Latest / Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas / Crime and Peter Chambers: Murder at the Masquerade Party (EP1480)

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Crime and Peter Chambers: Murder at the Masquerade Party (EP1480) · Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas

• 0:28
  Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho. This
• 0:34
  is your host, Adam Graham. If you have a comment, email it
• 0:38
  to me Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net, follow us on Twitter at
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  Radio Detectives, and become one of our friends on Facebook, Facebook dot com
• 0:49
  slash Radio Detectives. Before we do get started, I do want to encourage
• 0:54
  you to pick up a copy of my latest ebook, All I Needed to
• 0:57
  Know I Learned from drag Net. It is available McKinnell and Nook store.
• 1:02
  You can also find it through our Great Detectors of Old Time Radio store at
• 1:08
  stored dot Great Detectives dot net, where you can pick up all my books
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  and audiobooks. Well, now it's time for today's episode of Crime and Peter
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  Chambers Murder at the Masquerade Party. The original air AED eight July thirteenth of
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  nineteen fifty four. Crime and Peter Chambers created by Henry Kaine, transcribed and
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  starring Dane Clark, fivate investigator, duly licensed and duly sworn Peter Chambers.
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  You're a private eye. That's your business. Anything else that's for laughs.
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  This one figures for a lot of laughs. And you're being paid for it,
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  which adds a rare quality to the laughter. You're at the apartment of
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  a jeweler, George Reiner, and you're being invited to a masquerade party at
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  the Riverdale mansion of a famous or is it infamous millionaire Robbie Tamville. And
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  who hasn't heard of Robbie Tamville. And I'd like you to get there before
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  I do, mister Chambers. All the arrangements have been made. Well,
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  what will you wear? Well, I don't quite know, mister Hiner.
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  You've sprung this on me rather quick like. Well, man of your resourcefulness.
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  Come now, mister Chambers. Think of your reputation. Yeah, I'm
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  thinking tonight eight o'clock. Well let me see now, Well, I've got
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  an idea, something that's never been done before. Yes, pirate's costume,
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  gol no patch over the eye, very good, and just so that i'll
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  be sure, don't wear a sword. Then I'll know for certain that you're
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  my pirate. Okay, mister Reiner, I'll be your pirate. No cutlass,
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  no patch. Now let's get back to the business end of the deal.
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  Please, Well, sir, you've heard of the opal of Ramses.
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  Well, Yes, owned by King Ramses and a priceless of j DR only
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  wasn't supposed to have brought hard luck to this ancient Egyptian king and hard luck
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  to everyone that's owned it since it was dug oh Shaw, mister Chambers.
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  A superstition, pure baseless superstitious. How come Robbie Tamble is so anxious to
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  get rid of it? He's had a run of bad luck. Now that
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  it is offered for sale, I have the opportunity to purchase it. Yeah,
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  you and this what's his name, William Zucker, Good old eccentric Tamble
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  makes it a bidding contest between you and this William Zucker. I'm to come
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  is a clown. There, there's the costume. You like it? Yeah,
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  it's peachy. William Zucho is coming dressed as a Persian prince. Anyway,
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  one way or another. Tonight Robbie Tambell gets rid of the ring.
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  Yes, he'll have the opal there tonight at the party. First he'll interview
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  Zucho and then he'll interview me. Whoever bids highest that one gets the ring.
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  There will be contracts to sign, and then the cash is to be
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  deposited with his bankers tomorrow. How much is that thing worth? Oh,
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  about a quarter of a million. I know a collector right now who'd pay
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  two hundred thousand. And my job to accompany me back to town is bodyguard,
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  and to remain with me as custodian of the opal until I can reach
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  my office tomorrow and where proper transferrals of insurance can be executed. Okay,
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  I'll see you tonight. I'll be there PD the pirate afterno, miss Ryner.
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  And remember you know the costume. I'm the clown. So that evening
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  you're living it up amongst the swells. Everybody's wearing masks, and everybody's wearing
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  costumes. But your client, the clown, hasn't shown up yet. Meanwhile,
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  you've latched onto a female with a lush and lovely figure, incongruously attired
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  as a witch. You've danced, you've chortled, you've chuckled, But now
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  you're dying of curiosity. So you waltz are off to a corner. Yes,
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  my dashing buccaneer, pray what wish you of the witch? A mask?
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  A witch shells This pirate walks the plank. If anything is per sic
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  as a plank and you found it as diamonds. Got a check? Will
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  you unmask too? Because I'm just bursting with curiosity. You take your mask
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  off and you follow suit, and brother, you've hit the jackpot. Blue
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  eyes, tiny nose, dimples, and a wicked little smile that just verges
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  on being seductive, like, Oh, I love good because I like what
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  I see too. So let's get acquainted. My name is Patricia Holmes.
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  Uh, Peter Chambers. What do you do? Well? I'm a detective
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  of sorts. Detective, how very interesting it is. You look like an
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  actor, a leading man type, you know, and you like an Engineue,
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  say what do you do? I'm a doctor? A doctor? Well,
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  now disappointed, I'm flavrogast for further information. Over twenty one and unmarried,
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  specialized in philerooscopy and X ray. Uh. Look, doc, I
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  got a small pain that hightes me here. See. I conduct my examinations
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  at my office. Oh, i'd love to visit. You may have that.
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  I combine my office and my apartment for forty one park. I didn't
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  take my car. I was driven here by a group of friends. So
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  if you've a car, have well, mister Chambers. After this party,
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  I'd admire to have you take me home. And there isn't a thing in
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  the world that I'd admire more. Doctor. Well, thank you. But
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  all the while you're talking some jokers jostling you from the rear. True enough
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  to join his crowded but that crowded it ain't. And finally you were on
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  a guy who was wearing the togue of a Roman senator. Oh, sir,
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  remake it some little crowded white him at a buster. It's not that
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  crowded, So take it real, sensitive, dear old private optica? Is
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  it because he's engaged in conversation with so beautiful a damn Lloie Louie Parker Detective
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  Lieutenant Louis Parker, New York City Police Department. Fine cop, good companion,
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  and great friends. You introduce him to the lady. Good to know
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  you, miss Home. Likewise, Hey, what are you doing here,
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  Louis? Oh? I got to hunt? It approximates your reason for being
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  here. I'd like to talk to you, pete if that miss home means
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  that the courtius lieutenant would like to talk to me alone, But in the
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  circumstances he finds it difficult to express your beauty, Miss Home makes it even
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  more different. Hey, lieutenant, if you promise not to keep mister Chambers
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  away too long, I promise good enough, Then I'll see you later.
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  She's acute, Louis. Listen, Pete, I'll tell you why I'm here,
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  develops. Tamville isn't too eccentric after all, not worth carrying that open
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  ring around on his person. He invites park at his party, So is
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  he gonna have some law and order around the house? Just in case?
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  You give Louis the dope on why you're present, which means that outside of
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  you and me and Tamville, the only ones who know that this ring is
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  here tonight George Reiner and this William Zuku. That's straight from the horse's mouth,
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  which is tamboo. Now, Pete, hey, look, you look,
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  and you see the Persian prince strolling out of the garden. He looks
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  hot and he's taking off his mask. Let's go join him, Pete,
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  just for the heck of it. Eh, Yeah, it's cooler out there.
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  Mustn't forget the bottle, Oh, we mustn't. This is Parker's night
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  for relaxation. You bring a bottle and three glasses out to a table in
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  the garden. The Persian prince is nearby, mask off. You call him
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  over, introduce him, and offer a drink. William Zuko is a tall
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  guy whose black eyes give off about as much expression as a couple of shuttered
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  windows in an empty house. You're about to hand him his glass when it
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  slips to the ground. Well, you can't hand the Persian princes at dirty
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  glass, so you pick it up, wipe the clean with a handkerchief,
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  and you try again. Then you poor for the three of you, and
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  you all drink A good doctor hits the spot as they say, thank you,
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  mister Chambers, would you like another? As they say, oh no,
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  no, no, thank you. You know you look real right handsome
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  as a Persian prince. Missus, Oh no, no, no, not
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  really. Dot was Robbie Tempville's ideal. And you don't cross Tembville, not
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  when you intend to do a little business with him. Uh, you were
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  intending to do business with mister Tamble, Well, yes, I think so.
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  Just then a butler comes out and tells Zuko that Tamble is ready to
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  see him. You all go back into the house and the butler opens an
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  oak door for William Zucko. You can see inside. It's a big room
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  with wide French wins on the far side opening to another garden. Tamble's inside,
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  the only guy at the party not in costume. Zuccho goes in and
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  the door closes. You lose Parker, and you'll find Patricia home again and
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  you'll keep her with you. And finally Zucho comes out and goes up a
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  flight of stairs, and then not five minutes later, your client, the
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  clown, appears. You wave to him, but he doesn't wave back.
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  He proceeds directly to the oak door, goes in, and then the shots
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  are from Tamble's room and you and park are busting their fast. The French
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  windows are wide open. There's no one in the room except Tamble, and
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  he's very dead. All right, all right, everybody out of here.
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  I'm Detective Parker. Police. Now get them out, please, everybody out.
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  Come on, you stick around, pitty out out. That's right out,
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  nice sir, yeah, real nice weather pulled it, beat it through
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  those French windows with the guns. Here you pick it up with the pencils
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  of the trigger guard like so hey, pete, take a look at barrel,
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  Look at the scratches fresh ones. Yeah, it looks like there was
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  a silence on that barrel, louis not too long ago. But say we
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  heard the shots. Yeah, any ideas not a one? You not in
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  this silence a bit, But I got a lot of ideas on friend murderer.
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  Really you saw who came in here last? Uh? Oh? Well
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  yeah yeah, your client. That's so the clown guy masking all but the
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  only clown at the pond. Oh look, lowid, don't let's jump the
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  conclusion conclusions, Pete, This conclusion don't have to be jumped at. This
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  comes up, It hits you on the jaw like a hook from a giano.
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  Let's have a look at the late mister Tamville. Oh now they not
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  impeached, voted for murder, an opal ring with maybe a quarter million books
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  missing. Fifteen minutes later, the giant is jumping with cops. The search
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  of the ground turns up a clown's costume, and an idea starts to percolate
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  in your mind. So you do a little searching too. You pick up
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  an item which might be of unusual interest, and you safely deposited in your
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  car. No guest is permitted to leave until he or she is thoroughly searched
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  by an expert, and that turns up nothing. No opal Ring. But
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  the search of the guest does develop one item of importance. One guest is
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  missing your client, mister George Reyner. Driving down the car, there's Patricia
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  Holmes, there's Parker, and there's you, mister George Reiner. Well,
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  I'm saving him for me. No, you're sending anyone else. If he's
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  skipped, he's skipped. If he's at his apartment, then he's for me
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  personally. But why, Lieutenant how I uh won't go into the y.
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  But here's the how he bumps tampill cops that opal Ring, goes through those
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  French doors, gets rid of the clown costume and blows period. Uh I
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  sent that gun downtown. One of the advances. I'm curious about the check
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  on that peat, which means that after we drop Hiss home, we stopped
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  first at headquarters for sure. Then we call on mister Reiner. Very good,
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  very satisfactory. What are you so happy about? Just a minute,
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  what are you reaching in the glove compartment for this glass? Well? What's
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  what's uh? I handle a ginger? Lieutenant, They're gonna do a fingerprint
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  check on it. I once set figures to be mine, I'm very curious
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  about the other set. What did you get that stole it from the mento
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  from Tamble's party? Louis, will you have that fingerprint check done for me?
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  Shure pd If you insist, you deliver Patricia Holme and you promise to
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  come back there to bring her up to date on developments, no matter what
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  they are. And then you deliver Parker at the headquarters and you wait in
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  the car while he goes in with the glass. When he comes out,
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  he's got a peculiar glint in his eye. He tells you the fingerprint checks
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  in the glass will take some time, but that he's put a rush on
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  it. And then he clams. And when Parker clams, he's tighter than
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  a barfly at curfew time. And finally there are George Ryner's aparty. Oh,
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  mister Chambers, I'm so glad to see you. But Parker pushes through
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  and shoves a gun under his nose. Mister Ryaner, is this your gun?
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  Wait? Let me see. Yes, it's my gun. That's nice
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  of you to admit it. But whether you admit it or not. The
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  serial numbers proved it's your gun fingerprints on of the smudges. But ballistics showed
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  this gun killed him. Now anyway you look at it, kiddo, you're
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  up the creek killed killed home or would you look at him making with the
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  innocent baby act killed? Robbie Tamville, Robbie Tanville. Mister Chambers, is
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  this true? Yep? Who is this man? Lieutenant Louis parkerhamicide who thought
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  he was gonna have an evening of relaxation? Do you deny that you killed
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  him? You stole that ring, that opal from King tut To one of
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  those other wrapped up mummies. Of course I deny it. Brother. You
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  were seen to go into his room, the shots were heard, the gun
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  was yours. The bullets from the gun killed them. The French windows were
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  opened, the clown costume was found on the grounds. You were the only
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  guest, missy, and you knew he had the opal on him. Now
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  where's the ring? I don't have it? Now? Kill dog? Wait
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  a minute, lowly, just a minute, Just a minute, though,
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  mister Rhiner, you heard the lieutenant? Yes, Do you have any explanation?
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  Well, I can only tell you what happened or what did happen,
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  mister Hiner. Well, some time after you left, my doorbell rang I
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  answered it opened the door, but there seemed to be no one there.
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  I stuck my head out and was struck on the back of the head.
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  That's all I remember. When I regained consciousness, I was bound and gagged.
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  It took me hours to untie myself. When I finally did, I
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  looked about, thinking it was a robbery, trying to see what was stolen.
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  Why is anything stolen with just my clowns, costume and my gun.
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  Okay, mister Rhiner, suppose just for the sake of my friend whose client
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  you are, suppose I tried to buy your story. Now show us some
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  proof. Uh where's the rope that bound you or is it wire or tape
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  maybe? And the gag around your mouth? I'm sorry, Lieutenant. I
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  was bound by a couple of my necktail and the gag was one of my
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  own handkerchiefs. But I do have a bump on my head. I'm sorry,
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  Pete, I gotta take this guy downtown. You tell Parker where he
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  can reach you, and then off they go to headquarters, and off you
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  go to Patricia Holme's apartment. Doctor Holme is comfortable in satin lounging pajamas,
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  and no doctor ever looked better in lounging pajamas. You bring her up to
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  date on your facts, and then she takes you about, showing you her
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  equipment, the fluoroscopes and the X ray machines. And then you're settling down
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  in a comfortable dive van with a good doctor for some conversation about doctoring.
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  When hello, it's Peter Chambers. Then just a minute for you, Peter,
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  Thanks, Well, is the dope on the glass steal? Yours?
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  One set of prints? Yours? The other's blown to a guy u Bill
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  Zukowski? What about him? Well, that was a Russian Emmigray used to
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  work in a circus yate ground glass nails tax You know one of those guys.
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  He did a bit about eight years ago for assault, then disappeared.
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  Hey, how look, Pete, what's your interest in the guy? And
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  who is he? Look, Louis, pick up our Persian prince and bring
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  him down here at Patricia Holmes place and do it fast. Persian Prince William
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  Zucko, you know what you're doing. Beete absolutely and please Louis fast her.
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  Half an hour later, Parker shows that William Zucho, you don't waste
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  any time. You accuse Zucho of the murder of Robbie Tamville and the theft
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  of the Opal ring. You are talking through your heartiness. Sure if I
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  had that opal on me there I found it. I didn't have it,
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  and I don't have Oh yes, you have. Have I improve it.
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  Instead of talking like a big guy and doing nothing. Talk is cheap proof.
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  Prove it, demonstray. First step in the demonstration is to clip him
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  under the gin and then you drag Zucko to doctor Holmes's fluoroscope and you stand
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  him up behind it, and she starts the do jigger, going, hey,
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  I see it clear as day. Where through the fluoroscope thing. It's
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  in his stomach, clear as day, the ring with the stone in it.
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  Come on out, take a look at this. So who's gonna hold
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  him out me? I'll hold him, thank God. Yeah, sure enough.
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  There it is William Zucko born Bill Zukowski, who can swallow nails and
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  tack and glass. Oh what a hide away, helloie, How can you
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  frisk a guy when he's got the loot? In his stomach, and ten
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  minutes later, when you've convinced Zuko or Zikalski or whatever his name is,
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  that you've got him dead to rights, he straightens out the deal for you.
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  Okay, So you knock out George Rhiner and you clip his clown costume
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  and his gun. Yes, And I bring this stuff up to Tamville's and
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  hide it in an upstairs room, And then when you're drinking with us,
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  the butler calls you, and it's a good thing. I dropped your glass
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  because I wiped it clean with a handkerchief, which after I handed it to
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  you, left only my prints on it and yours inside. I killed him.
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  I used to silencer and rider has gone one bullet. Then I came
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  out, went upstairs, put the clown costume over mine, went back into
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  Tamville's room, supposedly as Rhino, took the silencer off and put three more
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  bullets into him. Then I ran out the French doors, threw the silence
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  into the broke nearby, but left the clown costume on the grounds, making
• 22:03
  sure to leave Rhyana's gun in the room. And then I came back and
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  once more I was one of the guests the Persian Prince the way it looked,
• 22:11
  Rhyiner killed him, dropped off his costume and ran away. I thought
• 22:15
  no suspicion would attach to me, and you might have been in the clear
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  if not for my friend the Shama. Say, Pete, where did you
• 22:23
  get the idea for the Prince on a glass from you? Yeah? I
• 22:27
  know, from me. Well, you're the guy that told me that a
• 22:30
  size and must and tamble himself. Only two people knew about that Opal being
• 22:33
  on him, Ryaner and Zuko. Yeah. Now, Rhyana retained me and
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  paid me a fee to act as a bodyguard when he would buy it if
• 22:41
  he's planning robbery and murder or would a reasonable man do that? No,
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  he wouldn't without leave if anything happened to the Opal. Oh a reck circus
• 22:52
  burden. Come on, pal oh, I'm gonna have to handle you gently.
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  After all, in a way, you're sort of a receptacle for evidence,
• 23:02
  and like that, you're pretty valuable. And so, after Parker and
• 23:18
  the valuable mister Zuko take their departure, you and the darling doctor Patricia Holme
• 23:25
  finally settle down to some quiet conversation and peaceful tete tet oh you Peter Chambers,
• 23:33
  you oh doctor, and there you've had Crime and Peter Chambers. Dane
• 23:59
  Plant was starred as Peter Chambers Crime and Peter Chambers. Panscribe was created and
• 24:06
  written by Henry Kane. Others in the cast were Bill zucker Turned as Lieutenant
• 24:10
  Parker, Joe Boland as Reiner, and Nancy Wilder as Patricia. It was
• 24:15
  directed by Fred Way. This is Fred Collins inviting you the tune in next
• 24:18
  week, same time, same station for Dane Clark in Crime and Peter Chamber.
• 25:18
  Crime and Peter Chambers has come to you through the worldwide facilities of the
• 25:22
  United States Armed Forces Radio and Television Service. Welcome back. Well, A
• 26:45
  couple of thoughts on this one. First, it doesn't appear that Jack Johnstone
• 26:53
  was the only person to name characters after people associated with the show or in
• 27:02
  the cast. Here we have a character named Bill Zuko or William Zuko,
• 27:10
  and of course William Zuckert is the co star of the show. A little
• 27:15
  bit of convenience worked into the plot, particularly with Peter Chambers making a connection
• 27:27
  with probably the only woman in New York City in nineteen fifty four who had
• 27:33
  an X ray machine in her home. But other than that, a fairly
• 27:37
  good yarn with some interesting features, a nice variation on the overall theme of
• 27:45
  crime and Peter Chambers. All right, well, that will do it for
• 27:48
  today. We will be back tomorrow with the adventures of Philip Morrow, and
• 27:53
  join us again next Tuesday for another episode of Crime and Peter Chambers from Loiseatah.
• 27:57
  This is your host, Adam Grahamson, and off