Latest / Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas / Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Nick Shurn Matter Omnibus (EP1448s)

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Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Nick Shurn Matter Omnibus (EP1448s) · 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 Boise, Idaho. This
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is your host, Adam Brant. If you have a comment, send it
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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
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Slash Radio Detectives. This year, we're going to bring you a Christmas bonus
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episode. Given the positive response we received the Johnny Dollar omnibus shows we presented
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back during the last listener support campaign, We're going to bring you another Johnny
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Dollar omnibus of the serialized Christmas story The Nick Sheran Matter. The original Laird
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eight is December nineteenth through the twenty third of nineteen fifty five. Here it
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is from Hollywood. It's time now for Johnny Dellarn Wilkins, Jenny Pritual Limited.
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Oh hi, don thanks for the Christmas present. Well, just don't
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take out the cork near and open flame. Yeah. See. Do you
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know anything about a guy named mel Praanker? Nothing good about him? Why
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got himself killed last night? Murdered Pranker was born to be murdered? Maybe
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so, but not at our expense. By holding one hundred thousand dollars policy.
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Wow, what was the beneficiary? Is a partner? Nick Shearn?
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Nick Shearn, you picked a fine pair of rats. Yeah, I know
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that. Now the New York police are holding Shirt, but they've got no
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evidence. Coming down there and check it out for us, Jenny, if
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Nick at the killing, any witnesses one apparently the hap Check girl in that
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night club of theirs, what's her story? I wish I know she's disappeared.
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We're gonna find her. Johnny, who was some of Nick's Fudham's finder?
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Don Maybe they already have tonight and every weekday night Bob Bailey in the
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Transcribed Adventures of the Man with the Action Pact Expensercut America's Fabulous freelance insurance Investigator,
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Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. Expense account submitted by Special Investigator Johnny Dollar
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to the Home Office Primutual Insurance Limit at Hartford, Connecticut. The following is
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thecount of expenditures during my investigation of the Nick Sar matter. Item one twenty
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two eighty transportation to New York tips and incidentals and taxi fair to the office
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the Lieutenant at Rapperty Homicide Division, the man in charge of the case.
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Oh, hi, Johnny, have you been that bad? An Haw's a
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homicide business. Terrific. If you look at that teletype shoplifting pipe complaints right
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in a row the week before Christmas. That's all we get. Shoplifters.
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Mel Pranker was in shoplifting. Oh you're working on a journey. Yeah,
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the insurance angle, Nick Sharen's the beneficiary one hundred grand policy. You got
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a tough one. Boy. Sean killed him, all right, but I
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don't think we're going to be able to stick it. Come on in the
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office. Hey, you know what that kid of mine wents for Christmas?
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Marilyn Monroe. Oh, next here, Johnny, he's only ten, you
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know, go ahead, okay man, No, you want a motorbike?
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Can you tie that? Ten years old? And he says he needs a
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motorbike? Have it? Jay? Well, look, I know a factory
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representative here. I'll make you a good deal on one. And oh now,
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forget it. Johnny. You know I was fourteen before I even had
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a pair of roller skates, and then I had to buy him his head.
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Yeah. Kids are spoiled today. That's half of what's wrong with them.
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Ah, there's the pile on the case. What little we've got?
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Okay, m h how'd that happened? Anne? You mean, how do
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I think it happened? That's good enough for me, Melt. Priker and
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Nick Sheran were both in the rackets for years, as you probably know.
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I've heard rumors well a while back they teamed up and opened a string of
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supper clubs. That's where Piker got it in their main club, the Chess
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Colette. Strictly little Gitleman, huh. More or less, I guess BI
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could afford to be the though they were making and arguing over according to the
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word around, that's the reason for the killing, the way you see it.
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Sure, the figurative half was good, all the tay could be twice
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as good, and the insurance on top of it. You're a fast one,
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Johnny. Anyhow, several people heard the shots about two thirty in the
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morning, it was right after the club closed, but none of them bother
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to report it. The cleanup crew came in at three and found Priker's body.
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He was lying in his office, shut twice gone on the floor beside
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him. No Prince with his own gun, and it was kept there in
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his desk, Where was Nick Sharan? And we picked him up an hour
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later at another one of their clubs. The manager was with him, and
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oh, Benny's stark. Now he was Renney. Yeah, no trigger man
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for nixt mob in the old days, fifteen years overdue for hanging, that's
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our Benny. Anyhow, they both swear that Nick was there from one thirty
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on. What about a perfect test and positive clear to the elbow, then
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you can throd out the window. What do you mean? Earlier that evening
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Nick spent two hours at a shooting gallery uptown hiring. Oh smart, He
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really planned for it, he really did. Without a witness. We haven't
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got a chance. I understand there was a witness, some girl who was
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mixed up in it. Easy, Johnny, you're talking to a rafferty mm
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hmm. So the girl's Irish, Miss Kathleen O'Dare old country back three generations,
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county killerre Then, naturally she's as innocent as a newborn babe. Naturally,
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then how does she figure? A taxi driver knows her, said that
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he saw her leave the club minutes after the shots. She denied it,
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such that she left his clothing time. But now, in my book she
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was lying, scared to talk, paralyzed and with plenty of reason. You
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know Sharan's reputation. What about the cab driver? Now I changed his story.
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He said it might have been some other girls. Oh no, no,
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tell me ed, let me get that's right. These names are two.
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And I forgot to mention that Kathleen's pretty naturally. Anyhow, I let
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her go. I had too, and when I went around to talk to
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her this morning, she'd flown the coop. Any chance I'm a next boy's
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grabbed her, I don't think so. It looked more like she came home
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packed in a hurry, took her kid and blew kid god eight year old
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daughter Irish, and a mother too. I was on sacred ground. He
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was fingering the gun. No, seriously, would you find her? She
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may be able to break Nick's alibi, and it's our only chance, and
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it might be her only chance. Nixt Sharan's not the boy to leave a
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loose end line around. I know I've got thirty men checking bus depots hell
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and no luck. Huh, this mess, this time of year. I'm
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a hard boiled cop, Johnny, I've got no Christmas for it. I'm
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glad it only comes once per Anum. Well, there's not very much to
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go, and that's for sure. I'll see what I can turn up and
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check with you later. All right, that's fine. Oh by the way,
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Johnny, Yeah, about that friend of yours. What's friend? The
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guy with the motorbikes? How would you be getting in touch with you?
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Oh? Yeah, his name's Ralph Sterner. He's in the phone book office
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in the Macley building. Had boiled car. The kid's only young ones.
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Yeah, sure, now you'll find that. Oh there, good, find
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her, keep her alive and get her to talk. How long have I
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got to find her? What do you mean, Nick Sharan? How much
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longer can you hold him? Johnny? He was turned loose an hour ago.
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So that was it. A lot of maybes, a lot of questions,
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and a lot of pressure Joann to be done and done fast. Find
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one Kathleen o there, former hatcheck girl at the shake Collette keep Nick Scharen's
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hoodlums away from her and persuaded the talk and three to one Nick was looking
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for her too. He was free now, on the loose, and he
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might be anywhere. Only the way it turned out, he wasn't just anywhere.
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He was in one particular place, Park writes, back in front of
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the precinct station over Jenny, he was sitting in the backseat of a sedan
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and his trigger man, Benny Stock was at the wheel. Been in a
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long time, hasn't it, Jenny? About five years? As I remember,
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Nick, it was that warehouse robbery over in Queens when you got away
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with forty thousand dollars worth of furze. Ah, you've forgotten me. How
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was it quitted on that one? Oh? Yeah, I know, after
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they pulled the only witness out of the East River, his feet in a
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bucket of cement. Just coincidence. I never seen him before. You've seen
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miss O'Dare before? Sure I have. She works for me. She's a
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good kid, Jenny, So I hear. I wouldn't hum a hell on
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that girl's head. She'll be relieved when I tell her that. Get in
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I want to talk. Oh no, no, sorry, Nick, I
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like it fine, just the way it is in a car. I'd be
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outnumbered. You got me all wrong, Johnny. I don't play that way
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anymore. What about Benny? Has he reformed? Too? Well off?
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That's what Benny? Go take a walk? Yeah, wash, I said,
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go take a walk, Okay, get in, Johnny. What's any
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mo, Nick, you were working on this case? Yeah, I'm on
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it. Why that's what I figured. I was talking to my lawyer.
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Man, So you go to Rafferty's office. I guess the insurance company's gonna
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try to welsh on that clean at your party, Nick, you talk,
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I had a better idea. What's that? You know? It's real nice
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out in Las Vegas this time of year, Johnny. A man can have
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a lot of fun out there for the next month with maybe ten thousand dollars.
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What man, are you talking about? You? I don't have ten
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thousand dollars. You will eighty minutes from now if you say it a word.
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Oh, Nick, you're lucky. We're not standing out there on the
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sidewalk and a car seat. I haven't had run to swing. It's still
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a fool. Uh. I don't know. Why don't you write me about
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it. You'll have plenty of time, he hoped there in the dest cell.
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Suppose I didn't make any claim on that policy, and you wouldn't have
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any reason to stay on a cake. No, say on, Nick,
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one hundred grand is a lot of money. I'd want to find out why
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you didn't make a claim. You know why you're out to pennis on me,
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and so are the cops. Man with the wrecked hasn't got a chance.
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You should have thought of that before you kill Milk Priker. Want to
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know something, Johnny, I didn't kill them, Well, I'm betting you
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did. What do you care who killed him? You're not shedding any tears
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over it, No, but I'd sure hate to see you get away with
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it, and I'd hate it even more if anything happened to that girl,
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Kathy Odd. Now what could happen to her? She just might fall in
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the river. She probably thinks she's safe as long as she hides when the
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police and refuses to talk. She doesn't know you very well? Letting me
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all wrong, Jenny. You know you hear a lot about peace on earth,
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goodwill toward men around this time of year. Well, I don't have
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much goodwill toward the kind of rat you are, and I figured to be
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more peace on earth if you went on. It pushed me, and maybe
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that's what will happen. At least it's fair warning. Yeah, that's fair
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warning. I'm gonna tag you for this, Nick, you can count on
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it. Expense account at him two two dollars and forty cents taxi to the
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east side rooming house of Kathy o Dare. I didn't have much hope of
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turning up anything. Had Rapperty and his men had already been through the place
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inch by inch, but it was the only starting point I had. The
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landlady was out in the uniform policeman let me into Kathy's flat. I spent
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an hour and a half and got nowhere. I went through her mail,
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bills, advertisements, casual notes for men she's met at the club, nothing
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personal, not even a postcard. There want no pictures, photographs if Kathy
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or her daughter anywhere in the flat. She made a clean sweep then left
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in a hurry, And obviously she didn't mean to be found, but I
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had to find her. In fact, it was dusk when I left the
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street. Lamps were on and the colored Christmas lights in the windows am on
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the block. Snow was falling in big, soft gentle plates, and there
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was a holiday feeling in the air. It was neither the time nor the
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setting. Murder. Big contribution, son, You've do something to help pool.
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Oh sure, how's it going this year? Santa it's better than usual,
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but it just seems it is never enough to go around no matter how
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well. Blake you son, Thank you Cat, I'll mention good luck,
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Pop, thank you son. Wow, the city got to clean the streets
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better. I've been waiting for you. Sorry, Benny, it's not my
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day for punks. Get some friends. Want to talk to you. Start
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walking, Johnny down the alley. It's stark down there, Start walking you
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ain't just my hand in my pocket. Better be Benny with two. I'm
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standing up there on the porch watching you're talking about there ain't no christ I
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smashed him in the mouth and knocked him flat, followed it up and kicked
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his gun, and he rolled over, came to his feet and rushed me.
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I was hooking you. He had that he had a coming. Well
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he sure did get it. Yeah. Hey, you know something, Pop,
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I think Benny wants to make a contribution to help the poor. Well
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he Oh, he's a good boy at the moment. At least here you
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go. That ought to help some five hundred dollars for the world. Do
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the most good. Well. Merry Christmas, Son, Happy New Year.
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Yeah, same to you. Popping anymore of them? Hey, taxi Johnny
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dollars Godler speaking Lansley. Oh yeah, that's word you wanted to talk to
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me. That's right. I'm trying to find miss O'Dare. Do you know
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where she is? I think I will be once I meet her. I'm
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an insurance investigator. I want to help her. That's what the other one
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said. What do you mean? What other one? While go short mean
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faced, shift the eye. Benny Stark was that his name? He didn't
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say, mister Doner. I guess he was too busy, busy doing what
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breaking my good right arm? I'll be right over. From Special Investigator Johnny
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Dollar, New York City to the home Office Trimutual Insurance Limit at Hartford,
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Connecticut assignment. The Nick Sharan met her expense account continued. I had him
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five two dollars and thirty cents taxi to missus Gottler's rooming house, the place
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Campy O'Dare had called home until she disappeared. Come in, get your hands.
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Well, look, I'm Johnny Doller. I talking on the phone.
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It's all right, you can put that gun down. Well this it's you
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all right, sorry, mister DOLLI, but I've only got one good arm.
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Left, and I'm having to cheap it. Pull up a chair.
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Thanks kind of rough boy? Huh showed him who was rough? If I
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could have got ahold of my gun, i'd a blasted him Christmas week or
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not, i'd have blasted him. Mister. How you feel me? With
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all these presents to wrap? How can you wrap presents with one arm?
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But it'd been a paper hanger. Well, I'll be glad to help out,
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missus Gunler. A right, won't guarantee what they'll look. I'm sure
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they will appreciate it, and don't worry about their looks. I got to
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get them wrapped at all. Let's see. You know this paper goes on
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that one? All right? The water muffler for my nephew over in Brooklyn.
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You know them terrible winters they have over there. Oh yeah, they're
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frightful. Of course. It may be better this year the Dodgers won the
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pennant. Nothing but luck it won't happen next year. They tell me something,
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Missus Gottler, I'll come, Benny, worked you over? Why did
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he break your arm? Here? Picked this card on it? As soon
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as you get the ribbon tight? Oh okay, all the time of year
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like Christmas. He wanted to know where Kathy went, and I said I
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didn't know it. Jumped on to me, said I was lying if I
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could have got hold of that one? Where did she go? By the
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way, you aiming to break my other arm, mister dollar, with all
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these packages to wrap, holds your finger on that that I had tight Now,
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im postmen in Brooklyn are always busting things open. Well that's one down.
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Where did you say she went? I didn't no this one. I'll
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deliver myself so I don't need to be wrapped, So careful, Kathy live
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out of here in the middle of the night. You think I set up
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twenty four hours a day spying on my rumors, You might if the rumor
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happened to be one of your special favorites. I told you that. What's
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the difference she was, wasn't she? Kathy was everybody's favorite. Anybody that
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ever met her, Oh, you gonna meet them as make remarks about a
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girl that works in a nightclub. But I'll tell you one thing, mister
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dollar. Kathleen know there's a final lady as you'd ever cared to find,
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and I would care to find it. Good luck to get in and if
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you do, let me know where she is. You helped her pack,
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didn't you. Now how did you do that? That's about as good as
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I can get it. Be careful when you deliver it. Those on time
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very times. I didn't know, missus Gottlner. I was guessing, but
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it figured Kathy was scared half to death when she packed up and left here.
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All she had in her mind was to run and hide. She wouldn't
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have thought of stripping that flat, taking out every bit of personal identification.
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Somebody had to help her. How would she go? I don't know.
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Look, you don't get the idea. I'm on her side. She's up
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against a rough deal and doesn't even know it. You've got a sample of
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the way those boys play, and that was only a sample. With Katy
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will be a whole lot worse. They're looking for her, and sooner or
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later they'll find her. Her only chance is for me to get to you
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were first. So I'm not lying, mister Dogger. I don't know where
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she went, so that's the truth. To help me, tried to get
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her to tell me, but she wouldn't. She said, if I knew
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it would be dangerous for me. I helped her pack. Yes, but
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I don't know where she was going. Well, that's said, I guess
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I don't know where to turn next. She apparently didn't have any other close
18:21
friends. I don't even know what she looks like. I've never even seen
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a picture of her. I was hoping you, well, if i'll do
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you any good, I've got one right here in my throwing back a picture.
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What did you think? Give it to me? About a year ago?
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She's never had many taken, but here it's it nks really pretty good,
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don't you think so? Yeah, she's lovely. Well, at least
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I'll be able to write when was this taken? Missus goddler? Now,
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how should I know? Three or four years ago? I guess before she
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came here to the city. This photographer's address. The name of the town.
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Is that where she came from? Branburry, Michigan, Wall. Yes,
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that's her hometown, Bramberry. I had forgotten the name of it,
19:00
and she was just talking about it a week or so ago. She wanted
19:03
to go home for Christmas, but she said she couldn't say. Mister dollar,
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do you think she might? Maybe it's the most likely place A scared
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girl would run to home anyway. It's worth a chance, missus Gottlerton,
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I love you what mister dollar, mister dollar expense account Adam six eighty eight
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dollars and thirty five cents. Hotel and Nincinettal's in New York and transportation to
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Bramburry, Michigan. Bramburry turned out to be a lumber village half hidden among
19:36
the pine covered hills. It was a little bigger than a wide spot in
19:38
the road, but not much bigger. A foot of new snow had fallen
19:42
within the past twenty four hours. A fluffy white blanket lay softly on the
19:47
trees and the housetops and filled the deep hollows in the frozen ground. Men
19:51
in bright red plannel shirts drove horse drawn logging sleds through the forest trails,
19:56
and their shouts sounded sharp and clear. Crystalline tinkle in the icy Branberry looked
20:02
like the place where Christmas was invented. It was beautiful and very quiet.
20:07
When it came to putting out information, I found it out first when I
20:11
tried the local telephone operator number. Please, I uh just checked in here
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at the hotel operator. There doesn't seem to be a phone book, so
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steal them. That's why traveling people going through Oh souvenir hunters. I suppose
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that. Look, I wanted to call the O dairs because you put o'dares.
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There ain't but one that's oh Mike, Oh, and that's the one
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I want to call. Would you mind ringing Hill? Do? No good?
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He ain't there. He's slabbing up a number four meal today. Well,
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actually it's his daughter I want to talk to. Yeah, that's right
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Kathleen, you know, just growed up with hers? All. Oh,
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well, would you mind friend her? No, I've never met her but
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from I came here from New York. But Johnny Dollar, now, would
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you please ring Kathleen? And here in New York City, I know where
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she lives. And what give you the idea she's up here? I'm psychic?
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You what lawk? Where can I get in touch with her? I
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wouldn't know anything about it, mister Dollar, and I can't give out that
21:07
kind of information. You better go on back to New York and writer a
21:10
letter. Let me talk to your supervisor. Supervisor. Well, I'm all
21:15
there is so I guess that's me started talking. I got it you're welcome.
21:25
I got the same kind of run around from the hotel proprietor. As
21:27
soon as I mentioned Kathy, he suddenly forgot his own name age in the
21:30
time of day. One thing sure, this town took care of its own.
21:36
I wondered if the law in Branburry would take the same attitude. I
21:38
decided I'd better go find out. As it happened, I didn't have far
21:44
to go. On the sidewalk in front of the hotel, the law came
21:47
to me just a second there, and I said, hmm, I'd like
21:51
to have a little talk with you, if you know mine mine. It's
21:53
quite a change to find somebody here who wants to talk. I understand you
21:57
just got in from New York. Here own business. Look, you know
22:02
why I'm here. But now everybody in town knows got any identification on you?
22:07
Yeah? Have you? My name is Martin, Dan Martin. I'm
22:11
the deputy sheriff in charge of this part of the county. Oh, then
22:15
you're just the man I was looking for. Is that so? I'm Johnny
22:18
Dollar insurance investigator. I'm looking for a girl named Kathleen O. Dare do
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you know where she is? What do you want with her. I'm working
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on a murder case. She's a witness. Is there any kind of a
22:29
charge against her? Oh, I just want to talk to her. What
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makes you think she's here? Are you a friend of hers? Mister Martin?
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I've been in love with Kathy since we went to grade school. I'd
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be willing to die for a Does that answer your question? All right?
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Let me put it this way. You think you're helping her by hiding her
22:47
out. All of you thinks so, but you're wrong. You're helping her
22:49
right into her grave. Kathy doesn't figure it that way. She's scared.
22:53
She doesn't know what she thinks. I know these boys who were after her,
22:56
they don't play kid games, and lady, they're gonna find her.
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So if you love her, and if you know where she is, you
23:03
better take me to her before it's too late. I don't know. I
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don't know what it is. Kathy's mixed up in. I didn't want to
23:11
ask her, but I know it isn't the police she's afraid of, and
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I don't think it's you. No. At the time she ran out,
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I wasn't even in the picture. I'm on her side too, mister Martin,
23:22
and I've got to see her. Go talk to her father. Oh,
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Mike, see what he thinks. He's not at home right now?
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Yeah, I know he's out of number four mill. How do I get
23:32
there? The County pickup trucked his park down the block. The tire chains
23:45
bit into the packed snow and pushed the four miles of logging road behind us.
23:49
It was late afternoon, and the sun had dropped behind the timbered slopes,
23:52
throwing a pale sheet of cold yellow against the western sky. Here and
23:57
there, a few scattered lights were going on in the windows of the village,
24:02
in the bunk houses of the lumber camps, right white smarts against the
24:06
darkening shadows, emptiness, loneliness, and somewhere in it a frightened girl and
24:11
hiding a girl who'd run away from the city of a hundred million lights and
24:17
from an unsolved murder. Michael Dare was winding up a job working at the
24:27
Big Slapping Song. I stood by and waited for him to finish. Good
24:30
night, r you, mister Dollar. This is the last one, Okay,
24:47
it's the last of it now after Christmas. I'm sorry to keep you
24:51
waiting. I'm sorry mister o'daire. My name is Johnny Mind. I know
24:53
all about you. Dan Martin phone said you was on your way out.
25:00
The answer is no, I see. I've headed over since Dan called.
25:06
Before i'd have anything happened to Kathy. I'd rather see ten murderers going home
25:10
now. Look, hiding out won't help. As long as Nick sher and
25:12
is free, Kathy's in danger. He can't hurt her if he can't find
25:15
her. I found her, mister o'dair, just by luck. There's not
25:19
one chance in a million of sounds like a car. Oh the carnation had
25:26
drive out here this time of the evening. We walked over to the big
25:30
door. As the car had stopped about twenty yards away. A man got
25:33
out and turned toward us. I was standing out of the dock light,
25:36
so he recognized me. Before I got a good look at him, he
25:38
jumped back in the car and went for his gun. Benny stuck. Get
25:42
back, mister dare. It was too dark to get a decent shot.
25:48
I tried once more and missed, and the car disappeared behind the trees.
25:55
Ster Dollar, who was that one of them? That's right, Mike,
25:59
They found her. Johnny Dollar damn marking here. I was up the street.
26:21
We listen to Jarren. If they've traced Kathy, O'Dare here to you?
26:23
A nice little town of Branbury, who has Nick Shuran's boys. One
26:26
of them, a trigger man named Benny Stark, came out to the saw
26:29
mill hell a few minutes ago. I traded a couple of shots with him,
26:30
but he got away in a car. Did he head north or back
26:33
toward town Georgetown? I think you can't see the turnoff from here? All
26:37
right, Dollar, you're packing a gun? Will you take a pickup truck
26:40
and black bet turnof hold it until I can get somebody out there to relieve
26:42
you. Right, how many deputies you got? Deputies? Oh? What
26:45
about volunteers? Is this Benny Stark the man Kathy's afrido he's one of them?
26:49
Then I'll have volunteers twenty men within a half hour, armed with deer
26:52
rifles, and every one of them a dead shot. From Special Investigator Johnny
27:00
Location, Branburry, Michigan to the home office Primutual Insurance limitedt Hartford, Connecticut,
27:03
assignment the Nick Shuring matter expense account continued. I them eight three dollars
27:11
sixty cents for two packs of cigarettes and a pint of applejack borrowed from the
27:14
foreman's locker at the sawmill. I figured these as standard equipment for holding down
27:18
a roadblock at ten degrees above zero, and Mike Odare agreed with me one
27:22
hundred percent. Oh, I'll tell you one thing. They can make it
27:26
out of corn rye parley, make it at a gold if they want to,
27:30
but they'll never come up with anything better than what they make out of
27:33
apples. Yet here have a short term, Johnny, No thanks, I'll
27:36
save it for later. Well, I just it's got the taste of Indian
27:42
summer in its You ought to see this country around that time here, Johnny,
27:47
Great, your heart, it's so beautiful. It's beautiful now with a
27:49
snow on, and it would be more so if there wasn't a killer running
27:53
Loosen it, Johnny. I want to ask you something about my daughter,
27:57
and I want you to answer me honest, all right, it's no use
28:02
trying to fool Yeah, she's here, all right, I know, but
28:04
she hasn't told me what it was. It happened in New York, but
28:07
she ran away from it. Somehow. I figured it was just as well,
28:11
not to ask her. You're sure if Dan Martin said practically the same
28:15
thing. Den's been in love with Kathy since he was twelve years old.
28:18
He's a good man, solid, so I forget any Way, she was
28:22
scared, scared half to Dick, and she'd come home for help, so
28:27
we tried to help him. What wasn't you wanted to ask me, mister
28:30
Odare you mentioned a murder case, Johnny? You didn't give any of the
28:34
details, just said that Kathy was her witness. Is is she mixed up
28:40
in this murder? And you wanted an honesstancing? All right? I'm not
28:45
sure they see That's why I wanted to talk to her, get a story,
28:48
the truth. I realized on the start she might be guilty. I
28:52
don't think so, but it's a possibility. You may as well know about
28:55
it. I guess you realized it wouldn't make any difference, not to me
28:59
or to Dan. Yeah. I figured. In other words, you're with
29:00
me as long as I'm trying to protect her, but you'll fight me if
29:03
I find reason to think she's guilty. It's about it, Johnny. Well,
29:07
at least we know where we stand, and I hope it won't come.
29:11
What's the matter a car coming light on the trees there at the bend.
29:15
Yeah, you're suppose maybe probably not that you can't tell. Better get
29:21
behind the truck just in case, and I'll have to shift into low the
29:22
wedge past us and let me get that spotlight on me. I guess,
29:26
so just have another quick one. The wind cuts right through your bones.
29:36
It's a dark colored said Dan. It might be him, Fenny. I
29:40
had been hoping for two months. I kat he'd come home for Christmas,
29:42
and they didn't figure I'd be out here in the woods hiding behind a truck
29:48
waiting to shoot it out with somebody that wanted to kill it. It's a
29:49
crazy world. Keep your head down a stilt, yeah, just the driver
29:56
by himself, wearing a dark cant no you know that kind of looks like
30:03
right, hollly you de what that's tied perkins or wreck, no doubt about
30:07
it. When all right, shoot better wave him out past. He probably
30:11
thinks we need help. It's all right, ted, it's my good hair,
30:17
poor head head. We don't need anything. Eh well, all right,
30:21
thanks anyway. And there's one thing about people around here. They mind
30:27
their own business and don't ask no questions, and they don't answer them often
30:32
either. How's that applejack holding out? Two long hours went past. Only
30:45
three cars came out from the village, and each time a long moment of
30:48
tension while we waited to identify the occupants. But all of them were townspeople,
30:52
and he didn't show. One truck came down the logging road from the
30:56
back hills, loaded with dwarf spruce and fir peace on Earth, good will
31:02
toward Mada. We were waiting for an assassin, but the truck only carried
31:07
Christmas trees. The night was crystal clear, with bright stars hanging low in
31:11
the blackness. But I kept turning colder and colder, and believe on the
31:15
ample jack didn't help much. And the wind too, changed gradually and blew
31:18
fitful and gusty and strange. It's kind of storm come a blizzard, maybe
31:26
not to night, to morrow some time or tomorrow night. I know this
31:30
country, know the signs. There's an odd feeling in the air, all
31:34
right, there's an even order. When in my leg a log rolled over
31:38
on it, putting it six years ago. Bo, there's me some in
31:41
the winter till that wear so right before the storm, and that's kind of
31:45
a handy thing to have. Well, that's one way of looking at it.
31:48
I guess like one time, wind can't It was little winter More was
31:52
still alive, cried Rostersould. We had a big measles epidemic here in Branberry,
31:59
And every night Kathy used to add a line to her prayers, kid,
32:02
say, and please let me catch the measles so I can stay out
32:07
of school like the other kids. Now she's wanted as a witness in a
32:12
murder case, and somebody's prowling out there in the dark trying to find her
32:15
and kill her. Little Kathy, who never harmed anybody in her whole life.
32:22
Some things just don't make sense, Johnny. Some things never have.
32:27
There was another time once when men like Benny were prowling in the dark trying
32:30
to find a little child and kill him. And he hadn't harmed anybody either.
32:36
That was nearly two thousand years ago. Yeah, sure it was.
32:40
I like you, Johnny, Kathy, you'll like it too. And little
32:44
Jail, oh ah, there's a pair for that kid. Looks more like
32:50
a mother did at her aide. Another car coming astirl there. Yeah,
32:53
so there is and this just might be the one. Maybe I wish that.
33:00
But Jack hadn't run out. But it was only a couple of men.
33:08
Deputy Martin had sent out from town to relieve us and take over.
33:12
Big men, calm and quiet, wearing plaid mackinaws and heavy laced boots and
33:15
carrying Winchester ninety fours over their arms. They told us Benny Stark had been
33:20
seen. He'd come up from the west, driven onto one of the roadblocks
33:23
unexpectedly, and a flurry of shouts he'd broken through. The men couldn't understand
33:28
his persistence. They thought he'd run for it, get out of the area
33:31
once his presence was known. I didn't bother to explain, to put him
33:35
straight, but I knew Benny had never run, not now. He was
33:37
a trigger man, a professional killer with a reputation at stake, and he
33:42
had his orders to silence Kathy o'dair. A half hour later, we'll be
33:51
back in town. Turning into the main street around the village square, strings
33:54
of pillyed lights and a tall pine in the center of the square blinked and
33:58
sparkled as they swayed in the wind. Around one hundred cars and trucks were
34:01
parked in the street and in the lot behind the town hall, and the
34:05
sound of singing drifted out from inside. They're practicing carols and things for the
34:09
big doings on Christmas Eve. He did beautiful. The men at the roadblock
34:15
had given a description of Benny's car and the license number. It was just
34:19
barely possible. Good something in mind, Johnny. Let's take a look through
34:25
those park cars. I don't know. If it was me, I sure
34:30
would be hanging around here. I'd stick to the tall timber. Yeah,
34:35
you're out of city boy, in my tall timorous foreign soil. To Benny,
34:37
he's only comfortable when he's close to a crowd. He the fellow that's
34:40
supposed to have done that murder now is the man he works for, a
34:44
cafe or ex gangster, a man named Nick Shern. Let's check that lot
34:47
around at the side. I don't think he'd show here in front. He'd
34:52
be taking a big chance showing anywhere in the town this size. People know
34:55
each other. It's his job to take chances, and he probably doesn't realize.
35:00
Quevelets that said Dan against the building with the side window broken, shifting
35:07
cool that she's card Johnny, Yeah, I wait here. I eased my
35:13
gun out of the holster and started toward the car. There were no lights
35:16
in the lot, only the soft glow reflected from the packed snow on the
35:20
foot, and the car itself stood in the dark shadows next to the building.
35:23
I couldn't see whether anyone was in it or not. The singing seemed
35:27
to swell louder as I approached. I moved slowly, watching for any sudden
35:30
movement. The car was empty. It was time past time to talk to
35:46
Kathy Adare, and, with a pressure tightening, the danger close to home
35:51
now, her father was ready to take me to her. We drove over
35:53
to Dan Martin's house, where it turned out Kathy and her daughter was staying.
35:57
Dan's mother had been looking after her. Dan was there when we arrived,
36:00
busy on the phone. Yeah, I know the car all right,
36:01
the one Jed bought last spring down in Bay City seven three? Where was
36:07
it park? All right? Keep an eye out, Charlie. So on,
36:13
Benny Stark has stole himself aunto the car, took Jed Wharton's station wagon.
36:15
We what for? That was a better when he had Charlie says,
36:20
the steering gear was sprung. I guess it happened when he crashed that roadblock.
36:22
But that was Kathy and the young and oh fine, they were sleep
36:25
upstairs. Mom's next door helping missus Barton stuff a turkey, Johnny, you'll
36:32
you figured it could wait till more. I'm sorry, mister o'dar. I've
36:36
got to talk to her tonight. All right, I'll go wake her up,
36:51
mister dollar. No matter what she's done, don't hurt her anymore than
36:57
you have to, as far as I know at the moment, and all
37:00
she's guilty of is withholding information, and most people would have done the same
37:04
thing. Nick Suran's a rough boy to tangle with. She was scared,
37:07
that's all lost her head. She never did belong in a city. She
37:12
belongs right here in Branbury. This is her kind of life. Why did
37:15
she leave? Well, we argued one day and she said she'd show me.
37:24
So she ran off and married that fella. He treated her bad,
37:30
finally left her, but she was too proud to come back. She wouldn't
37:36
have come back now she hadn't have been so scared. Well maybe it'll work
37:40
out now. She ought to stay. Her kid, ought to grow up
37:45
here, learned the outdoors in the woods like Kathy used to know it.
37:50
Or she roamed through those hills like a young Indian, knew every trail in
37:53
that forest, every timber camp and trapper's cabin from here to the ridge.
38:00
Remember one time the two of us were up towards what's the matter? What
38:02
is it? Mister old dear? He said, you said you Kathy were
38:07
sleep upstairs? That what you said? Dan? Of course that's what I
38:10
Mike. What's happened? They're not up here, They're not up there anywhere
38:15
else in the house there, God, Johnny Dollar might go there, Johnny,
38:39
and you signed a Cathy. No, the boys of the highway turn
38:42
off haven't seen her or Benny either one. Not a soul out that way
38:45
in the last hour. What about there at this Hormon nothing, Mike,
38:47
No fresh tracks on the logging road, no sign of her. And the
38:51
worst thing is it's starting to snow again. Yeah, you're in town two,
38:54
Dan Martin, just phone No luck. She hasn't shown up at any
38:58
of the road block. She's she's around somewhere, and we've got to find
39:00
her. We will, Mike, and it's gotta be fast. Johnny there's
39:04
a blizzard coming up, and that gunman, Benny Stock is around two.
39:07
Maybe he's already found her, maybe even took her from the house Hard and
39:09
Jill Bolt. Maybe she didn't get scared and run. Maybe it was him.
39:14
Maybe she I stop at that kind of thing. It's not gonna help
39:15
any help. I don't know, but I've got a half baked idea,
39:19
and I may be right. Stay there at the house. I'm coming back
39:21
to pick you up. And one thing you can do while you're waiting,
39:23
what Johnny pray? From Special Investigator Johnny Dollar, location, Branbury, Michigan
39:31
to the home office Trimutual Insurance Limited, Hartford, Connecticut. Assignment the Nick
39:36
Shuran matter or more important, find Kathy O'Dare item twelve on expense account four
39:43
dollars and ninety cents. A tank full of gas for the county pickup I'd
39:45
borrow from Deputy Sheriff Dan Martin. The falling snow was thickening now and the
39:50
wind was rising and steadying in the northwest. The night had all the makings
39:53
of a blizzard, and wherever Kathy and her daughter had gone, we had
39:57
to find them before it hit. It was ten fourteen PM. When I
40:02
pulled up at the side porch of the Adare house, Kathy's father came hurrying
40:06
out to the truck, leaving the door open behind him and butting his heavy
40:08
mcinaws. He ran and he knew was my cuttif thing. All right,
40:13
get in, shut the door. Hey, we'll get a foot of snow
40:16
before money with a zero win behind it. Now, listen, Mike,
40:20
I think we can forget any idea that Benny found her and got her out
40:22
of the house. In that case, she wouldn't have taken your car.
40:25
He's already got one. I know I thought her that, And he wouldn't
40:28
have given her time to dress herself in jail the way she did with heavy
40:30
clothes and snow boots. And she wouldn't have taken the rifle. And what
40:34
has happened. She knew I'd be there to talk to her sometime this evening.
40:37
I think she lost a nerve, couldn't face it, decided to run
40:39
again. Maybe so, but where Johnny, That's what I want you to
40:43
tell me that Now. I don't mean you knew what she was going to
40:45
do and where she was going to go, or how do you think I
40:49
can tell you. Look, Cathy knew about the roadblocks Stan Martin set up
40:52
to trap Benny Stock, knew where they were, so she didn't want to
40:55
be seen. Then naturally she'd avoid them. She couldn't. Not. If
40:59
she wanted to get away, take the highway to Flint to Detroit, she'd
41:01
have to pass one of them at least. But she hasn't passed any of
41:05
them. So she's still in this area, and I don't think she ever
41:07
meant to leave it. But then, Martin said, Cathy used to spend
41:10
a lot of time in the woods when she was growing up. He said,
41:13
she knew every back trail in these hills, logging camps, trappers,
41:15
cabins. She did. She used to worry that dickens out to be the
41:19
way she Yeah, Now, where would she go, Mike, if she
41:22
wanted to hide out back in the hill somewhere? There's a lot of places,
41:27
Chippewa canyons, one here for timbercamps abandoned in the winter, some cabins
41:31
along it. No, No, she couldn't make it. There's a roadblocked
41:36
before you get to the turnout there. It's gotta be someplace she could reach
41:38
without being seen. There's there's workers flats, but that's twelve miles of foot
41:45
trail. She wouldn't try it in this weather, not with Gill along anyway.
41:49
Then there's Lake Pine. No, it's over the other way. Pine
41:54
Lake Road. Where's that runs northwest of town? Not much better than the
41:59
wagon room. Dan didn't put a block on it because it dead ends at
42:02
the lake about five miles out. What's out there? Nothing at the lake,
42:06
but you can go on up Pine Creek about four miles on foot,
42:09
and there's some cabins. Maybe you waste the time. Johnny must get gone
42:19
expense account. It am thirteen six dollars and ninety cents one dry cell electric
42:22
lantern, an extra pair of batteries picked up at the Branberry Hardware Company.
42:24
And the way through town, the falling snow, driven by a bitter cold
42:29
wind, formed a dense curtain in front of our headlights, and from the
42:31
turnoff all the way up the narrow, twisting road to Pine Lake, I
42:34
had to keep the truck in second gear. There were car tracts in the
42:37
road, all right, several of them, but they were covered now with
42:40
a new blanket of snow, and it was impossible to tell whether they'd been
42:44
made earlier, tonight or a week ago. The road ends a couple of
42:50
yards past this next turn, and we'll soon know. There's four or five
42:53
side turnoffs, clearings where you can pack. We'll have to check out of
42:59
them. I guess all right, that draw there on the right, that
43:01
break there in the trees, that's where the Pine Creek trailer starts. I
43:06
will swing in, Mike. I guess we won't have to check those turnops.
43:08
Eh. Is that your car over there under the trees. Yeah,
43:15
that's it. I left Mike waiting in the cab while I went over to
43:19
look inside the car. It was empty, abandoned, and there was no
43:23
note, no clue of any kind to tell where Kathy had gone. I
43:27
raised the hood and felt the motor block ice cold. The car had been
43:30
here for some time. I flashed the lantern on the ground and followed the
43:34
faint tracks made by two pairs of snow boats the end of the deep draw
43:37
that led back into the hills the start of the Pine Creek trail. I
43:42
snapped off the lantern and stumbled through the snow back to the truck. But
43:49
you're fine, Johnny, it's them all right, they've headed up the trail.
43:51
I found tracks in the snow. Then we'd better get started. Oh
43:53
wait, I'll go after the mic. You take the truck, go into
43:57
town, find Dan Martin, bring help as fast as you can. Storm's
44:00
getting worse. No you don't. I know. There is dark and a
44:02
pet trailer with a blizzard coming on. And if you think you're got to
44:06
protect me, but I said, I get on to Mike. There's no
44:07
time, and you're wrong. I'm not protecting you. I'm protecting myself.
44:10
What do you mean that bum leg of yours. I don't want you on
44:13
my hands too, along with the girls. All right, Johnny, I'll
44:16
go after day and hurry Mike. I'm depending on you. Yeah, good
44:23
luck, Johnny, see you, Mike. I stood there in the snow,
44:37
watching the headlights of the truck move away. Finally they swung around the
44:42
bend and disappeared, and I suddenly felt more alone than I ever had in
44:46
my life. I've gotten rid of Mike. Deliberately sent him away on purpose,
44:52
because I hadn't told him everything. I could see no point in tearing
44:54
his heart out. There was another car parked on beyond Kathy he's nearly hit
45:00
by the trees. Jed Wharton's station wagon, the car that had been stolen
45:05
by a killer named Benny Stark. It took me half an hour to cover
45:15
the first mile, and the storm kept getting worse. The beam of the
45:19
lantern penetrated a bare thirty feet ahead of me before it was smothered out in
45:22
the white blackness of the night. After a few hundred yards, the tracks
45:25
I was trying to follow and nearly disappeared. Snowbolverwre lotted out. I gave
45:30
up looking for them and stuck to Old Mike's description of the trail following the
45:35
left bank of the frozen creek. The drifts were deeper down along the creek
45:37
bottoms, and the going was rougher, but I didn't dare leave it to
45:40
look for better footing. It was my only landmark. The trail itself was
45:45
buried. Any man who lost his way to night and wandered off into one
45:47
of those side gullies but want us straight to his death. An hour passed,
45:59
then an hour and a half. For two hours, maybe I lost
46:01
all track of time and distance. The wind cut through my clothes, and
46:06
the numbing pole crept into me, deeper and deeper. Gradually, the walking,
46:10
stumbling, breathing, even thinking became automatic, and without feeling, the
46:15
world itself seemed to narrow down to a tiny circle close around me, and
46:21
all beyond was chaos, blackness, and roaring storm. I tripped over fallen
46:25
logs and floundered back to my feet, dropped my lantern and recovered it,
46:30
broke through the crested brists and struggled for footing, and kept on moving in
46:39
the weird nightmare of the blizzard. I could highly recognize reality when I came
46:44
face to face with it. When a beam from my lantern touched him,
46:46
crouching by a tree a few yards away, I could barely accept him as
46:50
being real. He'd been watching my light as I approached, waiting for me.
46:54
It was Benny Stark, with his gun leveled and named, Oh,
47:00
Benny, prop that gun. A curtain of snow swept between us, then
47:12
plotting out the side of them, and I was grateful. I turned and
47:15
stumbled on into the storm, moving in pitch darkness, now except for the
47:19
ghostly glow from the snow covered ground. The second shot had smashed my landin
47:23
and I had nothing left to go by, but instinct and luck and they
47:27
weren't enough. Within fifteen minutes, I was hopelessly lost. That's when I
47:39
started hearing the music miles from no place where there couldn't be any music except
47:45
inside my head. The cold and fatigue were finally doing their work. I
47:50
knew the signs. The next step was to start wandering in circles, smaller
47:54
and smaller ones, and the last step to drop exhausted and go peacefully,
47:59
to sleep, peacefully and permanently. But the sound kept going louder, and
48:07
I moved in the direction it seemed to be coming from. It couldn't be
48:10
just illusions. It had to be real. Hello, Hello, there.
48:22
Then suddenly, only a few yards away, a brilliant blaze of light exploded
48:25
from the darkness, and it seemed that a golden haired girl was standing in
48:30
the middle of it, And for a moment, my sanity tottered, who's
48:32
out there? My golden vision was wearing blue jeans and a flannel shirt and
48:37
was holding a rifle. She looked exactly like the photograph I'd seen of Kathy
48:39
Adare, And the blaze of light came from an open cabin door. Who
48:44
is it speaker for our shoe. Oh ken, hold of mistair. It's
48:49
Johnny Dollar. Are you getting warm now? I don't think I'll ever get
49:00
warm again. You will if you don't move away from stove a little the
49:02
back. You're sure you're starting to smoke? Yeah? I thought I was
49:06
willing to feel something. How's the firewood? There's plenty. There's plenty of
49:10
food and radio. If I hadn't heard that music had a blunded right on
49:15
past this cabin. We've got everything. You can hold out for a month
49:19
if we have to. I hope we have to. What about your daughter
49:22
su al right? Sure she's fine. The picnic for her a camping trip,
49:30
and she's saund asleep back there, and I lean too dreaming about Santa
49:32
Claus. I suppose I wish I could. How did you find me,
49:38
mister Dollar? Huh? Guess work. I was born under a lucky story.
49:44
I wasn't. Oh on all. I think you've been pretty lucky considering
49:47
everything, more so than your landlady back in New York, Missus Grapner,
49:53
what do you mean? Pretty stark? Want to see her? Tried to
49:57
find out where you were when she wouldn't tell her. I mean broke her
50:00
arm. No, oh, well, it's a rough game, is so
50:05
dear, trying to play it cozy with a mobster like Nick Shran. You
50:08
know, of course, that he sent Penny here to find you. You'll
50:10
have a hard time finding me in this place. He did find you.
50:15
Maybe he followed you from the house. I saw you drive through town anyway.
50:20
I ran into him back down the trailerways. I thought that you're chooting
50:22
a while ago. You did. He tried to ambush me. He thought
50:27
he had the drop and he wouldn't give up. I had to kill him.
50:45
Johnny Dollar, Johnny Dollar, still it j O h n n y
50:55
d O L l a R. That's not right. You forgot to capitalize.
51:02
You're right, honey. Let me hear you spend your name, okay,
51:07
capital j I L L jill, capital O apostrophe, apostrophe. I
51:15
never can see that capital d ari dare. Of course, my last name
51:21
is actually something else. I forget, but my mother says I'm really an
51:24
o' dare not the least out about it. I could see it in a
51:28
minna. I like you, Johnny Dollar, and I kind of like you
51:31
too. Jell old Dare, do you think my mother's pretty. I think
51:37
she's lovely. Why don't you get married to her so I can have a
51:39
daddy. Well, that's certainly something to think about and not a bad idea.
51:47
Now I'll be quiet before you wake her up. I'm already awaken.
51:51
With a plot like that being hatched, I think I better stay awake.
51:54
Is there coffee? Johnny? From Special Investigator Johnny Dollar. Location a small
52:00
cabin in the timber outside Branbury, Michigan, to the home office Trimutual Insurance
52:05
Limited, Hartford, Connecticut. Assignment the Nike Suran Matter expense account, final
52:09
page item fifteen one million dollars for a certain feeling. I realize, of
52:15
course, that the amount of this item is somewhat unusual. It may be
52:19
cause for mild criticism by your accounting department unless the accompanying report includes an adequate
52:23
and detailed explanation. Therefore, to avoid unnecessary correspondence and delay, I am
52:30
attaching said explanation here with here's your coffee. Canny. Say how long did
52:37
I sleep, Jenny? Oh, A couple of hours. It's around four
52:42
in the morning. Storm hasn't let up at all, has it? Oh?
52:44
It's worse if anything. Still, Honey, it's four o'clock in the
52:49
morning and your eyes are just about to fall out. Now you go back
52:52
there and go to sleep. Do I have to moon? You have to
52:55
long, mister Johnny Dollar, and you were having a lot of fun to
52:59
you, Well, that's life REALI night now, good night night. Proud
53:07
of her. I'm crazy about her, that's what you mean. She's a
53:10
great little girl. She's the only thing I ever did in my whole life
53:15
that turned out right that bad. Huh, Johnny, it's no good.
53:22
I know why you're here, I know what you expect from and the answer
53:24
is no, you're jumping the gun. I haven't asked you anything. You
53:28
will, You haven't done all this for nothing. You're going to ask me
53:31
to come back to New York and testify against Nick Sharan. I might ask
53:35
you to tell the truth. Is that just another way of wording. I
53:38
didn't see anything, hear anything. I don't know anything about it, and
53:44
I have nothing to say. So next Sharan gets away with another murder,
53:47
I wouldn't know anything about that, and sooner or later, of course he'll
53:51
kill you too. He sent Benny Stark out to do it, and Benny
53:53
missed, but he's got other boys, or he might even handle the job
53:57
himself. Why by now you ought to know that. I'm not going to
54:00
tell, but there's always that chance you might change your mind. And Nick's
54:02
a gambler, but he likes the odds on his side. He doesn't take
54:06
chances. Whenever he can, he stacks that deck. I wish I could
54:10
help you, Johnny, but I don't know anything about it. I left
54:15
before it happened. How long have you worked for Nick? Sharon known him
54:20
two years. I'm not wide eyed about him, Johnny. I've heard what
54:24
he's been what he may even still be a gangster, hoodlum, racketeer,
54:30
but that's none of my business. The club was legitimate. My job there
54:35
was on the level, and he never got out of line once and now
54:38
doubt. He's always been kind to his mother and loves dogs and children.
54:42
I wouldn't know except children. He's crazy about them. He was always buying
54:46
something for Jill, asking about it. And they also shot and killed Milk
54:51
Pricker. I couldn't say, I see, well, you're letting a lot
54:58
of people down, people here in Branbury that you grew up with people that
55:01
love you, your father and Dan Martin. What have they got to do
55:05
with it? You know, it's a great country up here. I like
55:07
to spend more time in it. And it's a big country, big and
55:10
beautiful and dangerous like that blizzard outside there. It's not the kind of country
55:16
that turns out cowards. Cowards. Your father said something yesterday that some people
55:22
belong in cities and some don't, and that you're one of the second kind.
55:27
He was right. The city's made a coward of you. You don't
55:30
understand. They know it, oh, Mike, Dan, all of them.
55:32
Of course they'll never mention it, but you're letting them down. And
55:37
they know it, and you know it, Kathy. They don't have a
55:38
daughter to think of it. It's not her fear we're talking about. It's
55:42
yours, all right, I'm scared. I got reason to be. It's
55:45
easy for you to talk. You don't know what fear is, what it
55:46
can do to you. I don't. It can push you and drive you
55:50
and make you do things you hate yourself for, and it can destroy How
55:52
would you know? How would any of them know? Who haven't felt it,
55:55
who haven't been there? Canthy? You are not alone We've all been
56:00
there. It's not the fear that's important, it's the courage you bring up
56:04
to fight it. I've tried, I've I've nearly gotten crazy trying to think
56:07
it out. But it always comes back to one thing. Jill. She
56:12
is what counts. Nothing else matters. And if you love her, teacher
56:15
to grow up without fear, sacrifice anything, if you have to leave in
56:17
your life, but teach her courage. There's nothing greater you could do for
56:24
Sorry. Sorry, sorry, I knew what was right, Johnny. I
56:32
knew all the time. Sure, cuse you did. All you needed was
56:37
a little push. I want to tell me about it now. I was
56:45
to hear at the club that night when it happened. I stayed after closing.
56:50
I had some presents for Jill and I wanted to wrap them before I
56:52
took them home. Nick and North Priker were upstairs in the office. Nick
56:57
was there, Yes, I could hear them arguing. They didn't know I'd
57:00
stayed in the go on. I heard Mel yell out. He said no,
57:06
Nick, No, and then I heard the shot. Yes, I
57:08
didn't even think. I ran up to the office. Mel was lying on
57:13
the floor and Nick was standing there. With a gun. He told me
57:15
to get out and to keep quiet. I wanted to keep on living.
57:20
That's it. Yes, will you make a statement to the police, testify
57:23
at the trial. Yes, I'm going. Will you help me, Johnny,
57:31
Will you stand by me? You know I will got too, because
57:35
I'm scared. I'll be scared all the way. But I'll do it if
57:38
you will help me. I'll help you, Kathy all away. Why don't
57:44
you curl up here and get some sleep? Come on, maybe, no,
57:49
I can't sleep. It's going to be all right, thanks Johnny giving
57:54
me the push. Oh sure, honey, you know something, Johnny,
58:02
I'm with Jill. I like you too. She went to sleep with a
58:09
face against my chest, and after a while little Jill came tiptoeing in and
58:15
curled up on the other side. And I sat there, holding them both,
58:19
thinking and waiting for the dawn. So that's what I mean about a
58:24
million dollar feeling. True, it wasn't my little girl or my big girl
58:29
either, but for the moment at least, well, that item still goes.
58:36
I'll still tag that feeling at one million dollars. And I was sorry.
58:44
When the storm was over and the rescue party came up from town because
58:47
I felt I'd had one moment in a lifetime that I'd never find again.
58:52
Good me went went this morning. The big event of the year in Bramburry
59:01
was the Christmas Eve show in the town Hall. There was music and a
59:05
pageant and singing, and everybody took part in it, from the youngest kid
59:08
in town to the toughest, old grizzled lumberjack from the back hills. Jill
59:13
was in the children's car as and Old Mike was to operate the spotlights,
59:15
so they went on ahead. I took Kathy, and since she wasn't quite
59:19
ready to face people yet, we made a point of getting there late.
59:22
I didn't care when we got there, as long as I was with her.
59:27
We slipped in quietly and took seats at the back of the room.
59:30
The spring group from the high school orchestra was playing, and no one noticed
59:32
us, not even Old Mike, Cappy's father, who was working in the
59:36
spotlights. I hope Jill Dagar actually hadn't had any time to practice with him.
59:40
Well, she'll do all right. We'd been there about ten minutes when
59:45
somebody else came in and slid into the one seat between us and the door.
59:49
I didn't look around until I felt cappy stiffen beside me. It was
59:52
Nick Sheran. Nobody gets excited now a mas any sudden moves. We just
59:57
said here quietly. He slid his hand over the feelings side my coat under
1:00:00
my arm. I'm backing a run as effect. I'd left my gun at
1:00:04
Cathy's household. Mike had been dubious about it, but with Benny dead,
1:00:07
I'd seen no reason to carry it. And after all, it was Christmas
1:00:09
Eve, all right. Now, I was gonna ease out of you now,
1:00:12
and I'll attract no attention many crazy Nick, And just don't forget one
1:00:17
thing though, And that hole that's gun on you saying right at the miller
1:00:22
Cathy's back. Let's go, no choice, Kenny. Come on, the
1:00:29
back of the room was dark, nobody paid any attention, and somebody was
1:00:31
always leaving or coming back in. Come on, I got a car over
1:00:40
to Sidi. Johnny, watch your dollar. We'll be right back. Mike.
1:00:46
Just gonna get some there, all right, Johnny, But don't go
1:00:50
running out before I give you your present. Huh here, and don't uncork
1:00:54
that until you're ready for some serious business. All right, I'll re thanks
1:01:00
Mike, thanks a lot, God mention it. Good luck, Johnny.
1:01:05
Come on, let's get away from here. Johnny, get easy, Jill,
1:01:13
go back an tell me you're coming here. Do you hear me sing?
1:01:21
Listen? Please get your hands on your pocket and pick me up.
1:01:25
Look, Jill, you run alone. Now, who's that Dan Martin?
1:01:30
He's a deputy sheriff and he's a dead shot. Better do like she says,
1:01:32
Nick, take your hand out of your pocket and pick her up.
1:01:39
All right, reach in my pocket, Johnny, take my gun, Lady,
1:01:53
Jacky and I walked around outside. We can still hear the children's cars
1:01:58
singing inside. Jill saved our lives time. No, she saved Nick's life.
1:02:06
What do you mean that present your father gave me up there at the
1:02:08
spotlights. He could see what was happening, and he thought real fast that
1:02:14
present was a gun. I had Nick covered from the time we stepped off
1:02:17
the porch. I'm glad he didn't move. I'm glad it happened like it
1:02:22
did. Yeah, so, my I thought we'd never see those stars up
1:02:27
there again. You kept hoting yourself, Kathy. You showed a lot of
1:02:30
courage, No, but maybe I can learn to show it. I was
1:02:37
just thinking, Johnny, looking at the stars up there, there was fear
1:02:43
in the world then, two thousand years ago, and he had courage.
1:02:57
Expense account item sixteen two hundred and thirty dollars and forty cents incidentals and Branbury
1:03:00
and transportation for two adults and one child Branburry to New York. Expense account
1:03:07
total four hundred and eighty six dollars and twenty cents. End of account and
1:03:09
of report remarks, Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas to all of you from all
1:03:15
of us here on the program, and God bless you, Yours truly,
1:03:20
Johnny Dollar, Yours Truly. Johnny Dollar is starring Bob Bailey, is transcribed
1:03:28
in Hollywood. Written by Les Crutchfield, It is produced and directed by Jack
1:03:31
Johnstone. Heard in this week's cast were Virginia, Greg Peggy Weber, Don
1:03:37
Diamond, Ben Wright, Jack Prussian, Barney Phillips, Sam Edwards, and
1:03:39
Ken Christie. Musical supervision by Arigo Marino. Be sure to join us on
1:03:44
Monday night, same time in Station for another exciting story of Yours Truly Johnny
1:03:47
Dollar. Roy Rowan speaking Welcome Back. This was either my third or fourth
1:04:51
time listening to the Nick Sure matter, and I have to say prior listens
1:04:59
actually rank this in all I needed to know I learned from Dragnet as the
1:05:04
best of the Johnny Dollar cereals, and I may have understated the case.
1:05:10
When you listen to the whole thing altogether, it really occurs to me what
1:05:15
a truly great production this was. And I can safely say that it is
1:05:21
the best detective Christmas special I've ever heard, and one of the very best
1:05:30
dramatic Christmas radio programs ever. There's something and so much actually so right with
1:05:35
us. It's practically perfect from start to finish. The very interesting and unique
1:05:43
tone, particularly from the second part on. It's got a lot of sentiment
1:05:47
and emotion in it, but throughout there's intrigue and danger and violence. This
1:05:54
is all worked in against the backdrop of Christmas, particularly with the references to
1:05:59
the story, with a central idea that Christmas isn't just about sweetness, warm
1:06:06
puppies in heartwarming family moment, It's about holven a really dangerous world. Encourage
1:06:14
too. There's a unique peek into Johnny's character and a moment of reflection and
1:06:19
perhaps even regret as he's at the cabin with Kathy Odair belonging. We don't
1:06:27
really often hear from Johnny Daller. The rest of the cast is just marvelous.
1:06:31
Virginia Greg has a double roll. And then there's the music. Usually
1:06:36
in Yours Truly, Johnny Daller, we hear the same very good but still
1:06:42
the same sort of incidental music over and over again. The special Christmas score
1:06:48
that you hear towards the end, and what was a part for the serial
1:06:53
set's first a great tone with Johnny lost in the snowstorm, and then these
1:07:00
sid and change of music to the Christmas music from the radio station. It's
1:07:04
simply and ultimately a masterful story all around, and I'm comfortable saying that it
1:07:12
is definitely one of the best homes in any genre from the golden age of
1:07:17
radio. And I hope you've enjoyed listening to it as much as I enjoyed
1:07:21
bringing it to you. Well. Our Christmas specials wrap up tomorrow with the
1:07:27
Saint and our regular Yours Truly Johnny Dler returns on Friday. In the meantime,
1:07:32
If you do have a comment, Senator to Box thirteen at Great Detectives
1:07:35
dot net, Follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives, and become one of
1:07:40
our friends on Facebook, Facebook dot com. Slash Radio Detectives from Boise,
1:07:45
Idaho. This is your host, Adam Grahamson and Off