Latest / Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas / Crime and Peter Chambers: The Alan Lewis Murder (EP1414)

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Crime and Peter Chambers: The Alan Lewis Murder (EP1414) · 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
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is your host, Adam Graham. If you have a comment, email it
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to me Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net, follow us on Twitter at
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slash Radio Detectives. Well, before we do get started, I do want
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listeners, and I want to particularly thank John so much for his support.
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Will send access to the premium site as we do with al donations of twenty
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dot net, or you can also mail me at PO box one five nine
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one three Boise Idahol eight three seven one five. That's PO Box one five
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non thirteen Boise Aldohol eight three seven one five. Well, now it's time
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for today's episode of Crime and Peter Chambers. The title is the Alan Lewis
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Murder Case. The original air date is April thirteenth, nineteen fifty four.
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Crime and be Heard Chamber created by Henry King, transcribed and starring Dane A.
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Private investigator, Julia Licensed and Julie Swan be her Chambers. You're a
2:15
private eye. That's your business. Anything else that's for laughs. The guy
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on the customer's end of your office desk, no laughs here, This one
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is strictly business. He's a round little man, bawling on top, pudgy
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in the middle. He's got eyes like a vulture and a cranky voice.
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Mister Chambers, you've been highly recommended to me. You're supposed to be number
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one in your racket. He chuckles with a phony heartiness, and the eyes
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trinkle up. Bulcher's eyes with an extra set of bags under him. The
2:49
upper set of dark bulbus circles from lack of sleep. The lower set are
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worry bags, purple and network with wrinkles. I'm out on the rid of
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habeas corpus, mister Chambers. Yeah, and on a murder rack. They
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haven't got a thing. Just just a minute, pal let's get some of
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our facts airing out. Your name is Charles Avon. You're a druggist here
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in New York. You're married and you've got no kids. Direct wife's name
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is Nancy sixteen eighty eight Gramercy Park, north All right now, let's get
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to the media park. You're accused of the murder of one Alan Lewis.
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Yeah, used to be a clerk in your drug store, that's right.
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Please claim you killed him Monday, which is yesterday, yesterday evening at his
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Park Avenue, Park Park Avenue. Yeah, so they claim, well,
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did you kill miss Raven? Absolutely none, And my job is to find
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out who did kill him so that I don't have to carry that burden.
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Round two. What's the other burden, Miss Raven? Well, there are
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two sides every question in my business, hard door. I will skip that
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temporarily, you know. I see the cops hould you in for the murder
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of your clerk, ex clerk. He hadn't been working for me for a
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year, living off the fat of the line. Why they pick on you,
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miss Raven, because I was supposed to be there last night at eight
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o'clock that's when it happened to him. And I'm supposed to have a motive
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for his murder. Well did you have him motive? Well, if a
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guy's been blackburrying you for a year, what do you have on you?
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Mi straight? Well, no, I don't know that. I Well,
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let's have it well, narcotics. We had a deal going sort of with
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the narcotics. The lawyer knows all about it. I want to know.
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Well, I was looking for easy money and I'm doing all right. This
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is Alan Lewis. He learns about it. He was working for me,
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understand, and he's not holding me up. And so last night when he's
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murdered, I came there to talk with him, but he wasn't home,
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that's all. He wasn't home. Then last night the police picked me up
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and I don't even know what they're talking about. Who's your lawyer, Richard
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Evans, Dick Evan, you know him? Yeah, I know Dick.
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It's the chambers. You've got to help me out of this jet, not
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the narcotics. Pass the murder. It will cost you five thousand Simonians.
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That's fair enough cash on the barrelhead. I don't trust guys like you,
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okay, but I don't have it on me. If you're accompany me to
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the bank, can't say I admire my choice of companion. You're running,
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mister, will discuss it on the way. You get to the bank and
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you're paid and you kiss him off like you kiss off at King Kobra.
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That just became a client. Right. If the guy's not guilty of murder,
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it's your job that prove it. That's what you're being paid for.
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So you get rid of him and you go downtown to the offices of B.
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Richard Evans Regal Legal Eagle, Honnie A right, Dick, how things
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going? Mind? Fine, Pete, come right on it, okay,
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Dick Evans boy lawyer, black hair, beak, nose and cyclone cellar voice,
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A two tone personality split at five o'clock. Ricky is a slippery bath
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mat before the deadline, but afterwards wide open and roaring, a wielder of
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martiniz like a good farmer with a pitchfork. What brings you, mister detective
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Charles ave on Dick, how easy was it getting him out on that writ?
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Easier than getting stepped on on the subway? Cause? Why, counselor
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because the prosecution doesn't have a thing on what I got motive? Motive isn't
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murder, mister Chambers on how that guy get it? That? Alan Lewis
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two bullets, one ripped through his right shoulder rather unimportant, the second one
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paces it over his right eye, very important. Prosecution got the gun.
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No, so they don't. All they got is molding. Period. They
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gave him a nine hour grilling and all they could come up with was motive.
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Okay, okay, okay. Now what about the other charge? What
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other child and narcotics? And I'm going to pleading Gilly on that day.
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You ought to get a light sentence because without Alan Lewis, they've hardly got
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a case. Here comes motive again for the death of Alan Lewis. The
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police know all about that. How much good is it done? By the
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way, how do they know who told him? Frankie toks Frankie tokyu male
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and female? Female, but good and female. You're going to like that
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when you come to it. I like it already just from looking at your
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face. Have another slice of moltive, mister Chambers. This one's on frank
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She was engaged to Alan Lewis. That's motive. Not yet, it's not.
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But this is. She's the beneficiary on his insurance policy for thirty thousand
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dollars plus she's the one who informed the police that the Lewis boy was putting
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the touch on Avon for the blackmail. She know her boyfriend confided in how
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she stand suspect wise, Oh, she's got an alibi. Don't they all
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rank? A very gorgeous number. It sings at the rumpus room with an
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equally gorgeous bronze partner, with whom you will kindly have no clock. Why
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because that one is sort of reserved for me. Uh, you have this,
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Frankie tokeers going on? Got written down somewhere name, address and phone
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number. Fat Yeah, thanks, yeah, yeah, you can trick and
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Franky. Hello, Mistgers Collins from the insurance company. There has been a
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slight complication. May I come to see you right away? The sooner the
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better. Well, all right, if you're fix I should be here most
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of the actions. Good, I'll see you shortly then, why, miss
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Tokers, So you leave the lawyer and you go visit the lady. This
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is supposed to be the part the private eye enjoys, but don't make book
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on that because most of the dear ladies turn out to look like bats on
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a vacation from the billfi. This one happily doesn't. Uh, Misstokers,
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Yes, I'm miss Toker, Missus Collins from the insurance company. These come
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in, Frankie Tokers, She's wearing a hostess goun a metallic number in gold
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imagine wrapped around a dream bunch figure. Frankie Tooker's tall, with an oval
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face and wide, dark eyes that glint like brandy bottles on the bar lights.
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You don't fool around with a kid like that, mister Colin. I'm
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sorry. My name's not Colin's, Miss Tooker's, and I'm not from the
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insurance company. My name's Chambers, Peter Chambers. I'm a private detective and
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they tell me that you're on a spot. Get out just a minute.
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Look, look, lady, I think you've got me pegged raw. You
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explain the situation and tears come up in the BlackBerry brandy eyes. Naturally,
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you put your arm around her, just as naturally she puts her head on
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her shoulder, a sobbing brunette close in the arms of the private detective.
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There you have the classic situation. But you've been paid five thousand bucks to
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find out who killed cock Robins, so reluctantly you break it up. No,
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No, I know how you feel, Miss Talkers. You love the
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guy, but he's dead. Not true, I hated him. You were
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engaged to me, married weren't you. That was going to end when I
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found out what he was really like and whose idea was that thirty thousand dollars
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life policy with you as beneficiary. Here's of course, but that was going
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to be finished too, mister Chambers. I couldn't tell the police, but
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I will tell you why, because I want you to help me. Look,
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sister, you didn't kill him, did you? No? No?
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No, listen listen last night, the night he was killed, I went
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there. I was going to tell him off and finish it off completely.
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What time nine o'clock? It was between shows. I'm a singer at the
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Vumper store. I know. Anyway, when I got there, there was
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no answer. I kept bringing but there was no answer, and I was
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worried. I went back to the club and I called on the phone.
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No answer. Then I'd called the police and told him that there was trouble
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there. I didn't say who was calling when I wait the whole hold up
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just for a minute. First, why the police just because the guy's not
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home? And second, how did you know there was trouble? Error?
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Because I knew that he had an appointment with mister Charles Avon for eight o'clock
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and it was going to be a long talk, and I knew what the
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talk was about. What was it about? About more money? More blackmail?
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Money? Oh? Oh, I see it. It figured for a
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trouble party. Huh. Yes. And when the guy didn't ask at nine
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o'clock was your idea that the trouble had exploded? Exactly? And one hour
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after the phone call, the police were at the club investigating the murder of
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Alan Lewis. I told him everything I knew about the narcotics that mister Avon
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was dealing in, and about Alan's blackmail, and about how he was going
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to raise the ante at this meeting between them. Well, it answer is
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why Charles Avon was picked up. What about your alibi? I fixed that
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up with my singing partner. I arranged for her to say that I'd been
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with her all the time in our dressing room. But I'm scared, mister
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Chambers, I'm sick, scared inside of me. Help me, please help
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me. Miss Tucker's I had hated if you did put those slugs into Allen.
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I didn't. I didn't. Oh, I didn't. She's asking for
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it, and you answered you take her face in your hands, put your
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lips on hers and you're leading there with excellent results. But then you quit,
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you crash out of there and you're heading for police headquarters, but you
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detour for Charles Avon's drugstore. Good to see you again, mister Chambers.
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I was thinking I might want to drop into your home tonight. Would you
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be there perhaps later on? No, but my wife will, Oh you
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don't know her. Oh, she's here right now. I'd very much like
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to have you meet up Nancy. Yeah, my dear Peter Chambers, the
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gentleman. I told you about my wife, Nancy Avan. She's a small
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blonde, too young and too pretty for Charlie boy. She's wearing gold grim
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black Len's goggles and you can't see her eyes. She's smooth skin and good
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looking, but jumpy, nervous as a lion tam who's lost his whib.
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Did you wish to speak to me? Entertainment? Very much? But I
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don't have the time. No, man, I speak with you later,
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of course, but I'm leaving for home now. I'm might call you there.
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It's a little upset, it's made the day off. But if you
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wish, I wish, I wish see you later. Bye, mister and
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missus Amon and so you're writing your broom again, making time for police headquarters
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and then you're there. Well, keethe, what way old you? Honor
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Charles avon Leuis paid up clients, So maybe you think you can do more
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than cops can do. I doubt it, but I can try. Detective
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Lieutenant Louis Parker homicide, fixed set and sturdy like a brand new refrigerator,
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and just about his enthusiastic, but a good cop and mostly a good friend.
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Let's pitch. I'm being paid five thousand dollars to find out who put
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the chill on Alan Lewis, five thousand dollars to do what we'd do anyway,
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Brother, yours is one business. Okay, what do you want help?
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That's hot? You're getting five Gee's what do we get? Well,
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any information happens to fall my way, and no byline, you get all
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the credit you're buying. What do you want to Well, I'd like to
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see the inside of Alan Lewis's apartment. I'll buy that. In fact,
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i'll go with you got a cops staked out there? Nobody's staked out there.
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I've got better things to do with cops and having sitting around getting fat.
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Okay, what else, anything else that's not too terribly confidential? Oh
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not this case, pd We got us a nice fat group of nothing.
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M Well, then that's it, lieutenant. Let us go look at apartments.
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Alan Lewis's joined turns out to be the usual bachelor's flat fitted out to
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please the ladys. Parker's news is in the bedroom while you poke around like
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a critical matron, seeking dustiny upholstery and a library of booksticks out like a
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sore thumb in a working pickpocket. You pull it out in an envelope to
15:00
the floor. You pick that up and examine it. It's slid on top,
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and it contains a letter. It's addressed to missus Nancy Avon, sixteen
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eighty eight grammar See Park, North, New York City. You don't stop
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to read the letter. You stick it in your pocket and you're ready to
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leave. Then Parker comes into the room, yawning. You finished, luck,
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hold on, let's get out of here. Oh, by the way,
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I assume you guys gave this place of going over. Yeah, most
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of last night we've been through this apartment with a fine tooth coult. Yeah,
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a fine tooth comb. Hey, Is that a crack? No,
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no crack intended? Lieutenant leave us leave yeah, leave us outside. Parker
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goes off and you're left alone. Frankie Toker's place is nearby, and well
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maybe you're looking for excuse to go back. Hello, mister Chamber, Oh
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may I come in? Hey? Do you bring her up the date?
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You take the letter out of the envelope and you'll read dear and Nancy,
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he finished, is finished. Now you've got it in writing. I don't
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see the sense. But if you insist you can come over Monday at seven
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thirty, you can't stay long. As it happens, I have a date
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with Charles for eight o'clock yours Allan, The date matches Monday, yesterday he
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was killed. That letter puts her right in the middle, doesn't It said?
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You know anything about these two? Nancy Avon and Allen Lewis. She
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was sweet on him and he encouraged her. Charlie avan didn't even know it
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was cooking, but she was planning to divorce him. And then Alan Lewis
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cooled off. You mean when he met you, he'd have cooled off anyway.
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That's the kind of guy. He was real loyal shot through with integrity.
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Well, how'd you take it? You know, he told me she
16:49
was plenty worked up over. Okay, miss Tooker's Frankie, you cross your
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fingers and if I'm lucky, you're out of a jam. Oh, i'd
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appreciate that. I appreciate it. You'll figure your next step for your last
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step. Sixteen eighty eight, Gramercy Park, North, Oh. Oh,
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mister Chambers, please come in, missus Avon. She's dressed in Chinese type
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lounging pajamas and she's not wearing the dark Land specs. You look at her
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eyes and a chill goes through you, like winter has suddenly gotten into the
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marrow of your bones. Wild eyes, quick moving, darting, half mad
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eyes, pupils dilated almost the rim. Nothing, mister Chambers. A few
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questions, questions why, questions of me. Well, I've got a hunch
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I've stumbled on something that police don't know, like like like you had a
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thing going without Lewis, your husband, you hope didn't know about it.
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There are letters, you saved them, right, missus Aleen. Yes you
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were there last night. Yes, I'm sorry, missus Alin. Now where's
18:15
the gun? Do you have it? You. You say, the police
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don't know. Perhaps perhaps I mean I have it. I'm one of the
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dumb ones. I'm allergic to bribery. Now where's the gun? I have
18:26
it hidden? Will you get it? Please? Yes, yes, I'll
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get it. It's my own gun. You wait while she goes for it,
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and you don't like it. But she hasn't got the time to work
18:42
it out now because she's coming back and she's carrying the thing, that chunky
18:48
nickel plated item, and she's holding it business and forward. You get a
18:55
scratched hip and a hole in your pants. You're already the slugger, but
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you don't have to be. Course, she slides down in a faint.
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You get the gun away from her. Fine brandy, pour a lot into
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her and a little into yourself. Finally she starts coming to I fainted,
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You certainly did, lady. I'm ill. I'm under the care of a
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psychiedra. Gunshot the sound of gunshot. One shot, and I pass out,
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even if I do it myself. I passed. What happened last night
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almost like it happened here. I was there before he was, and when
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he came, we argued. I brought the pistol. I was wearing my
19:33
gloves and I shot him and then I fainted. When I came to I
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saw it was dead, and I got out of there just a minute,
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just a minute. You say you were there before he was. How'd you
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get in? I have key. You get her to an easy chair,
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and you call down to Parker at headquarters. You put in a request for
19:53
a lot of the law and also for mister Charles Avn. Pretty soon the
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place is crawling with and you point a finger and to Lieutenant Parker you say,
20:03
I give you a murderer, Lieutenant, but you got it wrong.
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You're mistaken. No mistake is just where my finger's pointing. I give you
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a lieutenant, mister Charles Avon. This guy's a lot of things. He
20:17
is nuts, he ain't going. Here's a guy who comes in and hires
20:19
me for five thousand dollars for something the New York City Police can do much
20:22
better and for nothing. You're stealing my lines jump. But the guy's not
20:26
crazy. He's got a purpose. He's also got a large contempt for the
20:30
thoroughness of the police, which I haven't start making sense. Pete boy,
20:33
read this. You toss the letter to Detective Lieutenant Parker, and the room
20:41
is as quiet as a cemetery until he's still reading it. So I found
20:47
that letter from Missus Avon to Alan Lewis. I found it in Lewis's apart.
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Wait a minute, we gave that place an extra special going over.
20:55
That letter wasn't there. I don't have to convince me, convince Charles Avon
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that baby go and sees the wrong movies. He's got no confidence in common
21:02
way question. The letter wasn't there, but I found it there. So
21:04
it adds up to plant. Somebody planted it there. I wanted it found
21:07
there. Somebody wanted to implicate missus Nancy Avon, who who had access to
21:12
her male friend husband, that's who. Why do you think he hired me
21:17
so I could bumble around and find a few things he wanted me to find,
21:19
like frustrated love, like that letter, like maybe a confession for Missus
21:23
Avon, which I got She confessed, doesn't mean a thing. Let me
21:26
do it chronologically, will you do it any way? You like that?
21:29
Nancy Avon goes there at seven thirty to keep her date. She brings her
21:33
gun because the young guy is giving her the air she waits for him.
21:36
He comes, they argue, she shoots him and she faints. One shot,
21:40
but the guy had two bullet holds it correct. But here's how he
21:42
got the second. Charles Avon's got a hate for both of them, For
21:45
Alan and for Nancy. Alan's been blackmailing and plus the wife. The sweet
21:49
on Alan. He's been steeping open her mail and he knows he's going to
21:52
meet him last night, so he follows. He follows, hoping against hope
21:56
for action, and action happened, and then he gets in there he sees
22:00
Alan's bleeding from the shoulder wound, and the wife and a faint on the
22:02
floor. He picks up the gun, finishes off. Allen wipes the prince
22:04
off, puts it back in her hand, and but mooses. She comes
22:07
to sees a dead Alan, and she gets out convinced that she killed him.
22:11
And then we pick up Charlie on the strength of missus Tooker's story.
22:14
But the lawyer gets him sprung on a writ right, So this morning he
22:17
goes to Lewis's apartment and he sticks that letter where it can't be missed.
22:19
No, no real contempt he has for the efficiency of cops, hasn't he
22:23
anyway? He hires me so I can clean up some loose ends and lay
22:26
the whole deal in the lady's lap. The minute I saw that letter,
22:30
I know it was a plan. It happens that I've got respect for cops.
22:33
They'd never missed that kind of evidence. One great big cat A were
22:37
going to say, what how did he get in there twice? Once to
22:41
croak the guy and once to plant the letter? Missus Avon had keys.
22:47
Mister Avon made duplicates. He figured he'd have use for them sooner or later.
22:51
Well, he used him, all right, and by now he's disposed
22:53
of him. But he hasn't disposed of the key maker. Meaning what meaning
22:57
that when a guy swipes his pype's keys to make dup because he doesn't go
23:02
far. So you can demonstrate to mister Ravon about the efficiency of cops by
23:06
producing and with dispatch the neighborhood key maker who did the job, and that
23:11
that will put the final finger on mister Charles Avon. No, no,
23:14
I didn't, All right, mister Ravon, that does it? Charles Avon
23:23
goes white and topples, and when he gets up, the manacles are around
23:27
his wrists and he's battling his brains out. Lawyer or no lawyer. This
23:32
time he's going to get locked away for good nice work, great a job,
23:36
BEADI congratulations well now, appreciation from a detective lieutenant to a private eye.
23:48
That's sweet music, indeed, But you start breaking out of there because
23:52
you're heading for Frankie Toker's place. Appreciation for the detective Lieutenant Parker good enough,
24:00
but appreciation from miss Frankie Tker well now, and there you've had Crime
24:17
and Peter Chambers. Dane Clark was starred as Peter Chambers. Crime and Peter
24:27
Chambers Transcribed was created and written by Henry Kane. Bill Zuckert was heard as
24:33
Lieutenant Parker with Leslie Woods, Edgar Staley, and Lawson Serby. It was
24:38
directed by Fred Way. This is Fred Collins in boting you to tune in
24:41
next week's same time, same station, or Dane Clark in Crime and Peter
24:48
Chambers. Here the Oppenheimer story on Heart of the News tonight on the NBC
24:57
Radio Network. Welcome back, Well, Peter Chambers definitely shows that he has
25:04
respect for the law. You might say a little too much for the private
25:11
detective genre, but I guess it does balance out in the end compared to
25:22
the other programs, whether you look at Boston Blackie or pant Novak for Hire.
25:29
Now we'll talk a little bit about Dan Clark Ding Clark was an actor,
25:37
began on Broadway, worked in pictures, but really found his success in
25:45
television. Not a whole lot of starring roles, but many character roles.
25:52
He did have a couple recurring roles. Perhaps his most famous one was when
26:00
ZIV Television decided to remake Bold Venture, which was a great radio success for
26:07
him, and they decided to do it over television with Humphrey Bogart, of
26:15
course dead. He actually played the role of Slade Shannon in the television version
26:22
of Bold Venture that aired in the late nineteen fifties. He also played Trag
26:30
in the New Perry Mason Mysteries that aired in the nineteen seventies. Well,
26:37
that will do it for today. We'll be back tomorrow with the Adventures of
26:41
Philip Marlow, and then be sure and join us next Tuesday for another episode
26:47
of Crime and Peter Chambers. In the meantime. Senor comments to Box thirteen
26:52
at Great Attractives dot Net follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives. Become one
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of our friends on Facebook, Facebook dot Com. Slash Radio Detectives from Boise,
27:03
Idaho. This is your host, Adam Grahamson and all