Episode 668 - All the Write Moves: Agatha Christie (Campbell Playhouse, Murder Clinic, & Suspense)

Summary

Podcast Summary: Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives)

Episode 668 - "All the Write Moves: Agatha Christie (Campbell Playhouse, Murder Clinic, & Suspense)"

Date: May 17, 2026
Host: Mean Streets Podcasts

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Main Theme

This episode of "Down These Mean Streets" celebrates Agatha Christie—the Queen of Crime—by showcasing four classic radio adaptations of her mystery stories. The host explores why Christie’s work has stood the test of time, her signature characters, and how radio drama interpreted her intricate plots. The episode features the following adaptations:

1. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Campbell Playhouse, 1939, starring Orson Welles)
2. The Tragedy of Marsden Manor (Murder Clinic, 1942, with Maurice Tarplin)
3. The ABC Murders (Suspense, 1943, with Charles Laughton & Elsa Lanchester)
4. Where There’s a Will (Suspense, 1949, with James Mason & Pamela Colino)

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Key Discussion Points & Episode Structure

1. Introduction & Setting the Stage

• [00:58] Host Opening
  • Introduces the month’s focus on mystery writers adapted for radio.
  • "Our writer is none other than the queen of crime, Agatha Christie... Her mysteries have captivated readers for over a century…" ([00:58])
  • Explains the lineup and historical context of each episode.
  • Notes the prominence of Hercule Poirot, Ms. Marple, and how Christie’s characters transition from page to airwaves.

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2. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Campbell Playhouse, 1939)

Starring: Orson Welles (as Poirot and Dr. Sheppard), Edna May Oliver

Main Plot Points

• Introduction by Orson Welles defends the value of the murder mystery genre.
  • "[Murder mysteries] are, among other things, our most moral form of entertainment. The wrongdoer is regularly apprehended." ([07:58])
• Establishes King's Abbot, Poirot's arrival, and the peculiarities of village life.
• Ackroyd’s murder triggers suspicion among a group of villagers and relatives.
• Poirot’s famous “little gray cells” method and his eccentric charm are front and center.
• The climactic drawing room revelation exposes Dr. Sheppard as the true murderer, using elaborate misdirection and technology (a Dictaphone) to construct an alibi.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On detective fiction’s role:
  • "Life doesn’t always proceed according to this admirable pattern. The apologists would do better to defend life, I sometimes think..." (Orson Welles, [07:58])
• Poirot’s self-introduction:
  • "It has been said that I am a little man. Regard for yourself that this is not so. I have five feet, two inches of eye... my mustache are the largest in Europe." (Orson Welles as Poirot, [11:24])
• The drawing room showdown:
  • “Every one of you in this room is concealing something from me. It may be something trivial... Each one of you has something to hide.” (Poirot, [35:54])
• Dr. Sheppard’s confession (voice over):
  • “His nervousness that night was interesting psychologically. He knew danger was close at hand, yet he never once suspected me as the blackmailer of Mrs. Ferrars.” (Dr. Sheppard, [51:59])

Timestamps

• The classic Poirot entrance: [11:13]
• Poirot’s “gray cells” explanation: [28:32]
• The final reveal and confession: [51:59]

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3. The Tragedy of Marsden Manor (Murder Clinic, 1942)

Starring: Maurice Tarplin as Poirot

Main Plot Points

• Poirot investigates the suspicious death of Richard Maltravers, which initially appears to be from natural causes.
• Insurance intrigue: Quick policy, much-younger wife, sudden death.
• Poirot uses psychological association ‘word games’ and seance trickery to root out guilt.
• The denouement: Poirot exposes that Mrs. Maltravers orchestrated the murder and attempted to fake a supernatural confession at a séance, only to be caught with red paint (“blood”) on her hand as part of Poirot’s own ruse.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• Poirot’s playful arrogance:
  • “My good friend Hastings always corrects the English of virtues. Do I not speak the English of a superb?” ([63:16])
• On séance and detection:
  • “It was I who pulled the sheep’s wool over her eyes. Thanks to my good friend Henri Dubois, who played the part of the husband’s ghost, and Papa Poirot, who put the red paint on her hand in the dark.” ([86:39])

Timestamps

• Poirot’s word association analysis: [77:49]
• The séance: [83:48]
• The final confession: [85:49]

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4. The ABC Murders (Suspense, 1943)

Starring: Charles Laughton (Cust), Elsa Lanchester

Main Plot Points

• Serial killings follow an alphabetical pattern, each murder announced in advance with typewritten notes signed “ABC.”
• Alexander Bonaparte Cust, a hapless traveling salesman plagued by headaches and self-doubt, is the police’s chief suspect.
• The investigation alternates between ominous, close-up psychological tension and procedural clues (letters, timetables, fingerprints).
• The climactic twist: Cust is manipulated, and the real killer is Franklin Clark, who committed the murders to inherit his brother’s estate, using Cust as an unknowing stooge.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• Introduction to Cust’s oddness:
  • “It’s a most interesting book, Librarian. I should like to come back sometime and read another chapter of it, if I may.” ([91:01])
• On the burden of his initials:
  • “I used to dream I was boiling in a kettle of Alphabet soup... I was a terrible disappointment to my mother.” (Cust, [107:51])
• The real killer confesses:
  • “If only my brother, Lord Clark, had been murdered, I, being the only heir, would have had a lot of explaining to do. So I invented my own little crime wave…” (Franklin Clark, [114:40])

Timestamps

• Cust’s first encounter with Franklin Clark: [92:51]
• The setup of the pattern: [96:11]
• Cust’s "confession" and the twist: [110:36], [113:18-114:34]

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5. Where There’s a Will (Suspense, 1949)

Starring: James Mason & Pamela Colino

Main Plot Points

• Charles Ridgeway, pressed by gambling debts, learns a new will is drawn up in his favor by his aunt, Mrs. Harter.
• Devious “practical joke:” Ridgeway fakes a haunting by impersonating Aunt Mary’s late husband via radio and disguise, hoping to literally scare her to death.
• The plan works, but in a classic Christie reversal, Aunt Mary destroys the new will before her death—bequeathing everything to her niece, not Charles.
• Inspector (aided by a clever friend) captures Ridgeway after securing his confession.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• Ridgeway, on the "joke" that goes too far:
  • “The very absurdity of the story I made poor Aunt Mary believe was the fun, the clever roundabout way I played my role.” ([130:17])
• The irony of fate:
  • “What are you laughing at?”
  • “That’s your joke, old man.” ([143:32])

Timestamps

• The seeding of the plan (doctor’s warning): [122:07]
• Ridgeway’s fake haunting: [126:01]
• Ridgeway’s undoing: [138:41-142:24]

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Memorable Moments & Quotes

• Orson Welles as Poirot:
  • “My force is in my brain and not in my feet.” ([11:24])
• On the moral clarity of detective fiction:
  • “One learns an obvious lesson that to be suspected wrongfully is in due course to be triumphantly cleared of suspicion.” (Orson Welles, [07:58])
• Christie’s Twists:
  • The unreliable narration of "Roger Ackroyd" and reversal in "Where There’s a Will" are highlighted as hallmarks of her innovative plotting style.

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Episode Timeline Highlights

• [00:58]: Host introduces theme and Agatha Christie’s radio/cultural legacy.
• [07:58]: Orson Welles monologue on detective fiction’s virtues.
• [12:37]: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd begins.
• [28:32]: Poirot’s “little gray cells” speech.
• [35:54]: The drawing room scene; everyone’s secrets are revealed.
• [51:59]: Dr. Sheppard’s confession and suicide note.
• [60:32]: Transition to "The Tragedy of Marsden Manor."
• [83:48]: Seance scene in "Marsden Manor."
• [89:19]: Beginning of "The ABC Murders."
• [113:35-114:34]: Real culprit’s (Clark) confession in ABC Murders.
• [117:37]: Start of "Where There’s a Will."
• [126:01]: Fake haunting via radio.
• [142:24]: Ridgeway’s fate and closing irony.

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Takeaways & Legacy

• Christie’s work translates beautifully to radio: Her intricate plots and indelible characters (especially Poirot) make for compelling drama and engaging twists.
• Radio’s strengths: Voice acting and sound design create tension (e.g., the seance, Cust’s uncertainty, Roger Ackroyd's finale).
• Thematic resonance: The episodes underscore “hidden truths,” unreliable narrators, and moral lessons about crime and detection.
• Humor and warmth: Despite high stakes, there is a thread of wit, especially in post-play banter and Poirot’s interactions with other characters.

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Closing and Further Listening

• [147:09]: Host signs off, invites listeners to check other episodes focused on old-time radio detectives and stars.
• Quote: “If you like what you’re hearing, don’t be a stranger…” ([147:09])

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A must-listen for Agatha Christie fans and anyone curious about the golden age of radio drama, this episode deftly blends suspense, humor, and classic puzzles, paying tribute to one of crime fiction’s enduring masters.

Transcript

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Get this and get it straight.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Crime is a sucker's road and those

[Dr. James Sheppard]

who travel it wind up in the

[Narrator/Announcer]

gut of the prison of the grave.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

The story you are about to hear is true.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

[Ernest Chappell]

The Adventures of Sam Spade Detective the

[Narrator/Announcer]

Adventures of the Saint, starring Vincent Price.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Bob Bailey in the exciting adventures of the man with the action packed expense

[Narrator/Announcer]

account, America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator, yours truly, Johnny Dollar.

[Host of Old Time Radio Detectives]

Hello and welcome to down these Mean Streets with more old time radio detectives and crime solvers all this month we're spotlighting classic mystery writers whose work was adapted for radio. This week. Our writer is none other than the queen of crime, Agatha Christie, the author of over 60 novels and dozens of short stories. Her mysteries have captivated readers for over a century, and her signature characters, including Belgian super sleuth Hercule Poirot and amateur investigator Ms. Marple, continue to be adapted for the big and small screens. Now, Hercule Poirot came to American radio in the 1940s in a series starring actor Harold Huber, but that show found Christie's detectives starring in original mysteries. Today we'll hear four of Dame Agatha's own stories adapted for the air, beginning with two Adventures of Monsieur Poirot. Up first is an adaptation of her celebrated novel the Murder of Roger Ackroyd from the Campbell Playhouse, starring Wirson Welles in a dual role as both Poirot and the story's narrator. This one aired on CBS on November 12, 1939. Then Poirot is played by Maurice Tarplin, probably best known as the mysterious traveler on radio, even though we know him around here as Inspector Faraday. On Boston, Blackie Tarplin stars in an adaptation of Christie's short story the Tragedy of Marsden Manor from the anthology series Murder Clinic. This episode aired on Mutual on October 6, 1942. Then we'll hear two Christie stories adapted for the ABC Murders, a reworking of another Poirot mystery novel with Charles Laughton and elsa Lanchester from May 18, 1943, and will close with Where There's a Will, an adaptation of the story Wireless starring James Mason. This one aired on CBS on February 24th 4th, 1949. It's a Christie collection, beginning with Orson Welles as Hercule Poirot. We'll hear the Murder of Roger Ackroyd right after these messages.

[Narrator/Announcer]

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[Dr. James Sheppard]

Say, Mr. Barnes, before we begin, I have some letters here I'd like to read. Oh, letters from some of our listeners. Dan no, these are letters for some of our listeners, men who have tough whiskers or tender skin. And the letters I want to read to them are M O L L

[Narrator/Announcer]

E. You bet, men.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Shaving torture ends when you start shaving with Mole, the heavier brushless shaving cream. Yes, sir. With Mole, it's smooth.

[Ernest Chappell]

So smooth.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

It's slick. So slick it's a smooth, smooth, slick, slick shave you get with M O L L E Mole, the heavier brushless shaving cream for tender skins. Yes, Mole is the cream that's heavier, the cream for a hard to cut beard or a tender skin. Because Mole is heavier, it not only softens your whiskers, it stands them up straight and lets your razor sail right through them. So you shave faster, closer, easier, and you shave painlessly with Mole, the heavier brushless shaving cream for tender skin. Good evening. This is your Rexall family druggist with a welcome from the 10,000 independent druggists who have made the word Rexall part of our own store names. We've done that because we recommend and sell the 2,000 or more drug products made by the Rexall Drug Company, like Rexall Milk of Magnesia, for example. Here's the milk of magnesia that's so pure and creamy smooth, so free from that unpleasant earthy taste. Even children spot the difference. Ask for the Rexall Milk of Magnesia at Rexall drugstores everywhere. And remember, you can depend on any drug product that bears the name Rexall. A word of advice for those of

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

you who suffer from acid indigestion, heartburn or gas.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Lulu, you know about the little white

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

tablets in the little green pocket roll

[Dr. James Sheppard]

just awaiting for the moment when you

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

need them to bring your acid indigestion under control.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Chums are the little white tablets in the little green pocket ro for the tummy. T U M s bring relief Quicker

[Dr. James Sheppard]

than you'd ever guess.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Best for any kind of acid distress.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Keep them handy in the pocket roll. Keep your tummy under TUM control.

[Ernest Chappell]

The modern TUMS formula has never been surpassed for effectiveness. Always carry Tums 10 sets.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

3 roll pack a quarter or get

[Ernest Chappell]

the new 6 roll.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Tums pack with free metal carrier only 49 cents. 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.

[Ernest Chappell]

The makers of Campbell Soups present the Campbell Playhouse Orson Welles Producers.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Good evening. This is Orson Welles. Tonight we broadcast our version of what is generally regarded as one of the greatest of the modern mystery murder novels. In some peculiar fashion, it seems to have become necessary to defend the murder mystery as a form of entertainment. Heavy artillery is brought up in its behalf. President Wilson, it is proclaimed loudly, could not go to sleep. Or could go to sleep. One does not remember the point exactly until a certain number of conflicting clues had managed. Only after suspicion has been aimed at every adult in the neighborhood is not particularly shameful. I have never understood the need for this defense. Murder mysteries are, among other things, our most moral form of entertainment. The wrongdoer is regularly apprehended. If he is not. I have incredibly missed some fascinating black sheep of an author in a flock otherwise startlingly white. And one learns an obvious lesson that to be suspected wrongfully is in due course to be triumphantly cleared of suspicion. Life doesn't always proceed according to this admirable pattern. The apologists would do better to defend life, I sometimes think, to help us solve the mystery of the murder of Roger Ackroyd. Here tonight. We are fortunate in having a very powerful ally. A most distinguished lady and one of your favorite actresses. A lady in whose ears a nation's applause is still ringing for her latest brilliant success in Drums along the Mohawk, Miss Edna May Oliver. But before we delve into the mysteries of this night's doings, Ernest Chappell has a comment to make on something which appears to be no mystery at all. Mr. Chappell.

[Ernest Chappell]

Thank you, Orson Welles. I'd like to ask all of you if you'll do this. The next time you're out in the car driving along the highway, just note the great number of eating places that display as their main invitation to you the words chicken dinners. The reason, of course, is simply that the proprietors of these eating places know by long experience that to nearly all of us, one dish that is a symbol of good eating is chicken. Now, because Chicken is a favorite dish with nearly everyone. It's really no mystery at all why Campbell's chicken Soup continues to grow steadily in popularity. You see, in every drop of the glistening golden broth, there's the rich chicken flavor you like so much. Steeped in deep chicken flavor, too, is fluffy white rice in every fragrant plateful. And you'll also enjoy the pieces of melting, tender chicken meat that Campbell's add. Yes, here is chicken soup, deep and full and rich. And you'll appreciate that from your first brimming spoonful. If you've already enjoyed this homey, old fashioned chicken soup as Campbell's make it, won't you remember to have it again soon? And if you haven't yet tried it, won't you do so at dinner tomorrow night? Because I promise you, just as sure as you like chicken, you'll like Campbell's chicken soup. And now, our Campbell Playhouse presentation of the Murder of Roger Ackroyd, with our guest of the evening, Edna May Oliver. And ladies and gentlemen, before we begin, I think you'd like to know that we have with us in the studio tonight, as a surprise visitor, none other than the celebrated Belgian detective, Mr. Hercule Poirot.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Ladies and gentlemen, I bid you good evening.

[Ernest Chappell]

If we had time, which we have not, I am sure nothing would please us more than to hear from Mr. Poirot, unfortunately.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Why unfortunately? When we have here a microphone.

[Ernest Chappell]

But, Mr. Poirot, you don't understand.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

I understand only that since my arrival in your country some weeks ago, I observed that there I circulate an impression of my person which I must now publicly refute. I trust that the embarrassment of my presence here tonight in Mr. Wells studio will ensure for me an honest and lifelike portrait. It has been said that I am a little man. Regard for yourself that this is not so. I have five feet, two inches of eye. My head is perhaps egg shaped, and I carry it perhaps a little to one side the left, but my eyes shine green when I am excited. Beyond this, my mustache are the largest in Europe. And my force is in my brain and not in my feet.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

If these things are made clear.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

And Mr. Wells little tribute to Appel Poirot. I will be satisfied the results of my little gray selves will speak for themselves. If you will show me where I am to sit, please.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

I thank you.

[Ernest Chappell]

This is Mr. Poirot, Ms. Oliver.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

How do you do, Ms. Oliver? You have often wanted to meet me, I am sure. I compliment you.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Please, please.

[Ernest Chappell]

Mr. Poirot. Ladies and gentlemen, our Campbell Playhouse Presentation of the murder of Roger Ackroyd.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Well, let me just start with. Give you some idea of the little village of King's Abbot, of which I have so many years been the leading, I must admit, also the only physician and surgeon. My name, by the way, is Shepard James Shepherd. We have a large railway station, small post office, two rival general stores, very few able bodied men, a staggering number of unmarried ladies, none of whom are getting any. Amazing number of retired military officers, all of whom are getting older. In fact, the only newcomer for many months lives next door to me, concerning whom little is known, despite the earnest and tireless investigations carried on in respect to him by my sister, Caroline. Caroline and her little group of earnest ferrets or maiden ladies like herself have been forced to content themselves with the simple fact of his nationality, which is alien, of his name, which is Poirot, the obvious fact that he putters around his garden all day growing cucumbers, and the suspicion based chiefly on malicious deductions. He's a retired hairdresser. Let's see now. The main house of any importance, King's Abbot, is Fernley hall, owned by Roger Ackroyd, who's always looked more like a country squire than any country squire could really look, but who's actually an immensely wealthy manufacturer of wagon wheels, nearly 50 years of age, Rubicon of face and genial of manner in general, the life and soul of art. This week, the peaceful village, the other house of any importance has been left to Mrs. Ferrars by her late husband. Mrs. Ferrars died on the night of 16 September, a little less than a week ago. It seems longer than that. I was sent over for 8 o' clock the morning, the 17th. There was nothing to be done. She'd been dead some hours. I turned to my home as soon as I decently could, looking forward happily to the warm breakfast I had missed, and rather unhappily, to the certainty of a relentless cross examination by my sister. Caroline?

[Caroline Sheppard]

Is that you, James? What on earth are you doing out there in the hall?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Just hanging up my overcoat, my dear.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Oh, Mrs. Ferrars died in her sleep, didn't she?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Bacon is cold. How did you know? Out of the dawn securing information instead of warming the bacon, is that it? I suppose you're going to tell me she died of heart failure.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Annie told me. The milkman told her he had it from Ferrars cook.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Since you are bound to hear sooner or later, Caroline, from the greengrocer or the postman, I might as well tell You? Myself? She died of an overdose of sleeping medicine. She hadn't been sleeping well lately.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Nonsense. She took it on purpose.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Why ON EARTH Should Mrs. Ferrars wish to commit suicide? A widow, still fairly young, very well off, good health, nothing to do but

[Caroline Sheppard]

enjoy life and looking forward to marrying Roger Ackroyd. Don't forget to leave that out.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

That's an item of fact only in your local gossip circle.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Of fact's effect. And there is such a thing as remorse, James, even if you're as wealthy as Mrs. Ferrars.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Remorse?

[Caroline Sheppard]

I have always been convinced she poisoned a husband, and I'm more than ever convinced of it now. If you'd arranged an inquest a year ago, as I suggested you should.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

You're talking nonsense, Caroline.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Then you're absolutely satisfied it was an accident?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

I'm satisfied. This bacon is not going to get any warmer by itself. And it's time I went to the surgery to see my patient.

[Caroline Sheppard]

All right, James. You don't have to be grumpy about it. Oh, by the way, Mr. Ackroyd's butler, Parker Call. What about Mr. Ackroyd? Wants to know if you'll dine with him this evening. He says he'd regard it as a great favor if you cancel any other engagement.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Of course I'll go. And don't worry, Caroline. I may tell you all about the dinner tomorrow.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Oh, then I'll give you something to tell Mr. Ackroyd tonight. Rafe Peyton is back, Raf. Yes, and he's staying at the Dog and Whistle. I know. He's taking particular pains to be sure that Mr. Ackroyd doesn't find out about it.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

I wouldn't dream of telling him. Roger Ackroyd's relations with his stepson are his own affairs. Believe me, Caroline, according to every interpretation except your own.

[Caroline Sheppard]

I can't help it if people tell

[Dr. James Sheppard]

me they are in answer to questions.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Well, you'd better rush along to that precious surgery of yours. You've got four patients waiting.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

How do you know?

[Caroline Sheppard]

Well, one can't help seeing through a window if one is looking through a window.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

The distance from my house to Fernley Hall, Roger Ackroyd's home is a little over two miles. I remember that evening as I walked that the subject of Caroline's latest piece of gossip kept returning to my mind. Ralph Peyton was in King's Abbott. Ralph Peyton, whom I'd known and liked since he was a child adopted by Ackroyd upon the death of his mother. He'd grown up to be a handsome but what our narrow little village regarded as a rather wild young man. There'd been many stormy scenes between his stepfather and himself before he finally left for London. According to Caroline, he was secretly engaged to Flora Ackroyd, Roger Ackroyd's niece, who, with her mother, was now living in Fernley Hall. According to Caroline, I say. And Caroline's information, I'm afraid, is always exact, however illegitimate her source may be. What's the trouble, Ackroyd? A bit out of the weather?

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Yes, Doctor.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

I've had a little of that pain out of food lately. You must give me some more of those tablets of yours. I thought it is much, Ackroyd. And I brought some up with me. My bag in the hall. I'll get them.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Oh, don't trouble.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Make certain that window's closed, would you, Shepherd? Of course. That one's open now. Put the latch across, will you? All right. I see what's really bothering you, Acheroy. The door's closed, isn't it? Yes, Shepard. Nobody knows what I've gone through in the last 24 hours. What's the trouble? You're an old friend, Doctor. My oldest friend, perhaps. You attended Ashley Ferrars in his last illness, didn't you? Yes. And yet, did it ever enter your mind he might have been poisoned? Frankly, I don't think I. He was poisoned. By who? His wife. She told me so herself yesterday. Yesterday? You mean a few hours before she died, she told you?

[Ernest Chappell]

Yes.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Some weeks ago, I asked Mrs. Ferrars to marry me. She refused. Last week, I asked her again and she consented. Yesterday I called upon her. I noticed that she'd been very strange in her manner for some days now. Without the least warning, she broke down completely. She told me everything. Her hatred of her swine of her husband, her growing love for me. And then a year ago, the dreadful means she had taken to free herself. It was poison, Shepherd. Murder. In cold blood. Murder? Are you sure that wasn't all? It seems there's one person who's known all along, which she did, who's been blackmailing her for huge sons. It was the strain of that that

[Narrator/Announcer]

drove her nearly mad.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Who was the man? She wouldn't tell me his name. Have you any suspicion? I don't dare have a suspicion. Something she said made me think that the person in question might actually be a member of my household. But that can't be so. I. I won't let it be so. I must have misunderstood her. What do you say to her? What Could I say? She made me promise to do nothing for 24 hours. And she refused to give me the name of the scoundrel who'd been blackmailing her. I never dreamt she'd kill herself. Shepherd, will you hand me that letter on the table there in the blue envelope. This one? Thanks. It's from her. It arrived during dinner. She must have written it just before she. You think she wrote you the little bit she didn't tell you? Is that it? Name of the man? Yes, I think so. I've got to open it. And yet I am afraid she. What, sir?

[Caroline Sheppard]

What?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

I thought the latch of the door gave a bit.

[Elizabeth (maid)]

Yes.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Let's see if there's anyone there. No one. Nerve. Succeed. Are you sure you shut the window? Yes. It's closed. Well, I'll read it. If I read it to you, it won't seem so bad. I won't be facing it alone. No matter what the name. My dear, my very dear Roger. A life calls for a life. I see that. I saw it in your face this afternoon. So I am taking the only road open to me. I leave to you the punishment of the person who made my life a hell on earth for the last year. I would not tell you the name this afternoon, but I propose to write it to you now. Dear Roger. Now that I have nothing more to fear. Will you forgive me, Shepard? But I see I must read this alone. It was meant for my eyes and my eyes alone. Do you think that's wise, Roger? I'd rather wait. Well, if you insist on not letting me help you. If you must put it that way, yes, my dear friend, I do insist. I'm sorry. I left Fernley hall at a quarter to nine. From Fernley hall to my house, it takes us, as a rule, about three quarters of an hour. At night there was a moon shining, and I did it in less on the road I noticed the lights blazing in our parlor. Caroline was entertaining. Through the window I caught sight of an egg shaped head, partially covered with suspiciously black hair, two immense mustaches and a pair of watchful eyes.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

James.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Come in, come in, come in. You're just in time for hot milk and crackers.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Thank you, Caroline. Excuse me. I'm sorry.

[Caroline Sheppard]

This is my brother, Dr. Shepherd.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

I am enchanted.

[Caroline Sheppard]

James, this is Mr. Hercule Poirot.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

How do you do, sir?

[Caroline Sheppard]

Mr. Poirot is our new neighbor.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

If I may be permitted the one slight correction. My name is Hercule Poirot. Your good sister proceeds on the familiar English assumption that we are not English. Do not Know how to pronounce our own silly names.

[Caroline Sheppard]

He's just making fun of me, James. He has a very dry wit. We've had quite an interesting conversation.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

I question that. It was two sided.

[Caroline Sheppard]

And do you know what Mr. Poirot told me? He's a policeman.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Pardon, mademoiselle. Not yet. I see. Do you appreciate Hercule Poirot? It is true worth the name Poirot, Mademoiselle is known today in every continent, every land, nay, in every city of the world. I am become the mod. The last word. I am as much a specialist as a gnarly street physician.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Well, that's what I said, didn't I? A detective.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

A consulting detective, that's what I said.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

I'm afraid, Mr. Poirot, you find little to occupy men of your talents in this village.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Mr. Poirot tells me what he's looking for just now is peace and quiet.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Precisely, mademoiselle. That and the correct soil which you have in so great abundance here in King's Abbot for the cultivation of cucumbers.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Oh, I'll answer it. It's probably Mrs. Bates and her rheumatism.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Never mind, Caroline. I'll take it.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Oh, all right.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Hello?

[Caroline Sheppard]

Hello?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

What? What's it?

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Certainly.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Of course, I. Of course I will. At once.

[Caroline Sheppard]

What? What is it?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

It's Parker, the butler, calling from Fernand. Just found Roger Ackroyd. Why, Dr. Sheppard. Where is he? Parker? I beg your pardon, sir. Mr. Ackroyd, don't stand there staring at me. If you notify the police. The police? What's the matter with you, Parker? You call me to tell me your master's been murdered? The master? Murdered? Didn't you telephone me not five minutes ago and tell me Mr. Ackroyd been found?

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Murdered?

[Caroline Sheppard]

Me?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Oh, no, sir.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

My English is not of the best, Dr. Sheppard, but there seems to be a peculiar misapprehension.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Why, Dr. Shepard, I never. I'll give you the exact words I heard just now on the phone. This is Parker. The butler at Fern is speaking. Will you please come at once, sir? Mr. Ackroyd has been murdered. But, doctor, I. Where is Mr. Ackroyd, Parker? Why, he's in the study. If you don't mind waiting down here a moment, Monsieur Poirot. I won't be a minute. This way, sir. But of course, of course. I. I'd rather not intrude on him, sir, if you don't mind. Well, I will then. Do. Locked. Mr. Ackroyd must have locked himself in. And possibly just Dropped off to sleep, sir.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Acroyd.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Excellent. Look here, Parker. Handebrake is doing, or rather we are. But, Doctor.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Shut up.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

I take the responsibility. If you say so, sir. All right, here we go together now.

[Caroline Sheppard]

1.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

The inspector said you sideways. Permitting the dagger to penetrate the jugular. Death was instantaneous. Ah. Has the body been moved? Beyond making certain that life is extinct? I haven't disturbed the body in any way. You didn't touch the dagger, did you, Doctor? No, Inspector, no. Good. Well, we'll want that for fingerprints. Rummy looking thing, isn't it? Foreign looking. Lori. Silver. Mr. Ackroyd was quite a collector. There are his silver cases. Over against the wall.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Eh? Who are you?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

My name is Raymond. And Mr. Ackroyd's private secretary? That's right, Inspector. He's been with Mr. Ackroyd almost two years now. Oh, very well. Now, Doctor, how long should you say he's been dead? Half an hour. Lease press longer. You had to break down the door, eh? What about the window?

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

The English people, they have a mania for the fresh air. The big air is all very well outside where it belongs. Why admit it to the house?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Hey, who are you? How did you get in here?

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

You call yourself unfortunate man, an inspector of police. And you say to me, who am I? A cur, Poirot. Master detective. Possessed of the finest brain in Europe. Known in every continent, in every land. Nay, in every city.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Not in my part of the world, you ain't. I never heard of you. How vouch, Monsieur Faro. Inspectors at my house. And the phone call came. Mr. Ackroyd's death. Oh. Oh, well, all right, then, you can stay. But this is my case. And don't you forget it. Now then, when was Mr. Ackroyd last seen alive? I don't know. Probably by me. And I left a little before nine. Mr. Ackroyd was certainly alive. At half past nine. I. I heard him in here talking. Who to, Mr. Raymond? I don't know. I just heard his voice. But I know it was 9:30. You didn't hear any of their conversation, did you, Mr. Raymond? I did catch a fragment of it. It did strike me as a trifle odd.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Remember, please, the words exact. It is very important.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Not sure that I can.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

The words exact.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Wait a minute, Mr. Parrot. Who's conducting this case, you or me? Now then, Mr. Raymond, what was these words you heard Mr. Ackroyd say at 9.30? Well, come on. I'd swear under oath the exact words were the calls on My purse have been so frequent of late that I find it impossible to accede to your request.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Thank you, Mr. Raymond, very much.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

I. I beg pardon, Inspector. Well, what is it, Parker? I just remembered Ms. Flora saw Mr. Ackroyd later than 9:30, about quarter of 10. She was just coming out of this room. You mean she was just closing the study door? No, sir. She'd already closed the door when I saw her. She told me Mr. Ackroyd was not to be disturbed again tonight. Where's Miss Crawler? Upstairs in the room. Shall I ask her to come down?

[Narrator/Announcer]

No, no.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

I'll go up. One moment. If I might be so humble, Monsieur Inspector. Could I ask our friend Parker for a little information? Well?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Well, what is it?

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Thank you for your so gracious permission, Inspector. Tell me, Parker, is this room exactly as it was when you entered it with Dr. Shepard?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Well, to tell you the truth, sir, I felt myself that this chair here was drawn out a little more. It has been puzzling.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

A grandfather chair between the door and the window?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

That's right, sir.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

That's very curious. No one would want to sit in a chair in such a position.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

What are you talking about? When a man wants to sit, he sits, don't he?

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Who pushed it back in place, I wonder?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Did you, Parker? No, sir. No, sir. I was too upset at seeing the master and all. It isn't important, is it, sir?

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

It is completely unimportant. That's why it is so interesting.

[Caroline Sheppard]

You're very late for breakfast, James.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

I was up quite late, Karen. I'm afraid I forgot your natural anxiety to learn details you're not supposed to know.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Well, don't worry about me, James. Mr. Poirot was working with his cucumbers at daybreak this morning. 6:37 it was, and I've been with him ever since.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Good. Perhaps you have some information for me, Caroline.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Perhaps I have. Perhaps I have. Or are you going to pretend you know what suddenly occurred to Mr. Poirot in the night so that he couldn't sleep for an hour or two after he got home?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Inasmuch as I haven't seen our friends since he went to bed.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Well, I don't feel very much like telling you either. If I didn't know that, he'd tell you himself. I don't think I would. Well, he was worrying about the prints of some shoes outside the window. The way the rubber studs were worn down, he says should mean something to him. But he doesn't know what.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Did you explain it to him? Caroline hasn't the cook been of any help to you? Or the milkman, or the Ladies Aid Society?

[Caroline Sheppard]

It isn't always beef. Facetious, James isn't.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

The bacon needn't always be cold, I dare say. But it is, and so am I. Not cold, but facetious.

[Caroline Sheppard]

James. James. You know what Mr. Poirot said? He said I had the makings of a born detective in me. He particularly admires my wonderful instinct into human nature. And he told me a lot about the little gray cells of the brain. He says his are of the first quality is slightly above that, in fact.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

I'm sure they are.

[Caroline Sheppard]

He thinks you're very intelligent, too.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Ah.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Good morning, Good shepherd. Good morning.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Good morning, Mr. Poirot.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

A beautiful morning, is it not? See how is this Very cucumber. Beautiful. Ah, my friend, it is yours. I give it you altogether, my good shepherd. I have a wonderful morning. Everywhere I learn things, new and wonderful things. And all the time, the gray sails of Hercule Poirot, they are working. Working. Miss Caroline, she tells me so much about this Ralph Peyton. This morning I go to the hotel. This what you.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

The Dog and Whistle.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Thank you, Miss Caroline. And I think I will talk myself to Ray Peyton. And they tell me at the Dog and Whistle that was here last night, another gentleman asking for Mr. Paton.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Why, James, I certainly think you might have too.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

I don't know, Caroline. I thought someone ought to inform Rafe of his uncle's death. The least one could do. And since no one but myself, the members of your intelligence service, knew that he was in King's Abbot at all. Matter of fact, Rafe Payton left the Dog and whistle at 9 o' clock last night. Never came back.

[Caroline Sheppard]

What on earth do you think, Captain Tooey?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Rafe Peyton has a right to come and go. As he passed, he might have gone anywhere. Might even have gone back to London,

[Caroline Sheppard]

leaving his luggage behind. I wonder.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Oh, by the way, my good shepherd, the telephone call.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Oh, you mean the one that came while you were at the house of.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

That is the one. Tell me, do you think it is possible that someone could have telephoned you and imitated Parker's voice sufficiently to deceive you?

[Caroline Sheppard]

Well, he said it was Parker. James really doesn't know Parker's voice well enough.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Of course, of course.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

But the telephone call was traced this morning by my friend, Inspector. Yes, Hempstead. It didn't come from Fernley hall at all. It was put through to you at 9:50 last night from a public call office at Kings Abbott station. And at 23 the night mail east for Liverpool. It is the Inspector's opinion that the murderer may have left King's Abbot on that very train.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Ah, then you do believe the Rafe Paton?

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

I believe nothing, mademoiselle, until it is proved.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Well, then, what do you think?

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

I think, Ms. Caroline, that Roger Ackroyd was murdered. Outside of that, I think that I will have to think a good deal more.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Oh, it's an outrage, that's what it is. A little man, not even an Englishman, a foreigner with moustaches, comes into this home, a British home, a house of mourning, unsolicited, unwelcome. Oh, Mother. Do be quiet, Flora. I will not. He comes in here into my own brother in law's house. Questions us like a lot of criminals. Besmirches us.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Kisses Ackroyd.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Mr. Poirot, you must excuse my motto. My uncle's death was a terrible shock.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

I understand, mademoiselle. It is very little that Hercule Poirot does not understand.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Honestly, no, Mr. Poirot, you're on the wrong track. Great Peyton has nothing to do with this crime. The mere fact that he was hard pressed for money.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Was he hard pressed for money, Mr. Raymond?

[Caroline Sheppard]

Raymond? Now you made it seem as though Miss Ackroyd.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

I'm merely telling the truth. Yes, he was hard pressed. He was always applying to his stepfather for money.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

But please, madam, was had he done so of late, Mr. Raymond? During the last week, for example.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Mr. Ackroyd didn't mention such a fact to me. Of course, Mr. Payton will never again have to apply to anyone for money.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

You mean that Mr. Ackroyd's will.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Exactly. After paying certain legacies and bequeaths, servants, charities and so on. Aha.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Including yourself?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Mr. Ackroyd was good enough to remember me. To the extent of £1,000.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Well, it's not surprising. Go on, please.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Well, Miss Flora Ackroyd inherits £20,000 outright. The residue, including this property and an outstanding control in the business, goes to Rafe Patent.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

You have been familiar with this will for some time past, Mr. Raymond.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Roger Ackroyd's confidential secretary.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Of course. Of course. And Mr. Ackroyd possessed a very large fortune indeed.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

And he not fortune that would have been regarded as large even in less tax ridden time. Then the immediate inheritance of such a

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

large sum would have eased very considerably the present difficulties of Mr. Ray Paton.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Mr. Poirot, you don't.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Is that so, Mr. Raymond?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Yes, that is so.

[Caroline Sheppard]

You awful little man. Talking that way when you know how Flora feels. About Ralph Patton. The idea that you suspect him of killing his.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Him no more than any other, madame.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

You know what I think?

[Caroline Sheppard]

I think Roger's death was an accident. Roger was so fond of handling curios. His hand must have slipped or something. He was really a very strange man. Would you believe it? He never gave Flora and me an allowance.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

His own family.

[Caroline Sheppard]

And of course, we didn't have a penny of our own.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Why, this very matter?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

If you need any ready money, Mrs. Ackroyd. Mr. Ackroyd cashed a cheque for a hundred pounds yesterday for wages and other expenses due today. The money was never spent.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

And where, if you please, is this money?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

He always kept his cash in his bedroom.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

I suggest that we see if the money is there.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Why, Mr. Poirot, surely am I to

[Caroline Sheppard]

understand, you miserable little foreigner that you're intimating.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

I merely intimate, ladies and gentlemen, that we see if the money is still there. Ladies and gentlemen, there are here only £60.

[Caroline Sheppard]

That's impossible. Let me see. 10, 20. The man's right.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

It is 60.

[Mrs. Maltravers]

I.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

This is terrible, Dr. Shepherd. Mr. Poirot, I hope nobody believes.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

One must believe there are 60 pounds where there were a hundred. However, I'm sure no one would suggest that you, Mr. Raymond, or you, Mrs. Ackroyd, who alone knew of the money.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Poirot.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

I forget just one moment.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Your Honor. I took the money. I'm a thief. I'm a common, vulgar little thief. Now you know, I'm glad that it's come out.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

I am glad also, Miss Flora.

[Caroline Sheppard]

You are?

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Yes. Because now we comprehend why Parker thought he saw you coming out of your

[Dr. James Sheppard]

uncle's room at a quarter of 10. But he did see her coming out of the door.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

He said so. No, that's just what he did not see. Saw Miss Flora outside the door with her hand on the handle. He did not see Miss Flora come out of the study. For a good reason. Miss Flora was never in the study.

[Caroline Sheppard]

But where else could she have been?

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Perhaps on the stairs?

[Caroline Sheppard]

Those stairs only lead to Mr. Ackroyd's bedroom.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Precisely.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Then you knew I took the £40.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

I knew nothing. But I suspected, much as even now I suspect, that this money you have taken, you did not take it for yourself.

[Caroline Sheppard]

I took it for myself. You can take what steps you please.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

I assure you, Ms. Ackroyd, no steps will be taken. Only one thing. Why did you not tell me sooner? Me, Hercule Poirot, who in the end will know everything. Why do not all of you tell me the truth?

[Caroline Sheppard]

Just because Flora made a little mistake. That's no.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Silence. Silence, madam. Ladies and gentlemen, I am aged. I. My powers might not be what they were. In all probability, this is the last case I shall ever investigate. But Hercule Poirot does not end with a failure. Ladies and gentlemen, I tell you, I mean to know, and I shall know in spite of you all.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

How do you mean, in spite of us all? But just that, monsieur.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Every one of you in this room is concealing something from me. It may be something trivial which is supposed to have no bearing on the case. Each one of you has something to hide. I appeal to you, tell me the truth now. The old truth. Miss Laura, my good shepherd. Mrs. Ackroyd.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Parker. Mr. Raymond. Will no one speak? Tis a pity.

[Ernest Chappell]

You are listening to Orson Welles in the Campbell Playhouse presentation of the Murder of Roger Ackroyd with Edna May Oliver. This is the Columbia Broadcasting System. This is Ernest Chapel, ladies and gentlemen, welcoming you back to the Campbell Playhouse. In a moment, we shall resume our presentation of the Murder of Roger Ackroyd. Meantime, I'd like to call your attention to this interesting fact. Authorities tell us the young people of today are healthier than the youth of any previous generation. And they say that a big contributing cause is the broader use of the right kind of foods. Take soup, for example. Women have always realized the value of good soup in the weekly diet. But it took a long time to make it. Then came Campbell's soup, and women, one after another, tried them. They compared them for wholesomeness and nourishment with their own homemade soups. They saw how much their families enjoyed the fine flavor of these soups of Campbell's. And because women no longer had to find time to make it, soup began to come to the table more and more frequently. Today, soup figures more importantly than ever before in the preparation of sensible, nourishing family meals. And now, Orson Welles continues our presentation of the Murder of Roger Ackroyd with Edna Mae Oliver.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

I am a village surgeon, and Hercule Poirot is a distinguished Belgian detective. So it was scarcely for me to tell him. I thought he was wasting his time. Certainly not for me to tell him that he was getting on my nerves. Not that I didn't admire his extraordinary cleverness on the inside. Poirot was right, for instance, about the dagger. Police investigation confirmed his suspicion that the fingerprints on the handle of the dagger were those of Roger Ackroyd, the murdered man, though the position of the dagger definitely precluded suicide. It was Poirot who established that it had not been Parker, the butler, who summoned me on the phone that night to what had become a house of death. And again, it was Ecu Poirot who made it indubitably clear that nobody had seen Roger ackroyd alive after 9:30, at which time Raymond the secretary had heard Ackroyd's voice in the study. In spite of all this, it seemed to me that Hackupara was making little real progress in solving the mystery of Roger Ackroyd's death. Furthermore, it seemed to me a curious thing for a detective of his self proclaimed standing to be spending so much of his precious time in idle chatter with my sister Caroline.

[Caroline Sheppard]

I had a very interesting chat with Mr. Boyrar, James. He thinks me very intelligent.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

So you've told me. Is it just a coincidence, Caroline, that on those occasional mornings when the bacon is both warm and crisp, it should be so far away from me that I can't reach it?

[Caroline Sheppard]

Too much bacon isn't good for you.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

There's no such thing as too much bacon. I'll be the judge of what's good for me. I rather fancy that at least is something I know best, Caroline.

[Caroline Sheppard]

You know so many things, James. You're so self complacent. That's why it's difficult to talk to you. That's why you get the idea that I. That people are trying to pump you.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Some more bacon for you.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Mr. Poirot says I'd make an excellent detective.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Did he?

[Caroline Sheppard]

We had a very interesting chat.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

I wonder if Monsieur Poirot found it interesting.

[Caroline Sheppard]

He said I was more valuable than anyone he's met here. He told me a lot about his life, too. About a mad nephew of his. Do you know that prince Paul of Muritania? The one who just married a dancer? Well, he.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

I do not know her. You do not know her. And I do not care to hear about her. Or about his mad nephew either. Did he ask you any questions, Caroline?

[Caroline Sheppard]

No questions. We just chatted.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

More bacon, please.

[Caroline Sheppard]

I have a little theory of my own, James. Mr. Poirot didn't ask me. But in my turn.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Whom do you suspect?

[Caroline Sheppard]

I don't suspect anybody. I know Parker was here in your surgery the morning of the murder. That place is full of poison. He's sure to have taken some. As a matter of fact, that's been my theory right along. Roger Ackroyd was poisoned in his food that night.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

He was stabbed in the neck. You know that as well as I do.

[Caroline Sheppard]

After death, to make a false clue.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

I Examined the body and I know what I'm talking about. That wound wasn't inflicted after death. It was the cause of death. And don't look so omniscient. Next you'll be telling me you know more about medicine than I do. Perhaps you think you could take over my practice.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Oh, don't be ridiculous. You know I haven't a license.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

That afternoon, Caroline had a mahjong party made up of her little group of village gossipers, in whose opinion, I now learned, Ray Thetan was mysteriously concealed somewhere in Cranchester, the only big town anywhere near us. Of course, that was true. Ms. Gannett's maid, it seems, had contributed the additional information that while taking a walk that afternoon on Cranchester Road, she'd seen Monsieur Poirot in her large black car coming from that direction. After that, I was not surprised to learn that Monsieur Poirot had been invited to my house for dinner. Caroline believes, whenever possible in getting her information directly from headquarters.

[Caroline Sheppard]

A little more raspberry shape, Mr. Poyrot?

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Under no circumstances. I am already a man of a corpulence so great, it would hardly become me if I. Well, perhaps. Yes. There is no harm in a little raspberry shape.

[Caroline Sheppard]

There you are, Mr. Playrock.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

I beg your pardon, Caroline, if I might have my first helping.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Oh, I'll softly sort me.

[Ernest Chappell]

James.

[Caroline Sheppard]

There you are.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Thanks.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Mr. Poirot, sir, what do you think about Ralph Pitt now?

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

What I think would scarcely be regarded as illegal evidence in the courtroom, Mademoiselle.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Dear, dear, dear.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

You are incredulous, Mademoiselle Schaefer.

[Caroline Sheppard]

I am incredulous.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

You have a theory.

[Caroline Sheppard]

I don't have a theory. I know.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Oh, Caroline.

[Caroline Sheppard]

James, don't meddle about in what you don't understand. There are several points to this case.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Yes, mademoiselle.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Point number one. Mr. Lackroyd was heard talking to someone after. After half past nine. Point number two. At some time during the evening, Ralph Pitton must have come in through the window, as evidenced by the prints of his shoes. Point number three, Mr. Ackroyd was nervous that evening and could have only admitted someone he knew. Point number four. The person with Ackroyd at 9:30 was asking for money. We know Ralph Peyton was in a scrape.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Admirable.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Oh, and one other thing, Mr. Poirot. I found out something for you today. The boots Ralph Peyton was wearing that night, they were not brown. They were black.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Aha.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

You have found that out for me?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Thank you. Thank you.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

You are sure, mademoiselle, they were born at black.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Positive.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Too bad. Too bad.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

If they were only black.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Those boots, I mean.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

If they were you, you mean? Yes. I understand.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Ralph Peyton is guilty or innocent, according to whether his boots are brown or black.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Really, Mr. Poynold, it could easily be for murder.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

There was with Mr. Maton, so many motives.

[Caroline Sheppard]

First motive, blackmail. Ralph Peyton may have been the man who blackmailed Mrs. Burran.

[Mrs. Maltravers]

Reason?

[Caroline Sheppard]

His general money needs. The second motive, the certainty of a great inheritance through Mr. Ackroyd's death.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

And the third motive, Caroline?

[Caroline Sheppard]

Very simple. Very simple. Mr. Ackroyd's violent disapproval of Ralph's proposed marriage to Miss Flora.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Well, after listening to you, Caroline, I'd say the case looks very black against him.

[Caroline Sheppard]

I haven't a case, James. I know.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Late that afternoon, Mr. Poirot called on me to ask if I could arrange a little conference room at his home that night. Those would be present. Mrs. Ackroyd, Flora, Raymond and Parker. I think Caroline, who was present when he called, would have given 10 years of her life to have been added to the list. For my part, I would have been only too glad to yield her my place among those who on that particular evening, gathered around the beaming countenance of the Belgian detective, detective and cucumber breeder.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Yeah?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

I'm clearing my throat.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

That is an accepted signal in this country that a meeting is about to begin. Quiet, everybody. I will read the list. You will please answer to your names. Raymond.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Yes.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Parker.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Yes.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Mrs. Ackroyd?

[Caroline Sheppard]

Yes, but I wanted to speak.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Yes will be sufficient, Miss Flora.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Yes, sir.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Flora, what's the meaning of all this?

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

The list I have just read is the list of suspected persons. Every one of you present had the opportunity to kill Mr. Ackroyd.

[Caroline Sheppard]

I won't stand for this.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

I'm going.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

You will not go, madam, until you have heard what I have to say. I clear my throat again. And now I commence at the beginning. Until now, ladies and gentlemen, we have all been trying to answer to ourselves one principal question. Who was in the room with Mr. Ackroyd at 9:30? Not Dr. Shepherd, since I myself can prove that he was at home. Not Miss Flora, nor Mrs. Ackroyd, nor Mr. Raymond, with whose actions on that evening we are well acquainted. Nor Parker, who has furnished me with a satisfactory alibi. Who then? This is the part of her kill, Poirot. The cleverest, the most audacious question. Was anyone with him?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Are you trying to make me out a liar, Mr. Poirot? I tell you, I distinctly heard voices. I distinctly Heard the words that Mr.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Ackroyd was speaking, Mr. Raymond? The words that Mr. Ackroyd said. The calls on my purse have been so frequent of late that I believe it is imperial impossible for me to accede to your request. Does nothing strike you as odd about him? Their style, for example?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

No. He frequently dictated letters to me using exactly the same style.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

That is precisely what I seek to arrive at. Would any man use such a phrase in talking to another?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Ah, I think not.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

My friends, you have all forgotten one thing.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

This stranger who called at the house

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

in the proceeding we can defer me represented. You remember Mr. Raymond?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Dictaphone company.

[Caroline Sheppard]

A Dictaphone? That's what you think.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Mr. Ackroyd had promised to invest in a Dictaphone. You remember me? I had the curiosity to inquire of the company in question. Their reply, Mr. Raymond, was that Mr. Ackroyd did purchase a Dictaphone from their representative. Why he concealed the matter from you, his confidential secretary, I do not know.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Must have meant to surprise me with quite a childish love of surprising people.

[Caroline Sheppard]

There's only one man who could have done it.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

You mean Rafpato, Mother.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Oh, let's face it. If he's innocent, he should be able to prove it.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

If he isn't, if only he'd come forward.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

That is your advice, Mr. Raymond? That he should come forward?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Certainly. Do you know where he is? Me?

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

I know everything. Remember that. The truth of the telephone call, of the footprints on the windowsill, of the hiding place of Ray Pater.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Where is he?

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Not very far away.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Where? In Cranchester. Where?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

No, he is not in Cranchester.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

He is here, in the doorway of this room.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Ralph. Paint Floral.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

My darling, have I not told you all at least 36 times that it was useless to conceal things from Hercule Poirot? That always I discover the little secret. It is my business. From Dr. Shepard's sister Caroline, ladies and gentlemen, I learned that the doctor and Doris Paton, they are old friends. Dr. Shepherd knows that things look very black against his friend Peyton. He tells him the old story.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Yes, he did. He explained to me how suspicion was

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

bound to fall on me and I

[Caroline Sheppard]

had no real animal.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

And with the best of intentions, people sometimes make errors. That's why Dr. Shepherd consented to do what he could to help Mr. Peyton. He was successful in hiding him from the police.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Where? In his own house?

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

No, indeed, Mr. Raymond, you should ask yourself the question that I have cool borrowed it. If the good doctor is concealing the young man, what place would he choose it must necessarily be somewhere near at hand. Anything of Clanchester? A hotel? No. Lodgings? Even more emphatically, no. Where then?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Ha ha.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

I have it. A nursing home. I make inquiries.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Yes.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

At one of them. A patient was brought there by the doctor himself early on Saturday morning. That patient, I had no difficulty in identifying him as Ray Patron. He arrived at my house yesterday. And now, ladies and gentlemen, we come to the point of this evening's meeting. Ralph Patron says he is innocent of the killing of Roger Ackroyd.

[Caroline Sheppard]

I am.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

I swear by heaven I am. Please, Mr. Patron, please.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

You have just heard Mr. Patron declare he is innocent. Yet he has three motives for the murder and no alibi.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Well, I certainly don't see how you can sit there.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

I am possessing the floor, Mrs. Ackroyd. Listen carefully, everybody. To save Mr. Peyton, the real criminal must confess. I you speak to you, Acculpo. I know that the murder of Mr. Ackroyd is in this room now, at this table. Tonight. Tomorrow, in the morning, the truth goes to the police.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

You mean you know who? Yes.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

At the moment, I know. I alone. For the murder of Roger Ackroyd, there is only one way out. And that way does not lead to freedom.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

And it is to the murder or not that I speak.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

This is a matter of life and death, and I irk will follow.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

I'm not joking. Good night,

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

James.

[Caroline Sheppard]

What are you doing out there in the hall?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Just saying. Am I overcooked, my dear?

[Caroline Sheppard]

Well, aren't you coming in to chat?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

I'm very tired, Caroline.

[Caroline Sheppard]

At least you can tell me what happened last night.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Mr. Poirot told us all about his

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

little gray cell again.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Oh, does he think Rachel Patronage?

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

No.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Well, he's crazy.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

You can go over and tell him so in the morning. Good night, Caroline.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

I'm very tired.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

My arm aches from writing. I've written it all out now. Peyton will be cleared. As I think back, I'm not quite certain why I urged Ackroyd to read that letter before it was too late. Perhaps I subconsciously realized that with a pig headed chap like that, my best chance of getting him not to read it. His nervousness that night was interesting psychologically. He knew danger was close at hand, yet he never once suspected me as the blackmail of Mrs. Ferrars. The dagger was an afterthought. I'd God have a fitted it'll weapon of my own. But I saw the dagger lying the silver table. Occurred to me how much better it'd be to use a weapon that couldn't be traced to me. I suppose I must have meant to murder him all along. As soon as I'd heard of Mrs. Farrow's death, I felt convinced that she'd have told him everything, for she died. So I went home and took my precautions. The dictaphone he had given me two days before to adjust something gone a little wrong with it, and I persuaded Ackroyd I didn't have a go at it. Instead of sending it back, I did what I wanted to it. Took it up with me in my bag, studied. That evening, when it was all over, I looked around the room for the door, quite satisfied nothing had been left undone. The Dictaphone was on the table by the window. Time to go up at 9:30. The mechanism of that little device was rather clever, based on the principal alarm clock. And the armchair was pulled out so as to hide it from the door. I never dreamed that Parker would notice that. Notice. That chair certainly would not have remembered Poirot hadn't asked him. Having the American sailor with a toothache call me from King's Abbot that night is a stroke of genius. There's no way for anyone listening to have told that it was not Parker. I still don't know how Poirot thought that one out. My only regret is about Caroline. And yet I feel I can trust Poirot. She'll never know the truth, and I'm glad of that. I shouldn't like her to know she's fond of me. And then two, she's proud. My death will be a grief to her. But grief passes. When I finished writing, I shall enclose this whole manuscript in an envelope, address it to Poirot. And now, because I'm tired, take some sleeping powders. Because I'm very tired, I will take more sleeping powders than I should. More than anybody should, I suppose I ought to feel sorry. I am sorry. Sorry that Hercule Poirot ever came to King's Abbot to grow his cucumbers.

[Ernest Chappell]

This concludes our Campbell Playhouse presentation of the Murder of Roger Ackroyd. In just a moment, Orson Welles will return to the microphone with our guest of the evening, Edna Mae Oliver. Meanwhile, I'd like to take just time enough to say this to every woman listening. We at Campbell's know good cooking, and so, of course, do you. Speaking therefore, as one good cook to another, we'd like you to try our chicken soup. Try it, if you will, in the same friendly yet critical way you'd sample a neighbor's good dish or send in one of your own for her to try. If you'll do that, I know you'll find this soup deep and full and rich in chicken flavor, from the first spoonful to the last delicious drop.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Indeed.

[Ernest Chappell]

I promise you, just as sure as you like chicken, you like Campbell's chicken soup. And now here is Orson Welles with Edna Mayala.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Never mind Orson Welles. What about me? Earth.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

You, Poirot.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Ms. Oliver. Have I naughty little gray cells.

[Caroline Sheppard]

You and your gray cells. If you ask me, I think Rafe

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Peyton committed the murder after listening to my explanation. So careful.

[Caroline Sheppard]

That's especially after listening to your exclamation. So careful. Now, in the days when I was a detective. No rko. You and your wonderful murder. Why, when I was a detective.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

No.

[Caroline Sheppard]

No sooner did I establish the identity of the murderer than he was murdered and I had to start all over again.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

It is well for you, Miss Oliver, to belittle the genius of Hercule Poirot. But remember this. Hercule Poirot was lash.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Lash. Attend.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

I laugh last.

[Caroline Sheppard]

I accept that as a laugh. Go on.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

I have observed the proceedings here in the studio, and I have detected a circumstance which has indubitably escaped. You are untrained to watch for such things. Almost it had escaped me myself. Not only did I discover that the gentleman who told the story, Dr. Shepherd, was himself the murderer of Roger Ackroyd, but I now reveal to you that he was enacted in Mr. Welles little anecdote by none other than that beloved portrayer of dramatic roles, that celebrated delineator

[Dr. James Sheppard]

of character, that unparalleled purveyor of protean portraiture, that internationally celebrated.

[Caroline Sheppard]

You refer to Orson Welles, I take it, Mr. Wells?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

I do.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Now I would like to be allowed a little observation of my own. Excuse me, Morrow.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

What?

[Caroline Sheppard]

I'm not finished yet. Ou et le chapeau de ma mer. That's all right, Mr. Poirot. I just wanted to see if you could really speak French. Attend, Mr. Poirot. I laugh lust.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Good night, Edna May Oliver. And may I say, I hope that this will not be the last time that you put me in my place in this program.

[Ernest Chappell]

In tonight's Campbell Playhouse production of the Murder of Roger Ackroyd, the role of Caroline Shepard was played by Edna May Oliver. The part of Roger Ackroyd was played By Alan Napier, Mrs. Ackroyd By Brenda Forbes, and Flora Ackroyd by Mary Taylor. George Colouris was heard as Inspector Hempstead, Ray Collins as Mr. Raymond, and Everett Sloan as Parker, the butler, Dr. James Shepard, who committed the murder, was played by Orson Welles. And Hercule Poirot, who arrested Dr. Shepard, was played by Orson Welles. The music for tonight's production, with the exception of the Noel Coward melodies, was composed and of course, conducted by Bernard herman. And now, Mr. Wells, I see we have just a moment. Can we have a word about next week's story?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Next week, ladies and gentlemen, it will be our proud pleasure to give you the Garden of Allah, starring Claudette Colbert. The Robert Hitchens masterpiece, both as a book and a play, has engaged the affections of the peoples of the world for 35 years, with its ageless story of a great love and a Greater renunciation. If Ms. Colbert is listening in, I want her to know how eagerly we're all looking forward to the privilege of having her with us in the Campbell Playhouse. No other actress that I know is more ideally suited than Ms. Colbert for the part of Dominie, the English girl who found in the great Sahara Desert the love that gave the final meaning to her life. And so, until then, till next Sunday in Claudette Colbert in the Garden of Allah, my sponsors, the makers of Campbell Soups, and all of us here in the Campbell Playhouse, remain obediently yours.

[Ernest Chappell]

The makers of Campbell Soups join Orson Welles in inviting you to be with us in the Campbell Playhouse again next Sunday evening when we bring you the Garden of Allah, with Claudette Colbert as our guest star. Meanwhile, if you have enjoyed tonight's Gamble Playhouse presentation, won't you tell your grocer so tomorrow when you order Campbell's Chicken Soup? This is Ernest Chapel saying thank you and good night.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Murder Clinic Stories of the world's great detectives of fiction, men Against Murder. Each week at this time Wor Mutual turns the spotlight on one of the great figures of crime detection and brings you his most exciting case tonight, Agatha Christie's unique detective, Hercule Poirot in the tragedy at Marsden Manor. Evening, Monsieur Poirot. I'd recognize you anywhere, I think, thanks to those magnificent mustachios of yours. Merci bien. They are very magnificent, no? They are indeed. Tell me, did they help you solve the tragedy at Marsden Manor? No. It was the little gray cells in the brain of the great Hercule Poirot that prevented this great miscarriage of justice in the death of Richard Maltravers of Marsden Manor. It all began in the literature village of Milestone Leave, less than a hundred kilometers from London.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Coming.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Coming.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Yes, yes, what is it? Be you Dr. Bernard? Yes, I am. Come quick. The master's den. For you mean Mr. Maltravels of the manor. I the master, the mister, she says. Fetch the doctor, she says. But it beat no use. He's a dead on. I knows a dead on when I see him. What was it, man?

[Mrs. Maltravers]

An accident?

[Narrator/Announcer]

No beat, no accident. I found him in the lower meadow with the blood running out of his mouth. Be a stroke. A stroke, that's what it be.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Hurry, man.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Hurry, man.

[Mrs. Maltravers]

Let go.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Come, come now, Mrs. Beltravers, you must get hold of yourself. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. After all, we are all of us mortal.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

But.

[Mrs. Maltravers]

But why Richard? He was so good, so kind. Why did this have to happen to him?

[Narrator/Announcer]

Oh, come, come, please.

[Mrs. Maltravers]

He seems so well, so full of life. Why, only last week he passed a medical examination. Examination? For insurance. How could he have died so suddenly? Doctor, what happened?

[Narrator/Announcer]

Hemorrhage due to stomach ulcers, undoubtedly resulting in a stroke. Ah, bonjour, Mr.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

I. Hello, Pharo.

[Narrator/Announcer]

You know my good friend Capitan A stings, no? Good morning, Captain. Captain Hazing Monica. Well, Peru. You got my message, I see I did. What is it that disturbs him? On ami. Richard Maltravers dies. You sin for Poirot. What was the cause of Monsieur Montreal's death? The death certificate says a hemorrhage resulting in a stroke due to stomach ulcers. But surely you did not bring Papa Poirot here to talk of the stomach ulcers. Is Richard Montre had taken out the insurance policy in your company? No. Water policy for £50,000. Well, good. Square sum, that, huh? Rather so. What is it you wish me to do? It is unfortunate for your company, but everything seems, how you say, open and above the plank? No, no. Open and above board. Ah, my good friend, the great Hastings, always he corrects the English of virtues. Monsieur, I ask you, do I not speak the English of a. Of a superb? You do indeed. But to get back to your previous question, what my company wishes you to do is to investigate the circumstances of Mr. Maltravers death. So, what is it you suspect, mon ami? Well, of course, you know, in the case of suicide, the policy is invalid. Yes. And when a man past the prime of life takes out an unusually large polis in favor of a young wife half his age, and then dies within two weeks, the possibility of suicide cannot be ignored. Certainty, mon ami. But suicide by hemorrhage, that is a queer saucepan of fish. Now, if the cause of death had been heart failure, ah, then I would smell a mouse. Heart failure can always mean that a. A stupid doctor did not find a True cause, but hemorrhage. Ma. Hemorrhage is, well, hemorrhage. Exactly. Nevertheless, we are determined to proceed with the matter. You will undertake the inquiry. But of course it stings. That great professor of English shall go with me, eh, mon ami? Gladly. Now, where is this place? This Marsden Manor. You take the great Eastern line from Liverpool Station to the little town of Marsden Lee.

[Ernest Chappell]

Marsden?

[Narrator/Announcer]

Marsden Manor is about a mile from the village. Marsden Lee. All right, Hastings. We.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Ah, well.

[Narrator/Announcer]

So this is Marsden Lee, eh? I hope we can get a conveyance

[Dr. James Sheppard]

up to the manor.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Tickets.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Tickets, sir?

[Narrator/Announcer]

You are my friend. I suppose you'll be coming down for the funeral, sir? Funeral? What funeral? You say you made the funeral of Master Maltrevers about the manor. Oh, you say the manor. Could that be Marsden Manor? Aye, it be. That is an odd coincidence. My friend and I, we have come down with a thought of buying this Marsden Manor. You couldn't pay me to live there. You couldn't. Why not? Might be haunted. Haunted? Aye, haunted. Seen things there, Folks has. Yeah, we shall see. Now, could you tell us where a doctor, Dr. Bernard, lives?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

I.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Up Yonhill, about half a mile. Come here.

[Charles Ridgeway]

Stinks.

[Narrator/Announcer]

I understand, Dr. Bernard, that you signed the death certificate of a Mr. Richard Malpravers. Yes, I did. You understand, Doctor, with such a big policy, we must make the. The careful investigation. Of course, of course. I suppose he was such a rich man. His life was insured for a big sum. You consider him a rich man, doctor? Was he not? He kept two cars, you know. And Maron Manor is a pretty big place to keep up. Although I believe he bought it very cheaply. I understand he had had considerable losses of late. Is that so? Indeed. It's fortunate for his widow then that there is this. Insurance? Yes, yes. Very beautiful and charming young creature. But terribly unstrung by this sad catastrophe. I've tried to spare her all I could, but of course, the shock has been very great. Why shock? These ulcers of the stomach, they are what you call chronic errors? Yes. They are not sudden? No. Did you not attend Mr. Maltravers before, Doctor? My dear sir, I never attended him. What? I understand Mr. Moore was a member of a fake healing sect. But you examined the body? Certainly. I was fetched by one of the under gardeners. And the cause of death was clear? Absolutely. There was blood on the lips, but most of the bleeding must have been internal. He had not been moved? No, no, the body hadn't been touched. He had evidently been out shooting crows and a long barreled bird gun lay beside him. The hemorrhage must have occurred quite suddenly. Gastric ulcers. Without a doubt, he could not have been shot. Huh? My dear sir, I beg pardon, but I remember once a doctor who said heart failure until the constable showed him a bullet wound for the head. You will find no bullet wounds on the body or head of Mr. Maltravers. Now, gentlemen, if there's nothing further, I. Thank you, Doctor. Just one more thing. You saw no need for the autopsy? Certainly not. The cause of death was perfectly clear. In my profession, we see no need to distress unduly the relatives of a dead patient. Now, gentlemen, if you'll pardon me. Good day. Well, Hastings, what do you think of our good Dr. Bernard? Bit of an old fool. Precisely. Your judgments of character always profound, mon ami, except where a young and beautiful woman is concerned. So now you must mind your Q's and peas, because the good doctor has said that the next one we see is both young and beautiful. This, Madame Mal, I cannot tell you. I am sorry to bow bother you in this way.

[Mrs. Maltravers]

Must I be bothered now? I know nothing about this insurance of my husband.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Courage, madame. It is necessary I will do all to make this matter not too unpleasant for you. I, Hercule Poirot, swear it. Now, if you would recount briefly the sad events of last Wednesday.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Huh?

[Mrs. Maltravers]

Well, I was changing for tea when the maid came up. One of the gardeners had just run up to the house. He'd found Richard.

[Narrator/Announcer]

No, I can't put it in enough. You had seen your husband earlier in the afternoon?

[Mrs. Maltravers]

No, not since lunch. I'd walked down to the village for some stamps. I believe he was out pottering around the grounds.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Shooting the cause, no?

[Mrs. Maltravers]

So I understand. He usually took his bird gun with him. In fact, I heard one or two shots at a distance.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Sure. Where is this bird gun now?

[Mrs. Maltravers]

In the gun cabinet over there, I suppose.

[Narrator/Announcer]

With your permission, madame. Here it is. Ah. Two shots fired, I see. And now, madame, a delicate question. Monsieur Maltraverse, Your husband is awaiting burial, I believe.

[Mrs. Maltravers]

Yes, he's lying in his room.

[Narrator/Announcer]

If I might see.

[Mrs. Maltravers]

Yes, of course.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

It's the.

[Mrs. Maltravers]

The first room at the top of the stairs. You'll forgive me if I don't go with you.

[Narrator/Announcer]

What? Of course, Hastings, you remain here with Madame.

[Mrs. Maltravers]

Do you think Mr. Poirot will understand why I didn't go with him?

[Narrator/Announcer]

I can assure you, Mrs. Maltravers, Poirot is most sympathetic.

[Mrs. Maltravers]

I don't doubt it, Mr. Hastings. I only wish there was more that I could tell him.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

I Understand?

[Narrator/Announcer]

But I wonder if, Mrs. Maltravers, if you could tell me one thing.

[Mrs. Maltravers]

Oh, yes.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Well, the station master, or an odd character named Volk, said something about Marsden Manor being haunted.

[Mrs. Maltravers]

Marsden Manor? Haunted? Why, surely you're joking, Mr. Hastings.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Oh, no, no, I assure you. He told us that people have seen things.

[Mrs. Maltravers]

We must have been referring to my. My humble experiments in extrasensory perception. I've always been tremendously intrigued by that subject. And doubtless some of our servants have been gossiping.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Madame, you are mediumistic. How fascinating.

[Mrs. Maltravers]

Oh, I wouldn't go so far as to say that, Mr. Poirot. I've dabbled a bit, that's all. So I've managed table levitation and simple things like that. But I suppose to the simple rustics around here, it looks like black magic.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Very interesting. Under kind of circumstances, I would implore a demonstration.

[Mrs. Maltravers]

Are you interested in such things, Mr. Poirot?

[Narrator/Announcer]

All fields of knowledge interest the great Poirot. Poirot. Don't you think perhaps we'd better. Oh, I forgot. Madame, I thank you for your so great courtesy. I do not think you need be bothered any further by the matter. By the way, do you know anything of your husband's financial position?

[Mrs. Maltravers]

Nothing whatever. I'm afraid. I'm very stupid about business.

[Narrator/Announcer]

I see. Then you can give us no clue as to why your husband suddenly decided to insure his life.

[Mrs. Maltravers]

Oh, was it sudden? I'm sure I don't know.

[Narrator/Announcer]

And now, with your permission, madame, we will go. Hastings.

[Mrs. Maltravers]

Oh, I'll see you to the door, Percy.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Oh, just one more thing, madame. Could you tell me, when they found Mr. Maltravers, did they find him unshod, without the shoes?

[Mrs. Maltravers]

Really, Mr. Poirot, I don't understand.

[Narrator/Announcer]

It is nothing. It does not matter. Hello, madame. Adieu. Oh, but look. You have another visitor. Someone is coming up to work, huh?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Archie, You?

[Mrs. Maltravers]

Why, I thought you were on your way back to Australia.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Yes, I was, but I read the news of Uncle's death in Paris and hurried back. Emily, my dear, is there anything I can do for you? Anything?

[Mrs. Maltravers]

Oh, of course not. What could you do? Oh, I'm sorry. I'm forgetting. Mr. Poirot, this is Captain Black, my husband's Nephew. Captain Black. Mr. Hastings.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Now, Emily, how did this happen? Uncle seemed perfectly well when I was here Monday night.

[Mrs. Maltravers]

You've evidently read the papers, Archie. You must know what happened.

[Narrator/Announcer]

But they gave no details. Just the bare notice of his death.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

What happened, Archie?

[Mrs. Maltravers]

I. I just can't go through all that again.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Yes, Captain Black, I'm afraid my friend and I who have disturbed Madame. What are you doing here? I am Hercule Poirot. The Hercule Poirot?

[Mrs. Maltravers]

Mr. Poirot is from the insurance company, Archie.

[Narrator/Announcer]

That's just why I've come back to protect you from annoyances like this.

[Mrs. Maltravers]

Shouldn't have risked your job, Archie. If you left right away, you might still get to Paris in time to make your boat train.

[Narrator/Announcer]

You say? Paris, mon capitain. You go to Australia by way of Paris?

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Why, yes.

[Narrator/Announcer]

I intended taking the Orient Express from there and pick up the Pacific mail at port side. Ah, that shortens the journey, does it not? You are staying here, Captain Black?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Yes, I'm staying at the Pig and Thistle.

[Narrator/Announcer]

That's the inn down in the village. Hi, Village inn. It serves the old beef, no? Why, yes, I suppose so. Good, so it stings. Let us try this rose beef at the Pig and Fizzle. All right, Poirot. Now you've had your roast beef, hadn't we better be getting back to London? No, not so fast, my good Hastings. London. She will not run away. But this Captain Black, he may do so. A garcon. Garcon? For heaven's sake, Poirot, English inns don't have garcons.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

No?

[Narrator/Announcer]

Then who is it who approaches? What do you have, Governor, for my friend? The dictionary for me. A bock. He means beer, George. I mean the ale.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Right.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Oh, Governor, you've been up at the manor, sir? I. I mean, yes, we have. It's sad business that. I knew no good had come of it as soon as they took the manny. You mean this Valtravers, they were not popular? Well, not that Governor. He was a bit too old for her, if you know what I mean. She might better have married the nephew in least ways on or better Bob, than if you thought so. Ah, there has been the gossip, huh? Well, I wouldn't go so far as that Gavney, but he did hang around a bit. And the husband, Mr. Moultravers, he object? Not as I knows of Gavney, but only as my old opinion. Orange, without the doubt. It is the worst opinion. No, George, but. Ah, the Captain Black. Here he comes now. Hello, Poirot. Here you are, Captain Black. Come. Will you not join us? Bark, perhaps? Yes, thanks. I don't mind if I do. Wait. A mug of ale, right.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Oh, company.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Sad business, this death of your uncle, huh? Yes, and so sudden, too. He seemed in excellent health when I dined with a Monday night. So was he also in good spirits. What did he say? But what Was the talk at this dinner Monday night? Oh, I don't know. The usual general topics. I see. My uncle asked about my people. We've talked of Australia. Yes. Then Mrs. Maltravers asked a lot of questions about East Africa, where I've spent some time. I told them one or two yarns. That's about all, I think. Madame Altaverse seems much upset at the death of her husband. No, Naturally. They've been married less than a year. So I hear. A remarkable woman, this lady.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Remarkable?

[Narrator/Announcer]

In what way? What do you mean? She has, how you say, the seeing eye. I hear her tell Hastings she does the seance. He seems most interested. No, Hastings. Oh, I. I wouldn't go so far. Always the conservative, Hastings. Me, I am not so well, Mr. Porto. Don't tell me you believe in this psychic stuff. I have not. The closed mind. For example, Captain Black, you have told us all that your conscious self knows. Now, with your permission, I would question your subconscious.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Huh?

[Narrator/Announcer]

Psychoanalysis, eh? Well, it's nonsense, but I don't mind. Merci. It is like this. I give you a word, you answer with another word. Any word. The first word you think of. Shall we begin? Go ahead, Hastings. Note down the words, please. Very well. Now, day, night, name, place, Bernard. Sure. Monday, dinner, journey, ship, country, Uganda. Story. Lions, bird, gun, fun, shot, suicide, elephant tusks, money, lawyers. So that is all. You are a good subject, mon capitaine. You don't mean to tell me that rigamarole means anything to you? Maybe not. But nevertheless, you are a good subject. Well, if you don't need me anymore, I think I'll go upstairs and unpack. Shall I see you again before you leave, Mr. Poirot? Yes, I should not be surprised.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Good.

[Narrator/Announcer]

See you later. And now, my clever Hastings, you see it all. No, I don't know what you mean.

[Charles Ridgeway]

Boro.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Does that list of words tell you nothing? Sorry. Afraid it doesn't. Then I will assist you. To begin with, the capitan answered within the time limit. No pauses, no making up the mind. Day to night and place to name our normal associations. Then I give him Bernard, the name of the doctor, if he knew him. Evidently, he does not. When I say Bernard, he says sure. Monday means dinner country, as Uganda story recalls the lion story. He tells them all natural. But now, notice, when I mention bird gun, I get the unexpected answer. Farm. When I say shot, he answers at once, Suicide. A man in holes commit suicide with a bird gun. On a farm somewhere.

[Charles Ridgeway]

Embassy.

[Narrator/Announcer]

That I am, the great Poirot is hoodwink. What are you talking About? Do not see, Hastings. That is the story the Captain Black told at the dinner Monday night. Oh, I see. And you think that gave Mal Travers the idea? You think he shot himself in the

[Dr. James Sheppard]

mouth with that bird gun?

[Narrator/Announcer]

Why not? Remember, the bird gun has a very tiny charge of powder. The bullet would remain enlarged in the brain. All that would show would be the blood in the mouth. Come, Hastings. It is not too late. Of course, but. But where? You see once more this dead man. To Maron Manor, Hastings. To Maron Manor. Last Mrs. Man Traverse. It is true. Your husband shot himself to the mouth with the bird gun.

[Mrs. Maltravers]

You mean suicide?

[Narrator/Announcer]

It would seem so, madame.

[Mrs. Maltravers]

But the insurance.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Naturally, madame, this suicide will void the policy. It is unfortunate, but what will you?

[Mrs. Maltravers]

Oh, but this is impossible. My husband would never commit suicide. It's inconceivable.

[Narrator/Announcer]

The evidence, madame, it is conclusive.

[Mrs. Maltravers]

No, there must be some other explanation.

[Narrator/Announcer]

You mean murder, madame? Well, of course, that is always possible, but. No, no, not likely, I'm afraid.

[Mrs. Maltravers]

But you do admit it's possible? You just said it was possible.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Yes, of course. Everything is possible. Have you any idea who might have wished to kill your husband?

[Mrs. Maltravers]

Why, no. No, I haven't.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Madame, I have a suggestion. It is bizarre, no doubt, but perhaps if you are willing to help.

[Mrs. Maltravers]

Oh, yes, yes, of course.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Anything, Madame. You are mediumistic. Perhaps if you would try.

[Mrs. Maltravers]

Perhaps you're right. Perhaps I could get through to Richard. He might tell us what happened.

[Narrator/Announcer]

I am sure you could do it, madame.

[Mrs. Maltravers]

Yes. Yes, I'll do it. Come back here tonight at 8. And bring Captain Black with you.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Madame, I'm sure you will succeed. Until late, Madame. Au revoir. Hello. The Wealthy Article Agency. Henri Du Bois. This is Hercule Faure. Mon ami Henri. I have a part for you. For one appearance only. Oui, oui, as always.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Now, listen closely.

[Narrator/Announcer]

This is what I wish you to.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Dr. Bernal, this is Hercule Poirot.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Tell me, Doctor, when you saw Mr. Mal after the stroke, did he have on the shoes? He did, Pierre. Merci. Hello. Scotland Yarns. Inspector Japp, please. Hello, Japp, this is Poirot. Quite well, thank you. Inspector, I think I have a murderer for you. No, no. There is no time to explain. Be at Marsden Manor, Miles down Lee at 8 o' clock tonight. Wait outside the window and do not come in until I call, huh? Good. Remember, Miles Down Manor Edit. Hello, madame. We are on time, as you see, Hastings and I have brought Captain Black with us. I say, there's a bad storm coming up. Would that interfere with the experiment?

[Mrs. Maltravers]

Certainly. Not Mr. Hastings. This isn't mumbo, just jumbo. The weather has nothing to do with it.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Well, well, let us proceed.

[Mrs. Maltravers]

Yes, yes. Now, will you draw chairs up around this table, please? Now, Mr. Hastings, if you'll put out the lights.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Certainly.

[Mrs. Maltravers]

Now, remain perfectly quiet, please, no matter what you hear or see. Richard. Richard, can you hear me? Richard, can you hear me? If you can rap, rap three times.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Did you hear that?

[Narrator/Announcer]

But of course, madame. Did you not tell him to rap three times?

[Mrs. Maltravers]

That's how Richard always used to knock.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Perhaps he is outside.

[Mrs. Maltravers]

No.

[Narrator/Announcer]

They say the suicide never rests, always returns.

[Mrs. Maltravers]

Listen. What was that?

[Narrator/Announcer]

The front door slammed. What? No, Captain Black, it was. But the thunder.

[Charles Ridgeway]

Listen.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Where are I? I hear footsteps. It's the wind, madame. I will close the door. I have locked in.

[Mrs. Maltravers]

Don't do that. If it should open now,

[Dr. James Sheppard]

by Job, it is open. He's there. There in the doorway.

[Narrator/Announcer]

I see nothing, Madame.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

I saw him, I tell you. My husband.

[Mrs. Maltravers]

You must have seen him, too.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Look. She's right. He is there. His hand.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Look.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

It's pointing.

[Narrator/Announcer]

What's that light coming from?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Pointing at her.

[Narrator/Announcer]

What did you. Her hand. Her right hand. It is scarlet with blood.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Blood?

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Yes, it's blood. I killed him.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

I did it. Take her away.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Take her away.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Lights. Good heavens. Porosity got away through that window. Do not worry, mon capitaine. The good Inspector Jap outside will stop her. Good heavens. Then that lovely creature.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

A murderer.

[Narrator/Announcer]

And a very clever one, my susceptible Hastings. After all, she could not know she would come up against the goiter tul Poirot. And she might even have fooled me, if she had only taken off his shoe, hit his shoe only with his toe. Could he himself have pulled the trigger of this bird gun and parbleu. His shoes were still on when they found him.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

But I don't understand.

[Narrator/Announcer]

This seance, was it all fake? She meant to pull the sheep wool. Very well, wool. But it was I who pulled the sheep's wool over her eyes. Thanks to my good friend Henri Dubois, who played the part of the husband's ghost, and Papa Poirot, who put the red paint on her hand in the dark. But what was her idea in having this seance? Parbleu, mon capitaine. Do you not see, madame? She will go into the trance. She will hear the voice. She will come out from the trance. She will, with a great reluctance, name the murderer. You mean she meant to confess me? No, mon capitaine. She meant to name you. You have been listening to Murder Clinic. Murder Clinic. The w Mutual series which brings to you each week, one exciting case. Tonight, the tragedy of Marsden Manor with Agatha Christley's unique detective, Hercule Poirot, played by Maurice Tottenham. Next week, Murder Clinic will bring you Fred Irving Anderson, Deputy far the Vermont farmer who became chief of the homicide bureau in New York City. Deputy par the man with the nose for murder. The story is Gulf Stream Green in which the deputy proves that the conceit of murderers is colossal. Original music was composed by Ralph Barnhart and conducted by Bob Stanley. This program was an international exchange feature over the coast to coast network of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Tales told on Murder Clinic are adaptations by authors Lee Wright and John A. Bassett. Murder Clinic is produced under the direction of Alvin Flanagan. Frank Knight speaking.

[Narrator (Suspense)]

Suspense. This is the man in black here again to introduce Columbia's program Suspense. Our distinguished stars tonight are two of the world's acknowledged masters of the art of suspense. They are Mr. Charles Lawton and Ms. Elsa Lanchester. Mr. Lawton, who will soon be seen in the Metro Goldwyn Mayor picture, the man from down under is here to play a remarkable character created by England's noted thriller author, Agatha Christie. A mild mannered character whose initials were ABC and about whom revolved a series of savage murders, all neatly and alphabetically arranged. ABC was stamped upon all his belongings, those being his rightful initials. And ABC was stamped too, upon the large railway timetable he always carried. But there was nothing so odd about that detail, since no traveler in the British Isles would dream of planning a journey without consulting this famous railway schedule.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

The abc.

[Narrator (Suspense)]

And so with the ABC Murders by Agatha Christie, written for radio by Robert Tallman and William Speer, and with the performance of Charles Lawton, we again hope to keep you in suspense. When the time for closing bell rang in the public library, Alexander Bonaparte Custard picked up his battered briefcase for the almost faded initials ABC Closed the book he had been reading and shuffled over to the librarian's desk.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

It's a most interesting book, Librarian. I should like to come back sometime and read another chapter of it, if I may.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Quite.

[Narrator (Suspense)]

Yes, Mr. Clarke.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Can I help you, sir?

[Inspector Mackenzie]

No hurry.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Well, I'll be going along now. Thank you.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

You rum little chap, that.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

What do you think he was reading? Studies in Epileptic Somnambulism.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Medical stuff, eh? Oh, I say, the little fellow left his briefcase. I'll catch him at the door. I say, sir, just a moment. You left something.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Oh, dear, it's my briefcase. I'm terribly sorry. I seem to be getting more and more forgetful lately. Why, only the other day I Left it on the counter in a tobacco shop.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Lucky you have those initials. Not many people with the initials A, B, C. Sticks in your mind.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

What do you mean by that, sir?

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Well, after all, they're the first three letters of the Alphabet. Practically the first thing we learn, you know, isn't it? Our ABCs.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Don't mention those letters to me. They brought bad luck to me in more ways than one.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Really? How's that?

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Well, I used to be a traveling salesman and I used to carry one of those railway timetables in my pocket. The threatening kind in which they list the towns and all the railroads alphabetically.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Oh, of course. Printed right on the COVID isn't it?

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

ABC yes, that's right. So? Well, stockings was my alliance, sir. I did door to door selling whenever I finished one town. Out would come that timetable and I'd look up the next stop on my route. I got sick of the sight of that ABC railway guide. I can tell you, sir, it was like a symbol of failure to me. One dingy little town after another. And all listed in that railway guide with ABC printed on the COVID My own initials staring out at me from every newsstand in every dirty little railroad station in the Midlands.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Oh, come on, it couldn't have been as bad as all that.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Matter of fact, I never noticed it it till I began to get the headaches.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Oh, you suffer from headaches?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Yes.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Have you seen a doctor about it?

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Oh, no, no, I wouldn't want to see a doctor about it. I already know what brings them on.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Well, if you'd rather not talk about it.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

No, no, it isn't that at all, sir. It was just such a long time ago. During the last war, in fact. Chateau Thierry.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Chateau Thierry. I say, what a coincidence. I was in the thick of that myself. Yes, we must get together for a drink one day, talk over old times. Franklin Clark is my name.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

I'm pleased to meet you, Mr. Clark. My name's Cast. Alexander Bonaparte Cust.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Well, they must have expected great things of you, giving you a name like that.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

I'm afraid they did, Mr. Clark. Yes, I'm very much afraid they did,

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Mr. Cast. Oh, Mr. Cass.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Who is it?

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

It's me, Mr. Cast. I brought you up a spot of tea.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Oh, it's you, Ms. Marbury. That was very thoughtful of you.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Oh, nonsense. You know Mother dotes on you. You're her favorite lodger, in fact. Why, Mr. Cust, you're packing your things. You're not leaving us, are you?

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Oh, no, I'm just taking a little trip over the bank holiday, you know.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Now, now, don't try to deceive me, Mr. Mr. Cast. You're embarrassed about owing us, aren't you? No, you needn't be, Mr. Cuss. Really, you need.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Oh, you are a nice girl, Ms. Marbury. You really are a nice girl. As a matter of fact, I'm not going just for the bank holiday. I've something rather important. Some very important matters to take care of. You know, it's very possible that my mother didn't have me christened Alexander Bonaparte Cast for nothing.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Have you got a position, Mr. Cast? What is it? Well, come, Mr. Cast, you can tell me, can't you?

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Well, Ms. Lily, I can tell you this much. I shall be traveling quite a lot. In fact, where did I leave that ABC Railroad guide. Oh, yes, here it is. First stop, Andover.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Andover? That's not very far.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

No, no, no. But I must be getting on if I don't want to miss that train. Now, let me see. Have I got everything? There's me spectacles and me overcoat, me typewriter, me walking stick. Did I ever tell you the history of this walking stick, Ms. Marbury? It's a Scottish piece.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Very old.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

It's always antique. You know, they used to kill people with these back in the days of the old clan wars in Scotland. I wonder how many heads this one

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

has bashed in, Mr. Cat.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Oh, please.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

What a terrible way to tell.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Yes, I'm sorry, Ms. Marbury. I am a little bit surprised at myself talking like that. It must be my new job. It's gone to my head a bit. That's it. It's gone to me head. Have you got an aspirin, by any chance? I got.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Yes, gentlemen, What'll it be?

[Ernest Chappell]

Packet of gold flakes for me.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Yes, sir. And the other gentleman?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Three of annas. The shilling cigars, a vanners.

[Caroline Sheppard]

You gentlemen must be up from London.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

That's right. Is that your name on the window of this shop?

[Caroline Sheppard]

That's right, sir.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Olivia Asher.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Been in business right here in Andover

[Caroline Sheppard]

and right here in St. Andrew's Place for 20 years.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

All A's. Andover, St. Andrew's Place and Asher.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Funny, ain't it?

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

That never so much as crossed my mind before.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Well, Mrs. Asher, we're from Scotland Yard. We have reason to believe there may be a homicidal maniac at large in Andover.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

God.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Blonde.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

We don't want to frighten you, Mrs. Asher. For all we know, this may be just a practical joke. You see, we received an anonymous letter. Typewritten and signed ABC ABC this murderer if there's anything in his story is planning a series of murders. His mania seems to be centered on the Alphabet. If he follows his plan through, his first murder will be committed in Andover. And the victim will be a person whose name begins with an A.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

The Lord help me, sir, you don't think.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

We don't think anything.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Scotland Yard has taken its precautions.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Oh, a woman takes a terrible chance.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

There's probably nothing to be alarmed about, but it won't hurt to keep a sharp lookout. Who's next on your list? Mackenzie. Next is Arthur Atwood. All right, let's be on our way, then. Good day, madam.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Don't worry.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Thank you, sir.

[Caroline Sheppard]

And good day to you, sir. A murdering lunatic in Andover, of all places.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Yes, sir. What'll it be?

[Caroline Sheppard]

For you, sir. These? That'll be one and six, sir.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

I said that'll be. Oh, no, no, no. Big bloody newspaper sensation. I'm your dinomaniac. In Andover, Alphabet murderer destroyed. Nexus Pixel. Latest on abc.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Oh, boy. Let me have one of those.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Oh, yes.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

I use a standard, sir. Both.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Here you are. Oh, thank you, sir.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

6:30. Newspaper.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Sensational.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Nasty business, eh, mister?

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Oh, yes, very, very.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

You never know with lunatics. They don't always look.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Bomber, you know, sometimes they look the

[Dr. James Sheppard]

same as you on me, eh?

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Yes, I suppose they do.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Oh, it's a fact.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Sometimes it's the war.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Unhinged him.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Never been right since. Yes, I expect you're right.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

You know, I don't hold with wars. I hope this will be the last.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

You don't hold with wars, eh? Well, young man, I don't hold with plague and sleeping sickness and famine and cancer, but they happen all the same. And murder happens all the same.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

They can't prevent em.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

I'm sorry, sir. I expect you had a rocky time of it in the last one, eh?

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Yes. Yes, Ma. My poor Ed's never been the same since. I get terrible headaches.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Oh, well, I'm sorry about that, sir.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Sometimes I hardly know what I'm doing. You don't say. I forget things, you know. For instance, I could have sworn I had an ABC railway guide in my pocket an hour ago. Do you know they found one of them ABC Railway guides and the Portobagnes

[Dr. James Sheppard]

lady that he murdered. Oh, he ABC Whoever he is.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Maybe he don't know himself.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Ever stop to think of that?

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Maybe he's so bummy, don't remember. I wonder. Did he say backsell? That's my train. Well, goodbye, young man.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Lunatic to strike again. Police dress Inside writer on which murder notes were Written the striker Bexel Latest

[Dr. James Sheppard]

on ABC Alphabet murderer.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

May I have your order, sir?

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Well, I don't think I'll have the air my damn for breakfast. Yes, I think I'll have the mutton pie.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

One mutton pie. Yes, sir.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

What's the matter with you? You're trembling, young woman. Is something wrong?

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Oh, sir, if you only knew. I have to walk home tonight after they close up here. And there ain't hardly a light in Benson Terrace, where I live.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Benson? Benson Terrace In Bexhill?

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Yes, sir.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

You're afraid of the A.B.C. murderer, aren't you?

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

He follows the Alphabet, don't he? That was the way he done in Andover.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Hey.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

And does your name begin with a B?

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Barnard's my name. Mary Barnard.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Oh, dear me, Miss Barnard. Well, I don't like to appear forward. Well, anyway, I'm old enough to be your father. Would it make you feel easier if I saw you home tonight?

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Oh, you don't know, sir. You just don't know what it would mean.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Well, what time do they close up here?

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Nine o'.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Clock. All right.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

I'll wait outside for you at 9 o'.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Clock.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

All right.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Ladies. Waitress. Brutally murdered in Bexhill. ABC strikes again.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Er, sir.

[Narrator (Suspense)]

Strutland Yard receives third murder note.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Alphabet murderer to strike again in Chester. Yes, sir.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Third class. Single to Cheston. Give me a pint of half and half, please.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Yes, sir. There you are, sir.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

You up from London, sir? Yes, I come directly from London.

[Ernest Chappell]

Ah.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Salesman stockings is my line.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Rough going these days, what with rationing, eh?

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Well, well, well. It isn't my old friend, Alexander Bonaparte Cuss.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

I'm sorry, I'm afraid I don't remember.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

We met in the library, remember? In London. Yes. Had quite a talk. Franklin Clark, remember?

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Yes, of course. You'll forgive me, Mr. Clark. My memory, it seems to be getting worse and worse.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

But you must have come under better times, Mr. Cuss. New briefcase, I see. Nice, bright new initials.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Well, I got a job shortly after I saw you, Mr. Clark from Ballinger Limited Stockings. My old line, you know. But to tell you the truth, I haven't been doing very well.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Oh, those headaches again.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Yes, the headaches and the murders. The murders have upset me something terrible.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Oh, well, you're shaking like a leaf, man. Hey, Jonathan, a brandy for Mr. Cust. He needed. The trouble with you cursed is you're inclined to be morbid. I remember that book you were reading the day we met. Stuff about epilepsy.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Well, it might be epilepsy, mightn't it? What well, they discharged me from the army before the war ended. See, I had a kind of a fit, you know.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Never had anything like it again, have you?

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

No, I didn't have a fit again. Just the headaches. I forget what happens hours at a time. Do you know, once I was sitting in a station waiting room and a newsboy came by and I bought a paper from. And it was all about that first murder in Andover. It said the police had got another note, another typewritten note, Mr. Clark. And the murderer was going to strike next in Bexhill. And suddenly I realized I was in Bexhill. And I'd been in Andover the day before when the first murder happened.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

How did you happen to go from Andover to Bexhill?

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Well, that's the way I'm supposed to go on my route. Selling the stockings. I'm supposed to take the towns alphabetically.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Oh, well, then it's not so surprising you should have been in Bexhill after all, is it just a coincidence?

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Well, the waitress in Bexhill there, I. I walked home with her that night, Mr. Clark. The night she was murdered.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Good heavens. Curse. You don't think you killed Mary Barnard, do you?

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

I don't know, Mr. Clark. It said in that book that people who have had epileptic fits often do things and don't remember them. They even commit crimes. I said good night to her. And after that I don't know what.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

The notes. Those typewritten notes. Wouldn't you have remembered if you'd written them?

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

I don't know.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Well, now, I know a little something about psychology myself, Gust. And I'd stake everything I own on the fact that the man who wrote those notes was conscious of what he was doing.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Do you really think so, Mr. Clark?

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Positive of it. Now pull yourself together, man. Incidentally, my sister in law lives here in Chesterton. My brother is Lord Cameron Clarke. And I happen to know she needs some new stockings. Pop over there in the morning, will you, and show the old girl your line, huh?

[Caroline Sheppard]

Here.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Here's the address.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Might cheer you up to make a good sale.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

I'm sure it would, Mr. Clark. I'm sure it would. Well, good night, Mr. Clark. And thank you again for all your kindness. I'm sure.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Oh, wait a minute.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

You've forgotten something again.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Oh, dear me, that's my typewriter. I shall certainly need that as to type up my report to the home office in case I should make that sale tomorrow.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Oh, of course. Oh, yes, yes. By the way, Cuss, better watch out. Somebody in Chester is going to Be murdered tomorrow. Old ABC Is up to the letter C, you know. And your name is cussed.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Oh, I say.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Good heavens, mine is Clark.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Well, thank you again for your generous order, Lady Clark. I hope you'll be pleased. This line of woolen line of stockings is one of Ballinger's best buys right now.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Lady Clarke.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

My brother in law told me that you'd had some unfortunate times lately, Mr. Carson. But I really did need the stockings.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

And I should be stuffing myself with bacon and eggs. Make a sale, old boy.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Oh, yes, Mr. Clark.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Thank you very much.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Good, good. Louise is filthy with money and her ladyship's legs are in constant need of recovery.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

I wouldn't say that, really.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

She. She wanted the stockings.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Well, thank you very much, my lady. I hope I shall have the privilege of serving you again next year.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Goodbye, Mr. Cust, and good luck.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Cheerio, Kirst.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Such a nice little man, Franklin.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

He's a bit off his nut, I'm afraid. Last night he tried to convince me that he was the ABC Murderer. His initials, you know. He has minor lapses of memory, that little man.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

A murderer.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Oh, really, Franklin.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Good Lord. What was that?

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

One of the maids. Where is that girl? What's going on?

[Narrator (Suspense)]

In the master's bedroom, milady. You better go with her, Mr. Franklin

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Crothers, whatever are you doing here? Oh, milady, the master, Lord Clark, has been murdered. Stabbed with a knife. He's all over blood.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Murder?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Good heavens. Why, look.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Look there on the floor. A railway guide. An abc.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Take me out of here, Franklin.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Oh, Louise, I'm sorry you had to see this.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Oh, Cameron. My poor Cameron, who never made an

[Caroline Sheppard]

enemy in his life.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

The man who did this was a maniac. And I'm afraid I know who he is. He always carried a walking stick with a heavy carved handle. That's how the other murders were committed. With a heavy stick. But he wasn't carrying his stick today. Must have grabbed a knife up there somewhere to kill Cameron with. But when were you with him? Every minute.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Well, I went upstairs to get my checkbook. It took me a little while to find it.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

That gave Custard's opening.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Oh, to think that all that time. Oh, no, no. I'll never forgive myself, Frankie.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

None of that now, Louise. The important thing now is to stop him before he can commit another murder.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

But what are you going to do, Franklin?

[Inspector Mackenzie]

I'm going to the police and see if they'll let me help. Let's have a look at this ABC Railway Guide he left beside for Cameron.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Look here.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

All checked, see There. Andover, Bexhill, Chesterton. Each with a check mark after it. Where's the next one? Ah, see. See? London. He's through with ABC he's gone home. And I'm going.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Yes. Well, Mr. Cuff, come in. Whatever kept you away so long?

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Miss Lily, I've got to talk to you alone.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Oh, well, I'll go up with you. I want to show you the new curtains I put up in your room anyway.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Oh, you are a nice girl, Miss Lily.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Really.

[Caroline Sheppard]

Yeah.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Let me carry one of these, Mr. Cuthbert. Typewriter.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

No, no, I'll carry my own thing, thank you.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Oh, Mr. Cuff, you're trembling. Oh, dear, you do look a fright. Look, I'm gonna straight and get you a Hot Foot bar.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

No, no, not now. Please, not now. Miss Lily, there's no time for it.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

What is it, Mr. Cuss?

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Close the door and lock it.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Are you in some trouble, Mr. Cuss?

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

I'm in terrible trouble, Miss Lily. I want you to hear the story first from me. You're the only one who has ever been my friend. Oh, I've had a lonely life, Miss Lily.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Oh, poor Mr. Cuss.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Poor Mr. Cuss. That's what they always say about me. Poor Mr. Cuss.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

I thought you were different.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Oh, don't take on so, Mr. Cusp. It was only a matter of.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Oh, you don't need to worry. I'm all right now. I never get two spells in one day.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

I don't understand.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

You heard of the ABC murders?

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Shocking affairs. But, Mr. Custer.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Why, Ms. Lily, the police will be here at any minute. Please let me finish. I don't want you to think harshly of me, Miss Lily. I didn't plan it ahead. My instructions told me where to go. Some people can't help what they do. There are diseases. Epilepsy, for instance. You do things you don't remember. You commit crimes. And I'm like that.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Oh, Mr. Castor, I can't believe it.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

When I was a child, Miss Lilla, they used to badger me about my name. My mother worshiped strength. She named me after the strongest people she knew about in history. Alexander and Bonaparte. But nobody ever called me by those names. They called me abc ABC I used to dream I was boiling in a kettle of Alphabet soup. I was a terrible disappointment to my mother.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Mr. Custer, you're unsettled and tired.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Got to hear me out. Miss Lily, listen to me. I couldn't. I could have been an hero once in the army. In the last war. I was happy. I could have made something of myself. Then I started getting the headache. You must Hear me out, Mr. Lee. I started forgetting things after they discharged me from the army. Shut, they called it. I used to have dreams. I was a great ruler. The destiny of men was in my hands. I had the power over them of life and death.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Let me go.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

First there was Andover. That tobacconist. I can't even remember what she looked like. Then there was Bexhill. I walked home with a waitress from the station restaurant. She was murdered, too. In Chesterton, I sold a dozen pair of stockings to a lady. And while she was upstairs getting her checkbook, her husband was murdered on the floor where I was waiting. And now I come back here. Maybe the Alphabet charm is over. Or is it? This is London L. Your name is Lily.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Are you trying to frighten me, Mr. Cuff?

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

I am trying to convince you, you murderer.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

I'd as soon believe it of my own mother.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

What about this?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Look at it.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Oh, no, no.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Look closely at it. I found it in my briefcase when I came on the train. Miss Lily, this knife murdered a man in Chirston just three hours ago.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Oh, now, there, there, Ms. Marbury.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Don't take on so it all endguff,

[Dr. James Sheppard]

pretty as you please in the next round.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

But he was such a nice man. I still can't hardly believe it.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Is this the knife he threatened? Your win, Ms. Marbury.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

We just got here in the nick of time. Hey, that's a wicked looking knife.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

It's the Cherston murder knife right enough, Mr. Clark. No doubt of it. Well, let's take inventory. Typewriter checks with a murder. Notes walking stick. Same markings as on the heads of the first victims. And the psychiatrist report says the murders were premeditated and the notes could not possibly have been written except by a person who was conscious and in his right mind.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Well, that breaks down any idea Cusp may have had of entering an insanity plea.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Right. I think he'll sign the confession without any difficulty. Bring him in. Bring the prisoner in. Well, Cust, are you ready to sign your confession?

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

I don't know, Inspector. A moment ago I was certain I must have done it.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

But why?

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

That's what worries me. Why, Mr. Clark? Why do you think I did it?

[Inspector Mackenzie]

You're wasting valuable time, Cust. I don't care why you did it. You killed my brother and I want to see you hang for it. I don't care how bomby you are.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

You ought to be ashamed of yourself, talking to our Mr. Cust in that bloodthirsty manner. I don't know what's getting into the

[Inspector Mackenzie]

gentry I'm sure he tried to murder you, didn't he?

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Well, he couldn't help himself, poor thing. He's been terribly upset of late.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

You are a nice girl, Miss Lily. You are a nice girl.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

The murders were wilful and premeditated.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

They couldn't have been premeditated, Mr. Clarke.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Why do you say that, Cust?

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Well, because I didn't go to any of those places of my own choice. I had my instructions from Bellinger's Limited. And those instructions were sent to me after the police got the warnings of the murders that were printed in the paper.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

There never were any such instructions. We ransacked all your things, Cost. There wasn't any letter of instructions, was there, Inspector?

[Caroline Sheppard]

No.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Oh, yes, there was.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

All right, we'll ring up Ballingers. May I use your telephone, Ms. Marbury?

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Certainly, Inspector.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

The number is Regent 3313. Inspector.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Ballingers, are you there? Put me under personnel or. Mac, start packing those exhibits, will you? All right. Chrome speaking, Scotland Yard. At what day did you employ a commercial traveler named Alexander Bonaparte Cust? No cast AB Cust. Initials A, B, C. Yes, yes. Never employed by you? You're absolutely certain? Did you send a man to Andover or Bex Hill last week? Not on your route. Thank you. That's all I wanted to know.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Too bad, Cust. I guess this knocks out your last ghost of a chance, doesn't it?

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

No, Mr. Clark. Because, you see, the instructions were in a letter. And that letter is right in this room.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Well, let's have a look. Come on, Mackenzie, give me a hand. Let's go through these things again.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

It won't do you any good to look there. Mr. Clark, I have the letter. Would you like to see it, Mr. Crome?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

It's here.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Well, I'll be.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Where did you get that? It wasn't on him, Inspector. I'll swear to that.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Where did you have this hidden?

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Well, Inspector, it isn't generally known, but I do wear a small hairpiece. Not out of vanity, mind you. I find it necessary for the business.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Let's see that letter.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Oh, gladly.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Dear Mr. Cust. Enclosed find advance typewriter is being posted today.

[Ernest Chappell]

You will?

[Inspector Mackenzie]

What a lot of nonsense. Inspector, look at the typeface of that letter. It's obviously written on Cust's typewriter.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Yes, that's right, Mr. Clark. And the man who wrote that letter was the murderer. Clueless. You like? He sent the typewriter to me and instructions on one of Ballinger's letterheads. And the money and everything else.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

What kind of stunt are you trying to pull here, Ghost?

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

No stunt. It's just that when you made that telephone call, inspector, and Ballinger said I'd never worked for them, I knew that the typewriter must have been sent to me by the murderer. And the more I thought about it, the more it seemed to me that the murderer must be Mr. Clark. What?

[Inspector Mackenzie]

This is too utterly fantastic, Inspector. Really, I.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Well, the murderer would have to add to know something about me. Something I'd never confided to anyone but to Mr. Clark about my. Well, my headaches. I'd been reading a book in the public library, inspector. Book on epilepsy. And it seemed to me that what I suffered during the last war might have been epilepsy. And it was on my mind, See, it said that epileptics might commit crimes and not remember them under certain conditions. Without that to go on, the murderer couldn't possibly have pinned the crime on me.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

That works two ways, Cust. You might have told me that story deliberately just so you could cook up this story now.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Well, I couldn't cook up your fingerprint, Mr. Clark. And I'll wager anything your fingerprints are on that letter.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Oh, come now.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Really? Well, that's easily settled. We can do it right here. Won't take a moment. Take a set of Mr. Clark's fingerprints. MacKenzie, you examine the prints in the letter meantime. Right, Inspector. Just press your fingers down firmly on

[Inspector Mackenzie]

this ink pad, Mr. Clark.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

What is it, Mr. Clark?

[Inspector Mackenzie]

It's quite simple, really. Yes. Yes, it's so simple it isn't even necessary.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

I'm afraid this is necessary, Mr. Clark. Only a matter of routine, you know.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

I tell you, it isn't necessary because cussed is right. I am the murderer.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

You?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

But wait. Then you killed your brother, Cameron Clark, so that you would inherit the estate?

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Yes, exactly.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

But the others. The A and B murders in Andover and Bexhill.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

And I committed them. All of them.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Yes, but.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Come now, gentlemen. Surely you'll give me credit for thinking this thing through. If only my brother, Lord Clark, had been murdered, I, being the only heir, would have had a lot of explaining to do. So I invented my own little crime wave to make it appear as though he were just one of the victims of a homicidal maniac. And I must say, it almost came off, thanks to the. The unknowing cooperation of Mr. Cust here. Thank you just the same, Mr. Cust.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

You're very welcome, Mr. Cuss. I knew you couldn't be a murderer. Not really.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Oh, you are a nice girl, Miss Lily. Really. You are.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Mr. Cuss, why don't you go to Innocuist those Hiddix? Maybe you just need a new pair of glasses.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

I think I'll do that, Ms. Lillick. Do you really think of. Of course. I'll wager that's what's been the trouble

[Narrator/Announcer]

with me all along.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

You know, you need someone to take care of you.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Oh, I do, Miss Lily.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

I do. Really.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

If only you. Oh, but no, you couldn't ever think what Mr.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Cast.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Well, I mean, Ms. Lily, I was just thinking. It'd be really too much to ask anyone. Mrs. Alexander Bonaparte cast.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

But when we're married, please don't wear that toupee. It's very conspicuous.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

You are a nice girl, mistress. Really, you are. I do hope people won't call you Mrs. ABC.

[Narrator (Suspense)]

And so closes the ABC Murders, starring Charles Lawton, with Elsa Lanchester and Bramwell Fletcher. Tonight's tale of suspense. This is your narrator, the man in black, who conveys to you Columbia's invitation to spend this half hour in suspense with us again next Tuesday, when Agnes Moorhead will return to our stage as star of the suspense play called she Overheard Murder.

[Inspector Mackenzie]

Speaking.

[Narrator (Suspense)]

Producer of these broadcasts is William Speer, with Ted Bliss, the director, Lud Kluskin and Lucian Mahowic, conductor and composer, and Robert Tolman, the radio author, collaborated on tonight's Suspense.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

This is the Columbia Broadcasting System.

[Announcer (Autolite)]

And now, AutoLight and its 60,000 dealers and service stations present Suspense.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Tonight, Autolight brings you James Mason and Pamela Calino in Agatha Christie's Where There's a Will, a suspense play produced and directed by Anton M. Leiter.

[Announcer (Autolite)]

Friends, have you ever been in a dilemma? I mean, in a fix, like having to get started in a hurry and your motor won't turn over? Well, what you need is an auto light Stay full battery. That dandy dynamic battery you can definitely depend on.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Why?

[Announcer (Autolite)]

By Cornelius An Autolite Stay full battery needs water only three times a year in normal car use. You can say bravura for that. Aqua pura. Plenty of extra liquid reserve. Yes, siree. And it has extra plates in every cell. That means longer life and stronger life. What's more, those plates are protected against loss by fiberglass insulation. I can't say enough about Autolight. Stay full Batteries. Those marvelous marvels with more liquid reserve than. Hollywood has stars. So get wise. Get an auto light. Stay full. Remember, you're right with Autolite.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

And now Autolight presents James Mason and Pamela Calino in a tale well calculated to keep you in suspense.

[Charles Ridgeway]

And now, Mr. Jepson you really must let me make you a whiskey and soda. I have some excellent Scotch.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Never mind that, Ridgeway. I've come to find out when you can raise £10,000.

[Charles Ridgeway]

I see. Yes, I see. Well, Mr. Jepson, £10,000 is a great deal of money. It's what's needed to cover your notes. Yes, that's right. But you know, Mr. Jepson, you might just let me write you one more IOU and try again. Your luck's run out, Ridgeway. Well, I wasn't much of a gambler anyhow, was I? Perhaps it's just as well I've learned my lesson. How long, Mr. Jepson, would you say I have to raise the.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

The money?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Four weeks.

[Charles Ridgeway]

I see. Four weeks. And if I should fail to raise the money? I see. Well, you make yourself Very clear, Mr. Jepson. But then perhaps all's not lost, Mrs. Harter. My aunt has had the foresight to draw up a new will, making me her heir. The money was to go to a niece, my cousin Miriam. But now a new will's been drawn up, Aunt Mary finds me much more satisfactory than poor Miriam. The very spirit of solicitude. I am forever inquiring about her health, about her poor, weak heart. Four weeks, is that right, Mr. Jepson? That's right, Ridgeway.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Or else.

[Charles Ridgeway]

I see. Or else. That's when it began. That, plus the fortunate circumstance of the new will in my favor decided me on my plan. Now, murder wouldn't look right. Nobody else living in the house but Aunt Mary and I and Elizabeth the maid. And since I would benefit by £40,000, no, murder would not look right. Besides, I was fond of Aunt Mary. Well, a day or so after Mr. Jepson's visit, there occurred to me a rather whimsical idea for a practical joke. The first thing was to determine the degree of weakness of Aunt Mary's weak heart. And so I arranged an appointment for her with Dr. Meynell, the heart specialist in Harley Street.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Just have a chair, Mr. Ridgeway.

[Charles Ridgeway]

Thank you, Dr. Meynell.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Now, Mr. Ridgeway, as you requested, I have gone over your aunt, Mrs. Harter, thoroughly.

[Charles Ridgeway]

Yes, and there is a heart weakness. How dreadful.

[Elizabeth (maid)]

But not terribly serious, Charles. Dr. Manell says.

[Charles Ridgeway]

But my poor, dear Aunt Mary.

[Elizabeth (maid)]

Dear child.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Naturally you're shocked, Mr. Ridgeway, but with the least care. She'll live to be 90, I should think. However, her mind must be kept, well, distracted.

[Charles Ridgeway]

Mind distracted?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Yes, distraction for the mind. And no sudden shocks.

[Charles Ridgeway]

That's most important. No sudden shocks. I see. Well, thank you, Doctor. Not at all. Out this way.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

My private exit. No use going through the waiting room again, eh? Well, good day, Mrs. Horton.

[Elizabeth (maid)]

Good day, Doctor.

[Charles Ridgeway]

Goodbye, Doctor.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Oh, I say.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Rich way.

[Charles Ridgeway]

Yes.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

I minimized your aunt's condition just a bit. Didn't want to alarm her, you understand.

[Charles Ridgeway]

Yes, of course.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

But what I said about no shocks, no frights. Most important, a good fright might very well carry her on.

[Charles Ridgeway]

I see. I see. Well, thank you, Doctor. The next step was the radio. Aunt Mary must have a radio.

[Elizabeth (maid)]

But, Charles, you know I don't care for newfangled things. We've got on quite well without a wireless. I don't see why we should have one now.

[Charles Ridgeway]

But don't you remember what Dr. Minnell said, Aunt Mary? The mind distracted. Well, distracted. Those were his very words, you know. I'm only thinking of your heart.

[Elizabeth (maid)]

I know you are, dear Charles.

[Charles Ridgeway]

That's better, Aunt Mary. That's more like yourself.

[Elizabeth (maid)]

You are a comfort to me, Charles.

[Charles Ridgeway]

Thank you, Aunt Mary. Now, about the radio.

[Elizabeth (maid)]

But really.

[Charles Ridgeway]

Now, now, now, you really ought to trust my judgment. I'm a bit of an expert on radio. You know, before the war, I even had a small sender station of my own. Some of the equipment's still in one of my boxes somewhere about. So you see.

[Elizabeth (maid)]

I know, but the waves, Charles, the electric waves, they might affect me.

[Charles Ridgeway]

There's no more electricity about it than there is about an electric light. Radio waves aren't electric.

[Elizabeth (maid)]

But, Charles. Well, I must say it makes a frightful noise.

[Charles Ridgeway]

We have it tuned in a minute.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

Here we are.

[Elizabeth (maid)]

What is it?

[Charles Ridgeway]

Madrid propaganda. What do you think of that? You can tune in the whole world, the whole weapons. You see, Aunt Mary, radio waves converging from all over the world on this little box from Madrid, Paris, New York and beyond. Beyond? Who knows how far beyond.

[Elizabeth (maid)]

Well, I must say, Charles, you're quite poetic about it.

[Charles Ridgeway]

Am I? Yes. Yes, I suppose I am. That was the first inkling I had that my little practical joke was going to be fun. The acting and coaxing poor dear Aunt Mary along bit by bit. Every evening she'd sit by the radio listening to the news on the BBC Home Service and the classical music on the third program. Then one morning, I attached a wire into the radio while she was still in bed, ran it along under the carpet into the small anteroom of the sitting room where the radio stood, took the hand microphone left over from my amateur sending gaze and hooked to the other end of the wire. And everything was all ready. That evening I backed the car out of the garage and started off for my regular Wednesday evening of bridge. But I drove only a short way, then parked behind a hedge and walked back to the house. I let myself in the side door and went into the small room off the sitting room, where Aunt Mary sat alone, listening to the radio. It was the third program, a program of Beethoven. I opened the door the slightest crack. The moment had come, and I felt my heart beating with strange emotion. I saw in my mind's eye Aunt Mary and the dimly lit sitting room. And I almost felt the mood she must be feeling as she sat dreamily immersed in the shifting strains of music. I picked up the microphone and. Mary, can you hear me? Mary, this is Patrick.

[Mrs. Maltravers]

What?

[Charles Ridgeway]

This is Patrick, your husband, speaking from the other side. I am coming for you soon. Will you be ready? Mary Patrick? Will you be ready? Mary Patrick?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

For suspense, Autolight is bringing you James Mason and Pamela Collino in radio's Outstanding Theater of Thrills.

[Charles Ridgeway]

Suspense.

[Announcer (Autolite)]

Say Hap. I spent Washington's birthday telling my young nephew the story of George Washington. What a great man he was. How he always told the truth.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Well, that was nice of you, Harlow.

[Narrator/Announcer]

This younger generation should know about George Washington.

[Announcer (Autolite)]

And to illustrate, I told him how I always tell the truth about Auto light Stay full batteries. Those marvelous, wonderful get up and get batteries with the extra reserve of water. Why, son, I told him, a Camel is practically dehydrated compared to an Autolite stay full battery. Because an Autolite stay full battery needs water only three times a year in normal car use. But, Harlow, you were telling your nephew about George. Always tell the truth. I told him like I tell the people about the punchy power for peppy performance packed in an Autolite stay full battery. Because of that ample sample of H2O. Yes, by Cornelius. I told him an Autolite stay full battery needs water only three times a year in normal car use. That extra liquid reserve means longer life and stronger life. I told him about the fiberglass insulation between plates that adds months to the life of an Autolite Stay full battery.

[Narrator/Announcer]

I'm sure the kid learned a lot about George Washington. But wait.

[Charles Ridgeway]

Here's suspense.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

And now Autolyte brings back to a Hollywood soundstage, James Mason, who will be joined by his wife, Pamela Calino, in Where There's a Will, a tale well calculated to keep you in suspect Ben.

[Charles Ridgeway]

After I'd spoken with the voice of Aunt Mary's dead husband, I waited a moment. Then, very cautiously, I looked into the sitting room. Aunt Mary was sitting bolt upright, transfixed. Then a sob broke from her as she looked toward the radio, which was now innocently transmitting the BBC third program. Again, I had to bite my lips to keep from laughing. But Aunt Mary said nothing about her experience. So I was obliged, the fourth morning after that at breakfast to say casually. Oh, I say, Aunt Mary.

[Elizabeth (maid)]

Yes, Charles?

[Charles Ridgeway]

I was just wondering last evening.

[Elizabeth (maid)]

Yes, Charles?

[Charles Ridgeway]

Aunt Mary, who's that funny old boy up in the spare room? The picture. The. You know, the picture over the mantelpiece. The old boy with the beaver and the side whiskers.

[Elizabeth (maid)]

Well, really, Charles, your tone is most disrespectful.

[Charles Ridgeway]

I'm sorry.

[Elizabeth (maid)]

It's your uncle Patrick, Charles. My late husband.

[Charles Ridgeway]

Oh, I say, I'm sorry. I had no idea. After all, I never did know him. Aunt Mary.

[Elizabeth (maid)]

Very well, Charles.

[Charles Ridgeway]

You see, I. I wondered. It was queer.

[Elizabeth (maid)]

Queer? What's queer? Are you trying to say something, Charles?

[Charles Ridgeway]

Oh, no, no, no, not really. It's nothing. Nothing that makes any sense. I mean.

[Elizabeth (maid)]

I wish you would tell me what it was that made you ask me about the picture of your uncle.

[Charles Ridgeway]

Well, if you will have it, I fancied I saw him.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Saw him?

[Charles Ridgeway]

The man in the picture, I mean. Looking out of the end window when I was coming up the drive last night.

[Elizabeth (maid)]

What?

[Announcer (Autolite)]

Yeah.

[Charles Ridgeway]

And later on I happened to drift into the spare room and there was the picture up over the mantelby's. The same man. It's all quite easy to explained, really, I expect. Subconscious and all that. I must have noticed the picture before, without realizing it, and then just fancied the face in the window. Aunt Mary. Is something the matter, Charles?

[Elizabeth (maid)]

My husband's face. Did you see it in the end window?

[Charles Ridgeway]

Why, yes. Why?

[Elizabeth (maid)]

Only that. That was Patrick's, your late uncle's dressing room.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Char.

[Charles Ridgeway]

The very absurdity of the story I made poor Aunt Mary believe was the fun, the clever, roundabout way I played my role. The following Wednesday night I pretended to play off to go and play bridge again. I concealed myself in the room off the sitting room, just as before, took up the microphone and spoke from the other world in the same sepulchral tones. Mary, on Friday I shall come for you Friday at half past nine. At half past nine. Do not be afraid. There will be no pain. Be ready, Mary. When I came into her bedroom the next morning, Aunt Mary was speaking to Elizabeth in a most businesslike manner.

[Elizabeth (maid)]

Now, here you are, Elizabeth. I want you to take this letter I've written.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Yes, ma'. Am.

[Elizabeth (maid)]

I wrote it last evening. If anything should happen Friday evening. You understand me?

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Yes, ma'.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Am.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Friday Evening. That's my night out.

[Elizabeth (maid)]

So it is, and you go right ahead. However, if anything shall have happened by the time you get back on Saturday, I want this letter delivered to Dr. Mayne.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Yes, ma'.

[Elizabeth (maid)]

Am. Now, the top left hand drawer of my bureau, it's locked. The long key with a white label. Everything in the drawer is ready.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Ready, ma'?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Am?

[Elizabeth (maid)]

For my burial.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Oh, mum. Why, what are you saying? I thought you was in a sight betterhelp.

[Elizabeth (maid)]

Never mind that, Elizabeth. Don't be maudlin. Elizabeth. Did I ever tell you how much I've left? Left you in my will?

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Oh, no, ma'.

[Elizabeth (maid)]

Am. Well, I can't seem to remember. It was £50 in the old will, but did I raise it to a hundred? Well, at any rate, I want you to have a hundred pounds. I'll have to look into it. But if anything should happen before I do, then Mr. Charles will see to it.

[Charles Ridgeway]

Did I hear my name mentioned? Dear Aunt Mary.

[Elizabeth (maid)]

Oh, good morning, Charles. Yes, I was just saying to Elizabeth, I don't know if I've left her 50, 50 or 100 pounds, but if anything should happen to me, it's to be a hundred pounds.

[Charles Ridgeway]

Well, I must say that's a gloomy thing to be thinking about.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Oh, Mr. Charles, she's been carrying our most awful justice.

[Narrator/Announcer]

What's this?

[Elizabeth (maid)]

That's enough, Elizabeth. You may go now.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Yes, ma'.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Am.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Yes, ma'. Am.

[Charles Ridgeway]

Well, now, just what in the world is all this about? Suppose you tell me just what's going to happen to dear aunt Mary.

[Elizabeth (maid)]

Charles, what do you plan to be doing Friday evening?

[Charles Ridgeway]

Friday evening? Well, as a matter of fact, the Ewings asked me to go in and play bridge. But if you'd rather I stayed at home.

[Elizabeth (maid)]

No, no, Charles. Actually I prefer to be alone.

[Charles Ridgeway]

Well, just as you wish.

[Elizabeth (maid)]

You know, I think I'll have Mr. Hopkinson send me the will. I want to find out about the bequest to Elizabeth. It's either fifty or a hundred pounds. The rest, dear Charles, of course, goes to you.

[Charles Ridgeway]

Yes, dear Aunt Mary, whatever you say. Friday evening. I'd picked that night because I knew it was Elizabeth's night off and I wanted to be sure there was no one about. Friday evening at 8 o' clock, I drove away. Waited for an hour to elapse, then slipped back into the house. I looked through the crack in the door and saw Aunt Mary sitting in the high backed chair beside the radio. As I listened, the 9 o' clock news ended and a program of music was about to begin. It was a quarter past 9. 15 minutes till the appointed time for the arrival of the dead Patrick. This time I did not touch the microphone. I went upstairs, opened a camphor chest of old clothes in the spare room, took a tube of spirit gum from my pocket and bent forward intently in front of a mirror. Sharp on the instant of half past nine there was a fumbling at the outer door of the house and the front door slowly opened. And then there were slow, halting footsteps along the short hall to the sitting room where an old woman waited. And then the sitting room door opened. The time has come, Mary Patrick.

[Elizabeth (maid)]

I'm ready.

[Charles Ridgeway]

My practical joke had worked to perfection, Aunt Mary. Mary's poor old heart couldn't stand the strain of seeing her dead husband Patrick arrive in person to carry her off into the spirit world. I stepped over the body which had fallen dangerously near the burning fire in the grate. I took the poker and thrust some folds of paper that were lying in the ash into the fire to bring up a blaze. And in the blaze burned the false beard and side whiskers. I detached the wire fixed into the radio and took wire and my microphone upstairs. I undressed and replaced Uncle Patrick's old fashioned suit of clothes in the camphor chest in the spare room where I'd found it. Then I dressed again and went off to play bridge at the Ewings. Two days later.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

This is Mrs. Harter's. I mean, this was Mrs. Harter's residence. Oh, just a moment. It's Mr. Jepson, sir.

[Charles Ridgeway]

All right, I'll take it. You may go, Elizabeth.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Yes, sir.

[Charles Ridgeway]

Ridgeway here. Anything wrong?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Not yet.

[Charles Ridgeway]

I just wanted you to know that I read about it in the Daily Standard. Ridgeway. A pity about poor dear Aunt Mary. Don't you think, Mr. Jepson? A pity.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

And let me remind you, you have one week left.

[Charles Ridgeway]

I haven't forgotten. Once the newspapers announce my inheritance of £40,000, I'll have no difficulty borrowing and then I'll pay up. Good. Only remember this, Ridgeway, you don't pay

[Dr. James Sheppard]

up and I send you to the

[Charles Ridgeway]

same place you sent to your Aunt Mary. You understand?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Or maybe it wouldn't be quite the same place, Ridgeway, now that you've got murder on your soul. Understand?

[Charles Ridgeway]

I understand, Mr. Jepson. And then that evening Dr. Manel came to the house.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

I really did think you'd want to see this.

[Charles Ridgeway]

You say Elizabeth brought it to you?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Yes. She said it was one of Mrs. Harter's last requests that she do so.

[Charles Ridgeway]

As a matter of fact, I do seem to Remember? Yes. And I do recall seeing her give Elizabeth some such envelope as that. You've read the contents?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

That's what's queer. Here.

[Charles Ridgeway]

Suppose you have a look for yourself. All right. Tonight, Wednesday at 9:15. I have distinctly heard the voice of my dead husband. He told me that he would come for me on Friday night at 9:30. If I should die on that day and at that hour, I should like the facts made known so as to prove beyond question the possibility of communicating with the spirit world. Mary Harter.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

What do you make of it?

[Charles Ridgeway]

I. I hardly know. It's a coincidence, to say the least.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

She did die at nearly that very hour. 9:30 Friday night.

[Charles Ridgeway]

But I don't understand.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

In the circumstances, an autopsy is desirable, you understand.

[Charles Ridgeway]

Purely as a matter of form. Yes. Yes, of course. Why not? Of course, everything must be done according to form. What's the matter with you, Charles? Have you lost your sense of humor? Finally, five days later.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Mr. Hopkinson is here to see you, sir.

[Charles Ridgeway]

Thank you, Elizabeth. That'll be all.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Yes, sir.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Good morning, Mr. Ridgeway.

[Charles Ridgeway]

Frightful morning, Mr. Hopkinson. About Mrs. Harter's. My aunt will.

[O]

I did not quite understand your insistent messages to me, Mr. Ridgeway. You seem to be under the impression the late Mrs. Harter's will was in our keeping.

[Charles Ridgeway]

Why, yes. I've often heard my aunt say as much.

[O]

Oh, quite.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Here.

[O]

Quite so. It was in our keeping.

[Charles Ridgeway]

Was.

[O]

That is what I said. Mrs. Harter wrote to us, however, asking that it be forwarded to her. There seemed to be some haste to the matter. At any rate, we got it out to her at once. She would have received it on Friday, the day of her death.

[Charles Ridgeway]

I do seem to remember her making mention of it. Something about the bequest to Elizabeth. She wanted to. To check the amount. It must be about the house somewhere, then.

[O]

Elizabeth has been through Mrs. Harter's personal effects, I believe.

[Charles Ridgeway]

Yes. Just a moment. I'll call him.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Elizabeth.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Yes, Mr. Charles.

[Charles Ridgeway]

Elizabeth, come here a moment, please.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Yes, sir.

[Charles Ridgeway]

Elizabeth, when you went through Mrs. Harter's things, was her will among them?

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

No, sir.

[Charles Ridgeway]

You're sure, Elizabeth?

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Yes, sir. You see, I know what it looked like. The poor mistress had it in her hand the very evening of her death when she sent me out.

[Charles Ridgeway]

You're. You're sure of that?

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Oh, yes, sir. She pointed out that about the £50 to me, sir. She said, as she told you, to give me the other £50. Not that I mentioned. It depress you, sir?

[Charles Ridgeway]

No, no, of course not.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

The wheel was in a long blue Envelope, sir?

[O]

Quite right.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

The same blue envelope, Mr. Charles, sir, was lying on the radio table by her chair the morning. The morning after, but empty.

[O]

It was the envelope in which I dispatched the will to your aunt, Mr. Ridgeway. Mr. Ridgeway, was there a fire in the grate on Friday evening?

[Charles Ridgeway]

Yes, of course.

[O]

I see.

[Charles Ridgeway]

What are you driving at, Hopkinson?

[O]

I'm afraid, Mr. Ridgway, only one conclusion is possible. Your aunt sent for her will in order to destroy it.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

What?

[O]

Yes, Mr. Ridgeway.

[Charles Ridgeway]

But why?

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Why, you.

[O]

You had no disagreement with your aunt, Mr. Ridgeway?

[Charles Ridgeway]

Not at all. We were on the most affectionate terms right up to the end, of course.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Quite.

[O]

Mr. Ridgeway, you will understand, under the circumstances, we were obliged to investigate.

[Charles Ridgeway]

Investigate? What do you mean?

[O]

It happens that there is a former will of Mrs. Harter still extant. By it, Mrs. Harter leaves everything to her niece, to your cousin Miriam to marry. Yes, but as for the more recent will sent by me before her death to Mrs. Harter, it must have been burned in the great.

[Charles Ridgeway]

Burnt. The will was burned.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Mr. Charles, can I get you something?

[Charles Ridgeway]

No, no, I'll be all right. You may go, Elizabeth.

[O]

Yes, I'll run along too, Mr. Ridgeway, if there's nothing further.

[Charles Ridgeway]

No, I'll. I'll tell her for.

[O]

Quite. And yet there would seem to be little use for that. We've notified your cousin Miriam of her inheritance, as a matter of fact. I'm surprised you didn't know all this yourself. You see, we sent word round to the press yesterday. Well, good day, Mr. Ridgway.

[Charles Ridgeway]

Good day. I remembered some folds of paper that I thrust into the fire to make it blaze up and burn the false beard and side whiskers with which I'd frightened an old lady to death. And then I remembered something falling. A paper, a will from an old woman's fingers as she stood frozen in terror. Too near the fire, I saw the fire again. Consuming something. Consuming the will.

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

All my cleverness.

[Charles Ridgeway]

Your maid said you weren't in, but I thought she was lying.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

I don't like liars, Ridgeway.

[Charles Ridgeway]

Mr. Jepson, I read the papers.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

I read who's going to inherit your aunt's money.

[Charles Ridgeway]

I don't like liars, but I did think I was going to inherit, or why would I have killed her? You killed her, of course. Oh, so you did kill her. How many times do you want me to say it?

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Believe.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

That will do. All right, Inspector. That's what I wanted you to hear.

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Come in.

[Charles Ridgeway]

What?

[Various minor characters (e.g., Lily, maid)]

Bring in the maid, too.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

That was very clever of you, Mr. Jepson, I must confess I had my doubts. Now, Mr. Ridgeway, you'd better come along.

[Charles Ridgeway]

But I was only joking, young woman.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Yes, sir.

[Announcer (Autolite)]

You heard Mr. Ridgeway say he killed his aunt.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

I did, sir, but he must have been joking.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Never mind.

[Announcer (Autolite)]

That's enough.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

By the way, Mr. Ridgway, you'll be interested in knowing, I'm sure, that we check with Dr. Manell and the autopsy.

[Announcer (Autolite)]

According to his report, your aunt's art

[Dr. James Sheppard]

was so weak she could not have lived another month.

[Charles Ridgeway]

What are you laughing at?

[Hercule Poirot (Orson Welles)]

That's your joke, old man.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Oh, your joke.

[Charles Ridgeway]

Yes, It is funny, isn't it? Very funny.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Thank you, James Mason and Pamela Calino for a splendid performance. Now, Harlow Wilcox friends.

[Announcer (Autolite)]

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[Charles Ridgeway]

Now here again is James Mason and wife, Pamela Collino.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

I hope you both enjoyed being on Suspense tonight. And especially you, Mrs. Mason, even though the part of Elizabeth was small.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

Oh, yes, it was a lot of fun. You see, James and I learned a long time ago that it's not how large the part is, but how much fun you have playing it. Besides, next time, Tony Leader has promised to find a script for me in which James can play a butler or a cat or something.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

How about that?

[Charles Ridgeway]

I'm looking forward to it. And we're looking forward to next week when Joan Fontaine will star in the Lovebirds, another gripping study in suspense.

[Announcer (Autolite)]

James Mason and Pamela Colino have just completed the book the Cats in Our Lives. Tonight's suspense play was adapted from the aggregate Agatha Christie story by William Fifield. Music was composed by Lucian Morowek and conducted by Lud Gluskin. The entire production was under the direction of Antone M. Leeder. Now, here is great news. Beginning March 1st, suspense on television may be seen in many areas of the country. Tuesdays at 9:30pm Eastern Time.

[Various female characters (e.g., Caroline Sheppard, Ms. Marbury)]

You can buy Autolite electrical parts. Autolite resistor spark plugs, auto light staple batteries at your neighborhood autolight dealer. Switch to auto light. Good night.

[Announcer (Autolite)]

This is cbs, the Columbia Broadcasting System.

[Dr. James Sheppard]

Foreign.

[Host of Old Time Radio Detectives]

We just heard four stories by Agatha Christie recreated for radio that will do it for this week's show. Thanks so much for joining me. I hope you'll be back next week for more Old Time Radio Detectives. In the meantime, you can check out Stars on Suspense, my other Old Time Radio podcast. New EP 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 in Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. And if you'd like to lend support to the show, you can visit buymeacoffee.com Meansts OTR I'll be back next week with more Old Time Radio Crime Solvers. But until then, good night. And happy he was.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Now here is our star, Vincent Price. Ladies and gentlemen, in a prejudice filled America, no one would be secure in

[Dr. James Sheppard]

his job, his business, his church or his home.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Yet racial and religious antagonisms are exploited

[Dr. James Sheppard]

daily by quacks and adventurers whose followers

[Narrator/Announcer]

make up the irresistible, responsible, 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.