Latest / Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas / Your Truly Johnny Dollar: The Chesapeake Fraud Matter Omnibus Edition (EP1358s)

Transcript

Your Truly Johnny Dollar: The Chesapeake Fraud Matter Omnibus Edition (EP1358s) · Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas

• 0:28
  Welcome to the final week of the Listener Support campaign from Boise, Idaho.
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  This is your host, Adam Graham. If you have a comment, send
• 0:38
  it to me Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net, and I do encourage
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  you to support the Listener support campaign support dot Great Detectives dot net, or
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  send in a check or money order. Before we get started, I do
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  want to mention a couple of the items we have as thank you gifts.
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  At the fifty dollars level for those in the US or Canada, I'll send
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  an autograph copy of any of my first four books, Tales of the Damn
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  level sends you the first box set, or if you already have the first,
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  set of the Adventures of Harry Nile as a download. A full list of
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  available thank you gifts is available at support not Great Detectives dot net. Well,
• 1:36
  now it's time for another Johnny Dollar omnibus of the five part stories.
• 1:41
  Today we'll take a listen to the third Johnny Dollar story, the Chesapeake fraud
• 1:46
  matter from Hollywood. It's time now for Bob Bailey, a Johnny Diller,
• 1:52
  Hi Pat Keller, Universal Adjustment Bureau. Good to hear your voice. Betsy
• 1:57
  thought you would transfer to Baltimore. That's where I am, say, John,
• 2:00
  can you handle one for me? What kind of one? It's a
• 2:02
  life and accident policy. Eastern Fidelity paid off five years ago. A man
• 2:06
  named John Reardon was the insured party. He died in nineteen fifty. Wife
• 2:10
  was a beneficiary. It's a crazy one. Well, I'll go on.
• 2:14
  Eastern wants us to look into the matter. Qt one of their officers has
• 2:17
  reason to believe Rearden is still alive. Why would he think that because he
• 2:22
  saw him two days ago. I'll get the first plane tonight and every weekday
• 2:34
  night. Bob Bailey in the Transcribed Adventures of the Man with the Action Packed
• 2:38
  Expense Account America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator as truly Johnny Dollar. Expense accounts submitted
• 2:53
  by Special Investigator Johnny Dollar to the Universal Adjustment Bureau, Baltimore, Maryland,
• 3:00
  going as an accounting of expenditures during my investigation of the Chesapeake fraud matter expense
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  account item won twenty two dollars seventy five cents. Plane fare and incidentals Hartford
• 3:10
  to Baltimore. I arrived at three point fifteen in the afternoon at Friendship International
• 3:15
  Airport. It was a cold, gray day. I took a cab directly
• 3:19
  to Pat Kellahair's office. Yeah, good to see you, John. He
• 3:22
  was ten pounds heavier. Outside of that he looks so well. Ah,
• 3:24
  we'll have to have dinner once you weet. My wife were your bags?
• 3:28
  She didn't go to a hotel. I checked my stuff at the airport,
• 3:30
  Pats Syne. I didn't know how long i'd be here over the Allegheny's.
• 3:34
  On the plane, I got to thinking about the number of alive but dead
• 3:37
  reports have investigated at one time or another. They have it all the time,
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  and they never pay out. Yeah, well this one isn't like that,
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  John, sit down. Thanks No, And a man like Paul Coomb's
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  chairman of the board for Eastern Fidelity, not to mention vice president of two
• 3:50
  oil companies in one construction company. When he rops in here and says somebody's
• 3:54
  still alive, it's supposed to be dead. We got to listen to him.
• 3:58
  Sure you do. Patt at your job. Your job now. Colmes
• 4:01
  claims he not only saw Riddon, but talk to him. I'll go into
• 4:04
  that later. Policy was issued in nineteen forty four. My wife's a beneficiary,
• 4:15
  Elizabeth Jane Riardon ten thousand dollars twenty John double indemnity on the accident clause.
• 4:24
  Look, I look at this stuff later. Maybe you'd better tell me
• 4:26
  about that first. Okay. John Riden was lost in the boat accident on
• 4:30
  Chesapeake Bay when August thirteenth, nineteen fifty. There were four people in the
• 4:34
  party. They went out for the afternoon and a power cruiser and the thing
• 4:38
  exploded in the middle of the bay. I may have read about it.
• 4:41
  Was there a man named Sharpston involved? Yeah? Yeah, Sharpston owned the
• 4:45
  boat, he and his wife were aboard, and another man named Blaine.
• 4:47
  Did all of them go down? That's right. They recovered mister and missus
• 4:50
  Sharpston's body and Blaine's. They never found John Riridon. What caused the explosion,
• 4:56
  No explainable reason was never determined. Oh there's always a reason. Yeah,
• 5:00
  Well that probably blew up with a boat too. As it happened,
• 5:02
  we conducted the investigation for Atlantic States Limited. They held the insurance in the
• 5:05
  Sharpstons and the boat. These are our findings in the matter. We found
• 5:11
  no reason for Atlantic not down at the claim made by Sharpston's estate. How
• 5:16
  about the other man it was killed blamed? His case was adjusted by another
• 5:20
  company, So that leaves his John ridden. Yeah. About a month after
• 5:25
  the accident, his wife filed claim for payment and our investigation was ended by
• 5:29
  then. We notified the insurance Commission of the circumstances of his death and requested
• 5:32
  a judgment rite and it goes through all right. Yeah, the appellate court
• 5:36
  declared John ridden legally dead after the required three year waiting period. Pretty standard
• 5:42
  when there's no body. Sure, Eastern honored the claim paid Missus ridden twenty
• 5:46
  thousand dollars. So that's about it accepted. Now somebody thinks he's alive,
• 5:51
  not just somebody Paul Coombs. Yeah, yeah, And if that's so,
• 5:56
  Easton has been swindled for twenty thousand dollars. Tell me about the fishery,
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  Miss redd nice woman met her a couple of times. She didn't need money.
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  I can tell you that much. Oh yeah, worth over two hundred
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  thousand dollars never married again. You say she didn't file her claim until a
• 6:14
  month after the accident. That's right. Did she ever give any reason for
• 6:17
  waiting that long? Well, she was pretty broken up about it. The
• 6:23
  money wasn't important particularly, Maybe she just forgot Pat. I've got a question,
• 6:29
  what's that, John? How can you forget twenty thousand dollars expense account
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  item two ten dollars for drinks I had with Pat keller Hair while we talked
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  some more about the riding case at seven o'clock that night. I had on
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  a fresh shirt. In the press suits they seem to impress Paul Coomb's vice
• 6:49
  president, chairman of boards, et cetera. Dollar. That's right, mister
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  Coombs, universal had yes, yes, of course, come in, come
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  in. I talked to mister Kellerher there you sent you? Yes, yes,
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  oh, yes, yes, I recall your name. Now, well,
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  well we can sit here, mister Dollar. Now you hear about John
• 7:09
  Reardon. Of course, that's right. I'm glad they sent a man like
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  you. I'm glad you're the oneho's going to look into it. You puzzantly,
• 7:15
  mister Coombs, No, I don't, and that's a compliment to your
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  perceptibibility, young man. As a matter of fact, you're here because you're
• 7:23
  only curious about me. You want to have a look at the man who
• 7:26
  thinks he saw John Reardon alive, right, I suppose so you don't believe
• 7:30
  he is alive. I didn't say that. I admire your caution. I'm
• 7:34
  glad you're the one who's going to look into it, because well, John
• 7:39
  Ririden was a close friend of mine. Oh, I didn't know that.
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  Yes, I knew him for a number of years, and missus Riden,
• 7:45
  he was a fine sensitive man. I'm sure you'll know how to handle him
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  when you meet him. You sound very certain that I will meet him,
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  Mister Coombs, there's no doubt in my mind about that. Three nights ago,
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  at the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver, Colorado, I saw John Reardon.
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  I walked up and spoke to him. I talked to him for fifteen
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  or twenty minutes. I know it was him. He didn't admit it.
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  He denied it completely. He told me his name is Frank Bauer and that
• 8:09
  he had lived in Denver ever since the war. Frank Bower. Yes,
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  I was so certain it was John Reardon. I insisted He laughed at me,
• 8:16
  seemed good natured about it, even bought me a drink. I see.
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  I asked him where he had lived before Denver. He said something about
• 8:22
  Toledo. I asked him he'd gone to college there. He told me he'd
• 8:26
  gone to Ohio State. Told him he was an engineer, a mining engineer.
• 8:31
  Everything he told me seemed plausible and reasonable, except that all the time
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  I knew he was lying. I knew his name wasn't Frank Bauers, that
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  was John Riarton. How did you leave it with him? Well, the
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  whole thing unnerved me somewhat. I'm afraid I looked like rather a fool.
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  I simply caught my limousine out of the airport and came back here to ball
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  me. Did you get his address in Denver? No, any of his
• 8:54
  business connections anything like that. No, was he alone when you met him?
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  There was no one with him at the Are you even ordered to drink
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  the way John always ordered? You know? Like this? Oh yeah,
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  Well a lot of people make that signal for two fingers at bourbon or close
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  the same way too. Have you spoken of this matter to anyone outside of
• 9:11
  Pat Kelly here? No? No, I thought it should be looked into
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  before I called up Elizabeth Elizabeth Elizabeth Ard and John's widow. Oh yes,
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  it would do no good bothering her. Just now, I'm afraid you'll have
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  to be bothered. Why can't you investigate the information I've given you without upsetting
• 9:28
  everyone With this kind of information, somebody's bound to get upset. Look,
• 9:33
  don't put restrictions on me, mister Coombs, or we won't get anywhere.
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  You say, John ridden was a close friend of yours. I presume his
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  wife was too, that's right, a lovely, lovely person. Yeah,
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  I'll keep that in mind when I talk to her. And maybe you aren't
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  the man for this. You can get somebody else, mister Coombs. No,
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  no, no, it's just that I suddenly had a strange feeling about
• 9:58
  it, all depressing. If John Ridan is alive and you seem to be
• 10:01
  certain of it, then I understand your feeling. How's that your friend's party
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  to a twenty thousand dollars fraud? Not to mention his wife. Possibly he's
• 10:13
  not as sensitive and she's not as lovely as you thought. I spent the
• 10:22
  rest of the evening with Pat kelleher and his wife hoping to see the bright
• 10:26
  lights and listen to some laughter. We picked a couple of fancy bistros and
• 10:30
  started the rounds to watch champagne flow and Eves drop on the happy stories of
• 10:35
  success, promotion and love. But it didn't work like the place, John,
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  Well, you're as low as a cricket's ankle. Well, today a
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  man kept telling me a friend of his was alive, who's supposed to be
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  dead. He told me what a fine fellow this friend is or was.
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  Yeah, ninety nine times out of one hundred, I tell him to go
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  jump in the lake. But Paul Coombs comes under the title life liable witness.
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  And anybody's to give me nice? Yeah, how you fix for plans?
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  Start somebody looking into Frank whatever his name is in Denver, who's supposed
• 11:09
  to be reared. And I'll start with a beneficiary misread. Yeah, I'll
• 11:13
  march out and say, let me look at some pictures of your husband.
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  What kind of a guy was he? Did you enjoy each other or try
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  to kill each other? Did you ever? Why didn't Coombs look into it
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  himself? Why didn't he go out to the widow and tell her about his
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  meeting the guy in Denver because he came to us. John, I know,
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  pass. I'm sorry, but the prospect of going to somebody, anybody
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  with a flimsy story like that, makes me sore. It might get her
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  hopes up that her husband's alive, and that's a lousy thing to do.
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  Reliable or not. Coombs is probably all wet. Probably sour rackets. So
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  our racket. You're being a parent, just being agreeable. John, you
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  want to be sad, I'll be sad with you both. No situations like
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  this part of the trade. Oh I should have been ah le's have an
• 12:00
  out of belts. Sure for John. Maybe another way to handle is reading
• 12:07
  with that. That's her over there at the bar. Nice, isn't she?
• 12:13
  She is loving me nothing. She looks a little tight. Yeah,
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  well I hear she gets that way quite a bit these days, said John,
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  You want me to introduce you like a friend? Might make it easy.
• 12:22
  No, I'll handle myself. Who's with you? Beats me? He's
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  looking for a phone booth, all right? Yeah, I may be able
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  to find out what I want and not let her know what it's about.
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  You mean right now? I mean right now? Hello, you're Elizabeth Rearding,
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  aren't you. Oh, yes, Oh, probably you don't remember me.
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  My name is Johnny Dollar. We met some time ago. I'm afraid
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  I don't remember, mister dollar. I'm in the insurance business. Don't remember.
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  Wow, where was it we met? Now? I can't remember me?
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  I said out, Well, I'm expecting someone who'll be back in a
• 13:01
  minute. Yes, would you care for a drink? I have this one?
• 13:07
  Thank you? Oh? How's John these days? John? Your husband?
• 13:11
  Missus ritten? His name is John, isn't it My husband's been dead
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  nearly five years. Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. I mean it
• 13:20
  must be. This is very awkward. That's all right, five years.
• 13:26
  I could have sworn it was just three years ago. I met you in
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  John in Denver. It couldn't have been. We were never there. Oh
• 13:33
  well, pardon me. I sit here making bad conversation with you, and
• 13:37
  it's very apparent you're distressed. Look, I'm very sorry I upset you.
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  Is there anything I could do? No? No, mister Dolly, you
• 13:46
  didn't upset me. It looked like a very nice person. How long you're
• 13:52
  going to be in Baltimore? A few more days? Perhaps you'll come out
• 13:54
  of the house for a drink before you go back, say tomorrow. Oh,
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  i'd like that, Missus d you can call me. I'm in the
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  book, Missus john Ridden, Yes, I will again. I'm sorry that
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  I do me a favor, mister Dollar. When you come to my house
• 14:09
  for a drink, call me Elizabeth, and please don't mention my husband's name.
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  I'd appreciate it very much if I never heard it again, Johnny Dollar,
• 14:37
  Pat gallahered Universal. How'd you make out with Missus Reardon? I met
• 14:41
  her. She thinks I'm an insurance broker or something. I told her.
• 14:43
  I knew her husband when he was alive industrial hazard lying part of the business.
• 14:48
  John Did you find out anything that'll help you? I found out she's
• 14:50
  pretty upset about everything in the world. That's the only report you have for
• 14:54
  Universal Adjustment Bureau. Oh, she invited me for cocktails. I'm going to
• 14:58
  call her later in this afternoon and keep the day. Maybe I'll get some
• 15:01
  information then cocktail, say, oh, shut up. Expense accounts submitted by
• 15:11
  Special Investigator Johnny Dollar to the Universal Adjustment Bureau, Baltimore, Maryland. The
• 15:16
  following is an accounting of expenditures during my investigation of the Chesapeake fraud matter.
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  Expense account Item three twenty three dollars and sixty cents. Long distance telephone call
• 15:28
  to George Hanley and Denver, Colorado. George is an old friend of mine
• 15:31
  in the private detective business. I told him about the report that John Ridden
• 15:35
  was still alive and living in Denver under the name of Frank Bower's. I
• 15:39
  requested him to gather information that would help in determining whether Bowers was really John
• 15:43
  Ridden or not. I spent the remainder of the day reading over the facts
• 15:46
  of the case as supplied to me by Pat kelliher of Universal Adjustment Expense account
• 15:52
  Item four ten cents. Another phone call, this one to John Ridden's widow.
• 16:03
  Hello, missus ritten, Yes, this is Johnny Dollar. Oh yes,
• 16:07
  mister Dollar. You're the man who used to know John. Yes,
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  I asked you over for a drink. I hope you're coming. What time
• 16:17
  seven would be fine? I was at her home at seven o'clock, knocking
• 16:26
  on the door. It was a nice home and she seemed like a nice
• 16:30
  person, even nicer than the night before. I asked you to call me
• 16:34
  Elizabeth. Mister Dollar, I remember, yes, you also asked me not
• 16:37
  to mention your husband's name. I wish you'd forget that. I was upset
• 16:44
  last night when we met. Forgive me. How's your drink? Swell?
• 16:51
  I don't know why, but I feel I should explain myself a little more
• 16:55
  about saying what I did about John Hi. I was very shocked at his
• 17:00
  death. I suppose I still am, even though it was five years ago.
• 17:07
  It always disturbs me when I'm reminded of it. Yeah, it's good
• 17:11
  to be reminded. I suppose to know that he really is dead, that
• 17:18
  he won't come through that door anymore, that he won't telephone me from the
• 17:22
  office and make any plans with me. Does that make sense? I suppose
• 17:27
  so. Oh, we can drink another one. Sometimes things make more sense
• 17:33
  with a few drinks. Sometimes they don't make any sense at all. Elizabeth,
• 17:37
  that's right too, Johnny. You know I like you. I like
• 17:41
  you. Tell me about your business. You said insurance. Yes, you're
• 17:45
  a broker. Well I'm not exactly a salesman. No, I'm an investigator.
• 17:52
  That must be terribly interesting work. I suppose you travel everywhere. She
• 17:57
  had a nice mouth, soft frank, wide open eyes. A couple of
• 18:03
  times I was on the verge of telling her exactly what I was working on
• 18:06
  and why I was talking to her, but I didn't. Somehow I felt
• 18:11
  comfortable in the house of all the drinks and music. We eventually got around
• 18:15
  to John Ruden. She told me of their four years marriage that ended with
• 18:18
  his sudden death. Everything I could possibly want to have. Why do I
• 18:25
  tell you all this? I never talked to anybody about it, quite don't
• 18:27
  know. Possibly because you just want to talk to somebody about it. You're
• 18:33
  easy to talk to, Johnny. I was nineteen when I was married.
• 18:38
  I'd never known another man. It was wonderful at first, wonderful all the
• 18:45
  time. I suppose I just wasn't grown up enough to realize him. Can
• 18:51
  I ask you a question, truly? Did you really love him? Yes?
• 18:59
  I'm not convinced. Why, just a feeling. Well I did.
• 19:06
  I'm not so sure he loved me. That's an awful thing to say.
• 19:10
  No, I don't think so. It's probably been on your mind a long
• 19:14
  time. You don't know me from a load of coal. But we've sat
• 19:18
  here and talked an hour. I think I know you. I think so
• 19:22
  too. You still seem very despondent about his death, Yet you aren't sure
• 19:26
  he loved you. I loved him. Ah. Here I am explaining things
• 19:33
  again, I suppose because they sound so foolish. Once we both loved each
• 19:38
  other very much, but we kicked it away. We just didn't get along.
• 19:45
  He was out spending his money on other people, and I was taking
• 19:48
  up this past time. Can you tell when I've had too much? Thank
• 19:56
  you? Thank you awfully? Oh, Hugh, Elizabeth, Johnny, This
• 20:04
  is Hugh Brian. This is mister Dollar. Hugh, and mister Dollar.
• 20:10
  How's your drink? Liz? Fine, I'll tell me again. Who is
• 20:14
  this? This is mister dollar. What's your business? Mister Dollar. I
• 20:18
  haven't seen you around before. Obviously you just met miss Ridden or you would
• 20:22
  never never start drinking with her. I wouldn't. No, that's true,
• 20:27
  is isn't it. He was a friend of John's, Hugh, Well,
• 20:30
  that's nice. I don't think I ever heard him mention your name. I
• 20:34
  was a friend of his too. As a matter of fact, his attorney.
• 20:37
  You don't have to do this. Since sir John is no longer here,
• 20:41
  I've undertaken to look after some of the problems he left behind him.
• 20:45
  As an old friend. Would Elizabeth say good night to mister dollar. Now
• 20:48
  look here night to him, he's just leaving. Maybe it's better right now,
• 20:56
  Johnny, good night. Do you want me to leave? She just
• 21:00
  said it would be better. I'll call you at your hotel. Good night,
• 21:07
  good night, mister. No, no, you still have something in
• 21:10
  your glass and you sure drink okay, an old friend of John's. That's
• 21:18
  good, very good it is. She picked you up in a bar last
• 21:23
  night. I saw her. I was with her. You never knew John
• 21:26
  ridd in your life. You have no business being here, and I don't
• 21:30
  like cheap opportunists invading her own. Evidently, you can talk to her anyway
• 21:34
  you want to, and she'll take it. Why, I don't know,
• 21:37
  But don't talk to me that way. I don't have to take anything.
• 21:38
  You were just leaving, weren't you. Hugh Brian was a large, bristling
• 21:48
  sort of man with a smooth manner. I didn't like him, and he
• 21:52
  didn't like me. Expense account I him five eighteen dollars even carefairs, lunches,
• 21:57
  et cetera, in and about Chess Bay talking to the principles connected with
• 22:02
  the boat explosion death of John Ridden. One of these was Lieutenant Jack Halvison
• 22:07
  the United States Coast Guarden. He wants some coffee. If I have to
• 22:11
  go out in that window, get it all, make it right here for
• 22:14
  just such occasions, Yester say, I'm plugging him, brother, someday it's
• 22:21
  nice in the summer time. Now, what can I do for you?
• 22:23
  Tell me about the boat going down. You made out the report for the
• 22:26
  Coast Guard. You mean the Shopston's boat. Yeah, we have a reliable
• 22:30
  witness who thinks that one of the passengers, a man named John Ridden,
• 22:33
  didn't go down with it at all, that he's still alive. You said
• 22:36
  you had my report. Those are the facts. But you picked up three
• 22:38
  bodies, why not the fourth? Why not Ridon's? Ah. We searched
• 22:41
  the beef a salad week looking for his body. We used to have a
• 22:45
  piece of equipment at our disposal. We did everything we could, but you
• 22:48
  didn't find him. First. You come in here complaining about our weather,
• 22:51
  and I am mad about the way we were on the Coast Guard. I'm
• 22:53
  sorry, it's a very lousy sounding apology. What do you want to find
• 22:56
  out? How that boat exploded? Why you couldn't find Ridon's body? If
• 23:02
  you found the others Look, if a bunch of rich jokes wanted to take
• 23:04
  a high powered boat out and they don't know the first thing about high test
• 23:07
  fuel or engine running, they're doing it at their own risk. That help.
• 23:11
  There's something I wish you could have put it on the report. That's
• 23:15
  my ideas, buddy. The report just has a fact now with the other
• 23:18
  about finding Riding. I don't know why he blew up, went down and
• 23:22
  drifted out to sea. If his body had been in the bay, we'd
• 23:25
  found it. Why is there a chance he might have survived and been rescued.
• 23:29
  All we had left of the boat was pieces of wreckage, and if
• 23:30
  he was rescued, it was never reported, and I wouldn't know about that.
• 23:33
  Could that have happened? Sure? I could be an admiral Tomorrow's It
• 23:42
  was four o'clock in the afternoon when I got to elizabeth Ridden's house. You
• 23:48
  hello, mister Brian, is missus ridd in? No? Then, I'll
• 23:52
  wait. It's important that I see it. I thought I made it clear
• 23:53
  to you last night. I didn't want her being molested. You did make
• 23:56
  it clear and cruel, mister Brian. I'm here. Any business for her
• 24:00
  comes to me first, I'm an insurance investigator. Oh that she told me,
• 24:04
  But she didn't tell you because she didn't know, and I didn't want
• 24:07
  it at all. And I'm working on a case that involves her. I
• 24:11
  have a report that her husband might still be alive. Come in, mister
• 24:17
  Dollar. I'll have to admit that. Hugh Bryant's concern was as genuine as
• 24:22
  his surprise. He led me into the house and we sat at the bar,
• 24:26
  only this time no one had a drink. He listened while I told
• 24:30
  him about the report of Paul Combs that John Riordon was living in Denver under
• 24:33
  the name of Frank Bauers. Do you think there's any truth to him?
• 24:38
  It doesn't matter what I think, mister Brian. I have to investigate,
• 24:41
  of course, and if he were alive, it would be the best thing
• 24:45
  in the world. What of course, she's been lost without him all these
• 24:48
  years. She needs him, mister Dollar. She always needed him. This
• 24:52
  little bit of drinking has been going on too long, these tearful little episodes
• 24:57
  with one man or another. I mistook you for one of those last night.
• 25:02
  I apologized with that sincerely. Actually, mister Dollar, she's been quite
• 25:07
  a task. Well, maybe I better talk to her now, do you
• 25:11
  have to? There's certain information i'd like to get. I think she's the
• 25:14
  only one who can give it to me. You'll have to tell her about
• 25:17
  the report. Yes, and there's probably so much talk. Better to give
• 25:19
  her a terrible kind of hope. All right, I'll get her. Oh,
• 25:25
  you'd better mix one for her, she'll need it. Wait a minute,
• 25:29
  Yeah, I need vital statistics on Brad and pictures, handwriting samples,
• 25:33
  everything. Do you help me gather them. I'll do anything I can well,
• 25:37
  and there's no need to bother her, is there. You're a gentleman,
• 25:41
  mister Dollar. I don't know why I do. You don't want to
• 25:45
  hurt her anymore than I do. An hour later, I was back in
• 25:51
  my hotel room. The next day I had an appointment to meet you,
• 25:53
  Brian, and get all the material I had asked for. I was more
• 25:56
  depressed than ever about the case. About in the phone rang Jenny Dollar.
• 26:03
  Johnny, Yes, this is Elizabeth. Please please don't look for him?
• 26:10
  What just forget it? Did Hugh Brian tell you what I was about.
• 26:15
  I overheard you two talking. Don't bother with it. John's dead and that's
• 26:19
  that promise me, promise you won't do anything else. I'm sorry, Elizabeth,
• 26:26
  I have to investigate it. Johnny. Is is that final? I'm
• 26:30
  sorry? I don't have any choice, Elizabeth, Elizabeth, Jenny Dollar,
• 26:53
  you, Brian, mister Dollar. How are you this morning? That's so
• 26:56
  good? I didn't sleep very well. How did you do? I think
• 26:59
  I have about what you want on John Rudon. Well, if you haven't,
• 27:02
  I can get it from missus Ridon what I thought you didn't want to
• 27:04
  tell her about the report that her husband might still be alive. She knows
• 27:07
  she overheard us talking last night. Oh well, what do you want to
• 27:11
  do? I might as well look at what you have and get this over
• 27:14
  with. How about an hour from now? I'll be waiting for you tonight
• 27:26
  and every weekday. Night. Bob Bailey and the Transcribed Adventures of the Man
• 27:30
  with the Action Packed Expense account America's fabulous freelance insurance Investigator, Yours truly,
• 27:34
  Johnny Dollar. Expense accounts submitted by Special Investigator Johnny Dollar to the Universal Adjustment
• 27:51
  Bureau, Baltimore, Maryland. The following is an accounting of expendit yours during
• 27:55
  my investigation of the Chesapeake fraud matter expense account Item six dollars and a half
• 28:02
  one collect telegram from Denver, Colorado. I've located Frank Bowers as per your
• 28:07
  request. Cursory investigation discloses little evidence that would lead me to believe he might
• 28:12
  be the John ridden of Baltimore. Looks like a ham boon to me,
• 28:17
  Johnny, what do I do now? Sign? George Hanley George Hanley Investigations,
• 28:22
  Incorporated, Denver, Colorado. Item seven two dollars same thing telegram from
• 28:27
  me. Things are about the same way here. Sit tight. I'll see
• 28:33
  you in a day or two. Love Johnny. Once the telegrams are out
• 28:37
  of the way. I walked three blocks from my hotel to the office building
• 28:40
  of Hugh Brian. It was an impressive place, full of lawyers and doctors.
• 28:45
  Hugh Bryan looked a little haggard when I saw him. It took me
• 28:48
  a while to get all this together half the night. That wasn't that big
• 28:52
  a rush. Oh, get it out of the way. The sooner you
• 28:55
  have what you need, the sooner you can make sure, and the sooner
• 28:56
  I won't worry about it anymore. Did you talk to Elizabeth yet today?
• 29:02
  No? Just last night I thought maybe she might have called you this morning.
• 29:06
  I'm I'm so sorry for that girl. Well, don't feel too bad,
• 29:10
  mister Bryan. We both did everything we could to keep the report that
• 29:14
  her husband might be alive from her, awkward as it was. Yes,
• 29:17
  I know, I know, I still don't understand it. I guess well.
• 29:21
  A man named Coombs, an insurance official, thinks he saw Reardon in
• 29:23
  Denver last week using the name Frank Bowers. He's sure that Bowers was Rearden.
• 29:29
  If he turns out to be Ardon, the insurance company has been taken
• 29:32
  for twenty thousand dollars they paid to Elizabeth Ridon. Just to set you straight.
• 29:36
  Let it make Elizabeth party to a fraud. And John Lord knows that's
• 29:41
  silly, Ah, silly or not? Yeh, Well, here's what I
• 29:45
  have n This is one of the last pictures taken of John Riardon. Have
• 29:52
  the negatives yes here, And these are some vital statistics on him. The
• 30:00
  physical part I got from his doctor and he stood in examination about a month
• 30:03
  before the accident. This is the doctor's name here. Yes. Now,
• 30:07
  these other things are in his background and education. Here a copy of his
• 30:11
  marriage license, birth certificate. How did you get hold of these things.
• 30:15
  Well, I handle a lot of business for John, filed a lot of
• 30:18
  his papers for him. These were just packed away. Took a while to
• 30:21
  find them. Hey, a copy of his fingerprints with those help more than
• 30:27
  any of this other stuff. Fingerprints aren't standard papers and anybody's file off what
• 30:32
  John went in the army, He did some engineering work with the proving grounds
• 30:33
  in Aberdeen, and he was fingerprinted there. It was a gag at the
• 30:37
  time. He had a set of his own blown up and put on the
• 30:40
  wall in the picture frame, you know, just a joke. I dugged
• 30:44
  him out of his personal things. Now, then here's a copy of his
• 30:48
  financial records, tax returns and whatnot. I spent about an hour in you
• 30:52
  Bryan's office going over material it would help me in the investigation. The pictures
• 30:56
  and fingerprints were the most helpful items. After I'd finish, I went back
• 31:00
  to my hotel, packed my bags and checked out expense account item eate three
• 31:08
  hundred and ninety eight dollars my hotel and incidentals in Baltimore and plain Fair to
• 31:12
  Denver. I got there at nine in the morning. The air crisp,
• 31:17
  thin and full of sunshine. I ranted a car at the airport and drove
• 31:21
  into town. Half an hour later. I was talking to my detective friend,
• 31:23
  George Hanley. How do you like Denver, old pal, I haven't
• 31:26
  been here for a few years. Doesn't look the same. Bigger and better,
• 31:30
  huh. They're thinking of putting up buildings as big as those mountains over
• 31:33
  there. I love it. So it's the white and I'm glad you ought
• 31:36
  to try a place like this for a while. Johnny. Yeah, maybe
• 31:37
  I won't want to find yourself a girl and settle down. Let's us settle
• 31:42
  down, Georgie, Oh sure, how to go? You asked me to
• 31:47
  look in at Frank Bauers. I looked into him as much as I could
• 31:49
  without talking to him. Here you are, Johnny, his bank account,
• 31:53
  his friends, his troubles, his enemies, everything. How about his police
• 31:56
  record one traffic violation two years ago, Never been in any kind of trouble
• 32:00
  around here, gets along fine with everybody. Well, tell me about everybody,
• 32:04
  Georgie. His laundry man, the milkman, the guy who tends bar
• 32:07
  in his neighborhood, the man he buys gas from. I talk to all
• 32:09
  of them. How about the people he works for. Well, he don't
• 32:12
  do much of that. As far as I can see, it's gotten off
• 32:14
  his downtown calls himself a consulting engineer, goes there once or twice a week
• 32:17
  to pick up his mail. Well, no, that's a very nice way
• 32:21
  to be able to live. Is he starving to death, Georgie? No,
• 32:23
  he's got a good bank acount, makes regular deposits. Money comes from
• 32:27
  a New York bonding firm. He owns a little two bedroom house out beyond
• 32:30
  park Hill. Paid thirty eight thousand dollars for it. Wow, sleeps in
• 32:35
  one bedroom, uses the other one for kind of studio, shutters around with
• 32:37
  clay oils, and according to the nosey dame who lives across the street,
• 32:40
  he tries to write, how about his friends? Lots of them? Pays
• 32:45
  his bills, gets drunk now and then normal. Tell me about his wife.
• 32:49
  He hasn't got one, lives alone. Find out who he goes with,
• 32:51
  Georgie. No, as much as I could find out, he doesn't
• 32:52
  go with any enemies. Well, the guy that cleaning shot hates his guts
• 32:57
  bowers doesn't like his shirts with stars. Did you check out their residency business?
• 33:01
  As far as I could. He bought that house out in park Hill
• 33:05
  in nineteen fifty one, paid cash. Ford record of the sale gives his
• 33:07
  former residences Toledo, Ohio. Well, how long has he been a resident
• 33:12
  here? As near as I can figure, and this is just rough four
• 33:15
  or five years ago. The first financial transaction was the Husseybot, the next
• 33:20
  was a car. He could have been here a long time before that,
• 33:22
  though, Well the time element would fit for reardon. What do you think,
• 33:27
  Georgie, I think you're probably wasting a lot of money investigating this guy.
• 33:31
  He doesn't seem like the kind of man who's hiding out from anybody here.
• 33:36
  Look at this photo. Is this Frank Bowers? Yeah, yeah,
• 33:40
  I'd say so, five eleven, one seventy. I'll have complexion, no
• 33:45
  scars, no glasses, brown hair, about thirty five could be him from
• 33:49
  that. Yes, this is a picture John Riridon and the description is ritten's
• 33:55
  what do you want to do? Now? Keep on it. I got
• 34:04
  George Hanley busy making a check with some people in Toledo who could find out
• 34:07
  whether or not a Frank Bauer had once lived there. Then I took my
• 34:09
  rented car and drove out to the address Hanley had given me. It was
• 34:14
  in the east side of the city, near the airport, a one story
• 34:15
  frame house, a fifty three mark in the driveway. I'm looking for mister
• 34:22
  Frank Bowers. Oh who are you, Johnny Dollar. Oh, I'm Frank
• 34:27
  barr Well, I'm an insurance investigator. Mister Bowers, I'd like to talk
• 34:30
  to you. Oh, come on in, thank you take chair anywhere?
• 34:36
  Son. You might just making a routine check, mister Bowers thought perhaps you
• 34:39
  could help me. I don't know anything about my name, as if that's
• 34:43
  that kind of thing. No, I'm running down a report that came across
• 34:45
  our office in Baltimore. I have ever been there, mister Bowers. No
• 34:50
  Swell place on Chesapeake Bay. I like, Denner, what's this all about
• 34:53
  it? Well, do you happen to remember a few days ago when you
• 34:57
  were at a place called the Ship's Tavern. It's in the Brown Palace.
• 35:00
  This was the last Friday, to be exact, Should I remember what I
• 35:05
  do? Steal an ashtray or walk out on a check. A man from
• 35:08
  Baltimore was there that day, mister Bowers. His name was Coombs, Paul
• 35:13
  Combs. You met him, yes, right at the bar. You had
• 35:16
  a drink or two with him? Well, I might have. I don't
• 35:20
  know whether to admit it or not. What are you kidding at? I
• 35:22
  don't understand this. I know it seems confusing. Maybe this will help.
• 35:28
  Take a look at this now. You must admit you look a great deal
• 35:32
  like the man in that picture. Yeah, I suppose I do. Well,
• 35:39
  I'll be done. I do it that. You know this could be
• 35:44
  a picture of me. That's why I'm here, mister Bowers. You see
• 35:45
  the company I represent insure the man in this picture for quite an amount of
• 35:49
  money. His name was John Riridon. He was lost in a boat accident
• 35:52
  in Chesapeake Bay five years ago. The mister Coombs who met you at the
• 35:57
  bar here last week, thought you were John Riddon. I don't blame him,
• 36:00
  but I'm not close though. Now I'm smoke. Oh thanks, thanks
• 36:09
  sure. Mister Coombs was a lifelong friend of John Ruden's. I have his
• 36:14
  sworn statement here about that meeting with you, in the certainty of his identity.
• 36:17
  You do, yes, right here? Would you like to see it?
• 36:21
  Not particularly? I understand you went to Ohio State. What year did
• 36:24
  you graduate? I didn't go to Ohio state. Look what is this?
• 36:28
  Well, that's what you told, mister Coombs. It's in the statement.
• 36:30
  Oh I remember that bird. No, no, I might have to him
• 36:35
  any name, mister Dolly. You know he's one of those inquisitive kind and
• 36:37
  reassure himself. Yeah, I remember. Look, don't tell me they sent
• 36:42
  you all the way out here from Baltimore. They did. I'm that guy.
• 36:45
  Say so, that's funny. Did you go to college, mister barrs,
• 36:51
  I'd like to clear up that detail. Did you go to college?
• 36:53
  Well, yes, yes, I went to Carnegie Tech thirty six through forty.
• 36:58
  You haven't lived all your life in Colorado? Then where else have you
• 37:00
  lived? Look? Do you have any right to ask me questions like this?
• 37:04
  No? No, but you'll help me a lot if you'll answer them.
• 37:07
  Well, why not? Okay, I've lived in New York, Pittsburgh,
• 37:13
  Kansas City, to lead around the country. Came here a few years
• 37:15
  ago. My health seemed good to my ass. Ever been married once in
• 37:19
  nineteen forty two. It didn't last long. Oh why don't you want to
• 37:23
  know? Look you in a hurry, I can come back later. No,
• 37:25
  No, it's not that well. Look, you seem like a nice
• 37:29
  guy dolla. But it just makes me uncomfortable answering these questions yours. I
• 37:31
  appreciate the time you've given me already, mister Bower, Please understand it's a
• 37:36
  matter of establishing identity. But you know I am. I just told you
• 37:38
  that's true. I don't like this business much as is there any way you
• 37:43
  can eliminate it? The most positive identification would be from fingerprints. Oh,
• 37:49
  mister Power, I'm not so much interested in who you are as improving that
• 37:52
  you're not John Reardon. If you volunteered to set of fingerprints, it had
• 37:58
  saved me a great deal of work and you a great deal of trouble.
• 38:00
  Well, sure, why not? We drove downtown together at George Hanley's office
• 38:12
  and used the portable fingerprint kits. I took a complete set of Frank Bauer's
• 38:15
  prints he attached. I thanked him for his time and trouble, and he
• 38:19
  left. If he was trying to cover something, it certainly wasn't apparent from
• 38:22
  his conversational reactions. There had been a moment when I was sure he wasn't
• 38:28
  Frank Bauer. On the other hand, I was sure that he wasn't John
• 38:31
  ridden That cuts it Johnny right thumb an index princes stone match at all,
• 38:39
  not even close. George, and I thought I was getting somewhere. I
• 38:43
  found out he was never in Toledo, or at least never registered or licensed
• 38:46
  as an engineer. Well, these prints do it when you're going home,
• 38:51
  Johnny, I don't know. There's no reason to stick around any longer.
• 38:53
  This is crazy. He approved your case with the print. He was too
• 38:57
  anxious to help me prove a Georgie. You ask any ordinary man on the
• 39:00
  street two personal questions about himself and he'll tell you to go jump in the
• 39:04
  lake. He ask him for his fingerprints, and he's liable to smash you.
• 39:07
  So get on him, stay with him twenty four hours a day,
• 39:09
  get a couple of other men. It'll costume lening. Get busy expense AC
• 39:15
  count item nine two hundred dollars detective service. I didn't believe Frank Bauers.
• 39:20
  I didn't believe his background, and most of all, I didn't believe his
• 39:23
  fingerprints. Johnny Dellar, this Western Union, mister Dollar message for you in
• 39:45
  Baltimore, Maryland. Okay, go ahead, received your air special regarding investigation
• 39:51
  of the Chesapeake matter. You've proved Frank Bauers of Denver is not John Ridden
• 39:57
  of Baltimore. Fingerprints don't lie. Therefore logical to believe John Ridden really did
• 40:04
  come on home. Your expenses are running too high? That signed Pat Kelleher,
• 40:08
  Universal Adjustment Bureau. Should I mail this to you? No, that's
• 40:10
  all right? Can I send an answer? Pat Kelleher, Universal Adjustment Bureau,
• 40:16
  Baltimore, Maryland. Fingerprints don't lie, but people do all the time
• 40:22
  for all sorts of reasons. It may be finished as far as your concern,
• 40:27
  but I'm just beginning. Love Johnny. Expense accounts submitted by Special Investigator
• 40:37
  Johnny Dollar to the Universal Adjustment Bureau, Baltimore, Maryland. The following is
• 40:42
  an accounting of expenditures during my investigation of the Chesapeake fraud matter. I'd sent
• 40:51
  out to prove that John Ririden had not died back in nineteen fifty in a
• 40:53
  boat accident on Chesapeake Bay, to prove that he was still very much alive
• 40:59
  in the person of one Frank Bauers, currently living here in Denver, Colorado.
• 41:04
  Everything all I could learn of the man's history, reports from his neighbors,
• 41:07
  friends, even his fingerprints, everything indicated he really was Frank Bowers,
• 41:14
  and yet for some fool reason or other I wasn't convinced. Expense account continued,
• 41:21
  Item ten sixty three bucks for one overcoat. Denver can be a very
• 41:24
  cold city when the wind comes in from the north and it decides to snow,
• 41:29
  almost as cold as the damp wind off Chesapeake Bay on a certain day
• 41:32
  back in nineteen fifty. Hi, Hi a, George. How's it going
• 41:39
  well? I watched Bower's house from six last night till two this morning.
• 41:44
  He read a book last night in the living room, he made a phone
• 41:46
  call, and then he went to bed, And then I went home and
• 41:49
  went to bed. How many men have you got working? Two others beside
• 41:52
  myself. We're keeping an eye on Bowers around the clock. I go on
• 41:55
  again at six. Okay, good, I don't know why, Johnny.
• 42:00
  Isn't you a guy? And you know it? Fingerprints proved it. We
• 42:01
  can watch him from now till doomsday and nothing's going to change that. Oh
• 42:06
  look, don't you start, Georgie. Huh. I got a wire from
• 42:08
  my home office this morning telling me to close it up and come on home.
• 42:12
  Why don't you close it up and come on home? I like to
• 42:15
  make go. I'm in the private detective business, but I hate to see
• 42:16
  an old pal doing a lot of work on nothing. Why don't you shut
• 42:20
  up? Sure we can go on like this forever, can't we? Johnny?
• 42:25
  Ah? Goodbye, Johnny. I walked around the streets of Denver,
• 42:37
  trying to enjoy the sites, but mostly I wasn't enjoying anything. I was
• 42:43
  thinking about the whole case from beginning to end. And my only reason for
• 42:46
  hanging on and being stubborn about it was the fact that Frank Bauers had been
• 42:51
  too anxious to cooperate, too anxious to help me prove so easily that he
• 42:54
  was not John ridden. And then something else happened. He got anxious.
• 43:00
  Wall Yeah, mister dollar is Frank Bars. Oh hello, didn't tell me
• 43:07
  where you were stopping? Phoned everywhere in town, wondered how you made out?
• 43:12
  Made out? Yeah with my fingerprints? Oh yeah, well they don't
• 43:16
  match at all. Oh then I'm not your man. I guess not,
• 43:20
  mister Bars. And I was just curious. Didn't hear from me after you
• 43:24
  took the sample of my prints? Oh that was pretty nice of you to
• 43:28
  help me out. How can I thank you? You could buy me a
• 43:32
  drink if you want to. Hey, you're on all right, Meet you
• 43:36
  at six at the ship's tavern. It was the voice of a confident man
• 43:42
  again, an over confident man, the kind of sandbags and a poker game,
• 43:46
  who knows about a boat ride and a horse race, And so help
• 43:50
  me, I knew I was right about him. Expense account of item eleven
• 43:55
  fourteen dollars booze for Frank Bauers and myself, and the ship's tavern the same
• 44:00
  bar, incidentally, were a week before a close friend of the deceased John
• 44:04
  Ridden had run into Bowers and sworn he was John Ridden. When Bars came
• 44:08
  in, he was followed by George Hanley. As per my instructions, I
• 44:13
  saw George pick a stool at the far end of the bar. H.
• 44:19
  I suppose you'd be backing up and leaving the old Mile Eyes City pretty quick,
• 44:22
  now. Huh? Did I say that? Frank? No, No,
• 44:27
  but I just suppose it you will. Oh, I haven't decided yet.
• 44:32
  What do you think I should do? Huh? I said, what
• 44:36
  do you think I should do? You give me now. Maybe I'm just
• 44:42
  kidding myself, but you don't seem like the kind of fella. You should
• 44:45
  be somehow I don't know. Nah. Now, you were too nice about
• 44:50
  answering questions when I came out to your house the other day, too nice
• 44:53
  about letting me fingerprint you so I could compare the samples with John Riden's Prince
• 44:59
  two. Nice calling up and asking how it all came out? Came out
• 45:02
  bad. I'm a pretty nice fella. Yeah, that's what the book says.
• 45:09
  But I had a private detective friend make one up on you before I
• 45:14
  even got here. Friends, enemies, money and whatnot. All very nice,
• 45:17
  of course it is. You know what your trouble is, DOLLI you
• 45:22
  don't trust anybody. I'm a nice fella, and you don't trust me.
• 45:27
  You don't believe what you see. I believe the fingerprints don't match. If
• 45:30
  that's what you mean, you're the bird. I don't believe. Hey,
• 45:36
  should I get sore? If you want to, I'm not gonna. You
• 45:44
  know why, because I'm a nice fellaw sure you are, but you want
• 45:49
  to get mad when a man calls you a liar. You didn't call me.
• 45:52
  I meant to. You're a liar. You know. I'm not a
• 45:58
  nice fella all the time. I can't like to hit you in a face
• 46:01
  of something. Right now, you're kneeling, am I. I think I
• 46:09
  better call up a girl I know, see what she's doing for dinner.
• 46:13
  Well, see if she's got a friend. Nah, No, you're too
• 46:15
  nasty, friend, you said, tight, Order me a drink. I'll
• 46:19
  be back in a jiffy. He's a little drunk, Sure he is,
• 46:25
  George. He's also worried any particular reason for getting him that way, Johnny.
• 46:30
  Yes, he's using the booth in the lobby. Scoot out there and
• 46:31
  see if you can get a line on who he might be calling right.
• 46:38
  A long ten minutes later, Frank Powers came back to the bar. He
• 46:42
  was weaving a little when he got on the stool next to me. George
• 46:45
  Hanley followed him back inside and took his place at the end of the bar
• 46:47
  again. Yeah, she's busy. Took her a long time to tell you
• 46:52
  that. She's a girl who takes a long time with every name. Oh
• 46:57
  what's your name? Man? What's your name? Gerdye just called? Oh,
• 47:04
  but here's Dorida there. Come on, drink up. You might have
• 47:07
  to eat with me. I don't want to drink to readA and I don't
• 47:10
  want to have dinner with you? What do you think of that? I
• 47:14
  thought you were a nice fellow. Remember good blease? Hey, Johnny,
• 47:22
  you may have something with this bird at that? How come George that call?
• 47:25
  He just made long distance to Baltimore. I got that much. He
• 47:29
  said he'd never been there. I didn't know anyone there. Keep an eye
• 47:31
  on this, Georgie. You bet your pal? Hey, Hey, Frank,
• 47:42
  Hey, Hey, look what's the matter? Friend? I just left
• 47:45
  you. I thought for good. Oh, come on, I'll buy you
• 47:46
  a dinner. You'll buy me nutting dalla go on back to Baltimore. Why
• 47:52
  don't you? Well, why don't you go back to Baltimore? What's that
• 47:57
  supposed to mean? Just what it means? Wow? And maybe we better
• 48:04
  talk and move Fine, my car isn't a lotting? Okay, you're after
• 48:09
  me. Well, let's say I ment you yesterday to get some facts.
• 48:13
  Let's say I drank with you tonight to find out what kind of a guy
• 48:15
  you are. I've done most of the talking up to date. Now it's
• 48:19
  your turn. Well, I don't know where that got anything to say to
• 48:24
  you? Make up your mind? Will you do? Suppose I were John
• 48:30
  ridden I'm not, but suppose I were. I can't tell you what a
• 48:32
  court would do about an insurance fraud. No, well, you're just a
• 48:36
  clumsy ox stumbling around for some answers, and you haven't got any year.
• 48:39
  I'd get at him. Oh he's a very handy fella. I didn't want
• 48:53
  to interfere. Johnny, stay on him, see where he goes, what
• 48:55
  he does. Georgie, hurry, you are right, pal? Sure I
• 49:02
  wasn't all right at all. Frank Bowers was not only big, but fast,
• 49:06
  and he caught me off guard. I went back through the hotel lobby
• 49:08
  up to my room and lay down on the bed, and I waited for
• 49:10
  the phone to ring. Sooner or later it be George Hanley or Frank Bower's
• 49:15
  tail reporting some development that had solved the whole case. But the phone didn't
• 49:19
  ring. Nothing happened, no one phone, no one came by. I
• 49:22
  went to sleep. About one o'clock the next morning, George Hanley called and
• 49:30
  asked me how I was feeling after the punching session in the parking lite.
• 49:35
  He reported that Frank Bowers had jumped in his car, driven straight home and
• 49:37
  gone straight to bed. Expense account it Adam twelve forty eight cents postage cost
• 49:45
  demaining a sample of Bower's fingerprints to Washington, DC. At eight o'clock that
• 49:49
  night, I had another phone call. Hi, baby, this is George
• 49:52
  Handley. How do you feel? Okay? What's up, Georgie. I'm
• 49:54
  still keeping my eye on Frank Bowers. He's nervous all right. Been staying
• 49:59
  in the house all day. I can see him walking back and forth in
• 50:01
  the living room. He must have smoked the package of cigarettes every hour.
• 50:05
  Has he used the phone? Yeah? Yeah, it looks like long distance
• 50:07
  stuff again, you know, place the call, hang up, then wait
• 50:09
  for the operator to call back. Possibly Baltimore again, possible, I'll bob
• 50:15
  it. I'm thinking. I'm thinking, where are you? Right across the
• 50:17
  street from his house, be right out. The heater in my rented car
• 50:22
  wasn't working that night. I remember that far very well. My feet and
• 50:25
  hands were numb with a ten bolow of weather when I flicked off the lights
• 50:29
  and pulled up alongside George Hanley station across the street from Frank Bauer's home.
• 50:35
  It's some weather. Yeah, how's Bower doing? I think he's got a
• 50:38
  visitor with him. A journey must have showed up while I was calling you,
• 50:42
  big guy wrapping an overcoat. I've seen him move around the room a
• 50:44
  couple of times. George, what's going and shake him up? I'm tired
• 50:47
  of all this. You think he's weird and I don't know, but I
• 50:50
  want to wind it up one way or the other. Okay, I want
• 50:52
  to wait for his friend to leave. Nope, Oh, it's a nutty.
• 51:00
  You're the one who's nutty. You already proved he isn't John ridden.
• 51:02
  That's all you want. I know. I know. Now I want to
• 51:05
  prove I'm getting old and crotchety and don't believe what I see in here.
• 51:08
  Bear with me, Georgie. Sure, pal, you're crazy, but I
• 51:12
  love you. Hey, visitor is leaving. Make him an overcoat, and
• 51:17
  I had on much to go on. He's George. The arrow went down.
• 51:27
  The gun of the man in the overcoat had gone off a couple more
• 51:29
  times. The ears bullet came six inches from loud my gun. All I
• 51:32
  could do was hug the ground for cover and try to stay out of his
• 51:35
  line of fire. The shots deffened me for a moment. When my hearing
• 51:38
  came back, I heard someone very close to me. It was Georgie.
• 51:45
  He was dying. Johnny Dollar, this is the operator. Ready with your
• 52:07
  call to mister Pat kellaher and Baltimore. Go ahead, please Hello, Hello,
• 52:12
  Pat, I got your wire. What's all this? What happened?
• 52:14
  We're still trying to find out the man calling himself Frank Bowers was killed an
• 52:17
  hour ago. George Hanley, one of the operators I had watching him,
• 52:21
  was killed. Two. We've got a vague description of the killer. Are
• 52:24
  you all right? Yeah, but I'm going to be tied with the police
• 52:27
  here. Well, you need money for bail or anything like that, just
• 52:30
  draw a draft on the company up and from it. Thanks Pad. So
• 52:32
  bad about your friend. Yeah, he was a good guy. I want
• 52:36
  to find out who killed him. Expense account submitted by Special Investigator Johnny Dollar
• 52:45
  to Universal Adjustment Bureau, Baltimore, Maryland. The following is an accounting of
• 52:50
  expendit yours during my investigation of the Chesapeake fraud matter. Expense account continued Item
• 52:57
  thirteen A quarter for some aspirin. It turned out to be a long night.
• 53:00
  Several homicide officers arrived at the double murder scene within a matter of minutes
• 53:05
  and got right down to the business at hand. Frank Bowers had been shot
• 53:07
  to death. George Hanley had been shot to death. Lieutenant Tom O'Neil was
• 53:12
  in charge, A big blonde man who seemed to know what he was about.
• 53:15
  Okay, let's see that idea again. Here you go, insurance investigator.
• 53:21
  That's right, Okay, what was your business here with these two men?
• 53:24
  My home office in Baltimore had reason to believe that Frank Bauers was really
• 53:28
  a man named John Ririden Riden was supposed to have died five years ago.
• 53:31
  I was sent out here to investigate it since there had been a twenty thousand
• 53:35
  dollars claim in the matter. Cure sure. I hired George Hanley to help
• 53:38
  me out. He was keeping an eye on Frank Bowers. I came out
• 53:42
  earlier tonight to give my hand, and the shooting began. And the idea
• 53:44
  who did it? A big man and a top coat and a hat.
• 53:47
  I really didn't get a look at him, Lieutenant. I was busy with
• 53:50
  George Hanley. Cure you carry again sometimes I didn't have one. Tonight.
• 53:53
  You tried to chase the killer, I said, I was busy with my
• 53:57
  friend. That's right, you did well? How was your instigation coming along?
• 54:00
  Frank Bower's fingerprints didn't match the samples I had for John Reardon, but
• 54:05
  it didn't satisfy me. Though there were a lot of things about him personally
• 54:07
  I couldn't accept. I harassed him a little last night, and he got
• 54:10
  pretty excited and sluck me. This was after I found out even trying to
• 54:14
  call Baltimore. Who in Balimore? I don't know. Tell me about this
• 54:17
  harrising. You'll make a check with the phone company. Well, I needled
• 54:21
  him purposely, trying to scare him into a blunder. I think I was
• 54:23
  doing pretty good. I'll never know now what else you got to say about
• 54:29
  your case? Well that's about it, Lieutenant, it is eh. Well,
• 54:30
  that's all I gotta say, because that's all I know about it.
• 54:32
  Next time, be careful with your needling, Tagnies. I was doing what
• 54:36
  I thought best on the case. Here you were you were doing swell.
• 54:38
  You let a friend of yours get shot down in front of your eyes,
• 54:42
  not to mention the other guy. You can't give us a description of the
• 54:45
  killer or a hint at the motive. Now, maybe George Hanley wasn't a
• 54:47
  friend of yours at that why you can't take it easy, kiddo, Take
• 54:51
  it easy, Remember to blow the bell. I'm sorry he had quite a
• 54:53
  night. Nobody in your business or mind knows what's behind the door when he
• 54:57
  kicks it in. I'm just a cop trying to get out, so I
• 55:00
  pushed too hard. Sometimes we'll get it taken care of. Nobody walks in
• 55:05
  a man's house and shoots him down without somebody hearing something or seeing something.
• 55:08
  I mean, somebody beside you. My mental coovery of every house in the
• 55:12
  block, in this whole area, if we have to bound to be somebody
• 55:15
  somewhere. The dog, a Lieutenant O'Neil, turned out to be one hundred
• 55:21
  percent correct. In fact, he turned out to be three hundred percent correct.
• 55:24
  For by eleven o'clock the following morning, his men had located three different
• 55:28
  people who had information about the brutal murders of Frank Bowers and George Hanley.
• 55:31
  The first was a man named Randall, who had lived across the street.
• 55:35
  He had seen Bowers open his front door and admit the unknown killer. He
• 55:37
  said he wore glasses. The second was a paper boy who had come to
• 55:40
  collect while the killer was there. He stated that the killer and Bowers were
• 55:45
  arguing when he came up to the door. The third witness, a housewife,
• 55:47
  gave the most important information as to the man's description. He was a
• 55:51
  good eel taller than mister Bowers. How much taller? Three four inches at
• 55:55
  least? I saw him standing in the doorway from here. He had on
• 55:59
  a brown tweed to my husband has one just like it. How old would
• 56:01
  you say? He was forty five? Have you ever seen him before?
• 56:06
  Would you know him if you saw him again? Yes? Anywhere you got
• 56:09
  that good look at him? Huh? Yes, the porch light was on.
• 56:13
  Here's something dollar. Lieutenant O'Neil had issued an all points bulletin based on
• 56:17
  the combined descriptions given by the witnesses. In the meantime, his men had
• 56:22
  checked the local cab companies and found out that one of the drivers had carried
• 56:24
  a fair to Frank Bauer's home at eight o'clock in the evening. The cab
• 56:28
  driver verified the housewives's description of the suspect and added the important information that he'd
• 56:32
  picked up the man at the airport. When that was checked, it was
• 56:36
  found the man had come in on a plane from the east at five forty
• 56:37
  five in the afternoon. He had used the name or in Williams expense account
• 56:45
  item fourteen eight dollars and ninety five cents. Another long distance phone call to
• 56:50
  Baltimore and Pat kellerher, Oh, I'll be John. Do you have to
• 56:52
  stay there? John? Of course I have to stay here. I'm a
• 56:55
  material witness. Not to mention the fact that a palamne was shot down.
• 57:00
  They'll get on your high horse, John. It was just a question.
• 57:02
  Have any idea what it was all about. Well, at the moment,
• 57:05
  I'm just sure a guy named Oron Williams flew in, shot up two people
• 57:08
  and beat it. If we had Williams, I'd give you the whole thing
• 57:12
  on a silver planter. You're awfully touchy. Well, this thing has gotten
• 57:15
  out a hand. Well, I won't press you on anymore. John.
• 57:20
  You do what you think is best. As far as the company is concerned,
• 57:22
  it's really not our business anymore. It's our business until it's cleared up.
• 57:28
  Well, I mean, Bowers, he wasn't, John Reardon? Hold
• 57:30
  it? Pat? Yeah, answer from Washington on your wire. Yeah,
• 57:36
  yeah, let's see Pat. Yeah, it is our business after all.
• 57:43
  All right. The Lieutenant here sent a hurry up request to Washington on some
• 57:45
  of Bower's fingerprints. I mailed a couple of days ago. They check out.
• 57:50
  I don't get it, Bowers was John Riden. Oh well, well,
• 57:57
  why why'd you get the samples of Arden's prince and check out from Hugh
• 58:00
  Brian, Arden's attorney. I bet, don't you dare. Don't open your
• 58:05
  mouth. I'll handle it when I get there. Tell me about this fella,
• 58:09
  Hugh Bryan, according to the phone company, that's the man Bowers was
• 58:14
  trying to call in Baltimore. I told him all I knew, and Lieutenant
• 58:20
  O'Neil listened thoughtfully. It became apparent from that point on, since Bauer's true
• 58:24
  identity had been established through army records, that the bulk of the case could
• 58:29
  be concluded not in Denver but in Baltimore. Expense account out of sixteen two
• 58:37
  hundred and sixteen dollars playing fair and incidentals Denver to Baltimore. I arrived at
• 58:42
  ten fifteen in the evening, checked with the Baltimore police, who had been
• 58:44
  informed of the case by Tom O'Neil in Denver at his request. They'd taken
• 58:47
  no action as yet. From the police station, I went directly to Hugh
• 58:52
  Brian's residence. The house was English, conservative and expensive. The fire in
• 58:55
  the living room looked cheerful. When the door opened, Elizabeth and did not
• 59:00
  look so cheerful. Hello Johnny, Hello missus. RIDDEN didn't expect to find
• 59:05
  you here, No, I suppose not. I never expected to see you
• 59:08
  again, Elizabeth. I have something to tell you. Don't tell me now.
• 59:14
  It's about your husband, all right. I want to tell mister Brian
• 59:17
  too. He's upstairs in his study. Wait. Look, I've done what
• 59:22
  I thought best about all this, and I'm trying to do what's best now.
• 59:25
  It doesn't make any difference, Johnny, I'm a married woman again.
• 59:30
  Ah. Yes, you and I were married this morning. Excuse me.
• 59:37
  I walked in and watched John Riden's widow alias Frank Bower's widow now Hugh Brian's
• 59:42
  bride, disappear of a column stairway. The news that she had married Hugh
• 59:46
  Brian cleared up some of the small doubts in my mind. When Brian came
• 59:51
  back down the stairs with her, he looked anything but the happy bridegroom.
• 59:55
  Hello Dollar, A late color Yeah, I'm sorry about that. Congratulations,
• 1:00:01
  thank you? How did you come out in Denver? Everything okay? No,
• 1:00:07
  everything's not okay. Well, what's the matter do I have to tell
• 1:00:12
  you? I'll run along upstairs, Hugh. What's getting terribly late? All
• 1:00:15
  right, dear, good night, mister Dollar. Good night missus, Brian.
• 1:00:21
  There'll be some men out to see a pretty soon, Brian Policeman.
• 1:00:24
  Oh, Liz, yes, I think you'll be interested in what mister Dollar
• 1:00:30
  has to say. What I don't understand you. I wasn't in Philadelphia yesterday,
• 1:00:38
  Liz. I was in Denver, Colorado. What I flew there to
• 1:00:44
  see John? He's been alive and living there all this time. Whew.
• 1:00:50
  I'm sorry. This is only for her benefit. Dollar. I'll tell it
• 1:00:52
  just once. When it gets into court, it'll be different. How did
• 1:00:55
  it happen, Brian? John Reardon didn't die in that No, he was
• 1:01:01
  picked up in a bay by a fishing boat on his way to Florida.
• 1:01:05
  And they didn't have a radio on the fishing boat. The first port they
• 1:01:07
  came to was Charleston. John phoned me from there and told me all about
• 1:01:12
  it. And this was ten days after we all thought he was dead.
• 1:01:15
  That part was all accident. Sure, the rest of it was a little
• 1:01:20
  different, Liz. It was his idea. You've got to believe that.
• 1:01:28
  What was his idea? Not showing up ever again, betting everyone think he
• 1:01:31
  was really dead, making you a widow. I don't believe it. He
• 1:01:36
  hated his life here, everything about it. He was in debt right up
• 1:01:40
  to his ears. Of course, there was your money, but he while
• 1:01:44
  I flew down to Charleston to talk to him, he was like a crazy
• 1:01:45
  man, kept saying there was a way out. I didn't know what he
• 1:01:49
  meant at first. Then he came right out and said it was his chance
• 1:01:51
  to get away from all the things he hated. He knew how I felt
• 1:01:54
  about you then, how I feel about you now. He said I could
• 1:01:59
  have you for a price. What was the price those checks he got every
• 1:02:01
  week from a New York bonding concern? Yes, what did they come to?
• 1:02:06
  Twenty five thousand a year, regular weekly payments. I could afford it.
• 1:02:09
  I could afford anything for you, Lise. Did he come right out
• 1:02:15
  and tell you he hated me? He just said he wanted to get away
• 1:02:17
  from everything. And it went that way for five years. I believe I
• 1:02:22
  asked you to marry me every six months, Yes, but that didn't work
• 1:02:24
  out either. And then one day along game Johnny Dollar, How does it
• 1:02:30
  feel to be so efficient? Mister Dollar. We don't have to go into
• 1:02:34
  that to me. No, I'll admit you did everything to throw me off,
• 1:02:37
  and it threw me off, especially the fingerprints you provided. Didn't John
• 1:02:42
  read An insist his name is Frank Bauers and do everything he could to make
• 1:02:45
  you believe that was true. He did too much to make me think it
• 1:02:46
  was true. Where is he now? Where's John? He's dead, missus
• 1:02:51
  Brian, Oh, truly dead now. He was shot to death last night
• 1:02:55
  by mister Brian. Mister Bryan also shot a friend of mine, didn't you,
• 1:03:00
  Brian? Yes, John got scared, called me, said he was
• 1:03:05
  going to tell everything. The Dollar to blow the whole thing. Hugh.
• 1:03:09
  All I wanted out of this was you is He didn't want you I did
• 1:03:15
  last week you decided to marry me. It took you five years to do
• 1:03:19
  that, and it took him one afternoon to decide he was going to come
• 1:03:23
  back to the proof that John Ridden's widow is guilty or not guilty of a
• 1:03:37
  fraudulent insurance claim is a matter for Easton Fidelity to decide. The matter of
• 1:03:42
  Hugh Brian and two murders is a matter for the courts. Expense account Item
• 1:03:51
  seventeen same as Item one expenses from Baltimore to Hartford. Itam eighteen eighty nine
• 1:03:57
  dollars even car Renolds miscellaneous, et cetera. Expense account total eleven twenty four
• 1:04:01
  dollars and ninety eight cents. Yours truly, Johnny Dollar. Remember please,
• 1:04:19
  There'll be a new exciting story on Johnny Dollar beginning next Monday. Next week.
• 1:04:25
  A quiet, sleepy little town in Mexico and a beautiful senor read it
• 1:04:28
  that, well, things didn't stay quiet and sleepy for long, Johnas,
• 1:04:32
  won't you yours truly, Johnny Dollar? Yours truly Johnny Dollar, starring Bob
• 1:04:49
  Bailey, is transcribed in Hollywood, written by John Dawson. It is produced
• 1:04:54
  and directed by Jack Johnstone. Heard in this week's cast where Gene Bates,
• 1:04:59
  DJ Thompson, I have her back, will write John Dayner, Tony Barrett,
• 1:05:01
  Paul Dubov and Forrest Lewis. Be sure to join us on Monday night,
• 1:05:05
  same time in station for another exciting story of Yours truly Johnny Dollar Roy
• 1:05:12
  Rowan speaking welcome Back. The main thing that I caught listening through this completely
• 1:06:12
  as opposed to the serial form, is the subtle ways the writers built up
• 1:06:18
  are empathy for George by referencing his wife and family, and the ways that
• 1:06:26
  the friendship with Johnny was established so that we'd understand that it mattered to him
• 1:06:33
  in ways more than just the normal death. Definitely, at the end of
• 1:06:39
  this do feel sorry for Elizabeth. I doubt that she would be prosecuted and
• 1:06:45
  certainly not prosecuted successfully by the insurance company for being involved in the fraud,
• 1:06:51
  though I suppose County prosecutor might go after her as leverage to get fashion.
• 1:07:00
  Of course, this episode also really featured Johnny's determination to get his man and
• 1:07:05
  very certain in spite of the facts, which I guess contrasts with the first
• 1:07:11
  couple of weeks, because in both the McCormick matter and the Molly k matter,
• 1:07:16
  Johnny miscalculated based on evidence. Here he manages to get to the truth
• 1:07:23
  more based on hunch than anything else. So interesting contrast will This is the
• 1:07:30
  last that we'll be doing for this listener support campaign of the omnibus edition shows,
• 1:07:36
  but certainly it's something we'll look at revisiting in the future. Coming up
• 1:07:41
  tomorrow it's the last episode of Pursuit, and then starting next Monday, be
• 1:07:46
  listening for the Saint and Tuesday and Friday. This week join us for two
• 1:07:53
  different episodes of Yours Truly Johnny Doller with John Lone on Tuesday and Bob Dailey
• 1:08:00
  on Friday. Also, do we support our listener support campaign support dot great
• 1:08:05
  Detectives dot net. Among the thank you guests we do have is at the
• 1:08:10
  one hundred dollar level we'll send you If you're in the US or Canada,
• 1:08:14
  we'll send you your choice of the Who Is Johnny Dollar Matter by John Abbott,
• 1:08:20
  Volume one covering the pre Bob Bailey programs, Volume two covering the Bob
• 1:08:28
  Bailey programs, and Volume three the post Bob Bailey programs. If you're in
• 1:08:31
  the US or Canada, we'll send you your choice out of any of the
• 1:08:35
  three volumes. For a donation of one hundred dollars, or for a donation
• 1:08:40
  of two hundred and fifty dollars, we'll send you all three volumes. Full
• 1:08:45
  details, as well as other available options are at support dot Great Detectives dot
• 1:08:50
  net. In the meantime, send your comments to Box thirteen at Great detectives
• 1:08:56
  dot net, follow us on Twitter, Radio Detectives, and become one of
• 1:09:00
  our friends on Facebook, Facebook dot com. Slash Radio Detectives from Boise,
• 1:09:04
  Idaho. This is your host, Adam Grahamson and AF