Speaker 1: Come in.
Speaker 2: Or welcome. I'm e g. Marshall.
Speaker 3: Bang bang, you're dead, shouts a little child, and his
playmate clutches at.
Speaker 1: His heart and collapses to the ground.
Speaker 3: Now, when children play this game, are they innocently imitating
their elders? Or are they expressing some deep seated biological urge?
Speaker 1: Are professional killers?
Speaker 3: Basically children who have never outgrown the game? Is the
taste for murder ingrained or acquired? Questions like these should
never be answered quickly.
Speaker 4: Lieutenant Kaufman, I was sent in here to see you.
Speaker 1: Uh, how can I help?
Speaker 4: A man named Tom Beckworth was murdered last night? That's right?
Speaker 1: Do you have any information that would Yes.
Speaker 4: I'm responsible for his death. What are you saying, mister Wilson,
Roger Wilson, I caused his death.
Speaker 1: Are you confessing to the crime.
Speaker 2: I suppose that's the only way to put it.
Speaker 1: How did you murder Tom beckw With?
Speaker 4: I wished him dead? You wished him dead? Yes, Lieutenant,
I wished him dead. I wished it with all my strength.
Speaker 5: He was killed by two shots from a thirty eight
caliber pistol. Now did you fire them? That's immaterial, mister
Wilson too don't look well at all. I'll have an
officer see you to your home.
Speaker 2: I see well.
Speaker 4: Let the records show that I did my duty as
a citizen.
Speaker 3: Our mystery drama, The Transformer was written especially for the
Mystery Theater by Sam Dan and stars Howard da Silva.
There are strange and mysterious transformations. Life changes from one shape,
one form, yes, one existence to another.
Speaker 1: What were we before? Were you always the same?
Speaker 3: Have you always harbored the same hopes, ideas, ambitions? Suppose
the person you were ten years ago should meet the
person you are today.
Speaker 2: Would it be a happy meeting?
Speaker 1: Let us meet Roger Wilson.
Speaker 3: Roger Wilson, forty two years of age, just beginning to
lose hair and gain weight, Roger Wilson, who has already
accepted the fact.
Speaker 1: That while he will not set the world.
Speaker 3: On fire, he will at least bask in a cheery,
comfortable glow.
Speaker 6: Roger, you were expecting I was expecting a night in
shining armor.
Speaker 2: Again.
Speaker 4: Well, I thought I showed up fifteen years ago.
Speaker 6: Why didn't you call from the airport in Chicago and
tell me which flight should be on so I know
what to do about dinner?
Speaker 4: The only thing I have to do about dinner tonight
is eat it, get your cut?
Speaker 1: Which one the mink.
Speaker 6: H Which clat are we supposed to impress tonight?
Speaker 2: Tonight? Tonight is all fun.
Speaker 6: We're never supposed to have fun at dinner. We're supposed
to be in there selling away. I'll come on, It's
not that bad, the nonsense I've had to hold still
for these past fifteen years.
Speaker 4: Well, Dolly, if you sold your soul, at least it
wasn't for a mess of cottage. It's been first class.
Speaker 2: All the way.
Speaker 6: Whose ego do I have to flatter?
Speaker 1: Tonight?
Speaker 4: You're going to meet the greatest guy in all the world.
Speaker 6: All right, all laugh at his jokes. After all, he's
a client.
Speaker 2: He's not a client.
Speaker 6: He's not.
Speaker 4: You'll be crazy about Chaptee Chappie Beryl Spencer Chapman Beryl. Well,
you know, some people's parents have absolutely no sense of
the fitness of things. They named his sister Sam anyhow,
Everyone calls him Chappy.
Speaker 6: But what good is Chappy able to do you? A business?
Speaker 1: Wise?
Speaker 4: Tolly, I don't even know what business he's in. Roger
he told me he's in the transformer business. But we
didn't go into it. We were just so happy to
see each other.
Speaker 1: It's going to be.
Speaker 4: Twenty five years, a quarter of a century. Where did
it go?
Speaker 6: Don't ask me?
Speaker 4: There we were two kids in Korea and suddenly it's
all these years later.
Speaker 1: Uh. I guess that's life.
Speaker 6: And I guess this is going to be one of
your nights for deep philosophical statements.
Speaker 4: There I am in the passenger lounge at O'Hare Airport
in Chicago. I'm looking at this guy, and he's looking
at me, and suddenly I.
Speaker 1: Yell out, Choppie. Just the exact same split second.
Speaker 4: He hollars, Roger, how would you feel if you're at
to somebody you knew twenty five years ago?
Speaker 6: I can't think of anybody I knew twenty five years
ago that i'd care to see today.
Speaker 2: He hadn't changed a bit.
Speaker 6: Well, where is this legendary Chappie?
Speaker 1: Where If he was such.
Speaker 6: A great buddy, why didn't you bring him home?
Speaker 4: He has this business meeting at six point fifteen, that's
why he came here.
Speaker 6: If he has a meeting at a quarter after six,
how can he have dinner with us?
Speaker 2: What are you talking about?
Speaker 6: A man comes all the way into New York for
an evening meeting and it doesn't include dinner.
Speaker 2: Well, what's so radical about that?
Speaker 6: Well, you could never treat a client like that and get.
Speaker 1: Away with it.
Speaker 4: Oh, maybe he's the client anyhow, he's going to meet
us in Luigi's at six forty five.
Speaker 6: I mean, he came all the way to New York
for a meeting that will hardly last a half hour.
Speaker 2: He's a man of very your words.
Speaker 7: Really, well, that should be quite refreshing.
Speaker 6: You must be a very efficient businessman, Chappie. Why, well,
I'm simply amazed at how quickly you're able to conclude
a business meeting. When Roger gets involved in these things
that can't go on for hours, even days?
Speaker 1: Do they?
Speaker 4: I can never get Dolly to understand there's so much
to talk about.
Speaker 6: How do you avoid all that talk? Chaffie?
Speaker 1: Well, what's to talk about?
Speaker 2: You know, the deal?
Speaker 1: You go in and close it.
Speaker 6: What kind of business are you in?
Speaker 1: Transformer business?
Speaker 6: Oh? Well, tell me all about it.
Speaker 1: It's kind of technical.
Speaker 6: Oh well, I was a science major at college. A
transformer is an instrument used for changing voltage. You have
a step down transformer, you have step up transformers.
Speaker 4: Darling, I'm sure Chappy doesn't really want.
Speaker 6: To talk shop all right, You're absolutely right. What a
couple of old war buddies get together. I'm sure they
can't wait to swap stories. I'll sit here quiet at
a mouse and just let you boys.
Speaker 4: Talk, Dolly, when you see, Chappy and I were.
Speaker 2: Very close, very close, And one of the reasons.
Speaker 4: We had along so well was because we could just
sit there in that foxhole for hours and just say nothing.
Speaker 6: How could you just sit there for hours and say nothing?
Speaker 4: Well, sometimes by saying nothing, you say everything.
Speaker 2: How about dessert?
Speaker 4: Uh?
Speaker 6: Nothing for me?
Speaker 1: Cheesecake?
Speaker 6: Well, good morning, we have bacon and eggs toest.
Speaker 2: Why do they always make breakfast? You know, I only
want to I.
Speaker 6: Don't make it. I only say I do to maintain
the franchise.
Speaker 1: Well, how'd you like, Chappie?
Speaker 6: I like strong, silent men.
Speaker 4: But yeah, we would sit there in the mud in
the snow, day after day, night after night.
Speaker 2: We'd hardly speak a word.
Speaker 6: And how did you communicate extrasensory perception?
Speaker 4: We only had one aim to keep alive. I would
look out for him and he wou look out for me.
Speaker 6: Well, I can't imagine you not saying a word for days.
Hont Edge.
Speaker 2: You haven't answered my question.
Speaker 6: Which question?
Speaker 2: How'd you like Champions?
Speaker 6: Has he left town?
Speaker 4: No, he plans to stay for a week or two.
Speaker 6: As a matter of fact, we're having lunch, quiet lunch,
no doubt.
Speaker 8: Now for your morning news headline, or must we? Gangster
chief Tony Arman was murdered last night, the victim obviously
of a gangland execution. The medical examiner places the time
of debt at about six thirty pm. The killer fired
two legal shots and disappeared as if intoin air. No
one in the neighborhood third Avenue and sixty seventh straight
heard or saw anything suspicious. Your next headline report in
ten minutes.
Speaker 6: Avenue and sixty seventh Street. Oh, we were just two
blocks north of there, Luigi's.
Speaker 4: You still haven't told me what you think about Chappie.
Speaker 6: Oh, well, he doesn't seem to be your tight I
mean you appear to have nothing in common when you're huddled.
Speaker 2: In a fox hole.
Speaker 4: You have everything in common because after the war you
drift apart. But there's always a deep feeling of friendship.
Speaker 6: He has fascinating eyes. Yeah, when he first came into
the restaurant. They had sort of a glow, and then
they changed and they seemed to grow softer.
Speaker 4: As soon as she spoke about that look in his eyes,
I got a sudden chilled down my spine. I knew
that look. I remembered that look, that funny look that
glowed in his eyes each time, each time, each time,
it would be crouching there, freezing, peering desperately into the darkness. Yeah,
you hear something, Yeah, yeah, Jappy.
Speaker 1: Something's moving where I don't know.
Speaker 2: Wait, I see him where that couple bushes at ten o'clock.
Speaker 3: See, yeah, it must be five hundred yards, more like six.
Speaker 4: Let'll be raising my side, so jappy, Yeah, he's his
head is home.
Speaker 1: Let him go, Let him go.
Speaker 2: He's just some go forth.
Speaker 1: They got goof offs on their side too. He got lost.
Speaker 2: Let him go.
Speaker 1: Watch this, saraj watch me squeeze it.
Speaker 4: Time and the bobby that was crawling in the snow
suddenly stiffened and became still.
Speaker 2: It would remain still forever. I looked at Chappie. He
was breathing very slowly through his.
Speaker 4: Mouth, and there was that look, the look I can
either explain or describe in his eyes.
Speaker 1: Trager, I'm glad you made it.
Speaker 2: Trade what it?
Speaker 5: Remember the we used to talk about back there? Come home,
marry a good looking dame, get a good deal.
Speaker 1: Oh well, did you.
Speaker 4: Make it too, Chappy?
Speaker 5: Sure, everything except the dame.
Speaker 4: But I'm still looking well marriage. He has his good points,
has bad points. You know. I love Dolly, but there
are times are like a killer. Yeah, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 5: I worried about you, Roger. Why you saved my life?
You saved mine too, make it even I worried you
wouldn't make.
Speaker 1: It when you got back home.
Speaker 5: Why because you're soft? But now I feel better. I
see her, I'll set you must have a great job.
I thought it was a great job five years ago.
Speaker 1: Something wrong with it now?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's the end of the line.
Speaker 4: It's only one place I can go, and that's general
sales manager. That sounds big. Oh sure, but you see, Chappy,
it won't happen. Why not, You've got the stuff. I've
also got a problem. His name is Tom beckwith Tom
beckwith Thomas Eldon beckwith Jr.
Speaker 2: Why is he a problem? But he's alive? Yeah we do.
Speaker 4: You see, Chappie, he happens to be my age, and
so I kind of stuck out on the siding with
no way of getting switched out of the main line.
I see, I won't start exactly. How's it transformer business?
Speaker 2: Chappie?
Speaker 1: Oh what time you got?
Speaker 4: That's about a quarter after you know.
Speaker 1: I just remembered I got to see you guys when
he had the chatter. No, no, I'm not coming on.
That's my party.
Speaker 3: This is ready, just coffee.
Speaker 6: What's on our schedule this evening?
Speaker 4: H Chappie wants to take us to dinner.
Speaker 6: Ah, another rest for evening?
Speaker 2: Do you want to celebrate?
Speaker 6: Celebrate what well?
Speaker 2: He called me at the office late yesterday. No, he
said he expected to make a killing.
Speaker 6: A killing and transformer sounds fascinating.
Speaker 2: Now you don't like Chappie, admit it.
Speaker 6: I didn't it first, but he kind of grows on you.
Speaker 8: Time for another morning headline.
Speaker 6: Good news Harry himself.
Speaker 8: The electronics company executive Thomas Eldon Beckwith Junior, was shot
and killed late last night in the garden of his
summer cottage at fashionable Lake, Surrey. Take police their eyes,
mister Beckwith surprised a problem so farther.
Speaker 4: I have no leads or clues.
Speaker 8: Anyone with any information at all that could be useful, Well,
that's to call a special number two two seven eight three.
Oh wait, we shall have another headline report in ten minutes.
Speaker 1: No doubt he will.
Speaker 3: But it's hard to imagine another headline of any kind
that would equal this one.
Speaker 1: In impact on Roger Wilson.
Speaker 3: Well, what do we have here? Is Chappie a professional killer?
Or is it all coincidence? Don't downgrade coincidence? Better still,
don't do anything. Just wait here for a few moments
and I shall return with that too. There's a man
named Thomas Elden Beckwith Junior, or we should say there
was a man named Thomas elden Beckwith Junior. We never
met mister beck Quis, and of course now we never will.
The late mister Beckwith happened to stand in the way
of Roger Wilson's promotion.
Speaker 1: Roger casually mentioned.
Speaker 3: This fact to his old army buddy, Chappie. Thomas Eldon
Beckwith Junior was shot to death last night?
Speaker 1: Are we dealing here with cause and effect?
Speaker 6: Tommy Beckwith? I can't believe it, neither can I?
Speaker 1: Who could that be?
Speaker 2: I don't know?
Speaker 6: You want me to answer.
Speaker 4: No, No, I'll get it. Yes, mister Roger Wilson.
Speaker 5: Yes, I'm a police officer, Lieutenant Kaufman of the Homicide Division, Homicide.
Speaker 1: Yes, may I come in?
Speaker 2: Oh? Oh sure with my wife, Missus Wilson. Tell you
this is Lieutenant Kaufman.
Speaker 6: Will you have a cup of coffee? Lin Tennant?
Speaker 2: No, thank you.
Speaker 4: We just heard about Tom Beckwith's death.
Speaker 2: It was on the radio.
Speaker 4: Oh, I suppose that's why you're here. Yes, Well, what
do you want to ask me? Did mister Beckwott have
any enemies that you know of? Well? I thought the
radio said he was killed by a prowler.
Speaker 5: Well he may have been, but the prowler would have
robbed him. He was still wearing an expensive ring.
Speaker 4: And a gold watch, and he had two hundred dollars
in his pocket. Oh well, the problem might have been
frightened by the killing and ran away without.
Speaker 5: Yes, that's quite possible, mister Wilson. Anything's possible. That's why
we are following every line of approach. Oh, well, what
can I tell you? And you could answer my question?
Speaker 1: Did he have any enemies? Tom? No?
Speaker 4: No, why don't I say that? You see, I really
didn't know Tom very well. He worked at him for
over fifteen years. Oh, we know each other at the office.
We didn't socialize too much, did we, Dolly? And No,
I know very little about his personal life.
Speaker 5: Well, had mister beck With been behaving in a way
that might be considered unusual lately?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: Oh, I don't think so.
Speaker 5: Well, do you know anyone who stands to benefit by
his death?
Speaker 6: No?
Speaker 4: I couldn't say. Well, I understand you would mean.
Speaker 5: Yes, some of the people I spoke to at your
office tell me that you're next in line for his job.
Speaker 1: Oh, well, that doesn't mean I kill him, does he No?
Speaker 2: No, not at all.
Speaker 4: But you just good accuse me? No, no, no, I
made no accusation. What are you talking about, mister Wilson.
We can travel down one of two ways. Now we
can assume he was killed by a prowler. This then
becomes a random murder, which has nothing to do with
the personal life of mister Beckwood.
Speaker 5: He was killed because of where he was, or we
can say he was killed because he happened to be
Thomas Eldon Beckwith Jr.
Speaker 4: Now this means he was killed because of who he was.
Speaker 1: Now do you follow me? Yes, I think so.
Speaker 5: We're asking questions, exploring possibilities, no matter how far out
they may seem, and I would like you to help,
how well, just don't inhibit your thinking, let your mind travel.
If you have any kind of suspicion, any kind of supposition,
no matter how far fetched, don't be afraid to mention it.
Speaker 1: All right now here, Please take this card.
Speaker 2: It has my number on it.
Speaker 4: And if anything occurs to you, Okay, alright, that's.
Speaker 5: That's all for now. Well, thank you for your time.
As to wild up missus Wilson, Oh, don't bother. I
can let myself out.
Speaker 6: Tom Beckwith who could have killed Tom Beckwith?
Speaker 2: Lieutenant thinks I?
Speaker 6: Oh, Roger, come on, and he doesn't think anything of
the sort. Besides, how could you have done it? You
were home with me all night.
Speaker 1: That's your married life.
Speaker 6: You have a built in alibi. Roger, it is a
ghost you're shaking.
Speaker 2: I'll be all right, Roger.
Speaker 6: Death is always a tragedy. It's too bad about Tom Beckwith.
But by no stretch of the imagination can you pretend
you too were friends. It's one thing to be sorry,
but how can you be so.
Speaker 1: Cut up about it?
Speaker 2: I'm not cut up.
Speaker 6: Roger, tell me what's the matterably.
Speaker 4: Could to tell her. I didn't even know what to
tell myself. Cappy, was it possible? It was just a
vague suspicion. But now this, I don't.
Speaker 2: Him what you're thinking.
Speaker 4: So that, Lieutenant, let your mind travel, no matter how
far fetched. All right, Lieutenant, do you want me to
tell you a war buddy of mine is a professional killer?
Just suppose, just suppose, for the sake of argument, that
I went to your office right now and tried to
explore this farfetched suspicion with you. How would you react, Lieutenant?
I know who killed Tom beckwith Do you a man
named Beryl Spencer Chapman?
Speaker 1: I Gooslav and I have to write it all down.
Speaker 2: He likes to kill.
Speaker 4: I know that from when we were in Korea twenty
five years ago.
Speaker 1: He used to get a look in his eyes, a look.
Speaker 4: Well you know this gangster who was gunned down the
other night, Tony Arman. Yeah, a few minutes after Armand
was shot, Chappy joined us at a nearby restaurant and
he had this killer's look in his eyes.
Speaker 1: Let me write this down, the killer's look.
Speaker 4: The next day I mentioned I just happened to mention that. Yeah,
then what that Tom beck was the one who was
standing in the way of bright promotion to general sales manager.
Speaker 1: I better write that down.
Speaker 4: And last night Beckworth was shot to death.
Speaker 1: Why did you mention it to Chappie?
Speaker 4: Why? Yes? Why?
Speaker 1: Well because because it because you hoped that Chappie would
kill him.
Speaker 4: No, no, no, that thought never entered my mind.
Speaker 5: You suspected Chappier being a professional killer. Well, I you
wanted Chappie to kill Beckwitz. No, subconsciously you wanted him
to kill Beckwith.
Speaker 1: You wanted him to kill Beckwith.
Speaker 6: Where were you, Chaffy? And I've been sitting here for
about ten minutes now waiting for you to come out
of that trance. For trance, you have been sitting there,
your eyes wide open, But I'm sure you must have
been dreaming. Was he like that when you were in Korea? Chappy?
Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, I'm sorry.
Speaker 4: I guess I must have dozed off. I stared closely
at Chappie. What I had come to think of as
the killer look was nowhere evident in his eyes. Oh,
maybe it never existed. Maybe it was all my imagination.
All of us was being constructed from a fragment of
a shrouded memory that was almost twenty five years old
when we were nineteen year old kids. Chappy, the smiling, happy,
quiet man a killer. No, I'm sure he isn't. Even
Dolly likes him. Dolly has an instinct for people. If
Chappy were evil, Dolly would automatically shy away from him.
Speaker 1: Yes, not send himm.
Speaker 4: You wanted to see me, missus Strouthers.
Speaker 1: Heh yes, I want to see you. Roger. You know why.
Speaker 4: Well, you're under the impression that I am going to
offer you back with job, aren't you. Well, mister Struthers.
Speaker 5: Everywhere I go around here I hear the same thing.
Roger Wilson's going to be the next general sales manager.
Speaker 4: Well, I did have reason to believe I was next
in line? Line?
Speaker 1: What line? What is this a bus station?
Speaker 4: I've given this company twenty years, I know.
Speaker 1: And you have been well paid for.
Speaker 4: Its Now Beck with his dead yes, sir, Now why
should I replace him with another Beck?
Speaker 1: With? Sir, you're another Beck with you're the same style?
Speaker 4: Oh no, sir, With all due respect, I think I'd
be a better sales manager than Tombwoll.
Speaker 1: You'll have to prove it.
Speaker 4: Now, there's one account this company must.
Speaker 1: Have, Webster.
Speaker 2: Webster.
Speaker 4: Webster right now buys twenty percent of all the components
manufactured in this industry.
Speaker 1: Now, Webster's growing every day. I want that account in
this house. A sort beck with couldn't bring it in.
Can you do.
Speaker 4: Realize there's a deep personal situation that exists at Webster. Well,
we make a better product, we can give him a
better deal. Yeah, but Dollison, you want me to give
you the sales manager's job.
Speaker 2: You give me Webster.
Speaker 6: Say what is this, darling? It's your victory celebration, candlelight,
silver champagne, victory, your appointment to general sales manager calls
for a very special dinner.
Speaker 2: Who's that?
Speaker 4: I wonder?
Speaker 6: That's Chappy. Chappy, your best and closest friend. I thought
you'd want him to be part of it.
Speaker 1: Well, sure you.
Speaker 6: Let him in. Give him a drink, I'll check the roast.
Speaker 4: Chubby, come in, well, join me in a little libation
here to the new job.
Speaker 2: Well, well, what.
Speaker 4: Are all about that new job?
Speaker 1: You didn't get it? And there's a condition.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: The top account in the industry is an outfit called
Webster Manufacturing, and they don't buy from us unless I
can bring them in.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Well I can see the old man's point. We should
have that account and would except well it's something personal personal.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 4: We have a competitor and they have a salesman. We
don't know how he does it, but he's got Webster
all wrapped up. Yes, yeah, I spoke to Jim Webster himself.
He as much as told me Roger. He said, I'd
buy from your folks in the flash.
Speaker 1: You got the product, you got the price.
Speaker 2: But but what.
Speaker 4: But as long as Jerry's alive, he said, I'm obligated.
Speaker 1: Why is he obligated to Jerry? I don't know.
Speaker 4: It doesn't matter as long as he feels that way. Yeah,
so that's that sure. Well, maybe it's time I found
another job.
Speaker 2: Anyhow.
Speaker 1: What's Jerry's last name?
Speaker 2: What did you say?
Speaker 1: I said, what's Jerry's last name?
Speaker 2: Boy? Is that important?
Speaker 1: Well? What is it? Why would you one to know
his last name? I'm just curious? Okay, forget it.
Speaker 2: How about a refill?
Speaker 1: Sure?
Speaker 5: The same is Trask? Jerry Trask? Jerry Trask? A name
suddenly surfaces. Is mister Trask about to meet with a
violent end?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 3: Who among us can guarantee tomorrow. But this does not
seem to be a happy time for those people who
stand in the way of our friend. Roger Wilson is
warbuddy chappy expressing professional curiosity. Indeed, is he even a professional? Well,
we usually answer these questions and act three, which I
shall bring you in just a few moments. A man
named Jerome Jerry Trask is walking his dog very late
one night along a quiet street in New York City.
He approaches the corner someone is standing in the sh
shadow of an apartment building. That someone cannot be discerned
in the darkness, and that gleam is a shine that
is reflected from a steel pistol barrel coffee.
Speaker 2: No, this is fine.
Speaker 6: Would you say let's turn this thing off so we
can hear ourselves talk?
Speaker 2: No, leave it on. Why I want to hear the
morning headlines?
Speaker 6: I can't imagine what fur They're always so depressing. There's
always some murder, Roger, something wrong?
Speaker 1: No, are you sure nothing's wrong?
Speaker 2: Why do you insist?
Speaker 6: It's just that you seem to be so nervous this morning.
Speaker 2: I'm not nervous.
Speaker 6: Did the chap he enjoyed dinner last night?
Speaker 2: Sure, I mean I think so. Why do you ask?
Speaker 6: Well, he left early? Why do you.
Speaker 1: Suppose now are your morning news headline here?
Speaker 4: He is again?
Speaker 6: Doleful Dawn are sitting.
Speaker 8: In for a wave of random murders? Is a matt
killer loose in the streets early this morning? Another senseless shooting,
Another tragic death just before dawn. Jerome Jay Trask, thirty seven,
was shot to death as he was walking his dog
along East End Avenue on seventy seventh Street. At this moment,
police are unable to supply for the details. We shall
return in ten minutes with your next headline report.
Speaker 6: Well, another morning, another murder.
Speaker 4: Roger.
Speaker 6: You know lately you've been getting a funny look on
your face.
Speaker 2: What kind of funny look?
Speaker 6: Just kind of funny and far away, as if as
if you're not with us, you just kind of disappear.
Speaker 2: What do you mean.
Speaker 6: You sit there and you give the impression that you're
off somewhere in another time or another place.
Speaker 4: I just had some things to think about, some some
very puzzling things like what like I'm not even sure I.
Speaker 6: Know well you're a fountain of information. Did you call
in get us a starting time?
Speaker 2: Starting time?
Speaker 6: At the club. We're playing golf this morning. You and
I am chappie golf. Oh, Roger, we spoke about it
last night. Now that has to be chappy. I'll get it.
You pour him a cup of coffee, fellow Chappy, come
on in. We probably won't tea off until after lunch.
Roger forgot to get us a starting time. Was he
this absent minded in the army? Sometimes absent minded in
the army. Sometimes We were just talking about your chappie.
I was hoping you had a good time last night.
Speaker 2: I did.
Speaker 6: It's just that you left so early.
Speaker 2: Oh it was a business appartment.
Speaker 6: Ten o'clock at night.
Speaker 4: That's the transformer, business transformer. That word hit a chord,
struck a nerve. The way he said transformer. It was
the way I had said transformer years ago. In a
foxhold in Korea. They were taking us in force, and
we were throwing everything we had, old kit Jimmy, okay, okay,
you're wasting the taxpayer's money.
Speaker 1: There's nothing to hit.
Speaker 2: Out there anymore.
Speaker 1: They all went home. You got any water?
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's so thirsty after a firefighter could just keep
drinking for hours.
Speaker 4: Oh, Gus, half a canteen. Honey, how many did you get?
Roger Man? I just fired into the air and count.
Speaker 5: Of fourteen fourteen definite. I saw him gonna it could
have been more. You want to stand guard a while.
I gotta clean my rifle.
Speaker 1: Now, rifle should be cleaned every time. It's been fine?
Speaker 2: All right? Go ahead.
Speaker 1: When's the last time you cleaned yours? Raj?
Speaker 2: Oh, let me see.
Speaker 1: Just because nobody comes around for inspection, that doesn't.
Speaker 2: Mean it don't worry about me, Chappy.
Speaker 5: I gotta worry my buddy, aren't you What are you
laughing at?
Speaker 1: Oh? Nothing, Yeah, that's.
Speaker 4: The way you handle that rifle your heads. Isn't just
some standard government issue. It's it's why it's a mystical object.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what's that?
Speaker 4: Well, let's say it's a kind of cosmic transformer, a
transformer because it well, it works like a way, it
works like cataclysmic transformation.
Speaker 1: Where do you get all them big words, Raj?
Speaker 2: That's what you're learning from college?
Speaker 4: Where was I? Oh? Yes, a rifle is a transformer.
It transforms the living into the dead.
Speaker 2: How do you like that? I like it?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Like it pretty good? You know something, Roger? I
may even go into the transformer business when I get home.
Speaker 2: Transformer business.
Speaker 1: Why not?
Speaker 4: Well, for one thing, it's against the law.
Speaker 1: They ain't going to bother me.
Speaker 2: Why not?
Speaker 5: In laws are passed by fat politicians. I already broke
a bigger law, which one is like God's Lord, don't
understand the Bible?
Speaker 1: I shot not kill. So what are we doing out here?
Speaker 5: This is different? It's always different. There's an explanation, explanations, Roger.
I figured I'm in bed already, so go all the
way all the way where here? I've been killing people
for the government for less than two hundred a month.
Speaker 2: That's not the way to look at it.
Speaker 5: I know guys who pay better, a whole lot better. Yeah,
transformer business. Do you want to go at it with
me when we get home?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 6: Thanks, You see too happy? That's what I meant. He
just disappears on us.
Speaker 2: Well, what are you talking about?
Speaker 1: You?
Speaker 6: You were sitting there for over a minute with a
black look in your eyes. Wasn't he chappy?
Speaker 1: Anybody mind if I have another glass of orange juice?
Speaker 6: Oh help yourself. Must be very thirsty this morning.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I get that way sometimes, sir, A gentleman, to
see you who is it.
Speaker 6: He's a police detective, a lieutenant Aufman.
Speaker 4: Oh sentiment. But I'm uh sorry to partining you at
your office, mister Wilson. Sit, I'm the lieutenant.
Speaker 1: Uh coupment.
Speaker 2: That's right. What can I do for you?
Speaker 1: I don't know?
Speaker 5: Well then U uh, mister Wilson, let me speak frankly
and off the record. Mister beck with a shot to
death soon after, or mister Trask is murdered. Do you
know who would be my prime suspect in both cases
if he didn't have an ironclay alibi? You me, boy,
mister Beck Watt stood in your path for promotion. But
I haven't been promoted yet yet. Mister Trask was the
most formidable competitor.
Speaker 4: You admit I have an alibi, and I know I
didn't do it.
Speaker 5: Mister Wilson, last time I asked you to think to
explore any angle, any glimmer, regardless of.
Speaker 1: How crazy it might seem.
Speaker 2: Well, nothing occurs to me.
Speaker 4: Well, could you advance any theory why two men, both
of whom were known to you, should be mysteriously murdered
within the same week?
Speaker 1: Could you could? I?
Speaker 2: Could I.
Speaker 4: Say I suspect my friend Chappie of being a professional killer.
All I have to do is say that a lieutenant
ble counter with why did I use him? But I
didn't use him. I didn't know for a fact that
Chappie is killer.
Speaker 1: I still don't.
Speaker 2: Told I he is he is, and I used him.
I needs him.
Speaker 4: The fact is I would have killed Beckwith for his job,
and I would have killed Trask for the Webster account.
I would have if I could, but I can't kill.
So I used Chappie just as I depended on him
to kill for me back in the war. No, Lieutenant,
you're right, I'm your prime suspect, but the case has
to be closed. Excuse me, lieutenant, Yes, Roger, what are
you doing right now? I'm in the meeting mister Struthers.
When you're finished, to go outside in the cart and
see the new name that's being painted on what.
Speaker 1: Used to be Beckwith store, mister Struthers. Webster called me personally.
Speaker 5: He told me that we were getting his business thanks
to your Advertising's very highly to.
Speaker 2: You, sir. How to thank you?
Speaker 1: I know you can pay me.
Speaker 5: Well, mister Wilson. Hum does anything at all occur to you?
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 4: No, Lieutenant, I'm sorry, I do I have the faintest
idea why those two men could have been killed.
Speaker 6: Hello, Dolly, Roger, are you at the airport?
Speaker 2: Yes, I'm at the airport in Kansas City.
Speaker 6: Roger. It's my birthday.
Speaker 2: I know, but I had to close this deal.
Speaker 6: You haven't been home in two weeks.
Speaker 2: I can't help it.
Speaker 1: All right, listen, I'm sorry. I'll be home tuesday.
Speaker 4: Okay, Okay, Hello, Dolly are you? Oh?
Speaker 6: What is it this time?
Speaker 2: It's kind of.
Speaker 4: Overcast here in Atlanta and I can't get out.
Speaker 2: Tonight, Dolly.
Speaker 6: All right, Roger, where are you now?
Speaker 1: Roger?
Speaker 2: Oh, hello, mister Struthers.
Speaker 4: I'm glad I caught you for you left out. We
have to get to the airport this minute. There's a
bad problem in Denver. But tonight is my anniversary. Well
of that, congratulations? Now do we have a file on? Sorry,
my wife is waiting for me.
Speaker 1: Call her up.
Speaker 4: Tell her something much more important happened, Straws.
Speaker 2: I can't say that to my wife.
Speaker 1: You can if it's the truth.
Speaker 4: Now is it more important to drink some champagne in
a nightclub than to protect your job?
Speaker 6: Oh, chappie, come in well, sit down, I have a
drink sure, Roger's do you home from Denver at six?
Speaker 1: Unless unless what?
Speaker 6: Unless he calls it the last minute and says he
has to go somewhere else. Chabby, I don't know what
I'd have done without you to keep me company.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 6: Roger has changed. Yeah, it's as if some demon has
possessed him.
Speaker 1: It's that job of his.
Speaker 6: That's all he lives for. He certainly doesn't care about
me anymore.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 6: There are times times when.
Speaker 2: When what.
Speaker 6: I'd better not say it.
Speaker 1: You can say anything to me, even to you. Go ahead.
Speaker 6: There are times when I I would like to kill him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well here.
Speaker 4: I am, Hello, Dolly, Hello Chappie.
Speaker 6: I'm glad you could make it. Roger. You're sure you
don't have anything more important to do.
Speaker 1: Come on, honey, you have to understand it.
Speaker 6: My job makes Let me not start that again. You boys,
have a drink, I'll tell you about dinner.
Speaker 4: Sure she can knock the job all right. But you
notice she has no objection to all the money she's changed, Chappie.
She's not the same sweet understanding kid. I'm married.
Speaker 2: She gets me so murdered.
Speaker 5: Wish Yeah, I forget it.
Speaker 4: Sure, there were times I wish.
Speaker 2: I wish I could kill her.
Speaker 4: Thanks for driving me out to the airport, CHAMPI chure.
I know it's an imposition, but when I get.
Speaker 1: A cab at this hour of the night, it's okay, okay.
Speaker 4: I couldn't ask Dolly to drive me. I mean I
wouldn't that.
Speaker 1: What's that noise in the engine?
Speaker 2: I don't hear anything.
Speaker 1: It sounds like something got loose.
Speaker 2: Better have a look.
Speaker 1: Uh you wanna hold the flash line?
Speaker 4: Do you know what to do? I mean underneath that hood?
It's all a mystery to me. Do you have any tools?
Speaker 1: I need one to Roger. I carry it with me
all the time.
Speaker 5: What's it a transformer, Juppy, what are you gonna do?
I'm gonna make a transformation, Chappy.
Speaker 1: You can't have no raj.
Speaker 5: I've been making transformation for the government, for personal clients,
for friends, and now, for the first time in my life,
I'm making one for me.
Speaker 1: You.
Speaker 2: You're not gonna kill me, Chappy.
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm just gonna transform you.
Speaker 2: Why?
Speaker 3: Why?
Speaker 1: Because Dolly asked me to. But Dolly doesn't know. He
knows like you knew.
Speaker 5: That's why you kept asking Tosurage, asking me to transform.
Speaker 2: Those guys A whif why kill me?
Speaker 5: Because she needs this transformation to make her happy, and
so do I chaty, he won't hurt.
Speaker 3: Oh, And that morning there was another headline, and Lieutenant
Kaufman a homicide.
Speaker 2: Was even more puzzled than ever.
Speaker 3: His only comfort might be derived from the fact that
sometimes bad things occur in a series of three and
if he can't find the killer, at least there won't
be any more of those particular killings.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: It all depends on what Dolly's needs are. I'll be
back shortly. The game of death it begins innocently enough
in childhood and progresses into more and more serious variations
as we grow older. Still it must remain a game,
after all, if you look at it, it has rules,
it has penalties, and when it's over, everyone goes home
and becomes friends again. Isn't that the story of the world.
Aren't so many of yesterday's enemies today's wisom friends. It's
all a question of changing, of evolving, and it goes
on all the time. Our cast included Howard Dasova, Terry Keene,
Mendel Kramer, and Earl Hammond.
Speaker 1: The entire