Welcome to the Great Detectors of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho. This
is your host, Adam Graham. If you have a comment, email it
to me Box thirteen at Great Detectors dot net and you can follow us on
Twitter at Radio Detectives. Well, this is our eight hundred episode special and
we're going to bring you another one hour episode of suspense. And this is
from a story originally written by Cornell Woolwich. It was was adapted as a
movie and there was a Lucks Radio Theater version of the movie. But myself,
I like this version much better. I think it's a very emotionally resident
and a powerful story, A definitely a great mystery with lots of detection.
We would probably put it today the way it was performed here on the radio,
into the category of romantic suspense, but I think it's pretty exciting and
challenging for anybody. So let's go ahead and take a lesson to this episode
from May the fifteenth, nineteen forty eight. It was the very last of
Suspense Is one hour episodes, So let's go ahead and enjoy Deadline at Dawn.
Suspense Radio's outstanding theater of frills brings you an hour, a full sixty
minutes of suspense to night. Our stars, Miss Helen Walker and mister John
Beale. Our Story Deadline at Dawn by William Irish, a suspense play produced
and directed by Anton M. Leader. If you've ever been alone in a
strange, big city, you know the haunting loneliness of it, and you
know how the sight of a familiar face, the sound of a familiar voice
can lift your spirit high. Even a stranger who comes from your hometown becomes
a long lost friend because he brings with him a breath of home, a
flood of memories. That was the emotion that drew Brickie Coleman and Quinn Williams
together. But their meeting wasn't the joyful, happy kind. It was the
beginning of longing and fear and danger. And now, with the performances of
Helen Walker as Brickie Coleman and John Beale as Quinn Williams, and with William
Irish's great story Deadline at Dawn, we again hope to keep you in suspend.
Until I met him, men were just pink dance tickets. To me.
They were just two and a half cents worth of commission on the dime.
Here's a feat that kept crowding mine. All over the map, all
over the floor, all over the night. There were blank faces that could
steer me anyway they wanted until they're five minutes were up. Because I was
a New York taxi dancer until I met him, a girl from a small
town, caught and held fast in the big city, with all her dreams
forgotten and all her hopes gone, and not caring anymore, not caring at
all until I met him. They always dimmed the lights for the last dance,
just to make the customers feel sentimental about it all. At one in
the morning, I was through again for the day. I put on my
coat, go out the side door, walked past the sad sacks that thought
they were wolves and loitered on the sidewalk, and then I begin the twenty
blocks to home. Home was a filthy old brownstone down near the river,
the long Smelace, an old army caught That was home. But at least
it was a place where I could get out of my shoes and make some
calls sleep to forget. I'd get home about one thirty. You left your
door open, so I left my door open. It did you think that
was an invitation to walk in. You better close it now. Hey,
listen here, please, all right, you're a burglary. You won't find
anything. The rats got here first. I am a burgley. Oh then
you're a very smart one. What are you looking for? Coffee grounds?
I wasn't looking for anything. Then, why don't you go? Please find
a nice, rich old lady to rob. I need a place to stay
for a while. I thought maybe you would let me. What stay here?
I don't hand out favors. You're nothing to me, I know,
just a hunch I head where you were looking at me. I thought I
could come here for help. The way I was looking, I've never seen
you before in my life. Well, you were looking straight at me at
the dance hall about an hour ago. You mean you were at the Cinderella
Ballroom tonight. Don't you remember me? No, that's funny, not funny
at all. You all look the same to me, namely horrible. I
guess it's my mistake. I was sure you seem so so nice, did
I? Yeah, that's because I was thinking of home. I always do
that on the job. Makes the night go faster. I guess I know
what you mean. What'd you do? Follow me? No? The man
at the door gave me your address for a dollar. Oh he did,
did he? I wanted to get off the streets this time of night.
The cops are curious. I thought I saw one of them following me,
so I beat it down this hall to hide. That's when I found your
door open, and take a good place for hiding. Nobody ever comes here
but the landlady once a month. Please let me stay awhile? Please?
What's your name? Quinn Williams? Quinn? Ye never heard that name before.
It used to be my mother's before she got married. I see,
what do you say? You want some coffee? Quinn? Thanks? Thanks?
I get this straight. One cup of coffee and nothing more. No
sugar goes with it. You give me one blink too many coffee? I
understand a man can tell by looking at a girl whether she means one thing
or another. Be surprised how many of them are to have an oppetition?
I know. Give me a match for the oven. Here you are.
I got the oven lit and reached down some cups and sauces and watched him.
Not that I was worried. I wouldn't have closed the door if I
hadn't thought I could handle him. It was only that he was so young
and his face was so tight and strained. He'd been beat by the city.
Must have been like taking candy away from a baby. And he trusted
me because I'd smiled at him while I was dancing, and he thought that
smile was for him. I wish it was all of a sudden because he
was different. Coffee won't be long. I' sorry, I'm in no hurry.
Pretty young for a burg Roger, doesn't take much training. Where'd you
come from? And how did it happen? Oh? Come from a little
town. It's nothing much, but I like him. I hick myself here
from my place is Glenn Falls. I will what's yours? What's the matter?
Nothing? Oh? I thought I said something wrong. Oh no,
you said something right. It's crazy, a crazy coincidence. But I come
from Glen Falls too, honest. That's that's amazing. You know it is?
What street did you live on? And there's name Pine Street? The
second house down between Pine and Oh when we're neighbors? What? I live
just across the street from you? How is it we never met? I
don't know. I came here five years ago. Oh, I've been here
a year. You must have come to New York before we moved in.
Sure, Wait a minute, Have you got a brother with a lot of
freckles? Yeah, Journey, he's just a kid about eight. My sister
has been writing to me about a new boyfriend, a boy named Williams.
How perfect he is except for the freckles, And of course they're we are
off. That's Journey. Ah, so you're the boy next door. Were
we we'd probably have known each other very well. If you'd stayed home.
I know I wish you had stay I do too. What's your name?
Ruth Coleman. Everybody at home calls me Brickie. They started it because because
of your hair, that's right. Do you have a feel that you want
to go back every day? Zebus les New York every morning at six I
know I've inquired. I've got the fair sewed up in my mattress. Have
you go because my mother thinks I'm dancing in a Broadway show. Because I'd
be too ashamed because it's so hard to go back. Yeah, would you
want to go, Brickie? This morning? At six o'clock? You ought
to go back? Hard? Going back alone? If someone could come with
me. Would you come home to Quinny. You want to escape from the
city, don't you just like me? You want to go back. We'll
then come with me. If it's the fair you're worried about. I've got
enough for both of us, including a good dinner in Chicago, anything for
the boy next door, Quinn makes Brickie. It's too late. The police
will be looking for me around eight o'clock this morning. Oh yeah, I
forgot. How long have you been at very glad? About three hours?
Three hours? And did it tonight for the first time, so you see
breaking it's a little too late for me to go back. I've missed a
bus three hours. Hop is ready, clean, good cream and sugar?
No thanks, Black? Was it easy? Very easy? Why you do
it? You'll do anything when you've gone for four days without eating. Oh
but it's funny. After I'd done it, I went straight to the best
restaurant in town. I looked at the menu and got ready to order everything
on it. Two helpings of everything. Right. I couldn't eat it,
so I got up and walked out. That's when I began to think cops
were trailing me. I'm not used to being a robber. So you still
got it all with you, twenty five hundred dollars in cash. Divide it
up into small rolls in all my pockets. You want to see it,
No neither do I. But it's there. I can feel it against my
skin all over my body. Where did you get it? Quinn? I
was working for an electrician about four months ago. One day I got a
call to go to a big house on seventy first Street and put a fixture
in the bathroom wall. I had to cut a big hole in the wall
to do it. While I was doing that, I ran into woodin a
wooden box in the wall. I did my work just beside it, and
that box. That box was the back of a safe OH put into the
wall of a study in the next room. The front of the safe was
good, heavy steel. When they built it, nobody thought it could be
broken into from the other side through the bathroom, and nobody ever would have
either until an electrician ran into it one day by a mistake. But all
this happened four months ago. You see, I'd brought more tools with me
than I needed that day, and I left some of them in my bag
downstairs on a little table near the front door. And when I got back
to the shop, I found a key in the bag. I must have
brushed it in while I was putting the tools back after finishing the job.
It turned out to be a key to the front door. You didn't return
it. I didn't. No, I meant to, but right then I
forgot all about it. And when I did remember that I had the key,
I was out of work, hungry and wanting money badly, so I
went back there. It's an unbox. I opened that hole again, pulled
the back of the safe out. I didn't bother with any of the papers
or securities. I just took the cache. The house was empty. The
man who lives there society fell up, by the name of Graves, was
probably out on the town. So I just walked out the front door.
Seems like ten years ago. It was only three hours. So this Graves
man will see the hole in the morning when he goes in to take a
shower. Then you'll call the police. It will be a quick trial.
I'm a short one, but the sentence won't be so short. The boy
next door, the boy you wave too when you come in or out of
your gate. The grinning boy next door, friendly as a pun, Go
back, Brickie. It's where you belong. It's the only kind of life
for you. Come with me, Quinn. I've told you I can't.
They've got a long arm. They'll find me, and I'd rather have him.
I'm me here in the city. Have you still got the key,
the key you went in with? Yeah? Why well if you can get
back in before he comes home, just in and out long enough to put
the money back. They won't come all the way to Iowa for you,
just for chopping a hole in the wall if nothing's been taken. Don't you
want to go home? At six o'clock this morning? If he's out on
the town, he won't be home yet. At least that's what we'll pray
for. We'll go together now. I'll wait outside for you, and then
we'll go down of the term and buy our tickets and wait for the bus.
We'll wait for dawn together, Quinn, you mean you do this for
me? For the boy next door? Anytime anything. There was no time
to lose. Graves might be coming home any minute. I ripped the money
out of my mattress and we ran out of the cold, empty streets,
just as a cab crows By. We piled into it and told him to
take us to seventy first Street, and to take us fast. Everybody's always
in a hurry. What's your hurry? The night's young, Yeah, have
a mind the conversation, Joe drive. The customers always right. I just
remember what. I can't pay for this cab unless I use some of our
capital. I don't care what you use, Pal, just so it's money.
Don't worry about it. You'll get paid. I'll pay him. We
don't want to use any of our capital, not a single penny. It's
all got to go back breaking when we get out of this, when we
get back home, Oh, thank you. Then i'll find a way to
thank you. Seventy free Street, any special number, No, Just let
us out here on the corner. That's ninety cents, and I can break
a fifty if I have to. Here's ninety cents, and here's a time
have fun. Well, here we are. Where's the house across the street?
Up a little you wait here, don't come any closer than this.
I'll be back in no time. Don't be frightened, Brinkie, don't take
any chances. Quinn. If you see any lights. If it looks as
if he's gotten back already, don't go all the way in. Just drop
the money inside the door, all right, Bricky, goodbye? Then goodbye,
Quinn, hurry back. I waited for him there in the chilly night,
on the dark empty street. Why I knew better. New Yorker taught
me one thing, and that was never to be a sucker for a man.
But then there was no man. This was the boy who lived across
from the on Anderson Street in Glen Falls, Iowa. The boy had come
here to do big things, to lick the town, and instead he'd been
licked. Instead. He was hiding in the dog sneaking along the streets helpless,
the boy next door. Then I suddenly crouched back into our doorway.
A patrolman was coming on his tour of duty. He stopped near me,
not ten yards away, but his back was to me, and his hand
was opening a call box, Russian reporting in how's a rummy game? Gone?
Another thing? Quiet at church? He finished his call, closed the
box and went on down the street. Then he turned a corner and disappeared,
and I breathed again. He'd been right, though it was quiet as
a church and that was wrong because Quinn should have been back long ago.
Ricky, what's the matter? Ricky? Tell me, Quinn? What is
it? What is it? What are you frightened about? What happened in
there? He's been killed, He's dead, he's lying in there, dead
man who lives there? Yeah, mister great, why is it you?
Quinn? Did you do it the first time you were in there? And
I I swear I didn't, Ricky, I only took the money. He
wasn't even there. He must have come back since I knew you didn't,
Quinn. I knew even though I asked, go down to the terminal,
get your ticket and climb on that bus and forget we ever met. Go
on, Ricky, beat it before they find out, not without you.
But don't you see now it's murder. They'll charge me with They'll find the
bathroom, fix your tampered with the traces the electrician, then to me,
and they'll they'll naturally think, don't you see it's too light, Breakie.
It's never too late, don't you know that, Not until the last second
of the last minute of the last star. What do you mean. We'll
go back in there and see if we can figure it out. It's our
only hope. We're fighting for our lives, Quinn, for our lives,
and we have until six o'clock this morning to win our fight. All right,
Champ, come on, And so very slowly we went together into the
place where death was. The door closed on our backs, and we felt
our way down a long and narrow hallway. He's upstairs. I don't want
any lights on down here. You just hang on to my sleeve. I'll
lead the way, all right. We went forward in a sort of swimming
darkness that was almost liquid. It was so dense. I could feel the
muscles in his arms shivering. But he was brave, not afraid. He
was going into it, not running away from it. To the step.
Here, a stair creaked under our weight. I wondered if there were anyone
else in the house, anyone still alive, suppose someone had slept through the
murder, would be awakened any moment by us. Okay, we were on
the second floor. Now. I smell the aroma of leather and would work.
I smell the last lingering trace of a cigar. I smelled powder,
a harsh, deadly powder, and then I thought I saw, I thought,
I smell something sweet, something very sweet. Here, Brickie. All
right. They say you can't smell a recent death, but I could smell
a stillness and a presence in it was more than just emptiness. Yet your
eyes ready, Here go the light. The dead man lay in the middle
of the study. His face was all out of focus. The lines that
have been laugh lines were creases now. The mouth that had been either strong
or weep was just a gap now, a place where the face was open.
The eyes that had been either kindly or cruel were just glossy, lifeless
insects. Now this was the dead man, and we'd come for his secret.
This is it, Bricky, Yes, this is it? And now
what do we do? Shouldn't we close? They seem to be watching.
No, don't touch him. I don't know how to anyway. He's he's
done a tuxedo. It couldn't have been home very long. Can you tell
what it was done with? No, I'll have to done. Botanist,
Jackie, all right, go ahead, there it is. Must have been
a gun, Yeah, a bullet. It's round and frazzled. A knife
would have made a slit. And we can be sure no one else was
in the house, or they would have heard it go off, and the
killer must have taken the gun away. There's no sign on one lying around,
so he didn't do it himself. It can't be suicide. Right now,
we'd better look in his pocket. Yes, I'll do it. You
look the things over as I hand them to you, all right, Quinn.
I'll start up here in the breast pocket. That's the highest pocket in
anybody's suit. His handkerchief. Look, Quinn, the bullet went through this
the way it folded, it just made one little hole. When you open
it up, it makes three separate holes, like when you cut papers and
make them into patterns. One on the left side's empty, the right hand
pocket empty. Two Try inside the jacket, Ye, take out everything,
no matter what it is. Right, cigarette case silver, Tiffany's three cigarettes
in it, the wallet, two fives in a single. Two ticket stubs
from tonight's show at the Blaskos see one hundred and twelve, one hundred and
fourteen, So we know where he was from eight thirty to eleven. Anything
else, business cards, Stafford Holmes, Inglesby, whoever they are. Oh
on a snapshot girl in riding tags. Let's see that, yeah, it's
the same ones in the silver frame over there on the desk to Stephen with
love from Barbara. Then she didn't do it. If she had, she
wouldn't be there on his desk anymore. Just the silver frame maybe, but
not her anymore. That's common sense, all right, Let's go on.
I had to lift him a little. Go ahead, left ray air in
the trousers. Nothing right ray air, spare handkerchieon left side, nothing right
side match folder, loose change, latch key. That's it. Not much
help. Do we know what we're doing, Ricky? I don't know.
Quinn a man who's a cigarette smoker, and we found that case in his
pocket. Would he go in for cigars too? Maybe some people smoke boards,
but but would he smoke two cigars alone by himself? Look, Quinn,
two butts in this tray, yeah, and the trays between two chairs
facing each other, one cigar and one not of the tray, the other
one around on the other side from it. Two people, Quinn, two
men, and they were having an argument. One of them was worked up
about something. You see, this butt is smooth at the mouth end.
And look at this one chow to ribbons, choot to a fringe. That
tells it just which who was common, who was steamed up? And who
was the other man with Graves? Oh, Quinn, wait a minute,
here's something. What must have fallen out of his pocket? He was probably
sitting on it. Fine, another book of matches and it just did another
one. Graves had some on him. So this is the other man.
And did he leave his name on it? No? But he was excited.
Look how many matches he used up just on that one cigar. A
folder could have been half used up before he began. Maybe take this What
does it tell you? Tells me to cheo Dawson's gum? Not that cover
inside? I don't know what are you driving here? Yeah? Take my
matches. I'll tear one off. Let's strike it all right, okay,
blow it out. You see what you did? No? You tore the
match from the right hand side, didn't you. Yeah, that's what everybody
does. They start on the outside on the right and work their way over
to the left. But this fold was worked in reverse. Now do you
see the man sitting in this chair facing Graves was left handed. I see
we're making progress, are we, Quinn? Well, of course we are.
We know this man was rattled about something that he whittled away fifteen matches
to one cigar and then mangled it to ribbons between his teeth. That he
was probably on bad terms with Graves, and that he's left handed. Fine,
only you've missed something. Boy. The matches belonged to a woman.
A woman. A woman chopped that cigar to pieces. Smell the folder.
What do you get? Soft of the way matches? Always give that a
minute to clear away. That's the stronger of the two. Are tops the
other? Now, okay, fume, isn't it. Yeah? It's been
carried around all day in a handbag, a handbag that stinks up the fume.
I noticed it in the dark when we were coming in. There's been
a woman in this room tonight. Well, that gives us two of them,
a man and a woman, and they weren't here together. There are
only two chairs, one for Graves and the other one for each of his
business. Who was the last to go the man of the woman, I
don't know, but we're started. Look where we've dug up in half an
hour, two unidentified people in the biggest city in the world. You're right,
it's no use. Oh even so, we can't give up. It's
no use. And what's more, I'm yellow, Bricky. Let's give it
up. You're not yellow, Quinn, or I wouldn't be up here in
this room with you. I'd better tell you this well I can, Bricky
what I love you. It's three o'clock, Quinn, and we have till
six three hours. Bricky, save it, Quinn. Save it for the
bus when we're on our way home. All right. I don't know what
to do next to you? No, I don't. What's that? In
tonight's full Hour of Suspense, Helen Walker and John Beale co star in Deadline
at Dawn by William Irish, Tonight's study in suspense, Just a Moment,
We will return with Act two of Suspense. This is CBS the Columbia Broadcasting
System and now back to our Hollywood sound stage and Act two of Deadline at
Dawn, co starring Miss Helen Walker as Brickie Coleman and mister John Beale as
Quinn Williams in radio's outstanding theater of thrills Suspense, All the emotions of a
lifetime have been crowded into one night for a Brickie Coleman and Quinn Williams and
Dawn is a fast approaching deadline which they must meet. The bus which will
take them to home in safety, seems remote and unattainable as they stand now
over the body of a dead man in the quiet apartment, knowing that they
must find his murderer or stand incriminated for the crime themselves, And suddenly a
terrifying sound comes to them. What is it, Bricky? What is this?
Sounds like a burglar or the front door bill. Mammy, Wait a
minute, there's a box over there against the wall. Follow the cord.
It's in his desk, in the drawer. What shall we do, well,
answer, I'll be careful. You'll have the police here. You'll know
us. Not his voice. I'll talk lore, I'll pretend i'm him.
Say a prayer, Brickie, Hello, darling, this is Barbara. I
had to speak to you. We've never potted angry like this before. I
know. Maybe if we hadn't gone there to that Parricae place, it wouldn't
have happened. No, who was she, the tall red head and the
light green dress. I don't know you told me that before? Then?
Why did you slip a note into your hand? I saw a dot you
know? Did you? And then you couldn't wait to see me to my
door and get me off your hands? What happens, Steve? Did this
woman come by to see you afterwards? Is that why you wanted to get
rid of me? No, Barbara, Steve, you sounds so far away?
Is it the telephone or is it you? Poor connection? Sounds so
cagy is if someone were there? Now? Can't you talk louder? I'm
sorry? What's going on there? Isn't it? It's just catching on.
I'm take your hand away from the mouthpiece and turn it my way, Sugar.
Come on, I'm getting tired of waiting. How much long are you
going to stand there talking? I'm sorry, Stephen, forgive me. I
didn't know. You can hang up now. I feel like a heel.
We'll stop it. We don't have time, Paracay. That's a nightclub,
isn't it. Yes, I'm fifty four street. A woman slipped him a
note, quinn, Oh woman, could be Do you think he tore it
up? Or maybe not? Maybe he wanted to have a good look at
it when he got home alone. Let's look again. Well, I went
through those pockets pretty carefully. I'm sure it's not that you might have missed
something, Quinn, turning him over again. All right, nothing, nothing
at all. Shall we go through the desk. Wait a minute, boy,
run your eyes over him again. I don't see a thing. He's
very well dressed. And yet isn't that a hole in the heel of his
sock? They're just showing over the shoe. That's funny. Take his shoe
off, Quinn. Okay, the note. Of course, he didn't want
Baba to see it, so he hid it here until he could be alone
alone to go on, mister Graves, I'd like to speak to you in
private after you've taken the young lady home. And I don't mean some other
time, I mean tonight. I wouldn't want to be disappointed. And so
it isn't sign a woman of the matches. Sounds like a shakedown, I
mean blackmail. That's right. He'd have to pay attention to a note like
this. And we're going night clubbing, my boy. We'll visit the paraquet.
It'll be closing by now. She must have been seen there, a
tall redhead in a light green dress. We'll check with the people who work
there. They'll still be around waiters, checkroom girl, washroom attendant. We'll
find her. Oh, we will trace her. If I have to go
over the hair brushes in the dressing room one by one for stray red hair.
M kill the lights. I'll be right with you. Hey, don't
forget the switch, the one over the sink in the bathroom. Come on,
Quinn times running out in a minute? Is anything wrong? I don't
know. Look what I found, right? It's a check, yeah,
made out to Stephen Graves for twelve thousand dollars, signed by Arthur Holme.
And look I stamped returned, No fun? Who did you find it in
the dry bottom of the tub? How did ever get there? Just one
way? When I came here tonight the first time I did it. Why
don't you see when I pulled the cash box out and opened it, the
check must have slipped into the tub without my noticing it. And unless fellow
Holmes game, our jittery cigar smoker, maybe to ask Graves not to prosecute
on a bad check, to stall for time. Graves went to find the
check, and he couldn't because it was on the other side of the wall
in his bathtub, and Holmes thought he was trying to put something over on
him, and you think Holmes shot him, killed him for twelve thousand dollars.
It's been done before. And what about our redhead Brickie. It's the
man, it's got to be. I think it's the woman. We'll have
to split up. No, let's do it together the way we start.
It's too late. We can't follow them one at a time. Our deadlines
at don Quinn, and we've got less than three hours. Bus to glen
Falls, the last bus. Remember that it's the last bus for you and
for me too. Then we will be saying goodbye Bricky, Yes, Quinn,
goodbye till on. We went down into the empty streets without talking to
other, each of each other again, and I went one way and Quinn
went the other. In ten minutes we were blocks apart, maybe miles,
but it seemed to me that I was still at his side, still with
him. As he finally found an all night drug store and went back into
a booth. I knew he'd dial all the alpha holmes is in the book
and talked to a lot of angry, sleepy people, and then he'd find
the right one. The alpha homes we wanted. What would Quinn do then
what would he say? What would happen? Hello? Yeah, is this
mister Arthur Holmes? Welmas Holmes. You don't know me that wants to speak
to mister Holmes. The name isn't known to you, mister Holmes. But
what makes you think this is mister Holmes? And are you aware that it's
almost four o'clock in the morning. What do you want? I have a
check here that belongs to mister Holmes. Will you let me talk to him?
You're speaking to him. It's made out to Stephen Graves and I have
it right here in my hand. Where did you find it? I found
it on the seat of a taxi. It must have slipped out of someone's
wallet. Who was with you when you found it? No one? Just
me by myself. Whom did you show it to afterwards? No one?
Who's with you now? No one, I swear. And you called because
you thought I might want it back. That's right, I'm sorry he tied
it up. Nickel? Please shall I hang up? Mister Holmes? Put
in another nickel? Tell me what's your name? Quinn Williams? Tell me
something about yourself you do Are you a married man? No? I'm single.
I live by myself, not even a roommate, nobody, strictly lone
wolf. I'd like to see that check Quinn. Maybe I can do something
for you fair enough as a little bar called Owens down on fifty first.
You know it, I know where it is. Can you take me about
fifteen minutes to get dressed and get down there? He is? Fifteen minutes?
Good for you? Just fine, mister Holmes. I'll see you there.
You're a cagey boy, mister Holmes. But you swallowed yeah over here
in the boot. Good evening, mister Holmes, Good evening. Sit down,
watch you, yeah, I will. You're right on time? Sure,
so are you? As a drink for you? I had water?
Here is why i'd be allowed to stay in here. It's past closing time.
Thanks. What's the matter, son? Nothing, it'd just be funny.
That's all funny and kind of corny. If you'd slipped a little something
into this take mine then I haven't put it to my mouth yet. I
think I will bottoms up, bottoms up my cars around the corner. Would
you rather talk about it there? Yeah? I would. I think we
ought to be alone. It's easy, son, we can be alone.
That's enough. Driving pull up. I just thought we'd coast a bit.
If we can't say, talking at the curve at this hour, we'll have
a cop done on us, sticking his nose into the car. And what's
wrong with that? I don't know, do you? I was asking you,
however, if you want to pull up the East River, a mighty
mysterious place at this time of day. You're pretty close to the edge,
ain't you. The wheels are blocked. You're not nervous, are you?
No? I'm not now about that check. I didn't find that check in
a cab, mister Holmes. I found it in stephen graves house, where
he's lying right now on the floor dead. Stephen dead, and your cigar
is still in the room with him, chewed to a pop a corona like
the one you're smoking right now. You should have taken it with you,
mister Holmes, after you'd killed him. You seem to know a good deal
about this, a little, just enough to know who the killer is.
I feel a little sorry for you. I didn't know you were as young
as you are. Over the phone. What about what I got to do
with it? You're having a lot of trouble with your eyes aren't you.
Lights on the dashboard have got rings around them, haven't they like big soap
bubbles? What are you talking about? Say you talked too much. You've
talked yourself into the grave. I would have believed you about finding that check
in a taxi. You would have gone to sleep in the card. When
you woke up, you wouldn't have the check on you anymore, but you'd
have had a ten down a bill in your pocket. Too, sugarcoat the
experience head weighs too much? Doesn't it too heavy for your neck? My
head? You should have stuck to your own drink. Son, You were
suspicious, but not suspicious enough. You took the wrong glass. Me.
I'm a chess player. You know what chess is. It's figuring out your
opponent's moved before he makes it a funny thing. Wear my head. I
a solid rock. You're going to sleep here in the car, Then you're
going into the river without a mark on you. But I'll take the check
before I dump you. It's probably in your shoe. It's about where your
type of youngster would think was a clever hiding place for it. Just clear
my head, kicking trying to kick out the glass you haven't the strength of
a kick left in you. No, it's all over. That's water in
front of us, that even black line you see right over the hubcat.
I can't even move, can't you. That's right. Make a lazy pass
with your hand, like your brushing away flies. That's about all you're able
to do. In a minute. You won't even be able to do that.
There, go your eyes down, down. You won't get he won't
get away with this. Mister Ricky knows there are two of us, not
just one. And so I walked away from Quinn and I was alone again.
I'd met him only a few hours before, and with him, i'd
met my past, my home, and everything I loved and wanted. And
now I was alone again, somewhere in this sleeping city. Quinn was after
his man, and I was after my woman, my redhead, my long
stemmed American beauty. The nightclub Parriquet was dead, dead, but not quite
cold, just in the process of giving up the ghost. Every other minute,
a solitary figure would come out and walk away, someone who earned a
living inside. This was the five o'clock in the afternoon of the nightclub workers,
whose clock goes in the opposite direction to that of the rest of the
world. And what did I have to go on? A redhead blackmailer who
had quickly scribbled a note to a man. And that kind of woman doesn't
ordinarily carry around pencil and paper in her purse. She sends messages with her
eyes and her hips. If she wants a pencil, she's got to borrow
it from the help. Excuse me, huh, what's the matter? You
work here, don't you. I'm in a check room till something better turns
up. Why well, I wondered. Did my friend in a light green
dress, a redhead? Did she borrow a pencil from you? Tonight?
It works the other way around, Honey. The men take out their pencils
and give me names and addresses and telephone numbers. I got a fist,
didn't a woman. It's no dice, honey. I don't even see any
women in my scall. Oh, another long day. My feet swell up
all the time. You want to drying up some salts water as hot as
you can stand. Excuse me, Wow, my name's Jerry, but don't
let the name stand in your way. I'm looking for my friend. A
redhead in a light green dress. Did she borrow a pencil from you tonight,
not at my end of the bar, how about it, Frank ye
sure, Joan Bessett about midnight. She's always borrowing something and forgetting to give
it back. How that girl think it? That's the way Joanie is?
Do you do you know where I can find her? Try to concorde.
That was the last address, which she's probably moved by now, thanks fellas.
Oh, can't I do anything for you another time? Jerry? Okay,
that's a promise another time? What can I do for you? Be
friendly? Pops say hello? You know that's better? What do you want
a room? Pull up brows? My girlfriend got I want to r up
and tell us something, you know, Joanie Joan Bassett, Yeah, Joan
Bassett. Only we don't have to be so formal. She's didn't fur ownin
Wait a minute out train skip that she don't have to put on no airs
with me? Who's she kidding? I know she's two weeks behind no rant.
All right? If you know that? Well, going up? What
do you want you? I want to talk to you? Yeah, I'm
just stand out there a minute and tell me what about we got a friend
in common? You and I it's possible. Go on. This friend's name
is Stephen Graves. Suppose you come in a minute. I'll hear what's on
your mind. Sure, I thought that might do it. Do you have
to lock the door? Yeah? I think I do. Whatever you think
best, begin with your name. You can put me down as Caroline Miller.
All right, Carolin Miller. Now about Stephen Graves. What makes you
think I know him? Stop being polite? You know him? He mentioned
me to you. No, he wasn't doing any mentioning of anybody. He
wasn't doing anything. Been over to see him lately, very lately. I
just came from there. Now, how did you find him? I found
him dead. See that tap in the kitchen is loose again. Excuse me
a minute. While I t I'd known we weren't alone the moment I came
into that room, and I knew that faucet in the kitchen was a signal
for a quick conference. It was my chance. Maybe I had a minute,
maybe only thirty seconds. There was only time for one thing. The
open handbag on the dresser. Nothing there XTI powder, usual junk, and
then an unpaid hotel bill for seventeen dollars and eighty nine cents from this place
the conquered, no good, worthless, and my time was up. Yet
something screamed at me to hold on to it, to slip it inside my
stocking, high up, and to get back into my chair. Wow that's
done. Now. Where were we with Stephen Graves? Oh? Yeah,
you go up there alone? Or do you have somebody with you alone?
I don't take my grandmother with me when I'm visiting. I see somebody stopping
at the door and tell you that I found out. Cops and people hanging
around, lots of excite. No one knows it. I found him alone.
I had a key to the house that he'd given me. I went
up and there he was dead. What'd you do? Holler bloody murder and
bring everyone down the place. I got out of there fast and quiet.
I don't want to be mixed up in it, smart girl, And all
this happened just a little while ago. Yeah, nobody knows yet, but
you me and you did you come here alone? All alone? Everything I
do I do alone. I guess I've hit the jackpot. Yeah you're sure,
head baby, You've hit it hard. Make it tight grip so she
can't make any noise. Don't worry about that. Well, miss Carol and
Meller, you're in trouble now, you tell me so. Stephen Graves is
dead and you felt a little nosy about it. Huh. You're wanted the
details, all right? You can have him. You seemed to have known
him pretty well. Maybe he told you did he did? He tell you
about his kid brother who married a tavern hostess back in Boston. They tell
you what that did, the fine old family name. When this girl again
asking for money, when she came to New York and again asking Stephen for
money, he'd tell you that he paid and paid, and finally decided to
stop paying. So this girl and a friend had to pay him a little
visit tonight. I'd try to persuade him. Did you tell you that?
I tell you what happened when he couldn't be persuaded. Yeah, No,
he didn't tell you that because he wasn't talking by then. Then he was
dead. That's enough. You want to spend the night at it? All?
Right? Well, what's the plane now? Don't you figure we are
not here in the room that's begging for it. You don't understand, I
don't mean chop chop, that kind of stuff. I mean, four flank
step. I ought to be enough. Three of us get to drink in
a piece. She goes over to the window, trying to open it for
a little air and jams, so she's well, there's always a follow up.
It's a little messy. Let me take care. Yeah, like it
took care of the other. And I told you just to throw a scare
into him. Say come across a well, sound scarier through at him,
Griffin. Yeah, I scared him right out of his skin, right out
of his heart. I don't want you to be so impulsive this time.
Well, the less blow stuffer in the closet backs up against the dead wall,
so she'll never bear. It'll be days before they get around the bust
in the door down. Yeah, we'll be far away by there, Yeah,
far away. Okay, I can pack in ten minutes. Less,
I'll give you a hand. Wait a minute, I'm missing that hotel bill.
It must have fallen, so we're not don't worry about that. He
can make up a no one for you down at the desk. Shall we
get her out of the way fast? Yeah, Han, Carol and Miller
in the closet take a comfortable griff. Sure, we want to be extra
nice to her because there's a little fresh air. Yeah, I only be
a minute with it down. Put her down quick. I ought to have
my head examine. Mean you slept on something? Yeah, forgot, We
both clean forgot? What was it? Kept her off to me? She
didn't pull my name and address out of my hat. Yeah, gag off
her. You try to scream and I'll dent you. I won't scream,
no talk. How'd you know I knew him? How'd you know where to
find me? Left you heaven and I'm gonna keep letting you heaven to answer.
You dropped your hotel bill over there? I found it lying in the
room with him. I ought to slap you down to the sociothy you left
your calun contest, which you know she's lying. I swear I thought my
hand bag after I got bad? Did you take it out to shaw man?
Sw me? Did you sure while you were waiting downstairs? It was
part of the build up to shaw them? How bad? I needed money?
But I know I put it back again, thank you. Oh,
I'm almost positive it fell out. It was for seventeen dollars and eighty nine
cents. It had passed. You stamped on it in purple ink. It
even had your room number on it. How what did you do with it?
Did you bring it with you? I left it where it was.
I was afraid to touch anything. We'll have to go back and get it,
all right, we will, We'll take her with us. It looked
like she did it to him. What do you want to do in the
first place, Griff, We do it over there. If my double head
had a figure out, it's the only way robot this detour by finishing her
off where she started from. All right, come on, Carol and Miller,
they are going for a little ride. And so I went back into
stephen Graves House for the second time that night. They pushed me ahead of
them in the darkness, whispering to each other not to use any lights.
It just as Quinn and I had done a few hours before, or was
it a few years before. Then we were in the study and the lights
were snapped on, and the dead man was still on the floor, and
nobody stepped forward to say, Ricky, is that you No, he wasn't
there, Quinn wasn't there waiting to help me, to save me. And
let's do what we have to do and get out. First, No,
not yet, something else first? Well you where is it? Where's that
hotel bill? Where you say your thought? Over there by him? Is
where I said? And you believed me? And you did? You lied?
I lied? Where is it? Where you got it? That's that's
your a little problem. Let me have the gun here he's Griff, Get
away from him, move over, stand still, caroling, minute and want
to come real clothes. I want them to worry about whether it's so.
Sign yes, Griff, I'll stand still, good girl, Carol, good
girl. It didn't hurt. It didn't hurt at all. And I opened
my eyes to find out why. Griff stood in the middle of the room,
his face contorted, an arm squeezing hard around his neck, and behind
his face was another face, a face I knew Quinn's face, the boy
next door, fighting for me, fighting to save me. Then Quinn went
down, all lopsided, and Quinn was on top, punching at him again
and again, and John was racing across the room with an end I and
raising her hand. I never played football as a little girl, but on
this night I decided it was time to try. Ricky Ricky Darling Quinn Are
you all right? Somebody's bringing church bells in my head. Oh you knocked
yourself out with a flying tackle, Quinn, Quinn, what happened? I
think? Oh? Yeah, they're both asleep, Ricky, as sounds can
be. All right. See you've wrapped them up nicely. I had to
tear up a few good sheets to do it. But I don't think mister
Graves would have minded. I'd given up, Quinn. I thought i'd beat
you back here, and I'd given up, Ricky. I saw them coming
in with you outside on the street. I was watching from one of the
front windows, and something about the way you were walking between them sort of
stiff told me they had a gun on you. So I backed up into
the bathroom and laid low. Yeah, the ones, Queenn, they did
it, and we can go now. It's a quarter to six. We
can catch that bus for home. There's one more thing to be done,
Ricky. I'll only take a minute, and then you and I aren't going
to have any more to worry about. It. Is this a police I
want to report a murder Queen Stephen Graves in his home on East seventy first
Street. There are two people tied up in the same room with the body,
and they're the killers. You'll find a special delivery letter in the desk
from Graves's younger brother, and that'll tell you the reason for the killing.
What. No, this isn't any rib I wish you was me, just
a guy who happened to be passing by. We can take their car.
He left his keys in it. Come on, Quinn, hurry will make
it. Don't you worry, Brickie. I'm not worried. I know we
will. What happened to you tonight? Did you find Holmes? Yeah,
and he tried to kill me. Quinn. It was your name that saved
me, Brickie, and call out your name and told him you were in
on this with me, and he changed his mind in a hurry, and
we saved each other. That's right. What about the check? Cut at
it figure? Holmes was caught short when he wrote that check, and Graves
got sold and the bank returned it. They talked it over tonight and it
ended up with Graves giving him another day to raise the money. The reason
Holmes was legitty was that the check seemed to have disappeared. You didn't know
what Graves might be pulling, and of course, Graves wasn't pulling anything.
That Jack lying in the bottom of his bathtub. You told Holmes how it
got there. Yeah, and look what I've got two hundred dollars, Quinn.
Oh, I didn't steal it. After he decided he wouldn't kill me.
Holmes and I ain't got very chummy, he said. We both made
a mistake in the same night, knee breaking into a safe and him with
his bad check. He slipped me appeal earlier in the evening, and now
he was walking me around and sober me up. That's when he gave me
the money, a nest egg for me. He said I could send it
back to him a little at a time. Later on, we'll send it
back. Quinn. We've Bricky. We're in this together, aren't we.
Yes, Bricky, we are. Look, Quinn, we made it.
We're in time. The bus is still there. Come on, Bricky,
let's go on home. Thank you Helen Walker and John Beale for your truly
wonderful performances as Bricky and Quinn, And to Lillian Bayer, Frye Billsbury,
Edith Tackner, Buddy Gray and Bill Johnstone, thanks for your splendid support with
this performance, Suspense leaves the air for a short vacation period. We will
return on Thursday at nine pm Eastern Daylight Saving time starting Thursday July eighth with
an outstanding series of gripping suspense stories featuring the acting of your favorite stars of
the screen. Watch for the new suspense series starting Thursday July eighth. Miss
Helen Walker soon be seen in My Dear Secretary and mister John Beale will soon
be seen in Paramount's Abigail Dear Heart. Deadline of Dawn by William Irish was
adapted for radio by Irving Ravitch and was produced and directed by Anton M.
Leader Blood Gluskin is our musical director and conductor Lucian Marrowak composes the original scores.
Be sure to watch for the new half hour series of radio's outstanding theater
of thrills Suspends. This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System. Welcome back
Well. I love the story the way it was acted. Certainly it was
the type of thing that with people moving to the cities, could spake too,
perhaps that longing for home, for the for the quiet peace of the
towns where people came from. So I think this would resonate with a lot
of audiences, and certainly if you're from a small town, I can't help
but think that this has some residence. I know it does for me because
I always have this sort of feeling when I hear of somebody being from or
in a Galluspell up in a northwest Montana. It's it's a special sort of
feeling of home, you know. And it captured that managed to keep a
good solid story going along with this sort of emotional romantic angle that was offered
here. As they've hinted at the end, it didn't come quite out and
say that they suspense would revert back to the one half hour format, which
it held for all but really half a season of its run. But these
I love these one hour stories that are incredibly involved, and I think we've
got more than a few left with some very interesting stars. This one,
in terms of its star power, is usually is a little less than the
one hour suspense. Usually they tried to go all out with the guest star,
but this was actually a couple of interesting actors. John Bill, who
they mentioned here, was a long time character actor whose last movie credit will
be in the nineteen ninety three film The firm had more than forty five years
of acting ahead of him. Helen Walker meanwhile a somewhat of a tragic story
as the top build actress. In this one, she had picked up three
soldiers, gotten into a car accident where one of the soldiers died and the
other two said she'd been drinking and speeding, and this led to actually a
manslaughter try for her. But with what had happened, it really soured the
public on her, and according to IMDb, although she was acquitted of criminal
charges, many fans turned against her. Major studios were hesitant to hire her.
She tried to adapt by portraying ruthless and manipulative women in dark murder mysteries,
in which she again showed great talent. She performed with great applaum and
nightmare Alley the gritty urban police drama called North Signe seven seven an impact,
an unconventional murder drama that featured a fatal automobile accident. Her character helped cause,
but she could not overcome the stigma of the veteran's death. I don't
know. It may have been that all of her roles reminded people of it.
That I think could have been a problem. But really she was very
talented and tragically her career cut short by the whole thing, and she up
dying much earlier in nineteen sixty eight than Bale, even though she was eleven
years younger than Bill, So you kind of had two careers headed in different
directions, all right. Well, though, that will actually do it for
today. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. We will be back on Monday
with the adventures of Frank Race in the meantimes. Andrew Commas to box thirteen
at Great Detectives dot net, follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives, and
call us to a eight not nine one four seven eighth three from Boise,
Idaho. This is your host, Adam Grahamson and off