Latest / Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas / Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Pearling Matter, Parts Three and Four (EP1145)

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Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Pearling Matter, Parts Three and Four (EP1145) · Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas

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Welcome to the Great Detectors of Old Time Radio. Happy New Year from Boise,
0:33
Idaho. This is your host, Adam Graham. If you have a
0:37
comment, send it to me Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net, follow
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us on Twitter at Radio Detectives, and become one of our friends on Facebook,
0:47
Facebook dot com, slash Radio Detectives. All right, Well, before
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we do get started, I want to encourage you as you make your travel
0:54
plans here in twenty fourteen, remember to go to Johnny Dollar Air dot com.
0:59
First. Dollar Air dot com is a prose line affiliate, so you
1:02
can name your own price on hotels, rental cars, airline tickets and even
1:07
more. Or you can choose from Great Publish Affairs. Plus, if you
1:11
purchase through Johnny Dollar Air dot com, a part of your purchase price goes
1:15
to support the Great Detectors of Old Time Radio. So remember Johnny Dollar Air
1:19
dot com. Well, now it's time for us to take a listen to
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today's episode of Yours Truly Johnny Dollar The Purely Matter, Parts three and four
1:32
from Hollywood. It's time now for Johnny Dollar. Your numbers ringing now,
1:40
mister Dollar, Aimwell Agency, Amwell Detectives yes, want to talk to mister
1:48
Amwell. My name is Johnny Dollar. This is all I understand. Your
1:51
agency has been looking for the Perling girl for about a year now, Oh
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you do? Huh? And who told you that missus Perling? I never
1:59
heard of you or her or a girl saloon. This is the operator where
2:07
you cut off, mister Dollar. I'll call them back. Never mind,
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call me a cab, honey, I'll talk to them in person tonight and
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every weekday Night. Bob Bailey and the Transcribed Adventures of the Man with the
2:23
Action Packed Expensive Out America's Fabulous Freelance Insurance Investigators Jaws Truley Johnny Dollar. Expense
2:44
accounts submitted by special Investigator Johnny Dollar to Eastern Liability and Trust Company, Hartford,
2:49
Connecticut. The following is an accounting of expenditures during my investigation of the
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Pearling matter. Item seven three dollars cab my hotel to the office of the
3:00
Amwell Agency. A red headed girl at the switchboard looked me over like I
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was a car she didn't want to buy. I told him my name and
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that I wanted to see Nile's Amwell. She told me to sit down and
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wait. Three minutes later, she waved me down a long carpeted corridor.
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I followed directions. A typewriter clack somewhere. Men in those suits with a
3:20
little shoulders and hemstitching for lapels moved in and out of offices. They looked
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more like an advertising office than a detective agency. Finally I opened the door
3:30
and stepped into a small room that was decorated in gray, gray walls,
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gray carpeting, great draperies, a desk, a brass lamp of finding cabinet,
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and a man were there. He didn't get up when I walked in,
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but slouched back in his chair and let his ball head rest against the
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wall. You're kind of determined, aren't you. I suppose so your aimwell
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mm hm. On the phone, I told you I didn't know what you
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were talking about. Now i'll tell you again. Don't slam the door when
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you go out. What are you paying rent here? If I've got it
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figured right, you wish you weren't paying it. But then a place like
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this draws a snappy a crowd of clients. So what you've got in the
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end is more clients and more rent, No more money for yourself. Now
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that you've said all that, Will you get out of here? I know
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one of those snappy clients happens to be the Pearlings. I know you've been
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trying to find their daughter. This is my ID. This is my license
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bond, letter of authority from Eastern Liability. Now. Two days ago,
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the papers carried a story that David Perling was killed in a boating accident in
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Key West. That was a lot of baloney. It was restracted. I
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know that, But I talked to a reporter down in Key West who told
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me Peerling paid to have that story about himself printed. My client had an
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idea Pearling might have done it to set up the stock market for a killing
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missus. Peerling told me he did it, and I hope his missing daughter
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would see the story in the papers in contact home, What have you got
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to say? Here's your stuff? One of the things. Pearling the kind
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of man who'd pull a trick like that. Ask him you got a way
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about you? I don't like. Well that's too bad. But in between
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the time I call and the time I got here, you had time to
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call the Pearlings on the phone and ask about me. They said it was
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all right to tell me what I wanted to know, if there was a
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daughter, if you've been hired to look for If you don't tell me,
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you might jeopardize the part of the rent the Pearlings pay for you. No,
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look, God, I've got something else you aren't gonna like. I
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might just want to see your operatives report. In the case, I might
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have the idea that if you've been looking for her this long, you might
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just be dragging it out a little bit. You know, the rent money
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it's due every month. Get mister or missus Pearling on the phone right away.
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I hope they tell me to throw you out on your ear. Well,
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while we're waiting, let's get back to the questions, where have you
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looked? What have you done? We pulled the case eleven months ago,
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almost to the day. The girl's five five, one hundred and fourteen pounds,
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no visible scars, no glasses, black hair, brown eyes. She's
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twenty four. It'll be twenty five next month. We thought we had are
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located in Muncie, Toledo, Detroit, Fort Worth, and Pueblo. We
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think she's traveling alone. We think she's a little girl who was fed up
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to here with mom and daddy. And just struck out for herself. But
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you haven't found her. Five men have been looking on eight hour shifts,
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seven days a week for eleven months to the day. Five men, eleven
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months, seven days a week, and I'm one of the five. My
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feet hurt, my headaches most of the time. My wife's thinking about divorcing
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me. And then you walk in here and plant yourself in my office.
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You're suggesting maybe I can go out and find it just like that. Well
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I can't. Nobody can. So I want you to know I kind of
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resent that remark about how I'm laying down on the job, and if you
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don't take it back, I'll have to cave in the side of the wall
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with you. What do you got to say, doll, I take it
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back first, Ring Well, sit down and have yourself a smoke. Hello,
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well, hello, missus Purling. Mister Dollar's in my office now.
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Yes, I'll cooperate with him. Yes, Missus Pearling, I understand.
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They explained it all to me. Yes, ma'am, whole file everything.
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How would you like somebody to bring up a bottle of cold beer? Oh,
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I'd like that fine, mister Ramwell, niall's Saymwell. In between complaining
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about the abundance of bad private operators and the detective business showed me how good
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he was. The Genie Peerling file was a comprehensive day to day report on
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the investigation. His discouragement in the case was understandable. The only thing that
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meant something was the picture of Jennie Pearling, cold black hair over a fresh
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white skinned face, dark eyes, a nice smile. Somehow not my idea
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of the daughter that would belong to David Peerling. Too old, too young,
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or to something. I couldn't put my finger on it. If I
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had been, I could have ended this expense account right here as it was.
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I spent one hundred thousand dollars somebody else's money, sure, but I
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spent it just the same. Mister Doner, I'm certainly surprised at this development.
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You say Perling's daughters missing. That's right, mister Scottman, and I'm
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convinced that the detective agency he's had looking for have been doing just that.
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Eh. Well, then I'm relief. No, you got to the bottom
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of this matter. I'm sorry, of course for missus Pearling, but as
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I say, relieve that there there was no attempt at financial manipulation. I
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think, then I can call you off the case. There is no case
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now, Nope, guess not. And that's the way it stood. At
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four o'clock in the afternoon, I told mister Scottman i'd send him a bill.
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We shook hands, and he wandered off to see if he could get
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a night flight back to Hartford. To my room to pack, and was
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folding a shirt all wrong when it struck me that I suddenly didn't believe anything
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or anybody. The idea that there was money and it's somewhere still kept coming
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back to me. I couldn't shake it. I finished packing and left my
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bags at the desk. I wandered out and found a bar and sent out
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to think. After a couple of hours, nothing much occurred to me,
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but I did something anyhow. Oh hello Dollar. My plane didn't leave till
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eleven o'clock. I haven't had dinner yet. I didn't come about dinner,
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mister Scudman, what is it? Well, how does this case strike you?
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Eh? A phony death report, a missing girl, a stock market
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manipulation that didn't come off. How does it strike you? Oh? Very
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neat? That's a phrase I can use with Dollar. We had a question
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with serious implications to it. We have an answer now, that's what we
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wanted. But it's too neat. I'm not sure I know quite what you
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mean. Look, you first called me in because it was halfway in your
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mind that Pearling's alleged death was for the purpose of making money on the market.
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Now why did you think that it was a possibility? But what else?
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What about Perling? What do you mean you know him? I never
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met him. Do you think he was capable of a thing like that?
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Not? No, No, I have proof from you that that wasn't his
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reason at all. But you thought so. Before you had that proof,
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you suspected it. You suppose I did. Yes, Well, I didn't
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know him from a load of coal, but I always figured his money in
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it somewhere. And I've met David Perling. He doesn't seem like the kind
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of man who'd worry about a grown daughter who didn't like him and ran away.
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Just didn't seem that way. Oh here now, detective agency working on
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the case, the story in the papers, But no police, mister Scottman,
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no bulletins, no one hundred percent effort to find her. Why I
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suppose you have a good point. I'm sure I have a good point,
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mister Scottland. Money's always a good point. Well what money? How why?
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I don't know. I can't answer those questions. I wish I could.
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If I could, i'd know that a man like Dave Perling was lying
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through his teeth. If he told me he wanted his daughter back safe at
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home, I'd know why he was lying. I know I'm just talking and
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getting nowhere right now, But well, I thought i'd better tell you what
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was on my mind here. Well, you've certainly done that. Now what
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that's up to you? Oh? Well, if you feel so strongly about
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this, I think then you should continue. I thought it was ended,
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But in view of the circumstances, continue by all means continue well Dollar,
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Well, you're working late. I'd rather stay here than go home sometimes most
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of the time. Hey, well, we might be seeing quite a bit
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of each other. How did you know m Pearling told me to contact you.
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You're pretty cute, Dollar. Tell me why you hardly ever run across
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the picture of a girl you'd like to look at as much as this pearling
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Dame? Oh, I might have you know? You kid me most of
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the time, and I'm an old slab who stands around with hardly any fast
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answers. You aren't getting me this time, Pally. You show it all
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over. If I walked in a place and I seen a girl as nice
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looking as this, and I had me business with her, I'd be the
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luckiest guy in the world. If there are women, and there are women.
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But if that picture means anything, boy, she's a woman and you
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want to meet her, right, sure, I want to meet her,
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But you're getting romantic. And if I saw but didn't have any business with
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her, just saw, I'd go take a walk around the block before I
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talk to anybody. Yeah, I know, And I don't blame you.
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You're a very lucky fellow. You're going to see her. That's why Peerling
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asked me to contact you. Huh. Here came in about an hour ago.
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One of our men located her where she's in New Orleans. He handed
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me the wire and I read it over. Then I looked at him,
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he looked at me. I didn't ask any questions, he didn't say a
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word. It was a wonderful make believe world, but it really didn't exist.
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Too neat and too tidy, and we all know the world's full of
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bumps. I haven't hear them. Mount Everest, Johnny Dollars Dollar, I
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want to talk to you. Hello, mister mister Eamwell tells me you were
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in his office looking into my private affairs. If investigating the matter I came
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here for involves your private affairs, I guess I did that. I should
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be irritated, I suppose, and I guess I'm not. When can I
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see you most anytime? How about today? I'll be at my house all
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day long. Expense account submitted by special investigated Johnny Dollar to Eastern Liability and
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Trust Company, Hartford, Connecticut. The following is an accounting of expendit yours.
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During my investigation of the Pearling matter, Item nine ten cents, one
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phone called a Morton Scottman, advising him that Genie Perling had been located in
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New Orleans by one of Amoell's operatives. Missus Scottman thought that over for a
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while and then assumed it would be in the best interests of Eastern Liability to
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make certain this was the truth. I told mister Scottman I intended to do
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just that. I had him ten five dollars camfare from the New Western hotel
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to the home of David Perling. Hi, come on it. The man
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who opened the door wasn't a servant. He wore a dark blue, double
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breasted suit. He smelled the cigars and bourbon, and private detectives stuck out
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all over him. He jammed a pudgy finger in the general direction of what
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later turned out to be the library, and I followed. The room we
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went into was empty except for us, as far as I could see or
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hear. The rest of the house was empty too. The man in the
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blue suit, sent down on a leather cellphone, pointed to a court of
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bourbon that had just come out of a sack. You must be this dollar
15:05
guy. Huh yeah, mister Pearling be along in a minute. He asked
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me to say hello to you. By the way, my name's Brad Copeland.
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I'm one of Niles man. Niles ain't well, that's great. Where
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is Niles. He's with mister Pearling. They'll be along. Sound relax.
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They said they thought it was about time for little conference. What for the
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girl's been found, hasn't she? Oh sure? Sure? Now they got
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to figure some other things out. I'll bet you don't believe much of this
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do you Nope, Well, then I'll put it this way. I'm the
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guy who found Jeenie Peerling. How about it now? Okay, look,
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I got put on this thing because an insurance company executive thought Pearling might have
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had a false death report made on him to juggle some things in the stock
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market. Ah, that story in the paper is about Pearling dying. Uh
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yeah, Pearling paid to have that story printed, all right, but not
15:58
for any stock market angles. He did it to try and scare up this
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tortter of his who scrammed away from home a year ago. I found that
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hard to believe, even after I talked to Niles Aimwell and he told me
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the agency had been hired to find the girl a year ago. I suppose
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you're one of the men who's been looking. Yeah, that's about it.
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No luck either. And yesterday morning comes a phone call I don't know who
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it is, tells me where she's living, what name she's using in New
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Orleans. I scrammed down there by plane and check it out. It's all
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true. So I come back here and here I am conference. You found
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her on a tip from somebody you don't know. Man or woman. Always
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a man's voice wonderful in it. What happens sometimes? How does it look
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to you like a seal freight car full of nothing? That's the girl down
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there, and you are right. I managed that. I picked up a
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prince and checked him on what we had to go on. But what's what?
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I don't know, what's sam I'm going to do? Now, that's
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why the conference we see what we'll see relax. I tried to do that,
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but I didn't do very well. Copeland settled to his bourbon, and
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I picked up and laid down a half a dozen magazines, smoked two cigarettes,
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paced up and down. Finally I heard a door open somewhere and Nile's
17:07
Amwell and David Pearling walked in the wrong. Then aim Well motioned Copeland to
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his feet, and both of them left the room without a word. David
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Pearling and I were alone. How much do they pay your dollar? Oh?
17:18
I'm paid well enough. What's that got to do with it? I
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was just curious as all. You seem like a competent man. As a
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matter of fact, the most competent I've met, and that includes mister Amwell
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and mister Copeland. By the way, I just fired them. Really,
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I don't think I need them anymore now that I know where Genie is.
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Oh, you've had an extraordinary interest in my affairs lately. I'm willing to
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bet that you won't leave me alone until you're satisfied about my daughter. You'd
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be right. I want Geenie to come home here where she belongs. Why
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don't you go get her? I think that might be difficult under the circumstances.
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I'm afraid she bears considerable ranker for myself, missus Pearling. Perhaps someone
18:02
like you could well persuade her that it would be the best thing to do.
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I get down to New Orleans and get her exactly I was going anyway.
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Oh why, Well, off hand, you don't seem like the father
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who's happy to know that his daughter whom he hasn't seen her heard from in
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a year, is alive. And well, you haven't made a move to
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go and pick her up yourself. Also, she was found too soon and
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too fast after I got in on the picture. Hey, you can stop
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right there. I'm sure I wouldn't even attempt to explain any of those things.
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I didn't think you would or could. I'm on my way to New
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Orleans, mister pearling to get your daughter. I think she'd be crazy if
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she came back here, but I'll take it up with her. Do that.
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I wonder if you'd like to try to explain something else for me.
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What why you were feeding me out a couple of minutes ago to see if
18:52
i'd buy off, get out of here, get out? Why not expense
19:03
account out of eleven one hundred and thirteen dollars fifteen cents their fair Incidental's New
19:07
York to New Orleans, Louisiana. The temperature was exactly twenty eight degrees hotter
19:11
when I landed in the cam from the field. I peeled off my coat
19:14
and loosened my tie and took off my hat. I walked into the lobby
19:18
of the Rose Hotel that way. Everyone else seemed cool enough in linens and
19:22
tropicals, everyone except myself. In a big blonde giant of a man leaning
19:26
against the CNS ticket counter, bo Hey, take mister dollar to five eleven.
19:32
The giant smile when he saw me and stuck out his hand. Well,
19:34
well, well, I'm certainly glad to see you. We thought you'd
19:40
never get here. I hope you had a pleasant trip. I was okay,
19:44
I know you're tired and hot, and I'd like to wash up a
19:47
little and refresh yourself. But the rest of the boys are headquartered in eight
19:51
ten. Now mighty anxious to meet you. Money anxious Stella cotton goers are
19:56
gonna make it or break it at this convention, Yes, sir, Yes,
20:00
sir, we sure are, are we. As soon as you've cleaned
20:03
up, you come right over. We have a drink and I'll show you
20:04
around the town. Yeah, that'll be swalled eight ten, eight ten,
20:08
about now about an now I'll see you, hey, clerk, Yes,
20:17
sir. How long have the Delta Cotton growers been in town? Delta Cotton
20:22
Growers? But they had that convention last month, sir, who's registered in
20:26
eight ten? We have no eight ten? So i'd done someone dirty when
20:33
he came over with handout in front. I was supposed to say, you
20:36
got the wrong fellow. My name's Donary, but I made him play it
20:38
out for a particular reason. He wanted to know who I was, and
20:42
he didn't quite know. But then I wanted to know who he was and
20:47
I didn't quite know. I wanted to know him because of that thirty eighth
20:51
strapped under his left arm. It bowled out just enough to make me curious.
20:56
By seven thirty, I'd eaten dinner and found in an address Ursuline Street,
21:00
the address where Jenie Perling was living. A mailbox carried that name.
21:04
It was one of those unpainted apartment houses in the French Quarter, full of
21:07
heat and low white light bulbs. The girl who opened the door was a
21:12
medium sized blonde and she wore a black dress. The girl I was looking
21:17
for had cold black hair. Yes, how do you do? My name's
21:22
Johnny Dollar. I came here to see Jennie Pearling. Come in. Please.
21:29
You're a friend of Jeans in a way, I just came from New
21:32
York. You know her father? Then? Yes, Oh, I'm Janie
21:37
Floyd, Jean's roommate. This way, careful, it's a little dark.
21:41
Sure, maybe I had the feeling when I saw the black dress, but
21:48
I knew I had it. When Janice Floyd turned and led me through the
21:51
two large rooms that made the apartment, I thought that was the end of
21:55
it. But there was one more room. The blonde girl stood at one
21:59
side so I could see, and the perspiration began to trickle down my face.
22:03
I knew what was coming. Yes she is, mister Dowler. She
22:07
was there all right, as lovely and as young and beautiful as the picture.
22:11
There was a candle burning at her head and feet, and she was
22:15
dead. I don't know how long I stood there in the dark room,
22:21
staring down at her. I think there were other people in there too,
22:25
dark people, heads bowed, hands folded in front of them, all looking
22:30
at her. How did it happen? Leukemia? You know? Didn't you
22:36
know her very long? No? No, As a matter of fact,
22:41
Miss Floyd, I didn't never know her. I certainly didn't know she was
22:45
dead when I came here tonight. I hardly expected he asked that it be
22:48
this way. But who are you? I'm an insurance investigator from her father.
22:52
Not exactly not. Oh, yes, I see it now. You
22:56
aren't the first one who's been here looking for her. There have been others,
23:00
detectives and lawyers, trying to get her to go back. What if
23:02
he'd loved her, if they'd loved her for just one unselfish moment, she
23:06
would still be there. Well, mister Dollar, she's ware. Her father
23:08
can't bother her anymore. You tell him that when you go back to New
23:12
York tell him he can stop hiring lawyers and detectives to find her. Now
23:17
get out expense account adam thirteen five dollars, the usual charge in any city
23:22
for having a legal document copied and photo stadded a death certificate verifying the fact
23:27
that the girl had died on the twentieth day of the month. A medical
23:32
report attached to the certificate named the cause of death is leukemia. I had
23:36
copies of all these legal documents by ten o'clock the following morning. I even
23:40
went through the motions of phoning the desk and asking for a bill and making
23:42
a plane reservation for that night. I had a feeling someone would be very
23:47
interested to see me take care of all those things, and I was right.
23:49
The big blonde man with a thirty eight happened to be in one corner
23:52
of the lobby when I paid my bill. He also happened to be at
23:56
the airport when I picked up my ticket, but then he got careless.
23:59
I walked through the I gave waited two minutes and slipped back to grab a
24:00
cab in front, just in time to see him wheel a batter, convert
24:03
a lot of the parking lot, and head back for town. I followed
24:06
in my cab. He went to the Ercelain Street address. Two minutes later
24:10
he came out expense account. I am fourteen eight dollars. I let my
24:14
cab go and strolled up to him just as he was getting in his car.
24:18
Hi, am what, Look, we've been playing games long enough,
24:22
don't you think? Well? Why don't you go back to New York and
24:29
do what you have to do? Deliver this death certificate. I don't believe
24:33
it. You saw it, did, didn't you still don't believe it.
24:37
That's too bad, because that's the way it is. He got in his
24:44
car, started it up, drove away. I stood there and watched him
24:48
go. Money. I kept saying to myself, money, there's money in
24:53
it somewhere, playing old money. Now here's our star to tell you about
25:15
the final intriguing episode of this week's story tomorrow. There's still money in it,
25:18
more money than it takes to save a life. Join us, won't
25:22
you? Yours truly? Johnny Dull yours truly? Johnny Dollar is starring Bob
25:45
Bailey, is transcribed in Hollywood. Written by John Dawson, It is produced
25:49
and directed by Jack Johnstone. Be sure to join us tomorrow night, same
25:55
time and station for the final episode of this week's story of yours Truly,
25:59
Johnny Dollar Roy Roman speaking welcome back, well, Johnny is certainly putting quite
27:37
a bit on intuition. I won't comment on it too much more than that,
27:42
just because I do remember how it's ends, and I don't want to
27:45
even intentionally give away something that folcus don't want to hear. But be sure
27:52
and be back with us on Friday as we wrap this story up, and
27:56
join us tomorrow. We'll be bringing you an episode of Nick Carter in the
28:00
some time. Send your comments to Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net,
28:03
follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives, and become one of our friends on
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Facebook, Facebook, dot com, Slash Radiodetectives From Boise, Idaho, This
28:12
is your host, Adam Grahamson and off