Latest / Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas / Crime and Peter Chambers: Peter Chambers, Murder Suspect (EP1432)

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Crime and Peter Chambers: Peter Chambers, Murder Suspect (EP1432) · 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 Graham. 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. Before we get started, I do want to encourage you,
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if you've not already, check out the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio
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store store dot Great Detectives dot net. All my books and ebooks are available
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there. Also, if you would like to purchase an autograph copy of one
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of my novels, Tales of the Dim, Not Fly Another Day, Powerhouse,
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Hard Pressed, Ultimate Midlife Crisis, or the first detective novel, Limb
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Incorporated. There's information on ordering there that stored a Great Detectives dot Net.
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Well, now it's time to get into today's episode. This one is entitled
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Peter Chambers Murder Suspect. Original air day May fourth of nineteen fifty four,
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Crime and Peter Chambers created by Henry Kane vranscribed and starring Dayden Clark, Private
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Investigator, July Licensed and Julie Sworn. Peter chamber. You're a private eye.
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That's your business. Anything else that's for laughs. This one figure is
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for laughs, a lot of laughs, because you're making yourself comfortable on a
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barstool and you're asking for what will it be? Mac, milk? Milk?
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You heard me, pale, yes, sir, milk it is.
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It's a great, big, beautiful bar, the Peacock room, and down
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at the far end sits a blonde, quite a blonde. You like the
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beas suit and the scarlet blouse and the long beige bloods and the swell of
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the blonde hair on her. You like the queer cut of her eyes up
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swept at the edges, and the green from where you sit. You like
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the curved red wet lips and the clean line of the eyebrows. But best
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of all, you like the glass and milk that's sitting there in front of
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her. With the milk today, Mac search me. You want to chase
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it? Maybe heavy cream, homoginize, do me a favorite pal, Yeah,
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go be funny somewhere else, will you please? Sure? Mac?
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No offense, And now it is milk. The bartender toddles off, and
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the blonde pushing off her barstool toddles forward towards you, sitting as she was,
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with the bar hiding half of her. You've been wondering about her legs.
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Now you cease wandering, no complaints. Are you eat here? That's
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me, lady, doing a workout in the latest FED formula on my request,
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Yes, ma'am. And if I had known it was you was requesting
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it, I'd have really gone to town double milk. I want to talk
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to you somewhere alone, No objections to that. Where somewhere alone? My
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place? How's that fine? If you tell me where your place is,
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Hotel Baldwin Sweet five eighteen. Good enough, we go now, no,
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no, I'll go first. You come there about five minutes? Oh,
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real mystery? Like huh, Well, I suppose that's the kind of business
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I'm in. One slight, unimportant bit of information. Yes, what's your
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name? Abigail? Abigail Christian marry see you later. Then you fiddle with
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the milk, giving her five minutes. Then you hustle out of there and
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make for the Hotel Baldwin. The elevator takes you up to five and you're
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at Sweet five eighteen. Well, mister Peter Chambers, you're in a fancy
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sitting room. Abigail Christenberry looks just the same, beige suits, scarlet blouse,
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beige gloves only, and these more intimate surroundings. She looks twice as
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good. Will you have a drink, mister Peter Chambery, I will miss
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Abigail Christenberry, only if it's milk. I pad no. I think the
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milk routine is getting boring, though it had its purpose. You like scotch
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Scotch. I love good Scotch. Thin for both of us. She sets
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up the drinks, neat whiskey and a shot glass and a tall glass of
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soda on this side. One combination for you, one combination for her.
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Then you're sitting opposite her across a coffee table, and you're both sipping your
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drinks and sort of staring. So just to shake it up, she drops
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a little bombshell. I've changed my mind, mister change You've changed your mind
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about what about retaining you? There's no longer any need of your fired.
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Before you get hired, everything happens to the private eye. Here you are
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served for your trouble one hundred dollar bill. Well, that's most generous of
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you, dear lady. Now then good afternoon, mister Peter Changes, and
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a very good afternoon to you, miss Abigail Christenberry. So, with one
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hundred dollars bill clutched in your little hot hand, you go back to the
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office and attend to business. You could have refused a scene note, but
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the lady's got to pay some kind of a penalty for having a guy sit
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around drinking milk at a cocktail bar. Anyway, you dismiss her as some
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kind of a gorgeous crack popper. But she doesn't stay dismissed because you're home
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that evening experimenting with imported Swedish herring and well buttered pumpinnickeled bread. When evening
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people, Ah, Louie Parker man come in, Detective Lieutenant Louis Parker,
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New York City Police Homicide. Good cop, good man and good friend spending
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the evening in. I was hoping to Louis, but my business drink,
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Lieutenant, No thanks, I got gas, uncle herring, maybe same gast
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hot burn too. I was about some by carbon. Look you know,
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dame by name, Abigail Christenberry. Oh not half as well as I'd like
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to. Well, you ain't good at why not. She's dead, dead,
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Abigail christen Bery dead and my boy, that got you tagged for it
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me my case, Pete, you'll notice I come alone. If you've got
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it out, brother, I'd be the happiest guy in the world. Out
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what the heck to whinding and out for? I didn't kill her? Well,
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Pete. The maid comes to Sweet five eighteen. It's about seven o'clock.
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This Abigail is under the bed and the Kimona with the back of her
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head belted in her face mashed up but bed. You would know it was
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a face. Oh what's that got to do with me? First off,
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we find your name and address in her pocketbook. Well, that's evidence,
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gives us a peg. So we hang our hat on it. Glasses on
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the coffee table. Have fingerprints? Got your prints on file downtown? We
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match them. They match? Is this evidence a murder? Has more feling?
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The medical examiner says she got it between four and five this afternoon.
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We described you to the elevator operator and sure enough you were there right about
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four things. Look, Lois, I can explain. Can you explain this?
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Can you explain her diary? Diary the past eight months? It's about
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a guy named Pete. That's all, guy named Pete, about how cute
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he was, about how in love they were, and then what a louse
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he is, how he's strictly working her for money, and finally that she's
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scared of him because he's threatened. Now we call that evidence. What do
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you call it? Evidence? Circumstantial but evidence nonetheless? Pete? Were you
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there at four point thirty? Yes, well, give me your side of
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the story. Did you know the day? Yes? Stop agreeing with me.
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Come on, talk it up, let me he ken and listen.
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This morning at the office, I get a phone call a dame no name.
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She tells me she's got a case for me to meet her at the
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Peacock Bar at four o'clock. All right, so you go to the Peacock
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Bar. What do you do there? I drink milk? Milk? Oh
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no, Look, this is Louis Parker. You're talking a milk drinking your
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way. Milk was a way we'd identify herself. She'd be drinking milk.
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I'd be drinking milk. All right. Anyway, she talks to me.
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She wants a five minute headstart. Then I'm to meet her at her hotel.
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Sweet five eighteen and I get there must be over four point thirty.
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We have a couple of drinks and then she bounces me. She says she
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changed her mind, and that's your story. That's it, and you better
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get your hat. We're going downtown. I'll have to book you. Look,
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Louie, why do you have douse? We got after David's, Pete
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from all the health in the hotel after Davious. But what do they say,
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say that Abigail Christenberry did not leave her apartment today all day, not
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once. It was crazy, but it could jam you. If Louie takes
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you downtown. The DA's machinery, Joe's into action with what they can prove.
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The grand Jury will squirt an indictment at you faster than you could fall
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off a ferry board. And suddenly you got it? What is it?
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Pete? And I hope it's good, Lurie. Look, you found my
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fingerprints on a shot glass of whiskey and a tall glass of soda, right,
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and opposite that there was another shot glass of whiskey and another glass of
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soda, and somebody been using him, right, But you found no fingerprints
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on that second set. How do I know that I'll do you know,
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because the story I told you is true. The dame was wearing a suit
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and gloves and she didn't take the gloves off. If the dame hadn't been
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out all day like they told me, and she's found the Kimona with her
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face bashed, then why should she be wearing gloves. That's the only logical
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explanation for her lack of fingerprints, isn't it. That's very good, Pete.
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I'm glad I came alone. I'm glad I had confidence in you.
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All right. Now? What now we go down to the Peacock Bar so
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I can straighten you out on some of the truth. Peacock Bar it is
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you slip on your holster and you clip your gun into it, and then
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you're riding Acrosstown in Parker's car. On the way, you ask questions and
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Parker supplies the answers. Abigail christen Berry, very rich, widow worth millions,
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no family at all except one guy, a brother named Timothy Yawke,
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Timothy York. And he inherits. The minions is that it he inherits all
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right, But he's clear. He works for an ice cream company, but
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he worked all day even at his lunch sent in. There's an office staff
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for thirty people can back it up. What kind of a guy? He's
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a mousey little time, pretty old to maybe he's sixty five rather the young
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wife, no children. But we've already cut him out as a suspect.
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He just couldn't have done it physically impossible, thirty full grown witnesses. He
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is your peacock bar. Yes, a gentleman. Well it be Scotch on
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two. Hello, Oh the milk drinker higher mag my friend, he drinks
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milk. A good way to cursing yourself for a bender. Drink milk in
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the afternoon. Go on, tell him about the other milk drinker. Milk.
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Yeah. The dame the bays suit, scarlet, flowers, beiged gloves.
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We get a million. Hih. Now this was a special one,
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beautiful blonde. She was sitting up there at the bar. She came and
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talked to me. She was drinking milk. I'm behind this bar from ten
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to ten twelve hours. Go out of your mind. If you start picking
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out dames, it's like a rancher with a one hundred head of cattle.
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You can't pick out every guy. Cry, it's important. Well, I'm
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trying my car, believe me, but it ain't no use. I'm sorry.
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Okay, let's get out of here. So you're back in Parker's car,
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trying to swallow that helpless, hopeless feeling. Where to now, kiddo,
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figure I order visit Timothy York he's been visited. Well, let me
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try it. You kid, it's your party and you stay downstairs. Guy
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said, it's your body. People. It's a nice enough house, apartment
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nine G. And you stick your finger in the buzzer. The little guy
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opens the door, little old guy that looks like he's falling apart, skinny
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as a pencil. Yes, what can I do for you? Sir?
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Timothy orc Chambers Police? But the police have already been here several times and
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once more. Can't hurt tuitive. Will come in, sir, please come
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in. Very nice place you have here, Thank you. How about your
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sister Abigail Christenberry, No one of her friends. No, we were never
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very chummy. And oh dear, a woman comes into the room. She's
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blonde, and she's beautiful. She's got a clean line of eyebrow and red
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wet lips and green eyes up swept at the edges, your hair begins to
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crinkle, and you can feel the sweat breakout on your body because, according
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to Parker, you're looking at a corpse. The lady who comes into the
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room is Abigail Christenberry. Timothy, I thought you said it wasn't, sir?
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Are you the taxi man? No, the milkman? Timothy? What's
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he talking about? He's from the police. Please again, Timothy, will
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you please close my suitcases in the bedroom. They're to so full. I
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can't do a thing with the And now that we're alone, missus York,
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remember me, Peter Chambers. Peter Chambers never heard of you? Ever?
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Hear of Abigail Christenberry. Of course, Abigail Christenberry is my husband's sister,
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and she did How would you know this from the police. They've been here
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several times. See now, what's with this stuff about suitcases. I'm leaving
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for Florida. It's been planned for a long time. I'm leaving tonight right
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now is an ad The cops know about that, of course, and there's
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absolutely no objection. I've been completely cooperative with them and they have no need
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of need. They have the address where I'm going. If by chance I
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am needed your husband going, No, he's not. He's stating his vacation
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for much later on, and we intend to go to Switzerland to the Alps.
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Now is there anything else? That's all? Tell your husband goodbye for
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me. Back in the police car, you bestow a kiss on the damp
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and untranquil forehard of Detective Lieutenant Parker. Hey, what's that for? For
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having confidence a man? For having patience and for playing ball? Okay,
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ball player? Who's up? Now? You? How do you make that
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peak? Missus Timothy yark is coming out any minute. She's on our way
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to Florida. I know only she's not going. Who's stopping? You are?
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Oh? Now? What? Look? Look? Look look? When
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she comes out, you pick her up and bring it to one of the
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precinct station houses for further question or anything else you want to dream about.
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But just see to what she's that sure you know what you're doing. I'm
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positive. Just play along with me a little longer and we're liable to knock
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one right out of the ballpark. Missus Timothy Yorke comes out, and Parker
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does the old pickup suitcase and all she gets hustled down to the nearest station
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house gets racked up for further questioning. And then you and Parker are rolling
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again. Okay, fellow, what now? What time is it? Louis?
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It's an almost peacock bar again, the peacock bar, Louis, Oh,
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look, we keep hitting that joint. Both of us are wind up,
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loop. We're not going in this time. Now, what are we
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gonna do? Sit and stay through the window and watch the others drink.
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We're gonna wait for that fire tender, he says. He quits at ten
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o'clock. And then and then he and I are going for a ride or
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a walk or something. But wherever we go, I expect you to be
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close by. And if we go in somewhere, I expect you to be
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sitting around in your a nice little police car, just in case an emergency
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pops. He stops the car near the peacock bar. You shift your thirty
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eight from the hosts of your side pocket, You get out of the car,
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and you wear out the sidewalk in front of the fancy tavern until high
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shoulders come strolling out. Okay, then pulls fine, what do you want?
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The lump in my pocket is a gun, and I'll use it if
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you make me sure? Sure you want to stand about guns? Yeah?
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I understand. Fine. Where are you're heading home? How do we go?
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Where you hurt me? We walk, stay by. You walk to
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a nice looking apartment house and up one flight. He unlocks the door and
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you don't wait. Just as soon as he clicks the light on, you
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smash the flight of the gun against the side of his face. You give
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a lot of feeling. It opens a hunk of his face. But he's
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a big guy and strong, and he comes back swinging. Maybe he's good,
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maybe he's lucky. But he catches you one on the chin that plans
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you up against the opposite wall. But you're still holding the gun. And
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then you hear the click of the switchblade and you see him throw it,
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and you roll over and the knife makes a gang of the wall. You
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reach for it, and you sit there like a cock eyed arsenal, a
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gun in your right hand and a knife in your left, and you see
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him come at you, and there's no other way you Aini'm at low,
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catches him in a thigh and knocks him over. The rest is easy.
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Ah, okay, pal, it's talking time. What's your name? Ryan?
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First name. What's it tie? You look Ryan, it's murder with
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fiddling around with and when you fiddle with murder, you play it rough like
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this. Now, let's do it nice. Huh. Watch your first name,
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Peter, just like mine. I don't know what you today. That's
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a lie. Now let's play the name game some more. Let's try missus
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Timothy York. I never heard of her. That's not what she says.
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What just in case you think she's on her way to Florida, give another
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thing? But she's letting the pokey pal talking her brains out. Why do
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you think I've come after you? She sent me? She didn't. She
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says it was all your idea. That she says that you're number one.
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She's using a method. If you are number one, you get the chair
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and she gets off light. Whose idea was it? Hers? Hers the
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dirty? He spills the story like he's leaking words. Then you go down
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for Parker and you bring him upstairs, and you also bring him up to
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on turrent events. Meet mister Ryan, Lieutenant Peter Ryan. That's the Peter
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that was mentioned in Abigail's diary at the Botton. Yeah, dimples over here,
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our rich widow Abigail Christenberry sort of got stuck on him, but then
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he got tired of her, especially after he met her sister in law,
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Missus Timothy York, who murdered Missus Timothy York. But she figured out a
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real cutie like hell Well, they knew about Abigail's diary where she mentions Pete,
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so they look up the classified directory on the Private Detective, which is
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often confused for fall Guide, And the first Peter they come to is me,
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Peter Chambers, and they elect you the patsy correct First, Missus Timothy
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York kills Abigail mashes her face and so I won't know the difference. Then
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she meets me at the Peacock on that note deal. Then I'm to follow
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her right into the trap. She uses the stairs coming and going, so
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no one sees her but me. I use the elevator. Everybody sees me,
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which puts you with the scene of the crime, which leaves your fingerprints
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all over the place, and which confuses you with the Pete in Abigail's diary,
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and the dead. Abigail is in the bedroom, dead for at least
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a half hour, with her face all smashed up, and then after you
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get bounced out, Missus Timothy York blows the joint using the stairs again,
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nobody can connect her with the crime. And you think Missus Timothy York is
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really Abigail, and you can't tell the difference because the real Abigail is now
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minus a face. Sure, and with Missus Timothy York and Florida, I'd
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be in it up to my neck. Yeah. But if these two knock
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off Abigail, what do they get out of it? Mister York and herrots.
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Missus York planned a trip to Switzerland with mister York. Mister York would
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never have come back from there. He'd have tripped on an alp or something,
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and she'd get all the loot and she'd huck up with dimples here and
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they'd both live happily ever after. So your namesake gets booked downtown and Missus
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York gets booked downtown, and they both accuse each other, which gives the
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cops a double confession. And then you and Louis Parker are sort of celebrating
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on the late shift at the Peacock Bar, and Parker is saying, oh,
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Peto boy, how did it come to you? Oh? You're a
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good friend. That's how it came to me. He gave me a chance
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to run around a little bit. I saw Missus York, which I couldn't
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have if she'd beat at for Florida. And the minute I see her,
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I realize I'm in the middle of a frame job, Missus Timothy Yorke,
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who told me she was Abigail Christenberry. And you tie that up with a
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bartender that forgets one of two milk customers in the same afternoon. He remembered
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me, how could he forget her? So the moral of the story is
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don't lose patience and don't lose confidence and a friend, even if you're a
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cop. It's got another moral, Lieutenant, and that is, don't drink
23:51
milk at a whiskey bar, not unless you've got an ulcer. And there
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you've had Crime and Peter Chambers. Dane Clark was starred as Peter Chambers.
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Crime and Peter Chambers Transcribed was created and written by Henry Kane. Others in
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the cast were Bill zuckerd Heard as Lieutenant Parker, Elaine Ross as Missus Yorke,
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and Joe Desatus as the bartender. It was directed by Fred way,
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this is Fred Collins inviting you two in next week, same time, same
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station for Dane Clark in Crime and Peter Chambers. Time and Peter Chambers has
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come to you through the worldwide facilities of the United States Armed Forces Radio and
25:41
Television Services, except as the Decider, except Sis welcome back. Well,
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one thing I will say, actually not about the episode, but I love
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that closing theme music on all of these ones that were done on the Armed
27:14
Forces Radio Services, they did such a good job of really giving you good
27:21
music to listen to. As for the episode itself, I definitely thought the
27:26
murderer's plan really lacked foresight, as it would have been far easier for everyone
27:33
involved to simply destroy the diary rather than picking out a patsy, particularly when
27:40
there was a reasonable chance that if he looked into it, or had someone
27:45
look into it, the sister in law would be recognized. Now, it's
27:49
not a problem if a criminal does something dumb every now and again on one
27:55
of these shows, but you can't have everybody who matches wits with our hero
27:59
be a bit of a dim But at any rate, that'll do it for
28:02
today. We will be back tomorrow with the adventures of Philip Marlow and join
28:06
us back here next Tuesday for crime and Peter Chambers. In the meantime,
28:10
become one of our friends on Facebook, Facebook dot com Slash Radio Detectives,
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follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives. But from Boise, Idaho, this
28:18
is your host, Adam Grahamson and off