Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Weighs two hundred thirty seven pounds. Fortune Changers for.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
The fat.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
The American Broadcasting Company brings you the inventors of Jashiel
Hamnett's fascinating and exciting character, The Fat Man, a fast
moving criminologist who dips the scales at.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Two hundred thirty.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
Seven pounds, The night's.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Inventor, the Crooked Horse.
Speaker 5 (00:54):
Now here's the fat Man.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
You know, if a young man told me he wanted
to be a detective and ask my advice, I think
the most important thing I could tell him would be this.
The life of a real detective is made up of
silk dressing, gowns, fire pipes, and intricate clues, any more
than the life of a real soldier is made up
(01:22):
of pretty uniform parades and Google calls. That both stuff
are businesses, And no matter what the sweetness and light
boys say, it just isn't the fact that every criminal
has a yellow streak down his back anymore than it
was true that every enemy soldier was a coward. That
are sure there are yellow crooks, but not all of them.
(01:47):
Because it stands the reason that a job of violence
simply won't appeal to a man who scares these alys
and believe me, whether you like it or not, it
is the more mighty important thing to know when you're
dealing with a murderer. The girl wasn't beautiful, but there
(02:11):
was a straightforwardness about her that felt brain. There weren't
any coiners, a fear in her voice. If she looked
me straight in the eye, I like her. She talked
her perky little hat on my desk and tapped a
figurette on the back of her hands.
Speaker 6 (02:28):
Have you murder her? In room sixty ten of the
park the hotel.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
There's two thirty this morning.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Oh, this isn't the police station. That's uh fine.
Speaker 6 (02:38):
The police wouldn't be interested in this running Oh why
not because the body of the dead man is gone.
The hotel doesn't think there was a murder. In fact,
the night pers says there wasn't anybody rapisttered the room
sixty ten.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
Oh what's your interest in the matter?
Speaker 6 (02:52):
Well, what would you do if you heard somebody in
the next room to yours murder, heard a door slam,
heard running footsteps go down the hole. I mean, if
you looked through the keyhole saw a dead man staring.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Him Alright, I'd either go back to sleep and see
if I wouldn't have a nicer dream, or I'd go
downstairs and tell a hotel clerk it.
Speaker 6 (03:11):
Wasn't a dream, and I went down to see the curse.
He looked at the register and there was nobody listed
in the room six ten. We went upstairs. The room
was empty.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Did it look as if it had been occupied?
Speaker 6 (03:24):
No, that's why I came to you. Something very peculiar
happened in that room last night, and I'm sure a
man was killed.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
You said you heard this murder? What do you mean?
Did something wake you up? No?
Speaker 6 (03:39):
I was in dead dreaming when I heard a knock
and the door of the room.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Next to mine.
Speaker 7 (03:43):
The door opened.
Speaker 6 (03:44):
I heard a man's voice say a thousand and one pardon,
But had you a time? Another man's voice, I answered, but
of course the time is now.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
Well, that doesn't make much sense. You're sure you heard that?
Speaker 6 (04:00):
Yes, it sounded so strange that I continued listening closely.
I heard footsteps in the room, and then there was
a slight poise. Suddenly the second boy said white. There
was another poise, and the first man answered black, and
then I heard an explanation of surprise or anger.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
From uh black or white?
Speaker 6 (04:22):
I mean, I couldn't tell. Almost immediately I heard a
soft popping noise that someone had cut off a very
weak fire presser. Then I heard a groan of pain
and the slam of the door put that ran down
the hall quickly. By the time I opened my door,
the hall against you, you know the way.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Did you get a good look at the man's face
through the keyhole?
Speaker 8 (04:42):
Yes, it was therectly in front of the keyhole.
Speaker 6 (04:46):
He was sitting in a chair facing the door. His
body had plumped back, but his head was hanging the
one side.
Speaker 7 (04:52):
His eyes were wide opened.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
White in the room.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Yes, but it was off when I came back with
the clerk, and.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
There wasn't anything in the room that looks suspicious.
Speaker 6 (05:02):
Nothing.
Speaker 8 (05:04):
What do you make of it, mister Onions.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
I think the hotel people are probably right. I think
you had a very realistic nightmare.
Speaker 8 (05:13):
I'll tell you it wasn't tonight.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Yeah, I'm positive of this.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
Why so positive?
Speaker 6 (05:18):
Because this morning I stopped at the hotel desk and
looked in the box of room six ten. If that
room had been unoccupied, there would have been a key there.
The box was empty.
Speaker 8 (05:28):
Mister onions.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
I'd like to see the clerk who was on duty
at the desk. Gat asked, where can't I try to do?
Speaker 4 (05:45):
Mind? I was on duty last night.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
What wrong?
Speaker 4 (05:48):
That's what I want you to tell me. I don't understand.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Can we talk question the more private?
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Ah?
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Yes, I guess I don't want just about me, sir.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
I have this is a problem, and perhaps you can
help me.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Alright, Yeah, turn got the second place? Okay, one of
the turns.
Speaker 7 (06:05):
I uh suppose you think I'm city, but you see,
I am a very light sleeper. Decite to s Noise
awakens me and uh, I have great difficulty in getting
back to sleep now er, I'm a very busy man,
and most certainly.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
I need my rest. Oh, I'm sorry, sir.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
I am already registered here.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
In the hotel.
Speaker 8 (06:24):
Walk on my name.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Oh yes, sir.
Speaker 7 (06:27):
My room is directly on the street, and it is
quite a noisy. I was wondering if I might not.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
Have another room, but perhaps the one on the back
near the corridor.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
No, I don't know a room six ten.
Speaker 7 (06:41):
I noticed it as I came out this morning. It
seems to be in a position where it would be
uh quieter than with one of the other rooms six ten.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
Well, I don't know, sir, just a stack uh sorry,
Sara run six ten is reserved?
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Was there? Yes, sir, say there are no other vacancies.
I'm not for paps in some others. I could uh
have the room just for the afternoon.
Speaker 4 (07:09):
I really hear the banker's right there.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Ah, I'm sorry, sir, that's quite out of the question.
I see, well, thank you. Five the popular room, isn't
it uh beg your pardons?
Speaker 4 (07:22):
Then a room six ten? Isn't that the room the
young lady.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Thought she heard a murder?
Speaker 4 (07:27):
Investner?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Right, I don't follow you.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
Didn't you say you were on duty?
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Hair listeners?
Speaker 4 (07:32):
Not right?
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Were you the only curse caught? Didn't a girl registered
in room six o eight come down about two o'clocks
this morning tell you she heard a murder committed in
room six ten, room next to hers?
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Mm?
Speaker 4 (07:47):
Didn't you both go back to find a room entry?
M huh No, I don't understand.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
I didn't say any girl out of this morning. And
what's more, I didn't leave the desk all night.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
I lit a cigarette, walked to the far end of
the lobby where I could watch the clerk at the
desk ten minutes past. Then another clerk came on beauty, and.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
My boy said a few were to him.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Walked across the library, lobbied to an empty elevator. The
door shut.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
The hand on the dial flung slowly around.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
The number ten and stopped.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
There was another elevator standing open.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
I got in and rode up to the sixth floor.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
The corridor was empty.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
I took a pass key out of my pocket and
walked slowly down the bathroom, fixed away and stopped in
front of six ten. The pass key worked time. I
went into six ten and locked the door behind me
with the typical second right hotel room, double beds, full
of chairs, a desk with some aged writing paper, and
(09:09):
an unused Giddeon bible.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
A chest of drawers stood against one wall.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Ill sitting faded wallpaper of an ancient hunting scene looked
down on.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
The room from all sides.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
I tried to break the drawers. First three half in
the silk stocking with a run and the stub of
the theater ticket were all I found. The desk was empty,
and there was nothing under the mattress or the ragged
pro rug in the center of the floor. On top
of the desk stood a black bole of artificial flowers.
(09:47):
My elbow was resting on the desk, six inches from it.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
When the keys slipped into the locks of the door.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
My arm jerked around and hit the ball. He went
out of the lock and put steps right out down
the hall. The corridor was empty. When I opened the door,
I closed it and locked it. Then I walked next
door to the show. Ah, oh, come, he needs to running.
Speaker 6 (10:25):
Have you run anything here?
Speaker 4 (10:27):
Maybe?
Speaker 6 (10:27):
Why?
Speaker 2 (10:28):
How long have you been here in your room?
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Mm?
Speaker 7 (10:30):
A couple of hours?
Speaker 2 (10:31):
I did. Why hear anything in the next room, the
one where you thought you heard the murder last night? Oh?
Speaker 1 (10:38):
And why haven't heard anything there?
Speaker 6 (10:40):
Why he don't?
Speaker 2 (10:41):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
Something isn't adding up, sweetheart?
Speaker 2 (10:45):
What do you mean? I mean the night trek told
me he didn't see you last night, and he didn't
come up here to the room next door.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
Why?
Speaker 6 (10:53):
But so that's ridiculous, of course he did.
Speaker 8 (10:56):
He's lying.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
Are you sure he's the one who's lying?
Speaker 6 (11:00):
It's Wait a minute, you don't think that I'm lying?
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Yeah, sweetheart, but I'm not.
Speaker 6 (11:07):
I tell you, why should I lie about that?
Speaker 4 (11:10):
That's when I'd like to find out.
Speaker 6 (11:13):
I don't understand. Why on earth would.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
That curse lie to you?
Speaker 4 (11:18):
Well early in the day for martinis, isn't it.
Speaker 6 (11:21):
What are you talking about?
Speaker 2 (11:22):
This cocktail glass? You know, a cocktail of glass with
water on it makes a swell victophone if you press
the glass against the wall.
Speaker 4 (11:32):
But you were here of a stem. What do you mean?
Speaker 2 (11:35):
I mean that you didn't accidentally hear anything in room
six ten last night? You did hear something. You were
using this glass and you were listening. Why but I
tell you that, sweetheart.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
I just knocked a bowl of flowers over in that
room and you didn't even hear that.
Speaker 6 (11:51):
You will injus it just in room sixteen.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yes, somebody stuck the key in the door just before
the flowers went over. It couldn't have been you who
it is?
Speaker 6 (12:00):
But why?
Speaker 4 (12:01):
No?
Speaker 6 (12:03):
What did you find in the room?
Speaker 4 (12:04):
Not hating?
Speaker 2 (12:05):
What did you think I might turn?
Speaker 4 (12:07):
I don't now.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
I'll come clean if you want money help. You got
to tell me the truth. What's it all about? Why
were you listening against the wall last night?
Speaker 6 (12:16):
I I can't tell you that.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Okay, honey, it's been nice knowing you.
Speaker 6 (12:22):
Oh no way, Please I I need your help.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
Well, I talk you talk straight, alright.
Speaker 6 (12:31):
I guess there is anything else you need to do.
Promise me, don't please give me your word that you'll
keep the secret. What I'm going to tell you. It's
very important, more important than you know.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
Okay, on the United States, the GRET Agency, then you approve.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Its course, not at least not here.
Speaker 6 (12:52):
Obviously, I can't carry identifications when I'm on a mission.
Speaker 8 (12:55):
I'm completely on my own.
Speaker 6 (12:57):
Fund are deposited in a certain bank for me, and
I use 'em many manner. I see it to achieve
Miami this morning. I saw it to hire you because I.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Need help see Pecu your occurrences in the next room,
or of course part of the job there were he right.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
Of course, MM a swell story.
Speaker 8 (13:16):
It's a true one.
Speaker 6 (13:18):
Keep the run, and I really need your help. Don't
you please believe me?
Speaker 4 (13:23):
Mum?
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Maybe I'm a stap. Okay, I played blind?
Speaker 4 (13:30):
What's the set up?
Speaker 6 (13:32):
Well, the man who was murdered last night is an
important foreign agent.
Speaker 7 (13:37):
He rid from Europe yesterday.
Speaker 6 (13:38):
In terms of this hotel, I followed him and got
this room next to his. Now there's another agent of
the same government already operating in this country, but we
don't know who he is. Some time ago we discovered
that he had come into possession of a very valuable repeat,
the Taper, a formula which our government alone had. The
man who the next room was to contact this unknown
(14:00):
him and then returned.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
To Europe, and your job was to stop him.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
Yes, when the.
Speaker 6 (14:05):
Door opened last night and I heard the strange passwords,
I thought, of course that the unknown agent had arrived.
Speaker 4 (14:11):
But it wasn't the right man.
Speaker 6 (14:12):
No, whoever entered that room last night was obviously trying
to impersonate the real agent. When he failed to give
the collect countersign to the second password, the man who
the next room must have reached for a gun, and
the impostor was forced to kill him.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
Have you any idea who the murderer might be?
Speaker 6 (14:29):
He's probably an agent for some other foreigns. How who
had even.
Speaker 8 (14:32):
More information than wading Rete knew.
Speaker 6 (14:34):
One of the passwords, which is more than I knew.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
It's possible if the contact had already been made without
your knowledge, and the murdered man had the paper.
Speaker 6 (14:43):
I don't see how the contact could have been made
without my knowledge.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
That would have been easy.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
The secret paper could have been hidden in the room
waiting for the man from Europe. I don't think that happened, though.
Why not, because I think I saw the murderer down
in the lobby a little while ago. He said his
name was Walker. He's anxious to rent room six ten.
He said he was registered in the hotel.
Speaker 6 (15:07):
Then the paper must still be in the room.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
I went over pretty carefully, didn't find anything. That's why
I don't think I was hidden there. I think the
other agents, the one who was supposed to contact the
man from Europe, still had it. I think he found
the body and guess what had happened.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
Maybe he didn't know whether the dead.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Man was his agent or somebody his agent had killed.
At any rate, he knew he had to get.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
Rid of the body.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
But how where I listened to me, Yeah, you stay
here with your wine glass. If you're here on the
next room, where are you going down to the lobby.
I wanna find out which room this fellow Walkers registered in?
Speaker 4 (15:47):
What but the body?
Speaker 6 (15:49):
You said your knew little?
Speaker 2 (15:50):
I said, I think I know it would be easy
if the real agent happened to be the right person.
Speaker 6 (15:55):
The right person.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
What do you mean, I mean the night clerk. Can
I help you?
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Yeah, I'm looking for a fellow works. Here's night clerk,
mister Evans. Yeah, that's the fellow.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
Is he around here? Now?
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Why he went off duty a little while ago? He
was on all night?
Speaker 4 (16:23):
So I imagine he's a sleep in his room. What
room do you have?
Speaker 2 (16:26):
He's in ten oh three?
Speaker 4 (16:28):
Very not at all.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Oh, by the way, I believe there's no friend of
mine here lit hotel. His name is Walker. I wonder
if you could tell me what room he's.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
In too, certainly not just a second.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Walk Walker, I don't seem to Oh yeah, this must
be your friend, Henry Walker. Yeah, that Felley. I'm afraid
you're too. Later, mister Walker checked out of a hotel
about half an hour ago. Walker's gone, checked out, gone.
Speaker 6 (17:13):
Then he did find the paper, so why would he leave?
Speaker 4 (17:16):
Then?
Speaker 2 (17:16):
I think he was worried about the missing body. When
he realized the murder hadn't been discovered, he came down
and tried to rent the room where the body had been.
Was told the room was vacant, but was reserved. What
would you do when a case like that?
Speaker 6 (17:29):
You mean, he guessed that the night clerk must be
the unknown agent exactly.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
And he must have realized that the clerk would suspect
him for trying to get the room, so he checked
out and moved to a safer place. And I think
he'll be back, either to see the clerk or to
look that room over again. What is the now he's
asleep in his room.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
Do you hear anything next door? No?
Speaker 1 (17:51):
No, nothing.
Speaker 6 (17:52):
But but if the clerk is the other agent, we.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Are up you'll see right now. I want to look
the murder room over again, see if I can find
a missing.
Speaker 6 (18:08):
Let's to call the dead man was sitting in you.
I looked through the teehole.
Speaker 4 (18:11):
Yeah, I know, what are you going to do?
Speaker 2 (18:13):
I'm gonna try and figure something out. After you heard
the muscled popping sound, which must.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
Have been a gun with a silence there.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
You heard the door slam, then you heard running foot
that's going away right, Yes, And.
Speaker 6 (18:28):
By the time I opened my door of a cart,
it was empty.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
This door was locked.
Speaker 6 (18:33):
It was about fifteen minutes later that the clerk and
I came back up here.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
So if the clerk happened to be on his way
up there when you were going down, he could have
passed you and the other lay there.
Speaker 6 (18:42):
Then he discovered the body.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
Exactly, a dead man. It's hard to move.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
It didn't take the clerk long behind the body, so
it must be.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
Near here, maybe the room across the hall. I'd take
a look.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Nobody there, somebody to sleep in the bed.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
Uh hm, that's what the hotel maid probably thought too.
A smart boy that park. Look, yeah, that's.
Speaker 6 (19:32):
The man, the man I followed from the airport, the
man sitting in the chair.
Speaker 4 (19:36):
Just as a poker who shot all right, riding the hard. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Here, help me go through his pocket?
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Oh what a suitcase when you run?
Speaker 6 (19:47):
N not in the room.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
The clerk probably got rid of it or took it
to his own room. He could carry that where he
couldn't carry a body. You see anything here that looks
like you have a secret paper?
Speaker 6 (20:00):
No, no, it's not here.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
The clerk's paper got.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
It, or it's still hidden somewhere in the murder room.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
What are you doing?
Speaker 2 (20:07):
I'm gonna cover this dead man up again. The chances
are the body won't be discovered now for another twelve
or more hours. I want you to go back to
your room, keep watching the room where this fellow was killed.
Speaker 6 (20:17):
What are you going to do.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
I think it's time I had to talk for the
night clerk. I stopped in front of the clerk's room
and listened.
Speaker 4 (20:34):
No sound came from inside.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Nothing happened. I slipped my hand inside my coat, pulled
my guns on the shoulder holster. Then I cried the door.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
It wasn't blocked. The room was.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Dark because the shades were pulled down, but it wasn't
dark enough to hide the figure of a man falling
orchesquely on the bed, his head hanging limply towards the floor.
I groped for the light switch. It was Evans, the clerk.
Speaker 4 (21:14):
One of his.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Hands clutched the rumpled sheets, the other was folded beneath him.
A bright trail of blood slid down the side of
the bed and formed a dark.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
Pool on the floor.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
I closed the door with my foot.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
And looked round the room.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Two suitcases lay on the floor, their contents beside them,
and it gumbled heaps drawers at an empty yellows, flash
drugs pulled up, the pictures pulled down, and Yellow had
missed the trick from the completeness of the set, which
was pretty calmly as.
Speaker 4 (21:49):
He hadn't found what he was looking for.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
I switched out the lights, locked the door, and started
running to the stairs.
Speaker 4 (21:57):
At the end of the hall.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
There wasn't time to wait for the elevator. The gun
was still in my hand. When I opened the door
of the girl's room on the sixth floor.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
She was gone.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
An overturned chair lay on the floor near the door,
the broken cocktails glass beside it. Everything else looked in order.
Slipping the safeteel on my gun, I turned once.
Speaker 4 (22:22):
More toward the hall and I stopped.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Something moved behind the closed.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Door in the bathroom. I yanked it open and step back.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
The girl lay on her side on the floor, her
hands and feet tied with stockings, a wash frag stuffed.
Speaker 4 (22:42):
In her mouth.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
There is a gag ah. Just second, I'll heavy's off.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
H failure, the got to stop me?
Speaker 6 (22:53):
Doesn't found the paper sets.
Speaker 4 (22:56):
I tied my hand right right. What happened?
Speaker 6 (22:58):
What was on the minute or two after you left
that I was setting the door, holding his glass against
the wall, listening, But then I heard someone fumbling at
the door of the room next door, and oh, my door.
It's quietly as possible to look out in the hole,
but must have heard me.
Speaker 8 (23:14):
He was standing right in front of me, got in
his head.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
He didn't scream.
Speaker 6 (23:18):
No, no, yes, hit me. That's all I remember until
just the second of all. I don't know how long
I was unconscious.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
It wasn't long.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
I wasn't gone more than fifteen or twenty minutes.
Speaker 6 (23:29):
It takes long enough. He hadn't found the paper, and
that's why he came back, the clerk.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
What about him dead just before I got there.
Speaker 6 (23:38):
The clerk didn't have it. After all, it's white hidden
in the room next door. Walker's had time, and I
know he must have found it.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Don't be so sure, unless Walker is smarter than I
think he is. The formula is still loud. I don't
know yet, But we're gonna have another good look at
that room.
Speaker 6 (24:00):
Oh, he's certainly went through everything.
Speaker 4 (24:04):
Yeah, it was the same the clerk's room.
Speaker 6 (24:07):
But he must have found the formula. Well, why there's
no place else to look. He did even flash the
matress open.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Yeah, you know the twice. He went through the pillars
twice too, if.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
He had fun, why go through the whole room twice?
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Why?
Speaker 1 (24:20):
I see what you mean?
Speaker 6 (24:22):
Then you think it's still here?
Speaker 4 (24:24):
I'm sure of it.
Speaker 6 (24:25):
But there's nowhere else to look. It's impossible that a
piece of paper with that much writing on it could
still be hidden here.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
No, you're wrong, I I don't understand.
Speaker 4 (24:34):
Well, look at it this way.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
The easiest way in the world of fool people is
by what you might call misplaced attention.
Speaker 6 (24:41):
Then you mean there isn't any paper in this room exactly?
Speaker 4 (24:46):
I told you that clerk was smart.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
He knew if anyone searched for the formula, they'd naturally
look for a piece of paper. That's what I mean
by misdirected attention. The formula's here, all right, but it
is not a hidden piece of paper and then envelope.
That's why Walker and I didn't find it.
Speaker 6 (25:03):
Do you mean it's it might be written on the ceiling,
or nothing's crue to that. You know where it is?
I think so where?
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Look at the walls. Doesn't anything strike you as off
to the wall?
Speaker 4 (25:17):
You mean sure?
Speaker 2 (25:18):
I mean the wallpaper? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (25:21):
Look here at this strip of paper behind a bed.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
M See this figure of a horse. A horse is
split him too. Where the paper joins the hind part
is nearly an inch lower than the front part. Near
the ceiling, the wall shows through no paper hanger would
be that carrel it.
Speaker 6 (25:40):
Then there is a paper after all, and it's behind
the wall paper.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
No, there isn't a paper behind her that would show
make a bowls unless I miss my guest. The formulas
written directly on the back of that strip of wallpaper,
which next season.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
Nah, not so fast, it might there here I got
an there, look, yes, seek it is.
Speaker 6 (26:06):
It's the formula.
Speaker 8 (26:07):
Quickly, let me have it.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
Strike you my friends?
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Oh so you came back.
Speaker 4 (26:13):
Put your hands over your heads quickly? How did you
get I'm better at opening gods quietly than you are,
my dear. So you're really well nake.
Speaker 7 (26:21):
And and I, like a stupid fool, thought you were
merely the guests in the next room.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
I should have killed your ven. You've done too much killing.
Speaker 4 (26:28):
Already, Walker or whatever your real name is. I have
more to do too.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Very clever of you to find the formula.
Speaker 4 (26:38):
You would make an excellent man for this type of work.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
I like ye. Better keep your hands up high. I'll
turn around slowly facing me. That's good, now, you batman.
Speaker 4 (26:55):
Stop the formula on the floor in front of.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
You, but keep your hands high.
Speaker 4 (26:59):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Excellent, excellent, now I will just picked it up. You
would not fast in us.
Speaker 4 (27:12):
Then there's an awful chance.
Speaker 6 (27:14):
Taking the money bent over, you might still have been
able to shoot.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
This life has made up a chance to sweetheart. Besides,
I used to drop kick from my college football team.
Speaker 4 (27:24):
Did you did?
Speaker 2 (27:25):
You did? Yeah?
Speaker 6 (27:27):
Thanks?
Speaker 4 (27:27):
Shot?
Speaker 6 (27:28):
Somebody must have heard it. Quickly, got to get out
of here, give me the fun.
Speaker 4 (27:32):
Not so fast. I think I'll just hang on to
this piece of wallpaper.
Speaker 6 (27:36):
But you can't give it to me. I've got to
return this. Don't choose to see please quickly before somebody comes.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
I'd be a fool to give you this paper. How
do I know who you really are? Well, I've got
as your word that you're an American agent.
Speaker 6 (27:50):
But I am, I tell you I am.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Maybe that I'm keeping the paper.
Speaker 6 (27:55):
No, please, it's important. It's got to get back to Washington.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
I like your face, baby nice.
Speaker 4 (28:03):
It looks honest.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
There's a firescat back there by the window. How many
from the lobby. He'll be here in a minute. I'll
see that the formula.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
Gets to Washington and stays out of this business.
Speaker 7 (28:14):
But but these marriges, these leave.
Speaker 4 (28:16):
That to me. You're on the level.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
You'll be okay, you can keep on working and nobody
will ever know who you are. You're not on the level. Oh,
it's the chance I take for lack in your face.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
Besides, you haven't killed anybody. I'll get doing.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Oh, but please see that the formula gets to Washington.
Speaker 6 (28:39):
Now here's an at risk. Just take it there.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
Thanks all.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Do you understand me?
Speaker 4 (28:47):
Yeah? I understand set move, goodbye, and thank you forget
a baby.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
I'll writer get me. Sergeant O'Hara at pre said quarters.
Speaker 4 (29:03):
Quickly. Sergeant O'Hara speaking, run you.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Know, Hannah, I'm in room six ten of the Parker
Hotel with a dead man. What again, he's a murderer.
Speaker 4 (29:15):
You better hurry, o'harah. Just a second, Just a second.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Hurry, o'harah.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
This is important.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Maybe hard to explain the others too, whatever, the other
two dead bodies hit here in the hotel. What you
must I can't help me get out of it. Yes,
you're Tara. You've got to the fate of a nation
is riding again. What's that mean? It means that I've
got to make a very important trip to Washington, O'Hara,
A very very important trip. Next week. At this time, the.
Speaker 5 (29:57):
American Broadcasting Company bring you another adventure of Dashiel Hammett's
exciting new character, the Fat Man. Next week's story is
called The Dancing Tombstone, and the Fat Man says.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
A ghost makes its rown silently, and a corpse is
quiet forever, but mystery screams in a graveyard when the
silence is broken by the Dancing Tombstone.
Speaker 5 (30:32):
Tonight's adventure of the Fat Man, played by Jay Scott Smart,
was produced.
Speaker 4 (30:37):
By Charles Powers.
Speaker 5 (30:39):
Music is under the direction of Bernard Green. Sartan O'Hara
is played by Ed Begley.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
And Missus Jane Kirby speaking.
Speaker 5 (30:47):
This is ABC, The American Broadcasting Company
Weighs two hundred thirty seven pounds. Fortune Changers for.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
The fat.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
The American Broadcasting Company brings you the inventors of Jashiel
Hamnett's fascinating and exciting character, The Fat Man, a fast
moving criminologist who dips the scales at.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Two hundred thirty.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
Seven pounds, The night's.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Inventor, the Crooked Horse.
Speaker 5 (00:54):
Now here's the fat Man.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
You know, if a young man told me he wanted
to be a detective and ask my advice, I think
the most important thing I could tell him would be this.
The life of a real detective is made up of
silk dressing, gowns, fire pipes, and intricate clues, any more
than the life of a real soldier is made up
(01:22):
of pretty uniform parades and Google calls. That both stuff
are businesses, And no matter what the sweetness and light
boys say, it just isn't the fact that every criminal
has a yellow streak down his back anymore than it
was true that every enemy soldier was a coward. That
are sure there are yellow crooks, but not all of them.
(01:47):
Because it stands the reason that a job of violence
simply won't appeal to a man who scares these alys
and believe me, whether you like it or not, it
is the more mighty important thing to know when you're
dealing with a murderer. The girl wasn't beautiful, but there
(02:11):
was a straightforwardness about her that felt brain. There weren't
any coiners, a fear in her voice. If she looked
me straight in the eye, I like her. She talked
her perky little hat on my desk and tapped a
figurette on the back of her hands.
Speaker 6 (02:28):
Have you murder her? In room sixty ten of the
park the hotel.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
There's two thirty this morning.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Oh, this isn't the police station. That's uh fine.
Speaker 6 (02:38):
The police wouldn't be interested in this running Oh why
not because the body of the dead man is gone.
The hotel doesn't think there was a murder. In fact,
the night pers says there wasn't anybody rapisttered the room
sixty ten.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
Oh what's your interest in the matter?
Speaker 6 (02:52):
Well, what would you do if you heard somebody in
the next room to yours murder, heard a door slam,
heard running footsteps go down the hole. I mean, if
you looked through the keyhole saw a dead man staring.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Him Alright, I'd either go back to sleep and see
if I wouldn't have a nicer dream, or I'd go
downstairs and tell a hotel clerk it.
Speaker 6 (03:11):
Wasn't a dream, and I went down to see the curse.
He looked at the register and there was nobody listed
in the room six ten. We went upstairs. The room
was empty.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Did it look as if it had been occupied?
Speaker 6 (03:24):
No, that's why I came to you. Something very peculiar
happened in that room last night, and I'm sure a
man was killed.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
You said you heard this murder? What do you mean?
Did something wake you up? No?
Speaker 6 (03:39):
I was in dead dreaming when I heard a knock
and the door of the room.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Next to mine.
Speaker 7 (03:43):
The door opened.
Speaker 6 (03:44):
I heard a man's voice say a thousand and one pardon,
But had you a time? Another man's voice, I answered, but
of course the time is now.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
Well, that doesn't make much sense. You're sure you heard that?
Speaker 6 (04:00):
Yes, it sounded so strange that I continued listening closely.
I heard footsteps in the room, and then there was
a slight poise. Suddenly the second boy said white. There
was another poise, and the first man answered black, and
then I heard an explanation of surprise or anger.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
From uh black or white?
Speaker 6 (04:22):
I mean, I couldn't tell. Almost immediately I heard a
soft popping noise that someone had cut off a very
weak fire presser. Then I heard a groan of pain
and the slam of the door put that ran down
the hall quickly. By the time I opened my door,
the hall against you, you know the way.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Did you get a good look at the man's face
through the keyhole?
Speaker 8 (04:42):
Yes, it was therectly in front of the keyhole.
Speaker 6 (04:46):
He was sitting in a chair facing the door. His
body had plumped back, but his head was hanging the
one side.
Speaker 7 (04:52):
His eyes were wide opened.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
White in the room.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Yes, but it was off when I came back with
the clerk, and.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
There wasn't anything in the room that looks suspicious.
Speaker 6 (05:02):
Nothing.
Speaker 8 (05:04):
What do you make of it, mister Onions.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
I think the hotel people are probably right. I think
you had a very realistic nightmare.
Speaker 8 (05:13):
I'll tell you it wasn't tonight.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Yeah, I'm positive of this.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
Why so positive?
Speaker 6 (05:18):
Because this morning I stopped at the hotel desk and
looked in the box of room six ten. If that
room had been unoccupied, there would have been a key there.
The box was empty.
Speaker 8 (05:28):
Mister onions.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
I'd like to see the clerk who was on duty
at the desk. Gat asked, where can't I try to do?
Speaker 4 (05:45):
Mind? I was on duty last night.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
What wrong?
Speaker 4 (05:48):
That's what I want you to tell me. I don't understand.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Can we talk question the more private?
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Ah?
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Yes, I guess I don't want just about me, sir.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
I have this is a problem, and perhaps you can
help me.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Alright, Yeah, turn got the second place? Okay, one of
the turns.
Speaker 7 (06:05):
I uh suppose you think I'm city, but you see,
I am a very light sleeper. Decite to s Noise
awakens me and uh, I have great difficulty in getting
back to sleep now er, I'm a very busy man,
and most certainly.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
I need my rest. Oh, I'm sorry, sir.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
I am already registered here.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
In the hotel.
Speaker 8 (06:24):
Walk on my name.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Oh yes, sir.
Speaker 7 (06:27):
My room is directly on the street, and it is
quite a noisy. I was wondering if I might not.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
Have another room, but perhaps the one on the back
near the corridor.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
No, I don't know a room six ten.
Speaker 7 (06:41):
I noticed it as I came out this morning. It
seems to be in a position where it would be
uh quieter than with one of the other rooms six ten.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
Well, I don't know, sir, just a stack uh sorry,
Sara run six ten is reserved?
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Was there? Yes, sir, say there are no other vacancies.
I'm not for paps in some others. I could uh
have the room just for the afternoon.
Speaker 4 (07:09):
I really hear the banker's right there.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Ah, I'm sorry, sir, that's quite out of the question.
I see, well, thank you. Five the popular room, isn't
it uh beg your pardons?
Speaker 4 (07:22):
Then a room six ten? Isn't that the room the
young lady.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Thought she heard a murder?
Speaker 4 (07:27):
Investner?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Right, I don't follow you.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
Didn't you say you were on duty?
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Hair listeners?
Speaker 4 (07:32):
Not right?
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Were you the only curse caught? Didn't a girl registered
in room six o eight come down about two o'clocks
this morning tell you she heard a murder committed in
room six ten, room next to hers?
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Mm?
Speaker 4 (07:47):
Didn't you both go back to find a room entry?
M huh No, I don't understand.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
I didn't say any girl out of this morning. And
what's more, I didn't leave the desk all night.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
I lit a cigarette, walked to the far end of
the lobby where I could watch the clerk at the
desk ten minutes past. Then another clerk came on beauty, and.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
My boy said a few were to him.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Walked across the library, lobbied to an empty elevator. The
door shut.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
The hand on the dial flung slowly around.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
The number ten and stopped.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
There was another elevator standing open.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
I got in and rode up to the sixth floor.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
The corridor was empty.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
I took a pass key out of my pocket and
walked slowly down the bathroom, fixed away and stopped in
front of six ten. The pass key worked time. I
went into six ten and locked the door behind me
with the typical second right hotel room, double beds, full
of chairs, a desk with some aged writing paper, and
(09:09):
an unused Giddeon bible.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
A chest of drawers stood against one wall.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Ill sitting faded wallpaper of an ancient hunting scene looked
down on.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
The room from all sides.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
I tried to break the drawers. First three half in
the silk stocking with a run and the stub of
the theater ticket were all I found. The desk was empty,
and there was nothing under the mattress or the ragged
pro rug in the center of the floor. On top
of the desk stood a black bole of artificial flowers.
(09:47):
My elbow was resting on the desk, six inches from it.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
When the keys slipped into the locks of the door.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
My arm jerked around and hit the ball. He went
out of the lock and put steps right out down
the hall. The corridor was empty. When I opened the door,
I closed it and locked it. Then I walked next
door to the show. Ah, oh, come, he needs to running.
Speaker 6 (10:25):
Have you run anything here?
Speaker 4 (10:27):
Maybe?
Speaker 6 (10:27):
Why?
Speaker 2 (10:28):
How long have you been here in your room?
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Mm?
Speaker 7 (10:30):
A couple of hours?
Speaker 2 (10:31):
I did. Why hear anything in the next room, the
one where you thought you heard the murder last night? Oh?
Speaker 1 (10:38):
And why haven't heard anything there?
Speaker 6 (10:40):
Why he don't?
Speaker 2 (10:41):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
Something isn't adding up, sweetheart?
Speaker 2 (10:45):
What do you mean? I mean the night trek told
me he didn't see you last night, and he didn't
come up here to the room next door.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
Why?
Speaker 6 (10:53):
But so that's ridiculous, of course he did.
Speaker 8 (10:56):
He's lying.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
Are you sure he's the one who's lying?
Speaker 6 (11:00):
It's Wait a minute, you don't think that I'm lying?
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Yeah, sweetheart, but I'm not.
Speaker 6 (11:07):
I tell you, why should I lie about that?
Speaker 4 (11:10):
That's when I'd like to find out.
Speaker 6 (11:13):
I don't understand. Why on earth would.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
That curse lie to you?
Speaker 4 (11:18):
Well early in the day for martinis, isn't it.
Speaker 6 (11:21):
What are you talking about?
Speaker 2 (11:22):
This cocktail glass? You know, a cocktail of glass with
water on it makes a swell victophone if you press
the glass against the wall.
Speaker 4 (11:32):
But you were here of a stem. What do you mean?
Speaker 2 (11:35):
I mean that you didn't accidentally hear anything in room
six ten last night? You did hear something. You were
using this glass and you were listening. Why but I
tell you that, sweetheart.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
I just knocked a bowl of flowers over in that
room and you didn't even hear that.
Speaker 6 (11:51):
You will injus it just in room sixteen.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yes, somebody stuck the key in the door just before
the flowers went over. It couldn't have been you who
it is?
Speaker 6 (12:00):
But why?
Speaker 4 (12:01):
No?
Speaker 6 (12:03):
What did you find in the room?
Speaker 4 (12:04):
Not hating?
Speaker 2 (12:05):
What did you think I might turn?
Speaker 4 (12:07):
I don't now.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
I'll come clean if you want money help. You got
to tell me the truth. What's it all about? Why
were you listening against the wall last night?
Speaker 6 (12:16):
I I can't tell you that.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Okay, honey, it's been nice knowing you.
Speaker 6 (12:22):
Oh no way, Please I I need your help.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
Well, I talk you talk straight, alright.
Speaker 6 (12:31):
I guess there is anything else you need to do.
Promise me, don't please give me your word that you'll
keep the secret. What I'm going to tell you. It's
very important, more important than you know.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
Okay, on the United States, the GRET Agency, then you approve.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Its course, not at least not here.
Speaker 6 (12:52):
Obviously, I can't carry identifications when I'm on a mission.
Speaker 8 (12:55):
I'm completely on my own.
Speaker 6 (12:57):
Fund are deposited in a certain bank for me, and
I use 'em many manner. I see it to achieve
Miami this morning. I saw it to hire you because I.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Need help see Pecu your occurrences in the next room,
or of course part of the job there were he right.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
Of course, MM a swell story.
Speaker 8 (13:16):
It's a true one.
Speaker 6 (13:18):
Keep the run, and I really need your help. Don't
you please believe me?
Speaker 4 (13:23):
Mum?
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Maybe I'm a stap. Okay, I played blind?
Speaker 4 (13:30):
What's the set up?
Speaker 6 (13:32):
Well, the man who was murdered last night is an
important foreign agent.
Speaker 7 (13:37):
He rid from Europe yesterday.
Speaker 6 (13:38):
In terms of this hotel, I followed him and got
this room next to his. Now there's another agent of
the same government already operating in this country, but we
don't know who he is. Some time ago we discovered
that he had come into possession of a very valuable repeat,
the Taper, a formula which our government alone had. The
man who the next room was to contact this unknown
(14:00):
him and then returned.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
To Europe, and your job was to stop him.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
Yes, when the.
Speaker 6 (14:05):
Door opened last night and I heard the strange passwords,
I thought, of course that the unknown agent had arrived.
Speaker 4 (14:11):
But it wasn't the right man.
Speaker 6 (14:12):
No, whoever entered that room last night was obviously trying
to impersonate the real agent. When he failed to give
the collect countersign to the second password, the man who
the next room must have reached for a gun, and
the impostor was forced to kill him.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
Have you any idea who the murderer might be?
Speaker 6 (14:29):
He's probably an agent for some other foreigns. How who
had even.
Speaker 8 (14:32):
More information than wading Rete knew.
Speaker 6 (14:34):
One of the passwords, which is more than I knew.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
It's possible if the contact had already been made without
your knowledge, and the murdered man had the paper.
Speaker 6 (14:43):
I don't see how the contact could have been made
without my knowledge.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
That would have been easy.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
The secret paper could have been hidden in the room
waiting for the man from Europe. I don't think that happened, though.
Why not, because I think I saw the murderer down
in the lobby a little while ago. He said his
name was Walker. He's anxious to rent room six ten.
He said he was registered in the hotel.
Speaker 6 (15:07):
Then the paper must still be in the room.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
I went over pretty carefully, didn't find anything. That's why
I don't think I was hidden there. I think the
other agents, the one who was supposed to contact the
man from Europe, still had it. I think he found
the body and guess what had happened.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
Maybe he didn't know whether the dead.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Man was his agent or somebody his agent had killed.
At any rate, he knew he had to get.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
Rid of the body.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
But how where I listened to me, Yeah, you stay
here with your wine glass. If you're here on the
next room, where are you going down to the lobby.
I wanna find out which room this fellow Walkers registered in?
Speaker 4 (15:47):
What but the body?
Speaker 6 (15:49):
You said your knew little?
Speaker 2 (15:50):
I said, I think I know it would be easy
if the real agent happened to be the right person.
Speaker 6 (15:55):
The right person.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
What do you mean, I mean the night clerk. Can
I help you?
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Yeah, I'm looking for a fellow works. Here's night clerk,
mister Evans. Yeah, that's the fellow.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
Is he around here? Now?
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Why he went off duty a little while ago? He
was on all night?
Speaker 4 (16:23):
So I imagine he's a sleep in his room. What
room do you have?
Speaker 2 (16:26):
He's in ten oh three?
Speaker 4 (16:28):
Very not at all.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Oh, by the way, I believe there's no friend of
mine here lit hotel. His name is Walker. I wonder
if you could tell me what room he's.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
In too, certainly not just a second.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Walk Walker, I don't seem to Oh yeah, this must
be your friend, Henry Walker. Yeah, that Felley. I'm afraid
you're too. Later, mister Walker checked out of a hotel
about half an hour ago. Walker's gone, checked out, gone.
Speaker 6 (17:13):
Then he did find the paper, so why would he leave?
Speaker 4 (17:16):
Then?
Speaker 2 (17:16):
I think he was worried about the missing body. When
he realized the murder hadn't been discovered, he came down
and tried to rent the room where the body had been.
Was told the room was vacant, but was reserved. What
would you do when a case like that?
Speaker 6 (17:29):
You mean, he guessed that the night clerk must be
the unknown agent exactly.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
And he must have realized that the clerk would suspect
him for trying to get the room, so he checked
out and moved to a safer place. And I think
he'll be back, either to see the clerk or to
look that room over again. What is the now he's
asleep in his room.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
Do you hear anything next door? No?
Speaker 1 (17:51):
No, nothing.
Speaker 6 (17:52):
But but if the clerk is the other agent, we.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Are up you'll see right now. I want to look
the murder room over again, see if I can find
a missing.
Speaker 6 (18:08):
Let's to call the dead man was sitting in you.
I looked through the teehole.
Speaker 4 (18:11):
Yeah, I know, what are you going to do?
Speaker 2 (18:13):
I'm gonna try and figure something out. After you heard
the muscled popping sound, which must.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
Have been a gun with a silence there.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
You heard the door slam, then you heard running foot
that's going away right, Yes, And.
Speaker 6 (18:28):
By the time I opened my door of a cart,
it was empty.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
This door was locked.
Speaker 6 (18:33):
It was about fifteen minutes later that the clerk and
I came back up here.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
So if the clerk happened to be on his way
up there when you were going down, he could have
passed you and the other lay there.
Speaker 6 (18:42):
Then he discovered the body.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
Exactly, a dead man. It's hard to move.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
It didn't take the clerk long behind the body, so
it must be.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
Near here, maybe the room across the hall. I'd take
a look.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Nobody there, somebody to sleep in the bed.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
Uh hm, that's what the hotel maid probably thought too.
A smart boy that park. Look, yeah, that's.
Speaker 6 (19:32):
The man, the man I followed from the airport, the
man sitting in the chair.
Speaker 4 (19:36):
Just as a poker who shot all right, riding the hard. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Here, help me go through his pocket?
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Oh what a suitcase when you run?
Speaker 6 (19:47):
N not in the room.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
The clerk probably got rid of it or took it
to his own room. He could carry that where he
couldn't carry a body. You see anything here that looks
like you have a secret paper?
Speaker 6 (20:00):
No, no, it's not here.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
The clerk's paper got.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
It, or it's still hidden somewhere in the murder room.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
What are you doing?
Speaker 2 (20:07):
I'm gonna cover this dead man up again. The chances
are the body won't be discovered now for another twelve
or more hours. I want you to go back to
your room, keep watching the room where this fellow was killed.
Speaker 6 (20:17):
What are you going to do.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
I think it's time I had to talk for the
night clerk. I stopped in front of the clerk's room
and listened.
Speaker 4 (20:34):
No sound came from inside.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Nothing happened. I slipped my hand inside my coat, pulled
my guns on the shoulder holster. Then I cried the door.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
It wasn't blocked. The room was.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Dark because the shades were pulled down, but it wasn't
dark enough to hide the figure of a man falling
orchesquely on the bed, his head hanging limply towards the floor.
I groped for the light switch. It was Evans, the clerk.
Speaker 4 (21:14):
One of his.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Hands clutched the rumpled sheets, the other was folded beneath him.
A bright trail of blood slid down the side of
the bed and formed a dark.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
Pool on the floor.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
I closed the door with my foot.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
And looked round the room.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Two suitcases lay on the floor, their contents beside them,
and it gumbled heaps drawers at an empty yellows, flash
drugs pulled up, the pictures pulled down, and Yellow had
missed the trick from the completeness of the set, which
was pretty calmly as.
Speaker 4 (21:49):
He hadn't found what he was looking for.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
I switched out the lights, locked the door, and started
running to the stairs.
Speaker 4 (21:57):
At the end of the hall.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
There wasn't time to wait for the elevator. The gun
was still in my hand. When I opened the door
of the girl's room on the sixth floor.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
She was gone.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
An overturned chair lay on the floor near the door,
the broken cocktails glass beside it. Everything else looked in order.
Slipping the safeteel on my gun, I turned once.
Speaker 4 (22:22):
More toward the hall and I stopped.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Something moved behind the closed.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Door in the bathroom. I yanked it open and step back.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
The girl lay on her side on the floor, her
hands and feet tied with stockings, a wash frag stuffed.
Speaker 4 (22:42):
In her mouth.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
There is a gag ah. Just second, I'll heavy's off.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
H failure, the got to stop me?
Speaker 6 (22:53):
Doesn't found the paper sets.
Speaker 4 (22:56):
I tied my hand right right. What happened?
Speaker 6 (22:58):
What was on the minute or two after you left
that I was setting the door, holding his glass against
the wall, listening, But then I heard someone fumbling at
the door of the room next door, and oh, my door.
It's quietly as possible to look out in the hole,
but must have heard me.
Speaker 8 (23:14):
He was standing right in front of me, got in
his head.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
He didn't scream.
Speaker 6 (23:18):
No, no, yes, hit me. That's all I remember until
just the second of all. I don't know how long
I was unconscious.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
It wasn't long.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
I wasn't gone more than fifteen or twenty minutes.
Speaker 6 (23:29):
It takes long enough. He hadn't found the paper, and
that's why he came back, the clerk.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
What about him dead just before I got there.
Speaker 6 (23:38):
The clerk didn't have it. After all, it's white hidden
in the room next door. Walker's had time, and I
know he must have found it.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Don't be so sure, unless Walker is smarter than I
think he is. The formula is still loud. I don't
know yet, But we're gonna have another good look at
that room.
Speaker 6 (24:00):
Oh, he's certainly went through everything.
Speaker 4 (24:04):
Yeah, it was the same the clerk's room.
Speaker 6 (24:07):
But he must have found the formula. Well, why there's
no place else to look. He did even flash the
matress open.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Yeah, you know the twice. He went through the pillars
twice too, if.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
He had fun, why go through the whole room twice?
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Why?
Speaker 1 (24:20):
I see what you mean?
Speaker 6 (24:22):
Then you think it's still here?
Speaker 4 (24:24):
I'm sure of it.
Speaker 6 (24:25):
But there's nowhere else to look. It's impossible that a
piece of paper with that much writing on it could
still be hidden here.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
No, you're wrong, I I don't understand.
Speaker 4 (24:34):
Well, look at it this way.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
The easiest way in the world of fool people is
by what you might call misplaced attention.
Speaker 6 (24:41):
Then you mean there isn't any paper in this room exactly?
Speaker 4 (24:46):
I told you that clerk was smart.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
He knew if anyone searched for the formula, they'd naturally
look for a piece of paper. That's what I mean
by misdirected attention. The formula's here, all right, but it
is not a hidden piece of paper and then envelope.
That's why Walker and I didn't find it.
Speaker 6 (25:03):
Do you mean it's it might be written on the ceiling,
or nothing's crue to that. You know where it is?
I think so where?
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Look at the walls. Doesn't anything strike you as off
to the wall?
Speaker 4 (25:17):
You mean sure?
Speaker 2 (25:18):
I mean the wallpaper? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (25:21):
Look here at this strip of paper behind a bed.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
M See this figure of a horse. A horse is
split him too. Where the paper joins the hind part
is nearly an inch lower than the front part. Near
the ceiling, the wall shows through no paper hanger would
be that carrel it.
Speaker 6 (25:40):
Then there is a paper after all, and it's behind
the wall paper.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
No, there isn't a paper behind her that would show
make a bowls unless I miss my guest. The formulas
written directly on the back of that strip of wallpaper,
which next season.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
Nah, not so fast, it might there here I got
an there, look, yes, seek it is.
Speaker 6 (26:06):
It's the formula.
Speaker 8 (26:07):
Quickly, let me have it.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
Strike you my friends?
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Oh so you came back.
Speaker 4 (26:13):
Put your hands over your heads quickly? How did you
get I'm better at opening gods quietly than you are,
my dear. So you're really well nake.
Speaker 7 (26:21):
And and I, like a stupid fool, thought you were
merely the guests in the next room.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
I should have killed your ven. You've done too much killing.
Speaker 4 (26:28):
Already, Walker or whatever your real name is. I have
more to do too.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Very clever of you to find the formula.
Speaker 4 (26:38):
You would make an excellent man for this type of work.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
I like ye. Better keep your hands up high. I'll
turn around slowly facing me. That's good, now, you batman.
Speaker 4 (26:55):
Stop the formula on the floor in front of.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
You, but keep your hands high.
Speaker 4 (26:59):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Excellent, excellent, now I will just picked it up. You
would not fast in us.
Speaker 4 (27:12):
Then there's an awful chance.
Speaker 6 (27:14):
Taking the money bent over, you might still have been
able to shoot.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
This life has made up a chance to sweetheart. Besides,
I used to drop kick from my college football team.
Speaker 4 (27:24):
Did you did?
Speaker 2 (27:25):
You did? Yeah?
Speaker 6 (27:27):
Thanks?
Speaker 4 (27:27):
Shot?
Speaker 6 (27:28):
Somebody must have heard it. Quickly, got to get out
of here, give me the fun.
Speaker 4 (27:32):
Not so fast. I think I'll just hang on to
this piece of wallpaper.
Speaker 6 (27:36):
But you can't give it to me. I've got to
return this. Don't choose to see please quickly before somebody comes.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
I'd be a fool to give you this paper. How
do I know who you really are? Well, I've got
as your word that you're an American agent.
Speaker 6 (27:50):
But I am, I tell you I am.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Maybe that I'm keeping the paper.
Speaker 6 (27:55):
No, please, it's important. It's got to get back to Washington.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
I like your face, baby nice.
Speaker 4 (28:03):
It looks honest.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
There's a firescat back there by the window. How many
from the lobby. He'll be here in a minute. I'll
see that the formula.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
Gets to Washington and stays out of this business.
Speaker 7 (28:14):
But but these marriges, these leave.
Speaker 4 (28:16):
That to me. You're on the level.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
You'll be okay, you can keep on working and nobody
will ever know who you are. You're not on the level. Oh,
it's the chance I take for lack in your face.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
Besides, you haven't killed anybody. I'll get doing.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Oh, but please see that the formula gets to Washington.
Speaker 6 (28:39):
Now here's an at risk. Just take it there.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
Thanks all.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Do you understand me?
Speaker 4 (28:47):
Yeah? I understand set move, goodbye, and thank you forget
a baby.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
I'll writer get me. Sergeant O'Hara at pre said quarters.
Speaker 4 (29:03):
Quickly. Sergeant O'Hara speaking, run you.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Know, Hannah, I'm in room six ten of the Parker
Hotel with a dead man. What again, he's a murderer.
Speaker 4 (29:15):
You better hurry, o'harah. Just a second, Just a second.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Hurry, o'harah.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
This is important.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Maybe hard to explain the others too, whatever, the other
two dead bodies hit here in the hotel. What you
must I can't help me get out of it. Yes,
you're Tara. You've got to the fate of a nation
is riding again. What's that mean? It means that I've
got to make a very important trip to Washington, O'Hara,
A very very important trip. Next week. At this time, the.
Speaker 5 (29:57):
American Broadcasting Company bring you another adventure of Dashiel Hammett's
exciting new character, the Fat Man. Next week's story is
called The Dancing Tombstone, and the Fat Man says.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
A ghost makes its rown silently, and a corpse is
quiet forever, but mystery screams in a graveyard when the
silence is broken by the Dancing Tombstone.
Speaker 5 (30:32):
Tonight's adventure of the Fat Man, played by Jay Scott Smart,
was produced.
Speaker 4 (30:37):
By Charles Powers.
Speaker 5 (30:39):
Music is under the direction of Bernard Green. Sartan O'Hara
is played by Ed Begley.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
And Missus Jane Kirby speaking.
Speaker 5 (30:47):
This is ABC, The American Broadcasting Company
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