Latest / Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas / Crime and Peter Chambers: Murder at the Track (EP1498)

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Crime and Peter Chambers: Murder at the Track (EP1498) · Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas

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Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boiseida Ho. This is
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your host, Adam Graham. If you have a comment, send it to
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Now it's time for today's episode of Crime and Peter Chambers. The original airedate
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August third, nineteen fifty four and the title Murder at the Track. Crime
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and Peter Chambers created by Henry Kaine, transcribed and starring Daine Clark, private
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investigator, duly licensed, Don duly sworn, Peter Chambers. You're a private
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eye. That's your business. Anything else that's for labs. It's a lazy
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summer's afternoon and you've got your feet up on the office desk, and on
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the other side of the desk there's another pair of feet the latter belonging to
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the illustrious Detective Lieutenant Louis Parker Homicide New York City Police cop. Gentleman and
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good friend. Louie's got a day off and he's taken a bustman's holiday.
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He's spending it in the company of a private eye. Well, let's get
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out somewhere, Hey, kittle a little sunshine or something. Yeah, I
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can just visualize you and me in the tunnel of love. Oh cleve al
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right, kidness side Pete. Now, we ain't gonna spend the afternoon locked
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in your office talking shop. We no, no, we ain't. If
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I can wangle it, We're going to be seated in a deluxe box at
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the racetrack, screaming at the oat burners. Ray, Fine, what do
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you mean if you can wangle it? Did you ever hear Rhonda Duffy?
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You mean the lady that owns great dancers? Yeah, supposed to be the
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best three year old in America. That's the one. I mean. She's
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due here any minute with Jackie Johnson, her jockey. Her horse is running
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today at Bela. That is, Hey, what are you doing with these
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societies? I'll tell you a man ah miss Duffie. How are you,
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Jackie? To you, mister chan this is Ronda Duffy, mister Jackie Johnson.
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This is Lieutenant Louis Parker, best policeman in the whole city. Chambers.
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I don't know what Jackie here wants to see you about, but I
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do know it's personal. Well, uh, I was just oh no,
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please, Lieutenant. As a matter of fact, I was intending to invite
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mister Chambers to the track today. My horse is running, thank you,
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and I should love to include you, Lieutenant. Well, unless you have
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something, no, I have a thing, man, I'd very much like
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to go. God. Then suppose you and I leave now, Lieutenant.
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My cars downstairs. Jackie and mister Chambers can join us later after they transact
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whatever business they have to transact. That's okay. Come along then, and
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don't keep him too long, mister Chambers, he's riding today. I'll get
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him there on time. Then I'll see you later on you know my box
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numb Yes, missus deve I do by missus devee. Okay, Jackie,
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where's the tight squeeze? Meaning that when a guy wants to see a private
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eye, there's a tight squeeze somewhere. Hey, you know Raffie Butcher,
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Ralphie Butcher. Hey, there can't be a tighter squeeze. What's between you
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and Ralphie? Forty thousand bucks? Wow? And you're overdue. Yeah,
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Ralfie Butcher, the toughest loan shark in the city, and you're overbought to
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hymn for forty thousand bucks? How come, Jackie? When you play horses,
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mister Chambers and I play horses, you hit a bad streak sometimes,
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see and brother, I really hit a bad one. I began to borrow
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and double up, barrow and double up, and and all of us set
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sudden. You're way down deep in the hole. Have forty geez? Last
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night he told me get it up, get it up today or else.
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What can I do for you, Jackie? I want you to call him?
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Can you do that for me? Sure? I can call him only
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what you want me to tell him? To lay off me today, that's
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all. Just lay off me today tonight I'll pay him. I'll pay him
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in full. M Well, I think that can be arranged. Let me
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see now, Ralphie Butcher argon for a couple of hours. Later, you're
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out in the brilliant Sunshine and Ronda Duffy's box at Belmont. Parker's there,
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Missus Duffy's there, and a tall guy with a little black beard who turns
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out to be of all things and Undertake is Embomber. Missus Duffie introduces him
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to you, John Butler, Feature Chambers. How do you do you know
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a fellow You're the first Undertaker's obomber I've ever met? Really, how's business?
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Oh, I'm out of that now. Now I write verse for greeting
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cops. He's for greeting character. Wasn't the embalming business better? He is?
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Why'd you quit? My wife? Somehow? My wife objected to that
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profession? Prior to that, I was a pickpocket. What did you say?
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Oh? No, no, no, you misunderstand. I was a
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pickpocket as an entertainer, you know, nightclub work Modeville. I relaxed,
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Lewis. Unfortunately I was never really very lucky pickpocket in balmer greeting card vers
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fire. But I'm afraid I have never averaged more than fifty dollars a week
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in my life. So now you're playing the horses. No, no,
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indeed not. This is the first time I've been to a racetrack in my
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life. You're kidding honestly, And what brings you today? I'm a very
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good friend of Jackie John's, Missus Duffy's jockey. Yes, that's right.
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He insisted that I come and watch him ride today, and well I acquiesced.
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I've known Jackie for years and years, but this is my very first
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time in a race, may I believe on this very interesting conversation. So
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it is the first time this guy's went to a race. YEA, take
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a candle over there. The Ganner discloses in the very next box Ralphie Butcher
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and seated beside him a good looking blonde and slacks and red blouse. Mister
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Butcher, biggest life. Oh do you know mister Butcher, Lieutenant? I
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know him slightly, do you? Oh? Yes, he owns several excellent
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thoroughbreds. Mister Butcher is a banker, lends money that's off the fee.
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Yeah, he lends money, all right. Oh do you know him too,
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mister Chambers, I know him quite well. The young lady within is
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Katie Adams, works for me great answers trainer. She's your trainer, one
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of the few lady trainers in the business. I am. I think I'll
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stroll over and pay my respects to a banker friend tell them to join us.
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Lieutenant, All right, Missus Duffie, I will. The next race
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is ours, mister Chambers. I'm awfully excited. See I can't even open
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my bag for easy, easy does a missus Duffy. All you do was
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drop your bag, But everything is scattered all over the place. Well,
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just relax, old PD's pick her up in the business. Hey, what's
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this a switchblade knife? Oh? How on Congress? Don we get as
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a siled lady with a switch knife in her purse? It isn't as bad
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as it looks, mister Chambers. The knife belongs to my trainer, Katie
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Adams. She comes from the West, where these things are legal. She
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found it in her trunk today and turned it over to me, and I
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shall bring it to a police precinct when we get out of here. Excuse
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me, were you going, mister Butler that knife? Right? No,
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indeed, I'm just going to stretch my legs and perhaps waging a bubble tool.
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Well, good luck, thank you, thank you, my dear.
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How about you, missus Daffie. Aren't you going to bet on your horse.
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I've never made a wager in my life, mister Chambers, and in
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this case it would be practically taking their money. It's only a three horse
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race, and Great Dancer has practically no competition. Parker appears with Butcher and
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Katie Adams, and then John Butler comes back and it's a real happy party,
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and pretty soon the horses dance out on the track and Katie Adams,
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Lady Traynor is most enthusiastic. Look at the gorgeous horse that old Great Dancers,
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look at Jackie's sitting on, just like they were bad for each other.
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And look at the prices on the toe board, which is just as
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it should be. Great Dancer one to five, Hanny Kay party to one,
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and Pamela Ace ninety nine to one. This one's a walkover, that's
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what it is, practically a walkover. But if it was a walkover,
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it was a walkover in reverse, because dear old Gray Dancer came in last,
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absolutely last, the winner, Tammy Kay, second, Pamela Ace and
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a very poor last the one to five shot Gray Answer. The figures on
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the toadboard show that Tammy K pays eighty dollars eighty dollars for two. Wow,
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wee rough. If ever I saw a jockey throw a race, that
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was it. First he holds him like he's gonna tear his head off,
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and then he makes a grand stand play, puts the whip to him when
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he hasn't got a ghost of a chance. Well, it's a good thing
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you don't wager, missus Duffy, because John, I'm not I know when
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a crooked race is run. There was absolutely no excuse. Hey, hey,
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I want Jackie here as soon as he's out of his silks, and
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if I have my way, he'll be out of his silks good. Twenty
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minutes later, Jackie's out of his working clothes and in missus Duffy's box,
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and he's giving off with more double talk than a stuttering van triloicrous dummy with
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amnesia. Okay, just one run, missus Duffy, that's all. I'm
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only a jockey' not a magician, miss Duffy. I broke them last,
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like I always do. You'll know he's no front runner. But when I
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come to make my move, he wouldn't move. You held him, you
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wouldn't get in his head. It was obvious to everyone, and there must
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be forty thousand people here, tooked missus Duffy. Right now there's another race
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and there's a horse in it i'd like to bet on, So I'm gonna
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make my bet. Then i'll be back here and we'll discuss it further.
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And if you want to bring charges against me, it's okay with me.
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I'll be glad to leave it up to the stewards. But right now I'm
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gonna make my bet. There's an exodus from that box, as though a
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plague gets struck. Rhonda Duffy says she's heading for the stewards. Katie Adams
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says she's heading for a bite of late lunch. The rest of them,
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including Parker, heading for the sellers windows. To do what you're supposed to
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do at a racetrack, bet on horses. There are fifteen horses in the
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next race. You do the old tic tac toe and you make a selection
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yourself. Crowd is tremendous. You push and you get pushed, and then
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you see another type of crowd, an excited ring of people. And when
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you get there, Parker's already there, stooped over a body, and the
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bodies that of Jackie Johnston, he was in that crowd at the fifty dollars
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window and suddenly he dropped. Somebody'd stuck a knife into him. You'll help
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carry him to the clubhouse, and there is definitely established he's dead and he
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was murdered, and now you and Parker are working at your trade. The
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knife in his back is a switch knife that was in Missus Duffy's bag,
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no question, which limits our suspects to the people who had been in that
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box. Parker heard them all at the clubhouse and grills them. And the
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last one is Katie Adams. Oh look, Katie, you knew Jackie pretty
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well. What kind of a guy was he? And no good guy?
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Enemies, lady friends? Okay, he had only one a friend, mister
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Butler. You met him, John Butler. I'd say Butler was the only
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guy Jackie ever really trusted. All right, Katie, thank you. You
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can go outside with the rest of them. Pete, what do you think,
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Well, the only ones who could have managed it were the ones who
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could have gotten to that night, Missus Duffy, Butcher, Butler, and
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Katie. And we haven't got a thing on any one of them that could
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hold him. Well, let's give him run through. Missus Duffy doesn't figure
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for a motive. Should have seemed to be the kind of a person who
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would kill a guy just because he lost a horse race. What about Butcher?
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It's like I told you, Louis, Jackie owed him forty g's.
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There wasn't going to be any pressure until tonight. Jackie promised to pay by
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then. The guy'd be crazy to kill him when he promised the money by
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the night. John Butler, according to them, he was his only friend.
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What reason would he have to stick a knife in him? And Katie
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Adams? No motive that I can see, strictly a business acquaintance, trainer
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of horses. Yeah, I can't hold one of them. I haven't got
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a thing on any of them. Anything else I can do here, Louis,
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Thanks for another thing. Look, you've got work to do here.
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I'll meet you in a paddackt when you're through. Yeah, okay, and
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outside. The first guy that button holds you is John Butler. Any developments,
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mister Chambers, No, not a one. I think i'd better call
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it home. My wife hasn't been feeling well lately, and I promised that
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my words I seem to be out of change. There's some coins, thank
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you, thank you very much, my pleasure. Then you find missus Ronda
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Duffy seated at the clubhouse table, wrapping up Scotch like there's no tomorrow.
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Parker comes out and joins you, and you all around of drinks for everybody.
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Parker mashes a hand across his face and he sighed, this is a
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real hunting. Is what happened to Kitty is out at the stables, Lieutenant,
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He's been very much affected by all of this. Why she special,
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Well, it was her NiFe. In some complex manner, she lames herself
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for what happened. Maybe it ain't so complex it then I don't understand tant
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Oh, look, Missus Duffie. We've got a limited number of suspects.
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The weakest one in the chain is your Katie Adams. Why well, let's
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put it this way. The two weakest links were you and Katy. But
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I checked the stewards and you were with them at the time of the killing.
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That eliminates you. Lieutenant. Wait a minute, noah, offense has
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meant Missus Duffie. Lieutenant Parker is just working at his job. Of course
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he is. I'm sorry Lieutenant. Sorry. The point is that we have
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excellent reason to believe that mister Butcher wanted Jackie alive, very very much alive,
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and from whatever one told us, including you and Katie, Butler was
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a dear friend at Jackie. Who does that leave us, Missus duffe I
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can't believe, Missus Duffie, would there be any Was there any relationship between
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Katie and Jackie Johnson? Well, it was a long time ago. Please
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tell us, Missus Duffey, any little point might help her. Well,
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they were interested in one another, but that was all at least a year
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ago. You mean a serious friendship. Well Katie thought so, But then
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well, she wasn't actually jilted. It was just as Jackie found a new
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interest to take it back for a time, but only for a short time.
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After a while, she realized that it was all for the best that
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Jackie was jail a rather frivolous time. What do you think, Well,
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from a psychological viewpoint, I think no, a lady doesn't wait a year
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to suddenly ventures clean. Let me ask you this, Missus Duffy. How
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long has she been with you? Two years? And how comes she picked
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today to give you that knife? She had it in a trunk which she
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keeps here doing a bit of cleaning. When she came across it, she
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realized that in this state it's illegal to own such a knife. But she
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gave it to me. I wouldn't exactly say she shipped today to give it
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to Roye. I still think you're barking up the wrong tree. How about
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that other tree which is broken? John Butler, Oh, I'm glad I
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found. I want to thank you for your hospitality, missus Duffie, not
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at all, and in the circumstances, I must sound like an awful oath.
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But I must go home now. Something wrong? Yes, yes,
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indeed it is urgent, mister Butler, extremely so. My wife has been
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here alive, called home, thank you for your coin. That's quite all
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right. It seems that she's taking a turn for the worst. Lieutenant Parker,
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we're under no ree street, are we, any of us? No?
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No? Then if you just a minute, mister Butler, just a
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minute. I've got something to show you, something to show me. What
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is it? What you show him is a bunched up business. But he's
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a strong one and he stands up under the punch. But then you work
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his arm around behind him in a hammer lock, and you've got him.
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But good, what the heck is going on? We have a look in
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his pocket, loy he do you know what? I have a look?
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I told you, hey, fancy, what do you know? What?
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Do you got? Very mutual tickets, a lot of them for a lot
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of dough to that big race, the Great Answer race for number two,
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number three, Sammy Kay and family. Let's hustle this guy inside where we
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can have some privacy. You talk me into it, sweet, come on
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you inside. Further privacy is assured by Parker pointing his thirty eight at the
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crestfallen butler, who's as limp as a rag dollar in the rain. The
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good missus Duffy's eyes bulge as you count up the mutual ticket? How much
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two thousand dollars worth on Tammy Kay and two thousand dollars worth on Pamela Ace.
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Four thousand dollars worth? Yeah, nervous monkey never saw four thousand bucks
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and one lump in his whole life. One said is useless to sit on
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Tamela Ace. But the batch on Tammy Kay. That horse paid forty to
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one, and he holds two thousand dollars worth of tickets, representing in some
21:49
ages thousand dollars. Can you explain any of this? Bet you missus Duffy,
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and you Butler, correct me if I go astray. We start with
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Jackie Johnson, who needed a pile of money and who needed it tonight.
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He got tangled up with a certain banker by the name of Butcher, otherwise
22:11
known as a loan shot. I knew he was in trouble when he wanted
22:14
to see you, but I didn't know what his trouble was. Little Jackie
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dreamed himself up a lulu a three horse race with two tremendous long shots,
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and he's riding the Cinch favorite. Oh it's beginning. They company Jackie trusted
22:29
as John Butler. He got together four thousand bucks, and he talked Butler
22:33
to coming to the racetrack for the first time in his life, and he
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pumped him full of instructions, meaning that Butler was to bet two thousand bucks
22:40
on each of the other horses in the race. And Jackie holds back on
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the Gray Dancer, And anyway you look at it, he's got to win
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a fortune. Only little Jackie didn't figure on human nature. John Butler suddenly
22:52
stopped running to form, Yeah, it happens with horses and with po It's
22:56
my guess, Missus Duffy, that the idea came to him when he saw
23:00
that knife fall out of your handbag. Is that correct, mister Butler,
23:03
Yes, if that's correct. I mean it came to him that with Jackie
23:08
out of the way, he had eighty thousand bucks in his kick and nobody
23:14
could say it wasn't his. And those pet tickets are as good as cares.
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He used to be a pickpocket for entertainment, and this time he did
23:22
it for real. He clipped a knife out of missus Duffy's bag the first
23:25
opportunity had, and in mad crowd at the seller's window, he shoved it
23:30
into Jackie's ribs. But how, I mean, how did you know?
23:33
He gave himself away what he wanted to get away from there? Louis.
23:38
He was afraid the investigation might go a step further, he might be searched,
23:42
and he had those tickets on his personal yard, so he figured out
23:47
a reasonable method. As it happens, his reasoning turned out to be a
23:52
trap. I don't quite understand, mister Chases. He went off to telephone
23:56
his wife, and he came back from the story that she was ill and
23:57
that he had to go home. All very right or very normal, except
24:02
for one great, big hitch. Hitch. He couldn't have spoken to his
24:04
wife or anybody else at his home. He was unfamiliar with race tracks.
24:11
That's where he trapped himself. Oh, come on, I get to the
24:12
point. There are no public telephone that the race track. That's the point,
24:19
of course. Not he couldn't have called his wife and he couldn't have
24:25
spoken or when he broached the subject, I gave him some coins and I
24:29
waited. It was either going to clear himself or hang himself, and he
24:33
hanged himself. You're can bet on that, Missus Duffy, and that won't
24:37
be a wager. And there you've had Crime and Peter Chambers. Dane Clark
25:10
was starred as Peter Chambers. Crime in Peter Chambers Transcribe was created and written
25:15
by Henry Kane. Others in the cast were Bill Zuckert Heard as Lieutenant Parker,
25:21
Abby Lewis as Missus Duffy, and Donald Buch as Butler. It was
25:25
directed by Fred Wade. This is Red Collins Inviting you to tune in next
25:30
week, same time, same station for Dane Clark in Crime and Peter Chambers.
26:37
Crime and Peter Chambers has come to you through the worldwide facilities of the
26:41
United States Armed Forces Radio and Television Service Except and so super except SI Welcome
28:00
back. I wrote down one of the quotes here where Peter was describing the
28:07
jockey's comment after the race more double talk than a stuttering ventroloquist dummy with amnesia.
28:17
And that's one of those where you take back, you smile, and
28:19
you say that didn't make any sense, at least with amnesia part. And
28:23
actually the ventroloquist dummy thing doesn't make sense either, But at any rate,
28:29
that was the hard boiled simile for nineteen fifty four. I did think the
28:34
clue to solve it was clever and it did make sense. The idea of
28:38
not allowing public phones at the race track, and their obvious reason for that
28:45
was the concerns with bookies. Of course, with cell phones and all the
28:49
technology today, that must be an added challenge to the base industry and may
28:55
not be as much they can do about that. At any rate, we
28:59
turned to some liener comments and feedback. Bobby Lee says regarding episode fourteen eighty
29:06
six, the bank teller murder. I don't think the fat boy was as
29:11
innocent as he tried to make mister Chambers think he was. I would agree,
29:15
though to be fair, most of us aren't quite as innocent as we
29:18
try to convince others as we are. Finally, we do have a note
29:25
from Sheila, who writes in. Sheila writes in to us, I remember
29:33
my grandmother's as I would seek with them and take in a show. What
29:40
lovely days to remember. My grandmother Rose had a TV, yet love the
29:45
radio much more. This show has been a great help to me in times
29:48
of pain. My husband will put in my earphones at the hospital and it
29:55
would take my thought offul lot of pain. I'll give thanks to my Lord.
30:00
My days are much better at this date. You're wonderful on the show
30:04
like an old friend you welcome into your home. Thank you ever so much,
30:08
God bless well, Thank you so much, Shela. I really appreciate
30:12
your concomments and your support. Well, that will wrap it up for today.
30:18
I do want to remind you to you can support the show of support
30:22
dot Great Detectives dot net as our listener support campaign continues through March the ninth.
30:27
During that campaign, for a donation of seventy five dollars, will send
30:33
you the first volume of the Hillary Kane Mysteries. It's a wonderful radio detective
30:40
series produced by Jim Fringe Productions and set in nineteen thirties Britain, just got
30:45
a wonderful light feel to it, and will gladly send you the collection for
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a donation of seventy five dollars or more. A full list of available items
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Slash Radio Detectives from Boise, Idaho. This is your host, Adam Grahamson and off