 Johnny dollar, mr. Dollar. This is Frederick Venom Venom that's right a prime mutual insurance company limited. Oh, I see as a very important matter I'd like you to look into for us. I thought you always used members of your own staff I mean as investigators ordinarily we do mr. Dollar ordinarily any a problem that might arise would be handled by one of our own men In this case, I will run fortunately Not one of them is a fisherman. Did you say fisherman? That's right. I Understand those reports of yours that broadcast on the radio that you are Very good one. Well, I like to think so, but do you mind telling me what connection that can possibly have with an insurance problem? I'll be very good, too Shall we say at 3 30 this afternoon here in my office? Well, if it has anything whatever to do with fishing mr. Venom, oh it has mr. Dollar it has 3 30 then okay, I'll be there Yes, radio network brings you Mandel Kramer in the exciting adventures of the man with the action-packed expense account America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator yours truly Johnny dollar Expense accounts submitted by special investigated Johnny dollar to the tri mutual insurance company limited home office Hartford, Connecticut Following is an account of expenses incurred during my investigation of the low tide matter My kid about it try mutual is not a company. I'd ever picked to work for Although I'm sure they serve their clients very well They just happen to be a notoriously stingy outfit when it comes to handing out money for assigned services But it's the old story mentioned that magical word fishing and I'm gone Expense account item one at exactly 3 15 p.m. A dollar 20 for a cab to mr. Venom's office in the tri mutual building Being the methodical sort that he is he kept me waiting at the reception desk until the exact time of our appointment Mr. Dollar you make it in now. I was beginning to think you'd forgotten I was waiting out here And then you're slipping mr. Venom According to my watch, it's nearly 3 31 then your watch must be wrong Come in, please. All right Now let's get one thing straight. Yeah, I'm freelance That means you pay my expense account on whatever it is. You want me to do I'm fully aware of that also I'll expect a fee. I'm quite familiar with your scale of fees, mr. Dollar or of course a commission a percentage of the actual amount of insurance involved of the amount Saved mr. Dollar All right, have it your way. I usually do I'm sure you do but whichever comes out largest fee or commission That's what I get. Okay. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes, but I'll sit down. All right. I Wouldn't want you to start charging us for the time taken with these Shall we say amenities? What's it all about the faster machine tool company or rather mr. Charles Foster himself and his junior partner Michael Brady They're both clients of yours Our concern is over a partnership policy. We've written for them that will pay the survivor some five hundred thousand dollars If and when the other dies a lot of money Which of them is on the sick list neither? But I'm seriously worried about Charles Foster. I'll come he came in here the other day to ask if the policy could be canceled I see and of course I had to tell him we couldn't do that without the permission of young Brady Why does he want to cancel he and Brady haven't been getting along? Business hasn't been good and he suspects Brady who is much younger and completely and selfishly ambitious of being responsible Why when Brady himself has a share in it to ruin faster for some to sell out his share of the business cheap Been done before I guess course it has but then Brady walked in and said he wouldn't consider cancellation of the policy for a minute So the only trouble with faster was that he was overworked But what he needed was some West and relaxation. Don't we all I beg your pardon. No nothing nothing go on mr. But I've tried to reach them for several days now only hope of talking it out with them Well of helping them reach some amicable solution to their problem they've refused to seal no not exactly They've gone away together. Well On a fishing trip Look don't knock it the best way in the world. I know up to get rid of troubles Best way in the world I know of a Brady to get rid of Charles Foster and thereby collect half a million dollars insurance Mr.. Ben am I to jumping to conclusions just because a couple of minutes you wait a minute dollar You don't know these two as well as I do. I don't know the metal But it does seem to me that faster is getting old perhaps Brady is right and wanting that business for himself It's certainly make a go of it Then what's the beef? Well the more I think of it the more certain I am that Brady knows only too well that the one way to get that business without It's costing him anything and a half a million besides So by having faster dad Roll faster to go on a fishing trip Ridiculous, what's the matter with the fishing trip? Nothing for you or me or Brady But robert-charls faster Ridiculous, yes, you said that and when Brady wouldn't inform me your fastest wife or anyone else where he was taking him Well, darling, you've just got to find them make sure that faster gets back here safe now Mr.. Ben or if it's too late the Brady has already done him in That Brady is brought to justice. Well, you sure can build a mountain out of molehill And I tell you that if you knew those men as well as I do Tell her you've got to find them and Don't forget there's a possibility of a commission One a half a million dollars. Yes, but not much probability. I think you're going off half cocked Would you rather not take on this potentially highly lucrative assignment? Okay, as long as you're paying the bill. I'll go out and look for them. Good Now what's your first move? Well, you know something mr.. Bennum, yes I haven't the vaguest idea If you ever suffer a touch of arthritis or rheumatism and you've never tried Memphalatum deep-heating rub you can't know how good its deep-heating action can make you feel as you massage it into painful areas You feel it's deep-heating action. You know relief is on its way Mental-atom deep-heating rub is an extra strong combination of active ingredients for safe temporary relief of minor arthritic rheumatic pain Use greaseless stainless mental-atom deep-heating rub often My first move was to call on Mrs. Charles Foster sweet lovely little lady in her 60s She was worried sick of the way her husband had suddenly taken off her parts unknown with young Michael Brady She didn't trust Brady. She was afraid of him of what he might do to get his hands on the business By the time she got through talking I began to wonder if maybe Fred Bennum's fears weren't justified after all Then I called on Mrs. Mike Brady This was something else again Kathy Brady was a living doll and not one bit worried about the way her husband had taken off Why should she be this girl had everything? I mean besides looks and charm and all that goes with he'd set her up in a home That must have cost a couple hundred grand with a couple of expensive cars clothing jewelry the whole bit Well, the business was bad and now they will live in a high on the hog. No doubt of it and while Mike's away Johnny I'm having a ball a flock of big parties that are really the most I don't doubt it Mrs. Brady Now what I please Johnny call me Kathy Okay, now Kathy and if you're on the loose, I mean if you'd like to be included in on some of these brawls I'm afraid that I have a job to do I have to find your husband and I would certainly appreciate you're giving me any ideas of where I could start Now look honey, don't worry about Mike. He'll be back. He always comes back He kind of likes me. You said always. Well, you don't think this is the first time. He's just up and gone fishing or something Well, where does he go? Oh, I don't know Somewhere as far away from business as he can get when we lived on the West Coast He'd go up to Lake Mead or Mojave sometimes even came east to Maine New Hampshire So now who knows tell me one thing Kathy anything Johnny Um Did he usually take somebody along with the money strips? Oh Now I get it What? It's that old mr. Foster his partner that you're worried about Now surely you don't think a thing like that could ever happen again. I think like what Kathy? I mean like that partner he had a few years ago when they went on a hunting trip to Canada and some fool with a big Rifle almost killed Michael too The man who was then his partner was killed oh poor Michael He was so upset about he sold out the business and you know it still upsets him if I even so much as mention it to him or anybody else But now about these parties. I'm throwing while he's away Johnny Kathy Kathy you're sure you don't know where they might have gone. I haven't the least idea Johnny But now listen if you're free and like a lot of fun Sorry, but I really have to go now. Oh Wait to Johnny a long long way from me Like ready could use a half a million bucks Living it up the way they obviously did and what a plum that machine tool business would be if that is he didn't have to share it with an old man And what about his former partner? Hunting accident. Oh bet But where to start I took a cab back to my apartment that's item three a buck and a half poured myself a drink pulled the stake out of the refrigerator and then Something Kathy Brady had said clicked in my head. I fairly ran to the telephone and put in a long-distance call of my old pal ham Pratt Johnny good to talk to you Coming out to Lake Moab it for a little fishing. I don't know ham depends on your answer to a question far away Johnny Well, that's a real shot in the dark. Have you seen or heard anything of a guy named Charles Foster? Charles Foster. Yeah, Foster, you know anything All right Johnny your shots in the dark are getting better and luckier all time. What do you mean? Well, the police from over in Kingman and the sheriff and the coroner seemed to think that a guy named Charles Foster has been in some kind of accident or something But Johnny if you ask just hold everything ham. I'll ask you in person. I'm on my way For six dollars for a record-breaking taxi ride to Bradley Field item five $170 and 40 cents for a night flight to Los Angeles item six 2110 for a plane to Las Vegas There I got hold of a rental car the deposit of 50 bucks on it as item seven shortly after noon The next day was at my favorite fishing spot Lake Mojave resort just above Davis Dam in the Colorado River But I had other things in mind as I sat in the little office down by the dock and talked with ham Pratt the manager of the place and The authorities have asked mr. Brady that was his partner You know I've asked that Brady stay around a few days just in case now Let me get the whole thing straight ham go right ahead Johnny all right now Monday That's three days ago Brady and Foster hadn't been getting along too well So each of them went fishing alone right mr. Foster went up toward the big basin That's about 10 12 miles up the lake and Brady said he fished down below near the dam That's right. Nobody has any reason to believe otherwise Nobody except you because of the way young Brady had been behaving Johnny. You see I Well with all the people I meet running a place like this Well, I'd like to think I know a little something about human nature And that's the understatement of the week. Oh, thank you and the wind came up Yeah, all the rest of the fishermen came back in including Mike Brady all but old mr. Foster Soon as we dared after the big blow let up a bit We sent the launch out looking for him, but all we found was his boat. Well beached on the side of the big island You know the one about seven eight miles up over on the west the Nevada side Could have come from almost anywhere and that much wind though Johnny and there's been no sign of Foster's buddy. No, sir All right. All right, excuse me Johnny. It sounds like that's for me sure Yeah, oh Hello sheriff. Yes, I see Okay, sir. Thank you Well Johnny, yeah sheriff says I can tell mr. Brady It's okay that he can pack up and leave if he wants to don't oh Why not just don't tell him man Not yet You have an idea Johnny. Let me make a phone call Then if it works out the way I hope it will You got a boat with a good outboard on it that I can borrow well Sure, you can take my own with the 40 horse on it. That'll be fast enough for whatever it is You're up to that'll be fine, but first let me have that phone My call was to the weather bureau in Vegas and they were able to tell me the exact direction of the big wind of three days before Then alone I took off and hands outboard and drove some eight or nine miles up the eastern the Arizona side of the lake There for the next few hours I carefully explored every wash and cold that was a few degrees north of northeast of the big island on the opposite side the one hand mentioned Luck was with me the lake was smooth as glass the water clean There were a few other boats around in some of the codes fishermen. I hope I didn't disturb them too much with my prowling I Noticed that one boat kind of followed me as though the man and it hoped I might lead him to a hot fishing spot He didn't follow me into the cove They called the rock pile where a lot of huge boulders have fallen from the cliffs above into the deep clear water There I found it The body of a man wedged down between two rocks some 15 feet below the surface One foot apparently was tangled in an anchor line. I quickly stripped out of my shorts dove on over the side Two hours later well after dark. I quietly took the body What was left of it back to the resort? The body of Charles Foster And tall cigarette has tobacco flavor a man can get hold of alpine always tastes which never smokes rough alpine filter cigarettes You don't think we ought to notify the sheriff's office not yet And because we haven't any proof that he was thrown overboard with that anchor tied to his leg Even the bruises on what's left of him don't really prove anything pretty diabolical Johnny If you hadn't been carefully looking for him in those coals I mean at that depth and with usually a ripple on the water I know that dead calm was the only thing that made it possible that had a little luck And if the body had stayed there a while and nobody ever would have found him But now look Johnny if what you told me is true if all that insurance was set up to go to Brady and the business Well now listen you better nail him fact proof I am don't you see without proof that Brady did it and with everybody believing his alibi by being down at this end of the Lake near the dam if only there was some way to make him show his hand something we could do that Yeah, well, I'm a gun my dear believe me Johnny better be a good one Now don't tell me How you cook this yourself, Mr. Pratt hardly I just had it sent over from the cafe and then nothing wrong with it I hope can't you tell by the way I'm making a pig of myself It's fine Mark coffee mr.. Brady, yes, thank you, but um You've aroused my curiosity Paul about what just why you asked me here to have breakfast with you Well, I thought you've been through these past few days. It seemed like the least I could do now. I appreciate it. Oh See you right. Oh, no, thanks. You go right ahead though. Thank you Matter of fact reason for all this food is I was half expecting somebody else to join us. Oh Who? Oh friend of mine who pulled in here yesterday afternoon. His name is uh, oh now, maybe that's him now come in I thought you was gonna have breakfast with us to them. I forgot all about it. Sorry. I'll sit down and have a cup of coffee with us Anyhow, why not? Meet mr.. Mike Brady one of our new customers here. Uh, mr.. Brady. This is mr.. Johnny Harris, oh Harris, that's right Why do you say that way mr.. Brady? Oh, I just Thought there was something familiar about your voice mr.. Harris. I don't believe we've ever met before no no I guess we haven't Coffee Johnny sure Well Johnny you plan to bring in a string of lunkers today. You're gonna try it See mr.. Dower is one of our most avid fishermen mr.. Brady or mr.. Pratt wait a minute Just then you called him. Yeah, I have my I thought I'd take a crack at the rock pile this morning The rock pile did you say? Yeah, that's right mr.. Brady It's a big cove about eight miles up the lake on this side Lots of rocks fell off a cliff and made a kind of rock pile under the water and Haven't you tried that spot yet? Why you know that all my fishing has been down at this end of the lake mr.. Pratt. Oh, yes. Yes. I guess you did tell me that didn't you? It happens to be a fact now I'm sure it is but now look here didn't you introduce this? Gentlemen as mr.. Harris Johnny Harris Oh, well sure the moment ago you as I told you mr.. Brady Johnny is one of our best visiting fishermen mr.. Pratt But Johnny there's no point in your trying the rock pile today Why not him well? I just got word from the boys that the damn they're going to let out a lot of water Some emergency or other down at one of the lakes below us here let out Let out some of the water. Yes, sir. It'll be low tide today. I'm sorry Johnny So mine Well, um How much do they drop the water in this lake mr.. Pratt way? I understand it may go down as much as 20 feet 20 feet What's the matter mr.. Brady? Well, you know nothing nothing at all But now excuse me gentlemen. I there are some things I have to do all right now mr.. Brady I thought you's gone fishing to this morning. Yes. Yes. I am. Thanks very much for the breakfast. Wait a minute, Brady Why don't you go out with me? I'd rather go along. Thank you. Oh, we could at least try the rock pile until the water gets too low up there No, excuse me. I'll see you later on. What's the hurry? I tell you I want to go fishing. Oh No, you don't I Make your part you want to be sure of getting up to that rock pile before I do What are you talking about so that you can move the body of your partner the man you murdered out of that Cove before somebody else sees it what are you talking at it out of there and hide it somewhere else You're crazy because you know it'll be a dead giveaway Oh, you know the bruises on it will show how you murdered him Are you tied the anchor line around his leg to make him listen to get your hands on the insurance half a million dollars worth? Get your hands on the business that he's left behind. Can you deny that Brady? No No, I can't Any more than you can deny who you really are Mr.. Johnny dollar that's right insurance investigated right again too bad It's too bad for you Too bad that you caught up with me Do you see this? Now put away that gun mr.. Brady you see you give me no choice now dollar and I'm sorry mr.. Pratt with the same goes for you. Don't be ridiculous Brady ridiculous or smart Surely you don't think you can get off a shot with that thing before I can draw my own dollar for instance like this Johnny that took a lot of nerve nerve Am I was scared to death? I guess I never qualify for a part-on gun smoke Needless to say Ham's talk about dropping the level of Lake Mojave by a full 20 feet was all a bluff, but it worked Expense account total including the trip on back to Hartford Well, Mr.. Venom, I think I'll just forget that In view of my nice fat commission on that half million dollar policy yours truly Johnny dollar Here is our star to tell you about next week's story next week Somebody takes a crack at the perfect crime and with pretty exciting results join us. Won't you yours truly? Johnny dollar Johnny dollar is written by Jack Johnstone produced and directed by Bruno Zerato, Jr. musical supervision by Ethel Huber The role of Johnny dollar was played by Mandel Kramer Also hit in our cast with Santa Sortega as Frederick Benham Terry keen as Kathy for not Grant is Brady Bob Brighton as Ham Crab Be sure to join us next week same time same station for another exciting story of yours truly Johnny dollar Art Hanna speaking Hi, this is Arthur Godfrey, and I'll be back on Monday with tales like this one On Monday's Arthur Godfrey time with Richard Hayes Dick Hyman and the orchestra and yours truly John Philip Sousa That's right Arthur Godfrey every weekday on these stations of the CBS radio network