 Johnny dollar come on back Johnny what I said come on back here is all why not only where and who's that the where is here in Corpus Christi and this is Jack price Jackson Haven't you had enough of me lately sure sure we have but that's beside the point wait a minute Jack Well, don't tell me you and Doug Johnstone to finally found that old Spanish treasure. We were all looking for last week Oh, thanks, and I thought we made it plain. We've had our fill of that caper Seriously Johnny. Yeah, what happened to us out there on Padre Island kind of proves a point, doesn't it? That in this world of ours. You simply don't get something for nothing right and sometimes when you try to you may lose everything Like young Jose Pineda lost his life. Yeah Jackson from here on I'm perfectly willing to work for what I need and want now that we've got the lecture on philosophy over and done with How'd you like to take on another case down here? Why not long as you're willing to pay the old expense account? Well, of course without questions or checking it over too carefully. Oh, hold it Plus, of course a nice big fat extra. Hello. Hello operator operator must be a wrong connection The man I was talking to was that fine generous self-sacrifice and do it for nothing gentlemen by the name of Johnny dollar do it for nothing Okay, that's do nothing gentlemen. That's more like it seriously Johnny. Yeah, seriously one down here. Will you right away? What's up the makings of an international incident? Maybe. Oh, you better call in the US Marines be serious. Will you who's kidding? I'm afraid one of my clients is mixed up in the narcotics racket and you know what that could mean that he's not long for this world That's right unless you can straighten things out for him narcotics. Hmm. It sounds like a big order Don't kid yourself Johnny. It is and it could be kind of dangerous. Well, you know something Jackson Yeah, when somebody calls me on a case that's supposed to be a lead pipe cinch I always nearly get my head shot off. You know like last week. Yeah, so maybe this one that looks kind of big and dangerous Well, who knows maybe this will turn out to be a lead pipe cinch. Well, don't bank on. Oh, I won't but why not give it a try I'll grab a plane that'll get me down there first thing tomorrow morning The CBS radio network brings you Mandel Kramer in the exciting adventures of the man with the action-pact expense account America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator. You're is truly Johnny dollar Spence accounts admitted by a special investigator Johnny dollar to the Tri-Western life insurance company Corpus Christi office Following is an account of expenses incurred during my investigation of the wrong doctor matter Spence account item one shortly after midnight $132 and 21 cents that's for a taxi out to Bradley Field in a plane ticket to Corpus Christi, Texas as Promised I arrived early in the morning too early for Jack Price's office to be open. There was no sign of him around the airport So item two is three bucks for a cab to the Robert Driscoll where I grabbed some breakfast That's item three a dollar thirty then went up to my room unpacked my bag showered shaved Johnny dollar Jack Price Johnny, I thought you might have signed in there at the hotel Well, after all Jackson if you weren't up early enough to meet me at the airport Oh, I've been up all right and down at the office. Now this thing is even harder than I thought it would be Oh, yeah, you see this client. His name is Julio Vara. Sounds Mexican Adorn Julio worked the shrimp boats, you know down the Mexican coast and they dump their catch off here Yeah, so well one of them started hauling narcotics up here heroin much easier than smuggling across the border on land Now Julio happened to be on board so the judge gave him three years in the clink Now he's out again and back in the dope racket. Not if he can help it Johnny I'm sure of it not if he can help it right But I got a call from his girlfriend Consuelo Diaz real nice little girl used to work here in this office Uh-huh and according to her well anyhow, I promised her I'd send for you because Johnny What's happened is this I'm listening only wait. I try to explain it over the phone. That's right You're only a few blocks away, right? So come on over here at the office. I'll give you the whole story, right? Okay Now let's see. I uh, I better take along the old 38 lemon squeeze in I'm sure I put my hat somewhere Now off to the racist Johnny. Yes room service room service. Yes, sir Sorry, you must have made some mistakes. No mistakes in your dollar Isn't the silencer on that thing just a bit corny in this day and makeup so I can come in close the door I'm sure as long as you hold the gun and with that chambermaid coming down the whole city side Never let it be said that Johnny downer isn't the perfect host Try and drink me My friend he hurt himself No, no he fell he fell against the door he hurt himself very bad You go and downstairs you get the doctor. Oh, yes, I surely will I'll get the doctor Yes, he pronto pronto And by the time the doctor he arrived here senior dollar you will be very dead You push up with seven up your thirst is quickly chase the curtains going up So bring your seven up and we will watch the wings swing on the high trap Oh, she knows how to chill you. She really loves to thrill you But she likes best when it's time to rest is sparkling What did you say when you're without matched as I was by this big Mexican gorilla You play it smart if you want to stay alive Which explains why I let that glancing blow of his send me to the floor with my knees pulled up against my belly After the chambermaid left as he closed the door and leveled his gun at me and by the time the doctor he arrived here, senior dollar You will be very dead. I kicked out with all I had The gun flew out of his hand across the floor, but he left it lay there and turned on It was big and he was That kick in the stomach and slowed him down a little I caught him with a heart left of staggered him But only for a second he came back to me with a chair and everything else He could pick up and swing the throat me I tried to get inside of those long powerful arms to work on his midsection and maybe open them up for a blow to the Chin, but he just hung on He locked my arms to my side and grabbing his hands behind my back with his powerful arms He started to squeak Terrible pressure against my ribs and against my spine. I wondered how long before my bones What's the matter with you? Looks like I got here too late and now maybe let me see That's why I got you instead of the doctor. You'll be the house detective and all Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Where's the man who did this to him? He said it was a big fellow. Just take it easy Johnny the doctor says you've got a rest take it easy Oh Yeah, oh That's right another little sip of this brandy to dr. Ordon. Yeah Why stay your bum Here take a slug of this the reception committee you haven't a sound According to the chamber maid a she smelled trouble and brought the house dick up here Well, it looks like your reception committee must have been Hernandez I Yeah, go Hernandez Well, we had met you out there at the airport. I didn't dream that Hernandez might find out about your coming here Who is a jacket well, you remember I mentioned who they all really all there to you over the phone Oh, yeah, that was Just out of the town. Yeah, Hernandez was skipper of that shrimp boat Mm-hmm, and he was the one who was running the heroin up here from somewhere in Mexico As you know that could mean from somewhere way to the south or from just barely across the border Yeah, I know but more important and now this is the one who was never caught He skipped across the border and disappeared I say but then a consuelo that's young Julio's girl and Johnny She's the one who convinced me that Julio is on the up and up keeping his nose clean Hey, you got it all straight now Johnny. Yeah, I think so go ahead. Okay Well, she's the one who called me She'd find out somehow that Diego Hernandez was here in town again And that's when I called you in Hartford and you didn't tell the police. Yeah, no, I should have well sure you should have Probably the narcotics bureau too. Well, they all know it now, of course You see when you didn't come to the office and I came over here and found out what it happened Oh, what about the girl consuelo? Well, she was afraid and I don't blame her that Hernandez had to come here to get young Julio Why because it was his testimony in court three years ago that put the finger on Diego Hernandez and his drug racket Oh, I see anyhow early this morning. She called me again Hernandez had been out there to see her to try and make her tell him where he could find Julio And did she know in spite of Diego's claim that he only wanted Julio in on a business deal Which of course is exactly what she didn't do What's mad? Of course what she must have been the one who told Hernandez you were coming here, you know in the hope They're it would scare them all. Well, thanks a lot consuelo, whatever your name is. Yeah But the point is this Johnny and down it I forgot to tell the police, but they'll be coming here any minute now to talk with you about this tacker I'll tell them that and tell them what I consuelo had no way of warning young Julio He's been out of town coming back this morning. You'll be stopping by to see consuelo But if Hernandez goes back there and finds him there Heaven help him. Come on Jackson. We got off now. You stay in that bed Johnny. Take it easy It's a matter with you We got to get the Julio and that girl before he does if we're not too late already Johnny when the police come Will you stop wasting time and help me get into my clothes? The police are on the way up here now right now. Well, we'll leave him a note or something That's like I said Johnny. I haven't yet told him about consuelo and Julio and anything over there at the desk You write him a note while I finish dressing and don't waste any time about it Consuelo's little house was way out at the edge of town in a very sparsely populated area. I Knew the minute that we pulled up in front of it, but we got there too late the front door was wide open Inside was still the smell of cordyte From that pistol with the silencer on it now Diego Hernandez had got there first. All right, and then his job well Too well In the door wailing the body of young Julio Just one willing bullet must have killed him instantly little consuelo young pretty Careed consuelo was still alive and she tried to drag herself to the phone on a nearby table But she just lay there gasp Fairly out of reach of it Well Jackson called the police and a doctor I carried her into the bedroom I went to work with a couple of white towels bottle of tequila I found Finally no, this no use in you No, not sure it is consuelo It is you you're going to be all right The doctor will be here in a couple of minutes and he'll get that bullet out of your back Not want to leave now Consuelo come on now Listen to me Tell me what was it? Was it Diego Hernandez who did this? my Julio To help him again He wanted him to help him in the in the heroin racket again Consuelo, please tell you where he's operating to is on his way He must tell me where his head Monday's gone Didn't make very much sense Jackson before him 15 hours I spent down at police headquarters working with a young sergeant Ortiz Trying to locate a doctor Velazquez there in Corpus Christi There in any city on the Gulf Coast anywhere in Texas even we must have run up a phone bill of several hundred dollars But it was no go see She got it Which is got it nothing again subject nothing sir again Well What's this map here is lying? We have covered every single town this side of the Mexican border Look at it. I've circled them all I know But if he went to a doctor of Velazquez and the girl was sure of you No, of course down in Mexico a name like that is promptly is wait a minute. What is it miss a dollar? Of course. She told us where he is Here right in front of our noses on this map. Look sergeant. Don't you see it? Yes, only about 50 miles below the border and others here other towns also named after people you see Here's one core general Bravo. Here's dr. Gonzalez, but of course The one we care about is this one sergeant of the town they call dr. Velazquez Yes, and of course that's where he works his racket right there below the border in dr. Velazquez Okay, so I'm just a dollar by the time the necessary contact can be made with the police here down there by the time the Necessary papers can be drawn up and look here. It is such a small town on just a little side road And in such a desert country, that's all the better. That means if I take things into my own hands There'll be nobody around to interfere You would go down there alone without the authorization after what Hernandez did The attack on me two murders and heaven only knows how many people he's killed with a filthy heroine Are you all right? But he has had such a start on you in a fast car even now he could be well across the border better It's down there in that wasteland that I'm just dying to meet him And if I'm lucky, maybe I can get down there ahead of him, but how yeah, I'll be waiting for him at the town of dr. Velazquez But how can you and the day it is getting late mr. Dollar and whatever I may do from here on out You know something it's it's none of your business You're right You're none of my business. Good. I know nothing good If only I knew somebody around here with a light plane I could charter and no questions asked I mean if you should just happen to have a friend or a friend of a friend, of course You don't know what I'm thinking of but oh no, of course not But and why don't we go out to my squat car and take a little ride? It's a beautiful afternoon, huh? That little single engine claim is a beauty Incidentally item four on the expense account is two hundred and fifty dollars to that friend of a friend It was getting late though and I opened the throttle wide flying a rather erratic course and the hope I wouldn't be intercepted crossing the border luckily I wasn't Then with only a highway map to guide me and believe me the Sun was getting mighty low now I finally found the place I was looking for the so-called town of dr. Velazquez wasn't even a crossroads It's just a handful of ramshackle buildings out there in the middle of the desert some 20 miles north of the nearest decent piece of highway Along the rough dirt road leading to it was a bare space whereby wrestling the controls a bit I managed to set down then I taxied carefully on to that road blocking it off Why couldn't I last raise the Sun I'd seen a cloud of dust that said there was a car on the road heading my way And on this I hope so If not, I'd simply have to stay there and wait for him. I'll rather stay near by in a clump of a skeet As the headlights picked up the plane barring his way just hold everything and on this don't reach for that gun You Again, that's right keep them up over your head. What are you doing out here? What's your guess? I? Will kill you senior dollar Like I meant to kill you before sorry this time. I have a gun on you will do you know good turn around Keep those hands up in the air I Will kill you Remember that aren't you getting a little tired of killing as gun of yours will be a nice souvenir Thanks, you have what you call the Advantage eh, that's right But not for long, but we'll see about that. I put your hands down slowly, but I'm behind your back You're not afraid to let me lower the hand there do it, but slowly very well It gives me the chance, and you're the one chance. Yes for what? Have you never heard of the gun in the sleeve? No, you don't Why don't I ever lend a frisk one of these punks before I let him lower his hands? Next time I'm gonna be so lucky Well after dark when I finally got us back to Corpus Christi And I had quite a time landing in the small private field from which I borrowed the plane Sergeant Otis of course tonight any knowledge of the whole thing But I noticed the land in my Surana waiting for me and also by pure coincidence the young fellow from the narcotics squad just Happened to be there to meet me nor did he suggest that I might have picked up my prisoner anywhere, but this side of the border Just the same Jackson. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to keep this report under wraps for a while Expensive count total including board and room the trip home 532 40 yours truly Johnny dollar If you ever suffer a touch of arthritis or rheumatism, and you've never tried mentholatum deep-heating rub You can't know how good its deep-heating action can make you feel if you massage it in the painful areas You feel it's deep heating action. You know relief is on its way Mentholatum deep-heating rub is an extra strong combination of active ingredients for safe Temporary relief of minor arthritic rheumatic pain use greaseless stainless Mentholatum deep-heating rub often Now here's our star to tell you about next week's story next week one murder three suspects and each of them with plenty of reason Plenty of opportunity join us. Won't you yours truly Johnny dollar? Truly Johnny dollar is written by Jack Johnstone produced and directed by Bruno Zorato, Jr. Music supervision by Ethel Huber Johnny dollar is played by Mandel Kramer Also featured in our cast were Ralph Camargo as Diego Bob Dryden is the sergeant Deli Sonnenberg is Consuelo Lawson's Irby is the voice or he's top on this price and Hilda Haynes is the maze Be sure to join us next week same time same station for another exciting story of yours truly Johnny dollar This is Stuart Matt speaking