Sam Spade and Broadway Is My Beat

Summary

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Case Closed! Podcast – Episode Summary

Episode: Sam Spade and Broadway Is My Beat
Date: May 20, 2026
Source Episodes:

• The Adventures of Sam Spade, "The Fairly Bright Caper" (Oct 31, 1948)
• Broadway Is My Beat, "Hope Anderson Murder Case" (Mar 31, 1950)

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Overview

This episode of Case Closed! features two classic radio crime dramas:

1. "The Fairly Bright Caper" from The Adventures of Sam Spade
2. "Hope Anderson Murder Case" from Broadway Is My Beat

Both stories dive into the dark corners of crime investigation, showcasing the wit, quirks, and doggedness of their titular detectives amid atmospheric settings and a cast of vivid, suspicious characters. Thematically, both episodes explore the murky motivations lying beneath seemingly festive occasions and the hidden sorrows that underscore urban life.

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The Adventures of Sam Spade: "The Fairly Bright Caper"

Timestamps: 01:14 – 29:04

Main Theme

A Halloween party at an ancestral estate turns deadly, drawing in hard-boiled detective Sam Spade to untangle a web of eccentric personalities, misdirection, and murder. The story melds genre-blending humor with a suspenseful whodunit.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Setting the Scene (01:33 – 05:40)

• Halloween Atmosphere:
  Sam is called to Fairly Pines estate for what appears to be a peculiar party—witches, cauldrons, and costumes abound.

  • Notable moment: The recipe for “witch’s brew” confuses both Sam and his secretary Effie, lending a playful air to the opening.

    “Get out your cauldron, your poisoned pen… I’ll be right down to dictate my report on the Fairly Bright Caper or I should have stood in bed and ducked for apple.” – Sam Spade (02:14)

• Cast Introductions:

  • Effie: Sam’s ever-witty secretary
  • Hillary Bright: The extravagant party host
  • Wilma Fairley: The young bride-to-be with a trail of broken engagements
  • Ophelia Fairley: Wilma’s eccentric mother
  • Langdon: Family lawyer
  • A local witch: Employed for the party

Party Gone Awry (07:00 – 13:25)

• Party Background:
  The masquerade is both a Halloween party and Wilma’s engagement party—but no invited guests arrive, so Hillary brings in uninvited, “colorful” types (gangsters, dancers, a witch, etc.).

• Security Concerns:
  Sam is hired for a hefty fee due to previous crimes at Bright’s parties:

  “At the last party…the guests were held up and robbed of $50,000 worth of jewels, including the chief’s gold badge. So you see, we do need you.” – Hillary Bright (12:35)

The Murder (13:28 – 16:17)

• The Crime:
  Amid the party chaos—a pickpocket, safecracker, axe-murderer, and disarray—Wilma is found shot dead near the bonfire.
  • Clues:
    • Shot from behind, not in the crowd’s line of fire
    • Suspicions swirl around the guests, particularly the witch (who “flew away”) and Ophelia Fairley

Investigation & Clues (17:52 – 23:16)

• The Red Herring:
  Police focus on Ophelia’s odd behavior; she tied bedsheets as a rope out her window.

• Physical Evidence:

  • Gun found in the witch’s cauldron
  • Footprints: feminine (French heels) and masculine (flat, long strides)
  • A burnt telephone book with bullet holes—used to create the illusion of a long-distance shot

• Forensic Details:

  • Ballistics reveals the gun was Langdon’s, but the bullet didn’t match—Langdon tampered with the gun markings using diamond-inset “jeweled” bullets.

• Twists:

  • Langdon had worn women’s French heels to mislead investigators into thinking a woman was the shooter

Resolution (23:47 – 29:04)

• Sam’s deduction:
  The phone book was used to slow the bullet, making the shot appear more skilled and distant than it was, and the use of jeweled bullets changed gun markings.

• Motive:

  "Langdon, as trustee of the Fairleigh estate, had embezzled large sums of money which he would have to account for under the community property law if she got married...when the old lady went soft in the head, he decided to end the danger once and for all." – Sam Spade (28:24)

• Climax:
  After a confrontation in the woods, Langdon is caught (with witchly intervention), and the case is closed.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Sam’s Halloween humor:

  “That’s fairly bright, sweetheart. Except that Mrs. Fairley did not kill her daughter.” – Sam Spade (27:20)

• Witch’s comic relief:

  “I’ll put a spell on you, I will. I’ll turn you into a toad.” – The Witch (20:47)

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Broadway Is My Beat: "Hope Anderson Murder Case"

Timestamps: 30:34 – 57:27

Main Theme

Set in the dark, emotional underworld of Broadway, Detective Danny Clover investigates the murder of Hope Anderson, navigating the secrets and pains that haunt residents of New York’s fringe.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Discovery & Investigation (31:04 – 34:39)

• The Murder:
  Hope Anderson is found dead by a fountain in the Marbury Apartments courtyard; the only witness is the jaded landlady, Ms. Viola Walker.

• Atmosphere:
  The rain, neon, and late-night cityscape contribute to the noir tone.

  “Broadway or darkness drains through the scarlet of neon before it’s called night and the crowd gathers…” – Detective Danny Clover (31:04)

Untangling Relationships (34:39 – 39:52)

• Victim’s Life:
  Jackie Logan, Hope’s roommate, describes Hope as attractive and desired, with both an older and a younger romantic suitor.
• Family Troubles:
  Clover visits Allen Harper’s parents to learn about his whereabouts after discovering Harper's fingerprints on the murder weapon.

Pursuit and Tragedy at Montauk (40:44 – 43:24)

• Setting:
  Clover tracks Alan Harper to an isolated beach cabin in Montauk. The encounter turns violent—Harper is also shot, and Clover is wounded and hospitalized.

• Emotional Impact:
  The aftermath is explored via Clover’s hospitalization and a poignant funeral for Alan, with Alan’s mother, Vera Warren, pleading for justice:

  “Find out who killed my son.” – Mrs. Warren (47:33)

Further Violence & Revelations (50:20 – 56:45)

• Jackie Attacked:
  Jackie Logan is discovered brutally beaten, evidently targeted for knowing too much about the murders.

• The Confrontation:
  Clover confronts the Warren family at the Montauk cabin. Vera is on the edge, gun in hand, revealing layers of grief and mistrust. It’s discovered that Philip Warren, Vera's husband, wanted Hope Anderson himself and mistakenly shot her while intending to kill his stepson, Alan, out of jealousy and rage.

• Dramatic Resolution:
  Vera nearly kills Philip herself, but Clover prevents her. Philip is wounded, and the case ends with somber closure.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Opening Noir Monologue:

  “Broadway is a carnival of shadows that walk the neon midway and scream when they've been cheated of an attraction...” – Detective Danny Clover (44:14)

• Mama’s Grief:

  “Grief isn't a simple thing. It's made up of so much. The lost times and memories, so many later. ... The only thing in my heart that I know the words for. Find out who killed my son.” – Mrs. Warren (47:49)

• Tragic Realization:

  "You didn't mean to kill Hope Anderson, did you, Warren? ... Not the girl, but my son. And finally he murdered Alan, tried to kill you and that poor girl, Jackie." – Clover / Mrs. Warren (56:03)

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Highlights by Timestamp

• [13:25]: Party chaos peaks; murder is discovered.
• [16:17]: Investigation begins, revealing party-goers’ mischief and the witch’s disappearance.
• [23:02]: Forensic twist—bullet fired through phone book.
• [28:24]: Sam Spade explains the full motive and method in the caper’s aftermath.
• [31:04]: Opening atmospheric monologue of Broadway Is My Beat.
• [43:24]: Detective Clover’s hospitalization and the city’s reaction.
• [47:38]: Clover and Vera Warren at Alan’s funeral, exploring mother’s grief and motive.
• [52:21]: Jackie Logan’s brutal beating; reveals the desperation and violence swirling around the case.
• [54:34]: Final confrontation and revelation at the Warren family's Montauk cabin.
• [56:26]: Case closes amid emotional turmoil and a sense of loss.

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Tone & Style

• Sam Spade: Sardonic, wise-cracking, with snappy dialogue and a mockingly affectionate rapport with Effie.
• Broadway Is My Beat: Lyrical, grim, and introspective—emphasizing atmosphere, personal pain, and noir existentialism.

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Conclusion

This Case Closed! episode expertly pairs two vintage mysteries that blend seasonal atmosphere and urban gloom, demonstrating the golden age of radio’s gift for character-driven suspense and emotional resonance. Both stories use clever narrative tricks—Sam Spade with Halloween misdirection and comic relief, Danny Clover with noir pathos and shocking violence—delivering satisfying, haunting mysteries poised between entertainment and tragedy.

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Transcript

[Sam Spade]

Foreign.

[Case Closed Host]

This is Case Closed crime stories from the golden age of radio. Welcome back to Case Closed, your hour of mystery from the golden age of radio every [e-mail] don't forget to visit donate.Relicradio.com if you'd like to help support this and all of the Relic Radio podcasts. Thanks to those who have thanks for joining me this week. We'll begin with the Adventures of Sam Spade and hear the Fairly bright caper from October 31, 1948. After that, it's Broadway is My Beat and the Hope Anderson murder case. That story aired March 31, 1950.

[Narrator/Announcer]

The Adventures of Sam Spade Detective brought to you by Wild Root Cream Oil Hair Tonic, the non alcoholic hair tonic that contains lanolin Wild Root Cream oil again and again. The choice of men and women and children too.

[Effie]

Sam, say detective agency.

[Sam Spade]

Very important, sweetheart. Write this down.

[Effie]

Yes, Sam. I have pencil and paper ready. Ingredients, colon, punctuation or ingredient?

[Hillary Bright]

Sam?

[Effie]

Both. What is it? Sam?

[Hillary Bright]

A recipe. One pound of fennel.

[Effie]

Oh, that's liquid measure, Sam.

[Sam Spade]

You put that in later.

[Effie]

Cross out funnel.

[Sam Spade]

Not funnel. Fennel. It is not liquid. It grows in fairly pines.

[Effie]

It Fairly what, Sam?

[Sam Spade]

One root of St. John's wort.

[Effie]

Whose wort?

[Hillary Bright]

Not wort. Wart.

[Sam Spade]

Oh, don't interrupt some new size. A couple pounds ought to be enough.

[Narrator/Announcer]

One ounce of bats wool.

[Sam Spade]

One adder fork that is not a utensil. One fillet of fenny snake, some lizards legs. One hemlock root digged in the dark directions in the poisoned entrails throw toad that under cold stone days and Nights has 31. And if anyone drops in for trick or treat, Effie, leave him have it.

[Effie]

Oh, Sam, now I get it. Halloween. It's a witch's brew. You were only fooling.

[Sam Spade]

That's what you think, sweetheart. Get out your cauldron, your poisoned pen and your book of malefactions. I'll be right down to dictate my report on the Fairly Bright Caper or I should have stood in bed and ducked for apple.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Dashiell Hammett, America's leading detective fiction writer and creator of Sam Spade, the hard Boiled private Eye, and William Speer, radio's outstanding producer, director of mystery and crime drama, join their talents to make your hair stand on end? Will the Adventures of Sam Spades, presented by the makers of Wild Root Cream Oil for the Hair. Are they saying this about you? There goes somebody who's really well groomed and that can go for every member of your family if they spruce up each day with Wild root Cream Oil. America's favorite hair tonic, Wild Root Cream Oil. Grooms hair neatly and naturally. Relieves dryness, removes loose dandruff. If your family hasn't tried it, get Wild Root Cream Oil. In the new 25 cent bottle. You'll see why Wild Root Cream Oil Hair Tonic is again and again the choice of men and women and children too. And now, with Howard Duff starring as Spade, Wild Root brings to the air the greatest private detective of them all in the Adventures of Sam sp.

[Sam Spade]

Is that the wind dying? Oh, no. It's only two devils that blow through a murderer's bones to and fro. And the ghosts. Moonshine.

[Effie]

Oh, Sam, take off that ridiculous mask. You look about as much like a

[Sam Spade]

demon as a demon. Check. Fly your broom to the adjoining office, sister, and we'll weave a few spells. Date Effie.

[Effie]

Yes, Sam?

[Sam Spade]

What is this thing on my desk? Looks like a pumpkin.

[Effie]

It is a pumpkin. I made it this afternoon. Here, I'll light it.

[Sam Spade]

Well, isn't that cute?

[Effie]

Isn't that cute?

[Sam Spade]

Eyes and nose and mouth. Looks like Lieutenant Dundee of Homicide.

[Effie]

Well, thank you, Sam.

[Sam Spade]

Thank you. Well, I guess everyone knows it's Halloween even if they don't listen to the radio. Shall we?

[Effie]

We shall.

[Sam Spade]

Date all Hallows Eve, 1948. To Hillary Bright, Esquire. Number 13, Black Place City. From Samuel Spade, license number 137596. Subject, the Fairly Bright Caper. It was a fairly bright afternoon for the fog bound Bay area. There was no frost upon the pumpkin. In fact, as yet, no pumpkin. But I did see a black cat and several attractive wolf girls in broomstick skirts during the bus ride down the peninsula to your client's ancestral estate. Fairly Pines. A bat flew out of a hollow tree as I mushed up a road through some pine woods to the house in the gathering dusk. I also observed the toad, a lizard and a hooty owl, which, if memory serves, as staple ingredients for a witch's brood. Then I observed, hobbling out of the forest, an authentic hag. She was wearing a dusty black robe, a peaked black hat and her matted gray hair coiled serpent like around her evil countenance. She leaned on a gnarled staff of hemlock, fixed me with her yellow glittering

[Effie]

eyes and said, hello, kiddo.

[Sam Spade]

Yes'm?

[Effie]

Which way's the house?

[Sam Spade]

Which house?

[Effie]

Fairly fine. Lost my bearings, I did. I was looking for some fennel. I got the bat's wool right enough and newt's legs. Couldn't find no adders for it, but reckon this here copperhead will do the Trick.

[Sam Spade]

What are you gonna do with all that stuff?

[Effie]

It's for the brew. I'm the witch I hired for tonight. Name's Gudge. Born Sophia. But of course, I don't have no Christian name anymore since I sold out to old Scratch. Beat me down on my pray. She did, too. Look at that wart on my nose.

[Sam Spade]

Wart?

[Effie]

Nose, huh?

[Sam Spade]

The house is up that way.

[Effie]

Mind if I walk along with you, pretty boy?

[Sam Spade]

I don't like girls. Not at all, ma'.

[Hillary Bright]

Am.

[Effie]

No need to be afeard with a strong gp. They're obeying me. They'll be lucky if I give them a whiff of brimstone.

[Sam Spade]

Not so close, please.

[Effie]

But I did promise one manifestation and the scream of a soul in torment at the witching hour.

[Hillary Bright]

Yeah.

[Effie]

General. General. Ay, ay, generals. Ready or not, here I come.

[Sam Spade]

I'll shoot. Who is that?

[Narrator/Announcer]

What's your hurry, sir?

[Sam Spade]

Where do I find Mr. Hillary bright?

[Hillary Bright]

Oh, you're the detective.

[Sam Spade]

Spade, right? Oh, I'm Homer Langdon, attorney for the Fairlie Estate. Come along, I'll take you to it. Sorry for that challenge just now. Been hearing strange noises around the grounds. You notice anything peculiar as you came up the road? Well, there was an old lady. I use the term loosely. Looking for fennel. Yeah, that's the witch. Mr. Bright hired her for the party tonight. Takes her work kind of seriously, doesn't she? Well, you know how it is.

[Hillary Bright]

Seasonal work.

[Sam Spade]

What does she do between Halloweens? Claims she hibernates. Gotta feel ya. This is fairly. Spade. She's exposed. Don't let her know. Check.

[Effie]

Oh, here I am. Homer, what was it you wanted? Oh, it's the man from the catering.

[Hillary Bright]

No.

[Sam Spade]

Ophelia, this is Mr. Spade, the detective that Mr.

[Hillary Bright]

Bright employed.

[Effie]

Oh, well, about that recipe for the aspic. Cook says she's never heard of putting fennel and lizard's claws in a tomato aspic. And Mr. Bright says hemlock is poison.

[Sam Spade]

You've got it mixed up, Ophelia. That's the recipe for the witch's brew.

[Effie]

Well, anyway, the grocer says he doesn't stop them, so you'll have to garnish it with parsley.

[Hillary Bright]

Ophelia, he's not the caterer, he's the detective.

[Effie]

Oh, well, keep your eye on those pumpkins. Mice.

[Hillary Bright]

You know mice.

[Effie]

You know mice. Pumpkin. Where is that witch? I've got to tell her about the Parsley. A witch. Mrs. Ro, where are you?

[Sam Spade]

Sad case, but harmless.

[Hillary Bright]

Shall we go in? Yeah. Now watch his jawbone.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Wilma.

[Hillary Bright]

Oh, you've already broken his neck.

[Effie]

Oh, why don't you hire an assistant?

[Hillary Bright]

I don't like hanging him in the house.

[Effie]

Anyway, we, we don't even know who he is.

[Sam Spade]

What are they up to now? Halloween comes but once a year. Oh, it's a skeleton. Part of the decoration.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Hillary.

[Hillary Bright]

Oh, yes, Homer.

[Sam Spade]

I couldn't find the witch, but here's the detective.

[Effie]

Ah, well, you can have the witch. I'll take him.

[Hillary Bright]

Oh, watch what you're doing, Wilma.

[Effie]

The ladder. Sorry.

[Hillary Bright]

This just about completes the arrangements. Oh, this is Ms. Wilma Fairlay, for whom I'm managing this naughtiest ball. Sam Spade.

[Jackie Logan]

Killer.

[Effie]

Is that any way to speak about a girl's fifth engagement party?

[Hillary Bright]

Forgive me if I'm guilty of understatement. Oh, fix that wire, Wilma. The top of Frankenstein's head's caving in. And look at that, the bolster coming out of his neck already. Oh, well, come along, Spade, and I'll tell you how you fit into this mess.

[Effie]

See you at the party, Sam.

[Hillary Bright]

In here, Spade. Privacy.

[Sam Spade]

I don't think we're quite alone, are we?

[Hillary Bright]

99%. This is fairly fiance number five. Ralph Cram by name. Oh, wake up, Ralph.

[Sam Spade]

Don't bother. He started the party a little early before lunch.

[Hillary Bright]

But can you blame him? If I weren't a teetotaler, I'd be out staggering around the woods with that witch.

[Effie]

Uh huh.

[Sam Spade]

Now, what exactly is my assignment, Mr. Bright?

[Hillary Bright]

I want you to be present at this miserable party tonight and pretend to have a good time.

[Sam Spade]

Why didn't you hire an actor?

[Hillary Bright]

This is a new kind of masquerade ball. Even I have a unique problem here. A Halloween party combined with a party announcing the engagement of a socially prominent young woman. Well, naturally the press will be on hand. They always are at my parties. But I doubt if any of the invited guests will show up. That's where you come in. You are one of the uninvited guests.

[Sam Spade]

I don't get it.

[Hillary Bright]

It's very simply this. I have a reputation to maintain. I'm sure you have better things to do than read the society page or like. I'll explain. I believe some ill informed columnists have referred to me as the male Elsa Maxwell. That's not true. She is the male Hilary Bright. Female, that is.

[Sam Spade]

Anyway, you're a professional party givers. Exactly. What's the matter with Wilma? Why won't anybody come to her party?

[Hillary Bright]

Because everyone on the guest list is either a relative or a friend of some poor swain she has guilted on the very steps of the altar.

[Sam Spade]

Oh, now I get it.

[Hillary Bright]

Exactly. Now, as to the party masquerade. Nat. What else could you have on Halloween?

[Sam Spade]

Very good.

[Hillary Bright]

If anyone came, they'd probably be dressed as witches or pumpkins, which is dull enough in itself. But the fairlies in their immediate circle will undoubtedly trot out their moth eaten Beaux Arts cards costume. Oh, Langdon. Is Louis xiv, Wilma and her mother trying to look like Greek goddesses. And some old drapes from a Fanchon and Marco idea.

[Sam Spade]

What about the boyfriend here?

[Hillary Bright]

Well, you can see how hideous it's all going to be. And Life magazine has promised to cover it. Well, I simply had to do something.

[Sam Spade]

What about the boy?

[Hillary Bright]

I think it's the party idea of the year. 20 uninvited guests who will come as themselves.

[Sam Spade]

Who's my date? The witch.

[Hillary Bright]

Oh, isn't she priceless? You know, I thought of burning her at the stake as the grand climax of the evening.

[Sam Spade]

I've got matches.

[Hillary Bright]

No, I decided against it. It's too messy.

[Sam Spade]

Well, it sounds like loads of fun, Mr. Bright, but I'm afraid you called the wrong detective.

[Hillary Bright]

Now, wait a minute. Please, hear me out. Now, there's method in my madness. I believe I mentioned 20 uninvited guests

[Sam Spade]

who are coming as themselves.

[Hillary Bright]

Yes, exactly. Well, I've gone to a great deal of trouble and expense getting together a really colorful group, all authentic types. A gangster, a shrimp fisherman, a swami, three bubble dancers, a gypsy, a paroled axe murderer, a sand hog who. Oh, that reminds me. I must see whether the blubber arrived for that Eskimo. They're flying down from Nome. Yeah, well, what I'm getting at, Spade, is that with a collection of people like that, well, anything might happen.

[Sam Spade]

Yeah, yeah. Well, why didn't you invite the local police force?

[Hillary Bright]

Oh, they're coming in costume, of course.

[Sam Spade]

Good. Then you won't need me. Besides, I get $800 a day and expenses.

[Hillary Bright]

Mr. Spade, at the last party our local chief of police attended, the guests were held up and robbed of $50,000 worth of jewels, including the chief's gold badge. So you see, we do need you.

[Sam Spade]

Hey.

[Hillary Bright]

Oh, go back to sleep, Ralph. It's only the guests arriving.

[Sam Spade]

I get $1,000 a day. You were right. You did need a detective. In fact, you could have used several others. First, the pickpocket you'd invited lifted the police chief's wallet. The axe murderer chased the witch up a tree. And the gangster and the cowboy tried to shoot it out over one of the bubble dancers. After, I'd foiled a safecracker in the act of blowing the vault in the library. Things quieted down and everybody formed a circle around a bonfire.

[Hillary Bright]

All right, quiet, please.

[Effie]

Quiet, everyone.

[Sam Spade]

Quiet.

[Hillary Bright]

Mrs. Fairlie has a very important announcement to make. Ophelia?

[Effie]

She was here just a few moments ago.

[Hillary Bright]

Well, have you seen her around, Langdon?

[Sam Spade]

A few minutes ago. She said she had a headache and went upstairs to get some aspirin.

[Effie]

Sam, I'm worried about Mother. Would you mind going upstairs to see what she's up to? She's been behaving so strangely tonight.

[Sam Spade]

She's been behaving strangely. Sure. Wilma. I'll be right back.

[Hillary Bright]

Come along. Let's get on with it.

[Effie]

A witch agent.

[Hillary Bright]

You stand over here.

[Effie]

Yes.

[Hillary Bright]

No, no, no.

[Effie]

Bring your broom.

[Sam Spade]

That's it.

[Hillary Bright]

And don't look so pleasant. You're supposed to be evil.

[Effie]

Beware. Those not wearing toe veins is subject to wart. There's evil in this place tonight. Blood on the stone. Blood in the cauldron.

[Sam Spade]

I hated to miss the manifestation, and I hoped I'd get back in time for the scream of the soul and torment the witch had promised earlier in the evening, I cased the rooms on the second floor. Wilma's fiance, Ralph Cram, was in one of them. Asleep. Ophelia wasn't in any of them. But in one of the bedrooms, I found something that puzzled me. A rope made out of bed sheets dangled out of the window. But the window was closed. I walked over and opened it. The witch was still at it. I couldn't see the merry little group around the bonfire, but where the firelight glowed against the tree trunks at the edge of the woods, I saw a white robed figure crouching in the shadows. Then I heard it.

[Effie]

Out hand. Don't let any of them get away.

[Hillary Bright]

Right, Chief.

[Sam Spade]

All right, folks, you'll have to step in. It's Wilma Spade. She's dead. Somebody shot her. She was sprawled on her face at the foot of a big pine tree at the edge of the clearing. A single slug at enter the body just below her left shoulder blade. If this was part of Mr. Bright's Halloween performance, I thought he'd overdone it just a little because she was dead. As nearly as I could reconstruct it, Wilma had been standing outside the circle of people grouped around the fire, as if somebody in the woods had called to her and she'd left the group to investigate. She'd been facing the fire when she was shot. And what about the two shots that had missed her if the killer had been aiming at her. And Misty couldn't have avoided hitting somebody else in the crowd. I went back to the house to check the guests. All there unwounded and accounted for, except the witch. According to the local chief of police, it was rapidly turning into a toad she had flown away in a broom. I checked my nose for warts.

[Narrator/Announcer]

The makers of Wild Root Cream Oil are presenting the weekly Sunday adventure of Dashiell Hammett's famous private detective, Sam Spade. Now here's important news on good grooming. If you want the well groomed look that helps you get ahead socially and on the job, listen. Recently, thousands of people from coast to coast who bought Wild Root Cream Oil for the first time were asked, how does wild Root Cream oil compare with the hair tonic you previously used? The results were amazing. Better than four out of five who replied said they preferred Wild Root Cream oil. Remember, non alcoholic wild Root cream oil contains lanolin. It grooms the hair naturally, relieves dryness and removes loose, ugly dandruff. So if you want your hair to be more attractive than ever before, get the generous new 25 cent size of Wild Root Cream Oil. America's leading hair tonic, on sale at all drug and toilet goods counter. It's also available in larger economy bottles and the handy new tube. Get Wild Root Cream Oil again and again. The choice of men and women and children too. And now back to the fairly bright caper, tonight's adventure with Sam Spade.

[Sam Spade]

By dawn the next morning, Aloysius Becker, boy police chief, still hadn't sweated anything out of his 20 odd suspects, but yawned. The family lawyer, Langdon, had an old gun permit. No gun. Then he canvassed the town for Wilma's 18 tilted suitors. They were all alibi by their wives and children, which knocked that angle out. She carried no insurance. Nobody stood to gain anything financially by her death. And nobody but you, Mr. Paul, actively disliked her. About then, Chief Becker, put Ophelia back on the griddle.

[Hillary Bright]

Now look here, Mrs. Fairley, you still aren't coming clean with us.

[Effie]

Clean. Oh, the ashtrays. I'll call the maid.

[Hillary Bright]

Come back here.

[Effie]

Yes, he's better now.

[Hillary Bright]

Sit down, Mrs. Fairley. Now, let's go over the part of your story where we found the bed sheets hanging out your window. Why did you tie the bed sheets together and hang them out the window?

[Effie]

For a rope.

[Hillary Bright]

So you admit that you used that rope to snake out.

[Effie]

I did no such thing. I always go out that way at night.

[Hillary Bright]

And you admit that?

[Sam Spade]

Oh, I Give up, Mrs. Fairly.

[Effie]

Oh, it's you, Mrs. Fairy. I want to thank you for guarding the pumpkin so well. I didn't see a mouse all evening.

[Sam Spade]

Thank you, Mrs. Fairley. I only did what?

[Effie]

Why is Chief Becker so angry?

[Sam Spade]

I think what's worrying him, Mrs. Fairley, is why you closed the window behind you when you went out on your rope.

[Effie]

So no one would know. Wilma worries about me. You won't tell her?

[Hillary Bright]

It's as plain as a nose on your face what she's doing. Working up to an insanity plea.

[Sam Spade]

Ingenious theory, Chief, but look, can I talk to you a minute outside? Yeah.

[Hillary Bright]

Could use a little air. Keep them all here, Monahan.

[Sam Spade]

Look, Chief, why don't you lay off that poor old dame?

[Hillary Bright]

She's too vague.

[Sam Spade]

Disorganized. It took a marksman, the way the wound was. No point of exit. Just punch at the wall of the heart and stop the low velocity impact.

[Hillary Bright]

Sure. A what?

[Sam Spade]

It had been fired from about the maximum range of the.38 pistol. You'd have to figure on the drop in trajectory as the bullet slowed down. It was either a trick shot or one that just connected accidentally.

[Hillary Bright]

By the way, we only have your word for it that you were upstairs in the house when those shots were fired. You carry a.38, don't you, Spade?

[Sam Spade]

What kind of gun do you carry, Chief?

[Hillary Bright]

Yes, well, we'd better wait till Ballistic sends back a report on the slug. Gosh, if we could only figure out where she hid the gun.

[Sam Spade]

Don't look now, Chief, but that witch is back again.

[Hillary Bright]

What?

[Effie]

Mickey, boy, where have you been? I've been looking all over for you, mortal.

[Hillary Bright]

You're gonna have a good deal of explaining to do. Lady, why did you fly away like that last night?

[Effie]

I had to see to my cauldron. A good thing I did, too. Look what I found in it. No wonder my manifestation didn't work. Base metal in my brew.

[Sam Spade]

Hmm.38 caliber, too. Three bullets fired.

[Hillary Bright]

Gee, that settles it. You're under arrest.

[Sam Spade]

Who, me?

[Hillary Bright]

Yes.

[Sam Spade]

But I know her.

[Effie]

Oh, no, you don't. I'll put a spell on you, I will. I'll turn you into a toad.

[Sam Spade]

Look, Chief, where's that gun permit you took out of Langdon's room?

[Hillary Bright]

Oh, I forgot. Forgot about that. Here, it's in my pocket.

[Sam Spade]

Let's see that serial number.

[Hillary Bright]

Well, they match.

[Sam Spade]

And it's Langdon's gun.

[Hillary Bright]

Boy, oh, boy. Then it's settled.

[Sam Spade]

That's what you think. Boy, oh, boy. Don't forget, he's a lawyer. I headed for the woods I found the spot where I'd seen the figure in white, crouching just before the shots were fired. A little way back in the woods, I found footprints. French heels. Short mincing stride. Following along behind them was another set. Flat soles, Long, manly stride. The manish footprints followed the feminine footprints almost to the clearing and then stopped. The feminine footprints went on straight to the spot where Wilma had fallen. I knew that no woman had been over this trail since the murder. Except the witch, who probably had cloven hoofs. Her cauldron had vanished, but the fire was still smoldering. I kicked through the ashes. I didn't know what I was looking for, but I found it. I raked it out with a stick and prodded it. The blackened outer layers crumbled away. It had been a raging bonfire. But there are few things hotter to burn than a telephone book. The middle pages were yellowed from the the heat and seared around the edges, but they were still intact. There was a hole punched in the middle of each page. Feminine footprints right up to the X that marked the spot in the phone book through which a bullet had been fired. I had a hunch the ballistics report would prove that Langdon's gun did not fire the fatal bullet. I was right, but for the wrong reason. Get around it, chief. Ballistics don't lie. You can see here, you don't even need a magnifying glass. Take a look then.

[Hillary Bright]

Don't have my glasses.

[Sam Spade]

Well, you ought to be able to feel it. Two big ridges on the test slug. The other one's almost smooth. Rust bits wouldn't make a ridge like that, would they? No. We figure they must have used a faulty cutter at the factory when they rifled the barrel.

[Hillary Bright]

Well, that settles it. That and those woman's footprints and that phone book all point to Mrs. Fairley.

[Sam Spade]

What's about a phone book? Whoever shot her fired the slug through a phone book to make it look like a long range job. It was a low velocity hit, all right, but it was tearing through that phone book that slowed it down.

[Hillary Bright]

That proves the killer didn't have to be a marksman. Stood right next to her. What's so funny?

[Sam Spade]

This picture in the morning paper.

[Hillary Bright]

You and those bubble dancers, chief. Let me see that. Why, that's libelous.

[Sam Spade]

It's more than that.

[Effie]

Huh?

[Sam Spade]

They're in the background. Langdon and Mrs. Fairley.

[Hillary Bright]

What about them?

[Sam Spade]

Their shoes. Langdon's dress as Louis XIV. French heels. Mrs. Fairley and that Greek goddess. Get up. Sandals. Flat heels.

[Hillary Bright]

It's Langdon's gun. Then it's not Langdon's gun. It's a long range shot. Then it's through a deep catalog phone book. Now it's a man in woman's shoes. An attorney at that. My man. Get me some fingerprints, something I can work with.

[Sam Spade]

I didn't blame the chief. My somersaulting clothes were getting me dizzy, too. So far, Langdon, like the good lawyer he was, had kept his mouth shut, which meant nothing one way or the other. That was smart. But he disposed of his gun by throwing it in the witch's cauldron. Which was stupid, A, because it was sure to be found, and B, because there was no reason for hiding it anyway. But too stupid sometimes make us smart. If he wanted it to be found, he must have had a story ready in case he had to talk. If I were in that spot, my story would have been that I fired those shots into the woods after the fleeing killer. But I didn't know how I would explain the fact that only three shots were hurt, one of which killed Wilma. Then I thought of those two ridges on that test slug. Two ridges, two shots into the woods. This time, I did know what I was looking for. They were buried deep in the soft trunk of a pine tree near the ground. I dropped to my knees and dug. I got the first one out and was looking at it. It was a misshapen hunk of worthless lead. Something embedded in the side of it glittered in the sun like a diamond. In fact, it was a diamond, and it stopped glittering. Something behind me had come between it and the sun. I flopped on my side and rolled over. I grabbed his legs and tripped him. Then I saw his face. It was language. I was halfway to my feet when his foot caught me where it hurt, and my legs doubled up. I tried to keep moving and get my gun out at the same time. He was on his feet again before I was, so I fired without aiming from flat on my back. He only scorched his coat, but it stopped him a second. He swung his gun up, and I got ready to jump him. But I didn't have to. A pointed black hat rose up out of the brush behind him. Something flashed in the sun and he collapsed.

[Effie]

Put a spell on him, I did, with this here magic wand. Blun. Instrument to you, sonny.

[Sam Spade]

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mrs. Witch.

[Effie]

God. Tis the handle, son, which is my profession.

[Hillary Bright]

Well, boy, that was a close call. Put the cuffs on him, Monahan.

[Sam Spade]

Hey, what are you doing?

[Sergeant Gino Tartaglia]

Oh, no.

[Hillary Bright]

Monahan. That Spade Langdon there. Been following him since I found out he was wearing women's shoes. Well, that's settled today, Spade.

[Sam Spade]

Yeah, but you'll need this.

[Hillary Bright]

What is it?

[Sam Spade]

A jeweled bullet. A slug with a diamond set in it.

[Effie]

Come on, girl.

[Sam Spade]

It's the master clue of this caper.

[Hillary Bright]

Oh, yeah, the master clue. You better come along too, lady, for questioning. We'll book her for vagrancy if we need it.

[Effie]

Oh, no, you don't. I'll turn you into a toad. You don't believe me, do you? Huffy toad. Huffy toad. Warty and green. Feel anything?

[Hillary Bright]

Well, on second thought, I reckon she's harmless. Poor old soul.

[Effie]

Soul indeed. Ain't got any. I sold out the old scratch 30 years ago. Come next Halloween. See you then, sonny.

[Sam Spade]

Go home and gargle. Period. End of report.

[Effie]

But, Sam, what was the significance of the jewel bullet?

[Sam Spade]

Oh, well, after he shot Wilma, Langdon fired two shots into the woods, remember?

[Hillary Bright]

Yes.

[Sam Spade]

Those two bullets had diamond insets so placed that they would gouge the inside of the gun barrel. All bullets fired from the gun thereafter would have markings different from the one fired on the Wilmer's body.

[Effie]

Oh, he was wrong, of course. But it was noble of him to want to cover up for poor Mrs. Fairly.

[Sam Spade]

What for, Abby?

[Effie]

Well, she killed her dog, of course, because she was just out of patience with her getting engaged and unengaged all the time till they hadn't a friend in the world. That was the motive, wasn't it, Sarah?

[Sam Spade]

That's fairly bright, sweetheart. Except that Mrs. Fairley did not kill her daughter.

[Hillary Bright]

Langdon did.

[Effie]

You mean she was his daughter, too, by a previous marriage.

[Sam Spade]

Don't take that up, sweetheart, before I turn you into a toad.

[Narrator/Announcer]

And now listen to this, for here's a good tip. Spruce up.

[Hillary Bright]

Right.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Spruce up now with wild root cream oil hair tonic. Wild root cream oil. Grooms your hair neatly and naturally relieves dryness, removes loose dandruff. Get the 25 cent get acquainted bottle or the large economy size. And ask your barber for a professional application of wild root cream oil hair tonic again and again. The choice of men and women and children, too.

[Effie]

Well, here it is, Sam. Of course, you know best that Mrs. Fairleigh was the only one with a motive. And that Mr. Bright was secretly in love with her and wanted to marry her himself.

[Sam Spade]

So he killed her. That was Fairly Bright.

[Effie]

Or her fiance. What happened to him?

[Sam Spade]

He woke up and went home.

[Effie]

Oh, well, I guess he didn't have a motive.

[Sam Spade]

Pay attention, sweetheart. Langdon, as trustee of the Fairleigh estate, had embezzled large sums of money which he would have to account for under the community property law if she got married. He had already broken up many of her romances. But when the old lady went soft in the head, he decided to end the danger once and for all. He could explain matters any way he wanted to, and there'd be nobody to contradict him. Are you listening up,

[Effie]

Sam? What does she do between Halloween, the witch?

[Sam Spade]

Oh, she's the squeak in the door on Innocentum.

[Effie]

Oh, you made the joke too small. Well, good night, Sal.

[Hillary Bright]

Good night, Swim.

[Narrator/Announcer]

The Adventures of Sam Spade, Dashiell Hammett's famous private detective are produced and directed by William Spear. Sam Spade is played by Howard Dove. Lorene Tuttle is Effie. The adventures of Sam Spade are written for radio by Bob Dallman and Gil Dowd. Musical direction by Luck Gluskin with score composed by Renee Garaghan. Join us again next Sunday when author Dashiell Hammett and producer William Speer join forces for another adventure with Sam Spade, brought to you by Wild Root Cream Oil. Again and again, the choice of men and women and children too. This is Dick Joy reminding you to get Wild Root Cream oil, Charlie. It keeps your hair in trim, you see. It's non alcoholic, Charlie.

[Hillary Bright]

It's made with Susan Lanolin.

[Narrator/Announcer]

You better get Wild Root Cream oil, Charlie. Start using it today. You'll find that you will have a tough time, Charlie, keeping all the gals away.

[Hillary Bright]

Hiya, baldy. Get Wild Road right away.

[Narrator/Announcer]

This is CBS, where 99 million people gather every week. The Columbia Broadcasting System.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Broadway's My Beat. From Times Square to Columbus Circle. The gaudiest, the most violent, the lonesomest mile in the world.

[Narrator (Broadway's My Beat)]

Broadway's my beat. With Larry Thor as detective Danny Clover.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Broadway or darkness drains through the scarlet of neon before it's called night and the crowd gathers the people of twilight till dawn. The crowd that coils upon itself then lashes out into the furious streets. You move with it, afraid to look back over your shoulder because the sound drifting by you. Was it a laugh or a cry? There's nothing in between. It's Broadway, my beat. The message was handed to me at my desk at headquarters, and the message was specific. The courtyard of the Marbury Apartments in Greenwich Village. And the message had a code number to make the matter more easily classified murder translated into two digits. It is my department. So I went. The courtyard surrounded by slabs of building. Nothing except the cascade of a fountain tossing the filtered yellow lights from apartment windows. That and a girl lying there, her fingers trailing in the water. And a woman standing beside her being angry about the whole thing.

[Viola Walker]

Well, well, I see you finally got here.

[Detective Danny Clover]

I finally did. Who are you?

[Viola Walker]

Now it starts. Who am I? What am I doing here? What's this all about? How much of this is going to be in the papers?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Probably all of it. You called the questions. Answer them.

[Viola Walker]

Viola Walker, owner, manager of the Marbury Apartments. Look it up.

[Jackie Logan]

Age?

[Viola Walker]

None of your business. And the girl lying there is a tenant, Hope Anderson. She's dead. Now. What about the newspapers?

[Detective Danny Clover]

That bothers you? Why?

[Viola Walker]

Look, listen to me. I've got an apartment house here. Respectable for girls only. Sure, they can have men callers at certain hours. Who am I to warp young women by? No men callers, but respectable. Understand that, mister? The newspaper. The girl, Hope Anderson. I told you that she's dead. I told you that too.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Yeah, you did. And I believed you. Now try me on. How come you're here?

[Viola Walker]

This way. I was on the balcony of my apartment. That one up there. I was sniffing the moonlight. I looked down on the fountain. Cause it goes with the moonlight. Hope Anderson lying there didn't go with anything at all.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Go on.

[Viola Walker]

I came down, saw what happened. Then I posted a notice on the bulletin board. No one allowed in the courtyard tonight. Then I call headquarters. Look, mister, don't you want to look at that? The gun lying there. I saw it. How come you didn't see it?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Yeah, equipped with a silencer. More about the girl, Ms. Walker.

[Viola Walker]

How do I know? She roomed in apartment six with.

[Jackie Logan]

With, let me see.

[Viola Walker]

Jackie Logan and Jackie Logan.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Tell me about her.

[Viola Walker]

Sure. She roomed an apartment six with Hope Anderson. And she's been out all night. Now listen to me. If the newspapers get this, it'll give my apartment house a bad reputation.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Death by violence creates its own after patterns of behavior. For some, the pattern is desolation. The paths of shock, then anguish, then emptiness. For Viola Walker, it was none of these. An animal had crawled into her backyard and died. For her, it was simply a matter of removal. But a policeman. A policeman has no choice. For him, the pattern is known, laid out, to be followed. So I followed it. The body of a girl who was once Hope Anderson was taken away. The gun that had killed her was turned over to the experts of death. The men in technical and the policeman. The policeman went back to the Marbury Apartments to talk to the good friend of a dead girl.

[Jackie Logan]

Yeah? Yeah, Mr. Clover. I was Hope's friend. Girls like Hope and me, we don't have a friend in the world. So we nail onto each other. That makes it bearable.

[Detective Danny Clover]

And now that Hope's dead, how will it be, Jackie?

[Jackie Logan]

Unbearable. For a while. Maybe for a long time. Want me to brew you some instant coffee under the hot water faucet? Sometimes it comes out good.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Thanks. I'd like some.

[Jackie Logan]

You'll have it in an instant. What I always say is, what I always like about this town is you can always get hot water. This can get to be something desired, something hoped for. Here you are, Mr. Clover.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Thanks. That's good. I missed mine this morning.

[Jackie Logan]

Yeah, me too.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Tell me about Hope, Jackie.

[Jackie Logan]

Hope was a girl like me, only more attractive, more sought after, as the saying goes.

[Detective Danny Clover]

And she did have other friends.

[Jackie Logan]

Well, yeah.

[Detective Danny Clover]

All right, let's start with them.

[Jackie Logan]

I'd say there were two. That's right, two. And they were like in a novel, Mr. Clover. An older man and a young man. The young man with a fire inside him that could burn him up, the older man with a fire that was dying are rivals for the favors of Hope Anderson. I phrase it this way because I read novels in my leisure time. They're so lifelike.

[Detective Danny Clover]

And their names.

[Jackie Logan]

Care for another cup of instant coffee?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Only their names, Jackie.

[Jackie Logan]

There's something else you should know about Hope and me, Mr. Clover. We never discuss names, manners, education, how they treat little animals, bank accounts, but never names. Sure you don't want any more coffee?

[Sam Spade]

No.

[Detective Danny Clover]

But do something else for me, Jackie. Keep thinking about the names when you remember them. Maybe it'll be better all round if you come to me at headquarters.

[Sergeant Gino Tartaglia]

Danny. Danny.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Yeah.

[Sergeant Gino Tartaglia]

Hi.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Hello, Titaglia.

[Sergeant Gino Tartaglia]

Hi.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Okay, okay. What about it? What did Technical turn up with facts? You'll tell me, huh?

[Sergeant Gino Tartaglia]

Technical report, to wit. The gun found at the scene at the fountain was a Luger of the type much sought after as souvenirs from the last and costliest war. It had been recently cleaned and had been fired only once. And you know what?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Do it gently, d'. Adeglia.

[Hillary Bright]

What?

[Sergeant Gino Tartaglia]

It was only fired only once because there had been only one bullet in the clip. Said bullet was found postmortemly to be the one that killed Hope Anderson. Now comes the good pot.

[Detective Danny Clover]

I'm clutching onto the desk.

[Sergeant Gino Tartaglia]

There were fingerprints on the gun. Fingerprints that can be and were identified. Last night we sent the Prince and Code to Washington. This morning they came back with a name and address.

[Detective Danny Clover]

And it's who?

[Sergeant Gino Tartaglia]

Alan Harper, late of the U.S. naval, where he served well and honorable address, 8950 Madison Avenue. How did I do, madam?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Lieutenant Dandy Tortaglio. Just Jim Dandy?

[Philip Warren]

Yes. What Is it?

[Detective Danny Clover]

The doorman told me to ask at this apartment. I'm looking for Alan Harper.

[Philip Warren]

Alan is not here. Didn't the doorman tell you that too?

[Detective Danny Clover]

He did, but I need to find out for myself. I'm from.

[Philip Warren]

If you're a friend of Allen's, believe me when I tell you that he's not here. If you're not a friend, it would be rudeness to prolong this, wouldn't it?

[Detective Danny Clover]

You didn't let me finish. I'm from the police.

[Philip Warren]

Oh. Alan's in trouble, then?

[Detective Danny Clover]

I didn't say that. Let's talk inside, shall we?

[Philip Warren]

Mr. Philip Warren. I'm Alan's stepfather.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Inside, Mr. Warren.

[Philip Warren]

Yes. Yes, of course. Alan's mother is my wife. Perhaps if you told me what you

[Detective Danny Clover]

want with Alan, you could make it easier for her. Exactly why do you think you need to do that, Mr. Warren? What frightens you about my wanting Alan Harper?

[Philip Warren]

Why.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Why?

[Philip Warren]

Only that when a policeman comes to one's door, one assumes there there's been violence in some greater or lesser degree.

[Jackie Logan]

Violence? Did I hear violence, Philip?

[Philip Warren]

Oh, this gentleman is from the police, Vera.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Mr. Danny Clover.

[Philip Warren]

Mr. Danny Clover. My wife, Mrs. Vera Warham.

[Jackie Logan]

The police.

[Philip Warren]

It's about Alan, Vera. Mr. Clover came to the door and said he was looking for Alan. I tried to find out. Why, because I wanted to spare you.

[Jackie Logan]

Spare me from what? Philip? I'm sure Alan never in his life did anything his mother could be ashamed of. What do you want with Alan, Mr. Clover?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Is he here, Mrs. Warren?

[Jackie Logan]

No. You may look for yourself if you find it compulsory not to believe me.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Where is he?

[Jackie Logan]

I don't know. That can't surprise you, Mr. Clover. Alan is a man. Let Mr. Clover speak himself, Philip. He hasn't finished. You were saying, Mr. Clover?

[Detective Danny Clover]

I was saying where would Alan hide if he were wanted for murder?

[Philip Warren]

You see, I knew. I felt it. I felt it was something that.

[Jackie Logan]

What could you have felt about Alan, Philip? Alan is my son.

[Philip Warren]

I only meant nothing, Vera. Nothing.

[Jackie Logan]

You said murder, Mr. Clover. Whose murder?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Hope Anderson's.

[Jackie Logan]

Oh, yes. I read about it in the papers. And you think Alan murdered that girl, this Ms. Anderson?

[Detective Danny Clover]

His fingerprints were on the gun that killed her.

[Jackie Logan]

Nothing, nothing will make me believe my boy is a murderer. And I don't know where he's hiding. Hiding? That's your word. May Alan forgive me for using it. Show Mr. Clover to the door, Philip. I'm sure we have nothing else to say.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Yes.

[Philip Warren]

Come, Mr. Clover.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Please. Please, Mrs. Warren, if you know anything. Show me the door, Warren.

[Philip Warren]

One moment, Mr. Clover.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Yes?

[Philip Warren]

Vera knows where Alan is. So do I.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Why are you telling me, Mr. One?

[Philip Warren]

Because I believe it will go better with Alan if you find him. The life of a fugitive is not a savory one, Mr. Clover. The boy should have given himself up. The boy must have been.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Where is he?

[Philip Warren]

He has a king cabin on the beach at Montauk. He called Vera and told her he was there. Vera told me and I am.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Where in Montauk?

[Philip Warren]

It's rather remote, hard to find.

[Detective Danny Clover]

I have it.

[Philip Warren]

I'll draw you a map.

[Detective Danny Clover]

And he did. In a neat hand with landmarks and compass heading so that it would be impossible to miss the place. I stopped at a lunch counter for spud nuts and coffee until the Long island train was ready to leave. At Montauk there was no cab waiting, so I had to walk. The beach was narrow and pebbled, hugging the slow curve of the ocean. And to the left, the high sand dunes, here and there flecked with the remains of an early season's bonfire. It was warm for early spring and no movement but the pound and heave of surface, the spray. It was a speck down the beach. In a while it became a cabin. And a figure standing there before it. A man dressed in flannel shirt and dungarees, no shoes. I walked up to him. Hello. Hello. Beautiful day. Fine day for walking. Yeah, it is. You're Alan Harper, all right. Yeah. My name's Harper. Police? Uh huh. You shouldn't have run, Harper. Whatever your story is now, it's a bad story.

[Philip Warren]

Bad from the beginning.

[Detective Danny Clover]

What happened, you and the girl, Hope Anderson. What reason did you have for killing her? None. That's why I didn't kill her. That's why my story's bad. I'll listen to it. She had just told me she was in love with me. Just then, at that moment, she made up her mind and she was sure of it. And just then, at that moment, she died.

[Hillary Bright]

How?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Shot, I guess. It was a funny popping noise. Hope fell and something clattered at my feet. A gun. A Luger. Somebody threw it there. I picked it up and tried to fire at someone who was running away. Nothing. No more bullets. There's someone. Did you see Alan? The picture held for an instant. The boy clawing at his chest and the life spilling from him. The pain sharp and precise and focused. It pinched at my shoulder and flared out and it wavered. Dissolved, I thought, lying there, looking at the single pebble that somehow was in my outstretched hand. How red it was, how orange. How it Spun like a million spinning lights. And there was nothing. Nothing at all.

[Narrator (Broadway's My Beat)]

You are listening to Broadway's My Beat, written by Morton Fine and David Friedkin and starring Larry Thor as Detective Danny Clover. The cream of the fun. And songs on Arthur Godfrey's daytime shows are now brought to you in a half hour special, Godfrey Digest, every Saturday night on cbs. So if a date with the dentist, the hairdresser with a traffic ticket in court, kept you from hearing one of the daytime shows this week, or if you want a fast half hour of Godfrey humor and songs by Jeanette Davis, Bill Lawrence and the Mariners, listen in every Saturday night to the Godfrey Digest on most of these same CBS stations.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Broadway is a carnival of shadows that walk the neon midway and scream when they've been cheated of an attraction. They bought it, they paid for it. It belongs to them. To the ravenous shadows. They told me Broadway felt that way about me. It made Broadway's front pages. They told me how a kid found me on the beach at Montauk lying under a web of seaweed. How the body of Alan Harrison was torn out of the fingers of the hungry tide. They told me how I'd been taken to a small hospital overlooking the sea and Broadway was wounded because a spectacle like that should have been played in Broadway's own gutter. Then a quiet voice told me I had a visitor. Sergeant Gino Tartaglia. Danny. Danny, speak to me. Good morning, Sergeant Totaglia.

[Sergeant Gino Tartaglia]

Good morning.

[Hillary Bright]

Good morning, Lieutenant Clover.

[Sergeant Gino Tartaglia]

I hope you are in the mood for a visitor from the beyond.

[Detective Danny Clover]

From the beyond?

[Sergeant Gino Tartaglia]

Yeah, from all the way beyond Manhattan. All my life I lived in New York. I never realized such a place like

[Detective Danny Clover]

this existed in the outskirts. You can speak up to Taglia. I'm not dead, Danny.

[Sergeant Gino Tartaglia]

How can I tell you how glad I am to hear that from your own lips? I've been visiting here for two days now. This is the first time they let me see you. There ought to be a law.

[Detective Danny Clover]

How do you got in that package, Tartaglia?

[Sergeant Gino Tartaglia]

Oh, a get well confection from Mrs. Tartaglia. Last night she went to the mixmaster and beat up an old Italian recipe that makes people get well. Here, here, Danny, it's for you.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Thank Mrs. Tartaglia for me.

[Sergeant Gino Tartaglia]

We'll call you. Feel up to official business, Danny, in the physical wreck you are in?

[Detective Danny Clover]

I'm up to it. The question is, are you?

[Sergeant Gino Tartaglia]

Oh, sure, Danny, sure. I'm in the pink. Well, let's get down to official business. You need not think, Danny, that we have been likes at the department, during your regrettable absence, we have been on the ball.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Congratulations.

[Sergeant Gino Tartaglia]

Thank you. We have found, for example, that the footprints leading to the dune from which your assailant shot at you and the deceased, Allan Harper, said footprints have been obliterated beyond recognition by the sands of time.

[Detective Danny Clover]

That's a big ball. What else?

[Sergeant Gino Tartaglia]

The bullets extracted from you and the said deceased, Mr. Harper, have no similarity to any bullets, living or dead, that have been used in the commission of any previous murders or attacks.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Jolly. Anything else?

[Sergeant Gino Tartaglia]

No, no, nothing, Danny. Except that the funeral of the deceased, Mr. Harper, is taking place this afternoon at 2 o' clock in the Orwell cemetery.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Oh, go tell a nurse. I want my clothes to Taglia.

[Sergeant Gino Tartaglia]

Danny. You got it in your mind to leave me. You can't do that. You are pale and wen and weak.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Get my clothes to Taglia. I have to go to a funeral. Outside of Montauk, it began to rain. A misty drizzle. It seemed suspended, melting the houses and movement and sky into a sudden blur. And it held. Later, when we'd gotten back into the city and Tartaglia let me off at Orwell Cemetery, the rain seemed to have let up some, but it was still there. The wet, the chill, the grayness. At the gate, a man answered my question by pointing to a small group of people gathered about a mound of newly turned earth. I waited. Then when they moved away, when there was only one figure standing there, a woman, then I walked up to her. A woman with eyes closed against the shape of her son's final identity with the world. Mrs. Warren. Mrs. Warren, I didn't have a chance to tell you how sorry I am.

[Viola Walker]

You're.

[Detective Danny Clover]

I'm Danny Clover, Mrs. Warren. We've met. I was at your home.

[Jackie Logan]

Yes. Yes, I know you, mister. You want to talk to me, don't you?

[Detective Danny Clover]

There's no hurry.

[Jackie Logan]

Consider it this way, Mr. Clover. Grief isn't a simple thing. It's made up of so much. The lost times and memories, so many later. And there's this all mixed up with it. The only thing in my heart that I know the words for. Find out who killed my son.

[Detective Danny Clover]

We'll do that. We'll do that, Mrs. Warren.

[Jackie Logan]

You see, when he came home, when Alan came home from the Navy, he found Philip there. Philip? My husband. I had married again. I didn't tell Alan.

[Detective Danny Clover]

That's why Alan moved up to that cabin in Montauk.

[Jackie Logan]

I tried to get Alan to like Philip. Philip understood, did everything to make. Well, it was difficult.

[Detective Danny Clover]

And Alan's friends. This is the Thing we have to know somewhere. Someplace. Your son. Your son touched another person because of the. He was killed.

[Jackie Logan]

I don't know. After Alan met Philip, it seemed he didn't trust me. His friends were his secret.

[Detective Danny Clover]

How about Hope Anderson? She was his friend. Your son told me that. His good friend, Mrs. Warren. He was with her when she died.

[Jackie Logan]

I don't know. And I didn't know.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Listen to me.

[Philip Warren]

It.

[Detective Danny Clover]

It could have happened like this. Whoever shot Hope Anderson had meant to shoot Allen. Whoever that was missed the first time. Killed Hope instead.

[Jackie Logan]

Maybe.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Maybe we'd better go now, Mrs. War. It's starting to rain. Harder, Hugo.

[Jackie Logan]

I'll be all right. Somehow the rain. Well, it doesn't matter. I'll be all right. Mr. Cl.

[Sergeant Gino Tartaglia]

Hold still, Danny. I don't want the knot in your tie. Should look sloppy. Yeah. Well, Danny, if I do say so myself, I feel much better now. You are arrayed in dry clothes.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Thanks for helping me change the taglia. My arm and a sling.

[Sergeant Gino Tartaglia]

What am I going to do with you, Danny? You rise out of a sick bed without permission. You go to a funeral, stand in a wet rain. Get wet. Any one of these things could have waited.

[Detective Danny Clover]

I wonder if she's still there. To Daglia. I tried to take her home, but she wouldn't let me.

[Sergeant Gino Tartaglia]

Who, Danny?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Mrs. Warren. It's still raining.

[Sergeant Gino Tartaglia]

Exactly. And you are to stay out of Seine. You hear me, Danny?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Okay. Okay.

[Sergeant Gino Tartaglia]

Good. Now I will bring you in a visitor who has been waiting to see you.

[Philip Warren]

Who?

[Sergeant Gino Tartaglia]

A dame. A lady by the name Viola Walker.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Why didn't you tell me she was here?

[Sergeant Gino Tartaglia]

I thought it was more imperative you should get him to drive. Okay. Okay. I said I'd bring her in. You go right in.

[Viola Walker]

It's positively outrageous the way a citizen is treated around here. How long do you think you can keep a citizen waiting? After all, you're only a public servant.

[Detective Danny Clover]

You could write a letter to a newspaper. Ms. Walker.

[Effie]

You see?

[Viola Walker]

You see how you treat us? The innocent victims of injustice, the downtrodden.

[Detective Danny Clover]

I plead for you, Ms. Walker. Who could have done you an injustice? Give it a name.

[Viola Walker]

Jackie Logan. That's the name. That's the thing that did it to me.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Jackie.

[Hillary Bright]

What did she do when you were

[Viola Walker]

at the Marbury Apartments? The apartments I preside over. I told you they were nothing if not respectable. Remember that?

[Detective Danny Clover]

I remember. I remember. A girl was murdered there, too. Hope Anderson, wasn't it?

[Viola Walker]

I'm like a mother to those girls. They have no secrets from me. I keep none from them.

[Sam Spade]

You're hurt.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Because Jackie kept a secret from you.

[Viola Walker]

She's no good, that one. She's rotten and unhappy. She knows more about Hope's murder than you'll ever find out. I wanted her to tell me about it, to talk it over like mother to daughter. So that we could both share it with. With you. Police.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Thanks.

[Viola Walker]

And do you know what the snip did to me? She moved out, bag and baggage. And when I pleaded with her to come back, do you know what she did to me?

[Detective Danny Clover]

You'll tell me anyway, won't you, Miss Wallace?

[Viola Walker]

She slapped me and scratched my face. See?

[Effie]

See?

[Viola Walker]

Look at this horrible scar. You've got to arrest her.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Where is she?

[Viola Walker]

I made a point of finding that out. She's at the Kearney Hotel in the Bowery. A dirty, pest ridden fleabag. Imagine she left my elegant apartments for that.

[Detective Danny Clover]

All right, Ms. Walker, you can go now.

[Viola Walker]

But I'm not finished.

[Detective Danny Clover]

I said you could go. Get out of my sight. Ms. Walker. Jackie. Jackie Logan. Open up. It's Danny Clover. Jackie.

[Jackie Logan]

Come in.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Yeah. The place was a mess. Like a big wind had ripped him through there and died like that. And as if somebody had tried desperately hard to destroy everything he could lift or turn over. The bed had been slammed up into a corner and the headboard wrenched off so that the edge of the mattress touched the floor. And on a. A girl. Jackie Logan, staring with unbelieving eyes. Thin lines of blood crisscrossed her face like some abstract design of horror. And over all of it, the pink and blue that stuttered through the window from a sign that read Carney Hotel, your home away from home. Jackie. Jackie, what happened?

[Jackie Logan]

He'll die. I swear he'll die.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Tell me. Tell me, Jackie. Who was it? I'll get you some water. Here, drink this.

[Effie]

I can't. I can't.

[Detective Danny Clover]

We'll get you to a doctor.

[Jackie Logan]

Don't touch me.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Later, then. Tell me about it.

[Jackie Logan]

Nothing. I fell down.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Look, someone tried to kill you.

[Jackie Logan]

I fell down.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Why didn't he kill you? Hope Anderson's dead. And Alan Harper. Why didn't he kill you, Jackie?

[Effie]

He died.

[Jackie Logan]

He thought I was dead. He beat me. Thought I was dead.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Who? Tell me who.

[Jackie Logan]

That's gonna be my way. Because he thinks I'm dead. I got a good thing, Jackie.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Look, I can arrest you even with you like this for withholding evidence. Don't you know that?

[Jackie Logan]

Jackie, I'm delirious. I don't know what. I said. Nothing happened.

[Detective Danny Clover]

He beat you because you know something about him. Because you know he killed Hope. Anderson. And why is that? Why you were blackmailing him?

[Jackie Logan]

Jackie, I felt.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Don't you want to get back at whoever did this?

[Effie]

I done that.

[Jackie Logan]

Ask her. Ask Mrs. Warren. She.

[Effie]

Oh, get me a doctor.

[Jackie Logan]

Mr. Clover.

[Detective Danny Clover]

The police ambulance came and took her away. And its siren was loud to cover the sound of her screaming. Then I went to the Warren apartment. The doorman told me that they weren't at home, that they'd gone somewhere. To Montauk, he thought. So I went there. This time it was night and rain. The sounds of desolation that only the wind and the sea can shape. And finally, the cavern with its feeble yellow light washing against the darkness.

[Sam Spade]

Mr. Clover.

[Jackie Logan]

Stand where you are. Mr. Clover.

[Detective Danny Clover]

I came at the right time, didn't I? Mrs. Warren, maybe you better give me that gun.

[Jackie Logan]

No, no. I was just showing it to my husband. See it, Philip? This is a souvenir of war. Alan brought back a Japanese revolver. It's clean and loaded. Alan was always a good boy. Neat. A good boy.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Talk to her. Take it away from her.

[Detective Danny Clover]

She doesn't know what she's doing.

[Jackie Logan]

Don't try. Mr. Clover, why don't you go over there and dry yourself by the fire? Mrs. Warren, I. I was just telling Philip that my son. My son built that fireplace with his own hands, stone by stone. I've been showing Philip things that were a part of my son's life.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Mrs. Warren, I've just left a girl who said she told you something over the phone. Jackie Logan. What did she tell you?

[Jackie Logan]

She sounded very ill, as if she were in great pain.

[Detective Danny Clover]

She was. She'd been beaten so hard that whoever did it thought she was dead.

[Jackie Logan]

Now. Oh, no.

[Detective Danny Clover]

What did she tell you, Mrs. Warren? Was it that she was blackmailing your husband?

[Philip Warren]

What are you talking about?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Are you out of your mind?

[Jackie Logan]

You think us all out of our minds, don't you, Philip? Mr. Clover? Me? How did you know that, Mr. Clover?

[Detective Danny Clover]

I didn't. But it fits a. Viola Walker came to me, told me to arrest Jackie because Jackie had slapped her face and left her board in bed. When I saw Jackie, I knew it was more than that. Viola wanted in on something. Blackmail, maybe. She should have seen what blackmailing did to Jackie.

[Jackie Logan]

But Philip saw. Didn't you, Philip? Oh, there are so many things to kill you for, Philip. For wanting a girl my son loves.

[Detective Danny Clover]

You didn't mean to kill Hope Anderson, did you, Warren?

[Jackie Logan]

Of course he didn't, Mr. Clover. Not the girl, but my son. And finally he murdered Alan, tried to kill you and that poor girl. Jackie. Oh, alan, watch out. Mr. Clover, this gun, Philli Aaron's gun. I'm going to kill you with.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Mrs. Warren.

[Sergeant Gino Tartaglia]

Mrs. Warren.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Give it to me.

[Effie]

Don't. Don't stop me.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Not that way. Give it to me.

[Effie]

He's getting away. I said I'd kill him and he's getting away.

[Hillary Bright]

The gun,

[Narrator (Broadway's My Beat)]

Warren.

[Sam Spade]

Stop.

[Hillary Bright]

Don't be a fool, Warren.

[Detective Danny Clover]

All right, Mrs. Warren. It's only a leg wound, huh?

[Jackie Logan]

Mr. Clover, you should have let me. Chill,

[Detective Danny Clover]

Broadway for the buildings of the night. Lean against the darkness in crazy tilted angles and walk carefully, kid or you'll upset their balance. It's a street where you walk the high wire Else you gotta play it safe in a cage. It's Broadway. The gaudiest, the most violent, the lonesomest mile in the world. Broadway. My beat.

[Narrator (Broadway's My Beat)]

Broadway's my beat. Stars Larry Thor as Detective Danny Clover. With Charles Calvert as Tartaglia. The program was produced and directed by Elliot Lewis. The musical score was composed and conducted by Alexander Courage. The cast tonight included Francis Chaney, Jody Gilbert, Don Oreck, Ida Rees Marin and Herb Butterfield. No one has ever devised a satisfactory get rich quick plan. But your government has a plan whereby you can save money automatically and get a good return on your savings. It's the payroll savings plan for the purchase of United States Savings bonds. By means of this plan, your employer will set aside a small amount of money from your paycheck for the purchase of bonds. If there is no payroll savings plan where you work or if you are self employed, you can sign up with the bond a month plan at your bank. Under this arrangement, the bank buys a bond a month for you and charges it to your checking account. You will find United States savings bonds are a profitable investment and they're as safe as your government. Start buying United States savings bonds today. Joe Walter speaking. This is CBS where you dance to the music of Vaughn Monroe Saturday nights, the Columbia broadcasting System.

[Case Closed Host]

There's more from Sam Spade, Broadway is my beat, Case Closed alongside all of the other Relic Radio podcasts at the website relicradio.com you can donate through that website. You can listen to our shoutcast, stream through that website and find everything Relic radio@ Relicradio.com thanks for joining me today. Be back next Wednesday with another hour of mystery on Case closed.