Broadway Is My Beat: The Mary Smith Murder Case 12/08/1951

Summary

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Podcast Summary: "Broadway Is My Beat: The Mary Smith Murder Case"

Podcast: Choice Classic Radio Detectives
Date: January 28, 2026
Original Air Date: December 8, 1951
Host: Choice Classic Radio
Lead Character: Detective Danny Clover (played by Larry Thor)

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Episode Overview

This episode of "Broadway Is My Beat" plunges listeners into the stark, wintry loneliness of Broadway as Detective Danny Clover investigates the murder of a mysterious young woman found dead in a transient hotel. What begins as the case of a Jane Doe quickly deepens into a layered story of unfulfilled dreams, jealousy, and artistic ambition. Detective Clover unravels the connections between the victim, her publisher, a devoted patron, and a tormented young writer—culminating in a tragic double death and a final, bitter confession.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Discovery: "Mary Smith" Found Dead

• Setting: Hotel Savannah, late at night; atmosphere is intensely evocative, "a room of transients." [00:56]
• Key Moment: Mr. Burgess, the hotel manager, discovers the body with a bullet wound—immediately doubts suicide.
• Quotes:
  • "The Savannah's getting quite a reputation for... oh, this is the room now. That's how I found her. Right there on the bed. I could tell right away she wasn't a suicide. That bullet hole." – Mr. Burgess [01:51]
• Details: No luggage, registered as Mary Smith, no clear trace of visitors.

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2. The Victim's Identity: Not "Mary Smith," but Peg Ramsey

• Investigation: Fingerprints sent to FBI. Sergeant Gino Tartaglia provides the identification.
• Revelation:
  • "According to the info lately come to hand... this Mary Smith was not a Mary Smith... Peg Ramsey... formerly of the Women's Army Corps... a member of the publishing firm Taggart and Ramsey on Lower Madison." – Gino Tartaglia [04:17]
• Victim’s Background: Publishing executive, respected, with a discerning eye for literary talent.

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3. The Literary World: Motives & Relationships

• Interview with Mr. Taggart (Co-publisher):
  • Reveals Peg’s importance at the firm and her special relationship with a young writer, William Walter, believed by many to be exceptionally talented. [05:08–07:21]
  • "It's my belief from observing Peg, that she mixed the two up for this boy." – Mr. Taggart [06:50]
• Mention of Janice Kirk: The self-styled patron who brought Walter from North Carolina to New York.
• Insight: Artistic ambition and personal relationships are entangled—all suspects have reason for envy, resentment, or heartbreak.

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4. Interview with Janice Kirk: The Patron's Passion

• Setting: The Ruxton Hotel, a sophisticated lounge.
• Highlights:
  • Janice's intense involvement in Walter's career, her loneliness, and her possessiveness.
  • "Wasn't it I that discovered the burning tree of talent in him? Wasn't it I that beat him, tortured him, soothed him till he put it all on paper?" – Janice Kirk [09:21]
• Reactions: She is defensive when questioned about the murder and her role in the young writer’s life.

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5. A Second Death: William Walter Found Dead

• Plot Twist: A call summons Clover to the Savannah Hotel again: William Walter, the rising star author, is dead in the same room as Peg Ramsey. [10:04–11:05]
• Scene: Apparent suicide, a pistol in hand, with a poetic note left behind.

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6. Evidence & Doubts: Suicide or Not?

• Physical Evidence:
  • Gun that killed both Peg Ramsey and William Walter is the same. [15:13]
  • A marriage license for William Walter and Peg Ramsey is found in Walter's pocket. [14:06]
• Note Analysis:
  • The note, though heartfelt, makes no explicit mention of suicide.
  • "Show me where he says he's gonna kill himself. Show me where it says that." – Danny Clover [15:55]
• Insight: Clover suspects deeper motives and connections.

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7. Emotional Fallout: Confessions & Confrontations

• Janice Kirk’s Meltdown: Attempts to claim Walter's body, reveals her love and growing bitterness. [16:18–17:24]
• Mr. Taggart’s Interest: Is more concerned with the potential to publish Walter’s novel posthumously—a cynical side of literary publishing. [18:17–19:07]

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8. The Missing Manuscript

• Lead: Tonto Jones, responsible for author bios, had the manuscript but gave it to Janice Kirk days before. [21:02–22:04]
• Clover’s Deduction: Confronts Janice Kirk.
• Confession: Janice admits she destroyed Walter's novel before even reading it. [24:17]
  • "I burned it before I read it. As soon as I got it here, I tore it up and burned it." – Janice Kirk [24:21]
• Motive for Murder Revealed: Driven by jealous rage after learning of Walter’s plan to secretly marry Peg Ramsey, Janice killed Peg.
  • "Even if I had killed her, could you blame me?" – Janice Kirk [25:00]
• When Walter discovers her crime, he rejects her; she is left with nothing but hate.

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9. Resolution & Reflection

• Arrest: Janice Kirk is taken away, consumed by bitterness and rage.
• Clover’s Closing Thought: Reflects on the isolation, pain, and fleeting dreams that haunt Broadway and those who chase stardom.
• Memorable Ending Quote:
  • "Night bursts open like a sudden flame on Broadway... until the night soaks up the sound and pain and color and turns it into dawn. It's Broadway – the gaudiest, the most violent, the lonesomest mile in the world. Broadway – my beat." – Detective Danny Clover [26:03]

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Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• Atmospheric Opening:
  "When the winter moon dips low over Broadway and hides again behind the scudding mists, Broadway is numbed." – Danny Clover [00:56]

• On Literary Ambition:
  "We publish stuff that others wouldn't even touch. Of course, sometimes we take a loss publishing literature, but we make up for it. Put out a crossword puzzle book." – Mr. Taggart [05:49]

• Janice’s Possessiveness:
  "Wasn't it I that discovered the burning tree of talent in him?...I did that to him. Figuratively. Wasn't it I that brought him here so his poetry could cry out across your metropolitan sky?" – Janice Kirk [09:21]

• Marriage License Discovery:
  "Issued to William Walder and Margaret Ramsey. That'd be Peg Ramsay, the murdered girl, huh, Danny?" – Detective Mugavan [14:11]

• Destruction of the Manuscript:
  "I burned it before I read it. As soon as I got it here, I tore it up and burned it." – Janice Kirk [24:21]

• Murderous Motive:
  "Even if I had killed her, could you blame me?" – Janice Kirk [25:00]

• Clover’s Final Reflection:
  "Night bursts open like a sudden flame on Broadway...Broadway – my beat." – Detective Danny Clover [26:03]

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Key Segment Timestamps

• Discovery of the Body: [00:56–02:31]
• Victim Identified: [04:03–04:39]
• Interview with Publisher: [05:05–07:21]
• Janice Kirk Character Introduction: [08:09–10:00]
• William Walter’s Death Discovered: [10:04–11:05]
• Note and Marriage License Reveal: [14:06–14:42]
• Interrogation and Janice’s Confession: [23:11–25:49]
• Epilogue and Concluding Monologue: [26:03–end]

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Tone and Style

• Atmosphere: Noir, poetic, full of bleak winter imagery and existential longing.
• Dialogue: Sharp, occasionally sardonic, laced with metaphors of loneliness and thwarted ambition.
• Clover’s Perspective: Empathetic, contemplative, weary yet determined to see justice.

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Summary for New Listeners

This episode combines a gripping murder mystery with a poignant exploration of jealousy, rejection, and the hunger for literary immortality. The story is less about "whodunit" and more about why—the emotional unraveling that drives people to destroy what they love and, in doing so, destroy themselves. The old-time radio drama’s language and style capture the urban melancholy of postwar Broadway, making it as much a mood piece as a detective yarn.

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Transcript

[Detective Danny Clover]

Welcome to Choice Classic Radio where we bring to you the greatest old time radio shows like us on Facebook. Subscribe to us on YouTube and thank you for [e-mail]. 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 with larry thor as detective danny clover.

[Detective Danny Clover]

When the winter moon dips low over Broadway and hides again behind the scudding mists, Broadway is numbed. The year's ending is too swift. There's too much nighttime in December. As if the dimness of the subway had moved one flight up. As if the lights were not quite lights but yellow things that drain off into shadows. It's a time of the muffler, the hurry up, the time of the wind the dreams are dying and it's a long while before April comes again. The place where I was also one flight up above the street of the tired apartment houses and hotels the avenue leased to anybody on the premise that home is any place where the rent is cheap. Hotel Savannah. The man who walked beside me and explained it all to me. After all, Lieutenant. After all. After all what?

[Mr. Burgess]

The Do Not Disturb sign. It's been hanging on the front of.

[Detective Danny Clover]

A door all day.

[Mr. Burgess]

And. And here it is almost midnight.

[Detective Danny Clover]

So?

[Mr. Burgess]

So a place like this. Rent a room for 350, pull out the old pills, leave the world to its own sorrow. The Savannah's getting quite a reputation for. Oh, this is the room now. That's how I found her. Right there on the bed. I could tell right away she wasn't a suicide. That bullet hole.

[Detective Danny Clover]

No gun. Who is she?

[Mr. Burgess]

Took the room yesterday. Registered as Mary Smith. I keep a straight face as long as the payment is made in advance. Even she didn't have luggage. So what? Quite a few of my friends have not a presentable suitcase to their names.

[Detective Danny Clover]

What about her visitors?

[Mr. Burgess]

This is her home away from home. That's our philosophy here at the Savannah. Why shouldn't she have visitors after?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Did she have any?

[Mr. Burgess]

I don't know. People come and go. A regular little world in itself, this Savannah. I remark this to myself often as I stand at the desk like I was looking on into a regular little world. That's why I always say.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Don't say it, Mr. Burgess. I'll take it from here and consider the place where a girl lies dead. A room of transients, a cubicle allotted, sold to the passer through the mark of their passing, the scars where cigarettes were ground in at the desktop, the hotel stationary. The postcards or the scenes of gaiety tinted in ink, stained, finger smudged, blank. The sign, please turn out lights when departing. Leave key at desk. The bed for passing sleep is sold at the current rate and in it Mary Smith, dead by violence. Phone it in. Check other hotel personnel. Be told for the day she'd been there. The girl was quiet, discreet. No trouble at all. Visitors? Maybe, maybe not. Policy not to notice things like that and take it home with you. Try to sleep against the image. Desolate, lonely, not quite make it. And welcome the coming of day. Somewhere to go. Someone to talk to.

[Sergeant Gino Tartaglia]

You have a bad night, Danny? You have the look of someone who has slept with rocks in his bed, head to foot.

[Detective Danny Clover]

That's your morning's greeting to me, Sergeant Itaglia.

[Sergeant Gino Tartaglia]

You see, other mornings you refer to me as Gino. But this morning, Danny. Why is this morning different from all other mornings?

[Detective Danny Clover]

You got something for me, Gino?

[Sergeant Gino Tartaglia]

Goes without saying. Sure, I got something. We coded that girl's fingerprints. That Mary Smith put them on the wire to the chums of the FBI during the night.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Had an answer.

[Sergeant Gino Tartaglia]

Those chums of the FBI are veritable. Johnny's on the spot, Danny.

[Detective Danny Clover]

You had an answer on the spot.

[Sergeant Gino Tartaglia]

According to the info lately come to hand and now contained in my breast pocket. Danny, this Mary Smith was not a Mary Smith. Oh, no? Not at all.

[Detective Danny Clover]

All right, Gino, who was she?

[Sergeant Gino Tartaglia]

Peg Ramsey, formerly of the Women's Army Corps. Which makes her a former white. Which makes it easy for our Washington co workers to check such things as fingerprints flying through the night. Such things as.

[Detective Danny Clover]

As what?

[Sergeant Gino Tartaglia]

As the occupation of the deceased prior to sale. This Peg Ramsey, heretofore known as Mary Smith was a member of the publishing firm Taggart and Ramsay on Lower Madison. It brightens the morning for you, Danny, this info.

[Detective Danny Clover]

You tried, Gino. You really did. Thanks.

[Mr. Taggart]

I can't believe it. I just can't believe it.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Get around to believing, Mr. Taggart. Ms. Ramsey was murdered in a cheap hotel named the Savannah. We want you to help us.

[Mr. Taggart]

What was she doing there? Was she registered?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Look, Mr. Taggart.

[Mr. Taggart]

I can't believe it. I just can't believe it.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Let's try it this way. What did Ms. Ramsay do here at your publishing house?

[Mr. Taggart]

At our publishing house, Mr. Clover, Peg is as much responsible for the success of Taggart and Ramsey as I am. Of course, I'm directly responsible for a book club's choosing. Four of our novels. Peg only had three. But then.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Just tell me what she did.

[Mr. Taggart]

Had Final say on what we would publish and what we wouldn't. Along with me, of course, also the discovery of talent and so forth. And so forth.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Friends?

[Mr. Taggart]

Every unpublished author in the world. You must understand, Taggart and Ramsay enjoys an enviable reputation. We publish stuff that others wouldn't even touch. Of course, sometimes we take a loss publishing literature, but we make up for it. Put out a crossword puzzle book.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Yeah, but what about special friends, Mr. Tiger?

[Mr. Taggart]

Oh, working on the premise that special friends can be special enemies, huh? That happens in our latest mystery, Killed the Murderer Dead. It'll be released for publication in May. Mr. Tiger, Peg had a very special friend.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Who?

[Mr. Taggart]

William Walter.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Who is William Walter?

[Mr. Taggart]

A writer.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Where do I find him?

[Mr. Taggart]

I don't know. I have no idea. Peg handled him.

[Detective Danny Clover]

What made him so special?

[Mr. Taggart]

According to Peg, he was special because he was talent. The once in a lifetime talent. Personally, I've heard that phrase too many times. Last year, after such a talent, we had to publish jumbo crossword puzzle books five, six and seven in a hurry.

[Detective Danny Clover]

And that was the relationship between Ms. Ramsay and this William Walter, publisher and writer?

[Mr. Taggart]

I think more I think Peg had her times to be a publisher and times to be a woman. It's my belief from observing Peg, that she mixed the two up for this boy.

[Detective Danny Clover]

What else about this William Walter?

[Mr. Taggart]

He was brought here from North Carolina.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Brought here? You mean your firm subsidized him.

[Mr. Taggart]

A writer's dream. But no. He was brought here by a Mrs. Janice Kirk, a self styled discoverer of talent. You pegged slightly, brought him to her with a couple chapters of a novel. Peg believed in this boy. Gave him an advance.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Where do I find this Mrs. Kirk?

[Mr. Taggart]

Oh, I can tell you that easily. At the Ruxton Hotel. I've had cocktails with her there. An attractive woman, the way those women from North Carolina can be. Now, will you pardon me, Mr. Clover?

[Detective Danny Clover]

And at the hotel ask for Janice Kirk. Be told she's been seen entering the cocktail lounge. Go there. The head waiter raises his eyebrows with an effort, tilts a patrician head slightly to the left. And that way indicates the woman sitting alone, sipping the colorless drink. Sipping the colorless music, weaving its frightened way through potted palms. And on her face the smile of acceptance for the music, for the furtive cocktail time. Laughter for the glances of men attached.

[Mr. Taggart]

Unattached.

[Janice Kirk]

Hello there, Nolan.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Mrs. Kirk.

[Janice Kirk]

I saw Alec tilt his Roman coin head and that brought you to me. Whatever the reason, I'm glad it's been lonely.

[Detective Danny Clover]

I'm from the police, Mrs. Kirk.

[Janice Kirk]

You didn't have to tell me that. You could have let me believe you'd walked in here and seen a. Well, an interesting face sitting alone with her lost thoughts. And you took pity in it. You could have let me believe that.

[Detective Danny Clover]

I've just come from Alfred Tygart of Tygert and Ramsay.

[Janice Kirk]

Alfred. You tell him. I'm very disappointed in him. He hasn't asked me to cocktails and. Well, it must be hours now. You tell him that.

[Detective Danny Clover]

He said you knew Peg Ramsay.

[Janice Kirk]

Ms. Ramsey. I've taken notice of her. Talked to her. I remember. I wouldn't call that knowing a girl. Why did he go and tell you I knew her?

[Detective Danny Clover]

She's dead. Murdered. She gave her name as Mary Smith and was killed in a hotel room.

[Janice Kirk]

Why didn't she have a home of her own? I didn't mean to say that. Truly. I didn't mean to be flippant over death. Not a death like that, but an empty way to die.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Tiger told me something else.

[Janice Kirk]

I'm sure he did. It was about the boy, wasn't it?

[Detective Danny Clover]

He told me about a boy. Young writer. William Walter William.

[Janice Kirk]

Sweet William. Sweet, sweet William.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Maybe you can tell me more about him than Taggart did, Mrs. Kirk.

[Janice Kirk]

Why, no, I can. I know more about him than I know about myself. Wasn't it I that discovered the burning tree of talent in him? Wasn't it I that beat him, tortured him, soothed him till he put it all on paper? Figuratively, that is. I did that to him. Figuratively. Wasn't it I that brought him here so his poetry could cry out across your metropolitan sky?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Where is he now?

[Janice Kirk]

I don't know.

[Detective Danny Clover]

You said.

[Janice Kirk]

I said I don't know. First, William stayed here. Right here in this hotel, close to me. He took to living in all kinds of places. Dismal places. Dirty little furnished rooms, tenements, sordid hotels. Left me just high and dry for months so's he could taste your city?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Then you haven't seen him.

[Tonto Jones]

There's a phone call for you, Mr. Clover. You can take it here.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Thank you. Danny Clover speaking.

[Sergeant Gino Tartaglia]

You want it, Danny? Right away. Savannah Hotel. Why, Gino, a boy shot to death in one of the rooms. Savannah Hotel, Danny. The same one.

[Janice Kirk]

I hate your telephones. They interrupt Justin. Something bad's happened, hasn't it? I know it from your face. Something real bad.

[Mr. Burgess]

And I'll tell you another thing, Mr. Clover. I should have kept my big mouth shut about the reputation of the Savannah. Right down here.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Same floor, same hallway as the last time I was here.

[Mr. Burgess]

Not only that same room. There he is, Mr. Clover.

[Detective Danny Clover]

You know who?

[Tonto Jones]

Yeah.

[Mr. Burgess]

Registered about noon. Gave his name as William Walter. Said he was a writer. First time we ever had a writer.

[Detective Danny Clover]

And in the room of Transience, yet another one. Sprawled there across the bed, a boy. Like a tired puppet discarded. And the bullet hole in his temple gave him another quality. An attitude. Suddenly and forever caught in an instant of time. And the gun held in his dangling fist. The end of him. The death of William Walters.

[Narrator]

You are listening to Broadway's My Beat, written by Morton Fine and David Friedkin and starring Larry Thor as detective Danny Clover. A titled Englishman wined and dined at a swank Park Avenue address is then mysteriously murdered. It takes no less than Mr. Chameleon, master of disguises, to make a dent in the hand of fate murder case. Follow Mr. Chameleon on this engrossing police operation tomorrow. Yes, that's tomorrow. On CBS radio, Mr. Chameleon is now heard at a new time Sundays on most of these same CBS radio stations.

[Detective Danny Clover]

On the eve of the Merry holidays, Broadway treats itself to a 10 cent sprig of mistletoe. Stands under it, watches the women walk by. They hug the warm fur close. Let the December wind riffle it against their mouths, their cheeks. Let the wind breathe them away from you. And for background, the music flowing out of the tinseled metallic throats of loudspeakers. And the kids standing carefully away from the assorted street corner. Santa Clauses eyeing them, studying them, lifting great puzzled eyes to the grown up who holds their hand. Good Hakyun makes you glow so. Find the coin, drop it in the pot. Pay off for the year that never was. And in a room again, the place of the dead. Be alone with it for a little while. Be alone with a boy with a bullet wound in his temple. The boy would come to the great city with poetry to offer. And in return had been given this. The end of searching. The end of pain. Be alone with it until Detective Mugavin comes back.

[Detective Mugavan]

I had a little talk with Burgess, the manager, Danny, like you told me.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Yeah.

[Detective Mugavan]

Says the boy made a big to do when he registered.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Burgess tell you why?

[Detective Mugavan]

Uh huh. Seems this kid, William Walter insisted on having exactly the same room where the girl was killed. Manager tried to talk him out of it. Offered him other rooms. Kid wouldn't have it any other way.

[Detective Danny Clover]

I think I know why. Sure.

[Detective Mugavan]

Boy was a writer. That gives him a right to emotions the rest of us aren't privileged with. That's why he has to die in.

[Detective Danny Clover]

A room this Room Magaman.

[Mr. Taggart]

Yeah.

[Detective Mugavan]

I guess I've been in it too long, Danny.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Here's why I wanted this room. Found it in his pocket. Marriage license.

[Detective Mugavan]

I look at it, Danny.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Thanks. Hmm.

[Detective Mugavan]

Issued to William Walder and Margaret Ramsey. That'd be Peg Ramsay, the murdered girl, huh, Danny?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Yeah. A place like this, probably gonna keep the marriage a secret.

[Detective Mugavan]

Uh huh.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Hey, come over here. Michael. Found something else here on the desk.

[Detective Mugavan]

It's written so fine. Wait, I gotta put on my glasses.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Sure, go ahead.

[Detective Mugavan]

Peg. Beloved Peg. All of it is done. Finished. For you now.

[Detective Danny Clover]

For me?

[Detective Mugavan]

For someone you breathed life into, then dying took it from him. Done. Finished. He wrote this down.

[Detective Danny Clover]

We'll check it at headquarters. I think we'll find he wrote it.

[Detective Mugavan]

With a gun in his hand like that. This note. How he insisted on the same room. Suicide, huh?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Call it in. Magavan.

[Detective Mugavan]

Danny.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Come on in. Mugavin.

[Detective Mugavan]

Been down to technical for an hour, more or less. Took me that long to get out of Gordon. What? He knew as soon as I walked in. Guys like Gordon give mothers a bad name.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Gave you a rough time, huh? Yeah.

[Detective Mugavan]

Had me looking through microscopes. Gave me a short lecture on the theory of spectrochemical analysis. Then when I didn't applaud, he got angry. Anyhow, the gun that William Walter allegedly killed himself with also fired the bullet that killed Peg Ramsey.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Murder and suicide, huh? Mug of them.

[Detective Mugavan]

I guess. So what do you think?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Take a look at this suicide note.

[Detective Mugavan]

I saw it, Danny.

[Detective Danny Clover]

I know you saw it, but look at it again.

[Detective Mugavan]

It's a suicide note.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Is it? Hmm. Show me where he says he's gonna kill himself. Show me where it says that. What is it, Gino?

[Sergeant Gino Tartaglia]

Lady outside to see you, Danny.

[Detective Danny Clover]

What lady?

[Sergeant Gino Tartaglia]

Name's Janice Kirk.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Show her in.

[Sergeant Gino Tartaglia]

This way to see Danny Clover.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Thanks. That'll be all, Sergeant. Well, please sit down, Miss Kirk. This is Detective Muggerbun.

[Detective Mugavan]

How do you do, Mrs. Kirk?

[Janice Kirk]

I'm going to leave town tomorrow, Mr. Clover.

[Detective Danny Clover]

I see.

[Janice Kirk]

Yes. This is a lonely city. Now I'm afraid of it. I'm afraid of it because so many things.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Mostly William Walter.

[Janice Kirk]

Yes.

[Detective Mugavan]

Oh. I want to say, Mrs. Kirk, how sorry we are.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Thank you, Mrs. Kirk. One thing I'd like to ask you. Just what interest?

[Janice Kirk]

The way you said Mrs. The little glance that just happened between you, you and this other gentleman. The missus means I was once married. My husband is dead.

[Detective Danny Clover]

I see.

[Janice Kirk]

And just what interest I had in William. He was a great writer. I said I was lonely. Now that William's dead, the world's a little bit more lonely too. Though it'll never know.

[Detective Danny Clover]

It just. Why did you come here?

[Janice Kirk]

I want to ask something of you. May I?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Of course.

[Janice Kirk]

I brought William here. I want to take him home. I want to bury him.

[Detective Danny Clover]

We've already sent notification to North Carolina, to his next of kin.

[Janice Kirk]

But in this case, don't you see, it should be me who should take. Well, call it responsibility, call it whatever.

[Detective Danny Clover]

I'm sorry, Mrs. Kirk. Until we hear from the next of kin, we have no authority.

[Janice Kirk]

I loved him. Is that what you wanted to hear me say? Go ahead, exchange glances again. Snicker a little bit behind your hands.

[Detective Mugavan]

Mrs. Kirk, what the lieutenant said simply.

[Janice Kirk]

Means that he's really makes no difference at all.

[Detective Danny Clover]

For a moment, consider her fury at being deprived of the dead boy and understand it. Understand it because of the sudden statement of love for him. Blurt it out. Bitter, explosive. No longer to be contained. But let it also open a door onto new questions. The finding out of why a boy's life must be taken. A boy of talent. A boy who was about to be married. A boy who had apparently scrawled a note against the insistent calling of death, murder, suicide. Make sure which. That'll take you to a place you've been before. To a man you talked to before.

[Mr. Taggart]

Can't tell you how glad I am you came Back to me, Mr. Clover. I just can't tell you how glad.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Why, Mr. Tiger.

[Mr. Taggart]

Well, this is perhaps an uncalled for thought after those dismal doings at the Savannah Hotel, even tragic, you might say. Peg and that boy.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Just tell me, Mr. Taggart.

[Mr. Taggart]

Well, I was wondering, just a fleeting thought, mind you. Did you happen to find the manuscript of the boy's novel? Did he perchance die with it there in the hotel room?

[Detective Danny Clover]

No, we didn't find it.

[Detective Mugavan]

Why?

[Mr. Taggart]

Well, you must forgive me for this rather scavenger like idea I've had, but not that we won't take care of the boy's estate, mind you, but it seems a provocative publishing stunt.

[Detective Danny Clover]

You want to publish the work posthumously? A boy kills himself, leaves a novel. That would make a splash in the literary world.

[Mr. Taggart]

Yes. I would have tried to put it more tastefully, but that's it exactly.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Sorry, I can't help you then.

[Mr. Taggart]

I can't for the life of me imagine what else we have to talk about.

[Detective Danny Clover]

The reason why I came. I'm not sure the boy killed himself. He was going to marry Peg Ramsey. Did you know that?

[Mr. Taggart]

Marry? No, I didn't. Imagine.

[Detective Danny Clover]

You said you met the boy when he first came here. That you?

[Mr. Taggart]

Quickly. A quick introduction from Peg. As I said, his work impressed her, so I okayed in advance for him. That's why, if you find the manuscript, I feel it rightfully belongs to me.

[Detective Danny Clover]

That's all you knew of him? The advance, Peg Ramsey's interest in him.

[Mr. Taggart]

Sponsoring of that, and the money I've already expended on him for advance publicity on Peg's newfound genius. I even hired Tonto Jones.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Who?

[Mr. Taggart]

Tonto Jones. A Spurbist. The guy de Maupassant of book jackets. Told him to stick with Walter, get to his marrow, find out everything about him and write it in a hundred words to fit the back of a book jacket.

[Detective Danny Clover]

I'd like to talk to a man who knew all about William Walter. Do you have his address?

[Mr. Taggart]

Greenwich Village somewhere. The girl will give it to you on your way out. Mr. Clover. You were going, weren't you?

[Detective Danny Clover]

So, downtown now, to Greenwich village. Turn off 11th street on the bank, past the bargain basement bars where the floor shows, chuckle at the customers and the local color is prefabricated. And find an address. Another basement where the door is a painted mural of pink and satyrs with a motto in French over the brass knocker. When the door opens, the man puts a finger to his lips.

[Janice Kirk]

Shh.

[Detective Danny Clover]

It's the last side, huh?

[Tonto Jones]

Schoenberg bought the records today. Come on, come on. Everybody's inside.

[Detective Danny Clover]

All right.

[Tonto Jones]

Grab yourself a hunk of floor and sit.

[Detective Danny Clover]

If you don't mind, I'll stand.

[Tonto Jones]

What did you bring?

[Mr. Taggart]

What?

[Tonto Jones]

I told Barbette to tell everybody to bring a record, didn't she?

[Detective Danny Clover]

I brought a badge.

[Tonto Jones]

Hey, who are you? Aren't you one of Babette's police?

[Detective Danny Clover]

I'm looking for Tahno Jones. Why? Where is he?

[Tonto Jones]

Me. What do you want me for?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Few questions, Donald. By the way, where'd you get that name?

[Tonto Jones]

I spent a summer in Mexico trying to write. The natives gave me the name affectionately.

[Detective Danny Clover]

It stuck.

[Mr. Taggart]

All right.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Now, tell me what you can about William Walter.

[Tonto Jones]

I was going to do his dust jacket for him.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Give me that stuff on the COVID of a book that tells how good it is.

[Tonto Jones]

What do you mean, stuff?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Just tell me about William Walter.

[Tonto Jones]

I could have done it too. Have somebody to support me. I could have written a novel.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Did William Walter finish his?

[Tonto Jones]

About a week ago. Pretty good, too.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Oh.

[Tonto Jones]

Not that I would have approached his subject matter that way.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Then you read it?

[Detective Mugavan]

Parts of it.

[Tonto Jones]

Other parts he read to us.

[Detective Danny Clover]

To us? Mm.

[Tonto Jones]

People who drop in from time to time. We had Varied opinions as to the novel's significance. Of course, if you're the type who's satisfied with sheer entertainment value.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Where is the novel?

[Tonto Jones]

Manuscript?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Uh huh.

[Tonto Jones]

Oh, he left it here for me to look over a couple of days ago. Janice picked it up.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Janice Kirk?

[Tonto Jones]

She said Willie sent her for it. I gave it to her.

[Mr. Burgess]

Hey, Tonto.

[Detective Danny Clover]

We're disturbing your guest. Tono, go back to him. I'm just leaving. Oh.

[Janice Kirk]

Oh, hello, Mr. Clover.

[Detective Danny Clover]

May I come in, Mrs. Kirk?

[Janice Kirk]

Well, you don't want to talk to me now. I've been crying. I look amiss.

[Detective Danny Clover]

It'll only be a few minutes.

[Janice Kirk]

Your promise?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Yes.

[Janice Kirk]

Well, then come in. You wait right here. I'll go in the next room and do my face. We can talk. Well, go on, talk to me.

[Detective Danny Clover]

I've just come from Greenwich Village, Mrs. Kirk.

[Janice Kirk]

I hate it, don't you?

[Detective Danny Clover]

I spoke to Mr. Jones.

[Janice Kirk]

Tonto?

[Detective Danny Clover]

That's right. Tonto Jones.

[Janice Kirk]

You know what Tonto means?

[Detective Danny Clover]

No, I don't.

[Janice Kirk]

I didn't either till I looked it up. Crazy, fatuous, stupid. No one pays any attention to what Sando did.

[Detective Danny Clover]

I do.

[Janice Kirk]

How do I look? Better. Of course I look better. Can you tell I've been crying?

[Detective Danny Clover]

No.

[Janice Kirk]

Now we'll talk.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Did you like the novel?

[Janice Kirk]

Be more explicit, Mr. Clover. I'm always reading. What novel did you mean?

[Detective Danny Clover]

William Walters novel?

[Janice Kirk]

You know something? I told you I love the boy. I did. Even after he was so cruel to me.

[Detective Danny Clover]

What about the novel, Mrs. Kirk?

[Janice Kirk]

Well, that's what I mean. He didn't even let me read it after all I did for him.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Maybe you didn't understand me, Mrs. Kirk. I said I saw Mr. Jones down in Greenwich Village.

[Janice Kirk]

He's a liar.

[Detective Danny Clover]

About what?

[Janice Kirk]

About anything he told you.

[Detective Danny Clover]

He said you picked up Walter's novel a couple of days ago. I don't think he lied. Nobody else has that manuscript.

[Janice Kirk]

And I suppose nobody will ever read it.

[Detective Danny Clover]

I suppose not. Mrs. Kirk.

[Janice Kirk]

Yes?

[Detective Danny Clover]

You told me how hard you worked to foster the boy's talent. How you brought him here to New York. How everything was wrapped up in that boy, in his novel. Doesn't it bother you that the manuscript is missing?

[Janice Kirk]

Well, I.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Do you have it?

[Janice Kirk]

No. No, I don't.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Did you destroy it? Did you?

[Janice Kirk]

Well, what difference does it make?

[Detective Danny Clover]

I'm just curious to know what the novel is about, that's all.

[Janice Kirk]

I burned it before I read it. As soon as I got it here, I tore it up and burned it.

[Detective Danny Clover]

That was the first part of it, wasn't it?

[Janice Kirk]

What?

[Detective Danny Clover]

To destroy everything about the boy?

[Janice Kirk]

Destroy somebody you loved? How can you say that?

[Detective Danny Clover]

You loved him all right. Only he was going to marry Peg Ramsay. Did he show you the marriage license?

[Janice Kirk]

He was never going to marry that girl. He just wanted his novel published. That's all.

[Detective Danny Clover]

No, marriage license usually means marriage. They were going to keep it secret. But they told you. Because you deserve to know.

[Janice Kirk]

Deserve to know? Do you know why they told me? To be cruel to me? To laugh at me? To slap me in the face with it?

[Detective Danny Clover]

So you killed her.

[Janice Kirk]

You know what she said to me? You know what that girl said to me? I'll pay you for the train fare you spent to bring him to New York. Even if I had killed her, could you blame me?

[Detective Danny Clover]

But the boy you said you loved him.

[Janice Kirk]

Him sitting there. When I came into the room, I was ready to forgive him everything. I walked over to him, put my hands around his back. He shrugged him off. Kept writing. Writing a note to a girl who was dead. Did you ever hear anything as crazy as that note to a dead girl?

[Detective Danny Clover]

We thought it was a suicide note.

[Janice Kirk]

Then he went over to the bed and he sprawled out and put his hands behind his head. And then he stared at me. He stared heat at me.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Because you'd killed Peg Ramsey.

[Janice Kirk]

He knew it. And he didn't go to the police. That made me think he still loved me.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Why didn't he go to the police?

[Janice Kirk]

Because he knew I'd crawl back to him. He wanted me there so he could tell me how much hate he had for me. How much he despised me.

[Detective Danny Clover]

You didn't give him a chance. You destroyed him. Everything that he touched. You destroyed the final thing. To ride on a train.

[Janice Kirk]

And he'd be back there with the baggage, the litter, the animals.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Let's go, Mrs. Kirk.

[Janice Kirk]

No one's going to do that to me. What he did. Not to me. Who did he think he was?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Let's go. Night bursts open like a sudden flame on Broadway the crowd swarm dances between the silhouettes of a thousand buildings Dances its fury away against the time of morning until the night soaks up the sound and pain and color and turns it into dawn It's Broadway the gaudiest, the most violent the lonesomest mile in the world. Broadway My beat.

[Narrator]

Broadway's my Beat Stars Larry Thor as Detective Danny Clover. With Charles Calvert as Tartaglia and Jack Crucian as Mugavan. The program was produced and directed by Elliot Lewis with musical score composed and conducted by Alexander Courage. In tonight's story, Betty Lou Gerson was heard as Janice Kirk. Featured in the cast were Stan Waxman, Steve Roberts and David Wolf. You've probably heard the poets sing the praises of Running Brooks, Babbling Brooks and he who Brooks no evil. But you'll sing the praises yourself of our Ms. Brooks, starring Eve Arden Sunday nights on most of these same CBS radio stations. As Connie Brooks, Eve Arden is sometimes running after a man, often babbling about men, and she brooks no evil that interferes with her pursuit of of a man. So maybe the poets should sing her praises, too. Our Ms. Brooks is fun to hear Sunday nights on CBS Radio. Phil Anders speaking. And remember Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy open fire on your final funnybone Sunday nights on the CBS Radio Network.

[Janice Kirk]

Sam. Sa.