 crime and Peter Chambers Henry Cain transcribed and starring Dane Clark private investigator duly licensed and duly sworn Peter Chambers You're a private. Eye. That's your business anything else That's for laughs laughs This one figures for more laughs than a bull session at a bachelor dinner You're being retained to play nurse made to three of the most beautiful girls in the world and for that you're being paid The lady at your office is miss Matilda crag Battleaxe type and built like a fire hydrant Your feet and his $500 yes miss crag and you understand that I represent mr. Byron thorn dyke Yes, miss crag and you understand that mr. Thorn dyke is the mr. Thorn dyke Byron thorn dyke model agency Yes, miss crag and you know why you're being retained Well, of course miss crag then let's go over it again Again miss crag young man my dear young man. Yes, miss crag. Can't you? Isn't it possible? Won't you please call me Matilda? With all my heart Matilda Then that's much better so much less business like less formal Well, then let's get on all right here goes Every big city in most every big country has been running a beauty contest Then all of them competed in an elimination contest in Los Angeles and three were chosen correct Miss Madrid miss Paris and miss Brooklyn and these three are now here in New York for the finals tomorrow And one of the three is to be crowned miss universe prize $50,000 in cash and a Hollywood contract and Byron thorn dyke is to be sold judge And I am here as chaperone for the young ladies mr. Thorn dyke has taken a lovely house on certain place With a lovely garden and a lovely view The East River in the summertime. Yeah, the vast bridges. Yes, miss. They're light strung across. Yeah. Yeah. All right. All right Something mr. Chambers Matilda, let's get back to cases. Yes. Yes, of course Now you're to be there tonight at midnight because the money transport company is going to deliver 50,000 cash bucks of thorn dyke at a quarter to 12 and you're to serve as bodyguard You will come armed of course. Oh, of course, miss Matilda And you will stay with mr. Thorn dyke until tomorrow afternoon And then you will remain with whatever young lady went the prize until the money is safely deposited in a bank miss Madrid A brunette is Lola Granada. Uh-huh miss Paris a redhead is Louise Dupre and miss Brooklyn a blonde is Joan Helen Now mr. Chambers, I want you to remember It's the longest day of your life as what day wouldn't be when at the end of the rainbow you're scheduled to meet you hope Miss Madrid miss Paris and miss Brooklyn Anyway comes midnight and you're all dolled up in your summer finery if one will forgive the slight bulge for gun and holster And you're at the house on Sutton Place, and you've got your finger on the buzzer Well Peter Chambers boy detective. I was told you'd be due here So I opened the door for you myself. So what are you staked out here for Louis assistant judge in a beauty contest I don't think that contest coming off Pete. It's been canceled on account of the unexpected advent of a corpse Detective Lieutenant Louis Parker Homicide New York City police straight cop and good friend He leads you through a corridor that opens upon a massive living room and there in a chair with his back to the entrance Byron Thorn dyke very dead a Knife crammed between his shoulder blades Parker's men are doing their jobs photo guys finger print guys the works real nice Byron Thorn dyke with a knife in his back When'd you get the call Louis about ten minutes ago? Who found him the chaperone that Matilda crag where she right now in a hospital. Oh wait a minute Pete my boys are finished here Yes, you might as well get the party out too Okay, and I'll be downtown shortly All right, pity where were we Matilda crag? Yeah, let me set you up on the details first The money arrived a little early about 25 to 12 that's the motive for the murder. No, sir. It ain't that dough was piled up on the table here when we found him Nice as you please well if not money, then why do you search me anyway about? More quarter the 12 we get the call downtown reporting this thing call from whom until the crag We do it with the siren blasting all the way And we're here in five minutes we find the door locked so we jimmy our way in and there he is just like you saw him dead Back to the entrance way and Matilda killed over by the phone slugged. No no fainted Turned out to be a heart attack as a matter of fact Anyway, we bring her to and she straightens us out on some of the facts and then we pile her up to the hospital Where she is now in communicado and what were these facts very meager Miss crag decides to come down to see if thorn Dyke needs anything before she retires for the night You see she comes in here. She finds him just like you saw him. She phones into the cops. She keels over. That's the deal period The dough was delivered at 25 to 12 by the way, where is it though? I sent it downtown while properly clerked safety. Okay dough delivered 25 to she finds him at a quarter to which means He was killed within that 10 minute period, right? Right Those girls been in the house all that time. Yeah each in her respective room So one of them is your murderer or Matilda crag one of the four of them You talk to the dames upstairs. Yes, nothing each one clams each one denies each one professors no motive Where do they live the dresses and stuff? That's a thing one lives in Madrid one in Paris and the one from Brooklyn was living in Hollywood when thorn Dyke discovered her What have you told them how much do they know? Well, they don't know nothing except that the guy was stabbed to death That's all the information they're going to get until I'm ready to question Meantime they all stay put like they are and keep denying like they're doing think I can see him think I can stop you Upstairs park introduces you to the cast of suspects and a beautiful cast it is First is Miss Brooklyn Blonde is a Viking blue-eyed and ruby-lip My name is Joan Hallam, and I don't know nothing from nothing I don't know who killed him or why he was killed and I would consider it a special favor if you too Baboons got out of here and left me alone Next you go calling on miss Madrid Raven hair pulled to a bun in the back and black eyes with more flash than a swindler on the make in Monte Carlo I am Lola Granada. I'm shocked and all broken in size. I have nothing nothing to say. I wish to be alone me Charlie and Then Miss Paris Red hair green eyes and a figure like the figure eight, but oh so much more track. I am Louise Dupré Oh, it is Peter Peter a Chambre Nespain. Oh, this is so great surprise. I am charmed. It is my delight Double Charlie you met her last year in Paris when she was dancing in the Foley's Bajer You just didn't connect the name you were there on a case and this had all the makings of a great romance when as luck would have it The case was over and you were yanked back to the states My answer Peter More share this is so true and a lie. It's so unexpected. Hey, what the devil is going on here? We are old friends my dear Lieutenant we Commissioner Yes, you know who this is This is Peter Chambre the one true great detective of all the United States He must have told you that himself The one Peter Chambre was a great detective All right. All right. Yeah Now look my one true great detective of all the United States I will talk to him. I will talk to him alone. I do not trust another. I am in a strange country I will talk to him but not here Outside in the rear is a garden by the ocean by the beautiful East River ocean There I will talk to him Well, what have you got to lose the tenant? Commissioner, I will talk to him to see Peter Chambre. Okay. Okay. Go talk to him and so outside in the garden with a cool breeze coming over the East River ocean She puts her arms around you and kisses you But from the way she kisses you, you know, she's worried Before you can ask her she says it Peter. I am very much distressed You tell me honey You tell the great detective of all the United States my knife. It is missing. Oh What's with the knife? It is in my family and heirloom. We have had it many years But it is gone since when I do not know I showed it to the girls when we came here two days ago Then I put it in my bureau drawer Then I did not look again until the police came and told us about about poor They told us he was oh, how you say it stock stooped. No stuck stuck stuck Then quickly I look my knife. She's not there. Would you tell the police? I as afraid I am in a strange country They will think that look they're gonna find out sooner or later So if they find then I will speak perhaps they do not find and I have no need to speak Louise you didn't kill him my hope Oh, no, not I Peter you will protect me and you will protect poor little Louise You will not be sorry. Louise will appreciate so Wait, wait, wait a minute. Wait a minute. You're a little premature in the appreciation apartment easy Ah You are correct. You have any ideas on Byron Thorndike. Oh, he was a bad man. Well, that's an idea. What'd you get that from? Miss Brooklyn Jean Alan, you mean she didn't like him or she loved him So that makes him a bad man. Oh, it is so I am the prettiest. I know I am going to win I tell this to Joe she agrees, but she does not know slowly honey slowly you're committing mayhem on your English She agrees and she does not agree. Well, how do you work that one out? She agrees that I am the prettiest, but she does not agree that I will win She tells me that she loves Byron and that Byron loves her and it is all I you say In the bag that she will win. Oh a fix huh even in a beauty contest fix. What is this fix? You skip it honey, huh? Okay, I skip so that is how I know he is a bad man. Look this Joan Hallam She's told the cops that she lives in Hollywood. Do you know anything about that? Well once when we are together in Los Angeles, she tells me of a little room. She has in Brooklyn She says never to tell anyone because it is so poor and small She says she still keeps it because it is so inexpensive Even though she lives in Hollywood just in case she has to come back east She was having so much wine that night. I do not think she even remembers as she told me she give you the address we To seek To seek to oil street oil street oil street Oh, you mean white street. That's what I said oil street. That's what you say ground floor back is in Brooklyn No is in Brooklyn. Yes, so now Peter. I have told you all because I am so afraid You must tell me and then when it is all over Believe me Louise will not forget Regretfully you leave Louise, but you hope there will be a better moment when all her worries are dissipated You accompany Parker to the Belmore Hospital where you sit outside in the white wall corridor while he interviews Matilda Craig You sit for a long time until finally he comes out Well, I think you can eliminate her Matilda why my boys have checked her thoroughly. She's known Thorndike a long time sort of a secretary in his agency He's been very good to her. She's got a bad heart. He's paid for doctors treatments past ten years At least she could straighten you out on his background. She's no help there He kept this personal life to himself. What about those games out at his house? She have any ideas as to who might have stuck that thing into her boss That's why I come out for you if you heard mention of a threat by home Lola Granada miss Madrid Well now how did it happen come on in and listen softly now miss Craig? Yes, yes, Lieutenant. Hi, sweetie. Oh, Mr. Chambers Miss Craig tell us about that argument now. Will you please? You feel strong enough. Oh, yes. Yes, I do It was two days ago Miss Hallam was in miss Granada's room The door was open and I was dusting outside and I could hear miss Hallam was speaking Miss Hallam was saying Look Lola, I don't want to tread on anybody's toes. I'm telling you the truth. So help me. I don't care if you're jealous He are not jealous. I'm telling you the truth. I'm supposed to win this contest hand down Byron Thorndike told me was stuck on me told me he was in love with me and he was lying Maybe yes, maybe no Maybe yes, my dear John neither you or Louise will win only I There is fifty thousand dollars to be paid and he will keep it in the family. He will pay it to his wife Why yes, I am his wife. You're married in Los Angeles. Why the I Don't believe it. No Then look at this Married certificate. Do you see John? Yeah, I See and I don't want you playing around with my man Is that clear or he with you and I have told him that I have told him if it continues I will kill him. I am not accustomed to this and I will not have it Now that I have told you please to get out of here Please get out quickly. Okay. Okay. Don't let that Latin temper of yours get the best of you I've got a temper of my own, you know Byron Thorndike and that dirty miserable and And that was what I heard I didn't mention it not to anyone I'm not one to gossip But now In these circumstances, all right miss Craig. All right easy, huh? Put your head back on the pillow nurse It's the middle of the night now Parker's gone down to headquarters for a workout with his laboratory men and you're dying to go to sleep But you've got one more little chore to do Two six two six two Hoidstreet turns out to be a ramshackle brownstone with ash cans on the sidewalk Ground floor back is a flimsy door that has no resistance to your gentle administrations Inside there's lots of accumulated dust But there's also signs of a recent entry like a newspaper with yesterday's date You give the joint a quick going over which isn't much of a job and then out of an old musty trunk You come up with something which isn't musty at all That does it for you when you get out of there Next afternoon you're at the house on Sutton Place Parker's got the ladies in Lola Granada's room And he's jabbing left hooks, but you know Parker. He's holding back that haymaker Possibly because he's got no haymaker to throw but he's wearing them down the three of them now you miss Paris Louise dupré that knife belongs to you. No question. That's a French knife made in France one of them antique deals Lieutenant But it does not mean I have used the knife to kill only fingerprints on it are yours lady Well, it belongs to her whose fingerprints should be on it. Look who invited you here. You did lieutenant We're sort of working hand and glove on his thing Love now. There's a pretty word whoever stuck that steel into him probably did use gloves these Ladies equipped with gloves. Yeah, all of them. So a gloved hand would keep the culprits fingerprints off and keep miss dupré's fingerprints on Okay, well, let's get to you miss Madrid Lola Granada with the Latin temper Brooklyn here has been keeping her trap closed But you miss Granada were heard to threaten Thorndike in her presence Any comment miss Granada? I did not kill him that you said too many times any other comment Only once again. I wish to report the loss of my marriage certificate. It was stolen marriage marriage We're working on a murder case. It might be pertinent lieutenant. Are you still here? Why don't Perton and how because it was stolen by the murderer And I suppose you know who that is too, of course I do Here, let me point a finger any meanie money moe and It comes out You don't know me you miss Joan Hallam you stole that marriage certificate. I did not you deny it I certainly do all right. I'll show you the missing marriage certificate. See I'll dig it out of my pocket Take a look. What about it? Guess where I found it where? Where did you find it to six to six to Hoidstreet ground floor back, but how how could you honey? You were put on a spot. What are you talking about? You've been put on a spot by Thorndike himself the lieutenant's been holding on to you sweetie He couldn't on dice scribble your name He couldn't he scribbled your name when he saw you come in with a knife in your hand He couldn't he couldn't his back was turned he was seated with his back to the and that my dear lieutenant is what is known as cooking your own goose Nobody knew that he had his back to the door miss Hallam except miss crag the police and the murderer It's talking time miss Hallam Okay, okay. I killed him. That's one rat that deserved it. I Had a contract waiting for me in Hollywood But he took me into this told me it was a sure thing that I'd win this contest told me he loved me Anything to get this thing rolling for him. Look at all the publicity it gave him all the business and for free Because he figured to keep that 50 G's in his own family That phony rat was going to fix it so his own wife Lola would win that contest When did you make up your mind to kill him miss Hallam when I caught him in the final lie? And what was that? I talked to him yesterday morning I told him what Lola had told me that they were married even then he brazened it told me he wasn't married to Lola When I threw him the bit about the marriage certificate. He told me that that was a phony So I hooked it. I had a lawyer call LA and check it. It was the McCoy Well, that was it I Sneaked Louise's knife from a drawer and I waited for my chance And that was that Parker cleans up the loose ends and your case is closed and That evening Louise duperade the sends upon you and with a cool breeze wafting over from the East River Ocean and a couple of highballs clinking ice You have a declaration from the beautiful miss Paris the true great detective of all the United States in Appreciation Louise bestows a kiss like so And in appreciation of your appreciation the true great detective of all the United States bestows a return kiss Like so even at home Barry was never like this And there you've had crime and Peter Chambers Aime Clark starred as Peter Chambers Crime and Peter Chambers transcribe was created and written by Henry Kane Others in the cast were Bill Zuckert heard as Lieutenant Parker Marion Carr as Miss Craig and Anita Anton as Louise duperade It was directed by Fred Way This is Fred Collins inviting you to tune in next week same time same station for Dane Clark in crime and Peter Chambers This is Roger total inviting you on a 60-second trip into the future not way in the future But just as far ahead as this September September 14th to be exact And that's the day that Lux Radio Theatre returns to the air and you'll enjoy it right here on NBC Lux Radio Theatre has been radio's most popular dramatic show for many years and no wonder it brings you an entertainment combination That can't be equal you'll hear the brightest stars in Hollywood in one hour Adaptations of the greatest most in pictures of all time the first Lux Radio Theatre presentation September 14th Is the powerful and moving story Wuthering Heights starring Merle Oberon