September 28, 2025 • 29 mins
Pat Novak, for Hire was a detective drama series which aired from 1946 to 1947 on the West Coast and in 1949 as a nationwide program for ABC. The episodes were set on the San Francisco waterfront and depicts the city as a dark, rough place where the main goal is survival. Novak is not a detective by trade, but he owns a boat shop on Pier 19 where he rents out boats and does odd jobs to make money. The series' fast-paced, hard-boiled dialogue and action and witty one-liners made popularized it among fans.
Find more classic radio series at theaterofthemind-otr.com - Audio Credit: The Old Time Radio Researchers Group. - All Podcasts @ Spreaker | Apple | YouTube | Spotify | iHeart | Amazon
Find more classic radio series at theaterofthemind-otr.com - Audio Credit: The Old Time Radio Researchers Group. - All Podcasts @ Spreaker | Apple | YouTube | Spotify | iHeart | Amazon
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
The American Broadcasting Company brings to its entire network when
a radio's most unusual programs Pat Novack for hire.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Oh sure, I'm Pat Novak for hire. That's what the
(00:56):
sign on in front of my shop says, Pat Novak
higher down here in the San Francisco waterfront. It's got
to be that way. You gotta rob a few graves
if you want cigarette money. You need lots of work
and roomy sleeves if you're going to play a pat hand.
(01:16):
Sometimes in a good week we can duct trouble three
or four days in a row, and then it creeps
up on you in like an old charge account. Well,
I should have known that. When I went to the bank,
I was up to my knees in mud and didn't
even know it was a rainy season. It was Tuesday.
I went by the bank and drop a hundred bucks.
(01:39):
It was about time because they were beginning to play
handball with my checks. Must have been about eleven o'clock
when I got to the window.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Hell, so, mister Novak, isn't it a grand morning?
Speaker 1 (01:51):
If it's your choice, stay with it, Ah, Yes, deposit
a hundred bucks. Yes, let me get to a car.
It's right here, I think, yes, here, we are all right?
One hundred bucks? Give me a duplicate, will you? Certainly?
Speaker 3 (02:11):
My this isn't his big as the last deposit?
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Look, bloomer girl, just mark the slipper.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Oh I'm sorry, mister Norvak. I yes, I'm not used
a thousand dollars deposits?
Speaker 1 (02:23):
What thousand dollars your Friday deponse? I wasn't in here Friday.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Oh you must have been. The card says you've put
in one thousand dollars on Friday?
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Give me that card. What did Sartah look like? But
I who put the dough in?
Speaker 4 (02:37):
What did the guy look like? Oh?
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Didn't you know? Look we'll double back and try to
hang on this time with you. I wasn't in here Friday.
I don't know anything about an extra grand I. What
did the guy look like?
Speaker 3 (02:46):
I wasn't on duty Friday. Yeah, I'm not even sure
about the fellow today?
Speaker 1 (02:51):
What fella?
Speaker 3 (02:52):
There was a man in here to ask about the account?
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Did this good fairy hea a name? No, just credentials.
He was from the FBI, per see? Is there anything wrong?
Speaker 5 (03:02):
Mister?
Speaker 6 (03:02):
No?
Speaker 1 (03:02):
I don't mind that complexion. I forgot my foundation cream.
Oh I should have known. Right then a mysterious Graham
tossed into the till, and I didn't wake up the trouble.
(03:24):
But I'm a smart boy who'd be the village idiot
in the town the size of New York. Well, I
left the bank and went up to my apartment. That
thousand bucks was already drawing interest. When I came in.
She was sitting on the couch drinking my whiskey. Yeah,
she could have all she wanted. A nineteen forty nine
(03:45):
panther model pissed the right amount of size twelve, and
a dress that looked like a well tailored fig leaf.
When she was through looking over you felt like a
Sunday supplement.
Speaker 5 (03:56):
Hello, mister nova, I like your plum.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
That's good.
Speaker 5 (04:03):
The view is wonder it's those yours.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
What's on your mind?
Speaker 5 (04:08):
How about a drink?
Speaker 1 (04:10):
All right? How poor you talk?
Speaker 5 (04:13):
My name is Connie Riley? Make me want too?
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Sure as you were saying, my name is Connie Riddy? Yeah,
well I've memorized that much. Go on, here's your drink.
Speaker 7 (04:25):
Thanks, puts it out all right over next to me.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
I won't buy it, it's too bad.
Speaker 7 (04:34):
Go on. Well, here's the new bank account, Patsy.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Look six. If you're here just for the field trials,
all right, But if you've got to build a goods,
trot it out.
Speaker 5 (04:45):
I will. I want that card to Patsy. I want
it ahead of Chris.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
I'll catch up with another drink in the meantime, you
fill in and help me with you.
Speaker 5 (04:54):
Stop sitting on your hands. Angel. You didn't get that
thousand bucks with the sweat of your bra.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Not yet.
Speaker 5 (05:00):
Somebody patted your account, so you'd be a nice boy.
Speaker 8 (05:03):
I want you to be a nice boy for me
at the same rates the Monterey Rose docs today, a
passenger named Kirk to me is carrying a jack of clubs,
and it means a lot to me.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
It doesn't mean a thing to me except the FBI
is on my tail.
Speaker 5 (05:19):
Mister Novak, you're turning a momentary advantage into.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
A pro ball. You take your deal to some other broker.
Speaker 9 (05:25):
You're in business, whether you like it or not. Patsy,
You're going to stub your toe either way. Only to me,
it'll be more fun.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
How about the FBI.
Speaker 5 (05:34):
You've been frightened by a group of bureaucrats.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
That's what Trotsky thought, how.
Speaker 5 (05:40):
Much, Patsy, how much for that card?
Speaker 1 (05:43):
When you get it, the price is a grand You're
an amusing cat, Patsy, Yeah, and a grand I can
afford to be.
Speaker 9 (05:52):
You don't even know what the Jack of Clubs is
all about. You never heard of Kirk to me though,
five minutes ago. But you take things in strider at
the whole world belong to you, You like Adam when you.
Speaker 5 (06:00):
Spot of the God of ease.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
All right, little leave, it's a thousand bucks. I remember
you're sitting on my doorstep. Now, either go on home
or come in the house.
Speaker 5 (06:06):
Good.
Speaker 7 (06:08):
I'll take the god that's your price, not relax.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
I'll bet you can.
Speaker 5 (06:19):
Pour me another drink.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Pancy, Yeah, sure, in a minute. What comes next?
Speaker 5 (06:27):
I get three guesses, you've got.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Time to take them.
Speaker 7 (06:32):
I won't need them.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
All that's up to you. Come here, angel. Did you
ever hear of the early Bird?
Speaker 5 (06:44):
Do I make a nice worm?
Speaker 1 (06:46):
You're a reglar like one, aren't.
Speaker 7 (06:49):
You raising the prize a little mister Novack?
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Straight? Eighteen percent? Darling?
Speaker 5 (06:56):
That's too bad.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
I wasn't even gonna scream.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
The next place only there's going to be a cave,
just a minute later. Hello, Novak, Oh Hellman?
Speaker 10 (07:08):
Oh well, am I interrupting anything?
Speaker 1 (07:11):
No, we were just going over an old seed catalog.
Miss Riley, missus Inspector Helman.
Speaker 5 (07:16):
San Francisco Police, Good morning, Inspector. Don't bother to arrest me. Now,
I'm just leasy, so soon. My sentiment's exactly inspected. Bye bye, Patsy.
You can get me at the concert on pushchee.
Speaker 10 (07:29):
So you're around, Sure, well you're slipping, Novak, no rain check?
Speaker 1 (07:35):
All right, funny man, what's your problem you did you
ever see this guy before? Let me see? He's an
awful looking thug?
Speaker 4 (07:43):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Who is he? Your father?
Speaker 10 (07:44):
Guy by the name of Max Coleman. The FBI trailed
him to your bank Friday. They think he gave you
a thousand bucks. Yeah, where'd you get the thousand bucks?
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Novak? What do you care? Helman? Maybe a relative, maybe
a maden nant.
Speaker 6 (07:54):
Nobody's related to you.
Speaker 5 (07:55):
Novak.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
You're in a jam, lover, and I'm here to put
your father in.
Speaker 10 (07:59):
Max Coleman buy the groceries with foreign do.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
What are you weeping about? Arrest the guy if you
don't like him.
Speaker 10 (08:03):
There's government microfilm coming in on the Monterey roads. A
thousand bucks makes you a contact man for Coleman.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
To send the FBI over them. Where do you fit
in waiting for somebody to drop some loose change? You're
my project, novakum.
Speaker 10 (08:13):
When they asked us for help, I stuffed the ballot
box to get you, so relax. I'm want to spend
the rest of the day here. You're not going to
leave the living room.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
I gotta spend the day with you. I'll take knockout drops.
Shoot yourself, that's just that's good scotch. You wouldn't know
the cheap liquors out in the kitchen closet. That's for you,
all right.
Speaker 5 (08:33):
Oh, by the still of him, that's right.
Speaker 6 (08:36):
What are you keep in here?
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Novac mops?
Speaker 1 (08:39):
And where'd you buy this one? What are you talking about?
Speaker 6 (08:41):
Why did you buy this one?
Speaker 5 (08:41):
Smart man?
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Helmet wasn't right. I could tell right away it wasn't
a mob. When Hellman pushed him out of he rolled
out on a little anoleum, a dapper little guy except
for a piece of cord around his throat tied in
a funny knot. He was deader than a broken drum.
Somebody pulled too hard on that piece of cord. The
(09:16):
veins were standing out in his forehead, and his face
looked like a roadmap lying there on the floor. It
wasn't pretty. Helman thought so too. Who is he Novak?
Your father? I've never seen him in my closet before,
Hellman finders keepers. You roll him?
Speaker 10 (09:30):
Yeah, get in your hand, there's nothing there. Where is
his wallet?
Speaker 1 (09:37):
He'll get there by instinct?
Speaker 10 (09:39):
H yeah, yeah, here it is. His name is Kirk Toomey?
Speaker 1 (09:47):
That helps? Who is he? The guy on the mono
rail rose, the.
Speaker 10 (09:51):
One with a microfilm? I guess I thought you didn't
know anything about it. How do you know I came
from the mono railroads my dream book?
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Helman, what happened now?
Speaker 10 (10:00):
Nothing except I'm on the case now and you've got
trouble in a major key.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
You don't think I killed this guy?
Speaker 6 (10:06):
I don't know, did you?
Speaker 1 (10:07):
You better hop off and tail that girl. She was
making herself at home when I got here.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
Yeah, how do I know?
Speaker 1 (10:11):
You're not in it together? It don't cop her. Maybe
she's lobanim Leopold. When you're through with her, you might
hit the mono ray and start looking for a jack
of Club some more dream book Novak everybody's looking for
a Jack of Club's Helman. It must be the end
of the rainbow. That's where you're gonna find a microfilm.
Speaker 10 (10:23):
In the meantime, you stay handy, Novak. I want to
split you with the FBI.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
You don't think I'm gonna take the rap for Junior here,
do you?
Speaker 10 (10:30):
It says that in my books. Relaxed until I'm ready
to pick you up. I only have to find a
couple of things.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
It'll be a long time, Helman. You can't find your
hip pocket with radar.
Speaker 10 (10:39):
Yeah, I'll be around soon, Novak.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
I'll bother to pack your bags. You'll be traveling like well.
When Hellman left, I knew I was a second division club.
That phony plan in the bank to tie up with
Max Coleman, and that stiff in the kitchen made me
(11:04):
look real bad. I had to do something in a hurry,
because the way things stood, I had about as much
chance as a lawn party in a monsoon. There were
a lot of bases to tag, so I looked up
jock O Madigan, a next doctor who invented the hangover,
but a good guy. I finally found him over in
North Beach, a little joint called Loopos. He was eating
(11:26):
pizza with one hand and strangling a bottle of wine
with the other.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
Hello, PATSI, oh Frank a bottle of wine from Mission Novak.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
No, I'm short on time, Jocko.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
That's the way you're wrong, Patchy. People always say it,
but it's a lie.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Will you calm down a minute.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
You will say you're short on time, but you have
all the time there is. It's the one thing that
keeps you from being the biggest. There are only twenty
four hours in the day, and that gives you as
much time as Napoleon or Alexander.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
He would you shut up a minute and put on
that wine.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
I'm celebrating, Patchy. I'm celebrating mission.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Mission day's over.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
I'm a native son. We celebrate long er.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Oh look, I'm behind the eight ball again.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
Isn't it getting kind of crowded back there?
Speaker 1 (12:10):
What's the matter? Somebody strangled the guy and put him
in my broom closet. When did you find him? I didn't,
Helman did. There's a girl named Connie Riley looks good
for the job.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
Why doesn't Helman Booker?
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Then he's still picking up the pieces. The dead guy
is Kirk Toomey. He was set to smuggle in some
microfilm that says here, I'm contact you.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
Gotta help me, Jocko, you've got me confused with the
travel agency.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
I want you to hop down a headquarters. Get all
the dope you can on this guy to me. I'm
gonna look up Connie Riley.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
How did she get in the picture?
Speaker 1 (12:39):
What difference does it make? She's a wrestler I met
this morning. I get out a headquarters, will you?
Speaker 4 (12:42):
That's why I like you? Pet you like a piece
of blank verse, a bad piece of blank verst.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
All right, Jocko, I'm gonna make like a strip of bacon.
If I don't get going, stay close to headquarters. If
anything looks good, contact me at Connie Riley's here at
this address.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
All right? How many time should I knock?
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Love us? I left, Jocko and dropped by the apartment.
I was smart and full of courage, like a field
mouse at bay. The police had already been there. There
(13:22):
was his fingerprint, powder all over, and the two bottles
of whiskey were going. They'd moved laughing boy out of
the kitchen, and so I sat on trying to add
things up. I had a short list of friends to
see Connie, Max Coleman, and whoever this guy Chris was.
I had to show up with one of them or
(13:43):
approved that Kirk Toomey hung himself in my closet. I
was getting ready to borrow a piece of cord myself
and the phone rang. Yeah, helmet, I'm thrilled. What's on
your mind?
Speaker 10 (13:55):
I just call on your girlfriend?
Speaker 1 (13:56):
What you say?
Speaker 10 (13:57):
She wasn't there as him been there since ten o'clock
this morning.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
That's funny. Yeah, you know where she is? How would
I know?
Speaker 10 (14:05):
Just thought she might be in your closet. I picked
up to me stuff on the Monterey Roads.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Yeah, would you find on the usual stuff?
Speaker 10 (14:11):
A few clothes I'm shaving equipment to razor blades to
the past, and the pack of playing cards.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Pack of cards, well you know where to go from
their helmet. I thought I did grab that jacket clubs?
Speaker 10 (14:19):
Will it tenor hots do?
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Uh huh?
Speaker 10 (14:21):
That's right, Novak, A nice fat deck when the jacket
clubs is missing.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Oh, you're always too little, too late, helmet.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Just thought i'd let you know, friend, in case.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
You start a bridge game with fifty three cards in
the deck.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Good night, ah, I was losing money fast, like a
street carnival and death Valley. Well, one or two things happened.
(14:52):
Somebody got on that boat and took the Jacket Clubs
while Toomey was at my apartment, or maybe he brought
it with him. If he brought it with him, Connie
was a possibility, or somebody that got there ahead to Connie. Well, anyway,
I had to work fast now because whoever had that
card wasn't gonna put it on a market street float.
About ten minutes later, I cut across Union Square and
(15:15):
up Bush Street. When I got to Connie's apartment, it
was about ten o'clock. I got in the back door
and started through. She wasn't there, So I went to
work looking for that Jacket Clubs. It was real easy.
I tried the desk and her bureau drawer. You know,
I'd black Chiffon's coming Back in style, because that's where
(15:37):
I found the card. It looked nice nestling there. I
put it in my pocket and that's as far as
I got.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
You run the laserie, Connie.
Speaker 5 (15:46):
Here.
Speaker 11 (15:47):
Know they sound like a guy named Chris. If it
makes you feel about it, should we put on the light. No, no,
let's don't put on the light. This gun might upset you.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
The police are looking for you, Chris, you need more
than the dark. I understand they're looking for you.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
Nove that Riley Go kind of puts you on a spot.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Tell you what I'll do, though, Yeah, you'll give me
a thousand dollars for the jacket clubs. I started to
say five hundred around here. That's a whisper and even
grand mister.
Speaker 11 (16:16):
You're trying to collect too many places want the five hundred. No,
I don't all right, but I think you're a bum
business man.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Jacko found me cadnapping on Connie's bare rug. Must have
been right after the sapping. When I woke up, Jacko
was thumbing my head like a housewife with a bull
of Margarine. I fell around and waited for him to
put the floor in again. I reached in my pocket.
The Jacket Clubs was gone, and I started to talk, Jocko,
(17:06):
did you expect someone better help me up with you?
Speaker 4 (17:13):
I've helped you get up so much. I feel like
one of the right brothers.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
I just lost round three.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
Yeah, I saw him getting into the car. Did you
get a number like hellman has got yours here.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
It is anything breakdown at homicide.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
They got all the dope on to me. They had
to piece it together. He had no fingerprint record, and
they finally confilmed things with a set of false teeth.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
What does it prove?
Speaker 4 (17:41):
Nothing much except you probably killed him. He was a
foreign agent who picked up microfilm a Shanghai. Your girlfriend
is pretty.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Did they find her? Yeah? Dead?
Speaker 4 (17:54):
No, Patsy, you gotta stop thinking of people who's being
dead all the time. It's tomoral lising what she say.
She denied knowing anything about.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Tru me Jocko. I'm sure she killed that guy up
in my apartment. I'd stake my life on it.
Speaker 4 (18:08):
Expertly put Patsy. I think Hellman believes her, after all,
she's the only lead.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
What about Max Coleman, the guy that rigged my bank
account A they're letting him die on the vine.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
I was getting to that, your friend Max Coleman has disappeared.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
I thought he was being tailed. The kite got away.
He used my aspirin. Well, I took a boat out
to the Monterey Rose, but that was a waste of time.
Hellman had it covered like a tar Pallen. I still
(18:47):
had the license number to Chris's car, but I didn't
do any good even if I found him. All I
could do was point my finger. There was still a
lot of things that didn't fall into place. One of
them was how come that Jacket Clubs was so easy
to find in Connie's apartment. She hadn't hit it very well,
but after all, maybe that was a habit with her.
(19:11):
And things didn't look any better. The next morning, I
went into a restaurant next to the Press Club for
some breakfast. The chronicle was lying on the counter. We
were in second place because it was a Torso murder
all over page one. That second cup of coffee saved
me because right after that I spotted it on one
of the back pages, a picture and a small story
(19:33):
about some unidentified guy who had been killed over in Oakland.
I couldn't match the picture too well with Hellman snapshot
of Max Coleman, but it looked like my best break
so far. I got over to Oakland and I went
straight to the morgue. The guy in the morgue was chatty.
Speaker 12 (19:50):
Which fella you wanna stay is?
Speaker 1 (19:52):
The unidentified guy must have come in last night?
Speaker 12 (19:55):
Sure down this way, okay? How do you like our
more one of my favorites. It's bigger in San Francisco.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Yeah, I figured that.
Speaker 12 (20:08):
Sure, most people don't know that, but it's true, bigger
in San Francisco.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Here we are right here.
Speaker 12 (20:17):
Help me slide it out, sure, Roller bearings makes it
a lot easier.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Here, let me get that sheet. Well, well, recognize him? Yeah,
what time did he die?
Speaker 12 (20:36):
Carner's report here on the toe tag about eleven o'clock
last night? Two gunshots, thirty eight caliber festival.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
That's good.
Speaker 12 (20:45):
Don't look good to me? Was he a friend of yours,
relative or something?
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Yeah? A relative? He's my maiden aunt. It was Max Coleman,
all right, But that was only half the problem. I
had some of the answers, but not enough. It's like
trying to weave a rug with a spinning wheel and
a bucket of sand. Well, anyway, I got to a
(21:14):
pay phone and I called Jocko. I told him to
run down that license number, and I headed back across
the bridge. When I found Jocko, he said the car
was registered in the name of Christopher Downs, who lived
up on Taylor Street. And that was enough of a lead.
So I telephoned Hellman It took about a half a
minute to draw a map. Hello, Hellman, talking Novak, you
(21:35):
still got Connie Riley down there?
Speaker 10 (21:37):
No, I say match boxes.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Why when did you leave last night?
Speaker 10 (21:41):
About nine thirty?
Speaker 1 (21:42):
It was smart, Helman. Why you better put a guard
in her front door and get up the seven to
twenty Taylor Street. The apartment of Christopher Downs a late entry. Now,
climb out of that, Coleman and get going. I'll meet
you up there in ten minutes.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Street.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Yeah, it's up on the hill.
Speaker 10 (21:53):
That's good, Novak, I can roll you all the way down.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
When Jacko and I got up to Down's apartment, there
was nobody home. I said a fast prayer for Connie,
and I began going through down stuff for a thirty
eight caliber revolver. Jacko was looking too over in the
liquor cabinet. That's as far as we got.
Speaker 6 (22:24):
Scavenger your hunt, mister Novak.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Hello Chris, you haven't seen a thirty eight? Are on?
Speaker 11 (22:29):
Just one that's in my pocket, the same one that
killed Max Coleman. You're gonna run out of breath, Novak.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Slow down. I'm in second already, mister. I can't stop.
Speaker 11 (22:37):
Then you won't mind a short ride out the door
and down the back stairs.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Should we bring the lap robe.
Speaker 6 (22:42):
There's nothing to worry about.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
It's a short trip.
Speaker 11 (22:45):
You won't even have to wire other folks.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
We went down the back way and into the garage
next door. We started for a big car in the corner.
All right, get in.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Out the airport road.
Speaker 11 (23:04):
Joe, sure now, relax, snowback from here. You look like
a duck in the pond.
Speaker 6 (23:10):
All right, Joe, Watch out, Joe, Joe, watch up.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
There's another car coming in. You're right, Chris, it was
a short ride.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
You all right?
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Back, stop acting like a mother, hen helme and take
this guy's gun?
Speaker 6 (23:32):
All right, mister g Who is he?
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Christopher Downs? He killed Max Coleman last night?
Speaker 10 (23:37):
Does he convince you, mister?
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Not entirely?
Speaker 8 (23:39):
Well?
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Thirty eight? Will the open police have two slugs to
fit that gun? You need more?
Speaker 4 (23:44):
Now, I'm afraid you've got all the trump snowback.
Speaker 10 (23:47):
All right, let's go you.
Speaker 4 (23:49):
Let's see you earn that coppa.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Stop him? No that he ain't going far? Well now
you can arrest him for jaywalking. Yeah, it's too bad.
He could have told you a lot about that stuff
in my closet. Well, go pick him up, Helman, and
(24:14):
don't forget that jacket clubs in his pocket. Well it
worked out all right. I left Helman, dropped my headquarters
to leave a note, and I went home to my apartment.
Connie was there, The whiskey was out again. She looks
(24:38):
real good sitting there in a white crape dress. It
was one of those tight fitting babies that make a
bathing suit look like a toga. I told her all
about Chris and Max Coleman, and we forgot about everything
but the Olympics. And she put her arms around you.
It was a real squeeze. It felt like an old
(24:59):
tube of shaving. I was pouring a drink from the
doorbell ring. Hello Helman.
Speaker 6 (25:09):
You ready to know that?
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Sure, but don't stand there gaping arrested for murder.
Speaker 5 (25:14):
Wait a minute, slow down, Patsy.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
All right, chum, it's you were me.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
I'll be a nice boy, I am.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
That's why you go to Helman.
Speaker 5 (25:19):
Come on, lady, do you think.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Of an answer for that guy that you left in
my closet.
Speaker 5 (25:22):
I didn't leave any guy in your closet.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
You'll have to say it louder, baby. They found the
story you bought the cord.
Speaker 5 (25:26):
That cord came out of your kitchen.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
You're a big mouth cold.
Speaker 5 (25:34):
Yeah, you can put that in both face.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
How did you know You're the only one could have
taken that Jacket Clubs here in the apartment. That and
one other thing. Yeah, that not in the cord. It
was a funny nut. You've got an elastic guarder there.
It's too big, so you tied a nye in it,
(26:00):
the same funny not that choked Kirk.
Speaker 5 (26:01):
To me, you're a funny guy.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
I know that.
Speaker 7 (26:08):
Yeah, you're nice, but you're hard to handle. I should
have killed you or married you.
Speaker 5 (26:20):
Ready, Hilma m.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Well. Jack of Clubs was a phony right from the start.
Somebody told Kirk to me to deal with me. When
he came to my apartment, Connie was waiting, she got
jumpy and killed him. I got there too soon, so
she had to stall me off. When she got home,
she found out that the Jacket Clubs was a phony.
She left it in plain sight, and Chris gobbled up
(27:05):
the bait. When he discovered there was no microfilm, he
went gunning for Max Coleman. Max was an innocent thief,
lying low waiting to buy it from me. So all
three of them were after a phony card. I began
to suspect it was phony because everybody hung around. If
it was the McCoy, Connie would have cleared out, same
(27:28):
for Chris. The microfilm, well it was in Hellman's desk,
but he didn't know it. Jocko finally tumbled. The report
said that Kirk to me had false teeth. When Hellman
picked up his stuff on the ship, it was a
tube of toothpaste, you know, clean false teeth with a toothpaste.
(27:54):
Word must have gotten around that the microfilm was inside
that jacket clubs. So Kirk crossed him up and put
it in the tube of toothpaste. Well that's all, well,
accept the canceled my one thousand dollars deposits. Hellman said
it was lucky. I noticed regard lucky. Well, she had
(28:17):
the street in her scenes, didn't she.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
The American Broadcasting Company has just brought you the second
the video series Pat Novak for Hire starring Jack Webb.
Jock O Madigan is played by Tudor Owan. Inspector Helman
is played by Raymond Byrne. Music was composed and conducted
by Radio and Television Life Award winner Basil Adlam. In
our cast, we're Buddy lou Gerson, Victor Perrin, Ted de Corcia,
(28:57):
Herb Butterfield. Today, we're happy to welcome a new member
of the ABC family. A station KA r M in Presno, California,
joins our network. And No, this is George Felmann, reminding
you to be with us again next week when over
most of these same ABC stations we'll bring you Pat
Novak or Hire. This program came to you from Hollywood.
(29:26):
This is ABC, the American Broadcasting Company.
Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
The American Broadcasting Company brings to its entire network when
a radio's most unusual programs Pat Novack for hire.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Oh sure, I'm Pat Novak for hire. That's what the
(00:56):
sign on in front of my shop says, Pat Novak
higher down here in the San Francisco waterfront. It's got
to be that way. You gotta rob a few graves
if you want cigarette money. You need lots of work
and roomy sleeves if you're going to play a pat hand.
(01:16):
Sometimes in a good week we can duct trouble three
or four days in a row, and then it creeps
up on you in like an old charge account. Well,
I should have known that. When I went to the bank,
I was up to my knees in mud and didn't
even know it was a rainy season. It was Tuesday.
I went by the bank and drop a hundred bucks.
(01:39):
It was about time because they were beginning to play
handball with my checks. Must have been about eleven o'clock
when I got to the window.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Hell, so, mister Novak, isn't it a grand morning?
Speaker 1 (01:51):
If it's your choice, stay with it, Ah, Yes, deposit
a hundred bucks. Yes, let me get to a car.
It's right here, I think, yes, here, we are all right?
One hundred bucks? Give me a duplicate, will you? Certainly?
Speaker 3 (02:11):
My this isn't his big as the last deposit?
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Look, bloomer girl, just mark the slipper.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Oh I'm sorry, mister Norvak. I yes, I'm not used
a thousand dollars deposits?
Speaker 1 (02:23):
What thousand dollars your Friday deponse? I wasn't in here Friday.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Oh you must have been. The card says you've put
in one thousand dollars on Friday?
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Give me that card. What did Sartah look like? But
I who put the dough in?
Speaker 4 (02:37):
What did the guy look like? Oh?
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Didn't you know? Look we'll double back and try to
hang on this time with you. I wasn't in here Friday.
I don't know anything about an extra grand I. What
did the guy look like?
Speaker 3 (02:46):
I wasn't on duty Friday. Yeah, I'm not even sure
about the fellow today?
Speaker 1 (02:51):
What fella?
Speaker 3 (02:52):
There was a man in here to ask about the account?
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Did this good fairy hea a name? No, just credentials.
He was from the FBI, per see? Is there anything wrong?
Speaker 5 (03:02):
Mister?
Speaker 6 (03:02):
No?
Speaker 1 (03:02):
I don't mind that complexion. I forgot my foundation cream.
Oh I should have known. Right then a mysterious Graham
tossed into the till, and I didn't wake up the trouble.
(03:24):
But I'm a smart boy who'd be the village idiot
in the town the size of New York. Well, I
left the bank and went up to my apartment. That
thousand bucks was already drawing interest. When I came in.
She was sitting on the couch drinking my whiskey. Yeah,
she could have all she wanted. A nineteen forty nine
(03:45):
panther model pissed the right amount of size twelve, and
a dress that looked like a well tailored fig leaf.
When she was through looking over you felt like a
Sunday supplement.
Speaker 5 (03:56):
Hello, mister nova, I like your plum.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
That's good.
Speaker 5 (04:03):
The view is wonder it's those yours.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
What's on your mind?
Speaker 5 (04:08):
How about a drink?
Speaker 1 (04:10):
All right? How poor you talk?
Speaker 5 (04:13):
My name is Connie Riley? Make me want too?
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Sure as you were saying, my name is Connie Riddy? Yeah,
well I've memorized that much. Go on, here's your drink.
Speaker 7 (04:25):
Thanks, puts it out all right over next to me.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
I won't buy it, it's too bad.
Speaker 7 (04:34):
Go on. Well, here's the new bank account, Patsy.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Look six. If you're here just for the field trials,
all right, But if you've got to build a goods,
trot it out.
Speaker 5 (04:45):
I will. I want that card to Patsy. I want
it ahead of Chris.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
I'll catch up with another drink in the meantime, you
fill in and help me with you.
Speaker 5 (04:54):
Stop sitting on your hands. Angel. You didn't get that
thousand bucks with the sweat of your bra.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Not yet.
Speaker 5 (05:00):
Somebody patted your account, so you'd be a nice boy.
Speaker 8 (05:03):
I want you to be a nice boy for me
at the same rates the Monterey Rose docs today, a
passenger named Kirk to me is carrying a jack of clubs,
and it means a lot to me.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
It doesn't mean a thing to me except the FBI
is on my tail.
Speaker 5 (05:19):
Mister Novak, you're turning a momentary advantage into.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
A pro ball. You take your deal to some other broker.
Speaker 9 (05:25):
You're in business, whether you like it or not. Patsy,
You're going to stub your toe either way. Only to me,
it'll be more fun.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
How about the FBI.
Speaker 5 (05:34):
You've been frightened by a group of bureaucrats.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
That's what Trotsky thought, how.
Speaker 5 (05:40):
Much, Patsy, how much for that card?
Speaker 1 (05:43):
When you get it, the price is a grand You're
an amusing cat, Patsy, Yeah, and a grand I can
afford to be.
Speaker 9 (05:52):
You don't even know what the Jack of Clubs is
all about. You never heard of Kirk to me though,
five minutes ago. But you take things in strider at
the whole world belong to you, You like Adam when you.
Speaker 5 (06:00):
Spot of the God of ease.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
All right, little leave, it's a thousand bucks. I remember
you're sitting on my doorstep. Now, either go on home
or come in the house.
Speaker 5 (06:06):
Good.
Speaker 7 (06:08):
I'll take the god that's your price, not relax.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
I'll bet you can.
Speaker 5 (06:19):
Pour me another drink.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Pancy, Yeah, sure, in a minute. What comes next?
Speaker 5 (06:27):
I get three guesses, you've got.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Time to take them.
Speaker 7 (06:32):
I won't need them.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
All that's up to you. Come here, angel. Did you
ever hear of the early Bird?
Speaker 5 (06:44):
Do I make a nice worm?
Speaker 1 (06:46):
You're a reglar like one, aren't.
Speaker 7 (06:49):
You raising the prize a little mister Novack?
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Straight? Eighteen percent? Darling?
Speaker 5 (06:56):
That's too bad.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
I wasn't even gonna scream.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
The next place only there's going to be a cave,
just a minute later. Hello, Novak, Oh Hellman?
Speaker 10 (07:08):
Oh well, am I interrupting anything?
Speaker 1 (07:11):
No, we were just going over an old seed catalog.
Miss Riley, missus Inspector Helman.
Speaker 5 (07:16):
San Francisco Police, Good morning, Inspector. Don't bother to arrest me. Now,
I'm just leasy, so soon. My sentiment's exactly inspected. Bye bye, Patsy.
You can get me at the concert on pushchee.
Speaker 10 (07:29):
So you're around, Sure, well you're slipping, Novak, no rain check?
Speaker 1 (07:35):
All right, funny man, what's your problem you did you
ever see this guy before? Let me see? He's an
awful looking thug?
Speaker 4 (07:43):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Who is he? Your father?
Speaker 10 (07:44):
Guy by the name of Max Coleman. The FBI trailed
him to your bank Friday. They think he gave you
a thousand bucks. Yeah, where'd you get the thousand bucks?
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Novak? What do you care? Helman? Maybe a relative, maybe
a maden nant.
Speaker 6 (07:54):
Nobody's related to you.
Speaker 5 (07:55):
Novak.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
You're in a jam, lover, and I'm here to put
your father in.
Speaker 10 (07:59):
Max Coleman buy the groceries with foreign do.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
What are you weeping about? Arrest the guy if you
don't like him.
Speaker 10 (08:03):
There's government microfilm coming in on the Monterey roads. A
thousand bucks makes you a contact man for Coleman.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
To send the FBI over them. Where do you fit
in waiting for somebody to drop some loose change? You're
my project, novakum.
Speaker 10 (08:13):
When they asked us for help, I stuffed the ballot
box to get you, so relax. I'm want to spend
the rest of the day here. You're not going to
leave the living room.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
I gotta spend the day with you. I'll take knockout drops.
Shoot yourself, that's just that's good scotch. You wouldn't know
the cheap liquors out in the kitchen closet. That's for you,
all right.
Speaker 5 (08:33):
Oh, by the still of him, that's right.
Speaker 6 (08:36):
What are you keep in here?
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Novac mops?
Speaker 1 (08:39):
And where'd you buy this one? What are you talking about?
Speaker 6 (08:41):
Why did you buy this one?
Speaker 5 (08:41):
Smart man?
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Helmet wasn't right. I could tell right away it wasn't
a mob. When Hellman pushed him out of he rolled
out on a little anoleum, a dapper little guy except
for a piece of cord around his throat tied in
a funny knot. He was deader than a broken drum.
Somebody pulled too hard on that piece of cord. The
(09:16):
veins were standing out in his forehead, and his face
looked like a roadmap lying there on the floor. It
wasn't pretty. Helman thought so too. Who is he Novak?
Your father? I've never seen him in my closet before,
Hellman finders keepers. You roll him?
Speaker 10 (09:30):
Yeah, get in your hand, there's nothing there. Where is
his wallet?
Speaker 1 (09:37):
He'll get there by instinct?
Speaker 10 (09:39):
H yeah, yeah, here it is. His name is Kirk Toomey?
Speaker 1 (09:47):
That helps? Who is he? The guy on the mono
rail rose, the.
Speaker 10 (09:51):
One with a microfilm? I guess I thought you didn't
know anything about it. How do you know I came
from the mono railroads my dream book?
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Helman, what happened now?
Speaker 10 (10:00):
Nothing except I'm on the case now and you've got
trouble in a major key.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
You don't think I killed this guy?
Speaker 6 (10:06):
I don't know, did you?
Speaker 1 (10:07):
You better hop off and tail that girl. She was
making herself at home when I got here.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
Yeah, how do I know?
Speaker 1 (10:11):
You're not in it together? It don't cop her. Maybe
she's lobanim Leopold. When you're through with her, you might
hit the mono ray and start looking for a jack
of Club some more dream book Novak everybody's looking for
a Jack of Club's Helman. It must be the end
of the rainbow. That's where you're gonna find a microfilm.
Speaker 10 (10:23):
In the meantime, you stay handy, Novak. I want to
split you with the FBI.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
You don't think I'm gonna take the rap for Junior here,
do you?
Speaker 10 (10:30):
It says that in my books. Relaxed until I'm ready
to pick you up. I only have to find a
couple of things.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
It'll be a long time, Helman. You can't find your
hip pocket with radar.
Speaker 10 (10:39):
Yeah, I'll be around soon, Novak.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
I'll bother to pack your bags. You'll be traveling like well.
When Hellman left, I knew I was a second division club.
That phony plan in the bank to tie up with
Max Coleman, and that stiff in the kitchen made me
(11:04):
look real bad. I had to do something in a hurry,
because the way things stood, I had about as much
chance as a lawn party in a monsoon. There were
a lot of bases to tag, so I looked up
jock O Madigan, a next doctor who invented the hangover,
but a good guy. I finally found him over in
North Beach, a little joint called Loopos. He was eating
(11:26):
pizza with one hand and strangling a bottle of wine
with the other.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
Hello, PATSI, oh Frank a bottle of wine from Mission Novak.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
No, I'm short on time, Jocko.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
That's the way you're wrong, Patchy. People always say it,
but it's a lie.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Will you calm down a minute.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
You will say you're short on time, but you have
all the time there is. It's the one thing that
keeps you from being the biggest. There are only twenty
four hours in the day, and that gives you as
much time as Napoleon or Alexander.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
He would you shut up a minute and put on
that wine.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
I'm celebrating, Patchy. I'm celebrating mission.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Mission day's over.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
I'm a native son. We celebrate long er.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Oh look, I'm behind the eight ball again.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
Isn't it getting kind of crowded back there?
Speaker 1 (12:10):
What's the matter? Somebody strangled the guy and put him
in my broom closet. When did you find him? I didn't,
Helman did. There's a girl named Connie Riley looks good
for the job.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
Why doesn't Helman Booker?
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Then he's still picking up the pieces. The dead guy
is Kirk Toomey. He was set to smuggle in some
microfilm that says here, I'm contact you.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
Gotta help me, Jocko, you've got me confused with the
travel agency.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
I want you to hop down a headquarters. Get all
the dope you can on this guy to me. I'm
gonna look up Connie Riley.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
How did she get in the picture?
Speaker 1 (12:39):
What difference does it make? She's a wrestler I met
this morning. I get out a headquarters, will you?
Speaker 4 (12:42):
That's why I like you? Pet you like a piece
of blank verse, a bad piece of blank verst.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
All right, Jocko, I'm gonna make like a strip of bacon.
If I don't get going, stay close to headquarters. If
anything looks good, contact me at Connie Riley's here at
this address.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
All right? How many time should I knock?
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Love us? I left, Jocko and dropped by the apartment.
I was smart and full of courage, like a field
mouse at bay. The police had already been there. There
(13:22):
was his fingerprint, powder all over, and the two bottles
of whiskey were going. They'd moved laughing boy out of
the kitchen, and so I sat on trying to add
things up. I had a short list of friends to
see Connie, Max Coleman, and whoever this guy Chris was.
I had to show up with one of them or
(13:43):
approved that Kirk Toomey hung himself in my closet. I
was getting ready to borrow a piece of cord myself
and the phone rang. Yeah, helmet, I'm thrilled. What's on
your mind?
Speaker 10 (13:55):
I just call on your girlfriend?
Speaker 1 (13:56):
What you say?
Speaker 10 (13:57):
She wasn't there as him been there since ten o'clock
this morning.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
That's funny. Yeah, you know where she is? How would
I know?
Speaker 10 (14:05):
Just thought she might be in your closet. I picked
up to me stuff on the Monterey Roads.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Yeah, would you find on the usual stuff?
Speaker 10 (14:11):
A few clothes I'm shaving equipment to razor blades to
the past, and the pack of playing cards.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Pack of cards, well you know where to go from
their helmet. I thought I did grab that jacket clubs?
Speaker 10 (14:19):
Will it tenor hots do?
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Uh huh?
Speaker 10 (14:21):
That's right, Novak, A nice fat deck when the jacket
clubs is missing.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Oh, you're always too little, too late, helmet.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Just thought i'd let you know, friend, in case.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
You start a bridge game with fifty three cards in
the deck.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Good night, ah, I was losing money fast, like a
street carnival and death Valley. Well, one or two things happened.
(14:52):
Somebody got on that boat and took the Jacket Clubs
while Toomey was at my apartment, or maybe he brought
it with him. If he brought it with him, Connie
was a possibility, or somebody that got there ahead to Connie. Well, anyway,
I had to work fast now because whoever had that
card wasn't gonna put it on a market street float.
About ten minutes later, I cut across Union Square and
(15:15):
up Bush Street. When I got to Connie's apartment, it
was about ten o'clock. I got in the back door
and started through. She wasn't there, So I went to
work looking for that Jacket Clubs. It was real easy.
I tried the desk and her bureau drawer. You know,
I'd black Chiffon's coming Back in style, because that's where
(15:37):
I found the card. It looked nice nestling there. I
put it in my pocket and that's as far as
I got.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
You run the laserie, Connie.
Speaker 5 (15:46):
Here.
Speaker 11 (15:47):
Know they sound like a guy named Chris. If it
makes you feel about it, should we put on the light. No, no,
let's don't put on the light. This gun might upset you.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
The police are looking for you, Chris, you need more
than the dark. I understand they're looking for you.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
Nove that Riley Go kind of puts you on a spot.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Tell you what I'll do, though, Yeah, you'll give me
a thousand dollars for the jacket clubs. I started to
say five hundred around here. That's a whisper and even
grand mister.
Speaker 11 (16:16):
You're trying to collect too many places want the five hundred. No,
I don't all right, but I think you're a bum
business man.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Jacko found me cadnapping on Connie's bare rug. Must have
been right after the sapping. When I woke up, Jacko
was thumbing my head like a housewife with a bull
of Margarine. I fell around and waited for him to
put the floor in again. I reached in my pocket.
The Jacket Clubs was gone, and I started to talk, Jocko,
(17:06):
did you expect someone better help me up with you?
Speaker 4 (17:13):
I've helped you get up so much. I feel like
one of the right brothers.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
I just lost round three.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
Yeah, I saw him getting into the car. Did you
get a number like hellman has got yours here.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
It is anything breakdown at homicide.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
They got all the dope on to me. They had
to piece it together. He had no fingerprint record, and
they finally confilmed things with a set of false teeth.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
What does it prove?
Speaker 4 (17:41):
Nothing much except you probably killed him. He was a
foreign agent who picked up microfilm a Shanghai. Your girlfriend
is pretty.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Did they find her? Yeah? Dead?
Speaker 4 (17:54):
No, Patsy, you gotta stop thinking of people who's being
dead all the time. It's tomoral lising what she say.
She denied knowing anything about.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Tru me Jocko. I'm sure she killed that guy up
in my apartment. I'd stake my life on it.
Speaker 4 (18:08):
Expertly put Patsy. I think Hellman believes her, after all,
she's the only lead.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
What about Max Coleman, the guy that rigged my bank
account A they're letting him die on the vine.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
I was getting to that, your friend Max Coleman has disappeared.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
I thought he was being tailed. The kite got away.
He used my aspirin. Well, I took a boat out
to the Monterey Rose, but that was a waste of time.
Hellman had it covered like a tar Pallen. I still
(18:47):
had the license number to Chris's car, but I didn't
do any good even if I found him. All I
could do was point my finger. There was still a
lot of things that didn't fall into place. One of
them was how come that Jacket Clubs was so easy
to find in Connie's apartment. She hadn't hit it very well,
but after all, maybe that was a habit with her.
(19:11):
And things didn't look any better. The next morning, I
went into a restaurant next to the Press Club for
some breakfast. The chronicle was lying on the counter. We
were in second place because it was a Torso murder
all over page one. That second cup of coffee saved
me because right after that I spotted it on one
of the back pages, a picture and a small story
(19:33):
about some unidentified guy who had been killed over in Oakland.
I couldn't match the picture too well with Hellman snapshot
of Max Coleman, but it looked like my best break
so far. I got over to Oakland and I went
straight to the morgue. The guy in the morgue was chatty.
Speaker 12 (19:50):
Which fella you wanna stay is?
Speaker 1 (19:52):
The unidentified guy must have come in last night?
Speaker 12 (19:55):
Sure down this way, okay? How do you like our
more one of my favorites. It's bigger in San Francisco.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Yeah, I figured that.
Speaker 12 (20:08):
Sure, most people don't know that, but it's true, bigger
in San Francisco.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Here we are right here.
Speaker 12 (20:17):
Help me slide it out, sure, Roller bearings makes it
a lot easier.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Here, let me get that sheet. Well, well, recognize him? Yeah,
what time did he die?
Speaker 12 (20:36):
Carner's report here on the toe tag about eleven o'clock
last night? Two gunshots, thirty eight caliber festival.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
That's good.
Speaker 12 (20:45):
Don't look good to me? Was he a friend of yours,
relative or something?
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Yeah? A relative? He's my maiden aunt. It was Max Coleman,
all right, But that was only half the problem. I
had some of the answers, but not enough. It's like
trying to weave a rug with a spinning wheel and
a bucket of sand. Well, anyway, I got to a
(21:14):
pay phone and I called Jocko. I told him to
run down that license number, and I headed back across
the bridge. When I found Jocko, he said the car
was registered in the name of Christopher Downs, who lived
up on Taylor Street. And that was enough of a lead.
So I telephoned Hellman It took about a half a
minute to draw a map. Hello, Hellman, talking Novak, you
(21:35):
still got Connie Riley down there?
Speaker 10 (21:37):
No, I say match boxes.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Why when did you leave last night?
Speaker 10 (21:41):
About nine thirty?
Speaker 1 (21:42):
It was smart, Helman. Why you better put a guard
in her front door and get up the seven to
twenty Taylor Street. The apartment of Christopher Downs a late entry. Now,
climb out of that, Coleman and get going. I'll meet
you up there in ten minutes.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Street.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Yeah, it's up on the hill.
Speaker 10 (21:53):
That's good, Novak, I can roll you all the way down.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
When Jacko and I got up to Down's apartment, there
was nobody home. I said a fast prayer for Connie,
and I began going through down stuff for a thirty
eight caliber revolver. Jacko was looking too over in the
liquor cabinet. That's as far as we got.
Speaker 6 (22:24):
Scavenger your hunt, mister Novak.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Hello Chris, you haven't seen a thirty eight? Are on?
Speaker 11 (22:29):
Just one that's in my pocket, the same one that
killed Max Coleman. You're gonna run out of breath, Novak.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Slow down. I'm in second already, mister. I can't stop.
Speaker 11 (22:37):
Then you won't mind a short ride out the door
and down the back stairs.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Should we bring the lap robe.
Speaker 6 (22:42):
There's nothing to worry about.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
It's a short trip.
Speaker 11 (22:45):
You won't even have to wire other folks.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
We went down the back way and into the garage
next door. We started for a big car in the corner.
All right, get in.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Out the airport road.
Speaker 11 (23:04):
Joe, sure now, relax, snowback from here. You look like
a duck in the pond.
Speaker 6 (23:10):
All right, Joe, Watch out, Joe, Joe, watch up.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
There's another car coming in. You're right, Chris, it was
a short ride.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
You all right?
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Back, stop acting like a mother, hen helme and take
this guy's gun?
Speaker 6 (23:32):
All right, mister g Who is he?
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Christopher Downs? He killed Max Coleman last night?
Speaker 10 (23:37):
Does he convince you, mister?
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Not entirely?
Speaker 8 (23:39):
Well?
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Thirty eight? Will the open police have two slugs to
fit that gun? You need more?
Speaker 4 (23:44):
Now, I'm afraid you've got all the trump snowback.
Speaker 10 (23:47):
All right, let's go you.
Speaker 4 (23:49):
Let's see you earn that coppa.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Stop him? No that he ain't going far? Well now
you can arrest him for jaywalking. Yeah, it's too bad.
He could have told you a lot about that stuff
in my closet. Well, go pick him up, Helman, and
(24:14):
don't forget that jacket clubs in his pocket. Well it
worked out all right. I left Helman, dropped my headquarters
to leave a note, and I went home to my apartment.
Connie was there, The whiskey was out again. She looks
(24:38):
real good sitting there in a white crape dress. It
was one of those tight fitting babies that make a
bathing suit look like a toga. I told her all
about Chris and Max Coleman, and we forgot about everything
but the Olympics. And she put her arms around you.
It was a real squeeze. It felt like an old
(24:59):
tube of shaving. I was pouring a drink from the
doorbell ring. Hello Helman.
Speaker 6 (25:09):
You ready to know that?
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Sure, but don't stand there gaping arrested for murder.
Speaker 5 (25:14):
Wait a minute, slow down, Patsy.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
All right, chum, it's you were me.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
I'll be a nice boy, I am.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
That's why you go to Helman.
Speaker 5 (25:19):
Come on, lady, do you think.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Of an answer for that guy that you left in
my closet.
Speaker 5 (25:22):
I didn't leave any guy in your closet.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
You'll have to say it louder, baby. They found the
story you bought the cord.
Speaker 5 (25:26):
That cord came out of your kitchen.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
You're a big mouth cold.
Speaker 5 (25:34):
Yeah, you can put that in both face.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
How did you know You're the only one could have
taken that Jacket Clubs here in the apartment. That and
one other thing. Yeah, that not in the cord. It
was a funny nut. You've got an elastic guarder there.
It's too big, so you tied a nye in it,
(26:00):
the same funny not that choked Kirk.
Speaker 5 (26:01):
To me, you're a funny guy.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
I know that.
Speaker 7 (26:08):
Yeah, you're nice, but you're hard to handle. I should
have killed you or married you.
Speaker 5 (26:20):
Ready, Hilma m.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Well. Jack of Clubs was a phony right from the start.
Somebody told Kirk to me to deal with me. When
he came to my apartment, Connie was waiting, she got
jumpy and killed him. I got there too soon, so
she had to stall me off. When she got home,
she found out that the Jacket Clubs was a phony.
She left it in plain sight, and Chris gobbled up
(27:05):
the bait. When he discovered there was no microfilm, he
went gunning for Max Coleman. Max was an innocent thief,
lying low waiting to buy it from me. So all
three of them were after a phony card. I began
to suspect it was phony because everybody hung around. If
it was the McCoy, Connie would have cleared out, same
(27:28):
for Chris. The microfilm, well it was in Hellman's desk,
but he didn't know it. Jocko finally tumbled. The report
said that Kirk to me had false teeth. When Hellman
picked up his stuff on the ship, it was a
tube of toothpaste, you know, clean false teeth with a toothpaste.
(27:54):
Word must have gotten around that the microfilm was inside
that jacket clubs. So Kirk crossed him up and put
it in the tube of toothpaste. Well that's all, well,
accept the canceled my one thousand dollars deposits. Hellman said
it was lucky. I noticed regard lucky. Well, she had
(28:17):
the street in her scenes, didn't she.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
The American Broadcasting Company has just brought you the second
the video series Pat Novak for Hire starring Jack Webb.
Jock O Madigan is played by Tudor Owan. Inspector Helman
is played by Raymond Byrne. Music was composed and conducted
by Radio and Television Life Award winner Basil Adlam. In
our cast, we're Buddy lou Gerson, Victor Perrin, Ted de Corcia,
(28:57):
Herb Butterfield. Today, we're happy to welcome a new member
of the ABC family. A station KA r M in Presno, California,
joins our network. And No, this is George Felmann, reminding
you to be with us again next week when over
most of these same ABC stations we'll bring you Pat
Novak or Hire. This program came to you from Hollywood.
(29:26):
This is ABC, the American Broadcasting Company.
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