 If you have been with us on these Tuesday nights you will know that suspense is compounded of mystery and suspicion and dangerous adventure. In this series our tales calculated to intrigue you, stir your nerves to offer you a precarious situation then withhold the solution until the last possible moment. And so with five canaries in the room and the performances of owner Munson as Anita also Massen as CP and with Lee Bowman as Ronald Annam who tells the story we again hope to keep you in suspense. The trouble was you see that a whole apartment vanished. It's true. A flat disappeared straight out of that apartment house and the dead man disappeared with it. No I'm not crazy and in spite of what they said I hadn't taken too many drinks. You see I was getting married to Anita in another two weeks and Jimmy Westlake gave a bachelor party for me. Well hang it it's a situation that might have happened to you. The party was at the old Cap and Bells Club on Lower Fifth Avenue and it wasn't a brawl. Jimmy Westlake was in the chair I admit but nothing could have been more quiet more dignified. This is a solemn occasion. Those dopes over there will kindly get away from the panel and sit down at the table. I have another toast to propose. Excuse me Mr. Westlake. Excuse me please. Yes Uncle Cato what is it? Excuse me Mr. Westlake but you ain't got busted glasses on this toolfish. Why shouldn't we bust the glasses Uncle Cato? Why shouldn't we bust the glasses? Oh but Mr. Westlake if you keep on busting the glasses they ain't going to be no glasses left. Well that's sad eventuality Uncle Cato. We will simply start busting the plates. Isn't that fair enough boys? Oh look Jimmy don't you think you better tone the gang down a little. Be quiet Ron you're only the group. I know Jimmy but. Gentlemen I regret to tell you this but the protesting voice you just heard was that of our guest of honor Ronald Denham. Now we all know Ron and we all like him. I'm sorry to say he is not himself. Where now is the terror of nightclubs the chorus girl's friend. I say it to his face he is sober but we like him just the same. Friends guests and bachelors I give you the groove. Please gentlemen don't bust the glasses. Hey come on Ron come on say a few words. That's right Ron get up. Now look boys I thank you for all the good words and I don't want to be a wet blanket on the party but it's nearly midnight and I've got to get home early. Don't you understand boys I'm a reformed character. Yeah how's Fifi Latour? I haven't seen Fifi for over a year she doesn't mean anything to me anymore. He thinks he does protest too much. Now look I'm marrying the sweetest girl in the world but Anita is a little well straight lace. You know how it is. What's more there's my uncle Rufus. Anita and uncle Rufus have apartments in the same building as I have. What's more they're on the same floor and that's not all. Tom Evans the fellow I share my flat. Wait a minute where is Tom Evans tonight. What's the matter with him. Tom works for uncle Rufus and he doesn't drink. Quiet you baboons. Quiet. Now wait a minute will you put yourselves in my place. My girl and my uncle and my best friend Tom Evans are all expecting me to come home from this party in an ash cart. And I'm going to fool him. I have a heart can't you. Uncle Rufus must be a pretty tough egg isn't he. Oh he's all right but after his first million dollars it went to his head. Has he got any human weaknesses. Yes he keeps canaries. Oh no not the kind of canaries you're thinking I mean the kind of go tweet tweet and cage. Oh what's the use. What do you say gentlemen shall we allow this pure and heart to wind his way home. That's right Ron. Can you as a chivalrous gentleman refuse to drink to the bride. You can't and you know you can't. Uncle Cato. Yes sir Mr Westley. Get a beer mug from the sideboard there. Fill it with champagne. Oh wait a minute. One more drink won't hurt you surely just one little drink. I don't know I suppose not. Fill it up uncle Cato. All right I'll have one more drink just in honor of the occasion but that's all you understand that's absolutely all. 98 Park Avenue. Hey hey hey Mr. Mr. I'm gonna wake up. What's wrong. You're home Mr. This is the apartment house. Oh yeah. Yes. Of course. We go. Easy now. Are you sure you're all right. So I'm all right. I've been to a bachelor party. Sure I know we'll take it easy now. I can't see straight. The whole streets going around. The funny part is I only had a couple of drinks. They they must have put something in that last one. Well it's none of my business Mr. But I wouldn't tell that to the Mrs. If I was you. It's absolutely true. Sure sure I know why and I haven't got a Mrs. Not yet. My word of honor I'm a reformed character I have nothing to do with any woman except Ronald Danum as I live and breathe it is Ronald Danum. Fifi Latour. Oh sure. How good it is to see you. I look everywhere for you. I cry my eyes out but I don't find you. What are you doing here. I live here Fifi. I moved. Oh you try to get away from me. Yes. Yes. No. No I mean here's your money driver. Night. Good night sir. Your lady. You better take care of him. I take care of him. Yes you bet you. My poor one. I forgive you this time because you've been on the rest of this and you need someone to take care of you. You live in this building. Yes. The floor. I. Oh good. I take you to your apartment. No no no you say no and why not because you mustn't go in there. Oh there's another woman or yes well yes the the fact is Fifi I'm going to get married married for heaven's sake if you don't make a scene in the middle of the street or you break my heart right in the middle of Park Avenue you take my heart and you break it bang bang Bifi please now I tell you what you do you will take me to your apartment this very minute no definitely no you will give me one cigarette and one brandy you will tell me what this mean or I warn you by golly I start screaming so they can hear me at city hall I can't do it Fifi all right then I start screaming no wait a minute all of all the times in the world you had to pick this do I go along should we yes or no well if I do take you Fifi will you promise to be good I am always good you won't kick up a row or start banging your doors or if Anita heard of this and neither and who's she never mind I'm too groggy to argue come on I remember going into that building dim religious light deep carpets an automatic elevator that you work yourself I remember stepping into that elevator because the floor creaked I remember pressing the button for the fifth floor I took Fifi with me and I took her into what the champagne told me was my own flat maybe you think that's funny but it won't be funny much longer either the door of the flat was unlocked or my key fitted it anyway I I remember stumbling through the little hall inside getting a light on and into the living room I remember sitting back in an easy chair thanking the Lord I was home if I take my coat off sherry look Fifi couldn't you just go home I want to talk to you sherry and this is one very nice flat I like it thanks a lot you and Tom Evans you have good taste in furniture we didn't choose the furniture Fifi this girl of yours choose it I suppose no it comes with the flat all you mean well these are furnished flats they're all furnished exactly alike except for the personal things you bring yourself that picture on the wall behind me what picture sherry the painting of the clippership over there but sherry your eyes are funny and you cannot say straight there's no picture on that wall wait a minute what's wrong why you jump up we we don't own any bronze bookends and the landscapes are different and Fifi we're in the wrong flat well then that explains everything explains what it explains about the canary birds what canary birds when we first come in here I think I hear a lot of birds sing and I think ooh la la this is a funny taste for one denim and Tom Evans but Uncle Rufus great Scott Uncle Rufus this uncle of yours he keep canary birds yes five of them but this isn't his flat I know his flat as well as I know my own where'd you hear this singing behind that door over there where I point that ought to be the door to the dining room but what was that oh it is a car backfire maybe yes maybe you know unless they keep cars in dining rooms that was a gun it came from the dining room yeah I think so quick let's get out of here oh no we don't I've been pushed around tonight so I'm good and mad and I'm just about crazy enough to find out what this is all about you're not going to open that door you just watch me there's a light in that room anyway how you know look under the sill of the door not a very bright light but one don't do it stand back now I get the door open I canary birds canaries and cages all in a line where in Satan's name are we I don't know whose flat is this who accept Uncle Rufus would keep five canaries and then I go out of here well there's somebody watch where that swing door to the kitchen this party open but don't look the devil can I see it if I don't look there's somebody standing behind it I see the light shine on his eye quiet Fifi hello there hello there the door move a little more he's pushing it oh excuse me sir we didn't mean to barge in here we're not burglars or anything like that we got into the wrong flat that's all I want to apologize if we break out through the door on his face what the matter with him why don't you move I've got an idea Fifi it's because he's dead he was a little fat man with eyeglasses and a spade-shaped beard he looked foreign somehow and there was a bullet hole over his heart you asked me what happened then I don't know Fifi turned and ran at least I think she did I bent over the man to make sure he was dead and then something hit me so it hadn't been enough of a nightmare already I I could hear that blackjack strike the back of my skull and everything exploded I couldn't get my breath and I seem to be swimming in dark water the next voice I heard wasn't Fifi's at all it was Anita's I can't hear you I said I'm not at all surprised of all the disgraceful disillusioned object I ever saw Anita where am I darling as though you didn't know but but I don't know my head feels like a like a printing press in full blast well you're out in the main hall dear on the fifth floor sitting on the stairs beside the elevator shaft that's true but how did I get here oh now really wrong I must have been carried here that's it while you're drunken friends at the club well I don't doubt it at least no Anita no you don't understand I left that party early I was cold sober but the lowhounds wanted to see me come home in bad shape so they could so they put something in my glass oh naturally wrong whiskey or champagne oh no Anita I mean a drug of some kind I was dizzy when I got here just as I was getting out of the taxi I met well go on dear whom did you meet nobody Anita nobody at all I came up here to what I thought was my own flat but it wasn't my flat there was somebody else's there were a lot of canaries singing and a dead man with a bullet hole in his chest and that sounds pretty crazy doesn't it yes dear it certainly does yeah but it's true oh Ron I suppose I've got to forgive you I always do forgive you now run along like a good boy and sleep at all hmm listen Anita there's a dead man in one of these flats a dead man in which flat well that's just it I don't know you're not saying it's on this floor yes I definitely remember pressing the button for the fifth floor suppose you listen to me dear I don't make faces and rumble your hair just listen there are only two other apartments on this floor one is your uncle it wasn't his I'll swear to that and the other is mine you don't think I'm hiding a dead man no it wasn't your flat either well then where is it darling a whole flat can't vanish and take the dead man along can it no but I'll tell you something else Anita I've seen that man's face somewhere before whose face the dead man's thick eyeglasses square black beard something foreign about it I've seen him or I've seen his picture or Ron please what's wrong with the elevator somebody's coming up please don't let people see you your hat smashed in and your ties untied you you look like nothing on earth look here Anita if it comes to that what are you doing out in the hall in negligee and pajamas I wanted to make sure you got home safely on the elevator Tom Evans and your uncle Rufus all right I can take it but your uncle can't I don't say anything to him about this dead man promise me hold on I've got it Pierre who Pierre duroc the dead man's name he in 1938 the prospect of a European war is so remote as not to be worth serious consideration excuse me sir but it's not a little strong don't argue with me Evans said you may turn my secretary to look here what's this when I look uncle Rufus oh I can't stand anymore of this I'm fed up well I don't blame you my dear this isn't if you mind been annoying you again no of course not but please don't pay any attention to him he's he's drunk for the last time I am not drunk I just want to ask Uncle Rufus before I go completely nuts whether he hasn't heard of Pierre duroc what's that Ronald what'd you say Pierre duroc the French millionaire well what about him he's the man who always deals in cash on the line spot cash even if it's a million I saw his picture in the paper he's in New York to put through a business deal with you with me indeed Ronald you show a commendable interest in my affairs that's what you want me to do isn't it I believe duroc does want to buy some property I own but he hasn't approached me and I haven't approached him it's a bad business why have you developed this sudden interest in duroc because he's dead dead somebody shot in in a room full of canaries and then slugged me over the head do you believe me Evans if your uncle will excuse me old man I don't see any reason not to believe you where's the body well that's the trouble Ron claims he found it in a flat that doesn't exist listen what's that like somebody running upstairs and a devil of a hurry maybe it's the dead man as a matter of fact it's the night porter he's the one who can tell us tell us what well maybe I did get off at a different floor but that flat's got to be somewhere in this building Pearson just a minute I'm very sorry sir but can't stop now please stand aside I got to go upstairs and get the manager why Pearson is anything wrong oh well mr. Evans pick up man is anything wrong it's the police sir we found a dead man in the palm garden downstairs now do you believe you will oblige me all of you if you remain quiet and allow me to deal with this what does this man look like Pearson he's a foreign looking gentlemen sir never saw him before he doesn't live in the building well and how did he get to the palm garden well sure that's what we don't know we certainly wasn't there when I looked in half an hour ago but I went back to the palm garden just by chance and there he was in a wicker chair with singing birds and cages all around him birds again oh be quiet Ronald he'd he'd been shot sir the police think he was brought down in the service elevator from somewhere upstairs why do they think that because they found revolver in that elevator in a little paper band of the kind that goes around banknotes if they could tell where the dead man came from you can tell us where he came from huh I cancer yes you've been in most of the flats in this building haven't you I've been inside all of them sure why well would you recognize any given flat if I described it well here's sir certainly but well then for the love of Mike think who lives in a flat with five canary cages in the dining room Ronald are you out of your mind in case you don't happen to remember you're describing my place no it was like your place but it wasn't at all the same oriental prints on the walls in the living room bronze bookends and bronze lamps dragon patterns on the lampshades there's a queer kind of clock on the mantelpiece shaped like a figure of father time and what's the matter with you Pearson nothing sir but you you're sure you saw all that yes of course I'm sure why not because I'm sorry sir but you couldn't have seen it what do you mean I couldn't have seen it I did see it who lives in the blasted place nobody will you mean the flats bacon no sir I mean there's no such flat in the whole building and that's the position I was in when the police took us down to that palm garden to see the body I never did like the palm garden much it's a big dimly lighted hollow of a place bird cages beside the poms and an artificial goldfish pond in the middle I liked it even less at three o'clock in the morning with a dead man looking at me from his chair they sent us in one at a time I was first to see the homicide squad officer and there was Inspector Braddock a big sleepy looking hulk with a hat like a pirate sitting on a bench throwing pebbles at that pond back would go his arm and a pebble would hit the water back would go his arm and a pebble would hit the water and that's all you've got to tell me mr. Dunham that's all inspector happens to be true oh I believe you after all son we've got corroboration corroboration from whom from your other girlfriend Fifi Latour he's not here she ran out of here as soon as durox body fell through that door yes but she didn't run far and cop wondered why she was running and brought her back where's Fifi now in that room there talking to your official girlfriend oh that's fine that's beautiful the one thing I didn't tell Anita why don't you wake up wake up how this isn't post office any longer it's murder and one of that gang out there shot Pierre duroc are you serious serious sure I'm serious this is as clever and slick and mean a trick as everyone on the blotter Pierre duroc was one of the goats you were the other this uncle yours is a fairly important guy isn't wait a minute just exactly what are you saying about the old I'm saying he gets lots of publicity this hobby of his keeping diki birds must be pretty well known yes I suppose so all right so if duroc came to visit your uncle tonight you say if duroc came to visit my uncle what you're forgetting son is that duroc's an important man too he's a visiting foreigner capital letters the department's got to keep an eye on it duroc did go to visit your uncle tonight and he was carrying twenty thousand dollars in cash what are you animating murder yes sergeant out there is raising cane especially the old man in the French gal do I let him in yeah you can let him in no more than an hour sitting in an anti-room without even hearing why we're here I tell you that evidence is intolerable it's all right sir they probably know what they're doing you think so my friend but I still don't know why I'm here how very interesting miss Latour such extreme absent mindedness or perhaps wrong to tell you why you're here oh listen Anita I can explain everything can you explain the disappearing apartment well that's better I'd like if you don't mind to have a little quiet here now which one of you is mr. Rufus Denham I am Rufus Denham sir Rufus Denham of Denham and company can there be any doubt whatever about that no but I thought I'd ask I was just telling you enough here mr. Denham that peer of the rock came here tonight to see you to see me inspector that's right I can only characterize that statement sir as a flattened downright lie I've never met that man I didn't say you met him I said he came here to see you the rock wanted to buy some property from you didn't he well suppose he did and the rock always paid spot cash didn't he yes I believe so just one more question I imagine you got a secretary yes naturally I've got a secretary Miss Helen Gardner what about her somebody posing as your secretary telephone derock at the Metropolis Hotel and spoke to him in very good French well inspector don't stop there go on this person pretending to represent Rufus Denham asked to rock to come here with the money and said they could settle the deal immediately don't you see the trick now don't you see derock was good into a dummy apartment a dummy apartment what does this man mean I'll tell you all the flats are furnished exactly alike except for personal things pictures books lampshades ornaments is that correct yes of course it is the murderer didn't dare use Rufus Denham's real flat but the murderer could always decorate an imitation flat so that Pierre de Rock would be deceived when he saw five canary birds that's it son but what was the idea a very neat swindle look at the rocks body now I can't look at it look at his thick glasses with a man was half blind the so-called secretary disguised would meet derock in an imitation flat rock would hand over the money and get forged title deeds and return when derock had gone the flat could be put right again and no evidence left but something went wrong that's right something went wrong the rocks suspected and had to be killed right again inspector Braddock who is the murderer can't you guess I think I know how it all happened do you must look to her who's very smart of you this poor Ronald of mine he is at a bachelor party they do not think that he will be home until daylight but he kept reformed and come home early he plunder straight into that flat in time to interrupt in time to interrupt a murder yes afterwards when you were supposed to run away but I did run away sure mr. Turner I'm admitting you did then why do you look at me as though I didn't afterwards as I was saying the murderer had to hit Ronald denim over the head and drag him out in the hall the rocks body was brought down here along with the canary cages that had been borrowed from here and the dummy flat was set right again just one moment Inspector Braddock I'm not disputing anything you say but well sir what's on your mind the murderer what about the murderer well all this wouldn't it have been much too heavy a job for a woman who said the murderer was a woman well didn't you I don't think I did I said the murderer was somebody who planned a swindle and you still don't see it any of you because you can't find the dummy flat no and I can't find it myself that's one question you've got to answer here and now where in Satan's name did I go who's flat was I in your own my own naturally you've been cold sober you might have made a mistake but your instinct brought you home to your own flat and the only possible murderer is the man who shares that flap with you the man who thought you'd be away until daylight the man who knows enough about denim's business affairs to plan this swindle against the rock look out inspector Patrick grabbing sergeant Thomas Evans I arrest you for the murder of Pierre de Rock well that's about all there is to the story Anita and I were married last week she's a wonderful girl I tried to talk her into our staying on in my old flat but she said she just had to have an apartment which didn't have such a habit of disappearing but we're very happy we agree about everything don't we do practically everything darling but I still don't think it was cute of beefy to send up three dozen canaries for a wedding present and so close as five canaries in the room starring on a months and Lee Bowman and osa mason tonight's tale of suspense this is your narrator the man in black who conveys to you Columbia's invitation to spend this half hour in suspense with us again next Tuesday when our suspense play will be last night by Cornel Woolrich and will star more of your Hollywood favorites the producer of these broadcasts is William Spear who is Ted Bliss the director Lutgluston and Lucian Morrowick conductor and composer and John Dixon car the author collaborated on tonight's suspense this is CBS the Columbia broadcasting system