 The adventures of Sam spade detective Yeah In the wine no in the broth, I mean the brass You didn't go home at all When you promised me you were going straight home to that much needed rest All the time you knew you were going to some Florida barn Get into a bra I even bought these things from the sleep shop next order the knobby net to Detective lieutenant Dundee homicide detail San Francisco police medical authorities agree that lost sleep can never be made up from Samuel spade license number Fatigue is cumulative subject the insomnia caper dear Dundee honest lieutenant This is how I got into that mess last night I've been feeling a little rocky for two or three days. There was nothing much wrong with me But it's my secretary the ineffable miss kareen said Sam what you need is a good night Which lieutenant is how I happen to be at home in bed at 10 30 in the p.m. Wearing a sleep shade earplugs and quiet pajamas At 1045 my right arm went to sleep. I turned over that's when one of the earplugs fell out I tore off the sleep shade dug the plug out of my other ear stuck my head under the pillow We're just beginning to drowze off, but they sat up and lit a cigarette The city plunged again into the silences of the night. The fog was creeping in on little cat feet No, I was peace and quiet again in post street Nothing with the sound of fog horns way out in the bay and the rhythmic drop of the cable car mechanism under the California Street This time I almost made it and then The room was on a level with mine in the building just across the alley I've had occasion to screw tonight said room and it's occupant on happier occasion He was young red haired and also had a nice profile Which I had observed in silhouette against the window blind when she did her nightly setting up Exercise I now observe that she had a boyfriend and he seemed to be angry not wishing to pry into her affairs I closed my window Through the blind went back to bed It was stuffy with the window down to quiet it. I actually fell asleep I dreamed I was home in bed and somebody was knocking on my door. How true Who is it heavy? Okay, okay, don't be angry. I mean I come in for a minute. You're in Thank you. I know this seems peculiar a perfect stranger. I saw you in the window that makes us even Department across the alley. Yeah, I know and you saw him you saw him strike. No You must have heard heard a lot of stuff break my ship models. He threw them all over the room broke them to bits They weren't especially valuable and besides they were present from him now I get it now you came here to tell me all about your collection of ship models I think that that's real neighborly of you miss do bar during the bar Yeah, well, it was nice meeting you drop in again sometime and I'll show you my collection of pop flies Don't send me away I'm deathly afraid of him his name is Dan McCrae the merchant seamen his boat just got in today. Yeah, but why me I've seen in the window so many times. I somehow felt I knew you Bullets I suppose. I don't even know your name. Look sweetheart. If you think you're gonna rope me in as a witness to that lovers Oh, please. No, it's more than that. Believe me. I Can't tell you everything, but why tell me anything Okay, I'm sorry Pardon me for living. I know it's wrong of me I don't want to be hard-hearted about it, but if you're really afraid of the guy you ought to go to the cop Dan badger no doubt from the game Look charm before you say anything, let me put you straight you picked the wrong sucker Oh, so you're the guy huh? You already said you was good-looking in a deep sort of way Well, I think I'll fix that part of it right now. Hey, wait a minute. Oh, so you're gonna make it easy for me Hey, okay What have you done to me? All right? Is he coming around where'd she go? Hey, uh, hey, uh, Dan wake up. Oh You hit me with Well, where's Doreen she dissolved come on get up. Okay shepherd. This is your round. Who not that it matters Danny boy But who your Frank Shepherd ain't you you stoop Don't you read the names on the door spade? Here's my card, huh? Detective What was she doing here? Her story was that she was running away from you now baited. Well, you can't be too fast for me I'm sorry spade I've been at sea too long. I guess the old lady over there told me Doreen was seeing this guy every night Channel fever or something. I blew my top. Yeah No hard fever spade. Oh forget it. Well, when you do catch up with that guy shepherd watch your left your telegraph it Call back tomorrow better yet. Don't call I have one for me. Listen. I'm okay now. I sobered up like a shot Makes sense. What do you when I got back to the ship? He was there in my cabin. What shepherd? Yeah, he's dead Hit him too hard. I don't think so. Look, I haven't got much money, but let's start earning some this is gonna cost you Got here quick. I'm a real fast sleepwalker Yeah, yeah, come on. I'll take your board Give me the rundown Shepherd took your girl where you're away at sea you slapped her around a little broker toy boats and generally But a bad boy will skip that little exhibition match in my apartment. Then what come on up this ladder About those ship models One was missing She acted funny about it and guess where it was in Shepherd's hotel room The Boston Hotel up on Broadway crumb dump. I shook the address out of that old lady Never mind that now so you went there went up to his room worked him over, but he was alive when I left there That's clear Then I had drinks in a lot of different places. I think I was in some other fight Yeah, you'll look it. I don't know who with just faces a lot of blurs I don't even know where all I went Then I don't remember anything till I'm in an all-night beenery down here on the imbacadero and a cab driver's holding Me up on the stool pouring coffee to me Then I came aboard. Yeah, come on. Come on in my cabin. I'll show you There are a few bruises and ring marks in the face, but they've been cleaned up and smeared with nephialy. I Know you're not supposed to touch anything until homicide gets their lieutenant But this one had obviously already been tampered with so I didn't think you'd mind if I rolled him over just enough to Take at the back of his head There was a tiny cut on his scalp near the base of the skull not more than a quarter of an inch long It hardly bled. I pushed the pockets and his wallet $38 identification card Frank R. Shepherd Boston Hotel San Francisco And a snapshot of Doreen sailing a model Chinese junk in a pond someplace in his cigar case Cigars around his middle a tooled leather belt with hammered silver buckle It was a popular type Hickok belt, but something about the buckle didn't quite figure the prong of the silver buckle wasn't silver It was tempered steel and instead of being pointed the end was flattened out and ground to a sharp cutting edge There were two notches on either side of it. It didn't look like they've been put there for decoration I took the belt off rolled it up and put it in my coat pocket. Well, what do you make of it? You touch it No, why a man falls forward not back the cops will say he was killed someplace else and brought here then I'm in the clear Yeah, unless they form a theory that you brought the body down here to dispose of it Then why didn't I maybe you lost your nerve? Maybe you sewed it up? What killed him I don't know Maybe internal injuries maybe a head injury or both from that beating you gave maybe just dropped dead heart attack That's for the police medical examiner to find out you mean you're gonna call the police I have to but I called you to I thought you could clean me but wait a minute. You told me yourself You drew a blank. You don't know where you were or what you were doing. What are you gonna do? Call the police now wait? Yeah, I suppose you have to I do you first. Yeah, let's say you're taking it pretty well. I Had a small dream Abstractions, you know cubes and circles Nothing worth describing but after I'd given homicide the rumble and crawled home to my own crumble. I did bet it I Dreamed I was wild Bill Hickok the belt tycoon I was working on a promotion scheme for a new combination belt buckle toothpick and murder weapon Sam spade sleepyhead The United States Armed Forces radio service is presenting the weekly adventure of Dashel Hammett's famous private detective Sam spade It's Harry speaking Lieutenant you got me. What time is it any sign of dangerous Dan McCrae that rat my client Go over and take a look at it. All right, Dundee if you want to swallow a pack of lies. All right That's my window just opposite you can see the bed that I just got out of to come over here in response to your untimely call Uh, I'm in here miss doobar. I'm very anxious to meet that man's acquaintance He was about 65 years old with a pleasant motherly face gold rim by focal hearing aid and snow white hair Over a shoulder. I could see into the kitchen Sitting at a table facing away from me was an old man in front of him on the bench were three ship models in various stages of Disrepair broken masts rudders and with a mallet and a tiny chisel. He was shaping a piece of wood I guess that it was a broken spy from one of the holes Well, Sam still say this is the same apartment. Yeah Same apartment different people My brother and I have lived in the same apartment for nearly 20 years He's lying Dundee. Have you checked the janitor the building manager anybody She's been living here since he took the job in 41. We're trying to locate the building manager now According to your story, Sam the girls in McCray had a big row in here busted up a lot of furniture stuff I don't see any sign of it. They could have cleaned it up Okay, I dreamed the whole thing but those ship models I didn't dream them McCray mentioned them the girl mentioned them busted ship models There they are on the table in the kitchen To be the trouble now Dory just toys this young man so excited about my model I declare then I can't make head a tail of it something about a girl with the same name as mine and the young man I'll forget his name who thinks it killed somebody named shepherd. I believe it was your thought was it about the ship models young man Dory could it be the girl who brought these over to me to repair? What was her name? Just on the tip of my tongue Who did she say sent her? Wasn't that shepherd there with all due respect to your age nuts. I'm getting out of here Dondie Well, I can still remember my own name. I gotta get some sleep They wake up Oh Sam get out of my bed. I didn't know where else to go. You can go to jail Their beds don't have any springs, but it's a free fly. Listen. I had to make that break It would have been a murder rap for sure. You mean your memory came back. I had a funny feeling I'd seen that guy shepherd somewhere before and just before I slugged you while we were standing there in the companion Where you came back to me? That guy shepherd he came aboard ship yesterday when we docked He flashed a badge on the gangway watch and asked to see the ship's carpenter the one that made those ship models for you Yeah, yeah, but don't you see manslaughter is one thing cop killing is another this ship's carboner What's he look like? Oh thin round 65 lame talks like a sweet The more Maxi Sam spade that there's stiff tagged shepherd What killed him Maxi puncture wound face of the skull small sharp Anything knowing his ID well shepherd seems to be a phony handle Sergeant full house was dropped at the boys at this hotel thought he was a detective Hmm The time I got to him it didn't matter That's an interesting theory Maxi. I'll see what I can do with it I Tucked Danny boy back into my bed locked him in and gum shoot around the block to the Balboa apartment Just to be mean I woke up the janitor and checked his statement on the old couple and Doreen's apartment He worked three buildings were sure of the old woman that backed down a little on the man Which is what I expected we're sure of the floor, but not of the apartment number didn't know any tenants by name Which goes to show lieutenant what police statements are sometimes worse. I Thank him stole his past key and went upstairs. I Didn't expect to find anybody home in Doreen's apartment. I was half right Sven the old carboner was sitting in a chair staring straight ahead of him He looked as though he were in a daze. I walked over to him even close up He didn't look dead, but he was body still warm no visible wounds But he was wearing a tool leather belt with a hammered silver buckle The prong of the buckle was tempered steel and had the same peculiar shape as the one in my pocket The one I had taken off the shepherd's body The ship models were gone what was left of them I found in the fireplace and in the charred remnants of what had once been the hull of the toy Chinese junk I found something that hadn't burned It was a small metal cylinder with two pins projecting from it on either side about the middle of it It looked like a miniature lock mechanism, which it was exactly the key. You guessed it was the prong of that belt buckle Cylinder was empty except for a few white grains that looked like sugar. I tasted them It was not sugar, but in the dope traffic. They sometimes call it that About then I heard footsteps outside in the hall I ducked into the closet leaving the door cracked enough to see out Stand over there Doreen. Don't try anything. I won't shoot you unless I'm forced to. No, you didn't shoot Frank Shepard did you? Don't ever mention that name again Don't just sit there staring. We've just time to catch the boat Then answer me. I Don't think he can answer you Mrs. Brown. Oh, what are you talking about? Yes, I'm a desperate character hand it over Now look you don't have your glasses on and this 45 is too heavy for an elderly tried criminal now sit down and keep quiet Oh, I thought you'd forgotten all about me. I've been trying to all night. Where were you? They locked me in a closet in her apartment next door. They were gonna take me with them get rid of me on the boat After what they did to Frank they had to get out fast. Shepard. Who was Shepard anyway? Can't tell you that it was a federal narcotics agent wasn't it? How did you know you just told me not tell me the rest of it well honestly? I didn't know anything about it till about a month ago I Was dusting the ship models and knocked one off the shelf it broke and something spilled out of it Mrs. Ronrig was here when it happened she rushed for it and ran out of the room with it She said she'd take it and get it repaired for me and then this girlfriend of mine came by while I was sweeping their white powder up She's a nurse she tasted it told me it was dope Well, I didn't want to do anything till I talked to Danny, but she reported it And that's when Frank Shepard came to see me from the narcotics squad. He told you to play along with them They arrested the man. This is brown rigged was telling it to and Shepard told her he was taking the man's place So he could fine get evidence She believed him because of the belt this the belt Yes, that that thing on the belt It's really a little key that fit in a little yeah Yeah, that that's in a little lock that releases the little mechanism that makes the false bottom fall out of a little boat When did she find out that Shepard was a narcotics agent? I didn't I Saw them together so much that I began to think they might double cross Then I thought about that sailor Dan that rough-knit boyfriend of hers So I went to Dan and told him I thought his girl had taken up with Shepard while he was away at sea And I had to let Dan think the worst because I was born to secrecy But Dan so violent and jealous. He said he'd kill Shepard. So I came to you You were a witness that Dan hit me and I thought we might have him arrested so nobody else would get hurt but I Guess you were too sleepy to care What sorry, sorry, I must have dropped off Period and the report Didn't you arrest that terrible old mrs. Earwig brown wig I think wasn't it brown rig? One of her aliases no doubt and reply to your previous question. Yes, who killed mr. Shepard Look if you'll recall that Sven was shaping a piece of wood with a small chisel and a mallet the fatal wound You'll recall oh, and who kills then sit down. I want to have a serious talk with you Here stop twisting your hand Every sometimes I think you've been a detective secretary too long warps the outlook That's what I mean you jumped the conclusion as in the instance of the death of friend I only asked who killed him Sam exactly did it ever occur to you that some people especially old feeble people just died Quietly sitting in a chair sometime sometimes in bed in their sleep Never happened to you Check But it did happen to spend perhaps the excitement of his criminal activities fear of discovery has impending flight with too much For his heart on the other hand it might have just been old age The point is that he it does happen never in detective stories only in real life Well, I guess that's all good night Nevertheless, I'm going home to bed Oh This is the United States Armed Forces radio service the voice of information and education