 Stand by for crime Hi Chuck Morgan again You know sometimes a newsman has a dry spell a series of days in which you can't seem to latch on to anything of feature proportions Well, I had one of those dry spells Which is why when I arrived at my office the other morning and found my blonde secretary Carol Curtis waiting for me with an Urgent message from a man in a hospital. I was ready to listen. What's it all about glamour bus? Why does he want to see me? He didn't say he told me his name was Tom Edwards. He's in the home of Mercy Hospital He said if you'd come to see him, he'd give you a story that would make your audience's scalps creep. Oh sounds gruesome Let's go over there Chuck. We can't lose anything One more broadcast like your 11 o'clock show last night. You may not have an audience period. Oh cracks glamour bus Get on your bonnet. We'll see what's on gruesome Tom's mind The home of Mercy Hospital is a huge pile of gray stones Stacked up on a hill overlooking the great sprawling city of Los Angeles Following directions glamour bus and I moved through a maze of corridors Anti rooms waiting rooms and stairways and finally wound up at room 1616 a nurse admitted us and then she departed Tom Edwards lay on a bed swathed and bandages with only his eyes and mouth visible your Chuck Morgan KOP newscast. Yes, that's right. This is my secretary miss Curtis. Hello He seemed to be in pretty bad shape. Mr. Edwards have an accident. No No, it wasn't an accident Mr. Morgan, if I tell you what happened to me, will you promise to use it on one of your broadcasts? Well, I don't know I can't tell at this point how much news value your story might have it has news value plenty If you use it, mr. Morgan, you'll be doing a great many people of favor Fools like myself You mentioned over the phone that the story would make people who listen to it have creepy scalps That sounds kind of gruesome. It's more than gruesome. This Curtis. It's horrible Horrible, I guess you'd better let us in on a mr. Edwards so we can begin adding up the score And I have your promise and no, I'm sorry, but I can't do that until I know the facts Just why are you so anxious to have Chuck's promise that he'll use the story instead with because if he doesn't And everything will be for nothing This what do you mean by that because within 24 hours after you broadcast the story I'm going to be murdered This smell like a story of future proportions. All right, but on the other hand to put me on a spot If what time Edward said were true if he actually were murdered upon the broadcast of his story That would make me a party to the crime, wouldn't it? On the other hand if I didn't hear the story, how could I know what chance it was of his being murdered? And if I didn't promise to use the story, I wouldn't hear it Quite a merry-go-round Then I have an idea With a pretty broad statement mr. Edwards, what makes you think you'll be murdered believe me mr. Morgan It's true. I can't tell you how I know unless you promise, but if he promises and you're murdered That'll be Chuck's fault. He didn't worry about that. I Want to die now wait, that's not the statement of a rational man mr. Edwards. Oh, yes, I'm rational All right, don't you worry about that then you must have a very good reason for wanting to die. I have to in fact First I'll have accomplished my purpose of exposing this this terrible thing that's happening and second My wife can have her operation your wife is almost hurt. It's horrible day and night. She suffers excruciating pain There's no relief. She must have the operation. She simply must and the insurance money your wife will collect if you're Murdered will pay for the operation. Yes, that's right. It seems to me that there are agencies and clinics That would be glad to not in this case miss Curtis They owe me will have to be sent back east. They're only one or two specialists in the country who can perform the operation Oh, I've investigated everything. I'll tell you what mr. Edwards. I can't give you my word I'll use your story, but I can't promise you. I won't use it unless I'm reasonably sure you won't be murdered You can't be sure. I know those men. There's nothing no form of fengishness that they're not capable of And I'm afraid it's no dice Chuck there must be something I'm afraid not clever, but Mr. Edwards, don't lose this chance. You know Chuck and what he's done about rackets before Otherwise you wouldn't have sent for him Tell him your story. He'll find an answer to your problem. He always don't wait a minute. Put your faith in the mr. Edwards If this racket is as bad as you say it is you're not being fair if you can stop it and don't I'm I don't know Naomi will take care of your wife. I can promise you that She'll have her operation. Oh, yes, but the money I'm not if it's only money that's standing in the way. I'll get it myself What difference does it make where I'll get it if Pappy Mansfield knew the circumstances. He'd put it up Well, mr. Edwards If you can promise me that my wife I can and I already have Now tell us the story Very well. I will My wife's illness came on about a year ago We had a few dollars saved but her condition became increasingly worse and it wasn't long before the reserve was gone So I began to borrow from every source. I knew and then one day came the blow We were told that she must have the operation It was the next night when I came home to find Naomi worse than ever Naomi is that you Tom? Oh Naomi darling, I couldn't see in the darkness. I'll turn on the light here We are Naomi It's worse, isn't it Tom? It's worse Please don't worry I'm sure I'll be better soon. Yes, Naomi. You will be better. You're going to have your operation Oh, but Tom the money darling, listen to me I had lunch today with a mr. Bassett mr. Ray Bassett He sat at my table in the cafeteria and we fell into conversation He must have guessed that I was in trouble by my attitude and before I knew it I told him the whole story and what do you think? He said he knew a way I could get the money and if I'd come to his office tomorrow He'd tell me about it your way of getting money But Tom darling, there's no way of getting money without working for that's just the idea He has something I can do to earn the money. Well naturally. I expect to have to work It's strange. He didn't mention what it was while you were having lunch How does he know that it's the type of work you can do with such a large sum that we need now darling Don't you worry about a thing this mr. Bassett's a nice chap He was very sympathetic and understanding and we should be grateful for his interest, of course We are grateful Tom You don't think he wants you to do something dishonest dishonest. Oh, well, of course not now You just stopped fretting. Let me handle this will you? I haven't a point of mr. Bassett tomorrow morning at 9 o'clock and after that you're gonna have your operation and be well and happy again I promise you Mr. Edwards come in Morning mr. Bassett. Yes. I'm a little bit early not at all. I can understand your eagerness perfectly I want you to meet dr. Not Alexander dr. Alexander this Tom Edwards man. I was telling you Oh, how do you know doctor? Well, then Dr. Alexander is not a specialist mr. Edwards. I'm sorry He's a general practitioner. However because of his knowledge of certain types of them now diseases I think he might prove valuable to you as if he were a specialist in the trouble which has afflicted your wife Oh, well, that sounds encouraging. Yeah, now then as I mentioned yesterday There are ways of obtaining large sums of money with very little effort, but we must close our eyes to certain Principles. Oh, well, I don't believe I understand mr. Edwards There are many large insurance companies in this city that have unlimited funds ready to be paid out to people making claims against Yes, but I have no claim you will have mr. Edwards if you're as smart and as desperate as I think you are Now listen closely tomorrow evening at 545 an automobile driven by a wealthy mining engineer will turn the corner of Western Avenue On the Hollywood Boulevard the car will be going slowly because of the traffic You'll step down from the curb and allow the car to hit you knocking it down What? Why this is incredible. Don't worry mr. Edwards will take care of everything You'll not be seriously hurt, but you'll pretend to be Dr. Alexander being a physician has the authority to have you removed in our cars So no one will know the extent of your injuries I'm an attorney and I'll collect from the insurance company on the policy which you'll take out today You'll be given half that amount. Well, I just can't believe it. It was dishonest perhaps a little bit The insurance company has unlimited funds. They expect to pay such claims. Why not to you? Oh, but I I we're not compelling you to do this mr. Edwards. You said you were desperate He said your wife had died unless she had her operation You wanted to die, mr. Oh, no, no, of course not but I can take my advice and cooperate There's absolutely no risk where you can even close your eyes if you want to make the accident real. Well, I don't know I Don't know I'm very well mr. Edwards. I'm sorry I understood that you wanted your wife to be well and happy again No, no, wait a minute well Very well, I'll do it. Well, that was a mistake making yourself a party to the crime. Yes. Yes, I know Absolutely give you an idea how desperate I was mr. Morgan I've never done a criminal thing in my life and of course that's the reason you couldn't go to the police Yes, that's the reason I couldn't go to the police But surely a slight bump by an automobile didn't bang you up the way you are now Oh, no, no, the accident was practically nothing the fender of the car hit me I fell down a crowd gathered And this Nard Alexander arrived and announced he was a doctor would take me to his office, which was nearby Some men carried me to a car One of the men was Ray Bassett The next thing I knew I was being driven away from the city up into the hills But we came to an abandoned shack. I was ordered out of the car All right, Edward sit over there now look here mr. Bassett I want to know what this is all about My understanding was that I was to pretend to be seriously hurt and that I'd be driven to dr. Alexander's office No kidding And which you're a bigger fool than I thought and you actually think we could collect a pilot dough for just a little Bump on the seat of your pants, but you said I said a lot of things That doc hand me that rubber hole right well What are you gonna do? Can't you guess mr. Edwards? You're gonna fix you up so it'll look like you had a real accident that policy you bought is really gonna pay off What? No, oh no, you can't wait. Well, you must shut up Now doc you got your bag instruments right here Good, and I'll do my job first then you can go to work Okay, punk you asked for it Horrible yes, it was horrible. Miss Curtis. I Lost consciousness And I came to I was bandaged as you see me now and then an ambulance being driven to this hospital I heard dr. Alexander tell the clerk that he had treated me at his office But that my case was much more serious than he had at first believed and I feel that a facet Dr. Alexander learned that you've told your story to anyone. They'll murder you they were mr. Morgan They promised me they would Chuck this is awful. Isn't there something that you can do? And I guess there's only one thing for me to do them up. Oh, what's that? I just have to get myself knocked down by an automobile so I can get to know mr. Bassett and dr. Alexander better Now the conclusion of stand by for crime Well, that wasn't going to be as easy as all that Tom Edwards give us a good description of Bassett and Alexander in the address of the office where he'd been interviewed Glamorn person I went down there, but of course the office had been just up front and was now deserted So as usual we went back to KOP and kicked the thing around with my boss, Papi Mansfield It's a good yarn. All right Chuck, but if you use it, you'll be endangering the life of this Tom Edwards Yeah, I know Papi That's why I'm not going to use it nothing till I get those two sadists behind bars I'm just how do you expect to do that? Well, Chuck's got an idea of setting himself up as a guinea pig Papi letting himself be knocked down by an automobile Oh, and just what do you expect to prove with that Chuckie boy? I don't know but before I start proving anything I've got to locate the two guys who sucked Edwards in on this game after that I'll take it from there. Well, you've got a fat chance of finding them. I don't know. I've located missing persons before How about the insurance company that's old Tom Edwards the accident policy? That's no good grammar plus He took out the policy himself and he's his own beneficiary when he collects Bassett and Alexander will force him to turn the money over to Them or they'll tell the police he got it under false pretenses. How low can you get? I Think we've got to make a different approach. I think that approach should begin with Mrs. Tom Edwards But on your shoes glamour first, let's go calling So glamour first banana shoes and we weren't calling we found the Edwards home out in the valley and modest little stucco house with Well-kept lawn and then lived in look about the place Mrs. Edwards a pale thin woman was sick. All right She apparently hadn't been told of the seriousness of her husband's injuries her chief worry was because she hadn't heard from them Oh, I'm so glad you've come Hospital Millie told me about Tom. I'm too weak to go in to see him. Tell me how badly hurt Oh, he'll be all right. Mrs. Edwards. Now, don't you worry. We talked to him this morning He's getting along fine. You wouldn't lie to me because I'm not well. Of course not Mrs. Edwards Tom's doing splendidly. He sent his love and asked us to tell you not to worry. Well, I'm sorry I neglected to ask your names. It was rude of me, but I was so anxious to hear about Tom Are your friends of his from the store? Yes. Yes. We're friends of his my name's Morgan. This is miss Curtis How do you do Tom told us about his troubles. Mrs. Edwards. We're going to try and help him Tell me did he ever mention a mr. Bassett to you only once he said he had an appointment with mr. Bassett But you never told me the result of it I guess it didn't turn out as well as he'd hoped and before meeting with mr. Bassett He borrowed money from as many sources as he could I suppose you had savings and maybe a few government bonds and of course some life insurance. Yes, that's right We borrowed on them all then Tom made some personal loans though. I urged him not to Did he try to borrow money anywhere else a loan company or maybe a pawn shop? No, no, not that I can think of Oh, wait a minute. He did mention one place. I think it was called the quick service loan company Yes, that was it the quick service loan, but he didn't borrow from them. No, why not? Well, their rate of interest was so high higher than the law allowed Tom said he decided to use their service only as a very last resort I see. Well, I think that's the information we want. Mrs. Edwards. Thank you so much But Chuck, how could the fact that mr. Edwards talked to the quick service loan company mean anything? No, it's glamorous. Just a hunch probably won't mean a thing. But we'll never know until we check will we come on Let's go And second thought I told glamorous to get back to the station and tell Papi the story I hiked down to the quick service loan company A crummy office and a crummy district I went inside and told the seedy looking character behind the desk that my name was Al Berquist and I was in desperate need of funds He offered me a loan and a rate of interest that made me wonder why the legal loan companies hadn't been put out of business long ago I told him his interest was too high. He said okay forget it But if I'd be at a certain beer joint on Flagstreet at seven o'clock that night a man might come in and tell me a story That would make interesting listening So after I left the quick loan service I called grandma push thought her to tell Papi to have a sub do my seven o'clock broadcast Then I drove down to the beer joint on Flagstreet Slid into a corner booth at seven o'clock sharp the man who answered Tom Edwards description of Ray Bassett Slid in opposite me. He spread out a napkin and put his hand under it and said There's a gun under this napkin Morgan try anything funny and you get it. Hey, wait a minute. You've got me wrong I haven't any money. I want to borrow some. Yeah, sure My name is Chuck Morgan ain't it? No, no, it's Al Berquist. I've been mistaken for Chuck Morgan before no kid Morgan you're even dumb as my thought now. Let's cut the double talk Who told you about me a CD-looking character at the quick service loan, huh? And who told you about him why everyone knows a quick service loan It's a poor man's friend plenty of money to land out of the mere 25% interest. You're asking for it chump One more chance. Where did you get the dope? What dope dope? Okay smart guy, you know, what's gonna happen to you? How many guesses do I have and I'd like to look See your face. I'm gonna have a doctor friend of mine change it. Well, I'm pleased a lot of people Not what I got in mind won't I'm gonna fix you up So every time you look into the mirror you wish you'd never messed around with Ray Bassett. So you are a bastard Well, we're getting someplace. We'll make no difference now if you do know who I am. Oh No You made a deal with the quick service loan to play games. You're ain't gonna stick your chin out by blabbering You've got me Bassett. Let's go call on your doctor friend. Yeah, let's do that Let's do it right now up when you're freaking out the back door sucker I thought a whole lot less confident than I sounded maybe my hunch was cock-eyed If it was glamour purse wasn't going to be able to wreck you guys me anymore, and I wonder how she'd like that Well, we went out the back door of the joint down an alley and out into the street where I'd parked my Jalopy And we started for the Hollywood Hills This was a route described by Tom Edwards. So I guess we were going to follow the same pattern We left the pavement hit a dirt road and climbed a steep incline At the top was hung around a curve and I saw the abandoned shack off in the bushes All right, get out keep your hands in sight sure sure anything to blight Hey, but it take a look at yourself in that mirror over there Morgan It'll be your last look at anything familiar about your mug. Thanks Mind if I straighten my tie was a birthday present for my girl. Hey doc doc And a man came in carrying a physician's black bag He had cold and human eyes and a perfectly immobile face. Get out your tools doc. I got a job for you Get out your tools. I said But doc didn't speak he just stood there staring at Bassett with his fish like eyes Bassett wasn't in any mood to be stared at with our dialogue Obviously, he was top guy in this outfit and he wasn't taking silence for an answer when he gave an order look doc I said get out your tools. I'm gonna do a job on wise guy here And just because we ain't collecting no insurance money for it don't make no difference Now get out your tools and go to work Which was what I'd been waiting to hear and so had a few other people the door behind doc Anderson open and bill makes a police headquarters stood there bill had a gun in his hand The door that led to the other side open and happy man still stepped inside Papi also had a gun. Mr. Bassett was surprised. Maybe I should say shocked It looks around in a day sort of way not getting it until Papi said all right Bassett We've heard all we wanted to hear get your hands up Of course Bassett didn't obey the order he realized he'd be a cooked gander if he did but I'd rather expect of this attitude So I was ready Well my hunch paid off and every time I think about what would have happened if it hadn't paid off I'd break out in a cold sweat Bill Megs took doc and Ray Bassett off in one of the squad cars that was parked up the road a ways and Papi Carol of course was standing by to see that everything went off, right and I drove down to Hollywood and dropped in at the Vine Street Derby for a late dinner Chuck some of these days you're going to get hung up on one of your bright ideas Then where will you be now don't answer that? But what do you think would happen if mr. Bassett had taken you somewhere else besides that shack? Oh, don't answer that one either Chuckie boy. I hate to think about it It's a funny thing, but I'm satisfied with your looks as they are Well, you never were very particular Carol now Chuck all I want to know is how did you locate Bassett so easily? Yeah, tell us about that. I can speak that oh sure sure sure for sure boy start talking any time Oh George, could we have the menu, please? I think I'll have another beer before ordering. Well, then I will too How about you Chuck? No He's mad pappy. Hmm. I guess we better let him talk. Yeah, I guess so. All right Chuck start bragging I'm not bragging. You asked a question. I have the answer. Do you want to hear it or don't you? Oh Chuck, we were only kidding We're dying to hear the answer. Oh go ahead and tell us all right The only people who knew about tom edwards troubles with those he borrowed money from check Well government bonds were out his personal friends were out So were the insurance companies? That's it sure The only other people who knew about mr. Edwards troubles were the quick service loan people Why sure it wasn't any accident that rave basset sat down at edwards's table in the cafeteria that day He and the quick service loan people were in coats. Why sure It's as plain as the nose on your face whose face look am I telling this story or are you You are a chucky boy. Did we tell you what we were going to do for mrs. Edwards so she could have her operation? No Tell him pappy. Yeah, tell me pappy. This isn't my night for talking. I don't get sore chuck Or is your sense of humor? Where's my now? Listen when you use this story tomorrow You're merely going to mention that mrs. Edwards still needs the money for operation and see what happens It'll work chuck You broke up this racket and now you're asking for contributions to help the edwards Oh, I bet you'll get thousands. Yeah, what if I don't well then pappy's going to put up the money Oh, he is is he? What do you mean her five thousand bucks is a lot of yes, sure sure try to get it For heaven's sake. You don't seem to realize. Oh, yes, I do, but you don't seem to realize All right