 the producer of radio's outstanding theatre of thrills, the master of mystery and adventure, William M. Robeson. A supermarket, you will agree, is a rather unlikely place for clandestine love, terror and murder. But as constant listeners to suspense already know, anything can happen in the curious and macabre imagination of James Poe. And Mr. Poe has chosen an ordinary everyday supermarket as the locale of his frightening story, Never Steal a Butcher's Wife. This truly chilling tale has only one happy aspect. It serves as a vehicle for the return to the air after much too long an absence of one of radio's finest actresses, Miss Kathy Lewis. Listen, listen then as Miss Lewis and William Conrad co-star in Never Steal a Butcher's Wife. And now, Steal a Butcher's Wife, co-starring Mr. William Conrad and Miss Kathy Lewis, a tale well calculated to keep you in suspense. It started the first day of the job. I was quick in the liquor department of this supermarket. I hadn't been in Los Angeles but about a week. My brother, when I left New York, had given me this letter to a friend I is, a guy who owned a string of these supermarkets. And this guy had this opening, liquor clerk, and comes following Monday and I'm at work. It's one of those big places with hardly any quirk, you know. You pushed a little cart around and you helped yourself. To get out, you passed the cash register and the girl loaded your stuff and rang up the price. Well, that's where the trouble was, this girl at the check stand. I hadn't noticed her until around noon and when I happened to look up, there she was, looking at me, just looking at me. She must have been 50 feet away, at least, and with customers between us, but it was like we were all alone, the two of us on a beach somewhere, an empty beach. Just you and me, baby. Hey, just you and me. Hey. What's the matter? Sleep on your feet? What did you say? You're the new guy, yeah? Oh, yeah, I just started this morning. I'm Nick Arnold. I work the vegetables. Oh, Harry Carr. Please meet you. Yeah. You got two bottles of cold beer? Sure. Hey, yeah. Only don't open them here by the counter, you know, law. I have them out back with my lunch. Nick. What? The gal over there by the cash register. Mary? Yeah, is that her name, Mary? Yeah. What about her? Well, that's what I was wondering. What about her? Oh, no, so she's married. Are you kidding? She had a big eye over there with the knife? Kraus, the butcher. Yeah? Ask him if I'm kidding. Well, who's he? My husband. Oh, see it. I looked over at the butcher. He was a funny looking guy, a real creep. He stood there sharpening a tremendous big cleaver whistling to himself. He wore rimless glasses with thick lenses so that his eyes looked like baseballs. When he saw that I was looking at him, he nodded and went on whistling and stropping. I looked over at her. She was giving me the eye again. We closed at seven. The vegetable guys carted out the old stuff. The delicatessen man put away his pickles, and I checked the register, counted my slips, made out my entries. And Kraus, the butcher, was still there packing and cleaning, putting stuff in that big refrigerator room back at the counter. But she had left. So I got into my street coat and I walked on. Hello? She was standing looking at the shoe display a couple of doors down from the market. I said hello. Don't you say hello wherever it is you come from? Well, sure. Hello. Taking the bus? Which way do you go? Down to Western. I'm going that way. I'll drive you there. Oh, no, no, no. I don't think you're better. What's the matter? Well, I just wouldn't want to trouble you, that's all. No trouble? Well, I... Come on. I'm parked right here. Well, what about Mr. Kraus? He'll be there an hour yet. He takes the bus. Come on. Don't be afraid. Oh, I'm not afraid. I just don't think... Oh, come on. Get in. All day long I'm pushing liquor at them and now they're pushing it back at me. You're cute, Ann. I mean it. You're cute. Yeah, well, so are you, baby. You really think so? Sure, baby. Harry, let's get out of here. Go someplace else. Hey, I gotta work in the morning. Silly. This is the morning. It is. Hey, uh, hey, Mack, what's the time? Almost 1.30. You really think I'm cute, Harry? Sure, baby, but it's late. It's real late. Don't worry, sugar. Come on. I'll take you home. I'll take you home. Of course, I fell lousy the next morning. I'm not much of a drinker, but she looked fresh as a daisy, smiling and joking with the customers. Well, I avoided her all day. I didn't like this setup. I didn't like to think about what must have gone on between her and Kraus when she got in. When I came out that night, there she was, waiting for me. I tried to get away, but she said she had something very serious to talk over, and, well, the way she said it, I got in the car again. He's awful. Really, you don't know? Yeah, yeah, I guess it's tough. You just wouldn't believe some of the things. Yeah. Uh, look, Mary, I... He's a crazy jealous. Well, what does he know about me? What did you tell him? Well, I got in this morning, and there he was. He said, where have you been? I said, what's it to you, Andy? I call him Andy. Drives him crazy. He said, don't you think you can fool me? And then he started to cry and talk real crazy. Look, Mary, maybe we better not see each other again. Don't be silly. He doesn't know who you are, who it is. Yeah, but he could find out. Not unless I told him. What? You wouldn't do that? Of course not, baby. As long as you're good to me. Next night, I stayed in the market after work. I was scared. I did inventory. I counted bottles, I cleaned the refrigerator, I checked it. And across the market, Cross was moving around, cleaning up. After a while, he took off his apron and he came over. What? Hello, Mr. Cross. Give me a bottle up here. Well, yeah, sure thing. All right, to drink it here? Well, sure, where we're closed, aren't we? Yeah. Here, here's an opener for you. Thanks. You're welcome. Thanks. You're working late. You know how it is. Nothing to do evenings. I'm new out here. That takes time to make friends. Yeah. Listen, do you know my wife? Your wife? Yeah, you know her? Isn't she the one who checks the groceries? Oh, you're a very nice-looking lady. Listen, have you noticed anything funny going on there? Funny? I think somebody's playing around with her and I want to find out who. Listen, have you noticed anything? I mean, some guy who shoots the breeze, was there something like that? Well, no. No. Then will you do me a favor? Well, sure. What? Keep your eyes open. Yeah, I will, Mr. Cross. I promise you. I'll find the guy. I'll kill him. Good night. Good night. And now, co-starring William Conrad and Kathy Lewis, act two of Never Steal a Butcher's Wife. Well, the next day was tough. Real tough. With Mary looking over at me every now and then, giving me those big eyes and Kraus looking over, raising his eyebrows. Do I know who it is yet? I see a long face, a shake in my head. And then, Nick, the vegetable man comes over. I see you didn't understand what I told you the other day, huh? What? What's that, Nick? About Mary. I told you she was a married woman. What are you talking about? I see you, the both of you, coming out of a bar the other morning. You're nuts. I'll pull the hard face with me, Harry. I got to tip Kraus off to what's going on. Look, Nick, Nick, be a good guy, will you? I'm telling you, you better be a good guy and leave the Butcher's Wife alone if you know what's good for you. I will, Nick. I will. I got no use for her. You better not. She'll get what's coming to you. Sure, Nick. Sure thing. I meant it. I had no use for her, but this was a broad you couldn't shake. That night, she was waiting for me after work outside the market. And she wouldn't listen to reason. But, baby, you can't pull out until I'm ready to let you out. Stop being silly and get in the car. Can't you understand? I don't want any trouble. There won't be any if you're smart. Come on, baby. Let's go have some fun. Look, Mary, please. What is it? Oh, hello, Nick. I warned you. Look, Nick, you got it wrong. What is all this? You shut up. Don't you talk to me like that. I'll talk to you like I please. Cheat, tramp. Harry, hit him, Harry. But I didn't hit him. Because all of a sudden I knew what I had to do and I knew that I had to do it fast. Harry, where are you going, baby? I didn't turn. Nick was still standing there beside the car. I went back in to the market. Mr. Cross? Mr. Cross? Yeah? I found out. What? I found out who it is. Nick. The vegetable man? Yeah. I never did like him. I never did. I got out of there then and I took a fifth of bourbon home with me. No dinner. I just lay there on the bed for about three hours talking to myself. Then finally my mind was made up and I started a pack. I was broke, but I didn't care. I'd have to skip out on my rent, but I didn't matter. I didn't care. From Cross, from Mary, from Nick. I couldn't walk out and leave Nick on the spot even if he was a snooping little rat, so I wrote a note to Cross. I said, I did it, Cross. Don't blame anybody else. Then I took a note in my bag and the key to the market and I tiptoed out of the Roman house. I caught a bus and I went to the market. The boulevard was deserted. I looked in through the glass door. In the back of the place up high there was a red neon beer sign that blinked on and off. On and off. I unlocked the door and I went in and I locked the door behind me. The place was eerie and the dark with that red light blinking on and off. I went to the butcher counter first and I laid the note on the scale where he'd be sure to see it. Then I crossed over to the liquor department. It was dark and I kept bumping into things. And I thought, why am I acting like a criminal? Then I turned the light on. And the whole place was suddenly dazzling and it hurt my eyes. I looked at the cash register. I was just thinking about maybe taking a couple of bucks when the light went out. I hadn't touched the switch. There were other switches in the place but I didn't know where. After that brightness the place seemed twice as dark. The red sign blinked on and off. On and off. And then I saw him. Krause. He was standing behind the meat counter at the scale. He picked up the note and he read it. I couldn't see his eyes, just the glasses. And every time the light blinked they shone red, bright red like some sort of a terrible toy. And then he yanked a knife out of the rack on the chopping block and started toward me. It was like a movie that you see one frame at a time. Each time the light blinked on he wasn't aware he'd been before. But he was closer. Closer. I was starring William Conrad and Kathy Lewis at three of Never Steal a Butcher's Wife. I hid behind a tower of dog food boxes. I could hear his squeaky shoes coming for me. And then they stopped and there was another son. He'd taken off his shoes and very quietly I bent and I took mine off. And I began to tip two away and then I rounded the corner and there he was now two feet away from me with his back to me. I lost my balance and I put my hand out to study myself. And a whole display went over and I rang. And I was at the end of an aisle and there was a wall, the back wall. And I turned and he was coming straight at me. My hand touched something cold. It was a bottle. I grabbed it. It was ammonia. Cross, you get back. You get back, Cross, or I'll blind you. Cross, I warn you, I swear I will. He stood there like a crazy giant. Like a cyclops tearing at his eyes. The ammonia running down his face. But I didn't wait. I ran past him bumping him aside. And I cut around the cash register and passed the delicatessen in the bakery to the door. It was locked. The key, I'd left it in the lock and it was gone. Cross kept coming, feeling his way along. Moaning, silhouetted in the bike. Gleaned like a tongue of flame on the knife that he'd held in his hand. I slid behind the counter. And on my feet, the sawdust. I bent and I scooped up a handful. And he moved his head from side to side, trying nearsightedly to see me. And then his head stopped moving. He held it sideways, using one eye to see me. He came on. And the knife held way back. And I waited. When I left fly with the sawdust, and I jumped to one side with my back up against the bridge. And I waited. When I left fly with the sawdust and I jumped to one side with my back up against the bridge. And I jumped to one side with my back up against the block. And he twisted and skidded in the sawdust. And he fell. And he was very still for a moment. And the blinking light, I saw the knife. He'd fallen on it. It was sticking in the middle of his chest. Then, very slowly, he got to his feet. One hand over the place where the knife was. And then he started toward me again. He grabbed a cleaver from the chopping block. I backed away. Behind me I felt a large cold handle. The door to the meat storage room. And I heaved it open. Inside it was cold. Better cold. It was dark. And the center of the door was one small thick pane of glass. It was clouded. So I wiped it clear with my hand. And I looked out. And crossed it there as face an inch from mine looking in at me. And then his eyes rolled back. And his face went slack. And he fell out of sight. He was dead. I was sure of it. I fought around in the dark for the door handle, but it wouldn't move. I heaved. And I dug, but it wouldn't move. Maybe another door, I thought. Maybe there's another door out of this place. And I began to search for it in the dark, feeling along the icy damp walls. I walked into something cold and swung gently when I touched it. A side of beef. But no door. I moved on further. Another icy cold thing. I'm crazy. I know it. I'm crazy. This one feels it. It's though it's wearing. Wearing soaked stockings. So here I am. It's softly cold. It's cold as a tomb. All the time goes through. All the time goes through. So while I'm waiting, waiting and waiting, I'll tell myself a whole story. And again it'll give me something to do, you know? Something to think about. But you see, it started that first day of the job. I was clerking the liquor department at the supermarket. I hadn't been a Los Angeles for the week. For my brother but I left New York and he gave me this little friend of his. The guy who owned this town to the market. And this guy opened it. Suspense. In which William Conrad and Kathy Lewis co-starred in William M. Robeson's production of Never Steel a Butcher's Wife. Written by James Poe. In a moment the names of tonight's supporting players and the word about next week's story of suspense. Supporting Mr. Conrad and Miss Lewis in Never Steel a Butcher's Wife were Joseph Santas and Lou Merrill. Listen. Listen again next week when we return with another tale well calculated to keep you in suspense. You hear America's favorite shows on the CBS Radio Network.