note.
Speaker 5 (28:55):
I know I've seen the note. Matter of fact, I've.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Got it with me.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
There's a chance the man being baden falls and they've
gone there to check it out. Ben, I'll be back
by the night. Don't worry about that.
Speaker 5 (29:05):
Oh, I'm not worried about that.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Now, you're not.
Speaker 5 (29:11):
Riley. You know I'm interested in graphology.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
Yeah, Ben said something.
Speaker 5 (29:16):
I've been studying.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
These two notes from Larry McLaughlin and I've come up
with a few things.
Speaker 5 (29:21):
Is it all right if I tell you about them?
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Of course, Samah, I charge you. I got an open mind.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Now.
Speaker 4 (29:27):
The first thing that started to emerge was that whoever
wrote those notes is emotionally unbalanced, maybe psychotic.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Ben told me about that.
Speaker 4 (29:36):
The second thing which I got from the second note
is that the writer has trouble breathing. Now, I'm not
gonna go into how I deduced that. You wouldn't understand
it anyway.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
Hum, you're probably right to here.
Speaker 5 (29:47):
No, I've come up with something else.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Well, come on, let's have it, Wiley.
Speaker 4 (29:53):
I could be wrong, but I've got a strong intuition
that the person who wrote those two notes has criminal tendencies.
Speaker 5 (30:03):
You said, I said criminal tendencies?
Speaker 7 (30:09):
What?
Speaker 3 (30:10):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Direction?
Speaker 1 (30:11):
To these criminal tendencies. Thank them.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
And can you tell I don't like to say, because
I'm afraid you're gonna laughing. Whoever wrote those notes is
capable of murder.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
You could be.
Speaker 5 (30:30):
Wrong, I could be right, yes, And if I'm right,
Ben and that girl are up at Braiden Falls tracking
down a man who is capable of killing and they
don't know it.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
Braiden Falls isn't even a whistle stop. It's not on
a railroad at all. Mia and I arrived on the bus.
We were the only ones getting off. The center of
town has a filling station, a grocer of butcher, stationary store.
We're in a nice green parlor. That's about all. But
tucked away in the mountains are all kinds of houses,
from large cabins to quantcert huts. We strolled around talking
(31:10):
to the artists who lived in those houses. Nobody had
seen or heard from Larry McLaughlin, though a lot of
them remember them pretty well. We planned to take the
four o'clock bus back to the city when Mia got
this idea of climbing one of the mountains up to
where the falls had their origin. She said, there was
spectacular at that height, and we had nothing to do
(31:33):
till the bus arrived. So they're beautiful, all right? Huh
the four beautiful?
Speaker 5 (31:42):
Didn't I tell you?
Speaker 3 (31:44):
Hey, how much? How much? Frin?
Speaker 8 (31:46):
Not?
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Fine?
Speaker 6 (31:47):
You are ready?
Speaker 3 (31:48):
No? No, I'm fine.
Speaker 6 (31:50):
Well let's sit.
Speaker 4 (31:52):
Down for a minute anyway, Okay, a couple of savages there,
some ginger know what?
Speaker 6 (32:01):
Well, I hope it's still cold?
Speaker 3 (32:03):
Oh great, great, you're quite a girl.
Speaker 6 (32:08):
Oh you think so?
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Yeah? Yeah I do. If I was a little bit younger,
twenty or thirty years younger, you'd do what.
Speaker 6 (32:20):
What would you do?
Speaker 3 (32:22):
Well, I guess i'd make a pass at you here?
You cake?
Speaker 6 (32:29):
Your having it?
Speaker 3 (32:29):
Would you mind? Would I mind what you're making a
pass at?
Speaker 6 (32:36):
Yes, i'd mind very much.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
Oh. Oh, well, I'm sorry. I know I'm much too old.
Speaker 6 (32:45):
So it isn't that.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
Oh you're thinking about your husband, an't you? You're thinking
about Larry? I'm sorry I should have realized that. I
guess you associate this place with him. Huh.
Speaker 6 (32:57):
We used to come here picnics.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
Yeah, you know, I'm really sorry. We couldn't pick up
a clue here. They must have come here just for
the day, mailed the letter and left.
Speaker 4 (33:08):
Mary and I used to used to have our picnics.
Speaker 6 (33:11):
Up at the top.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
Let's walk up there, okay, okay, yes, and I hope
you forgive me being fresh.
Speaker 6 (33:22):
That's all right.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
You're a very pretty girl. I suppose a lot of
men to touch you that, huh. I guess a lot
of them. I've made passes at you, am I right? Sure? Sure? Right? Girl?
Like you top what.
Speaker 6 (33:43):
We're almost there?
Speaker 8 (33:45):
Oh, wait until you see the false But they come
out of the rock.
Speaker 6 (33:51):
Wait, huge burst of water.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
As though they couldn't wait to get out, pushing and pushing.
Speaker 5 (34:02):
And it's fall out done into the gorge.
Speaker 6 (34:08):
Hitting all the rocks on.
Speaker 5 (34:09):
The way, splashing off the down.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
Down, down, must be impressive.
Speaker 4 (34:15):
Why, it's the most squarest thing you've ever seen.
Speaker 6 (34:22):
Here? We are.
Speaker 5 (34:25):
Understand right here.
Speaker 9 (34:28):
That's lock up there, that's where the falls. That's awful,
so strong you can't wait to burst them. Doesn't give
you a marvelous fearing, Yeah it does.
Speaker 6 (34:46):
Now look down. You never see anything like that?
Speaker 3 (34:54):
Hey, talky talk w.
Speaker 5 (35:00):
Old say old man, dang old she pass you then
for to turn then hold on?
Speaker 1 (35:13):
How got you bet just hang on? No, charny, he's
kind of shining episode.
Speaker 8 (35:22):
I'm Betty worry than giving. Let's call let call relax
ho good child, please drop remind relaxed man. Let's call
it the child guy.
Speaker 6 (35:33):
Would you do anything now?
Speaker 1 (35:35):
I was going right into the water here.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
Well it's deep. You're lucky.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
You're gonna make it, honey, curious, give me your hand, wily,
stay right way, Emma, that Katy's fish. We'll make it.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Okay, grab hold of the rule that freet you gotta
do it? I can't. Can you put this over up?
Speaker 5 (35:56):
Give me your hand right there?
Speaker 1 (35:58):
All right, Well, I'm gonna give you.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
It's okay. I can make it. I can a good girl?
Pless you? Why why aren't you? Okay? Yeah? Okay? Well
where's the cow?
Speaker 5 (36:16):
She's still up there?
Speaker 3 (36:18):
She's out of her head that way? How do you
too happen to be here?
Speaker 1 (36:23):
Or you had a feeling? Me?
Speaker 3 (36:24):
Well, that is your wife had a feeling.
Speaker 6 (36:26):
Look look over there?
Speaker 3 (36:29):
What were tween your two?
Speaker 6 (36:31):
Big rock went in between them.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
It's a body.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
It's a body, the body of a man. Who are
you you think it's? Yeh must be has to be.
Speaker 6 (36:45):
Her husband the missing there?
Speaker 4 (36:49):
Yeah, and it was, of course, poor Larry McLaughlin's body
caught between two jags at boulders.
Speaker 5 (37:01):
Almost at our feet. Then and Wiley rested.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
For a while.
Speaker 4 (37:06):
Then between them they got the body out. The police
picked it up later, and they picked up the girl
Na too. She was wandering about the mountain top.
Speaker 5 (37:17):
Very sweet and very vague. Ben had been cut badly
by the rocks.
Speaker 4 (37:25):
The three of us met the next day in his
hospital room. I should've known all along it was a
woman's handwriting.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
And and you were right on two other points. She's
psychonic and she's a madriss.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
Hey, you were right about the uh respiratory trouble too,
you know, climbing up there. She's the one that to
stop and rest, they said.
Speaker 5 (37:45):
At the sanitarium.
Speaker 4 (37:46):
She doesn't remember anything about pushing her husband off the
ledge or pushing.
Speaker 5 (37:50):
You Ben either.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Why why would she do it?
Speaker 3 (37:54):
Well?
Speaker 5 (37:55):
According to her handwriting, little miss McLaughlin is a very
fridge did lady.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
You can really see that, I think so.
Speaker 5 (38:05):
She hated men like poison, especially men who were attracted
to her, like her husband, like.
Speaker 3 (38:15):
Like me, Well, yeah, you know, I sort of. Uh,
it wasn't anything, you know, when we were climbing up there,
just before we got to the top, nothing happened. You
understand absolutely nothing, I swear Rayman. Then I believe well,
I uh, I said something. I admit that, something about
(38:36):
making a pass at it, that i'd I'd like to
something like that.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
But that's all. I mean that, that's really all, just
enough to make her hate you enough to kill you.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
Yeah, the what on earth gave it to you?
Speaker 1 (38:49):
The inspiration that drive up to up braydon fall tell amurmur.
Speaker 5 (38:54):
While studying the second note, I thought I could see
signs of a criminal personality. I figured I should tell Wiley.
Speaker 3 (39:02):
And you believed it.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
Half believed that enough to drive up here and tell ya.
Speaker 4 (39:06):
Of course, neither of us knew Mia had written the
note herself. We thought we were protecting you from her husband,
not from her.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
HM. Would she ever be in shape to stand trial? Walnie?
Speaker 1 (39:17):
If she ever remembers what she's done?
Speaker 3 (39:19):
You think she might?
Speaker 5 (39:21):
Yes, she might.
Speaker 3 (39:22):
That won't make you say that.
Speaker 4 (39:23):
Well, look at this, m This is the second envelope.
Huh how she addressed this to herself? You see, Mia McLaughlin,
take a good look.
Speaker 5 (39:34):
So don't you notice anything?
Speaker 1 (39:37):
No, No, whally you looks okay to me.
Speaker 5 (39:41):
Compare it with the first one. Look at the m
in Mia.
Speaker 6 (39:44):
May see how it.
Speaker 5 (39:44):
Starts at the left?
Speaker 3 (39:45):
Yeah, you know what they both do know.
Speaker 4 (39:48):
The second one has a short stroke at the start
that goes from right to left, then shifts and goes
into the M. Now she started to write something else
and then changed. She started to write an E.
Speaker 5 (40:03):
E for Emma.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
Emma.
Speaker 4 (40:05):
Why Emma em there's her real her given name. I
called her mother last night. You see, she was trying
without knowing, she was trying to get.
Speaker 5 (40:18):
Back to her real self. If she succeeded, the chances
are she'll remember everything she did and she'll go on
trial for murder. It is a very nice place where
I'm staying.
Speaker 6 (40:37):
I have my own room, and everyone is very kind.
Speaker 7 (40:42):
They ask a lot of questions, but they're very kind,
too kind. Maybe there's one a man. I don't like
the way he looks at me. I don't like it
one bit.
Speaker 6 (41:00):
If he tries to get fresh.
Speaker 4 (41:04):
Oh I didn't tell you I'm Nea McLachlan. Anyway, I
think that's who I am.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
We've accomplished prodigious feats in outer space, invaded the Moon
and discovered what it's made of. Now we're on our
way to entering the planets and finding out how they.
Speaker 3 (41:35):
Are put together. Outer space will one day be as
familiar as our own lakes and prairies. But what of
inner space, the space of man's mind. Despite many hints
and cruise, it is still in the main, an alien land.
I'll be back shortly.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
No one would be so foolish as to suggest that criminals,
actual or potential can be detected solely by the use
of psychographology. But the way things are progressing these days,
progressing backwards, it sometimes seems law enforcement needs all the
help it can get. Our cast included Larry Haynes, Anne Williams,
(42:32):
Ralph Bell, and Terry Keane. The entire production was under
the direction of Hyman Brown.
Speaker 3 (42:40):
Missus E. G.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
Marshall, inviting you to return to our Mystery theater for another.
Speaker 3 (42:45):
Adventure in the macabre.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
Until next time, Pleasant
Speaker 5 (43:18):
Fi
CBS Radio Mystery Theater presents, come in.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Welcome.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
I'm e. G. Marshall.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
How old were you when you first said I'm going
to run away and you'll never see me again, and
then you'll be sorry. Everyone has said it so, some
did not say it out loud. Some have run and
returned the same day, Some have never got round or
running at all, and some have run and stayed away.
It is one of these who gives us the title
(00:47):
of our story, The Man is Missing.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
The letters get smaller, the pressure of the pen gets lighter,
the lines get thinner. Man is not well?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Are you sure?
Speaker 4 (01:02):
Peas aren't crossed in a few places, See the loops
aren't completed.
Speaker 5 (01:07):
Perhaps he's not sick, Perhaps he's only hysterical, or perhaps
perhaps he's mad.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Our mystery drama The Man Is Missing was written especially
for the Mystery Theater by Elspeth Eric and stars Anne
Williams and Larry Haynes. It is sponsored in part by
Berwick Mortor Division and Contact the twelve hour code capsule
I'll be back shortly with Act one. Within the huge
(01:56):
New York City Police Department, there's a small coterie of
men who wear no uniforms They are the investigative Detectives.
They have one captain, one lieutenant, and five sergeants.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
They receive about.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
One hundred calls every day. Out of sixteen thousand cases,
they have solved better than ninety nine percent. They are
known as the Missing Persons Squad. I looked up and
there she was back again. I told her, and told
her over and over. But there she was, same bright smile,
(02:30):
same eager look, like she knew I could do something
and she was just hanging around waiting for me to
do it. My name's Wiley, called Well, and I'm Captain
of the Missing Persons Squad.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Good job, I like it.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
We know I stopped if I didn't say so myself,
as perhaps I shouldn't run away kids. We handle a
lot of those. And old people, the ones who get
tired of feeling useless and unwanted and just want raw.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
We get a lot of those two.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
However, there she was, back for the emptienth time to
ask me for the emptyent, time to find her husband.
Speaker 6 (03:08):
Captain Caldwell, May I talk to.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
You, missus mc laughlin.
Speaker 6 (03:11):
Why don't you call me here? We know each other
pretty well by now that we do, so call me.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Me here, please, okay here, But the answer is the same.
We've checked the fires, we've called them Morgue, Lawrence McLaughlin
either place. So he's not in jail, he's not in
the hospital, he's not dead. What more do you want?
Speaker 6 (03:32):
But where is he?
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Out there somewhere?
Speaker 6 (03:36):
Can't you look for him?
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Is he under eighteen?
Speaker 6 (03:38):
Of course not?
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Is he over sixty five?
Speaker 6 (03:42):
He's twenty nine?
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Ah?
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Well, then even if we could locate him, we couldn't
do anything about it. We couldn't bring him in. Why
couldn't you because we would be violating his civil rights. Understand, unless,
of course he's mental, than we could take him.
Speaker 6 (03:59):
Is he Is he mental?
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Office rocker r out of his mind? Nuts? No, all right,
then we can't touch him. I know it's hot on you,
but I must break the nose there. Husband's run off
all the time? Is Laurence seven? Don the vanishing act before?
Speaker 6 (04:16):
Certainly? Not?
Speaker 3 (04:16):
All right?
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Probably you'll never do it again, provided, of course he
comes back. Now you run along home and wait to
hear from him. Okay, I have heard from him. You
have he sent me some money? Well, then you're all set.
Speaker 6 (04:31):
But he doesn't say where he is.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
What he's thinking of you. Ah, Orry, wouldn't be sending
you the money, would he? You see, he's worried about you.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
He loves you.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
You're his wife and he loves you. So why don't know.
Speaker 6 (04:44):
Where he is?
Speaker 5 (04:46):
Oh?
Speaker 6 (04:46):
Please captain call her? Please?
Speaker 4 (04:49):
I know you can find him for me if you
just try. You're the Bureau of Missing Person said, Larry
is missing, and I want you to find him.
Speaker 6 (04:56):
If I can't you, I won't you.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
All right now?
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Quick quick crying and they're just gonna do any good.
You know that, all right? I stopped crying him.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Why won't you help me?
Speaker 1 (05:10):
I'll tell you what. I'm gonna turn you over to
one of our detectives, Ben Chase. His name is. He's
a very nice man, very fatherly type.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
You like him?
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Can you tell him all about your missing spouse and
maybe he can take her something? I'll that be okay, Okay,
Then come on this way. He's right in here.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
Ben.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
I've got a lady here I want you to meet.
This is Mia McLachlin. Yeah, this is Detective Benjamin Chase.
Take care of the little lady, Benna.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
She was the prettiest thing I've ever seen in my
whole life, skin like pink and white alabaster, dark brown
hair with a shine to a big round eyes, the
exact same color as the blue jeans she had on.
It was like spring. I just walked through the door
and me fifty eight years old. I'm Ben Chase, detective,
(06:11):
third grade Missing Persons Squad. I was a patrolman for
fifteen years. Then I did a hitch with public morals
for a short time, and then somebody smiled on me
and I landed here. What a swell job. I mean,
here is where you really get the feeling you're helping people.
Speaker 6 (06:29):
Please find my husband.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Your husband's missing? Is that it?
Speaker 6 (06:34):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (06:34):
And don't tell me about his civil rights.
Speaker 6 (06:38):
I want to know where he is.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Well, we could probably locate him all I want, but
we couldn't make him.
Speaker 6 (06:43):
Come back to you. I just want to know where
he is.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
We can check the files, hospitals, the mos.
Speaker 6 (06:51):
Oh he's alive. I know that. I don't think he's sick.
See I got this from him this morning.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Oh you got to let her from him?
Speaker 2 (06:59):
It had honey, Is it okay?
Speaker 3 (07:01):
If I take a look at him?
Speaker 6 (07:02):
Sure?
Speaker 4 (07:02):
Look, Look it was mailed right here in New York.
You can tell me the postmark.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Oh yeah, yuh mind if I read it? I don't mind,
Darling Mia thought you might be sure to cash love
Larry Well. I'll say, now, this sounds like he thinks the.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
World of you.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
But what are you so worried about it? He'll come back?
Speaker 6 (07:25):
But where is it?
Speaker 3 (07:27):
What happened to? Oh? Missus mclaughliny?
Speaker 6 (07:29):
You can call me miya if you want to.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Husbands do get this urge once in a while to uh,
you know, take off, be on their own for a while.
Not just husbands either, wives get it too. I have
to say, I can't see why anyone would go off
and leave a lovely girl like you?
Speaker 6 (07:49):
Well he did you?
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Uh? You do know you're very pretty, don't you?
Speaker 2 (07:55):
I guess you guess?
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Don't you know?
Speaker 6 (07:57):
I'm a model, photographer's model. You have to have some
kind of looks for that.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
I guess if you've got more than some kind of looks.
Speaker 6 (08:06):
No, thank you a lot more.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Look.
Speaker 6 (08:10):
Can you help me find Larry Well? I?
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Uh, I can try.
Speaker 4 (08:14):
I can't sleep, I can't eat, I I can't go
out of a job.
Speaker 6 (08:17):
I just think about him all the time and what
could have happened?
Speaker 3 (08:20):
To him. Yeah, well, I uh, i'd have to do
it on my own, you understand, I mean, it wouldn't
be an official police case. And uh, it'll take a
lot of legwork, a lot of time too, and I
don't have too much free time. I don't know if
my wife will care for my taking on any outside work.
Speaker 6 (08:39):
Are you married?
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Oh? Oh? And mine married? Twenty five years married, is
what I am. So I know about husbands getting the
urge to take off.
Speaker 6 (08:47):
Did you ever do it?
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (08:48):
No, no, no, no I never did. But that doesn't
mean I never had the urage. No. I'm married to
a wonderful woman. Irma is about the best wife anybody
could imagine. But well, yeah, I've had urges now, and
then you're.
Speaker 6 (09:03):
Very nice to try to help me.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Yeah, listen, you mind if I take this envelope home.
Speaker 5 (09:09):
With thee no, take it if it'll.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Help, and the note inside? Can they take that.
Speaker 6 (09:15):
Too, Yes, but don't lose it. I want it back.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
You'll get it back, all right.
Speaker 6 (09:22):
It's all I got, is all right?
Speaker 3 (09:23):
All right, Now, don't cry. We'll find them, that is,
I'll find them, I hope. So yeah, now I got
to run along home. Irma will be wondering what happened
to me, and we don't want her to think that
she's got a missing husband, not do we.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
I'm Irma Chase, fifty two years old, married twenty five
years to Benjamin Chase, Detective, third class, husband, first class
all the way. We've never had children, but we never
really needed children to bring us together. We were together
from the start. There have been times, a few of them,
when I felt that Ben's eye was roving and that
(10:05):
he'd kind of like to roll with it. He doesn't
know that I know about those times, and I wouldn't
let him know that I know, because he'd feel terrible
if he thought he'd.
Speaker 5 (10:12):
Hurt me in any way at all. He's just that
kind of man.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
And at fifty two, my waist is a good bit
thicker than it was when I married him, and the
hair has gray in it, and I almost have a
double chin unless I remember to stand right.
Speaker 5 (10:28):
So when he came home that night.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Her am, I, yeah, I'm home.
Speaker 5 (10:33):
Well, you don't say i'd never.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Get all right, don't be fresh, give me a kiss?
Speaker 5 (10:37):
Okay?
Speaker 4 (10:38):
Oh, now your beer's next to your chair, and there's
some good cheese to go with it.
Speaker 5 (10:42):
Really, sharp cheddar.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Ah, you're a great girl.
Speaker 5 (10:45):
Of course I am a little late tonight, aren't you.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Yeah, yeah, well, what happened? A girl came into the office.
See that is Captain Caldwell brought her in, turned to
robe it to me. Seems she's been boring him for
quite some time. Missing husband.
Speaker 5 (11:02):
Oh one of those.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Yeah, he's been missing for some time anyway, cold Well
check the files. The morgue didn't come up with anything,
but Na kept coming back, coming back, Mia. Yeah, that's
her name, Nea McLachlan. Anyway, I talked to her as
she showed me this note she got from him. It
was mailed right here in the city, and there was
money in it.
Speaker 5 (11:23):
He wrote a note.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
Yeah, yeah, sounded very concerned about her having some money.
Speaker 5 (11:27):
I'd like to see that note.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Erm are you still hung up on that stuff?
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Okay, okay, No, you can't blame me if I try
to be part of your work.
Speaker 5 (11:38):
Oh can you?
Speaker 6 (11:40):
Or do you?
Speaker 3 (11:40):
I should say?
Speaker 5 (11:41):
If you'd rather butt out, just say the word.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
I'd like to remind you that Rafael Sherman, oh please
not a Rafael Sherman was attached to the Crackout Police
Force from the start of the century till nineteen hundred.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Herma, please you've got Rafayel Sherman on the brain.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
Rafael Sherman started collecting envelopes when he was a little boy.
Speaker 5 (12:01):
Well, so did I when I was a little girl.
I never played with dolls.
Speaker 4 (12:05):
I just looked at handwritings on envelopes, fascinating all different,
some beautiful, some ugly, and everything in between. And like
with Shermann, after a while, I started to find things
that some handwritings had in common. And when I knew
the people those handwritings belonged to, I found out that
(12:26):
those people.
Speaker 5 (12:27):
Had certain things in common too.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
Then people with heart trouble write differently from people without
heart trouble over, but the psychological differences, that's where it
gets really interesting. You can read a person's whole personality
in his handwriting, his whole life, then everything that's happened
to him. You really expect me to believe that Sherman
(12:50):
could do it.
Speaker 5 (12:51):
He did it over and over, and he did it
for the police.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
I don't say that I'm as good as Sherman, but
I did know something about it.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Okay, okay, take a look at this. Thank you, well
say anything this man is sick. What Look, the letters
get smaller. You see the pressure of the pen gets lighter,
the lines get thinner.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
No, no, wait, maybe he's not sick. Maybe he's only hysterical. Well,
maybe maybe he's mad.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Raffael Sherman had no peers in his day.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
After him came Michael Fischer and the French clairvoyant Madame
Lucy v d. And among the medical men who have
used graphology to ferret out posed to mental or physical ailments,
we find Eerlen Meyer, Hauser Dupartie Jean's and charcol famous
head of the parasoal Pictrieer.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
I'll be back shortly for that too.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Captain Wiley, called Well of the Missing Persons Squad, has
been bothered by repeated visits from Mia McLaughlin begging him
to locate her husband, who has disappeared. Wiley has turned
the girl over to Ben Chase, Detective third grade.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Ben shows the note to.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
His wife Irma irma aspiring graphologist deduces from the calligraphy
that MIA's husband is sick, hysterical, or even mad. Did
I know what I was doing when I turned that
dumb little chick over to Ben Chase? I thought, of course,
he'd feed her alone, maybe pick up a close someplace
(14:50):
from some connection. In other words, get her off my back. Also,
though there is the chance that her husband would show up,
a very good chance, because she was a very neat
little dish. The fact I felt sure that my friend
Ben had not overlooked entirely. Now I'm a friend of Ben's,
and I also know his wife, Breman, a marvelous woman.
(15:13):
I me is I thought a little interference for me
on her behalf wouldn't be a.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Miss Yeah, yeah, I see, that's all you can tell me,
Missus Downes. Yeah, yeah, well it's something anyway, fat.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Pi captain. Who's sir Missus downs Oh her? Yeah? Huh
oh is she? Well?
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Actually she's me his mother, Leah mclaughlan's mother. That's so. Yeah.
I thought maybe she could give me a lead to
go on the Gina. Now she says they got along
grade he was crazy about her. Seems he wanted to
be a Peter, a serious type. Pater gave it up
and with the commercial art right after they got married.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Maybe he regretted it.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Well, me as a model, you know that. That's how
they met. He Uh, he was living in this artist
colony upstate in the Catskills, uh Brayden Falls.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
You've heard of it where all the artists stopped together.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (16:12):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Anyway, Nea was a model up there for one summer.
She posed for him for nothing. Now he was even
broken than the others. They fell in love and they
got married. He went with an ad agency. She became
a fashion model. Everything was hunky dorry till uh till
he cut out. And her mother hasn't got the foggiest
idea why have you? No, I can't say I have
(16:36):
why anyone for fant to leave a girl like like Nea? Course, Uh,
Irma says, uh, I, I don't put any stock in that.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
What is Ema saying?
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Well, I I don't know if you know this, captain,
but Irma's very into this uh graphology stuff.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
I didn't know that now, Oh yeah yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
She U practically worships a guy named re refae El Shermann.
He's an Austrian. He's dead now, but he was official
handwriting expert for the Central Law Court of Vienna when
he was alive.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
What's wrong with that?
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Well, nothing's wrong with that. But outside his regular job,
he had this hobby. Yeah, it was more more like
an obsession that he could read people's characters from their handwriting,
and not only that, but their past and their future.
I cann't you tie that?
Speaker 1 (17:24):
That sounds interesting?
Speaker 3 (17:25):
And before he died people said he could tell a
person looked just by his handwriting.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Yeah, well, anyway, I showed Irma the note Mia got
from her husband.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
It was only a line or two, and Irma learned
onto it like it was a hot clue. I mean,
she set the handwriting told her that the guy is
sick or hysterical or maybe even crazy. She saw all that,
She thinks she saw all that.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
What if she's right, would explain a lot with it.
If the guy had lost his marbles, all.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
Of us, a crazy man doesn't send money, Old captain, how.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Would you know a crazy man does? Why don't you
admit the possibility that AM's got something there? Better help you?
Speaker 4 (18:06):
Now?
Speaker 3 (18:07):
I'm doing it all right?
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Now you're not?
Speaker 3 (18:09):
Are you waiting to see?
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Okay? Ben? Okay? One more thing. You're spending too much
time on it. I phone call to the girl's mother.
You made that from here unofficial time. The girl's been
here almost every day talking to you onofficial time. The
way you look you've been spending an awful lot of
your off hours on the case. Two, am I right?
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Quite a lot? Yeah, we'll cut it out.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
I don't like it. I don't think your wife cares
too much more in either, I.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
Was shook up when the captain walked out. Part of
what he said was true. I was spending a lot
of time trying to locate me his husband. I'd gone
down to the Art Students League and talked to the
teachers down there. A lot of them, remember them from
the olden days, nice fellowday, all said, big strong, very outgoing,
no sign of any kind of ailment, no instability, certainly,
(19:04):
no signs of being demented. But so much for what
Irma thought she saw on his handwriting, Irma, what about Emma?
Speaker 6 (19:14):
What was our last crack?
Speaker 3 (19:15):
The captain had made about him not liking the hours
I was giving to the case, and Irma not liking
it either. She hadn't said she didn't like it, She
hadn't raised any objections. She was too busy going over
that little scrap of paper. But if I didn't find
him soon, was she gonna begin to wonder? The hell
(19:36):
I was beginning to wander myself? Just like that. I
made up my mind I was gonna take myself off
the case. I should never have taken it on in
the first place. I'm crazy about my wife. I had
my mind all made up to tell me I was
letting go of the case when she walked in.
Speaker 6 (19:53):
Hello, oh, hi, hi, hi them man.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Yeah, sit down, I want to talk to you about.
Speaker 6 (19:58):
U and cold will mad at me about something?
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Well, it's getting mad exactly, and not at you.
Speaker 6 (20:04):
Oh look look what I got this morning?
Speaker 3 (20:06):
Oh brother letter?
Speaker 6 (20:08):
Yeah, this one had money in it too, okay to
read it?
Speaker 4 (20:12):
Sure, it's about the same as the first one.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
Oh yeah, yeah, so I see.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
A neat Look where it's mailed from.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
Braiden Falls.
Speaker 6 (20:23):
That's where we met, Larry and me.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
Yeah. Yeah, tell me about Braidon Falls.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
Well, it's a very romantic place in the mountain. Sometimes,
certain times a day the mountains turned blue and purple.
Speaker 6 (20:41):
Oh, that's beautiful. And then there's the falls.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
Yeah, yeah, Braiden Falls.
Speaker 4 (20:46):
They come tumbling down from way higher fish match some places.
You can't hear what people are saying.
Speaker 6 (20:52):
The falls are so loud. It's just beautiful.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
Larry and I used to go on picnics which is
and stuff and listen to the falls and.
Speaker 6 (21:03):
Make love.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Why do you suppose he went up there not just
to mail a letter.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
I think I think he went there because it's where
we were so happy.
Speaker 5 (21:18):
He wanted to remember how it was at first.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
Then you weren't so happy later on? Is that it?
Speaker 4 (21:25):
Oh? Well, we had fights, not very many, not very often,
just sometimes.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
Well when what about you mind telling me?
Speaker 6 (21:33):
Oh, I don't know. I never knew.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
Everything would be going along just fine, and then all
of a sudden we'd be arguing and I wouldn't know why.
Speaker 6 (21:44):
I just know that I was losing, losing, losing what
the argument? It was going to turn out? He was
right and I was wrong every single time.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Yeah, look, neah, I might as well tell you I was. Uh,
I was. I was gonna give up upon this case.
Not fine, Well, it isn't official business, and it's taken
up a lot of time.
Speaker 5 (22:12):
But you have to now this.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
Is uh, this note from Braiden Falls. I having a
follow up on that.
Speaker 6 (22:19):
You mean, go up to Braiden Falls and.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Look for him. Oh yes, yes, Well Mars day.
Speaker 6 (22:26):
I'll go with you. Well, well, I can show you
around all the different places.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
And and the falls for Larry and I used to
go for picnics.
Speaker 6 (22:34):
Oh, your wife wouldn't mind, would she?
Speaker 4 (22:41):
That little piece of paper hadn't been out of my
sight for days. I picked it up from time to time,
and now and then I got what I hoped where
flashes of illumination. Other times I sat down with it
under a good light and let my unconscious mind just
play with it. It's a tricky thing, the unconscious, his mind,
(23:01):
much trickier than anyone imagines.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
I'm uh, I'm home, good, be right there. Where's my beer?
Speaker 6 (23:10):
I'm getting it?
Speaker 3 (23:11):
I really need it.
Speaker 6 (23:14):
Do you have a hard day?
Speaker 3 (23:15):
Yes? Sort of?
Speaker 5 (23:15):
Well, drink your beer.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Where's yours?
Speaker 5 (23:19):
I don't want any?
Speaker 3 (23:20):
But you're going on a wagon or something.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
No, I just want to keep my mind clear. Psychographology
is a very exacting work. Psycho what psychographology Raphael Shermann did?
Or I'm trying to do? Analyzing people from their handwriting?
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Are you still doing that?
Speaker 5 (23:40):
Of course I am, And don't try to stop me.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
I'm not trying to stop you. Wiley Carlo says, I
should encourage you. I don't know if I can go that.
Hopton Coldwell said, there, yeah, I told him that you
said Larry McLaughlin might be psychotic, and he said you
could be right. Of course, he doesn't know any more
about it than I do or you.
Speaker 5 (24:00):
I'm beginning to know more all the time. Pretty soon
I may be able to give you a pretty accurate
description of the man.
Speaker 6 (24:07):
To get it, I can't.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
Wiley thinks I'm putting in too much time on the case.
It's not official business, you know.
Speaker 5 (24:12):
But you can't stop now, I've got nothing to go on.
May let me help you.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Well, I give it a couple more days, just long
enough to track down one more clue. It might mean something.
Speaker 6 (24:23):
What what clue?
Speaker 7 (24:24):
Well?
Speaker 3 (24:24):
Mia brought this in today. It's another note from her husband.
Speaker 6 (24:28):
Let me see it.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Yeah, there was money in this one too. Doesn't sound
like a man who's fed up with his wife. According
to Missus Downs, McLachlan was crazy about his wife. Who's
Missus Down MIA's mother. She says McLachlan gave up being
a serious artist so he could support his wife. Oh,
by the way, you'll notice that the note was mailed
from Braden Falls. That's the uh artist's colony placed up
in the mountains. Will the McLachlan's met there and fell
(24:53):
in love there. Mia did some modeling for him and
I I thought that since tomorrow is my day off,
I would go up there.
Speaker 6 (25:05):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
Yeah, take a look around m hm and Mia is
going with me. Mm hmm. Got all right with you?
Don't you put that feet down them? I put the
letter down and listen to me.
Speaker 5 (25:22):
What are you so mad?
Speaker 3 (25:24):
I'll tell you I'm going off for the day with
a young girl, a young attractive girl, And you've got
no objection my day off, my one day off, the
day we go to the beach or the movies or
do something special. I'll tell you, I'm going off to
the mountains with a young girl used to be a
marvel and you don't care.
Speaker 6 (25:37):
Then I was right.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
The person who wrote this letter has something wrong with it, lung.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
What are you talking about?
Speaker 4 (25:44):
For Pete's saying some kind of respiratory disease, trouble with
his breathing.
Speaker 5 (25:48):
Now look look here.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
Now you see the little pauses in the writing, pauses.
I know they're hard to see, I can see them.
But they were in the other note too. But I
wanted to be careful. I wanted to be sure and
here they are again.
Speaker 5 (26:02):
It is if every so often he.
Speaker 4 (26:04):
Had to stop and lean on his pen, take a
little rest before he goes on. Oh Ben, give me
a little more time, and I'll be able to tell
you all about the person who wrote this note.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
A violin in the hands of an average person will
have an ordinary sound.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
The notes may all be correct.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
The stops, all, the proper length to speed, and volume
all is prescribed. But the same violin in the hands
of an artist will take on the quality of real music.
Such is the power and the sensitivity of the human hand.
I'll be back shortly with Act three. Psychographology is a
(27:03):
fairly recent word. It describes the process by which character
and personality can be deduced from the analysis of handwriting.
Irma Chase has been attempting such an analysis from two
notes written by the missing husband of Mia McLaughlin. Among
other things, she has inferred that the writer of the
notes is emotionally unstable and has some sort of trouble
(27:25):
with his breathing. She has not trying to keep her
husband from using his day off to travel to a
place called Braden Falls, high in the mountains, accompanied by
the young girl, in search of the missing man. Maybe
I shouldn't have put it in. I thought Ben Chase
(27:45):
was a good man, a good cop for a fine record.
As far as I know, he was a good husband too.
I've met Aarma Chase a few times, been to their house,
they've been to mine. All I can say is she
seemed like a happy woman, very content.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
With a life.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Seems she had this interest in what she called psychographology,
almost an obsession according to Ben. But what was the
harm in that? Actually there might be a.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Lot of good in it.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Anyway, When i'm a Chase called and said she wanted
to come in and talk to me, I said, come ahead,
How are you wiley? I'm fine, said I'm What can I.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
Do for you?
Speaker 5 (28:25):
I don't exactly know.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Maybe nothing is it about Ben?
Speaker 6 (28:31):
Well?
Speaker 4 (28:32):
Yes, mostly he went off this morning with that young
girl near something or other Maglachlin McLaughlin.
Speaker 5 (28:39):
They went up to Braiden Falls together.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
I don't think you got a thing to worry Abron,
You don't. She's a very pretty young girl. But I
know Ben. I don't think he's really interested in it.
And VNA Braiden Falls because that's where the girl's husband
wrote his last note.
Speaker 5 (28:55):
I know I've seen the note. Matter of fact, I've.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Got it with me.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
There's a chance the man being baden falls and they've
gone there to check it out. Ben, I'll be back
by the night. Don't worry about that.
Speaker 5 (29:05):
Oh, I'm not worried about that.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Now, you're not.
Speaker 5 (29:11):
Riley. You know I'm interested in graphology.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
Yeah, Ben said something.
Speaker 5 (29:16):
I've been studying.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
These two notes from Larry McLaughlin and I've come up
with a few things.
Speaker 5 (29:21):
Is it all right if I tell you about them?
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Of course, Samah, I charge you. I got an open mind.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Now.
Speaker 4 (29:27):
The first thing that started to emerge was that whoever
wrote those notes is emotionally unbalanced, maybe psychotic.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Ben told me about that.
Speaker 4 (29:36):
The second thing which I got from the second note
is that the writer has trouble breathing. Now, I'm not
gonna go into how I deduced that. You wouldn't understand
it anyway.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
Hum, you're probably right to here.
Speaker 5 (29:47):
No, I've come up with something else.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Well, come on, let's have it, Wiley.
Speaker 4 (29:53):
I could be wrong, but I've got a strong intuition
that the person who wrote those two notes has criminal tendencies.
Speaker 5 (30:03):
You said, I said criminal tendencies?
Speaker 7 (30:09):
What?
Speaker 3 (30:10):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Direction?
Speaker 1 (30:11):
To these criminal tendencies. Thank them.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
And can you tell I don't like to say, because
I'm afraid you're gonna laughing. Whoever wrote those notes is
capable of murder.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
You could be.
Speaker 5 (30:30):
Wrong, I could be right, yes, And if I'm right,
Ben and that girl are up at Braiden Falls tracking
down a man who is capable of killing and they
don't know it.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
Braiden Falls isn't even a whistle stop. It's not on
a railroad at all. Mia and I arrived on the bus.
We were the only ones getting off. The center of
town has a filling station, a grocer of butcher, stationary store.
We're in a nice green parlor. That's about all. But
tucked away in the mountains are all kinds of houses,
from large cabins to quantcert huts. We strolled around talking
(31:10):
to the artists who lived in those houses. Nobody had
seen or heard from Larry McLaughlin, though a lot of
them remember them pretty well. We planned to take the
four o'clock bus back to the city when Mia got
this idea of climbing one of the mountains up to
where the falls had their origin. She said, there was
spectacular at that height, and we had nothing to do
(31:33):
till the bus arrived. So they're beautiful, all right? Huh
the four beautiful?
Speaker 5 (31:42):
Didn't I tell you?
Speaker 3 (31:44):
Hey, how much? How much? Frin?
Speaker 8 (31:46):
Not?
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Fine?
Speaker 6 (31:47):
You are ready?
Speaker 3 (31:48):
No? No, I'm fine.
Speaker 6 (31:50):
Well let's sit.
Speaker 4 (31:52):
Down for a minute anyway, Okay, a couple of savages there,
some ginger know what?
Speaker 6 (32:01):
Well, I hope it's still cold?
Speaker 3 (32:03):
Oh great, great, you're quite a girl.
Speaker 6 (32:08):
Oh you think so?
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Yeah? Yeah I do. If I was a little bit younger,
twenty or thirty years younger, you'd do what.
Speaker 6 (32:20):
What would you do?
Speaker 3 (32:22):
Well, I guess i'd make a pass at you here?
You cake?
Speaker 6 (32:29):
Your having it?
Speaker 3 (32:29):
Would you mind? Would I mind what you're making a
pass at?
Speaker 6 (32:36):
Yes, i'd mind very much.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
Oh. Oh, well, I'm sorry. I know I'm much too old.
Speaker 6 (32:45):
So it isn't that.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
Oh you're thinking about your husband, an't you? You're thinking
about Larry? I'm sorry I should have realized that. I
guess you associate this place with him. Huh.
Speaker 6 (32:57):
We used to come here picnics.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
Yeah, you know, I'm really sorry. We couldn't pick up
a clue here. They must have come here just for
the day, mailed the letter and left.
Speaker 4 (33:08):
Mary and I used to used to have our picnics.
Speaker 6 (33:11):
Up at the top.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
Let's walk up there, okay, okay, yes, and I hope
you forgive me being fresh.
Speaker 6 (33:22):
That's all right.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
You're a very pretty girl. I suppose a lot of
men to touch you that, huh. I guess a lot
of them. I've made passes at you, am I right? Sure? Sure? Right? Girl?
Like you top what.
Speaker 6 (33:43):
We're almost there?
Speaker 8 (33:45):
Oh, wait until you see the false But they come
out of the rock.
Speaker 6 (33:51):
Wait, huge burst of water.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
As though they couldn't wait to get out, pushing and pushing.
Speaker 5 (34:02):
And it's fall out done into the gorge.
Speaker 6 (34:08):
Hitting all the rocks on.
Speaker 5 (34:09):
The way, splashing off the down.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
Down, down, must be impressive.
Speaker 4 (34:15):
Why, it's the most squarest thing you've ever seen.
Speaker 6 (34:22):
Here? We are.
Speaker 5 (34:25):
Understand right here.
Speaker 9 (34:28):
That's lock up there, that's where the falls. That's awful,
so strong you can't wait to burst them. Doesn't give
you a marvelous fearing, Yeah it does.
Speaker 6 (34:46):
Now look down. You never see anything like that?
Speaker 3 (34:54):
Hey, talky talk w.
Speaker 5 (35:00):
Old say old man, dang old she pass you then
for to turn then hold on?
Speaker 1 (35:13):
How got you bet just hang on? No, charny, he's
kind of shining episode.
Speaker 8 (35:22):
I'm Betty worry than giving. Let's call let call relax
ho good child, please drop remind relaxed man. Let's call
it the child guy.
Speaker 6 (35:33):
Would you do anything now?
Speaker 1 (35:35):
I was going right into the water here.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
Well it's deep. You're lucky.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
You're gonna make it, honey, curious, give me your hand, wily,
stay right way, Emma, that Katy's fish. We'll make it.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Okay, grab hold of the rule that freet you gotta
do it? I can't. Can you put this over up?
Speaker 5 (35:56):
Give me your hand right there?
Speaker 1 (35:58):
All right, Well, I'm gonna give you.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
It's okay. I can make it. I can a good girl?
Pless you? Why why aren't you? Okay? Yeah? Okay? Well
where's the cow?
Speaker 5 (36:16):
She's still up there?
Speaker 3 (36:18):
She's out of her head that way? How do you
too happen to be here?
Speaker 1 (36:23):
Or you had a feeling? Me?
Speaker 3 (36:24):
Well, that is your wife had a feeling.
Speaker 6 (36:26):
Look look over there?
Speaker 3 (36:29):
What were tween your two?
Speaker 6 (36:31):
Big rock went in between them.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
It's a body.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
It's a body, the body of a man. Who are
you you think it's? Yeh must be has to be.
Speaker 6 (36:45):
Her husband the missing there?
Speaker 4 (36:49):
Yeah, and it was, of course, poor Larry McLaughlin's body
caught between two jags at boulders.
Speaker 5 (37:01):
Almost at our feet. Then and Wiley rested.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
For a while.
Speaker 4 (37:06):
Then between them they got the body out. The police
picked it up later, and they picked up the girl
Na too. She was wandering about the mountain top.
Speaker 5 (37:17):
Very sweet and very vague. Ben had been cut badly
by the rocks.
Speaker 4 (37:25):
The three of us met the next day in his
hospital room. I should've known all along it was a
woman's handwriting.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
And and you were right on two other points. She's
psychonic and she's a madriss.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
Hey, you were right about the uh respiratory trouble too,
you know, climbing up there. She's the one that to
stop and rest, they said.
Speaker 5 (37:45):
At the sanitarium.
Speaker 4 (37:46):
She doesn't remember anything about pushing her husband off the
ledge or pushing.
Speaker 5 (37:50):
You Ben either.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Why why would she do it?
Speaker 3 (37:54):
Well?
Speaker 5 (37:55):
According to her handwriting, little miss McLaughlin is a very
fridge did lady.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
You can really see that, I think so.
Speaker 5 (38:05):
She hated men like poison, especially men who were attracted
to her, like her husband, like.
Speaker 3 (38:15):
Like me, Well, yeah, you know, I sort of. Uh,
it wasn't anything, you know, when we were climbing up there,
just before we got to the top, nothing happened. You
understand absolutely nothing, I swear Rayman. Then I believe well,
I uh, I said something. I admit that, something about
(38:36):
making a pass at it, that i'd I'd like to
something like that.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
But that's all. I mean that, that's really all, just
enough to make her hate you enough to kill you.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
Yeah, the what on earth gave it to you?
Speaker 1 (38:49):
The inspiration that drive up to up braydon fall tell amurmur.
Speaker 5 (38:54):
While studying the second note, I thought I could see
signs of a criminal personality. I figured I should tell Wiley.
Speaker 3 (39:02):
And you believed it.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
Half believed that enough to drive up here and tell ya.
Speaker 4 (39:06):
Of course, neither of us knew Mia had written the
note herself. We thought we were protecting you from her husband,
not from her.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
HM. Would she ever be in shape to stand trial? Walnie?
Speaker 1 (39:17):
If she ever remembers what she's done?
Speaker 3 (39:19):
You think she might?
Speaker 5 (39:21):
Yes, she might.
Speaker 3 (39:22):
That won't make you say that.
Speaker 4 (39:23):
Well, look at this, m This is the second envelope.
Huh how she addressed this to herself? You see, Mia McLaughlin,
take a good look.
Speaker 5 (39:34):
So don't you notice anything?
Speaker 1 (39:37):
No, No, whally you looks okay to me.
Speaker 5 (39:41):
Compare it with the first one. Look at the m
in Mia.
Speaker 6 (39:44):
May see how it.
Speaker 5 (39:44):
Starts at the left?
Speaker 3 (39:45):
Yeah, you know what they both do know.
Speaker 4 (39:48):
The second one has a short stroke at the start
that goes from right to left, then shifts and goes
into the M. Now she started to write something else
and then changed. She started to write an E.
Speaker 5 (40:03):
E for Emma.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
Emma.
Speaker 4 (40:05):
Why Emma em there's her real her given name. I
called her mother last night. You see, she was trying
without knowing, she was trying to get.
Speaker 5 (40:18):
Back to her real self. If she succeeded, the chances
are she'll remember everything she did and she'll go on
trial for murder. It is a very nice place where
I'm staying.
Speaker 6 (40:37):
I have my own room, and everyone is very kind.
Speaker 7 (40:42):
They ask a lot of questions, but they're very kind,
too kind. Maybe there's one a man. I don't like
the way he looks at me. I don't like it
one bit.
Speaker 6 (41:00):
If he tries to get fresh.
Speaker 4 (41:04):
Oh I didn't tell you I'm Nea McLachlan. Anyway, I
think that's who I am.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
We've accomplished prodigious feats in outer space, invaded the Moon
and discovered what it's made of. Now we're on our
way to entering the planets and finding out how they.
Speaker 3 (41:35):
Are put together. Outer space will one day be as
familiar as our own lakes and prairies. But what of
inner space, the space of man's mind. Despite many hints
and cruise, it is still in the main, an alien land.
I'll be back shortly.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
No one would be so foolish as to suggest that criminals,
actual or potential can be detected solely by the use
of psychographology. But the way things are progressing these days,
progressing backwards, it sometimes seems law enforcement needs all the
help it can get. Our cast included Larry Haynes, Anne Williams,
(42:32):
Ralph Bell, and Terry Keane. The entire production was under
the direction of Hyman Brown.
Speaker 3 (42:40):
Missus E. G.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
Marshall, inviting you to return to our Mystery theater for another.
Speaker 3 (42:45):
Adventure in the macabre.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
Until next time, Pleasant
Speaker 5 (43:18):
Fi
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