 From Hollywood it's time now for Johnny dollar, yes, just a moment for you, mr. Dollar. Thanks Johnny dollar Bonnie Wilson here your hotel told me where to locate you I'd rather you located that car all police agencies in the state have the license number in description It'll turn up well the sooner the better It'll take more than a car to prove will you mark is still alive the dealer who sold it to him identified his photograph All right, but he bought the car two weeks ago. We know he was alive at that time In case you've forgotten mr. Dollar the fathom five sank only four days ago. That's when mark. It was murder. Okay, okay We're not gonna settle it by arguing. That's why I phoned. It's gonna be settled tomorrow morning You've petitioned for a hearing ten o'clock in judge Campbell chambers. They're making a mistake. See you in court mr. Dollar Tonight and every weekday night Bob Bailey in the transcribed adventures of the man with the action-packed Expense account America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator yours truly Johnny dollar from special investigator Johnny dollar location Miami Beach to the home office Delta Liability Hartford, Connecticut Assignment the fathom five matter the case of a cruiser mysteriously sunk off the Florida coast I Phoned the insurance companies legal counsel and told him that Wilson had petitioned a hearing to have William Markey declared legally dead Then I rejoined Mrs. Markey in the study She was tense and on edge pacing the floor and smoking nervously I watched her a moment without saying anything fully aware of her beauty and appeal and Fully convinced also that she and her missing husband were trying to swindle my company out of seventy five thousand dollars in life insurance. I Felt a little sorry for Markey. She must have been a pretty expensive luxury for a man who was going broke But then I stopped feeling sorry. I remembered that they tried to set up young Danny Haines as the fall guy for murder Well, why don't you go ahead and say it say what whatever it is you're thinking? I thought I'd already said it and pretty bluntly to You made some wild accusations not so wild I've got some fairly solid facts to back them up apparently the DA's office doesn't agree with you Wasn't that mr. Wilson on the phone? That's right And didn't he say he would ask the court to declare my husband legally dead He's going to try to but we'll stop him cold He hasn't got a leg to stand on well That's what you're hired for isn't it to find some technicality so they can get out of paying off on a policy Attempted fraud isn't exactly a technicality Mrs. Markey Now I'll repeat that advice. I just gave you get in touch with your husband. Tell him the scheme is off It won't work and don't file a claim for that life insurance You'd like that wouldn't you you just love to bluff me out of seventy five thousand dollars No, no, I just kind of hate to see you go to prison. That's all and that's exactly what is going to happen if you file that claim You keep talking about some scheme. What scheme mr. Dollar He wanted laid right on the line. I'd like to know what you're talking about and just how much I figured out. All right All right, I'll paint it for you in black and white Your husband was broke flat broke. I'm not guessing there I got a report on him from a financial investigator in New York I knew nothing about his business affair that I wouldn't know anyway He thought he saw a chance to pull off a swindle on the basis of the only thing he had left that seventy five thousand dollar life insurance policy So the two of you worked it out together Did your financial investigator tell you that or would you be guessing your husband bought a car under an assumed name and Probably rented living quarters somewhere in the area under another assumed name So it was all set. It was just a matter of waiting for a morning when a heavy fog was down You have a fantastic imagination Meantime just in case the accident theory didn't go over you kept playing young Haynes along So it would seem as though he had a motive for murder and that part was a sin She was already halfway in love with you. You also have a rather nasty imagination. So finally four days ago conditions were just right Your husband took Haynes out on that fishing trip in the fathom five He anchored the cruiser and sent Haynes off along the reef in the dinghy Then he set fire to the boat open the sea cock So it would be sure to sink he swam a shore and drove off in the car that he bought for exactly that purpose As I understand it mr. Dollar that cruiser was anchored a mile or two offshore Are you actually suggesting my husband swam that distance? You mean that's something else you supposedly didn't know about What all that report from New York was more complete than you seem to realize William Markey has been a member of the Green Point Athletic Club for years He won in Silver Cups in the Long Island Sound Marathon swim three different times I knew he belonged to the club of course, but I assumed it was more social course He could swim that far that particular talent was probably what gave him the idea for the whole thing There's no proof you know Not one bit of real proof there will be if you try to collect that insurance We'll turn up enough proof to reach all the way from here to the state prison. So if you try to you, excuse me, please Yeah, sure. I'll be right back I let a cigarette and waited for wondering why I even bothered to come here. I Was fed up with it sick of the whole thing Fraud cases are like that messy dirty You see people with a mask down and you get a look inside And you get to wondering if everybody's like that Wondering if you'd be like that yourself. Maybe if the price were right and if you are you hope you never find it out All I wanted at the moment was to leave the house wind the thing up and get out of town I'm sorry. Mr. Dollar. It was somebody looking for an address. I mean they had a wrong address. I see Well, I think we at least understand each other now Yeah, I'm sure we do and I can say only one thing You're wrong. You're completely and absolutely wrong Maybe I wish you weren't I Wish my husband were still alive even under the circumstances you believe Maybe I wouldn't be on the verge of a nervous breakdown trying to hold on to my sanity Maybe I wouldn't be crying alone at night You have my deepest sympathy, Mrs. Markey For everything you're going through There's no use at all and trying to talk to you is there Not unless you care to tell me where to find your husband Good night, Mr. Dollar. I Left the house and turned down the dark road toward the Pompano Beach Hotel I'd planned to pick up a taxi there, but after that unknown visit it came to Mrs. Markey's door I'd made a slight change in the plans Whoever it was hadn't been a stranger that I was sure of She'd been too nervous when she came back into the room It was someone she hadn't wanted me to know about and I was pretty certain I could guess who evening mr. Haines. Oh You're mr. Dollar the insurance investigator mind if I come in well All right, sure you were to sleep were you know I was I was just reading been here all evening Yeah, sure. I've been here. Why you haven't been out in the last half hour I said I'd been here all evening you went down the road at the Markey place a few minutes ago. No, I wasn't Now look I've answered just about all the questions. I'm going to to you or to anybody else So what are you trying to get at? What's the point? All right forget it Danny sure forget it It looks like you're out to try the same thing Wilson's doing trying to tag me on a murder rap And you're trying to drag Edna into it Mrs. Markey. Oh, she told me how you talked to her last night And I suppose you've been over there again this evening relax. I'll tell you one thing right now You better leave her alone and stop trying to push her around. She doesn't deserve it She's had too much of that kind of stuff as it is. Oh from home Danny from Markey That's from whom she told you that I suppose you'll claim. She's lying you think everybody is lying But you don't know her like I do She's a sweet kid dollar and she's had a raw deal out of life such as Markey The way he treated her things he made her do. Oh, not when anybody would see it pin it on him He was too smart for that But she told me about it and there were plenty of times I could hardly keep from smashing him in the face Oh brother, she's got you really set up good. What do you mean by that? If you talk this way to Wilson at the DA's office for two minutes He'd slap a murder indictment on you so fast it'll make your head swim. I didn't kill Markey Hating a guy is one thing, but I didn't kill him. Yeah, I know because he's still alive Maybe he is I don't know All I know is what I saw out there that morning and you saw only as much as he wanted you to see well, maybe so But I'll tell you one thing if he is trying to pull something crooked. He's doing it on his own She's not in on it. It'd be a little hard for him to collect his own insurance, wouldn't it? Oh Maybe he figured to get it away from her afterward I don't know what he might be planning on, but I know she's got nothing to do with it. She's a great girl I've never known anybody like her before no, I don't imagine you have I'd lay down my life for her if it ever came to that And I imagine that's exactly what they were counting on Good night, Danny Expense account item 16 a dollar and 90 cents taxi fare the following morning from my hotel to the courthouse. I Got there at 9 30 and went over the case with Jim Davis local council for the insurance company and at 10 o'clock the hearing on Wilson's petition Was open in chamber session judge AG Campbell presiding Judge Campbell kept the proceedings informal and the whole thing moved pretty fast Both sides presented briefs and additional evidence was introduced through verbal interrogation No witnesses were called by 10 30 the cases for both sides have been completed Very well There's no further evidence of fact to rebuttal the court will make its decision on the evidence at hand Now in cases of this nature Where it is requested that the fact of death be established by legal declaration It has been generally held that the substantiating evidence was said request must be essentially unchallengeable The president's a law too numerous to bother citing Now in the case we are considering here It seems to the court that the substantiating evidence is far from unchallengeable The point of fact it would seem That they bulk of the evidence indicates that William Markey may indeed be still alive Now the court would be powerless to act even in the face of a reasonable doubt And the contrary evidence here is a good deal stronger than a reasonable doubt Therefore in the matter of the request made here in that will you Markey be declared legally dead It is the court's decision that the petition not be granted If new evidence becomes available at some future time the petition may be resubmitted the court is adjourned I told you what would happen I sure do hate to see that kid get away with murder now forget it Markey is walking around somewhere just as alive as you or I Well, we've all got a right to our opinions mr. Dollar. I see he's floating around out there in the Atlantic somewhere That's what he meant for us to think maybe so, but I pardon me mr. Wilson a message was phoned in for you But they wouldn't let me in the courtroom. Oh, thank you old man We'll excuse me mr. Dollar. Sure go ahead and read it It is I step out of that office. Somebody's bound to start What's the matter mr. Dollar and coast patrol hold a man's body out of the surf about an hour ago been drowned So they got a quick check on his prints It's William Markey Now here's our star to tell you about the final intriguing episode of this week's story Tomorrow a dead man tells a tale, but not the tale. He was meant to tell and thereby hangs The wind up Join us won't you yours truly Johnny dollar doors truly Johnny dollar starring Bob Bailey is transcribed in Hollywood Written by Les Crutchfield. It is produced and directed by Jack Johnstone Be sure to join us tomorrow night same time and station for the next exciting episode of yours truly Johnny dollar Roy Rowan speaking