Episode 664 - Your Lyon Eyes (Jeff Regan, Investigator)

Summary

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Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives)

Episode 664 - Your Lyon Eyes (Jeff Regan, Investigator)

Date: April 12, 2026

Host: Matt Mean
Featured Program: Jeff Regan, Investigator (Jack Webb)
Episode Highlights: Four classic Jeff Regan stories: "The Lady with the Golden Hair," "The Man in the Door," "The Man Who Fought Back," and "The Gambler and His Lady"

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Overview

This episode of Down These Mean Streets continues the host’s month-long salute to Jack Webb, spotlighting his lesser-remembered but top-tier detective show, Jeff Regan, Investigator. Matt Mean introduces four classic Jeff Regan radio dramas from 1948-1950, analyzing the show’s background, Jack Webb’s performance, and the supporting cast. Each story is packed with hardboiled dialogue, noir intrigue, and sharply drawn LA archetypes. The episode transports listeners to the Golden Age of Radio with classic soundscapes, tough-guy narration, and labyrinthine mysteries at the heart of old Hollywood.

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Episode Introduction & Background

[00:58 - 04:27]

• Host: Matt Mean offers historical context on Jeff Regan, Investigator. He notes:
  • Jack Webb’s rise from Pat Novak for Hire to Johnny Madero Pier 23 to Jeff Regan.
  • Regan works for the International Detective Bureau, operated by Anthony J. Lyon (the “Lion”), played by Wilms Herbert, then Herb Butterfield.
  • “Lyon loved money…there was no paying client he’d turn down no matter how shady they seemed or how dangerous a job they presented.” (Matt Mean, 01:56)
  • Webb left the role abruptly in Dec. 1948 after a salary dispute, returning to Pat Novak shortly after.
  • The writing on Regan is “better in terms of plot, but not as strong with their dialogue and atmosphere [as Pat Novak].” (02:56)
  • Today’s episode features:
    • "The Lady with the Golden Hair" (July 31, 1948)
    • "The Man in the Door" (Aug 28, 1948)
    • "The Man Who Fought Back" (Nov 27, 1948)
    • "The Gambler and His Lady" (Dec 11, 1948)
  • “We’ll get 10 a day in expenses as the Lion’s Eye.” (03:31)

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"The Lady with the Golden Hair"

[09:21 - 37:30]

Plot Highlights

• Client: Max Vladny, a flamboyant Hollywood makeup artist, targets of a shooting, hires Regan for personal protection.
• Supporting Cast:
  • Hilda Graham, blonde starlet and Vladny’s intended fiancée.
  • The Lion (Anthony J. Lyon), Regan’s tightfisted boss.
  • Joe Canto, fellow operative.
  • Pete Berger, ex-con, suspected shooter.

Key Plot Movements

• Vladny displays bullet holes in his hat as evidence (11:30), insists he has “no enemies, everyone is madly in love with Max Vladny.”
• Another attempt is made on Vladny’s life at his home (14:06).
• Regan meets Hilda Graham, “famous golden hair blowing behind her by the time she got onto the main road” (19:11).
• Regan investigates Pete Berger (20:56), finds him dying at a boarding house.
• Vladny and Canto are later attacked; Vladny is murdered, Canto wounded.
• Regan’s final confrontation with Hilda reveals her “golden hair” is a wig, a closely held secret and the true motive for a string of murders.
  • Hilda: “No, no, you can’t. Mustn’t find out about my hair. Please. Please don’t tell them about my hair. I couldn’t stand that.” (35:37)

Noteworthy Quotes & Moments

• “When Anthony J. Lyon cashes in on someone’s trouble, it means money for him. For me, it means work. I’m Jeff Regan, the Lion’s private eye.” (08:59, Regan)
• “Every newspaper in the country's gonna carry this story, lady. Oh, yeah. Hilda Graham, the one with all the long, golden hair is really as bald as a fresh egg.” (35:19, Regan)
• “Why do we do it, Jeff?” “I don’t know, Joe. I don’t know.” (37:23, Canto/Regan)

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"The Man in the Door"

[38:55 - 66:15]

Plot Highlights

• Premise: Regan is hired (on retainer) to investigate bid fixing in architectural contracts for a man named Haynes.
• The Inciting Incident: Haynes is shot and killed before Regan can meet him.
• Central Mystery:
  • Haynes’ secretary, Dorothy Nolan, becomes a prime suspect.
  • A one-legged man with a mysterious past dies at Regan’s door (51:51), photo links him to Haynes.
  • Regan traces connections to Skid Row characters; the plot morphs from business intrigue to convoluted identity/murder scheme.

Key Moments

• Extended investigation dialogue with Haynes’ secretary and her evasive lawyer, Dave Henderson.
  • Regan: “Just checking. Checking what? She’s pretty good… Eyes just right for the job, hair just right. Everything just right. She can make you do a lot of things you don’t want to do.” (48:05)
• Final twist: Dave Henderson was actually Haynes, who staged his own murder to escape his past; Dorothy was his accomplice.
• Dorothy is shot in the climax, survives but is sentenced to 15 years for her part.

Notable Exchanges

• “I’ll phone you in an hour, Sally, okay?” (25:25, Regan)
• “There was a picture inside his shirt pocket. One of those things that you have taken in a penny arcade … The guy standing next to him was the same man that I’d seen that afternoon, an architect named Haynes.” (51:08, Regan)
• “Well, anyway, he sat down on that little bench up there in San Quentin last week... Dorothy, she wasn’t hurt too bad... She got 15 years as an accomplice ... I don’t think I’ll wait for her. She wasn’t that good.” (66:06, Regan)

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"The Man Who Fought Back"

[68:14 - 95:53]

Plot Highlights

• Setup: Regan is assigned as a “witness” to safeguard William Lafarge, a nervous man hiding out with his daughter, Alice.
  • “Not much to your job, Reagan. Just spend a weekend with me. … stay awake the next 48 hours and keep looking at me.” (74:11, Lafarge)
• Violence: Alice is gunned down through the window; Lafarge flees.
• Mobsters and the Print Shop:
  • Regan traces forgery leads to Lafarge’s former business, suspects tie-in with counterfeiters.
  • Bodies (Gus, Preston) pile up as the plot exposes a scam to forge 20,000 bowl game tickets.
• Resolution: The scheme unravels with the help of Lafarge and police; the real mastermind turns out to be the glamorous Lois (print shop secretary), who is apprehended as she tries to flee.

Memorable Quotes

• “Gus’s knees knocked together and he caved in like arches on a fat man.” (83:15, Regan)
• "Preston could run off the phony bowl tickets and all she had to do was to sell them. Even though murder got thrown in, she could have stayed clean if she hadn’t got her gun calibers mixed well.” (95:02, Regan)
• The Lion, greedy as always: “If we crack this thing, it’ll mean more money in your pocket, too.” (88:24)
• Classic sign-off: Despite seeing action, Regan gets only “the regular price” for a Rose Bowl ticket from the Lion. (95:50)

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"The Gambler and His Lady"

[98:09 - 126:34]

Plot Highlights

• Case: Eleanor Bascom hires Regan to retrieve her daughter Georgia from a shady cardroom operator, Louie Desmond.
  • Eleanor: “She's a good girl, Mr. Regan. She always has been.” (101:52)
• Twist: Georgia apparently marries Louie, shuts down Regan’s rescue attempt.
  • “Look, Regan, three carats with a wedding band to match.” (106:27, Georgia)
• Violence Escalates: Mrs. Bascom is murdered; Regan is nearly run off the road.
• The Reveal:
  • Louie already has a wife, Stella, a heavy drinker.
  • Max Loper, a nervous furrier, tries to involve Regan, then is killed.
  • All involved are pursued over a fur heist and the intertwined murders.
• Final Showdown:
  • Regan confronts Georgia, exposes the fur scam and phony marriage.
  • Stella shoots Louie in the elevator in a drunken rage, ending the criminal enterprise.

Notable Dialogue

• Lion: “Think a minute, Regan. She’s come to us for help. A lonely woman with no place to turn entrusts her trouble to International.” (110:00)
• Stella, on her marriage: “To marriage. It's a mess.” (112:17)
• “What’s inside the suitcase?” “You can work that out yourself, Regan. You’ve been by a woman's shop.” (93:59)
• Lion’s “bonus” at the end: “They gave it to him. A 1949 pocket calendar.” (126:29)

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Memorable Moments & Tone

• Jack Webb’s signature style: “Get this and get it straight. Crime is a sucker’s road and those who travel it wind up in the gut of the prison of the grave.” (00:00)
• Recurring theme: The unglamorous, morally ambivalent life of a working detective, underpaid and undervalued.
• Dark humor: Regan’s deadpan, laconic delivery amid violence and tragedy. The Lion’s relentless pursuit of profit, no matter the cost.
• Social Commentary: Short PSA at the end (128:42) against prejudice, characteristic of Golden Age radio.

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Key Timestamps For Reference

• [00:58] – Matt Mean’s show intro & historical context
• [09:21] – The Lady with the Golden Hair begins
• [38:55] – The Man in the Door begins
• [68:14] – The Man Who Fought Back begins
• [98:09] – The Gambler and His Lady begins
• [127:22] – Host Outro
• [128:42] – Anti-prejudice PSA / episode closes

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Summary

Episode 664 of Down These Mean Streets is an essential listen for fans of Jack Webb, classic noir, or detective fiction. Through four twist-riddled radio plays, Webb’s Jeff Regan navigates contract murder, Hollywood vanity, forged lives, murder-for-profit, and fur heists—all filtered through sardonic narration, cosmic weariness, and the unwavering grind of LA’s seedy underbelly. The audio is spiced with quick banter, faux tough-guy wisdom, and a roster of hard-luck dames and double-crossed crooks. Host Matt Mean’s contextual notes make this vintage drama feel alive and relevant for modern listeners.

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Notable Quotes Recap

• “Everybody dies. I’ll give him a citation.” (30:15, Regan to The Lion)
• “Why do we do it, Jeff? … I don’t know, Joe. I don’t know.” (37:23)
• “Hilda Graham, the one with all the long, golden hair is really as bald as a fresh egg.” (35:19, Regan)
• “That whole setup’s a phony. Tell me why.” (120:39, The Lion)
• “You know, lady, you fixed nothing.” (125:28, Regan to Stella)

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For the old-time radio detective fan, episode 664 delivers everything you want: world-weary investigators, glamorous and dangerous women, greedy crooks, crooked bosses, crackling dialogue, and a shadowy Los Angeles that never truly sleeps.

Transcript

[Jeff Regan]

Get this and get it straight.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Crime is a sucker's road and those who travel it wind up in the gut of the prison of the grave. The story you are about to hear is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent. The Adventures of Sam Spade Detective the Adventures of the Saint Starring Vincent Price. Bob Bailey in the exciting adventures of the man with the action packed expense account, America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator.

[Jeff Regan]

Yours truly, Johnny Dollar.

[Matt Mean]

Hello and welcome to down these Mean Streets and more old time radio detectives and crime solvers. Our month long salute to Jack Webb continues this week with one of his earliest starring roles in a nationwide show. Jeff Regan, Investigator. Last week we heard Pat Novak for Hire, the hard boiled drama that first put Webb on the map, initially as a regional production and then later as a show that went out across the country. In between his runs as Pat Novak, Webb starred in the Copycat series Johnny Madero Pier 23, and in July 1948 he went on the air at CBS as Jeff Regan. Regan was an operative of the International Detective Bureau, an agency run by Anthony J. Lyon that earned Regan the nickname the Lion's Eye. Lyon loved money and there was no paying client he'd turn down no matter how shady they seemed or how dangerous a job they presented. And he wasn't reluctant to throw Regan under the bus at the slightest opportunity. Lyon was played first by Wilms Herbert, who was about a year away from playing Sergeant Otis on Richard Diamond. Later, Lyon was played by Herb Butterfield, a busy radio character actor who played the chief to Brian Donlevy on Dangerous Assignment. Webb starred as Regan until December 1948. Producer William Froog says Webb was fired when he asked for a $15 a week raise. But whatever the reason, Webb was out and would be over at ABC as Pat Novak a few months later. Jeff Regan returned to CBS in October 1949 with FR starring and Frank Nelson as a more comedic version of Anthony J. Lyon. That version of the show ran until September 1950 and it ended abruptly when Graham tragically took his own life. Like Pat Novak, Jeff Regan was a world weary cynical character well suited for Webb's trademark delivery. But he didn't have the same writing as Novak. Richard Breen penned those ultra hard boiled scripts, and the Regan episodes are arguably better in terms of plot, but not as strong with their dialogue and atmosphere. No surprise on the plots, as the Regan shows were largely written by veteran radio mystery writers like Jackson Gillis, E. Jack Newman and Larry Roman. It's by no means a bad show, it just suffers when compared to Pat Novak. Today we'll hear Jack Webb as Jeff Regan in Four Radio Mysteries the Lady with the Golden Hair from July 31, 1948 the man in the Door from August 28, 1948 the man who Fought Back from November 27, 1948 and the Gambler and His lady from December 11, 1948. We'll get 10 a day in expenses as the Lion's Eye. And we'll kick things off with Jack Webb as Jeff Regan right after these messages.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Now it's winners time again. Yes, sir. Here are the two winners. The carousel contest for the week ending November 8th. Each of these listeners wins a gorgeous $100. 17. Jewel Harman gold watch. Just for writing an interesting letter about Gary Saltz. The ladies watch goes Mrs. A.O. nobles Jr. Of Gainesville, Florida. Her suggestion tells you how to remove the printed dye from sugar bags or white feed bags. She suggests you dampen the bags with kerosene and sprinkle on Kerry's table salt. Then roll them up tight and let them stand overnight. Next day, just wash in soapy water and watch the dye rinse away. Sounds like a wonderful idea. And here's the winner of the Man's watch. He is Mr. Sandy Riza of Cleburne, Texas, and he bases his suggestion on

[Jeff Regan]

30 years of experience.

[Narrator/Announcer]

He says, the best thing I have ever found for smoothing rough gears and silencing their noise is the use of Kerry salt mixed with gear grease or compound. Congratulations to both of the winners. And folks, if you'd like to win one of these beautiful watches, listen for the easy rules later in this program. Meanwhile, remember, there's a fine cherry salt for every farm and home use. There's deep penetrating carries table salt, carries meat curing salt, carries mineral supplement salt and many others. Always look for the black bag box or cotton with a bright red band. Are you looking for a smooth shave, men? Then try Fitch's no Brush Shaving Cream. It'll give you the kind of shave you want. Because 40 years of experience have gone into the making of this product, Fitch's no Brush contains a special skin conditioner ingredient that takes the work out of shaving. You won't have to struggle and scrape against stubborn whiskers. Because the skin conditioner prepares your face beforehand, it holds the whiskers up so your razor can zip them down closely and quickly. Even against the grain of a tough beard. Your razor will glide swiftly, never nicking or scraping pitches. No Brush is a boon to sensitive faces because it lubricates gently, keeping that tender skin from being irritated. After this quick, easy shave, your skin will feel cool and refreshed, wonderfully smooth. And if you prefer a lather cream, try Fitch's Brush Cream. It forms a rich, abundant lather when applied with a brush. This lather stays moist all during the shave. Fitch's Brush Cream also contains the special skin conditioner for sensitive faces. Fitch's Brush and Fitch's no Brush Shaving Cream are available in handy 25 and 50 cent sizes. For a shave you like, switch to Fitch from coast to coast. Ford owners agree the big new Ford brings you more for your money. More in comfort, more in performance and more in economy. But only through personal experience can you appreciate the restful ease of Ford's famous midship ride and the luxurious comfort of Ford's non sag foam rubber cushion front seat. Only by driving this great car can you enjoy its smooth power and solid road ability. And only by getting the facts about Ford's economy can you understand that so powerful, so smooth riding and so beautiful a car can cost so little to buy, to run and to maintain. Find out how much it saves you. Yes, before you buy any car at any price, it will pay you to stop by your local Ford dealers. Take the wheel of the 100 horsepower V8 or its companion in quality, the 95 horsepower 6. Once you've driven it, you'll agree the new Ford is the one truly fine car in the low price field.

[Various Female Characters]

When a cloud bursts and fresh clean rain falls on a grove of rich green pine, it's mmm, so nice.

[Jeff Regan]

And now that same green scent of

[Various Female Characters]

pine is in new pine scented Lysol.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Right now, the one and only genuine Lysol brand disinfectant comes in a new pine scent. It disinfects, deodorizes as nothing else does, kills disease germs on contact. In laboratory tests, Lysol's anti germ action kept working for seven full days. A bottle costs as little as 29 cents and it's so easy to use. Just add new pine scented Lysol to your suds when you clean in bathroom, kitchen, nursery, sick room. Use pine scented Lysol because Lysol deep cleans make your home pine sweet Lysol clean. You can still get regular Lysol too. I dedicate this program to the fight against crime. Not merely crimes of violence and crimes of dishonesty, but crimes of intolerance, discrimination and bad citizenship. Crimes against America.

[Jeff Regan]

When Anthony J. Lyon cashes in on somebody's trouble, it means money for him. For me, it means Work. I'm Jeff Regan, the Lion's private eye.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Here's the kind of program you've been waiting to hear. Hard boiled action and mystery. As told by Jeff Regan, investigator. So stand by for trouble. Stand by for suspense. Standby for adventure. In tonight's story. The lady with the Golden Hair. And now here's Jack Webb as Jeff Regan.

[Jeff Regan]

Well, this is the way it started. I was sitting in the lion's den, waiting for him to get off the phone. So I could ask him about my expense sheet on that New Orleans thing. He was playing the usual games with his lawyer. Just about the time he hung up and turned his chair my way. The office door opened. All right, Deacon, what do you want?

[Various Female Characters]

Aha.

[Jeff Regan]

A little curly headed man, about 40, dressed in a black suit was standing there. Was holding a stack of fifty dollar bills, A gold headed cane and a red card in one hand. In his other he had a black derby with a hole through the top of it. A pair of suede gloves and a white carnation. He stood there, looked at both of us. The lion looked at the fifty dollar bills. I looked at the little man.

[Various Female Characters]

Aha.

[Jeff Regan]

You are Mr. Lyon. No, I Max Vladny have come to see you unappointed. Where you are? My name's Regan. This is Mr. Lyon. Aha. You will do it, won't you? Sit down, Mr. Max Vladny. Vladny Max. 1642 Mulholland Drive, Hollywood. 28. An Imperial Studio payroll time I do not have. I will not sit. I demonstrate. See you that flower. I do not need this. A ticket because I too long park. I also do not need cane. I place here a gift from my grandfather. I keep that also gloves. Now, what have I left, gentlemen? Quite a bundle of cabbage. Cash, Mr. Vladimir? Yeah, from bank. I just arrived also. This I do not need for you. All for you. Well, well, well, Mr. Vladimir.

[Various Female Characters]

Aha.

[Jeff Regan]

Now what I have you, I answer myself. Bullet hole in hat. See you is not finished. 1, 2, 3. Those look like.38 slugs. Where'd you get them? Out of doorway. I dig them where I'm shot? Last night in my home. Who's shooting at you, Mr. Vladny? This if I know, I shoot back. I have no enemies. Everyone is madly in love with Max Vladny. I must buy new hat. Cannot buy new hat. Kindly. You will guard my body from dying. Of course, of course. Now you've certainly come to the right place, Mr. Bladney. If your life has been threatened, you can depend on International Detective Bureau to see that no harm comes to you. Therefore it is so we see. I understand perfectly. Well. If somebody shot at you last night, why didn't you call the police? Mr. Regan meant to ask who recommended you to International.

[Various Female Characters]

Aha.

[Jeff Regan]

I explained in Imperial Motion Picture Studio where master of makeup Max Vladny, who is great is imported to create beautiful faces from skinny skulls and fat necks. Is much newspaper free sometimes for agents to press. Hollywood police might think because I work on great gone epic tie my rope tight. Is free trick for agents to press. But is not joke to you. I come to take no chance. Yeah, I am, Mr. Egan. Of course you're in, Mr. Vladany. And Mr. Regan here will stick right by your side until we can get to the bottom. Now wait a minute. If I have to, I'll use every man on my staff to protect your life. Mr. Vladany. All the resources of International Detective Bureau are behind you. Regan, I'm entrusting you with Mr. Vladney's life. Already better I feel Vista. And call me Riggan. Call me. I know. Call you if I run into trouble. Come on, Max. Well, you can see how it was, Max. Vladney's car was parked in a red zone in front of the building. And there was another ticket on it. He tore that one up too on the way out to his house. I. I tried to get a little more information, but it didn't come to much. He couldn't figure out why somebody was shooting at him or who was doing. Was about six o' clock when we pulled up in front of his house on Mulholland Drive. One of those little places with a big sun porch in front of it and an egg shaped swimming pool in front of that. He was pulling things out of his pockets, looking for the keys to the front door. When it happened. See what I tell you all the time. Shooting at Maxi somewhere. Get on, get on. What I tell you? My heart is full again of hope.

[Various Female Characters]

Right.

[Jeff Regan]

Shut up. You aren't hit. He's frightening. Well, unless he's got a machine gun, he can't fire anything more. Wait.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Where go you.

[Jeff Regan]

You leave Max to be killed. I'm going after him. Stay right here. You'll be all right. I started for the heavy brush outside the clearing of the house, where white gun smoke still hung around the trees. Then I saw him. He was a gray haired man, stocky bill glasses, about a hundred feet away, running down the hill, waving the gun. I went after him, but I couldn't get a clear shot. He was quite an acrobat. He dived over a wooden road brazier and went skidding down the embankment. By the time I got there, he was winding into an old Chevy convertible and he took off in a cloud of dust. I couldn't see the license plate on the car.

[Various Female Characters]

Oh, my darling. This is absolutely terrible. Terrible, darling. Something like this happening to you. Oh, Max, Max. Why would anyone want to do such a thing? It's beyond me.

[Jeff Regan]

I got back to the house 10 minutes later and there was a black convertible in the driveway and a very blonde girl in the doorway. She was digging the new slugs out of the woodwork with a pen knife. Max was lying on one of the beach chairs. When the blonde girl saw me, she pulled off her sunglasses and held out her hand.

[Various Female Characters]

How do you do? Your Mr. Regan, did you kill him?

[Jeff Regan]

I got away.

[Various Female Characters]

Oh.

[Jeff Regan]

And I am again to be shot at.

[Various Female Characters]

You say he got away. Then you saw who?

[Jeff Regan]

It was part of him. Who are you? Oh, he. Beg my pardon? This is Hilda Graham. You have seen her in pictures. The hair. I have seen her differently. She's my wife almost. Did you see anybody?

[Various Female Characters]

Well, I heard the shots as I drove up and found poor Max by the door.

[Jeff Regan]

She's got to stop this business, Mr. Igang. He's got to stop the next I. Maybe.

[Various Female Characters]

It certainly does have to stop, Mr. Regan. Max. Why, he's the finest makeup artist in the world. Feel great. Lost everyone in Hollywood. If anything ever happened to you.

[Jeff Regan]

You see?

[Various Female Characters]

See?

[Jeff Regan]

Am I valuable. Did I not tell you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tell me, where's your phone? Oh, in there in my private workshop study where I have to live. Yuzi, please call Mr. Lyon and stop the shooting.

[Various Female Characters]

Oh, man. Darling, how I should be able to do something?

[Jeff Regan]

Lion, this is me. I'm calling from Max's. Somebody just threw six bullets all over the place. What? Is Max all right? Didn't even come close. Oh, good, good. The Treasury Department tells me he paid $20,000 last year in income tax and he can afford little protection. Well, whoever it is got away. I think we ought to turn this over to the cops. The cops? And let them do for free what we're getting paid to do. Not on your life, Regan. What about his life? We'll worry about that too. Now listen, I'm sending Joe Cant out there to give you a hand. Now this, Vlad, is a first class gold mine as far as I'm concerned. And that means as far as you're concerned, I don't care what I tell land. Do anything you want, so long as you stick by Maxi and don't call the cops. That's a fair label.

[Various Female Characters]

Roof. Phoning, Mr. Regan?

[Jeff Regan]

Yeah. You want one?

[Various Female Characters]

No, thanks. I have something much better than that at my house.

[Jeff Regan]

I'll bet you have.

[Various Female Characters]

I live all alone in Toluca Lake, end of the canyon.

[Jeff Regan]

I remember that when I get thirsty.

[Various Female Characters]

Who do you suppose is shooting at Max?

[Jeff Regan]

You tell me, lady. I just met him.

[Various Female Characters]

I thought you said you saw whoever it was.

[Jeff Regan]

I did.

[Various Female Characters]

Well, aren't you going to look for him or send out an alarm or whatever you do?

[Jeff Regan]

Yeah, whatever we do.

[Various Female Characters]

I see.

[Jeff Regan]

Don't you think you ought to be in there holding hands with Max? He's had a hard day, Max.

[Various Female Characters]

Always resting. Do you think he's the kind I'd really have something in common with?

[Jeff Regan]

I wouldn't know, lady.

[Various Female Characters]

Well, as a matter of fact, I was just leaving. I have to be at the studio early tomorrow. If there's anything I can do at all, I'd be only too happy to cooperate.

[Jeff Regan]

Yeah. Why don't you start by giving me those slugs you were digging out of the doorway?

[Various Female Characters]

Oh, I completely forgot about those. Here, I meant to give them to you.

[Jeff Regan]

Thanks. I'll need these.

[Various Female Characters]

Really? Whatever on earth?

[Jeff Regan]

For a comparison test. The ejector marks, the firing pin, dents. You can tell if they were fired from the same gun, if you want to look into it.

[Various Female Characters]

And of course, being a detective, you want to look into it.

[Jeff Regan]

That's right. I want to look into it.

[Various Female Characters]

Well, Mr. Regan, it's been nice meeting you. I know you'll take good care of Max. If there's anything I can do.

[Jeff Regan]

Yeah, I'll give you a ring.

[Various Female Characters]

Father's le. Until we meet again.

[Jeff Regan]

I followed her out the door and watched her pat Max on the head, kiss him on the cheek, and then she slid under the wheel of that convertible like she'd been built right along with it. That famous golden hair was blowing behind her by the time she got onto the main road. Be careful. Careful. How Lovely she is, Mr. Egan.

[Various Female Characters]

Huh?

[Jeff Regan]

Yeah. Maxine. She's just fine. For her, too. You must keep me alive. She needs me. Yeah. What now? We wait for another guy.

[Various Female Characters]

Aha.

[Jeff Regan]

Reinforcers. I like you, Mr. Egan. Already better, I feel. Only me, Reagan. Take it easy. Oh, Shadow, come on in. What took you so long? I stopped by police ballistics on the way out. I had them. 38 slugs that Max brought in. Check. Well, I got some more for you. Well, I found a winner gun. Belongs to a feller named Pete Berger. Ain't no permit on it. He done 6 to 18 in San Quentin once for a robbery sprung a couple of years ago. Address? Yeah, place on Figueroa, right off of Sunset. Here. Thanks. Holly was around again this afternoon, shooting things all over the place. I wonder what the connection is. I'm gonna find out before Maxie does. You take over, Joe. Okay. Where's our clay pigeon? Eh, roosting in there. Now, keep your eyes open. Canto. I'll get back as soon as I can. Oh, take your time, son. Joey, the canto is on the job. Yeah, I feel better already.

[Various Female Characters]

Hey, hey, do you know how to play Carolina in the morning? We'll play Carolina in the evening. Well, well, well, if there isn't a stranger in our midst. Boy, get a look at that.

[Jeff Regan]

What are you, white?

[Various Female Characters]

Straighten off, girl

[Jeff Regan]

Shine. He's got big feet.

[Various Female Characters]

Yeah, awful big feet. One let me, Mr.

[Jeff Regan]

Mom.

[Various Female Characters]

Champagne or beer?

[Jeff Regan]

Neither one, lady.

[Various Female Characters]

Well, we ain't got either. One for you, copper.

[Jeff Regan]

You picked wrong tonight.

[Various Female Characters]

Flossy never picks them wrong. I can tell by your feet you're paid by the city or you're a private peeper and somebody else pays you. Makes no difference to me. All spelled, copper. What do you want?

[Jeff Regan]

No fuss with you, Flossie. I'm looking for Pete Burger.

[Various Female Characters]

Who?

[Jeff Regan]

Pete Berger. This is his last address.

[Various Female Characters]

Ain't never heard of no Pete Berger. And neither has anybody else. And he ain't never lived here. And you got a wrong steer.

[Jeff Regan]

That door lead to rooms upstairs?

[Various Female Characters]

Yeah, that door leads to rooms upstairs.

[Jeff Regan]

Mind if I take a look?

[Various Female Characters]

I mind a lot of things, Seamus. And taking a look is one of them all right.

[Jeff Regan]

This Pete Burger you don't know, never heard of was throwing a lot of lead around yesterday and today. And I'm gonna take a look anyway.

[Various Female Characters]

Wait. Hey. Hey. You can't go up there.

[Jeff Regan]

I was only halfway up when a man on a gray sweatshirt backed over the top of the stairs. There were three red holes just about the center of the sweatshirt. Turned around and tried to say something. I saw what was gonna happen and I hugged the side of the banister. She ran over and was kneeling beside him, holding his head in her arms, rocking back and forth. Yeah, you guessed it. It was the same man I'd chased all afternoon, and he didn't live five seconds.

[Narrator/Announcer]

We'll return to Jeff Regan, investigator, in just a moment. But first, here's an important message from the Adjutant General's office. At no time in our nation's history has it been more important to develop an outstanding army medical department. Without an adequate nurse corps, this cannot be Accomplished and nurses are still needed to fill the estimated requirements for 1948. If you're a graduate registered nurse over 21 and under 45, you are invited to apply for a commission in the Army Nurse Corps Reserve. If you are selected, you may choose either active duty or inactive status. Apply to the adjutant general, Washington 25 D.C. And now back to the story of the lady with the golden hair and Jeff Regan, investigator.

[Jeff Regan]

Well, after he came falling down the stairs at me and Flossie had a good cry over him, there wasn't anything to do but to call Central Homicide. They got there a few minutes later and went over the whole place taking pictures and prints. Finally, a wagon pulled up, took what was left of Pete Berger down to the morgue. Detective Lieutenant Salvatore Windetti upped to Homicide, asked everybody a lot of questions and shipped a couple of people downtown for a couple of different things and finally got around to me.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Regan.

[Jeff Regan]

Regan. Regan, I think you ought to get yourself a new job. Every time the lion growls, you wind up with a corpse someplace and somebody has to ask you a question. That wasn't my idea, Sally. I might have to book you on technical charge. Oh, stop it, will ya? You know I didn't have anything to do with him getting shot. The next car named Pete Berger gets topped off just before a private dick gets around asking him a few questions. I gotta ask the private dick some questions myself or else the chief is gonna ask me some questions.

[Various Female Characters]

Make sense?

[Jeff Regan]

All I know is that somebody's been shooting at a client of mine, and that's somebody's Pete Burger.

[Various Female Characters]

How do you know?

[Jeff Regan]

Bullets came from a gun owned by Pete Berger. So I came down to see him, only he walks out all loaded down with.45 slugs and dies before you can say hello. Isn't that the bump?

[Various Female Characters]

Who's your client, Regan?

[Jeff Regan]

Do I have to tell you? No, but you will. Company policy. Company policy. Confidence of the client. Regan, can you arrest me for anything? Depends. Material witness, maybe. While it's depending, I'll get a hold of the lion, he'll get a hold of Harry Presidio, and then I'll bet you 10 bucks I'll be a rid of habeas corpus at the station by the time you get me there. All right. All right. All right, you're clear. This is a murder case, Regan. That's a serious crime in anybody's town. I don't know any more than I just told you. So you know the name of your client. Okay, okay. Why was Pete shooting at him? That's What? I was gonna ask Pete. Oh. Now, just exactly where does that put us? My client's safe and sound in his home, and Joe Canto's keeping an eye on him. When Canto was pounding a beat for the department, some guys got away from him. A lot of guys get away from a lot of cops. But not when the cops watching Canto's at that. You know him? Oh, sure, sure.

[Various Female Characters]

It's a thought.

[Jeff Regan]

Well, it's no good. Before Pete Berger went to San Quentin, he was never very handy with a gun because his eyes were so bad he couldn't see his hand in front of his face. He didn't hit anything yesterday or today, but he was sure trying. Now, Flossy told me Pete's been playing stuntman in pictures, making a buck at it. Seems he learned all his tricks while he was in the clink. They have a nice gym up there. They never tell what they'll do next. Still can't understand why he'd all of a sudden go around shooting at somebody. You figure it's Sally on you. It was something personal and Pete had to do it. And whoever Pete was shooting, I got kind of sore, turned around. Plug Pete tonight, huh? My client's home safe. Shoo shoo. Cattle's good. Almost forgotten. Beat Burger was a perfect setup for a wise guy. An ex con who done 15 years, who learns his lesson, wants to make a straight dime, gets mad when anybody bothers. Blackmail? Been done before. Pete had a good, healthy bank balance. I guess he was saving up for his old age. But some wise guy finds out. Pizza Khan says, I'll tell your boss unless you kick in. Then maybe Pete starts shooting to scare him into shutting up.

[Various Female Characters]

Make sense?

[Jeff Regan]

Sounds like an old fairy tale, but screwy enough to be the answer. Only this wise guy, Pete shooting, that thinks Pete might be meaning business. So he just comes over here tonight and plugs Pete. And who's the wise guy? Your client, John. Gonna tell me his name? I can't involve a client in a murder. Oh, yeah, Company policy. I almost forgot, Reagan. I'll find out in the morning. We got some lawyers, too. I know. Couldn't tell me now? I'll phone you in an hour, Sally, okay? Okay, Reagan. You can talk to him first, but phone me. Good night. Night, Regan. See you around. My watch said four o'. Clock. By the time I got to the hills back of Laurel Canyon and started up Mulholland Drive, the usual fog was in the usual places, doing the usual things to trees and houses. And when I pulled up in Front of Max's house. One light was burning in the window. The rest of the house looked dark. Everything was quiet. The first thing I noticed was cordite. It smells black and it means that guns have been fired. The whole room was full of it. Max Bladney was lying half on the floor and half on the table he used for a workshop. A bottle of spirit gum was spilled on the floor, along with some false blonde hair and a cracked wig block. He had one free arm around a white plaster cast of a head, just like it was a doll. There were two blue holes in the middle of his forehead. I just stood there looking at him when I heard a noise in back of me. It was Kanto. And he was on the floor at the foot of the bed. Oh, no. Don't try to move me, Regan.

[Various Female Characters]

I've been laying here waiting for you. It's in my lungs somewhere.

[Jeff Regan]

I don't think I got any blood to spare. Joy boy let you down. It happened an hour after you left.

[Various Female Characters]

I don't know who done it.

[Jeff Regan]

There's a lot of noise in Max's room and I come in. The next thing I know, I'm taking a slug myself. Hey. Hey, call me a doc, will you, Regan? I got a date tomorrow night.

[Various Female Characters]

She's been trying to get rid of me.

[Jeff Regan]

This would give her a good excuse. I guess. Lionel think mad, huh? Call me a doc. Riggin right quick. Well, I made a lot of phone calls before it was all over. Hollywood Receiving Hospital, Windetti, Central Homicide. And I got the lion out of bed and told him what had happened. He said he'd meet me at the hospital. I hung around a while and talked to Windetti. He didn't have much to say. When he got through poking around, he gave me a lift. As far as the hospital. A lion was standing around the hall when I got there. It was the first time I'd ever seen him look tired.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Hello, Reagan.

[Jeff Regan]

I just talked to the doctor. This is gonna cost plenty. How bad is it? 25 bucks a day for a room, plus surgery. No, I mean Canto. Oh. Bullock penetrated upper lobe of his right lung. Here, they pulled this out.45 slug. Who shoots.45s that good? Lots of people. Same kind of people who go around killing Feet Berger and Max Vladne. Yep. Candle getting himself shot's gonna eat up every penny we might have made on this thing. Is money all you ever think of? What else is there to think about? If you got it, you're fine. If you haven't got it, you're nothing. But a bump. One of your own men is lying in there wondering if he's ever gonna live or die. And he took that slug because you sent him on the job. Everybody dies. I'll give him a citation. You big pile of blubber. I ought to push you out a window. Now, talk like that isn't gonna help anything. No, but I know what it is. Now wait a minute, Regan. This is a police job. Oh, now it's a police job. Yeah, like I told you. And you can't go running around sticking your snoot into a couple of killings and giving International a lot of bad publicity. Now get this, Fatsil. I'm going out and find the guy who plugged Kanto. Now you listen to me. I want it down in the books and the papers and anyplace else than an International operator brought in a guy who killed one of their clients and shot one of their men. I won't be responsible for anything that happens. Okay. If you don't like the way I do things, you can pull my license right off the wall and get yourself another boy. Hey. Hey, where you going?

[Various Female Characters]

Come back here. Well, Mr. Regan, when I saw you at Max's yesterday afternoon, I didn't think you would come by for that drink at six o' clock in the morning. But come in, come in. I was just having coffee. I have to be at the studio for an early makeup job.

[Jeff Regan]

You look all right to me the way you are.

[Various Female Characters]

Oh, yes, you can be nice. Will you have some coffee?

[Jeff Regan]

No, thanks. Oh, I just stopped by for a minute. Afraid I have some tough news for Max.

[Various Female Characters]

Nothing happened to Max.

[Jeff Regan]

He's dead.

[Various Female Characters]

Oh, no, not Max.

[Jeff Regan]

Somebody shot him three hours ago.

[Various Female Characters]

Why would anyone want to kill Max?

[Jeff Regan]

That's what I'm going to find out.

[Various Female Characters]

Max expected me to marry him here.

[Jeff Regan]

So many plans.

[Various Female Characters]

What can I do to help, Mr. Regan? What can I do?

[Jeff Regan]

All right, now, look. A smart cop named Wendetti is gonna be knocking on your door pretty soon. He's gonna ask you a lot of questions about Max. Give me the answers first.

[Various Female Characters]

Would you mind terribly if we sat down? Max was all I had. I want to be near someone.

[Jeff Regan]

Sure.

[Various Female Characters]

I know I'm acting silly about this. What is it?

[Jeff Regan]

I can tell you, Mr. Regan, Max ever mention a man named Pete Berger?

[Various Female Characters]

No, never heard that name before.

[Jeff Regan]

He worked at the same studio. He was the one that shot at Max yesterday afternoon.

[Various Female Characters]

And he killed Max?

[Jeff Regan]

No, he's dead too. He was shot to death an hour earlier. I was there.

[Various Female Characters]

I'm not very good at this kind of thing. What are you trying to tell me, Mr. Regan?

[Jeff Regan]

Both of these killings were done by an amateur and not very good jobs. But there had to be some reason.

[Various Female Characters]

I. I don't know.

[Jeff Regan]

I've been in the business a long time, lady. Too long. People killed for money or love or just for the crazy feel of blasting a gun at somebody.

[Various Female Characters]

This has been a lot for you.

[Jeff Regan]

You know, if you find a reason, you find a killer. What kind of work would a makeup man be doing at home?

[Various Female Characters]

I don't know. Max always tried to improve his work. Suppose that's why I made the money he did.

[Jeff Regan]

He might have made a plaster cast of a head so he could study a face.

[Various Female Characters]

I suppose so, yes.

[Jeff Regan]

Your face.

[Various Female Characters]

Yes, I suppose so.

[Jeff Regan]

Why, it's a nice face. I've seen it in pictures.

[Various Female Characters]

Most press agents think my hair is nice, huh?

[Jeff Regan]

Yeah, it is. Long, golden hair.

[Various Female Characters]

Does it feel soft the way you hoped it would feel?

[Jeff Regan]

Yeah, it does.

[Various Female Characters]

And my lips. I don't feel bad doing this. I never did love Max. I was indebted to him. I was terribly ill several years ago. He helped me.

[Jeff Regan]

I can see why he felt the way he did about you.

[Various Female Characters]

Can you? I like the way you did that.

[Jeff Regan]

I know what Max had been working on. It was something for you, really. He was holding a plaster cast of your head in his arms when I found him. Of course, there was no hair on it and it looked kind of funny.

[Various Female Characters]

Don't say that. Don't ever say anything like that.

[Jeff Regan]

Yeah. No, I got it.

[Various Female Characters]

What are you talking about?

[Jeff Regan]

Murder, lady. Lots of it. You killed a poor ex con because he bungled a job you blackmailed him into doing. You shot him last night because I was gonna talk to you.

[Various Female Characters]

Are you crazy? Why would I do a thing like that?

[Jeff Regan]

Then you went over and you killed Max. And while you were at it, you pumped the slug or two into Joe Cannon.

[Various Female Characters]

He said there's gotta be a reason I.

[Jeff Regan]

Every newspaper in the country's gonna carry this story, lady. Oh, yeah. Hilda Graham, the one with all the long, golden hair is really as bald as a fresh egg.

[Various Female Characters]

Shut up.

[Jeff Regan]

Shut up.

[Various Female Characters]

Don't you ever hear anything like that in front of me. Why are you.

[Jeff Regan]

Go ahead, lady. Pick up that paperweight and I'll break you in two. Now, come on, let's go.

[Various Female Characters]

No, no, you can't. Mustn't find out about my hair. Please. Please don't tell them about my ear. I couldn't stand that.

[Jeff Regan]

Oh, please.

[Various Female Characters]

You know how nice I can be,

[Jeff Regan]

lady. You're a bum. Well, Max had been trying to get her to marry him and she didn't want to marry anybody, so she killed him. The police stenographer scratched his head on that one till I explained it was her hair, that long golden hair. Only it wasn't hers. It was a wig that Max had fixed up for her. She'd lost all hers when she was sick and couldn't stand the thought of anybody going around knowing it wasn't her own. Well, I guess you run into all kinds. A couple of days later I saw Kanto at the hospital. He'd had some transfusions and a lot of other things. He was coming along fine. Was reading a paper when I walked in. All right. But what is what, huh? Hi, Joe. I've been reading about that Hilda Graham. Too bad they don't take her picture without all that pretty hair. Serve her right. Yeah. How you feeling? Peachy. Reagan. How long we been working for the line? Too long. How many people been killed and messed up in that time that me and you knows about personally? Too many. There's one thing I can't get through maneuver. Why don't we get some other kind of a job? Real estate or movie extras or something? Why do we do it? Why do we do it, Jeff? I don't know, Joe. I don't know.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Jack Webb is featured as Jeff Regan with Williams Herbert as Anthony J. Lyon. It's cbs same time next week for Trouble, suspense and thrilling adventure with Jeff Regan, investigator. The role of Max Vladney was played by Hans Conrey with Barton Yarborough as Joe Canto. Betty Lou Gerson was Hilda Graham. Jack Crucian was Windetti. Marlo Dwyer was Flossy. Jeff Bregan, Investigator is written by E. Jack Newman, Produced and directed by Gordon T. Hughes with special music by Del Castillo. This program came to you from Hollywood. Bob Lamond speaking for cbs, the Columbia Broadcasting System.

[Jeff Regan]

My name is Jeff Regan. I get 10 a day and expenses from a detective bureau run by a guy named Lion. Anthony J. Lyon. They call me the Lion's Eye.

[Narrator/Announcer]

With Jack Webb as Jeff Regan. Investigators stand by for hard boiled action, mystery and thrilling adventure in tonight's story of the man in the do.

[Jeff Regan]

Well, this is the way it started. The lion called about 4 o' clock that afternoon, said he wanted to see me down at the office. I argued a while, finally told him I'd be there. Melody was sitting in front of her typewriter when I came in, putting a new coat of paint on her nails. She handed me a blank contract with no dates filled in. Jerked a thumb towards the lion's den. I went in. Regan, I'm glad you got here. What do you know about architects? They draw things. I know that much. But what about bids and all that stuff? Well, they figure out what a building's gonna cost, don't they? Go on. If whoever's paying for the building likes what they write down and they're hired. Couple of architects, maybe three or four make bids? I suppose so. Low man gets the job. Why? Our client's an architect named Dudley Haynes. An office in the Park Central Building. He thinks maybe the bank that's handling his bid might try to put something over on him. Banks don't do things like that. He thinks maybe a guy who works at the bank might be taking dough to shove his bid under the counter. Why didn't you say that in the first place? Because I'm saying it now. Haynes wants us to look into it. Who do I see Haynes first? Only talked to him on the phone. I told him we'd have to have a contracting retainer before we did anything. That figures. So hop over there and find out what's what and make him sign that contract and get a check. Anything else? Make sure it's certified. And call me if you run into any trouble. Dudley Haynes, architect, Park Central Building. Had an office on the ninth floor. When I went in, a girl with hair that figured to be blonde right down to the roots pulled off her glasses and put out her cigarette. And she kind of eased out of her chair behind that desk, moved toward me like a panther looking for a meal.

[Various Female Characters]

My, you're tall, aren't you?

[Jeff Regan]

There's nothing I can do about that.

[Various Female Characters]

Mr. Lyon said he was sending us one of his best men.

[Jeff Regan]

He always says that.

[Various Female Characters]

I think he meant it this time.

[Jeff Regan]

He's an awful liar.

[Various Female Characters]

Lady Dorothy. Dorothy knows Fitz. The name of the Dread.

[Jeff Regan]

Both.

[Various Female Characters]

What's yours?

[Jeff Regan]

Jeff Regan.

[Various Female Characters]

Well, now we know each other.

[Jeff Regan]

That's nice. I came to see Haynes. He wants me to look into something for him. I know he's expecting him.

[Various Female Characters]

I know. Well, I hope you had to look into a lot of things.

[Jeff Regan]

Frames. No, this is his office, isn't it?

[Various Female Characters]

But he spends most of his time in 902 into the hall. Makes his blueprints up there. I'll take you. You are Tom.

[Jeff Regan]

Well, we started down the hall. We got about 10ft from the frosted glass door. At the end, we both stopped. We were looking at the outline of a big man behind the door. Both of us expected him to open it and walk out. Oh, he came out all right, but he walked right through it. Oh, he's been shot. Oh, you know him?

[Various Female Characters]

It's my boss, Mr. Hayes.

[Jeff Regan]

It was your boss, lady. He's dead. Lieutenant Salvatore Windetti. Central Homicide detail showed up about eight minutes after I called. He had his whole goon squad with him and a couple of guys in double breasted suits from the District Attorney's office. They roped off the entrance to the building, got hold of the elevator operators and the man who runs the cigar stand and asked them questions. Then when Daddy looked at what was left of Haines and started yelling into a phone, my fingerprint boys get through. Yeah. Okay, Sis.

[Various Female Characters]

Where the guy lives at the Biltmore Hotel.

[Jeff Regan]

Where's his wife?

[Various Female Characters]

We didn't have one.

[Jeff Regan]

Who do we tell?

[Various Female Characters]

We didn't have any family, so no

[Jeff Regan]

one's going to cry. Well, that makes it easier, Regan. Was he your client? No. Nobody's a client until he sign a contract, Sally. Well, you would bring him a contract to sign and then you would do something for him. What? I didn't talk to him, sis.

[Various Female Characters]

Mr. Haynes had made an estimate on a little office building in Beverly Hills. He thought that a man named Adler at the bank might be taking money from someone to hold his bid on.

[Jeff Regan]

So he wants an investigator looked into it. Why do you think that?

[Various Female Characters]

Well, I don't know.

[Jeff Regan]

You work for him.

[Various Female Characters]

Well, I don't know everything.

[Jeff Regan]

Neither do I. Hot, isn't it? Who's Adler?

[Various Female Characters]

Just named him. Who else? Who else?

[Jeff Regan]

Architects. Who else was making a bid?

[Various Female Characters]

I don't know that.

[Jeff Regan]

Now where are we? Kelly?

[Various Female Characters]

Yeah. Guy named Adler at the National Bank.

[Jeff Regan]

Pick him up and have them down to my office in half an hour.

[Various Female Characters]

Yeah.

[Jeff Regan]

What do you want to do about reporters, Sally? Tell him to go jump in the lake. Yeah. They always spell my name wrong. How long you two known each other? An hour. Nice. What do you mean by that? That's nice. Didn't hear any shots? No, we didn't. Tell me more about the bid.

[Various Female Characters]

What's better?

[Jeff Regan]

Tell the setup.

[Various Female Characters]

Well, the bank handles the money.

[Jeff Regan]

Who says yes, who says no?

[Various Female Characters]

The bank. But.

[Jeff Regan]

But what?

[Various Female Characters]

The contractor usually tells them who to take. Huh?

[Jeff Regan]

Who's in? Who's that in this case?

[Various Female Characters]

Contractor in Long Beach. His name is George Cantrell.

[Jeff Regan]

I'll say this for you, Reagan.

[Various Female Characters]

When you get mixed up in anything,

[Jeff Regan]

you certainly get mixed up with a good looking people. I'm not mixed up on anything. What do you say, sis?

[Various Female Characters]

I'll keep my Mouth chef.

[Jeff Regan]

She's a smart girl. Reagan. Hello, honey. Won't be home for dinner. Some guy got himself killed and I'm in on it. Not long. How, Regan?

[Various Female Characters]

I'll tell him.

[Jeff Regan]

Wife says hello. Says come out to dinner sometime. Sis.

[Various Female Characters]

How much that contract worth the building in Beverly Hills? About $40,000.

[Jeff Regan]

Profit?

[Various Female Characters]

No, overall.

[Jeff Regan]

Break it down.

[Various Female Characters]

Well, Mr. Haynes would have paid about $12,000 if he'd gotten it.

[Jeff Regan]

I know some guys are killed for a dime. Sam Wendetti. I'm still at the Park Central Building. Get out to Long beach and park to a contractor named George Cantrell and find out what architects were making business and stuff. He was going to put up Beverly Hills? Yeah. Get the name. Okay, that about does it. Let's go. Ms. Nolan.

[Various Female Characters]

What?

[Jeff Regan]

Have to take you down, Jeff, can he do that? You're a material witness.

[Various Female Characters]

What are you?

[Jeff Regan]

He's a Firestoner with a bulking lawyer.

[Various Female Characters]

Well, I do, dear.

[Jeff Regan]

Go with him.

[Various Female Characters]

Why do you want to spend the night in jail? I just worked for Mr. Uh.

[Jeff Regan]

No phone calls. This is a murder case.

[Various Female Characters]

Well, get me a lawyer or something.

[Jeff Regan]

Jeff, you know a lawyer?

[Various Female Characters]

No. Wait. Yes, I do. His name's Dave Henderson. He lives at 1648 Glaremont. Plate. What are you gonna call me, tell him I'm in trouble?

[Jeff Regan]

Yeah. Jack, Sally, she didn't make a phone call in my life or two. Well, look, he may not be able to do anything for you tonight. It's almost six.

[Various Female Characters]

But you'll see him as soon as possible.

[Jeff Regan]

Yeah.

[Various Female Characters]

Tell him I'm scared, Jeff. Scared, Steve.

[Jeff Regan]

Well, I stayed there and phoned the lion, told him what had happened. He got mad and yelled something about me being a jinx on all our clients. Then he hung up. So I went through the classified telephone directory under Attorneys and Henderson. There was a Ben, a George, a Joe, a William, but no Dave Henderson. So I drove out to the address that she'd given me was a blue apartment house four blocks west of Vermont. Over by the Coliseum. Somebody was cooking hamburger somewhere. Somebody was all worked up over a ball game on the radio. I picked the baseball fan. Well, what'll happen now is anybody's guess, but let me tell you that this ball game is a long way from being up. Hey, what'd I tell you? What? I tell you, it's outside the ballpark. And they're coming in like homing pigeons. Faces are loaded and they're all coming in. Oh, it's going to be 8 o'.

[Various Female Characters]

Clock.

[Jeff Regan]

Come on, come on. The ball game's not that good.

[Various Female Characters]

What's so important, Pilgrim? I'm with the ball game.

[Jeff Regan]

I'm looking for a man named Dave Henderson, a lawyer.

[Various Female Characters]

So what?

[Jeff Regan]

Somebody told me he lives in this apartment house. Who told you that? A lady.

[Various Female Characters]

Huh.

[Jeff Regan]

Does he live here?

[Various Female Characters]

You try looking at the mailbox.

[Jeff Regan]

No name. You?

[Various Female Characters]

Cop?

[Jeff Regan]

Private type. Does he live here?

[Various Female Characters]

Jory lives here.

[Jeff Regan]

From where?

[Various Female Characters]

Enter the hall. 106.

[Jeff Regan]

Thanks.

[Various Female Characters]

He's a lawyer. Is he with his kind of friends, huh?

[Jeff Regan]

What does that mean?

[Various Female Characters]

You're young, ain't you, Curly?

[Jeff Regan]

I got a driver's license.

[Various Female Characters]

Let me tell you something. Don't go knocking on no doors and hear a ball game. Remember that.

[Jeff Regan]

Yeah, I'll remember that.

[Various Female Characters]

And you can tell them Tessy Bogart is not to that one.

[Jeff Regan]

And the score is 8 to 5 coming into the first half of the night. And this has been some ball game, let me tell you. 106. Here we are. Come on in. It's unlocked. Your name Dave Henderson? Yeah. Who wants to know? My name's Regan. I'm a private investigator with the International Detective Bureau. Wrong steer. Gump shoe. I don't need one. Look, I'm not looking for work. I'm looking for you. What'd you say it was? Regan? That's right. R, E, G, A, N. Regan.

[Various Female Characters]

Regan.

[Jeff Regan]

Learned that just an hour ago. Cute, huh? I met a friend of yours today. Dave Henderson. Never had a pet. He said she was a friend of yours. But I didn't say I was a friend of hers. Hey, who we talking about anyway? Dorothy Nolan. How is Dorothy? Not so good. Thought you were a detective. I am. You sound like a doctor. Look, you sound like a guy with a chip on his shoulder. Sound like a lot of things. You're trying to be tough, Pete. No wonder you aren't in the telephone directory. I'll just skip that. She said you were a lawyer. They say I drink too much. Haven't seen you drinking, have you? She wants you to get in touch with her. The man she was working for was murdered today. She kill him? Well, they're holding her. Material witness or suspect? Material witness. Right now, she doesn't want to spend the night in jail. Who does? That's why she isn't feeling so good. He wants me to get her up? Something like that. Who's handling the case downtown? Detective named Wendell. And where do you come in? Well, I didn't give her that one phone call. You're sensitive. What if I said no? Well, that's your business. You know why she asked you to see Me? Cause I'm a guy she knows. And every guy who knows little Dorothy, there's a little something before. Ever met him like that, Ricky? Sometimes. Just checking. Checking what? She's pretty good with the works. Eyes just right for the job, hair just right. Everything just right. She can make you do a lot of things you don't want to do. Wait till you see her in a bathing suit. Ooh, that's something, brother. Well, they aren't wearing them in the county jail. Okay, I'll phone when Daddy and find out what her bond is. Look, this is a murder case. There's no bond on this. You know that. Well, it depends how you handle it. I'll think of something. Yeah, I'll bet you will. We don't like each other much, do we? No, that's the way it goes. Listen, she said to tell you she was scared. Well, some of us are scared part of the time. And somebody gets shot and everybody gets scared. You scared? No. Iron Man Reagan. Have a good time. Did I say Haynes was shot? No, you didn't say a thing. See you somewhere, people. Well, I stopped by Musso Frank's and had the special, and then I went on home. I tried to make a couple of calls, but when Daddy was out and the desk sergeant thought I was a reporter, and he wouldn't tell me a thing about Dorothy Nolan, while I was sitting there, the phone began jumping around on the hook. Regan? Yeah, this is me. Where you been? I called your place 20 times and I've called it once. Well, I've been busy seeing a lawyer. Why do you need a lawyer for? You aren't married. Somebody else needs one. Who? Dorothy Nolan. That blonde who worked up in Haines office? When Daddy's holding her good, I want you to go down and see her. What for? We can still make something on this thing if we play it smart. When I talked to Haines on the phone this afternoon, I told him I wanted a certified check. So what?

[Various Female Characters]

So that means there's a check for

[Jeff Regan]

a hundred bucks lying around his office somewhere. And it's made out to international. Look, he's dead. Remember? Everybody dies. Don't worry about it. We weren't even hired. We had a verbal contract. We had nothing. That check's no good to anybody but us. We didn't do anything for him. Well, buy him some flowers. Now hop down to the pokey and

[Various Female Characters]

see that dame and find out where that check is.

[Jeff Regan]

We can't do that. I talked to Harry Presidio and he'll give us a Lien to get in. Hello? Hello, Regan. You're still there. I was still there, but I wasn't listening to the lion. I was looking at a skinny little man with one leg. Now, don't ask me how he made it inside my door. He was just there, propped up on a pair of crutches, swaying back and forth, watching me with a couple of sick gray eyes that were so full of water you'd think they were going to float right out of his head all at once. He went down like a busted sugar sack. He'd been shot twice through the neck with a small caliber gun. 25, 32. I don't know. I found a dozen razor blades in one pocket and two dozen sets of shoelaces to go with him. There wasn't anything that told me his name, but there was a picture inside his shirt pocket. One of those things that you have taken in a penny arcade, you know, in front of phony pasteboard props. Well, a man with one leg was looking out from between a pair of painted angel's wings. The guy standing next to him who was smiling up at the halo was the same man that I'd seen that afternoon, an architect named Haynes. A man who needed the private detective. A man who walked out a glass door and then dropped dead. And the one printed word above that picture stuck out like a wart on an egg that said happy Land.

[Narrator/Announcer]

You were listening to the sou story of the man in the door. Tonight's adventure with Jeff Regan, investigator. Here is a special and important message to every businessman. Listening to every businessman, regardless of the size or the type of his business. Gentlemen, do you realize that the schools of this community help you every day that you're in business? That's right. For one thing, our schools teach the boys and girls of this community to cherish the human rights, the free enterprise on which our country and your business are founded. With each new generation graduated from our schools, the army defending our way of life and your business grows stronger. What's more, good teachers and well equipped schools do a better job of developing our children's talents. The result? School graduates have become more skilled and more efficient employees. So remember, any time and taxes that you contribute to improving local schools are an investment in your own business. Future education is good business education can maintain our freedom. And freedom is everybody's job. And now back to the story of the man in the door and Jeff Regan, investigator.

[Jeff Regan]

Well, I left the little man with the one leg lying. There wasn't much I could do for him. I wanted to Wait. Before I called Homicide, I took the picture I found in his pocket and I drove to Happy Land. It turned out to be an open air Penny Arcade on 5th and Main. Smelled like all the hot dogs in the world had been made right there. There were machines all over the place telling you how strong you were, how rich you'd be and who you'd marry. All for a penny. I guess it wasn't much of a bargain. The only customer was a sailor trying his luck at the shooting gallery. Back in the corner, a tired looking girl in light blue slacks and a dirty gray sweater was sitting on a stool by the hot dog counter, staring at nothing.

[Various Female Characters]

Want some pennies?

[Jeff Regan]

Not right now. No?

[Various Female Characters]

Oh, just looking. Go ahead. You figure out where you're gonna send your money. Come back and I'll give you some change.

[Jeff Regan]

You got a picture gallery here?

[Various Female Characters]

Oh, tell me you're a real big spender and want to have your picture taken.

[Jeff Regan]

Maybe you got one.

[Various Female Characters]

Yeah, we got one.

[Jeff Regan]

Where is it?

[Various Female Characters]

In there. You really want to get your picture taken? I'll climb off this stool and take you back. I want to tell you now, if you're just trying to be sociable, you can go on fly kikes.

[Jeff Regan]

You run the picture concession.

[Various Female Characters]

I run the picture place and the hot dog place and I sleep out in the morning. Oh, I wish I had better brains than to marry that slob and get myself stuck in a cheap dump like this.

[Jeff Regan]

All right. Do you remember taking this picture?

[Various Female Characters]

How would I know? I take a lot of pictures.

[Jeff Regan]

Well, come on, look at it.

[Various Female Characters]

All right. All right. Yeah, I took it. But, soldier, when? How do you think I am? Can't remember what night it is every time a pair of drunks comes in and wants her pictures taken together.

[Jeff Regan]

We'll try to remember. Will you?

[Various Female Characters]

You're a real wise guy, mister. You don't want no picture. You just want some talk.

[Jeff Regan]

You're a cop friend. I met the little guy in the picture once.

[Various Female Characters]

That's.

[Jeff Regan]

What was that?

[Various Female Characters]

Doctor said you met him once?

[Jeff Regan]

Well, we weren't introduced. I just met him. Who is he?

[Various Female Characters]

Dusty Rhodes. Works with Circuit.

[Jeff Regan]

What? Circuit.

[Various Female Characters]

Fifth and Main Stem, business section.

[Jeff Regan]

What kind of business?

[Various Female Characters]

Dusty handled a razor blade and shoelace traffic. He hates pencils.

[Jeff Regan]

What'd he do when he wasn't working?

[Various Female Characters]

What does anybody do? He went out and got loaded.

[Jeff Regan]

Go on, then.

[Various Female Characters]

You don't know him very well for a friend. How am I gonna know I'm not getting Dusty in trouble talking to you like this?

[Jeff Regan]

Nobody can get him in trouble anymore.

[Various Female Characters]

Lady, what do you mean?

[Jeff Regan]

He was shot tonight.

[Various Female Characters]

Oh, no. Oh, poor little guy.

[Jeff Regan]

You know where he lived? Seashore Hotel.

[Various Female Characters]

The Seashore Hotel. Oh, Jesus. I'm sick. I'm real sick,

[Jeff Regan]

Brother. The Seashore caters to many types of people, good and bad. Just out of the pocket, two bits a night for tranche. 150 a week for solid citizens. Sign a register. It's a law. I'm not looking for a room. Then you're wasting my time, brother. My beer's getting warm. Look, I'm a private investigator. My name's Regan. I liked you before you said them two words, brother, but you have soured me. Private investigator means private eye, and it all means cop. And you are not welcome. Now, blow. I'm trying to find out something about a man named Dusty Rhodes. We do not ask questions and we do not give answers. Now, blow. I was told he lived here. You find me countless, brother. Now, blow. Did you know him? During the last five years, I have acquired £85 and a very bad heart. All right. Have you in the alley right now? Oh, yeah, sure. You here? Abraham Lincoln was a very fine man. And he took a very fine picture. I seem to have found my tongue, brother. Will it be the key to his room for a starter, huh? Disallowable and punishable by fine and imprisonment. Into the hall. Turn the Benfesto to the right. Thanks. Well, I don't know what I expected to find there. Outside of more razor blades and more shoelaces was a little room full of dirty white curtains and a wire bed that sagged in the middle. I was standing there watching a neon sign advertised Beer a block down the street when I thought I heard somebody behind me. Whoever it was had been drinking bad whiskey, but he was still pretty good. It landed a quarter of an inch above my right ear and I piled up in a lamp, a chair and a pitcher full of water. Five berries. Gets you a look, brother, but doesn't get you a room. Besides, it's already taking on the beds over there. Now, come on. You didn't go to sleep, brother. You was knocked asleep. I apologize. Why the games? Who came in after me? You're the only one. You sure? My name's Sam Preacher, brother. I'm very sure. Maybe he was waiting for me. I don't generally ask him. But the question is this. Why? I don't know. Unless. What's the matter? Something missing? Just a picture. You can get lots of pictures. You didn't see anybody? That makes the third time, brother. And the answer's still negative. Okay.

[Various Female Characters]

Okay.

[Jeff Regan]

Then let's blow, buddy, huh? Coroner's office. Luke, this is Regan the Lion save. What's with you, baby? When Daddy tells me you walked into one today. Yeah, I did. You got him there? Haynes Dudley? Sure. Wanna come down and take a look?

[Various Female Characters]

He's toe tagged and salted down real pretty.

[Jeff Regan]

Yeah, I'll bet them. 32 slugs was just incidental. The guy had four weeks at the outside. All right, give it to me. Haynes Dudley was dying from malnutrition, alcoholism and a couple other things with long names. Give me one long name. Diabetes. He didn't take good care of himself. Funny, A misspent life. Somebody's gonna take the gas chamber for nothing. When Daddy know this?

[Various Female Characters]

Sure, sure.

[Jeff Regan]

And he was wearing a brand new suit too. We'll sew up the holes. We'll bury him in it. Well, you aren't finished yet. Luke, baby. A guy with one leg dropped dead in my place a couple hours ago.

[Various Female Characters]

It's after 11.

[Jeff Regan]

I'm sorry, Luke. Stay. Connected? Yeah.

[Various Female Characters]

Murder.

[Jeff Regan]

Yeah. Well, come down and see us anytime, Regan. We're open 24 hours a day. Fell at the homicide office. They told me she'd been released about 10 o'.

[Various Female Characters]

Clock.

[Jeff Regan]

They said a lawyer named Henderson had put up the bail and handled the whole thing. They gave me an address on her when I went out there. It was a bungalow court on Normandy and it took her a long time to answer the door.

[Various Female Characters]

Oh, you.

[Jeff Regan]

Yeah. Tell me how tall I am.

[Various Female Characters]

I love to, but not right now.

[Jeff Regan]

They told me you'd been out since 10 o'.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Clock.

[Jeff Regan]

Maybe I should have come sooner.

[Various Female Characters]

Dale gives me the willage. I'm about to take a shower.

[Jeff Regan]

I was kind of hoping we could have a drink.

[Various Female Characters]

I did better than I thought with you.

[Jeff Regan]

I got a hold of a lawyer for you tonight.

[Various Female Characters]

Yes?

[Jeff Regan]

Well, doesn't that rake me an invitation to have a drink?

[Various Female Characters]

I said later. I'm really tired.

[Jeff Regan]

I said no.

[Various Female Characters]

Well, if you're that thirsty.

[Jeff Regan]

All right, that's better.

[Various Female Characters]

And every day my boss gets killed and I meet a private detective.

[Jeff Regan]

I need a drink. I was slugged tonight.

[Various Female Characters]

Slug?

[Jeff Regan]

Yeah, right here. See?

[Various Female Characters]

It looks nasty. Why'd anyone do that to you?

[Jeff Regan]

Wanted a picture.

[Various Female Characters]

I had Whistler's Mother.

[Jeff Regan]

Just a picture of a couple of drunks who are dead now.

[Various Female Characters]

Maybe whoever did it was erotic.

[Jeff Regan]

Guess again.

[Various Female Characters]

I don't like games.

[Jeff Regan]

But you play them all the time.

[Various Female Characters]

But we all. I know a psychiatrist says we can't help ourselves.

[Jeff Regan]

You can.

[Various Female Characters]

I liked you when you Walked into the office this afternoon. But I'm not so sure I like you now that you let it go.

[Jeff Regan]

Expecting somebody?

[Various Female Characters]

What are you doing? You let go of me. Let go of me.

[Jeff Regan]

Oh, no, baby. You got real nice eyes. I want to look at him.

[Various Female Characters]

Let go. He's crazy.

[Jeff Regan]

Hello, Dave. We didn't hear you knock. Did you bring your piano? What's the idea? Why don't you tell him to go away? Baby, anybody can tell we're busy. Let it go, Rean. You want to break us up? Get to eat.

[Various Female Characters]

Just trying to make you jealous and saving.

[Jeff Regan]

Come here, honey.

[Various Female Characters]

No, you don't have to do that.

[Jeff Regan]

I should have let her go. That the same.32 you killed the one leg man with? Over gum sho.

[Various Female Characters]

Don't be a fool.

[Jeff Regan]

Stay where we are. Baby, you're first.

[Various Female Characters]

Listen to me, baby.

[Jeff Regan]

I listen to you too long.

[Various Female Characters]

He's only guessing. He doesn't have any proof of anything.

[Jeff Regan]

You can cry if you want to, baby. This is going to hurt. She spun around and fell into a coffee table. And then lay very quiet on the rug. Her eyes were open and she didn't say anything. She just lay there looking up at him. I couldn't tell where she'd been hit. He seemed to forget all about me because he walked over to her, knelt down beside her, put the gun right up against her head. This is awful close range, baby. But I can't afford to miss. Neither could I. Well, when Daddy and I stuck our heads together and it all came out. When we looked into a couple of things. You see, Dave Henderson was Dudley Haynes. And he was wanted for attempted murder and embezzling and one thing or another back in Ohio. So he figured it'd be a good idea to bump himself off. Dorothy helped him with the idea. They both went down on Main street and they picked up an old bum, dressed him up in a new suit and shot him. I was supposed to walk in with Dorothy and she'd identify the body. And as far as anybody knew, Dudley Haines would be dead. Dave didn't figure that she'd be taken down. She didn't figure that she'd get scared. And neither of them figured the man with one leg was a pal of the man that they'd shot. Well, it seems that they looked through a lot of files and they figured that a lot of murders go unsolved. Maybe they do. I don't know. Well, anyway, he sat down on that little bench up there in San Quentin last week. The one with that bucket of acid in the room. He held his breath as long as he could, but everybody has to breathe. He's buried up there with a lot of other guys that figured they could get away with murder. Dorothy, she wasn't hurt too bad. I had her in a wheelchair for the trial. She got 15 years as an accomplice. Some kind of a deal, state's evidence and all that. I don't think I'll wait for her. She wasn't that good.

[Various Female Characters]

Foreign.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Is featured as Jeff Regan with Wills Herbert as Anthony J. Lyon. It's CBS at 9:30 next week for more hard boiled action and mystery with Jeff Regan, investigator, written by E. Jack Newman and produced by Sterling Tracy. Dorothy Nolan was played by Betty Lou Gerson and David Ellis was Dave Henderson. Lorraine Tuttle, William Conrad and Lou Krugman. Supported. It's perfectly natural and wholesome for some men who want to leave great wealth behind. There's a druggist in a small town in Pennsylvania who'll do that. The wealth he'll leave behind will make many lives easier and happier and finer down through the years. For he was the principal donor of an outdoor meeting place for religious services in a boy Scout camp in the Poconos. Working with his neighbors and community activities, he saw the need of this improvement, helped to install it. That's the kind of wealth that you can bequeath to generations. Coming on as you enjoy the freedom of working with your neighbors for the betterment of your community. Freedom that can be anybody's pleasure, is everybody's job. Music for this program is arranged by Dick. Around next week at 9:30, Jeff Regan, investigator, brings you another thrill packed half hour with his story of the house of by the Sea. Bob Stevenson speaking. This is cbs, the Columbia Broadcasting System.

[Jeff Regan]

My name is Regan. I get 10 a day and expenses from a detective bureau run by a guy named Anthony J. Lyon. They call me the Lion's Eye.

[Narrator/Announcer]

With Jack Webb as Jeff Regan, the Lion's Eye. Stand by for hard boiled action and mystery and thrilling adventure in tonight's story of the man who fought back.

[Jeff Regan]

There's a street crammed in between Wilton and Van Ness and Hollywood. It's called Taft Avenue. It's a couple of blocks long and it only got there because the city planners had a few tons of cement left over from the Coliseum. On the corner there's a gray building poking its way up through a crack in the pavement. That's where I live. Apartment K. Two rooms with a connecting door to a broom closet. Oh, the place isn't much. A couple of chairs and a bed that comes out of the wall and a mattress that could pass itself off as a relief map of the high Sierras. Well, that's where I was the other night around 11, trying to catch some sleep. That's when my phone began making an impression. Turned out to be the lion. Hey, Reagan, I'm glad I found your home. Are you alone? What's the matter? Did you lose your voice? Just a precaution. I got a hold of a good thing and I don't want to lose it by indiscreet talk. Well then write me a letter. We've just been hired. You start tonight. It'll keep till morning. Her name's Alice La Far. She meets you in a bar called the Princess across the street from Pershing Square. Get going. What's your trouble? She'll tell you all about it when you get there. Can't you tell me? I haven't got the time right now. But there's nothing to it. I'd handle it myself if I didn't have a big deal. Art flirting with widows in Pasadena, huh? So I got a social engagement. It helps our business. Pays to be seen in high society. And besides, the liquor's good. You just get over to see the lafarge Dave and give me a ring in the morning and let me know how you make out. All right. Lovers. Hey Regan, what should I take to my Pasadena girlfriend? Flowers or candy? You better take both. You're gonna need all the help you can get. I threw on some clothes and I headed for town. My car found a parking lot off Olive and I cut through Pershing Square. Make it over to hill was after midnight. A sailor was chasing a bow legged marine over the grass. He brought him down on about the 40 yard line. The Princess bar showed up near the corner of 6th, a little place holding up six stories of granite. I went inside. A mustache was trying real hard on a piano. 200 pounds of bartender was moving a wet rag over the bar in slow motion. A girl was sitting on the far stool in a black purse with the initials ALF. Alice LaFarge. If you looked real hard, you could find her eyes. I gave up on her lips. I lowered myself onto the stool next to her. She looked tired, like a chorus girl on a Sunday morning.

[Various Female Characters]

Yes?

[Jeff Regan]

I'm Regan, international detective.

[Various Female Characters]

How do I know?

[Jeff Regan]

You will when you get the bill.

[Various Female Characters]

You're late, Mr. Regan.

[Jeff Regan]

Well, I didn't pick up any traffic tickets if that's what you wanted.

[Various Female Characters]

Well, it doesn't matter. We have a few minutes yet.

[Jeff Regan]

What are we waiting for 12:30.

[Various Female Characters]

Can I buy you a drink, Mr. Regan?

[Jeff Regan]

You're calling it.

[Various Female Characters]

Bartender.

[Jeff Regan]

What'll it be, miss?

[Various Female Characters]

I'm not drinking. Serve the gentleman Scotch.

[Jeff Regan]

Bourbon and water. Got some pretty tasty scotch, buddy. Bourbon. Just trying. I get a commission on the scotch. All right, lady, now let's have it.

[Various Female Characters]

You live far from here, Mr. Regan?

[Jeff Regan]

About 20 minutes.

[Various Female Characters]

You better run home and throw a change of clothes into a suitcase.

[Jeff Regan]

Out of town job?

[Various Female Characters]

No, but you'll need a change. Bring along a deck of cards and a thick book.

[Jeff Regan]

Anything else?

[Various Female Characters]

Call off any dates you may have. You're going to be out of circulation for the weekend. Here's an address. It's a hotel on North Figueria. Get there as soon as you can.

[Jeff Regan]

You still haven't said anything. What's the job?

[Various Female Characters]

You'll find out when you get there.

[Jeff Regan]

I'll get tired of waiting. Come on, lady, let's open it up. Hey, buddy, Scotch. Hey, you're leaving us, miss? Next one's free.

[Various Female Characters]

Thanks anyway.

[Jeff Regan]

Okay, I'll look beat at you. And take that scotch with you. Okay. Drink it myself. I still get the commission. All right. Now come on, sis, let's have the rest of it.

[Various Female Characters]

I'm sorry, Mr. Regan. That's all I can tell you now. Just be at that address as soon as you can.

[Jeff Regan]

Now. She slid off the stool and moved for the front door. I caught a view of her in the mirror. There was nothing there to make a guy want an encore. Sandy hair, short thin body that you could have slipped into a mailbox. Well, she threw the door shut behind her. A couple of seconds ticked by and I moved out after her. I made the street just in time to see her climb into a cab and start up six. That's when I said, spotted the red Austin with an Illinois license. It was a glen plaid sleeve sticking out of the left side. And that's all I got of the driver, except that he was doing a real bad tag job on the Lafarge girl. The North Figueroa address Alice Lafarge gave me turned out to be the Gladstone Hotel. A two layer pile of wood so old that the termites were getting indigestion. A short guy with a shiny head was catching up on his reading in the lobby. He put down the seat catalog long enough to tell me that apartment 3B was upstairs in the back. A couple of knocks on the door and Alice let me in. Sitting in the corner was a bush of gray hair and a white face. Turned out to be a man with a worried look. Like an alligator in a handbag factory. Shut the door, Alice.

[Various Female Characters]

Yes, dad.

[Jeff Regan]

Thanks for coming, Regan. I'll let you know later. If you're welcome. Take these things, Alice. No, I'm gonna hang on to him for a while. Suit yourself, but your coat will get heavy in a few hours. What says I'm gonna stay that long? Me. That's what you're hired for. What else? Well, lots of time to get to that. Let's get to know each other first. You got a name? I'm Bill Lafais. Sort of fancy, but I like it. Give me some more. Not much more. Just an old joker with nothing left but a few years and a regular dud. You know, Reagan, this isn't my real address. I just moved here. Yeah, the rent's low. That's not it. Lafarge can handle more. All right, you can skip the bank statement, mister.

[Various Female Characters]

Will you please try to be civil, Mr. Regan?

[Jeff Regan]

That's not what you hired me for. It's okay, Alice. I can't say I blame him. All right, then. Let's throw it in gear, huh? Not much to your job, Reagan. Just spend a weekend with me. I've had better offers. Yeah, I did, too, in my time. Well, it's the easy part of it. You got something hard, you stay awake the next 48 hours and keep looking at me. Who's after you? Nobody. I figure different. You could be wrong. Shades down, lights out. Red Austin on a tag job.

[Various Female Characters]

What do you mean?

[Jeff Regan]

Plaid suit. Moved out after you when you left the princess. You sure he was following Alice like you said? I could be wrong. Get one thing straight, Reagan. I never hire anybody to protect me. Bill defarge handles things like that himself. You're here as a witness. What for? Just in case somebody wants some testifying as to how I spent this weekend. All right, now throw off your coat. Let's play a little cards. Why not? Alice opened the window. It's getting a little hot in here.

[Various Female Characters]

All right, dad.

[Jeff Regan]

Good girl. Gin. Mummy. You're dealing now. High. Do you want to play two bits? If you. Shots came flying in from the alley and didn't stop until they caught Alice Lafarge. They blew her back into the room, and she did a full turn like a ballet dancer showing off. By the time her father. When my father and I got to her, it was all over. The old man straightened up and began mumbling something about Red Austin. I stepped for the phone. I put in a call to San Ducci at Homicide. He took down the story and promised to send out some company. Then I cradled the phone. That's when I knew I was alone with the girl. Old man Lafarge had hot footed it out of the building like a Super Chief on a holiday weekend. Well, the boys from Homicide showed in a couple of minutes and they had a few questions. I gave them what I had and Sanducci tabled the rest until the next day. So I went home to relax. You know, the lion could have made a good detective. He always finds me. Regan, I'm not paying you to sit at home. Get your coat on and explain this. What? This newspaper story. There's a big lie in here about the Lafarge name getting killed. Now, I know you wouldn't allow that to happen to one of our clients. It was real hard, but I managed. I give you a simple little job and you turn it into a murder. You getting a commission from Forest Lawn. You got your hands full, too. What do you mean? San Ducci will be visiting you with a pocket full of questions. I don't know nothing about a shooting. I was out in Pasadena all night playing a guitar and I got a sore finger to prove it. Now you listen to me, big shot. You better start sniffing around and turn up a red Austin with a plaid suit behind a wheel. Whatever. Get some information on Bill, the whole fires. The girl's father. What's that? You know, I bet if we open it, we'll find out. Well, I better get a move on. Just open the door a little bit and I'll squeeze by.

[Various Female Characters]

Hello.

[Jeff Regan]

Nice to see you. Sand. Where's he going? Get in line for Notre Dame tickets. Why don't you take up knocking, Sanducci, huh? New directive went through the department. Show a little more courtesy. You don't wear it well and I figure it's political. They're working on building up a gate for the next policeman's show. Gotta put you on. You're worth a couple of laughs. Yeah. Yeah, I'll speak to the boys. How did you sleep last night, Reagan? Fine. You shouldn't have. The murder should have given you nightmares. It's always oval team, you know. Some of the boys down at headquarters figure you know more about this shooting than you're saying. Well, they made mistakes before. Now I'm not saying I feel like they do. What do you want? Who knocked off the Lafarge girl? You're asking yourself. Wrong answer. How would you know she got it with a.45. What do you want? You know what I own, but I don't know about lafarge. The shots came in through the window. Even you can figure that he could have had help. Talk to him. I will when we pick him up. In the meantime, it's you and me. You got nothing on me. We found a roll of door in a briefcase in the bottom bureau drawer. What was it doing there? I don't know. All right, Regan, now let me give you a tip. The words out. Lafarge got a private war on. I don't want any more shooting. So I look at it this way. He's your client. I'm holding you responsible. What's that mean? Go find out. You're a detective. Well, I don't suppose I'll ever find out. He slid out of the room and I washed up and had a short breakfast at the corner direction and went through the morning paper. The La Farge murder rated a lot of big type. And there was a picture of Alice right next to the weather report. Slightly cooler. After the bottom showed my coffee cup, I went over to the Hollywood library. The city directory gave William Lafarge an orange drive. Home address and occupation printer. The yellow phone book turned up a La Farge Preston Print Shop on Santa Monica near La Brea. It was a small the color of stale peanut butter and it was tucked in between a pet store and a beauty parlor. When I stepped inside the front door, the bell rang and a couple of pair of tortoise shell glasses covering a couple of deep blue eyes looked at me. She was a brunette with light skin and a voice that sounded like it was diving for sponges. Print shop smell got lost in all that taboo.

[Various Female Characters]

Good morning, sir. May I help you?

[Jeff Regan]

I'm looking for Mr. Lafarge.

[Various Female Characters]

There's no Mr. Lafarge here.

[Jeff Regan]

Sign outside says there is.

[Various Female Characters]

It's an old one. Won't I do instead?

[Jeff Regan]

That's another chapter.

[Various Female Characters]

Then turn the page. I think you'd enjoy it.

[Jeff Regan]

You know, you ought to put out cards.

[Various Female Characters]

Mr. Preston says business has picked up immeasurably since I started working here.

[Jeff Regan]

Let's get back to Lafarge.

[Various Female Characters]

I told you, he's not here.

[Jeff Regan]

Well, try Preston for me.

[Various Female Characters]

He's very busy.

[Jeff Regan]

He can spare a couple of words.

[Various Female Characters]

Now wait a minute. You can't go in there. I'm sorry, Mr. Preston. I told him you were very busy.

[Jeff Regan]

All right, Lois. Who are you? My name is Regan. I'm with International Detective. I got some questions about your partner. Of course. Please leave us, Louis.

[Various Female Characters]

See you later, soldier.

[Jeff Regan]

Cigar, Mr. Regan? No, I won't be here that long. Naturally, I'll be only too Happy to tell you anything I can. It was such a shock reading about his poor daughter's death. A wonderful girl, if I said that. You'd say it too, if you knew her. She was very good to him. Well, Mr. Regan, what specifically can I tell you? The book calls this place Lafarge Preston. Somebody's missing. Well, you see, Bill and I were in partnership for years. When he decided to pull out, I just planned to leave the name the same. When did he go? Just a few weeks ago. They give a reason? I don't know exactly. Implied he had enough money or was coming into some. I'm not sure. But it happened so sudden. Left me a little shorthanded. Still having trouble finding a first class engraver to take his place. I left him sitting there chewing a panatella. And I moved out fast, like a sailor on shore leave. It was about 11 and getting warmer. I picked up my car and went home. It took me 10 minutes to track down San Ducci. Yeah, Regan, what do you want me for? Fix a traffic ticket. Look, I got something for you. Make it good. I've been talking with Preston down at the print shop. Yeah? Lafarge stepped out kind of fast, carrying a roll. Now, look, he knew engraving. I figure you ought to take a good look at that money. It may turn up phony. I'm not impressed. All right, I gave it to you. Do what you want. Look, we checked into the door already. It's absolutely legit. Now. Give up, Regan. Navy didn't matter. Rigging. She turned you down. We'll let you in. Stranger in town? Just catching the sights. Well, they're better outside. Ease off rigging. You don't know who you're talking to. The name's a blank. But you drive a red Austin. It's not bad for a beginner. He got a drink around? Not for you. No. If I were you, I'd show a little hospitality to an out of town boy. Chicago, south side, huh? You're not being very nice. You weren't invited. But now that I'm here, that changes some things, huh? What do you want? A drink? No sale. Listen, Fresh. Get your hands off me, punk.

[Various Female Characters]

Argue against this.

[Jeff Regan]

45 always stops him like it did. Look that. How about getting old, Guzza? Drink. Okay, Three finger will do. Skip the water. You better fix one for yourself. No. You're the type that drinks alone. You better have one, Regan.

[Various Female Characters]

It's gonna be your last.

[Jeff Regan]

How do you figure? Well, I look at it this way. Guy like me gets hired to do a job. Comes 2,000 miles for it. Then pulls a boner. Like knocking off the daughter instead of LaFarge. Yeah, that's it. Top that off with a witness sitting in the same room who spots my Red Austin. Now, let me ask you something. Can I leave him around breathing good air? According to me, nah. Gus's knees knocked together and he caved in like arches on a fat man. Four quick steps took me to the door, and I looked down the hall. Nothing there. So I made it for the stairway, and I looked down the spiral. An old guy was taking the steps two at a time and stuffing a gun into his overcoat pocket. It was Bill Lafarge.

[Narrator/Announcer]

You were listening to the story of the man who fought back. Tonight's adventure with Jeff Regan. Investigator. Commissions are still available in the Army Nurse Corps. Graduate. Registered nurses between the ages of 21 and 45 may qualify for service with this fine organization. Nurses may request active or inactive status. Those on active status enjoy the same privileges as regular army officers. Those on inactive status may continue their civilian nursing duties, but stand ready to serve in time of emergency. If you are interested in joining the Army Nurse Corps and believe that you qualify for a commission, apply to the adjutant general, Washington, D.C. and now back to the story of the man who fought back and Jeff Regan, investigator.

[Jeff Regan]

Well, things were moving kind of fast. The lion sent me out to meet a girl named Alice Lafarge. She took me to her father, who wanted a bonded witness to be able to testify to his whereabouts that weekend. That's when a couple of shots came through the window and cut down the daughter. Before Homicide put in an appearance. Bill Lafarge was gone, and he didn't show again until Gus killed Alice and then came to see me. And then there was a big roll of money and a print shop in the picture, but it was all out of focus. Well, I moved back into my apartment. The Chicago hood was still there, lying on my rug. And I picked up the phone to call Lieutenant Sanducci. I just gotten a couple of numbers out when I caught a familiar smell. It was a load of Taboo, and it was packing a.32.

[Various Female Characters]

Put the phone down, Reagan.

[Jeff Regan]

Why?

[Various Female Characters]

Because I'm asking you nicely. Put it down. Homicide can wait. Gus isn't going anyplace.

[Jeff Regan]

You got a plan, lady?

[Various Female Characters]

Mm.

[Jeff Regan]

Well, get back to that print shop, and you'll stay out of trouble.

[Various Female Characters]

Mr. Preston's so nice, he gave me the afternoon off. I told him my mother got sick.

[Jeff Regan]

All right, lady, tell me about it.

[Various Female Characters]

I'm looking for something.

[Jeff Regan]

Name it.

[Various Female Characters]

The ignition key to Gus's Austin. Now move over there and get it for me.

[Jeff Regan]

What's wrong with your car?

[Various Female Characters]

I ran out of gas. Move.

[Jeff Regan]

Okay,

[Various Female Characters]

kick his gun away. Now try the overcoat pockets. Throw them.

[Jeff Regan]

All right. Good catch.

[Various Female Characters]

So they tell me. So long, Regan.

[Jeff Regan]

I put in a quick call to Homicide and then I waited a couple of minutes to give her a chance to get a head start. When I stepped out of the building, the red Austin was just turning the corner. I followed in my car. We wound up in Glendale. She put into a duplex driveway next to an empty lot. And I pulled in under a pepper tree up the street a ways. Then she got out and unlocked the trunk. She looked inside, ripped up the floor matting and then the boards. When she slammed the trunk shut, it figured that she didn't find what she was looking for. Well, 25 minutes later, I found the lion sitting behind his desk down at the office. He had a bottle of beer in one hand and a package of Sen Sen in the other. Spread out in front of him was a typewritten piece of paper that he just slipped out of his Remington. He had a puzzled look, like a little boy caught in a Mixmaster. Regan, where you been? Around. I've been looking all over for you. Send. Ducci's been calling in every three minutes. What's he want? The story on how Gus got laid out in your apartment. Well, I'll drop him a note. He wants it now. He's got time. He doesn't come up for a pension for years. They turn up Lafarge yet? No, but I turned up something. What would you say if I told you Lafarge did time once on a counterfeit wrap? Croucholo, it figured that lowest name is scratching around for something. The feds put him away for 10 years for making up some phony bonds or stocks or something like that. How's his daughter?

[Various Female Characters]

Fit.

[Jeff Regan]

She waited for him till he got out and then tried to help him play it straight. What'd you get on Gus? Who cares about him? Lois Lafarge wasn't in on that bond job alone. Who else? He had a partner. The guy who runs the print shop. Preston. You're doing better. I figure it this way. Preston's got a new racket and J. Edgar would be real happy to know all about it. Yeah, we're gonna be the ones to tell him. How much is the reward? I don't even know if there is one. Oh, stop it. When gold went up to $35 an ounce, you pulled your mother's teeth. Rekking. You're getting out of line. And then you bawled her out for not having more cavities. Now you get over the Preston and have a talk with him. Yeah. Reagan. Yeah. Remember, if we crack this thing, it'll mean more money in your pocket, too. There's no room for it with your hand there already. I left him sitting there doodling dollar signs, and I went out into the street. It was turning evening. I picked my car out of the lot, and 30 minutes later, I saw stopped on the corner of Santa Monica and La Brea. The fog was rolling in by then, and the street lights were trying real hard. I walked to the front door of the print shop. I shook it a little, but nothing gave. So I moved around to the back. The place inside was as dark as a saloon in Kansas, but somebody inside was handy with a gun. So I cracked the window with a rock and I climbed inside. Smelled like target practice on a rifle range. Preston was curled up on the floor like a piece of wet tissue paper, and there were two holes in him. Well, the game wasn't over, but they were running out of players. I moved for the phone to call the police. And that's when I spotted Bill Lafarge. He was slumped down in a chair with a gun in his hand, and he looked tired. It took a lot of shaking to bring any words out of him. Come on, La Farge. Hey. Hey. Stop shaking. I'm up. He did? Yeah. Yeah, he was a bum. You want to give me that gun? Sure. You gotta call in to the cops? No, not yet. We'll use my car any way you want. It don't matter much. No more. Things go easy for some guys. Other guys get all the rocks. You got a couple of answers? Why not? Preston did a tie in with a gambling syndicate out of Las Vegas. Some joker had a hot idea. Keep going. Counterfeit 20,000 New Year's Day bowl tickets and sell them on the open market at five bucks plus. That's big business with a hundred thousand. But I didn't take. Preston gets sore because I wouldn't do the engraving. And he got somebody else. That doesn't add up to murder. Did when his head got working overtime, worry. And I had too many answers. And he hired that Chicago boy with the bad eyes. Yeah, he got my daughter by mistake. Where are the bull tickets? Who cares? How does Lois fit? I don't know. All right, Front door is closer to my car. New drive Riggin, Louisiana. Traffic makes me nervous. Well, Lafarge was driving a nap. It was parked at A filling station. We fought the night traffic downtown to police headquarters and tore Sanducci away from his pinochle game. He sent a couple of boys out to clean up the print shop and then moved Lafarge into a room with a secretary to get the story on paper. I'd heard it before, so I started for home. But Sanducci had other ideas. He put me in a private little room with white walls, and he told me to wait. I thought maybe he'd gone on his vacation, but he finally came in. Getting tired of waiting, Regan? Do you care? No. You got something to say? Maybe. Well, then spit it out, because I got a date. Ill keep. Why you holding me? I had to do some checking. You got all you need? I didn't think so. Well, you got it now. Sit still, Reagan. I'm not ready to let you go. Now listen, Power, just because you're wearing a badge inside that coat. Shut up and listen to me. Took me 18 years to turn in those overstuffed shoes for thin soles. I'm not letting a two bit detective tell me how to handle my business. You can stand it, you want. That crummy boss of yours are licensed by the state of California, and we can lift it for acts detrimental to public welfare. We'll get a whole bladder full. Tell that to the lion, I'm telling it to you, and let's all beat it. Okay. Oh, Reagan. Yeah? One thing more. There's a big hole in Lafarge's story. What do you mean? Look at his gun. I don't want to buy it. Look at the caliber. It's a.38. That's not the weapon that killed Gus and Preston. You sure you don't own a.32? Well, Lafarge was more used up than he figured. He couldn't tell where the dream left off and the murders began. Oh, the whole thing was a screwy picture, but the artist had a woman's touch. 25 minutes later, I pulled my car to a stop in front of a lemon colored duplex out in Glendale. A high school boy breathing hard told me that the good looking girl lived upstairs. I just hit the top of the landing when the door of her apartment opened and a couple of pieces of airplane luggage moved out. Her ticket didn't show, but it figured to be marked for Las Vegas. When Lois saw me, she looked kind of confused. Like a penguin in Death Valley. Regan, your memory's good.

[Various Female Characters]

I wish you'd told me you were coming here. I'd have dressed for it.

[Jeff Regan]

Oh, it's better this way you're fixed for traveling.

[Various Female Characters]

What do you mean?

[Jeff Regan]

We talk about it inside, huh?

[Various Female Characters]

I'd like to, you know that, but I have a few things.

[Jeff Regan]

Come on, move it, lady.

[Various Female Characters]

Well, what's come over you?

[Jeff Regan]

What's inside the suitcase?

[Various Female Characters]

You can work that out yourself, Regan. You've been by a woman's shop.

[Jeff Regan]

Throw it open.

[Various Female Characters]

It'll embarrass you.

[Jeff Regan]

I'll take a chance. All right, now dump it over. Come on, sis. Your time's running out. Oh, yeah, sure.

[Various Female Characters]

Preston had the tickets in an asbestos box hidden in the furnace. I finally turned them up, Regan. They're worth over a hundred thousand dollars.

[Jeff Regan]

Yeah, that's what Lafarge said.

[Various Female Characters]

I know where to unload them.

[Jeff Regan]

It won't do you any good.

[Various Female Characters]

What do you mean?

[Jeff Regan]

There's no PX at Tehachapi. Come on. Don't scramble for that. 32. It's out of reach.

[Various Female Characters]

Let's go. Me?

[Jeff Regan]

You threw those holes in the Gus and Preston figuring Homicide had stick Lafars with a rap, knowing he was out for revenge.

[Various Female Characters]

Let me go.

[Jeff Regan]

Even the old guy didn't know was going on.

[Various Female Characters]

No, he didn't.

[Jeff Regan]

No, but ballistics did.

[Various Female Characters]

Reagan.

[Jeff Regan]

Yeah.

[Various Female Characters]

This could mean a lot of DOAs. You and me, we form a partnership.

[Jeff Regan]

For it's getting damp.

[Various Female Characters]

Don't be a piker. Here's your chance to really turn into something.

[Jeff Regan]

Well, now you can check with me when you get out, lady, to see if I made it. Well, it all blew apart fast, like a Adam at Caltech. Sanducci came down and picked up Lois. She had herself a pretty good thing for a while. Preston could run off the phony bowl tickets and all she had to do was to sell them. Even though murder got thrown in, she could have stayed clean if she hadn't got her gun calibers mixed well. Lafarge was walking the streets in a couple of hours. And the lion was real happy the way things worked out. He got his picture in the Police Gazette and picked up two bonafide passes to the Rose bowl game. He promised to take me to the game with him. He did. He let me have the ticket at the regular price.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Jack Webb is featured as Jeff Regan with Herb Butterfield as Anthony J. Lyon. It's CBS at the same time next week for more hard boiled action and mystery with Jeff Regan, investigator, written by Larry Roman, produced by Sterling Tracy. Alice was played by Lorette Pilbrandt. Charles Seal was Preston. Ken Christie was Lafarge. Jack Petruzzi was Sanducci. Yvonne Petey was Lois and Sidney Miller was Gus. 29,000 nurses are needed now to join the new Army Nurse Corps Officers Reserve. For the first time in history, qualified nurses have the opportunity of receiving commissions in the regular Army Reserve. These nurses will remain on inactive status, ready to serve their country in time of emergency. 4,000 of them, if they wish, may choose active duty. All nurses who receive commissions will benefit from the opportunity for specialized training offered to them by the Army. Inactive reserve status will not interfere with the nurse's civilian life, but the educational opportunities offered her by the Army Medical Department will be of great advantage in her work. So don't wait. If you're a registered graduate nurse between the ages of 21 and 45, drop a card for complete information to the adjutant general. Washington, D.C. Original music for this program is by Milton Charles. Bob Stevenson speaking. This is cbs, the Columbia Broadcasting System.

[Jeff Regan]

My name's Regan. I get 10 a day in expenses from a detective bureau run by a guy named Anthony J. Lyon. They call me the Lion's Eye.

[Narrator/Announcer]

With Jack Webb as Jeff Regan. The Lion's Eye. Stand by for hard boiled action and mystery and thrilling adventure in tonight's story of the gambler and his lady.

[Jeff Regan]

You find it in Hollywood on Taft Avenue. Four story apartment building, the color of a rainy afternoon. They call it the Haven Wood. It sags in the middle like a tired frankfurter. That's where I live. Apartment 3K. Two rooms with a pull down bed and a pair of windows that stick when it's hot. Oh, the view isn't much. Six strands of telephone wire and the head of a shaved off palm tree. Beyond is the city, Louisiana, Spread out on the map like a raw egg with a broken yolk. The town's all right, I guess, if you can afford the sedatives. The lion likes it. He set himself up as a receiving clerk for trouble and I work for him. It was about 11:15 Tuesday night when my phone began making itself felt. Turned out to be the lion breathing hard. It figured he was running his fingers over a green bag. Reagan. Want to hear the sound of a brand new $50 bill? Send me a record. What's the matter? You sound like you're flat on your back. How do you sleep? Who's sleeping? I'm working. And that's what you're going to be doing. Try me tomorrow. Throw on some clothes. You're going down to Venice Boulevard to see a lady. She's got daughter trouble. Well, marry her off. She didn't pay us 50 bucks for that. The problem goes deeper. How much? She'll tell you. I want it from you. I don't know at all for sure. Don't you ever check into things? I do the general work. You get the details. Yeah. You drag a wet rag over the 15. If the ink stays on, we got a client. That's insulting. How would you know, Regan? You don't want to keep a lady waiting. Now get a move on. Give me the name. This is Eleanor Bask of Pierpont Hotel. Yeah, and phone me after you talk to her. What for? I want to be sure it's legit. Do you care? Better make that call to me tomorrow after 10. I'm sort of gonna be tied up till then. Doing what? Sleeping. Well, I put on some clothes, picked up my car and moved out to Venice Boulevard. The Good Humor men were all gone and I had the street to myself. Twenty minutes later I came to a stop beside a garbage can near St. Pedro. Behind it stood the Pierpont Hotel, a two deck pile of wood left over from the sinking of the Spanish Armada. There was a black and dirty white sign outside said rooms 50 cents weekly and monthly rates. The names Eleanor and Georgia Bascom showed in the mailbox and gave a room 210. I climbed a flight of stairs and walked down a hall that looked like a passageway in a pyramid. It was dark and it took my cigarette lighter to turn up. The numbers 210 finally showed and I rapped on the door. A bush of black and gray hair pulled it open. It was wearing a red kimona and an impatient look like a tax collector in January. She was pushing 50 and looked tired.

[Various Female Characters]

Yes?

[Jeff Regan]

I'm Regan, international detective.

[Various Female Characters]

Oh, yes. The Lion's Eye. I have been waiting for you. Come in. I'm Mrs. Bascom.

[Jeff Regan]

Elimer or Georgia.

[Various Female Characters]

George is my daughter. I want to apologize for getting you out here this time of night, Mr. Regan, but it's urgent.

[Jeff Regan]

The lion said that the girl's the problem, huh?

[Various Female Characters]

Yes.

[Jeff Regan]

How old is she? 22. Who's the man?

[Various Female Characters]

How'd you know there was a man?

[Jeff Regan]

What other kind of trouble would she go after?

[Various Female Characters]

She's a good girl, Mr. Regan. She always has been.

[Jeff Regan]

Until now.

[Various Female Characters]

That's what I want to know.

[Jeff Regan]

She's old enough to call her plays.

[Various Female Characters]

That's not the advice I'm paying for.

[Jeff Regan]

Where'd you get the 50?

[Various Female Characters]

It took a lot of saving.

[Jeff Regan]

All right, give me his name.

[Various Female Characters]

Louie Desmond.

[Jeff Regan]

Gambler? Card sharp? Bookie all around. Con man.

[Various Female Characters]

He's got a car. Drum out toward Gardena someplace. The Five Aces Club.

[Jeff Regan]

What does Your daughter see in him?

[Various Female Characters]

Oh, it's this place. The way we have to live. She's tired of having nothing. I've tried, but she's looking for a change.

[Jeff Regan]

I'm taking a wrong turn.

[Various Female Characters]

I'm not sure yet.

[Jeff Regan]

Yeah, other girls have it real tough. They go to work.

[Various Female Characters]

Well, we had a little trouble in the family. Once it shows up if someone starts looking.

[Jeff Regan]

When can I talk to Georgia?

[Various Female Characters]

You'll have to work that out yourself, Mr. Rican.

[Jeff Regan]

What does that mean?

[Various Female Characters]

She put some clothes in a suitcase and left earlier this evening. That's why I had to call you so suddenly.

[Jeff Regan]

Where'd she go?

[Various Female Characters]

Louie is a real bum, Mr. Regan.

[Jeff Regan]

You talk like you know him.

[Various Female Characters]

We've met. I want to know just what's going on. If Louie's forcing her into anything crooked, she force easy a fur coat makes a young girl do a lot of things.

[Jeff Regan]

Yeah.

[Various Female Characters]

Oh, here's a picture of her. You may need it. Not very good, but the only one I've got.

[Jeff Regan]

I'll make it work.

[Various Female Characters]

That's about all, Mr. Regan. Get in touch with me as soon as you get something.

[Jeff Regan]

Okay.

[Various Female Characters]

Oh, Mr. Regan.

[Jeff Regan]

Yeah?

[Various Female Characters]

As you can tell, I'm the kind of person who sometimes gets hysterical over things. But I'm also the kind who demands results.

[Jeff Regan]

You sound like a radio commercial. It was after midnight when I followed the fog out Vermont toward Gardena. The yellow lights were pressing, but they were doing about as much good as a pint of bourbon at a Shriners convention. I wound around the flatland for a while before the Five Aces Club turned up by a bend in the road. Looked like a blue wart with a neon sign. There was a front door and a back one and a couple of pairs of shoulders standing at each. A little guy in a pinstripe gray was figuring the size of the wallets going in Louie Desmond's office. She showed at the top of the stairway and I moved for it, but a muscle looking down on six feet was playing frontman. He put a knotted hand on my arm and when he spoke it sounded like a gear factory doing double time. Slow down, pilgrim. The room you're looking for is the other way. Yeah? Well, this one says office. That's that trouble with you guys who read can't take hints. Spell it out, Peter. Not until I see Louis Desmond. What's your business? I'll tell it to him. You owe him some dough. No, I don't. Then he ain't interested. He will be, Weston Jr.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Right now.

[Jeff Regan]

Come on, get him off of me, Pop. Hey, what's all the noise, Patsy? Sightseer without a ticket. My name's Regan. Cop? Maybe. You want me to bounce him down the stairs, boss? Maybe. What do you want? Talk. That's always a waste of time. Not if it's about Georgia Bascom. Come on in. Never saw you around here before, Regan. Well, I can't afford it. Oh, don't say that. Some people go out of here with more than they come in with. Yeah, you guess you're right at that. Cigar? No, thanks. Well, what about Georgia Regan? You tell me. That doesn't add. You came to see me. She's got a worried mother. They're all like that now. This one figures you're doing a little forcing. Oh, you'd know more about that. Give me a clue. Blackmail, maybe. You're a kick. Arthur Godfrey. Love to get a hold of you, I come too high. Let me give you some good advice. Go home and pull a blanket over your head and say it's all a bad dream. You know, you talk a lot, mister, but you don't say much. What's the hold on Georgia? All right, wise guy. A name. Come over here, baby. Regan, you know this girl? I've seen a picture. Georgia. This is a peeper named Regan. He come to rescue you.

[Various Female Characters]

But what for, Mr. Regan?

[Jeff Regan]

$50.

[Various Female Characters]

My mother gave you that to come and take me back?

[Jeff Regan]

Something like that.

[Various Female Characters]

But I can't go.

[Jeff Regan]

Why not? Well, go ahead. Show him, baby.

[Various Female Characters]

Look, Regan, three carats with a wedding band to match.

[Jeff Regan]

On what dice table did you pick those up? Stop the noise, Regan. Congratulate the lady. Not on a bad mistake. Listen, Shammas.

[Various Female Characters]

Oh, never mind him, Louie. He doesn't matter.

[Jeff Regan]

When did the furs come?

[Various Female Characters]

Louie said soon. Tell Mama we're married and not to worry. We're going away for a few days

[Jeff Regan]

and sonata for some gambling and fishing. You won't enjoy it. Sure I will. You'll be in la. The alley behind the Five Aces Club hadn't been dusted in a week. My brown flannel suit fixed that. Well, I picked myself up and made it for the car. Moving north on Vermont, I tried to add a couple of things. There was a funny smell in Louie's office when I first walked in. Like rope on fire. Somebody'd been there before me. Who smoked cube abs. Desmond worked on cigars. Georgia held a king sized bar, Pell Mell. Well, whoever it was still played it coy. About 1 o' clock I started raising a small campaign with a lion's door knocker. His dream must have Been a real good one because it took him 10 minutes to get to the door. He was wearing a nightgown. He looked like a poor imitation of the Fisk Tire ad. All that was missing was the candle. Regan, I told you not to bother me until after 10am it's no bother. Get out of here. Let a man stop. Your dreams will be bad. What do you mean? You just lost a client. What's the matter? The money. 40. Georgia Bascom married Desmond. There's nothing I can do about it. Well, think of something. Say you married her first. You're out of your mind. So it's a bad idea. Get a good. Yeah, I already have. What is it? You give Mrs. Bascom her case back. You can't do that. Try me. Think a minute, Regan. She's come to us for help. A lonely woman with no place to turn entrusts her trouble to International. You got that 50 spent. It's not the money. It's the moral obligation. Oh, stop it, will you? You don't give blood anymore. Since you found out somebody'd pay for it. You're getting out of line. You're the only guy in town who can turn a shaving cut into a bankroll. That's enough. Let's do it this way. You go over to Mrs. Bascom and give her the lowdown. Let her decide if she wants you to carry on or not. You sure go to a lot of trouble for a 50. I need a lot of new stuff around the place. Well, it's close to Christmas, right? To Santa Clau. Well, I left the lion looking for a fountain pen and I drove out to Venice Boulevard in the Pierpont Hotel. The place still looked the same. A black Nash was parked up the block, the motor going. A couple of cats were doing a duet on a garbage can. I climbed the stairs to the second floor and I started down the hall for 2:10, walking real easy to keep the boards from creaking. But somebody else didn't care about the noise. There was a gun with a silencer working in Mrs. Bascom's room. I pushed the door in, but by then all I could hear was silence. The light showed an open window with a fire escape and the wind was blowing the curtains. Mrs. Bascom lay face down on the bed, real still, and the holes in her blanket were turning wet. The lion really lost a client that time. Well, it didn't take San Ducci and the boys long to get there. The fingerprint man and the photographers went to work in the room. Sanducci picked Me, he had a grouch on like a fat lady in an upper berth. What's the matter, Regan? You get lost? What do you mean? You're pretty far from home. Well, I get around. Who is she? Her name's Eleanor Baskin.

[Narrator/Announcer]

I know that.

[Jeff Regan]

What she do? Where she come from? I don't know. What were you doing out here? She called in the Lion. Her daughter ran off with Louie Desmond. Oh. He in it? How far? Ask him. Mrs. Bascom want you to bring her daughter back. She wanted to know if the girl was moving into a racket. Was she? I haven't found out. I should have known better than to ask a detective. Why didn't she call us? She was behind on her taxes. What do you do? Private sit up nights figuring ways to make my job harder. You through with me? No.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Who killed her, Eagle?

[Jeff Regan]

I don't know. Bad choice of words. Go check a black Nash parked up the street. Got a license number? No, I haven't. Thanks a lot. Look, I'm no medium. I didn't know she was marked. Any other big ideas? A few. Well, keep them to yourself. They're all wrong. Now get out of here. Yeah. Say, Santucci. Yeah? The lion can handle another client now. So what? Wanna sign up? Well, I went home, slept, coffee and warmed over biscuits at the drugstore. Took care of breakfast the next morning. Then I checked the phone book. Louie Desmond's home address turned up on Rodeo Drive and Beverly Hills. And so I drove out. There was on a corner, a two story colonial place with white pillars and green shutters. The doorbell sounded like a second chorus at the Hollywood Bowl. A Japanese maid let me in and I waited in the anteroom. That's when I caught that peculiar smell again. Somebody had just been there. Who smoked those Cubeb cigarettes? Well, a couple of minutes later, a tall blond fighting 30 stepped up to me. She smelled like she just crawled out of a bottle of platine. It was a bright morning, but she had the kind of look that had you wishing for an eclipse.

[Various Female Characters]

Well, what do you want? Louie Desmond, census taker.

[Jeff Regan]

No.

[Various Female Characters]

What's he done?

[Jeff Regan]

I don't know yet. Where is he?

[Various Female Characters]

I don't know where he is. He didn't come home last night.

[Jeff Regan]

Lots of work at the office card

[Various Female Characters]

room out in Gardena.

[Jeff Regan]

Lots of work out there.

[Various Female Characters]

He didn't say. He doesn't tell me everything.

[Jeff Regan]

Should he?

[Various Female Characters]

Depends on what you think of your marriage vows.

[Jeff Regan]

Who are you?

[Various Female Characters]

His wife. Want a drink, mister?

[Jeff Regan]

Sure.

[Various Female Characters]

What'll it be?

[Jeff Regan]

Yours.

[Various Female Characters]

Verb it. You poor I Don't know when to stop.

[Jeff Regan]

All right. Here you go.

[Various Female Characters]

To marriage. It's a mess.

[Jeff Regan]

Hmm.

[Various Female Characters]

Cigarette Never touch em. Interferes with my drinking.

[Jeff Regan]

Who smokes the cubebs?

[Various Female Characters]

Is that what that stuff is?

[Jeff Regan]

Yeah.

[Various Female Characters]

That little guy walked in here looking for Louie and smelled up the place.

[Jeff Regan]

Hiya, Stummer.

[Various Female Characters]

Oh, hello, Patsy. Just in time for a drink.

[Jeff Regan]

Company.

[Various Female Characters]

Yeah. What's your name, fellow?

[Jeff Regan]

He knows. You earn hard, don't you, Regan?

[Various Female Characters]

What's going on?

[Jeff Regan]

He's an eye.

[Various Female Characters]

So what?

[Jeff Regan]

So he gets a bounce.

[Various Female Characters]

He's my friend.

[Jeff Regan]

Beat it, Seamus, or I'll split.

[Various Female Characters]

You stay right where you are. This is my house and I'll entertain

[Jeff Regan]

who I want with the boss's liquor.

[Various Female Characters]

I've got some rights.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Well, figure out what they are and

[Jeff Regan]

try them on the boss.

[Various Female Characters]

I don't like you, Patsy.

[Jeff Regan]

Beat it, people. Get your paws off of me. Come on, get them off.

[Various Female Characters]

Stop it, Patsy. Stop it, I said.

[Jeff Regan]

Well, you hit him pretty hard, lady.

[Various Female Characters]

No, I didn't. His head's soft.

[Jeff Regan]

Well, I left her picking up pieces of glass and I drove back toward Hollywood. I was moving east on Sunset, trying to make some sense out of Desmond's domestic life, when I spotted that black sedan again. It was doing a real bad tag job on me. I pushed the pedal closer to the floor, but the sedan had better gas. It caught me going around a bend past Beverly Glen and started pushing me. Oh, it was a great place for a boulevard stop at night. Showed all it did was a reflection in my rear view mirror of the driver in the black sedan. It was feminine and the voice spelled out Georgia Bascom. That's when she moved in for a closer look.

[Narrator/Announcer]

You are listening to the story of the gambler and his ladies. Tonight's adventure with Jeff Regan, investigator. Listen, this is good news. Good news for you if you're between the ages of 20 and 26 and a half, married or single, a high school graduate, and want to fly for the United States Air Force. Yes, the Air Force Aviation Cadet Program is offering you the opportunity to become a pilot officer in the mightiest air force in history. You can be one of the Air Force's men of renown. And there's more offered than the pride you feel in being a member of America's flying team. For after your 52 weeks of training, you will graduate as a second lieutenant in the Air Force with an income of more than $300 per month. Remember, the Air Force offers you what it offered General Jimmy Doolittle, General Carl Spaatz, and General Hoyt Vandenberg now at 42, the Air Force chief of staff. Call at your local army and Air Force recruiting station tomorrow. Apply to become an aviation cadet. And now back to the story of the gambler and his ladies and Jeff Regan, investigator.

[Jeff Regan]

Well, things were moving as fast as the last reel in a Western movie. The lion sent me out to see a lady who was having daughter trouble. Georgia Bascom had done a tie in with a gambler named Louie Desmond, only it looked real permanent. She was wearing his wedding ring, and the mother ended up carrying a couple of bullets. And Homicide moved in. That's when I met a blonde at Desmond's house who said she was Louie's wife. Now, I was working on the mess when a black sedan with George at the wheel ran me off the road and the slugs began to fly. I peeled myself off the side of the hill and I got in touch with the police. San Ducci took over and invited me to headquarters for some more talk. They put me in a little room with Pale Green and sat behind a big desk chewing a dead cigar. It was taking me all in, like a Hoover vacuum cleaner on a dirty rug. Well, how do you feel, Regan? All right. You shouldn't. Why not? Looks to me like from here on in, you're a marked man. I'll get along. It'll be real interesting to see how. All right. Now, look. Have you got something to say? Maybe. Well, let's hear it. Relax, Regan. You're not going anyplace. You can't hold me. I was the one who got shot at. Well, that's enough. I'll work out a way to hold you for creating a disturbance. It won't work. Listen, you. The bullets we pulled out of your upholstery match the ones in Mrs. Bascom. So what? So we figure she was knocked off because she knew something somebody didn't want said. We also figured that applies to you. Well, that gets you nothing. All right, Regan, play it your way. This time you'll come running back when the haters close in. Don't make buck on it. Well, if you gotta get yourself knocked off, don't mess up our city street. Yeah, I'll be real careful. Oh, and wear a dark suit. That save our morticians a little trouble. That all? Yeah, go on, be it.

[Various Female Characters]

Sure.

[Jeff Regan]

Oh, Reagan. Yeah. A buffet. What's that mean? Your father's mustache. Well, it was late afternoon by the time I walked out of here. Headquarters. The sun was still working, but it was cold. The cab driver with a lot of conversation drove me to My place over on Taft. When I opened my front door, I smelled it again. Those cube abs. A small face was sitting on my sofa, sucking on him. It belonged to a guy who had to stand on a box to see over a fox terrier. When I shut the door behind me, he ground the cigarette into an ashtray and turned on a nervous look like a pig in a football factory.

[Various Female Characters]

You'll landlady let me in. Mr. Regan, I hope you don't mind, I have to talk to you.

[Jeff Regan]

We met before. We did?

[Various Female Characters]

I don't remember.

[Jeff Regan]

Just me and your cigarettes.

[Various Female Characters]

Ah.

[Jeff Regan]

Oh.

[Various Female Characters]

You mind if I smoke?

[Jeff Regan]

You just finished one.

[Various Female Characters]

Oh, yeah. Yes, yes, so I did. May I have a drink, then? Just a small one.

[Jeff Regan]

All right.

[Various Female Characters]

Thank you. I generally don't drink, but tonight I. Thank you. Now, I barely know where to begin.

[Jeff Regan]

Well, you better figure it out. You haven't got much time. Yes.

[Various Female Characters]

Yeah.

[Jeff Regan]

Well, start with a name.

[Various Female Characters]

Is that necessary?

[Jeff Regan]

Yeah, it is. Loper.

[Various Female Characters]

Max Loper. I'm a businessman.

[Jeff Regan]

What kind?

[Various Female Characters]

What kind? Oh, furrier.

[Jeff Regan]

Yeah.

[Various Female Characters]

Yeah, I'm a furrier, Mr. Regan. All sorts of furs. Ermine's nice. Generally, I prefer sable, but it depends

[Jeff Regan]

on the woman, you know? What does Georgia get?

[Various Female Characters]

I beg pardon?

[Jeff Regan]

Let it go.

[Various Female Characters]

I'm not the man I used to be, Mr. Regan. My fortunes have changed.

[Jeff Regan]

Yeah, yeah, changed.

[Various Female Characters]

I. I think I better have that cigarette.

[Jeff Regan]

Save it for later and start making sense.

[Various Female Characters]

Well, I need help.

[Jeff Regan]

Why come to me?

[Various Female Characters]

Well, Mrs. Bascom thought enough of you to ask you to help her.

[Jeff Regan]

You.

[Various Female Characters]

You see, I know Mrs. Bascom. That is, I knew Mrs. Bascom. Her death was so sudden, it was forced. Yes, so the papers say. But, Mr. Regan, I want you to know I didn't do it.

[Jeff Regan]

Who said you did?

[Various Female Characters]

Well, nobody yet, but I didn't do it.

[Jeff Regan]

Look, why tell me?

[Various Female Characters]

There's nobody else I can tell.

[Jeff Regan]

Try the police.

[Various Female Characters]

No, no, no. That's what I can't do. I want you to prove to them that I wouldn't do a thing like that.

[Jeff Regan]

Loper, what's your tie in with? Desmond?

[Various Female Characters]

Desmond? Why, there is no tie in.

[Jeff Regan]

You were at his card room. I smelled your cigarettes there. You got nothing, I guess. And you went to his house.

[Various Female Characters]

Mr. Regan, that's got nothing to do with it.

[Jeff Regan]

I think different.

[Various Female Characters]

But you're wrong, all wrong.

[Jeff Regan]

Convince me.

[Various Female Characters]

I didn't do the murder. That's what I want you to tell the police.

[Jeff Regan]

Who did?

[Various Female Characters]

I don't know.

[Jeff Regan]

Well, now I think you do. Come on. Who killed George's mother?

[Various Female Characters]

It was her stepmother who was killed.

[Jeff Regan]

Give me some more.

[Various Female Characters]

Oh, you got me all confused. I guess coming to you for help was a bad idea.

[Jeff Regan]

Something was.

[Various Female Characters]

I'll find somebody else who doesn't ask so many questions. I better go.

[Jeff Regan]

No, no, not yet, little man. You got too many answers.

[Various Female Characters]

Take your hands off me, Mr. Regan. I never used one of these. But the theory is simple. Just pull the trigger if you can find it. Don't urge me.

[Jeff Regan]

Open the door. Go on. Sure.

[Various Female Characters]

Now step away. See you later, Mr. Regan.

[Jeff Regan]

Hello. He made it to the staircase and then the noise came. A couple of bullets flew up the spiral and caught him in the chest. He stopped in midair for a second like a yo yo on a string. And then he toppled over and rolled down. By the time I got to him, he was all used up. Well, McCall and Tahoma side brought some of the boys out and they took care of them. A fat guy with a head like a plunger took him pictures for a paper and a girl with a leaky fountain pen got the story. Took about an hour and a half to clear my place. But the minute the crowd moved out, the lion moved in. He had a sheet of paper in one hand and his face was lit up like an old maid at a cocktail party. This concerns Louie Desmond and Georgia Bascom. You interested? Yeah. Desmond's got a wife, and her name's not Georgia. No, it's Stella. And she's a ripe candidate for a drunk tank. What else do you know about her? She's jealous. Well, there's no record any place of a divorce or of a marriage between Georgia and Desmond. That whole setup's a phony. Tell me why. Georgia's father, name of Peter Bascom, was a furrier, and he was once in on a fur job with the same Louis Desmond. Go on. The old Bascom ended up with a bullet in him and Louie with a pile of dough. How did it work? I can't find out everything. You got to do something. You know a Max Loper? Never heard of him. You got an address on this Georgia? The Arena Hotel, room 406 on Catalina, off Wilshire. All right. The way I figured, an insurance company might be real interested to get hold of her. No, the gas chamber's got priority. We figured the swindled first collect the fat bonus, then let the city handle her any way it wants. Call me when you get it all sewed up. What are you gonna be doing? Resting at home? I'm all worn out. Yeah, well, that figures. You've been doing a Little thinking. The Lorena Hotel. Six stories of plush carpet and gold paint. It was night when I got there, and the neon was on. The buzzer brought the door open and Georgia Bascom stood there carrying an overcoat. She had her purse under her arm and it figured she was leaving. When she saw me, she turned on a surprised look.

[Various Female Characters]

Oh, Mr. Regan.

[Jeff Regan]

Moving out?

[Various Female Characters]

Just a little errand.

[Jeff Regan]

It'll keep. Shut the door.

[Various Female Characters]

Now see here. Well, that's a lot of nerve.

[Jeff Regan]

Don't let it bother you. They're bigger things.

[Various Female Characters]

Like what?

[Jeff Regan]

A fur job you and Louie are working on.

[Various Female Characters]

What are you talking about?

[Jeff Regan]

And a little murder. Throw your purse on the sofa.

[Various Female Characters]

I will not.

[Jeff Regan]

Come on, lady. It's getting heavy. Now. Open the closet door. Come on.

[Various Female Characters]

There. I hope you're satisfied.

[Jeff Regan]

I'm not much on fashions. Read them to me.

[Various Female Characters]

Three airmen, three sable, 10,000 apiece more.

[Jeff Regan]

Max Lopers?

[Various Female Characters]

Yeah.

[Jeff Regan]

You can't wear them all. You got a friend?

[Various Female Characters]

I don't need one.

[Jeff Regan]

All right, sis, what is it?

[Various Female Characters]

Nothing.

[Jeff Regan]

That's your version.

[Various Female Characters]

You could be wrong.

[Jeff Regan]

When did you marry Desmond?

[Various Female Characters]

Last week.

[Jeff Regan]

Bad answer. He's got a wife named Stella. Bigamy will get him in trouble.

[Various Female Characters]

That's his problem.

[Jeff Regan]

No, it's yours, too, if the courts can prove you knew.

[Various Female Characters]

All right, I didn't marry him.

[Jeff Regan]

Then why the wedding ring?

[Various Female Characters]

Hey, you ask a lot of questions.

[Jeff Regan]

Yeah, I do.

[Various Female Characters]

Why don't you get out of here?

[Jeff Regan]

Louie's not new on fur jobs. He knows how much work it is to palm him off.

[Various Female Characters]

You're talking to yourself.

[Jeff Regan]

Loper never got to outlive a double cross.

[Various Female Characters]

What are you going to do with that?

[Jeff Regan]

Nothing. Homicide will work it out.

[Various Female Characters]

I didn't kill anybody.

[Jeff Regan]

It'll work up a sweat proving it.

[Various Female Characters]

Louie did it. Honest. He killed my stepmother because she knew how the job worked. He gave it to Loafer, too. He would.

[Jeff Regan]

Hiya, friends. It must be raining. The worms are coming to the top.

[Various Female Characters]

Hello, Louie. Regan's got it figured out. I was just stalling him till you got here.

[Jeff Regan]

Sure, Georgia, I know.

[Various Female Characters]

Honestly, honest, I. I didn't mean to say. You did the knockoffs.

[Jeff Regan]

We'll talk about it later. Better finish it now. You're not going to be around. We'll see. They got a spot all staked out for you up north. Isn't that interesting? Regan, I got a set of instructions for you. I want you to be real nice and follow them. What's in it for me? You kill me, Seamus. I'm holding all the cards. You want to Rake in the pot.

[Various Female Characters]

I better get going. Lily, we shouldn't be seen together right now.

[Jeff Regan]

Slow down, baby. I got something for you, too.

[Various Female Characters]

But, Lily.

[Jeff Regan]

Big mouth. Lucky you didn't have to hit her more than once. She got off easy. Everybody's got 32 teeth. Desmond moved us out of the apartment down the hall. Georgia was beginning to sob, but Desmond wasn't impressed. He held the gun under his coat and walked behind us, careful, like an elephant on a crate of eggs. The button brought the elevator and the three of us went in. And then it started down. When the door swung open on the first floor, a whiff of bourbon came floating in. Packing a.32. Louie turned white, Stella. Still,

[Various Female Characters]

I told him if he kept messing around, he was going to have trouble at home.

[Jeff Regan]

You want to give me the gun?

[Various Female Characters]

No. What's your name, girly? Georgia. Were you in love with Louie? I. I don't know. Well, go find out. You want it now, Regan? It's empty.

[Jeff Regan]

You know, lady, you fixed nothing.

[Various Female Characters]

What do you mean?

[Jeff Regan]

Where you're going, you'll all be together again. Well, it was all over fast, like a dollar dinner. The coroner's office sent out some boys for Georgia and Louie, and Sanducci picked up Stella. Desmond had himself a pretty good thing do a tie in with a furrier and move the furs across the border with nobody making a fuss. All it was slow work, but 10,000 a week's pretty good pay and it was real safe. Loper wasn't going to say the furs were even stolen until they were turned into money. Of course, he never got to say it at all. Everything would have been all right if Stella didn't see green every time Louie saw blind. Well, the insurance company thanked us for what we did to expose the fraud. The lion was unhappy, he said. They should have shown their gratitude with something more lasting. They gave it to him. A 1949 pocket calendar.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Jack Webb is featured as Jeff Regan with her Butterfield as Anthony J. Lyon. It's CBS at the same time next week for more Hard Boiled action and mystery with Jeff Regan, investigator, written by Larry Roman, produced by Sterling Tracy. Included in tonight's cast were Mary Lansing, Marvin Miller, Pat McGee, Lorette Philbrandt, Jack Petruzzi, Yvonne Patey and Sydney Miller. Original music for this program is by Milton Charles. Bob Stevenson speaking. This is cbs, the Columbia Broadcast Casting System.

[Matt Mean]

We just heard Jack Webb as Jeff Regan, investigator. That will do it for this week's show. Thanks so much for joining this me. I'll be back next week with more Jack Webb, Old Time Radio Mystery in the meantime, you can check out Stars on Suspense, my other Old Time Radio podcast. New episodes of that show are out on Thursdays. If you like what you're hearing, don't be a stranger. You can rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. And if you'd like to lend support to the show, you can visit buymeacoffee.com Matt Mean, STS OTR I'll be back next week with more Old Time Radio Detectives, but until then, good night and happy listening.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Now here is our star, Vincent Price. Ladies and gentlemen, In a prejudice filled

[Jeff Regan]

America, no one would be secure in his job, his business, his trust, church or his home.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Yet racial and religious antagonisms are exploited daily by quacks and adventurers whose followers make up the irresponsible lunatic fringe of American life. Refuse to listen to or spread rumors against any race or religion. Help to stamp out prejudice in our country. Let's judge our neighbors by the character of their lives alone and not on the basis of their religion or origin.