March 29, 2025 • 30 mins
Please enjoy Three Blind Mice a great episode of the legendary Suspense - - a Old Time Radio OTR classic.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Yes, Roma Winds taste better because only Roma selects from
the world's greatest wine reserves for your pleasure. And now
Roma Wins r Oma Roma Wines present Suspense.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Night, Roma Winds Bringing Mister van Heflin In Free Blind Mice,
a suspense play produced, edited and directed for Roma Wines
by William Spear.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Suspense Radio's outstanding theater of thrills is presented for your
enjoyment by Roma Wines. That's our Oma Roma Wines, those
better tasting California wines enjoyed by more Americans than any
other wine. For friendly entertaining, for delightful dining. Yes, right now,
a glassful would be very pleasant as Alma Wines bring
(01:01):
you van Heflin In A remarkable Tale of.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Sauspen Lockwood, Bethley and Walls Publishing. It still set it
on the big brass nameplay going down. Oh sure, the
elevator operators were nice to me, most of the office
(01:25):
boys remembered to knock on my door before they came in,
and even some of the stenographers still spoke to me.
But everybody else above the rank of junior story reading it. It
was just a question of time before that big brass
named Clayton. The lobby came down, and another one went
up in its place, Bentley.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
And Walsh Publishing. No more Lockwood.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
If ever a man hated his partners, I did. May
porter line went out of the building and across the
street to the Savoy for Dinna. Even the headwaiter must
have heard the rumor. He gave me the dime size
table over in the corner that's generally reserved for out
of town ribbon clerks. That's all right about me, It'll
be another day. I'd gotten too coffee dessert when I
(02:08):
saw Helen Conover. Well, that just about summed it up.
There were two things that I wanted in this world,
to get my hands back on that corporation and Helen Connover.
But she saw me, and I waved too, and she
waved back and started open my table. She was head
of our promotion department. She was smart and ambitious, and
she could have personally modeled for any pin up art
(02:29):
that you ever saw. But she was reserving anything along
that line for my partner, Dick Walsh.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Okay, sister, there'll be a enough day.
Speaker 5 (02:37):
Hello Arthur dining alone.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Yes, it's a habit that I could break. It under
the right conditions.
Speaker 5 (02:42):
Well, but you're all finished.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
It's all right.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
I'm just a big book publisher, got nothing to do.
Speaker 5 (02:47):
Well, if it's not against office regulations to have dinner
with the.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
Boss regulations, well they never bothered you, now anything.
Speaker 5 (02:53):
Now I see, Let's keep this clean. Yes, let's steak dinner. Please,
no soup and nok.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
Chase this work. I'm kind of late, aren't you not working?
Speaker 5 (03:02):
Dick wanted me to see him off on the train train?
Speaker 4 (03:04):
Where's he going Chicago? Before business?
Speaker 5 (03:07):
I suppose didn't he tell you?
Speaker 4 (03:09):
You know, they never tell me anything anymore.
Speaker 5 (03:11):
Well, it wasn't anything very important, I guess.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
And I know even less if it had been. Maybe
you can tell me about Sam.
Speaker 5 (03:18):
About Sam?
Speaker 4 (03:19):
H did he get his report from the doctor?
Speaker 5 (03:22):
Oh? Yes he did, as a matter of fact. How
I'm afraid it's pretty bad.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
How bad?
Speaker 5 (03:27):
Well, it's just hard, all right. They don't give him
much more time. Huh, six months at the most.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
Well, that means they'll have to work fast, or I will.
What wouldn't you say so.
Speaker 5 (03:39):
Arthur, I don't understand you. I've just told you that
one of your partners has only six months to live,
and you don't even seem to care.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
Ah, Look, let's be grown up about it. At least
Sam Bentley and Dick Washing have been trying to ease
me out of the firm for the last year. Now
Sam's gonna kick off. Why should I care?
Speaker 5 (03:54):
You really hate him, don't you me?
Speaker 4 (03:56):
I don't hate anybody. I just hope he kicks off
tonight instead of way I think six months and the
Dick Walsh's train runs into the Hudson River. That's all.
I don't hate anybody. I just wish they were dead.
Speaker 5 (04:06):
Oh, Arthur, how can what's.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
The matter with that? I wish my partners were out of.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
The way, and you wish well, I know what you
wish too, only I'm honest about it and you're not.
Speaker 5 (04:15):
This isn't a very pleasant conversation.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
There's always a better one. For instance, what are you
doing tonight?
Speaker 5 (04:21):
I'm going home and get a good night's sleep.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
By the way, how long is Dick gonna be away?
Speaker 5 (04:26):
About a week?
Speaker 4 (04:27):
Be kind of lonely, won't you?
Speaker 5 (04:29):
I don't see why I should.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
Well, that's what I was thinking. You know, I've always
had a sort of a yen for you, Helen.
Speaker 5 (04:35):
Why mister Lockwood. Why don't people tell me these things?
Speaker 4 (04:38):
People don't have to tell people like you those things.
Speaker 5 (04:41):
Now that you mention it, I do seem to have
notice a sort of a leer.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Ever, so often that wasn't any leer, baby, that was
the real McCoy.
Speaker 5 (04:48):
Look, Arthur, this may sound kind of corny, but I'm
in love with Dick and he's in love with me.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
It does what sound corny? Why doesn't he marry you?
Speaker 5 (04:58):
You know why?
Speaker 6 (04:59):
Sure?
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Why it won't divorce him? You know he's been using
that one for the last ten years.
Speaker 5 (05:03):
Arthur, I'd rather not talk about it.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Okay, okay, not to change the subject. But what do
you expect to get out of it?
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Get out of what the reorganization the big day when
they kicked the old Arthur out of the firm. Do
you think maybe they'll make you a vice president.
Speaker 5 (05:16):
I really don't know what you're talking about, Arthur, or you.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Ought to think about it, because you can never tell
I might be able to make you even better proposition.
Speaker 5 (05:23):
I find I'm not interested in your propositions, Arthur, any
of them.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Okay, Baby, there'll be another day. It was mostly bluff
and she knew it, but there was one thing that
she didn't know. There was a chance that my smart
partners had actually been holding out on me.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
And if they had the way our incorporation papers were drawn,
then I could really nail them well.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
I'd been snooping through the files at night lately, and
I'd already dug up a couple of things.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
This night, I went back at it again. I let
myself into the side door to go, and then walked
up the two flights to the office. Everything was dark
and deserted, and.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Could barely make out the long lines of desks, And
then I saw the light under Sam's door.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
When I crossed the office. Very quietly, he listened, HM. Nothing.
I tapped on the door.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Still nothing, So I opened it and there was Sam.
There was Sam, leaning back in his chair and staring
at me with those cold and slightly protruding blue eyes,
much the way he always did now, except tonight there
was a small hole in the right side of his head,
(06:42):
and Sam Bentley was dead. The gun was lying on
the carpet where it had fallen out of his hand.
It was his, all right, I recognized him. His other
hand had fallen against an open drawer of the desk,
and his wristwatch was broken and it stopped at five
after eight, and I picked up the phone to call
(07:02):
of police. And then I noticed a letter on his desk.
He was addressed to Richard Walsh.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
Well, I put up the front and looked at that letter.
Then I opened it. Well, it was about what I figured,
the doctor's report on his heart, the usual all.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Round apology, and then a detailed explanation of how Dick
Walsh could use the corporate insurance to pay off Sam's
family for his share of the business and then take
it over himself because Sam didn't want me to have
any part of it. The signature was a little scary,
but it was Sam's all right. So there it was
the double cross. And yet it's funny. But almost before
(07:44):
I got through reading it, I knew the answer. I
looked at that broken wristwatch of his again, five after eight,
it said. An hour later, I was home in bed,
sleeping like a baby, knowing that Dick Waltz too was
going to die. I strolled into the office the next
(08:08):
morning got tan, just to be on the safe side.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
But of course they'd already.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Found you know, all over the office there were the
little huddles. It broke up critically my approach, and I
played it for what it.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
Was worth and headed for the largest and most important huddle,
the executive huddle outside.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Of Sam's door. They were all there, including Helen Connover, and.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
She was looking pretty sick. Well, what uh what is
all this?
Speaker 6 (08:31):
An?
Speaker 4 (08:32):
Oh, I'm Arthur Luckwood, have so well, what's what's all
this about?
Speaker 6 (08:34):
Oh? Just wait here, please, mister Lockwood.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
What's going on here? Anyway? Somebody robbed the till Arthur, Arthur.
Speaker 5 (08:42):
It's it's Sam.
Speaker 6 (08:44):
What his heart?
Speaker 5 (08:46):
No, he's he was shot, shot, Arthur. The police say
it's murder.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
You come in, Lockwood, Yes, certainly. The Captain'll like to
see you again too, please.
Speaker 5 (08:55):
Miss Conwell, Oh yes, all right, we went in.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Sam was still there, but by this time somebody had
thrown a towel over his face.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
Big gangling guy came across the room toward.
Speaker 6 (09:09):
Me with his hand out, Miss Lockwood. Yes, Captain Gibbon's homicide.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
Is Is that Sam? Sam Bentley? Yes?
Speaker 6 (09:18):
Now it must be something of a shock to you, sir,
but I'm afraid I'm gonna have to ask you a
few questions.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
Oh, yes, of course, Please go out.
Speaker 6 (09:24):
Ahead know anybody to want to kill your partner, Miss Lockwood?
Speaker 4 (09:28):
Are you sure it was? I mean, I couldn't it
have been suicide?
Speaker 6 (09:32):
Why would he want to kill himself?
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Well, he's been pretty depressed lately. His health has been bad.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
Only yesterday got a report from his doctor that he
probably wouldn't live more than six months.
Speaker 6 (09:43):
No, I won't hold miss Lockwood, not unless you figured
that Bentley shot himself and then carried the gun into
the other partner's office. That's mister Walsh in mister Walsh. Yes,
was that surprising?
Speaker 5 (09:55):
Why? Yes?
Speaker 4 (09:56):
Do you mean that you found the gun in mister Walsh's.
Speaker 6 (09:59):
Office in the wall safe? How many people have the
combination of that safe, mister Lockwood?
Speaker 4 (10:04):
Why just the three of us?
Speaker 3 (10:06):
I think the three partners, Uh, we each have a safe,
but uh somebody else has to have the combination?
Speaker 4 (10:11):
Who just in case?
Speaker 6 (10:12):
Well?
Speaker 4 (10:12):
You know?
Speaker 6 (10:13):
Mmm?
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Did you trust your partners, mister Lockwood? Well, Captain, I'll
be frank with you. There hasn't it a great deal
of love lost between us lately? But yes, we trusted
each other in our own way?
Speaker 6 (10:27):
Where were you a tenor after seven? Mister Lockwood?
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Our eyes having dinner at the boy across the street.
Speaker 6 (10:33):
You can prove that I support.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
Yes, of course. As a matter of fact, in Miss
Conover here came over and later and joined me.
Speaker 6 (10:40):
I understand. Miss Conover was seeing you are the partner
mister Walshaw from the seven thirty five for Chicago. So
she told me, yes, you're sure that you trained time?
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Yes, of course, Well it's the one deck Wash always
takes to Chicago.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
Well, why this interesting time? Have you set? The time
of the uh? The of when it happened.
Speaker 6 (10:57):
Bentley's watch was broken to ten after seven? Oh, either
of you see this before?
Speaker 5 (11:06):
Where did that come from?
Speaker 6 (11:07):
Recognize him?
Speaker 4 (11:08):
Yes, of course that's sir, And that's mister Watsh's watch. Chom.
Speaker 5 (11:11):
He keeps losing it. He loses it all the time,
Yes he does.
Speaker 6 (11:15):
We found it in the chair behind Bentler's body.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
Oh now, wait a minute, captain, you don't seriously mean
to suggest how does it add up to you?
Speaker 3 (11:24):
Well, I mean that that watch John doesn't mean anything.
It's true that he did lose it all the time,
that he could have lost it in here anytime.
Speaker 6 (11:31):
Not in a chair, mister Lockwood. It wouldn't stay there
very long. Not without being found.
Speaker 5 (11:36):
Oh captain, there must be some mistake.
Speaker 6 (11:38):
There must be You can go now, miscanover, but please,
I said you could go now, msconvin I guess that's it, harring,
I guess it is better call Chicago and issue a warrant.
Richard Lennard Walsh, M.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
All right, all right, it's nothing now, she's just faded.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
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Speaker 1 (12:20):
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Speaker 2 (13:33):
And now Roma Wines bring back to our Hollywood soundstage.
Van Heflin as Artha Lockwood with Kathy Lewis as Helen
Conover in Free Blind Mice, a tale well calculated to
keep you in suspense.
Speaker 7 (14:00):
The defendant will rise and face the court. Does the
defendant wish to make a statement before sentences passed?
Speaker 6 (14:12):
If not, we will proceed.
Speaker 7 (14:14):
Richard Leonard Walsh, having been tried and found guilty of
the murder of Samuel Bentley in the first degree, you
are hereby remanded to the custody of the Ward and
of the State Penitentiary, where at such time as the
State shall deem appropriate, you will be executed in the
manor house, arrived.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
By the law. It's a nice razing way of getting
along in the publishing business. If you're lucky, one of
your partners commits suicide, you rig the evidence to frame
the other partner for his murder. Net result a new firm,
Arthur Lockwood Incorporated. Arthur Lockwood be me. Of course. There
were the usual appeals and the thing dragged on, but
that didn't worry me.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
I had other things to think about, and number one
on that list was Helen Conover. But there, I'll admit
I was surprised because Dick knew that he had been
framed and must have suspected me, and Helen was supposed
to be.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
In love with Vic. Well, I played it very carefully.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
The paternal approached, the sorrowing friend, dinner and the theater
and stuff like that.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
But never were never a wrong word or gesture. And
then one night, about a week before.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Dick Walsh was scheduled to be executed, I just brought
Helen home from a sedate little tour of some of
our most upper crusted hot boxes, and we were at
her apartment this well evening.
Speaker 5 (15:30):
Arthur, you've been awfully sweet to me.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
Well, it's the least I can do, Helen.
Speaker 5 (15:35):
Oh you mustn't feel that way, Arthur. What way had
you had you sort of owe me something?
Speaker 4 (15:40):
Oh, you something? Well? Why should I as just that?
I I know how you feel enough you do well?
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Yes, I think so. You've been awfully brave about it.
But I I think I know, Arthur.
Speaker 5 (15:50):
Once you said that something I said was corny?
Speaker 4 (15:53):
Remember, yes, I remember?
Speaker 6 (15:55):
Well it was.
Speaker 5 (15:57):
It wasn't even true.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
You weren't. You weren't in love with him.
Speaker 5 (16:02):
Afraid I'm a pretty heartless little girl, Arthur. I'm afraid
I love myself too much to be really in love
with anybody.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
That's not heartless. That's just honest.
Speaker 5 (16:12):
You know that it teased to be executed next week,
don't you. Yes, then he's not much good to me, now,
is he? Even if he did want to marry me?
Speaker 4 (16:22):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (16:23):
Now you know I'm heartless and cold blooded and cruel.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
I ought too, but I don't.
Speaker 5 (16:30):
No, I don't have to be that way. I can
be other ways.
Speaker 4 (16:37):
What are the ways like this? Uh?
Speaker 6 (16:43):
Oh? Now that was that.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
I didn't care about anything after that, even marriage.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
We made a quick trip down to Virginia ware names
and the publishing business wouldn't mean a thing even how
And it was all very quiet, no publicity, no fuss,
nothing When we got back.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
We took a little place in these fifties, although cause
she kept her apartment, I kept mine. It had to
be that way for a while, at least until after
Dick's execution and the things that cooled down a bit.
Speaker 6 (17:14):
Well.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
I knocked off early at the office that day for
the looks of the thing, and Helen was already home
when I got there.
Speaker 5 (17:21):
No, you aren't you, darling, any particular reason.
Speaker 4 (17:25):
No, no, no particular.
Speaker 5 (17:26):
Reason, Kenny, for your thoughts, Darling, my.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
Thoughts, Oh, nothing special life. Yes, I was just thinking.
Speaker 5 (17:35):
I don't know, but I know what you were thinking
about Dick. He's going to die tonight.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
Well maybe I was, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (17:44):
Well, I'm glad you did come home anyway, Darling, cause
I wanted to have a little talk with you.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
Jure you're about what you.
Speaker 5 (17:49):
Really shouldn't let it bother you?
Speaker 4 (17:51):
You know that what bothered me?
Speaker 5 (17:53):
The execution?
Speaker 4 (17:54):
Why should it bother me? He killed the man, didn't he?
Why should I worry about what the law does to him?
Speaker 5 (18:00):
Are you so sure, Arthur?
Speaker 4 (18:03):
So sure of what?
Speaker 5 (18:04):
So sure that he did kill a man?
Speaker 6 (18:08):
All? Right?
Speaker 4 (18:09):
Then? At hit now that all the time I'd been
thinking how slick everything was. Something was wrong, terribly wrong
that all this time she'd been playing with me like
a smart young cat with a silly.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Blind old mouse free mice, and one of them dead
and another with them as good as dead, and I
was left all.
Speaker 5 (18:29):
The evidence and everything. Wasn't like Dick to do a
thing like that.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
You don't think he killed him, Arthur?
Speaker 5 (18:38):
Do you remember? Oh, it was a long time ago.
You asked me what I expected to get out of
it if Sam and Dick squeezed.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
You out of the furm Yeah, I remember, and you.
Speaker 5 (18:48):
Said you might have a better proposition. Ah, well I
decided what I want.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
Sure, you really want to be a vice president? We
can fix that easy, enfl I. I sort of had
the idea that you'd be pulling out after a while
now that we're married.
Speaker 5 (19:06):
Oh you're a price, mister. No, I'm afraid of vice presidency.
Isn't it all what.
Speaker 6 (19:13):
I have in mind?
Speaker 5 (19:13):
And I don't know why you got the idea that
i'd be pulling out of the firm ever.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
All right, what do you want?
Speaker 5 (19:22):
I want a full partnership, Arthur. A partnership, Yes, that's
so strange.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
Well, we are partners now in a way he or
my wife.
Speaker 5 (19:34):
No, I mean a real partnership, a corporate partnership.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Look, Helen, you're asking me out of a clear guy
to give you a half a share and a million
dollar business. Yes, well I that'll take some thinking of that.
Speaker 5 (19:50):
Yes, I suppose it will. I'm saying it was strange
about that evidence. For for instance, there was the letter letter,
the letter that was on Sam's desk when he killed himself.
It disappeared.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
You must be crazy, am I?
Speaker 5 (20:08):
What about the wristwatch when he died it said five
after eight, but when they found him it said ten
after seven. And the gun it was lying on the
carpet by his hand, but somehow it got into Dick's wall.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
Safe You knew all that, And you let an innocent
man go to the chair?
Speaker 5 (20:26):
Oh for really? Oh after you are priceless. I let
an innocent man go to the chair.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
You know, of course that a wife can't testify against
her husband.
Speaker 5 (20:39):
Oh no, No, a wife can't be forced to testify
against her husband, but she can if her conscience.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
All right, what do you want?
Speaker 5 (20:51):
I thought i'd mention it the partnership. I see now
you're not going to be unreasonable about it, are.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
You, darling now, Helenah, I'm not going to be unreasonable,
you know.
Speaker 5 (21:04):
Darling, I was thinking arrange the office face.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
She'd even turned her back on me. Now she was
gazing out of the window, dreaming at the future, her
future us the way she'd planned it. I couldn't guess
how she knew. She must have been hiding somewhere and
seen me, but that didn't matter much now. I only
knew that I was right back where i'd started from,
the business slipping out of my hands, and some day
no business and no Helen. I had to think fast
(21:32):
and act fast. There was a bronze statuette on the
end table.
Speaker 4 (21:35):
And I picked it up and hefted it. It was
just about right, so I stepped over behind her.
Speaker 5 (21:41):
The officers then will be just exactly the same, except
for that, darling. You won't mind that, will you do.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
I hit her hard, but not too hard, because this
was one suicide that was going to come off right.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
I carried her out.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
To the kitchen and propped her up in a chair
in front of the kitchen table. And then I went
into the bathroom and got some towels that wouldn't leave
any marks, and I tied her hands and feet and
gagged her so that even if she did come too
in a few minutes.
Speaker 4 (22:15):
It wouldn't matter.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
All I had to do was come back in a
couple of hours and put the towels away and make
everything look just as natural as I could.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
It was a risk those two hours, and I knew it.
The whole thing was a risk, but it was the.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
Best I could do. I looked at her once more
before I left. She hadn't moved a muscle, and then
I turned on the gas.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
By the time I got back to my apartment, I
was shaking all over. This time. I had really killed somebody.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
But why would anybody connect mewhere that, I told myself,
Why would anybody think it was anything but suicide? She
had the motive this day, of all days. Everybody knew
that she was in love with Watch, and even if
her marriage to me came up, the motive would still hold.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
And then the doorbell ring. I jumped the foot in it.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
At first, I wasn't an answer, and then I thought
i'd better. Whoever it was would establish that I was
here at home and that I could wrest them off
before I leave.
Speaker 8 (23:17):
Oh, mister Lockwood busy why uh no, captain, give us
no no, come right in, thanks right in here, have
a seat, cigar.
Speaker 6 (23:29):
Thanks? Oh pretty good, cigar. Must be doing pretty well
for yourself nowadays. Uh better let me light it myself.
You uh seem kind of nervous. Well you know how
it is. I mean today the or mean your partner
Wolves going to the hot seat.
Speaker 4 (23:49):
I try not to think about it, but well.
Speaker 6 (23:52):
Yeah, you'll be sitting down there pretty soon. Now, pretty soon.
They say it doesn't hurt. I don't know. Do you
ever see one?
Speaker 4 (24:01):
But do we have to talk about it?
Speaker 6 (24:03):
M makes you feel kind of bad? Eh?
Speaker 4 (24:07):
I wouldn't wonder.
Speaker 6 (24:09):
Why did you do it? Lockwood?
Speaker 4 (24:11):
Do what?
Speaker 6 (24:12):
Frame him?
Speaker 4 (24:13):
I don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 6 (24:16):
See hear you do? You changed the time, spashed the gun,
tore up the suicide note. In fact, as I was saying,
you framed him, No, Walts killed him.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
You you know he did. He was convicted of killing him.
All the evidence was that he killed him.
Speaker 6 (24:30):
Oh sure waltsh killed him?
Speaker 4 (24:32):
All right?
Speaker 6 (24:32):
What Walsh killed him? He told us he didn't yesterday,
but it.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
Was uh then, look what is this?
Speaker 6 (24:40):
Walsh killed him and framed it to look like suicide.
Then you came along and find it back on Walsh
where it belonged in the first place. He gave us
a full confession just this afternoon, and then uh, then
you So, I don't know whether we ought to thank
you for making it easy for us or dried up
in a wrap on you. But the DA is willing
(25:01):
to let it go, so all right with me? He
uh wants a statement.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
Though, Oh sure, sure anything anything you say? By the way,
what about that dame?
Speaker 6 (25:12):
What? What dang who the one in your office that
was supposed to be sweet on Walsh? We want her
worst way? Why accessory to murder? She was in it
up to her years. Yeah, so that was all still though.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
That's how she had known.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
And I'd taken my life on my hand for nothing.
She was up there dying right now.
Speaker 4 (25:36):
I was murdering her while Gibbons sat there risking my
life to do something that the law would have done
for me. Maybe it still wasn't to make for Gibbons
just sat there talking and talking talking.
Speaker 6 (25:48):
H well you were you just go down there to
the DA's office and give him that statement day?
Speaker 4 (25:54):
Sure, sure tomorrow The very first thing.
Speaker 6 (25:57):
You know. You sure are a you lock one, but
you were lucky.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
To ten blocks away.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
I didn't dare take a cab, and I didn't dare
even run for fear that somebody would see me and
remember in case it was too late. By the time
I got there, I was gasping for breath of life,
so I'd run every six So I let myself in
and smell of gas hit me just like a brick wall.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
I put my handkerchief over my face and rushed into
the fish. I threw open the window, shut off the grass.
She was sitting there just as I left her well.
I got her up on the table and I dragged
it over toward the window. I got the gag out
of her mouth, and I began working her arms out
of fish respiration. I knew that much. I worked over
by that window until what was running down my face,
(26:45):
but I couldn't tell. I couldn't tell yet. The towels
that I tied her feet with were still there. But
I didn't bother with him or anything else. I just
kept working over, up and down, up and down, as though, yes,
as though my life depended on it. It did.
Speaker 6 (27:02):
H I'm afraid you're too late, Lackwin, I'm afraid your
wife is dead.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
He was a smart cup that givens he you a lot,
he says, Now he's pretty sure it doesn't hurt the
electric care. I mean, well, tonight I'm gonna find out.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Suspense presented by Roma Wines r O.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
M a Roma America's favorite wines. Elector Ken Nile's bringing
back to our microphone that I think we start at
tonight suspense. But Van heflin, Van, you played the part
of a publisher tonight. How about publishing a few tips
on Roma wines.
Speaker 4 (28:07):
Well, with wine like Roma, Ken, all you need to
do is publish the facts.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Well, A fact number one is that Roma America's greatest
vintner has asked me to present you with this basket
of Roma Wines for your wonderful performance tonight.
Speaker 4 (28:20):
Well that's a very good beginning, Ken, my, my, thanks
to you and to Roma.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
A fact number two, Van, is that your friends will
enjoy the Roma California Sharry in your gift basket for
golden amber. Fragrant Roma Sharry with tempting nut like taste
is the perfect first call to dinner, the ideal wine
for entertaining any time.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
Right, Ken, But tell the people why Roma Sharry is
so good.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Give them the facts, my boy, the facts, all right,
you are, Professor Heflin.
Speaker 6 (28:48):
Fact number three.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Roma Sharry, like all Roma Wines, begins with California's choicest grace.
Then Roma Vintner's with America's finest wine making resources. Guide
these select grapes unhurriedly to tempting taste perfection and place
them with Roma wines of years before. Later, Roma selects
(29:09):
from this vast taste treasure the world's greatest wine reserves
for your pleasure.
Speaker 4 (29:15):
Ken, You're hired, Thank you, and good night.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Van Heflin may currently be seen in Metro Golden Mayer's
Technicolor musical Till the Clouds Roll By with Van Johnson,
Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
Tonight's suspense play was written by Kenneth.
Speaker 6 (29:28):
Pettis and Robert Richards.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Next Thursday, same Time, you will hear mister Glenn Ford,
a Star of Suspense.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Produced and directed by William Spear for the Roma Wine
Company of Presno, California. This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting
System
Yes, Roma Winds taste better because only Roma selects from
the world's greatest wine reserves for your pleasure. And now
Roma Wins r Oma Roma Wines present Suspense.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Night, Roma Winds Bringing Mister van Heflin In Free Blind Mice,
a suspense play produced, edited and directed for Roma Wines
by William Spear.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Suspense Radio's outstanding theater of thrills is presented for your
enjoyment by Roma Wines. That's our Oma Roma Wines, those
better tasting California wines enjoyed by more Americans than any
other wine. For friendly entertaining, for delightful dining. Yes, right now,
a glassful would be very pleasant as Alma Wines bring
(01:01):
you van Heflin In A remarkable Tale of.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Sauspen Lockwood, Bethley and Walls Publishing. It still set it
on the big brass nameplay going down. Oh sure, the
elevator operators were nice to me, most of the office
(01:25):
boys remembered to knock on my door before they came in,
and even some of the stenographers still spoke to me.
But everybody else above the rank of junior story reading it. It
was just a question of time before that big brass
named Clayton. The lobby came down, and another one went
up in its place, Bentley.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
And Walsh Publishing. No more Lockwood.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
If ever a man hated his partners, I did. May
porter line went out of the building and across the
street to the Savoy for Dinna. Even the headwaiter must
have heard the rumor. He gave me the dime size
table over in the corner that's generally reserved for out
of town ribbon clerks. That's all right about me, It'll
be another day. I'd gotten too coffee dessert when I
(02:08):
saw Helen Conover. Well, that just about summed it up.
There were two things that I wanted in this world,
to get my hands back on that corporation and Helen Connover.
But she saw me, and I waved too, and she
waved back and started open my table. She was head
of our promotion department. She was smart and ambitious, and
she could have personally modeled for any pin up art
(02:29):
that you ever saw. But she was reserving anything along
that line for my partner, Dick Walsh.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Okay, sister, there'll be a enough day.
Speaker 5 (02:37):
Hello Arthur dining alone.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Yes, it's a habit that I could break. It under
the right conditions.
Speaker 5 (02:42):
Well, but you're all finished.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
It's all right.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
I'm just a big book publisher, got nothing to do.
Speaker 5 (02:47):
Well, if it's not against office regulations to have dinner
with the.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
Boss regulations, well they never bothered you, now anything.
Speaker 5 (02:53):
Now I see, Let's keep this clean. Yes, let's steak dinner. Please,
no soup and nok.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
Chase this work. I'm kind of late, aren't you not working?
Speaker 5 (03:02):
Dick wanted me to see him off on the train train?
Speaker 4 (03:04):
Where's he going Chicago? Before business?
Speaker 5 (03:07):
I suppose didn't he tell you?
Speaker 4 (03:09):
You know, they never tell me anything anymore.
Speaker 5 (03:11):
Well, it wasn't anything very important, I guess.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
And I know even less if it had been. Maybe
you can tell me about Sam.
Speaker 5 (03:18):
About Sam?
Speaker 4 (03:19):
H did he get his report from the doctor?
Speaker 5 (03:22):
Oh? Yes he did, as a matter of fact. How
I'm afraid it's pretty bad.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
How bad?
Speaker 5 (03:27):
Well, it's just hard, all right. They don't give him
much more time. Huh, six months at the most.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
Well, that means they'll have to work fast, or I will.
What wouldn't you say so.
Speaker 5 (03:39):
Arthur, I don't understand you. I've just told you that
one of your partners has only six months to live,
and you don't even seem to care.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
Ah, Look, let's be grown up about it. At least
Sam Bentley and Dick Washing have been trying to ease
me out of the firm for the last year. Now
Sam's gonna kick off. Why should I care?
Speaker 5 (03:54):
You really hate him, don't you me?
Speaker 4 (03:56):
I don't hate anybody. I just hope he kicks off
tonight instead of way I think six months and the
Dick Walsh's train runs into the Hudson River. That's all.
I don't hate anybody. I just wish they were dead.
Speaker 5 (04:06):
Oh, Arthur, how can what's.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
The matter with that? I wish my partners were out of.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
The way, and you wish well, I know what you
wish too, only I'm honest about it and you're not.
Speaker 5 (04:15):
This isn't a very pleasant conversation.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
There's always a better one. For instance, what are you
doing tonight?
Speaker 5 (04:21):
I'm going home and get a good night's sleep.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
By the way, how long is Dick gonna be away?
Speaker 5 (04:26):
About a week?
Speaker 4 (04:27):
Be kind of lonely, won't you?
Speaker 5 (04:29):
I don't see why I should.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
Well, that's what I was thinking. You know, I've always
had a sort of a yen for you, Helen.
Speaker 5 (04:35):
Why mister Lockwood. Why don't people tell me these things?
Speaker 4 (04:38):
People don't have to tell people like you those things.
Speaker 5 (04:41):
Now that you mention it, I do seem to have
notice a sort of a leer.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Ever, so often that wasn't any leer, baby, that was
the real McCoy.
Speaker 5 (04:48):
Look, Arthur, this may sound kind of corny, but I'm
in love with Dick and he's in love with me.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
It does what sound corny? Why doesn't he marry you?
Speaker 5 (04:58):
You know why?
Speaker 6 (04:59):
Sure?
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Why it won't divorce him? You know he's been using
that one for the last ten years.
Speaker 5 (05:03):
Arthur, I'd rather not talk about it.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Okay, okay, not to change the subject. But what do
you expect to get out of it?
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Get out of what the reorganization the big day when
they kicked the old Arthur out of the firm. Do
you think maybe they'll make you a vice president.
Speaker 5 (05:16):
I really don't know what you're talking about, Arthur, or you.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Ought to think about it, because you can never tell
I might be able to make you even better proposition.
Speaker 5 (05:23):
I find I'm not interested in your propositions, Arthur, any
of them.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Okay, Baby, there'll be another day. It was mostly bluff
and she knew it, but there was one thing that
she didn't know. There was a chance that my smart
partners had actually been holding out on me.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
And if they had the way our incorporation papers were drawn,
then I could really nail them well.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
I'd been snooping through the files at night lately, and
I'd already dug up a couple of things.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
This night, I went back at it again. I let
myself into the side door to go, and then walked
up the two flights to the office. Everything was dark
and deserted, and.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Could barely make out the long lines of desks, And
then I saw the light under Sam's door.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
When I crossed the office. Very quietly, he listened, HM. Nothing.
I tapped on the door.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Still nothing, So I opened it and there was Sam.
There was Sam, leaning back in his chair and staring
at me with those cold and slightly protruding blue eyes,
much the way he always did now, except tonight there
was a small hole in the right side of his head,
(06:42):
and Sam Bentley was dead. The gun was lying on
the carpet where it had fallen out of his hand.
It was his, all right, I recognized him. His other
hand had fallen against an open drawer of the desk,
and his wristwatch was broken and it stopped at five
after eight, and I picked up the phone to call
(07:02):
of police. And then I noticed a letter on his desk.
He was addressed to Richard Walsh.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
Well, I put up the front and looked at that letter.
Then I opened it. Well, it was about what I figured,
the doctor's report on his heart, the usual all.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Round apology, and then a detailed explanation of how Dick
Walsh could use the corporate insurance to pay off Sam's
family for his share of the business and then take
it over himself because Sam didn't want me to have
any part of it. The signature was a little scary,
but it was Sam's all right. So there it was
the double cross. And yet it's funny. But almost before
(07:44):
I got through reading it, I knew the answer. I
looked at that broken wristwatch of his again, five after eight,
it said. An hour later, I was home in bed,
sleeping like a baby, knowing that Dick Waltz too was
going to die. I strolled into the office the next
(08:08):
morning got tan, just to be on the safe side.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
But of course they'd already.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Found you know, all over the office there were the
little huddles. It broke up critically my approach, and I
played it for what it.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
Was worth and headed for the largest and most important huddle,
the executive huddle outside.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Of Sam's door. They were all there, including Helen Connover, and.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
She was looking pretty sick. Well, what uh what is
all this?
Speaker 6 (08:31):
An?
Speaker 4 (08:32):
Oh, I'm Arthur Luckwood, have so well, what's what's all
this about?
Speaker 6 (08:34):
Oh? Just wait here, please, mister Lockwood.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
What's going on here? Anyway? Somebody robbed the till Arthur, Arthur.
Speaker 5 (08:42):
It's it's Sam.
Speaker 6 (08:44):
What his heart?
Speaker 5 (08:46):
No, he's he was shot, shot, Arthur. The police say
it's murder.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
You come in, Lockwood, Yes, certainly. The Captain'll like to
see you again too, please.
Speaker 5 (08:55):
Miss Conwell, Oh yes, all right, we went in.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Sam was still there, but by this time somebody had
thrown a towel over his face.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
Big gangling guy came across the room toward.
Speaker 6 (09:09):
Me with his hand out, Miss Lockwood. Yes, Captain Gibbon's homicide.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
Is Is that Sam? Sam Bentley? Yes?
Speaker 6 (09:18):
Now it must be something of a shock to you, sir,
but I'm afraid I'm gonna have to ask you a
few questions.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
Oh, yes, of course, Please go out.
Speaker 6 (09:24):
Ahead know anybody to want to kill your partner, Miss Lockwood?
Speaker 4 (09:28):
Are you sure it was? I mean, I couldn't it
have been suicide?
Speaker 6 (09:32):
Why would he want to kill himself?
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Well, he's been pretty depressed lately. His health has been bad.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
Only yesterday got a report from his doctor that he
probably wouldn't live more than six months.
Speaker 6 (09:43):
No, I won't hold miss Lockwood, not unless you figured
that Bentley shot himself and then carried the gun into
the other partner's office. That's mister Walsh in mister Walsh. Yes,
was that surprising?
Speaker 5 (09:55):
Why? Yes?
Speaker 4 (09:56):
Do you mean that you found the gun in mister Walsh's.
Speaker 6 (09:59):
Office in the wall safe? How many people have the
combination of that safe, mister Lockwood?
Speaker 4 (10:04):
Why just the three of us?
Speaker 3 (10:06):
I think the three partners, Uh, we each have a safe,
but uh somebody else has to have the combination?
Speaker 4 (10:11):
Who just in case?
Speaker 6 (10:12):
Well?
Speaker 4 (10:12):
You know?
Speaker 6 (10:13):
Mmm?
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Did you trust your partners, mister Lockwood? Well, Captain, I'll
be frank with you. There hasn't it a great deal
of love lost between us lately? But yes, we trusted
each other in our own way?
Speaker 6 (10:27):
Where were you a tenor after seven? Mister Lockwood?
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Our eyes having dinner at the boy across the street.
Speaker 6 (10:33):
You can prove that I support.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
Yes, of course. As a matter of fact, in Miss
Conover here came over and later and joined me.
Speaker 6 (10:40):
I understand. Miss Conover was seeing you are the partner
mister Walshaw from the seven thirty five for Chicago. So
she told me, yes, you're sure that you trained time?
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Yes, of course, Well it's the one deck Wash always
takes to Chicago.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
Well, why this interesting time? Have you set? The time
of the uh? The of when it happened.
Speaker 6 (10:57):
Bentley's watch was broken to ten after seven? Oh, either
of you see this before?
Speaker 5 (11:06):
Where did that come from?
Speaker 6 (11:07):
Recognize him?
Speaker 4 (11:08):
Yes, of course that's sir, And that's mister Watsh's watch. Chom.
Speaker 5 (11:11):
He keeps losing it. He loses it all the time,
Yes he does.
Speaker 6 (11:15):
We found it in the chair behind Bentler's body.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
Oh now, wait a minute, captain, you don't seriously mean
to suggest how does it add up to you?
Speaker 3 (11:24):
Well, I mean that that watch John doesn't mean anything.
It's true that he did lose it all the time,
that he could have lost it in here anytime.
Speaker 6 (11:31):
Not in a chair, mister Lockwood. It wouldn't stay there
very long. Not without being found.
Speaker 5 (11:36):
Oh captain, there must be some mistake.
Speaker 6 (11:38):
There must be You can go now, miscanover, but please,
I said you could go now, msconvin I guess that's it, harring,
I guess it is better call Chicago and issue a warrant.
Richard Lennard Walsh, M.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
All right, all right, it's nothing now, she's just faded.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Or suspense. Roma Wines are bringing you Van Heflin in
free blind Mice. Roma Wind's presentation tonight in radio's outstanding
theater thrills suspense.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Between the acts of suspense. This is Kendyle's for Roma Wines.
Next time you have friends over in the evening, try
this simple, gracious way to add warmth to their welcome serve.
Delicious Roma California sherry, port or muscatel Delightful with cheese, nuts, cake,
or any tasty snack. You're sure to please every guest
(12:42):
with better tasting Roma wines. For Roma Wines, our favorites
from coast to coast, enjoyed by more Americans than any
other wine. The reason a Roma winds taste better because
Roma starts with choicest grapes. Because with patient skill and
America's finest wine making resources guides these naturally finer grapes
(13:07):
unhurriedly to tempting taste perfection, because Roma then places this
luscious grape treasure with Roma wines of years before to
await selection from the world's greatest reserves.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
Of fine wines for your pleasure.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
So insist on Roma RMA Roma Wines made in California
for enjoyment throughout the world.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
And now Roma Wines bring back to our Hollywood soundstage.
Van Heflin as Artha Lockwood with Kathy Lewis as Helen
Conover in Free Blind Mice, a tale well calculated to
keep you in suspense.
Speaker 7 (14:00):
The defendant will rise and face the court. Does the
defendant wish to make a statement before sentences passed?
Speaker 6 (14:12):
If not, we will proceed.
Speaker 7 (14:14):
Richard Leonard Walsh, having been tried and found guilty of
the murder of Samuel Bentley in the first degree, you
are hereby remanded to the custody of the Ward and
of the State Penitentiary, where at such time as the
State shall deem appropriate, you will be executed in the
manor house, arrived.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
By the law. It's a nice razing way of getting
along in the publishing business. If you're lucky, one of
your partners commits suicide, you rig the evidence to frame
the other partner for his murder. Net result a new firm,
Arthur Lockwood Incorporated. Arthur Lockwood be me. Of course. There
were the usual appeals and the thing dragged on, but
that didn't worry me.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
I had other things to think about, and number one
on that list was Helen Conover. But there, I'll admit
I was surprised because Dick knew that he had been
framed and must have suspected me, and Helen was supposed
to be.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
In love with Vic. Well, I played it very carefully.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
The paternal approached, the sorrowing friend, dinner and the theater
and stuff like that.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
But never were never a wrong word or gesture. And
then one night, about a week before.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Dick Walsh was scheduled to be executed, I just brought
Helen home from a sedate little tour of some of
our most upper crusted hot boxes, and we were at
her apartment this well evening.
Speaker 5 (15:30):
Arthur, you've been awfully sweet to me.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
Well, it's the least I can do, Helen.
Speaker 5 (15:35):
Oh you mustn't feel that way, Arthur. What way had
you had you sort of owe me something?
Speaker 4 (15:40):
Oh, you something? Well? Why should I as just that?
I I know how you feel enough you do well?
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Yes, I think so. You've been awfully brave about it.
But I I think I know, Arthur.
Speaker 5 (15:50):
Once you said that something I said was corny?
Speaker 4 (15:53):
Remember, yes, I remember?
Speaker 6 (15:55):
Well it was.
Speaker 5 (15:57):
It wasn't even true.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
You weren't. You weren't in love with him.
Speaker 5 (16:02):
Afraid I'm a pretty heartless little girl, Arthur. I'm afraid
I love myself too much to be really in love
with anybody.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
That's not heartless. That's just honest.
Speaker 5 (16:12):
You know that it teased to be executed next week,
don't you. Yes, then he's not much good to me, now,
is he? Even if he did want to marry me?
Speaker 4 (16:22):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (16:23):
Now you know I'm heartless and cold blooded and cruel.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
I ought too, but I don't.
Speaker 5 (16:30):
No, I don't have to be that way. I can
be other ways.
Speaker 4 (16:37):
What are the ways like this? Uh?
Speaker 6 (16:43):
Oh? Now that was that.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
I didn't care about anything after that, even marriage.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
We made a quick trip down to Virginia ware names
and the publishing business wouldn't mean a thing even how
And it was all very quiet, no publicity, no fuss,
nothing When we got back.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
We took a little place in these fifties, although cause
she kept her apartment, I kept mine. It had to
be that way for a while, at least until after
Dick's execution and the things that cooled down a bit.
Speaker 6 (17:14):
Well.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
I knocked off early at the office that day for
the looks of the thing, and Helen was already home
when I got there.
Speaker 5 (17:21):
No, you aren't you, darling, any particular reason.
Speaker 4 (17:25):
No, no, no particular.
Speaker 5 (17:26):
Reason, Kenny, for your thoughts, Darling, my.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
Thoughts, Oh, nothing special life. Yes, I was just thinking.
Speaker 5 (17:35):
I don't know, but I know what you were thinking
about Dick. He's going to die tonight.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
Well maybe I was, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (17:44):
Well, I'm glad you did come home anyway, Darling, cause
I wanted to have a little talk with you.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
Jure you're about what you.
Speaker 5 (17:49):
Really shouldn't let it bother you?
Speaker 4 (17:51):
You know that what bothered me?
Speaker 5 (17:53):
The execution?
Speaker 4 (17:54):
Why should it bother me? He killed the man, didn't he?
Why should I worry about what the law does to him?
Speaker 5 (18:00):
Are you so sure, Arthur?
Speaker 4 (18:03):
So sure of what?
Speaker 5 (18:04):
So sure that he did kill a man?
Speaker 6 (18:08):
All? Right?
Speaker 4 (18:09):
Then? At hit now that all the time I'd been
thinking how slick everything was. Something was wrong, terribly wrong
that all this time she'd been playing with me like
a smart young cat with a silly.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Blind old mouse free mice, and one of them dead
and another with them as good as dead, and I
was left all.
Speaker 5 (18:29):
The evidence and everything. Wasn't like Dick to do a
thing like that.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
You don't think he killed him, Arthur?
Speaker 5 (18:38):
Do you remember? Oh, it was a long time ago.
You asked me what I expected to get out of
it if Sam and Dick squeezed.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
You out of the furm Yeah, I remember, and you.
Speaker 5 (18:48):
Said you might have a better proposition. Ah, well I
decided what I want.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
Sure, you really want to be a vice president? We
can fix that easy, enfl I. I sort of had
the idea that you'd be pulling out after a while
now that we're married.
Speaker 5 (19:06):
Oh you're a price, mister. No, I'm afraid of vice presidency.
Isn't it all what.
Speaker 6 (19:13):
I have in mind?
Speaker 5 (19:13):
And I don't know why you got the idea that
i'd be pulling out of the firm ever.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
All right, what do you want?
Speaker 5 (19:22):
I want a full partnership, Arthur. A partnership, Yes, that's
so strange.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
Well, we are partners now in a way he or
my wife.
Speaker 5 (19:34):
No, I mean a real partnership, a corporate partnership.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Look, Helen, you're asking me out of a clear guy
to give you a half a share and a million
dollar business. Yes, well I that'll take some thinking of that.
Speaker 5 (19:50):
Yes, I suppose it will. I'm saying it was strange
about that evidence. For for instance, there was the letter letter,
the letter that was on Sam's desk when he killed himself.
It disappeared.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
You must be crazy, am I?
Speaker 5 (20:08):
What about the wristwatch when he died it said five
after eight, but when they found him it said ten
after seven. And the gun it was lying on the
carpet by his hand, but somehow it got into Dick's wall.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
Safe You knew all that, And you let an innocent
man go to the chair?
Speaker 5 (20:26):
Oh for really? Oh after you are priceless. I let
an innocent man go to the chair.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
You know, of course that a wife can't testify against
her husband.
Speaker 5 (20:39):
Oh no, No, a wife can't be forced to testify
against her husband, but she can if her conscience.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
All right, what do you want?
Speaker 5 (20:51):
I thought i'd mention it the partnership. I see now
you're not going to be unreasonable about it, are.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
You, darling now, Helenah, I'm not going to be unreasonable,
you know.
Speaker 5 (21:04):
Darling, I was thinking arrange the office face.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
She'd even turned her back on me. Now she was
gazing out of the window, dreaming at the future, her
future us the way she'd planned it. I couldn't guess
how she knew. She must have been hiding somewhere and
seen me, but that didn't matter much now. I only
knew that I was right back where i'd started from,
the business slipping out of my hands, and some day
no business and no Helen. I had to think fast
(21:32):
and act fast. There was a bronze statuette on the
end table.
Speaker 4 (21:35):
And I picked it up and hefted it. It was
just about right, so I stepped over behind her.
Speaker 5 (21:41):
The officers then will be just exactly the same, except
for that, darling. You won't mind that, will you do.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
I hit her hard, but not too hard, because this
was one suicide that was going to come off right.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
I carried her out.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
To the kitchen and propped her up in a chair
in front of the kitchen table. And then I went
into the bathroom and got some towels that wouldn't leave
any marks, and I tied her hands and feet and
gagged her so that even if she did come too
in a few minutes.
Speaker 4 (22:15):
It wouldn't matter.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
All I had to do was come back in a
couple of hours and put the towels away and make
everything look just as natural as I could.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
It was a risk those two hours, and I knew it.
The whole thing was a risk, but it was the.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
Best I could do. I looked at her once more
before I left. She hadn't moved a muscle, and then
I turned on the gas.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
By the time I got back to my apartment, I
was shaking all over. This time. I had really killed somebody.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
But why would anybody connect mewhere that, I told myself,
Why would anybody think it was anything but suicide? She
had the motive this day, of all days. Everybody knew
that she was in love with Watch, and even if
her marriage to me came up, the motive would still hold.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
And then the doorbell ring. I jumped the foot in it.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
At first, I wasn't an answer, and then I thought
i'd better. Whoever it was would establish that I was
here at home and that I could wrest them off
before I leave.
Speaker 8 (23:17):
Oh, mister Lockwood busy why uh no, captain, give us
no no, come right in, thanks right in here, have
a seat, cigar.
Speaker 6 (23:29):
Thanks? Oh pretty good, cigar. Must be doing pretty well
for yourself nowadays. Uh better let me light it myself.
You uh seem kind of nervous. Well you know how
it is. I mean today the or mean your partner
Wolves going to the hot seat.
Speaker 4 (23:49):
I try not to think about it, but well.
Speaker 6 (23:52):
Yeah, you'll be sitting down there pretty soon. Now, pretty soon.
They say it doesn't hurt. I don't know. Do you
ever see one?
Speaker 4 (24:01):
But do we have to talk about it?
Speaker 6 (24:03):
M makes you feel kind of bad? Eh?
Speaker 4 (24:07):
I wouldn't wonder.
Speaker 6 (24:09):
Why did you do it? Lockwood?
Speaker 4 (24:11):
Do what?
Speaker 6 (24:12):
Frame him?
Speaker 4 (24:13):
I don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 6 (24:16):
See hear you do? You changed the time, spashed the gun,
tore up the suicide note. In fact, as I was saying,
you framed him, No, Walts killed him.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
You you know he did. He was convicted of killing him.
All the evidence was that he killed him.
Speaker 6 (24:30):
Oh sure waltsh killed him?
Speaker 4 (24:32):
All right?
Speaker 6 (24:32):
What Walsh killed him? He told us he didn't yesterday,
but it.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
Was uh then, look what is this?
Speaker 6 (24:40):
Walsh killed him and framed it to look like suicide.
Then you came along and find it back on Walsh
where it belonged in the first place. He gave us
a full confession just this afternoon, and then uh, then
you So, I don't know whether we ought to thank
you for making it easy for us or dried up
in a wrap on you. But the DA is willing
(25:01):
to let it go, so all right with me? He
uh wants a statement.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
Though, Oh sure, sure anything anything you say? By the way,
what about that dame?
Speaker 6 (25:12):
What? What dang who the one in your office that
was supposed to be sweet on Walsh? We want her
worst way? Why accessory to murder? She was in it
up to her years. Yeah, so that was all still though.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
That's how she had known.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
And I'd taken my life on my hand for nothing.
She was up there dying right now.
Speaker 4 (25:36):
I was murdering her while Gibbons sat there risking my
life to do something that the law would have done
for me. Maybe it still wasn't to make for Gibbons
just sat there talking and talking talking.
Speaker 6 (25:48):
H well you were you just go down there to
the DA's office and give him that statement day?
Speaker 4 (25:54):
Sure, sure tomorrow The very first thing.
Speaker 6 (25:57):
You know. You sure are a you lock one, but
you were lucky.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
To ten blocks away.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
I didn't dare take a cab, and I didn't dare
even run for fear that somebody would see me and
remember in case it was too late. By the time
I got there, I was gasping for breath of life,
so I'd run every six So I let myself in
and smell of gas hit me just like a brick wall.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
I put my handkerchief over my face and rushed into
the fish. I threw open the window, shut off the grass.
She was sitting there just as I left her well.
I got her up on the table and I dragged
it over toward the window. I got the gag out
of her mouth, and I began working her arms out
of fish respiration. I knew that much. I worked over
by that window until what was running down my face,
(26:45):
but I couldn't tell. I couldn't tell yet. The towels
that I tied her feet with were still there. But
I didn't bother with him or anything else. I just
kept working over, up and down, up and down, as though, yes,
as though my life depended on it. It did.
Speaker 6 (27:02):
H I'm afraid you're too late, Lackwin, I'm afraid your
wife is dead.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
He was a smart cup that givens he you a lot,
he says, Now he's pretty sure it doesn't hurt the
electric care. I mean, well, tonight I'm gonna find out.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Suspense presented by Roma Wines r O.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
M a Roma America's favorite wines. Elector Ken Nile's bringing
back to our microphone that I think we start at
tonight suspense. But Van heflin, Van, you played the part
of a publisher tonight. How about publishing a few tips
on Roma wines.
Speaker 4 (28:07):
Well, with wine like Roma, Ken, all you need to
do is publish the facts.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Well, A fact number one is that Roma America's greatest
vintner has asked me to present you with this basket
of Roma Wines for your wonderful performance tonight.
Speaker 4 (28:20):
Well that's a very good beginning, Ken, my, my, thanks
to you and to Roma.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
A fact number two, Van, is that your friends will
enjoy the Roma California Sharry in your gift basket for
golden amber. Fragrant Roma Sharry with tempting nut like taste
is the perfect first call to dinner, the ideal wine
for entertaining any time.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
Right, Ken, But tell the people why Roma Sharry is
so good.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Give them the facts, my boy, the facts, all right,
you are, Professor Heflin.
Speaker 6 (28:48):
Fact number three.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Roma Sharry, like all Roma Wines, begins with California's choicest grace.
Then Roma Vintner's with America's finest wine making resources. Guide
these select grapes unhurriedly to tempting taste perfection and place
them with Roma wines of years before. Later, Roma selects
(29:09):
from this vast taste treasure the world's greatest wine reserves
for your pleasure.
Speaker 4 (29:15):
Ken, You're hired, Thank you, and good night.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Van Heflin may currently be seen in Metro Golden Mayer's
Technicolor musical Till the Clouds Roll By with Van Johnson,
Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
Tonight's suspense play was written by Kenneth.
Speaker 6 (29:28):
Pettis and Robert Richards.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Next Thursday, same Time, you will hear mister Glenn Ford,
a Star of Suspense.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Produced and directed by William Spear for the Roma Wine
Company of Presno, California. This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting
System
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