 Inner Sanctum Mysteries Hmm, friend? This is your host of the Inner Sanctum. Welcome through the squeaking door. Well, I hope you've spent a nice quiet week building up your nervous systems. You're going to need plenty of red corpuscles to digest tonight's gory little dish. Hmm? But then, oh, you'd like to have a recipe. To a small quantity of apprehension, add a pinch of dismay, and cook on a slow fire, adding bread and panic in the appropriate quantity, then throw in a dose of terror and a whiff of horror, and make it boil, brother. Make it boil. Now, here's a personal question. How would you like to go on a honeymoon? Well, you're going on one, whether you like it or not, because tonight's story is called Till Death Do Us Part. It's an original radio play by Amel Tepperman, and our stars tonight are Anne Shepard and Larry Hain. Just look at them. Joe and Nancy Page married hardly five hours and parked at the side of the road by the bank of the old mill stream and whispering sweet nothings to each other, living in a fool's paradise. Oh, gee, Nancy, it's wonderful to be married to you. Oh, darling. Gosh, if the other clerks at Scott's department store could see us now. I don't want anybody to see us. I just want to be alone with you, Joe, for the rest of my life. Gosh, maybe I hope you don't mind spending a honeymoon in a tourist cabin instead of a swanky hotel. Joe, I love it this way. The stream rushing past, the moonlight shining on the bridge, and the wards all around. Joe, look, there's another car. They're parking on the bridge. Uh-huh. Well, he's turning his headlights out, too. You think they've got privacy, because they can't see us parked here. Joe, look, that couple is getting out of the car. Yeah, we're walking the bridge, I guess. I wonder if this is their wedding night, too. Oh, that's a gorgeous couple. Joe. What? A couple. They're acting very strange. They're having an argument. Joe, look what he just took out of his pocket. Holy mackerel, a gun. He's pointing the gun at her. He shot her in the face. Holy mackerel. It can't be. It must be a gag of some kind. You choose to hold the flashes when he fired the gun. And see how still she lies? Marty crumbled at his feet. Yeah, he's picking her up. I bet he's going to throw her in the... Joe, don't let him out! Nancy, you pushed my hand down on the horn, he sees us. He's coming across the bridge. Heading for us. What? He knows we're witness to murder. He's got to kill us, too. Quick, start the car. Stay here before I can turn the car around. Then what do we do? We'll duck into the woods. Quick, let's run. My high heels, I can't run, sir. You've got to. Here's one of these bushes. Got behind this tree. Joe, he has the gun. He means to kill us. To this tree. He knows we're here. Nancy, we've got to run for our lives. Here, take my hand. Come on. Run, Nancy. Can't go much farther. We can't stop. He's close behind us. Is he gaining on us? No, nobody's still after us. Let's stop. No, no. Not yet. I saw a headlight up ahead. Maybe there's a road. But can only make it. Joe, I'm through. I can't go anymore. Nancy, look. Through the trees. The road. Come on, one last sprint. Here's the road. I never thought we'd make it. Is he still after us? Coming through the woods? I don't know. We'll stop the first car that comes along. Oh, now take it easy, baby. I was just thinking of that poor girl. Lying dead on the bridge. Oh, wedding night tour. Here comes the car. I'll stop it. I'm stopping. He went right by. Joe. What? I think I hear something behind us. The woods. Oh, it's only the wind in the trees. I suppose he should suddenly stop. Step out of these woods with his gun. Maybe he gave up. Maybe he went back to take care of that body. Our car is there. With our marriage license in the glove compartment and the receipt Mrs. Swenson gave us for the cabin. Yeah. He'll know all about us. Who we are, where to find us. And we don't know a thing about him except his face. The face of a murderer. Come on, Nancy. I think we better start walking. Let's go to the cabin and phone the police. How much further, Joe? Just around the bend. I'd like to lie down and sleep right here on the road. Find a way to spend a wedding night. Darling, look. We're there. Swenson's cabin. See, they're all dark. Everybody's asleep. We'll wake up Mrs. Swenson. Use the phone. Joe. What's the matter? A brand of our cabin. What? Hey. That's our car. The murderer must have come here by another rope to wait for us. I don't see anybody around. Maybe he's in the car. Wait here, I'll go and see. No, no, Joe, Joe, you can't. No, don't worry. We both saw his face. He's got to kill us both. Don't you see, baby, if I go over there alone he won't choke till he knows where you are. But, Joe, you... Take it easy, will you? You stay back here in the shadows. It'll be all right. The car's empty. Maybe he's hiding somewhere close by. No, no, he must have skipped out. But why did he bring our car back? Well, he wanted to get away from the bridge. I thought you see, he must have dumped that girl's body in the river and then he took our car away. No trace. Joe, I'm scared. Maybe he's hiding inside the cabin waiting for us. No, he'd be a sap. One shot would wake up all the people in the other cabins, Mrs. Swenson, too. You know, he'd never get away with it. Come on, we'll go in our cabin and get cleaned up and we'll use the phone. The switch is right here. There. See? There's nobody hiding. What? What is it? Oh. Over there. On the bed. What? That girl's body. With her face shot away. Just like we saw her on the bridge. Imagine coming back to your cabin on your wedding night and finding a corpse on your bed. A beautiful corpse who'd had her face lifted without going to a beauty parlor. Don't worry, before the night's over, the murderer may have his face lifted, too, by a rope around his neck. Now let's get back to that cabin. See how Joe and Nancy are getting along with their uninvited visitor. The corpse in their cabin. Yes, it's one of those times when two's company is a shroud. I wonder what they're going to do with that, don't you? Now listen, Nancy, we have to take this over. We're in the jam. For the love of Pete, Nancy, this is no time to faint. Oh, darling, it's awful. Her face shot away. Don't look at her. Here, here, sit down. Joe, what are we doing? I don't know. I don't know. We have to think of our wedding night to have a thing like this happen. Why did he leave her here? To put us in a spot. The cops will never believe our story. Now they'll think we killed her. We? But Joe, we never saw her before in our lives. Nancy, we've got to get rid of her. What? Joe, we've got to take her back. Back to the bridge and dump her right back on the murderer. Oh, no, no. It's the only thing we can do. Suppose the cops come here and find her. They'll grill us for hours. They'll hold us for the end quest. It might take a week, two weeks. A fine way to spend a honeymoon in jail. Oh, I never thought of that. Sure, we've got to do it. We've got to take her back. But that means we have to lift her up and carry her. I'll carry her, baby. But you'll have to help. Oh, no, I couldn't. You've got to, honey. What must I do? No, look. You go out and get the back door of the car open, and I'll bring her out. Joe, they'll find us here with the bodies. Quick. Throw the blanket over her. I'll see who it is. No, I can't go near her. Do as I say, quick. Give me a minute. Who is it? It's I, Mrs. Swenson. Mrs. Swenson, have you got her covered up? The blanket, it's too short. It's just a minute, Mrs. Swenson. Her feet are sticking out. Get those clothes out of the police. Throw them on top of her. That's the best I can do. All right, sit on a bed in front of her feet. Please, hurry, Mr. Page. Coming, Mrs. Swenson. Everything okay, Nancy? Yes, but I feel faint. Oh, bite your lip. Do anything but don't faint now. Good evening, Mrs. Swenson. Good evening, Mr. Page. I hope I'm not intruding. I saw your light, so I knew you weren't asleep yet. We were just going to sleep. What were we, Nancy? Yes, yes. I should have thought you'd be asleep long ago. See, I brought you a jug of my own homemade apple cider. I'll put it right here in some glasses, too. Oh, thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Swenson. That's awfully nice of you. Oh, not at all. It's so nice to have a honeymoon couple. I wanted to do it earlier, but my heart was bothering me. I have a bad heart, you know. Oh, I'm terribly sorry to hear that, Mrs. Swenson. Well, thank you. Thank you for everything. Aren't you going to try my cider? I thought you'd like to drink a toast. Well, we're not very thirsty right now, Mrs. Swenson. Are we, are we, Nancy? No, no, no. Oh, no. Of course not. Well, now I'll run right along and leave you both strictly alone. Yes. Well, good night, Mrs. Swenson, and thanks again. Good night, Mrs. Swenson. You poor dear, you look all tuckered out sitting there on the bed. I bet you don't even know how to make up a bed. Here, I'll make it up for you. Oh, no, no. Well, it's the least I can do. Now, now you just sit over here on the chair. No, please don't. Oh, why? Well, she means, she means please don't bother. Well, it's no bother at all. Oh, now look at all those clothes all thrown around. Oh, what, what's this? We can explain everything, Mrs. Swenson. Shut! She's been shot in the face. Murderer! Please, Mrs. Swenson, it's not what you think. Murderer! No, no. You, you know, Honeymoon, it's your murder. No, we, stop that. Let me go. Let me go. Shut up. Let me go. Stop that. No. I'm just trying to stop a yelling. Please, Mrs. Swenson, stop it. What happened? I, I don't know. He just went limping. He slid down on the floor. Mrs. Swenson. Mrs. Swenson, are you all right? Mrs. Joe. What, what is it? She, she's dead. She's killed? Mother's hurt. I'm a murderer. Me. Joe Page. A killer. We started out on a Honeymoon and now, now I'm a murderer. I'm a murderer, isn't that a laugh? Joe! It's kind of dizzy for a second. Joe, please. Please darling, you look like a ghost. You're trembling. Nancy, what are we going to do? Are, are, are you sure she's dead? Yeah, yeah. Look at her face. Sure she's dead. And that one on the bed. We're in a jam, Nancy. In a jam. Darling, I, I wish I were dead too. They'll hold us for murder, Nancy. It was an accident. You didn't mean to kill Mrs. Swinton. Yeah, but how we ever proved we didn't kill the other one too. We'll never be able to find that guy with the black roads or the cops will pin the rap on us. Don't take me out of here. I can't stand it. Her on the bed. Mrs. Swinton on the floor. Let's go way far away. You mean run away? Yes. Anything but let's not stay here. I won't go to jail. I won't take me away. Yeah, yeah, sure. Sure we'll get out. We'll keep going. Nobody knows our names. They can't trace us. No. Come on. Get the clothes packed. I can't close this. I'll close it. You get the other one packed. Don't forget anything. Look under the bed. Yeah. Be sure we don't leave a single thing behind. No, we mustn't, mustn't leave anything behind. Everything's packed, Joe. Hurry now. Hurry. Yeah, all right. I'll take the bags. Yeah. Just snap the catch. We'll lock the door. Hey. What? What's wrong? I just thought of fingerprints all over the place. What do we do? We have to wipe them off. Off everything. Grab a towel. We'll wipe everything in sight. Wipe everything, Joe. I thank you. Uh-huh. Uh, the bedstead. Yeah. Uh, the bathroom. Yeah. Uh, the door knobs, dresses. Yeah. Yeah. And the water picture. Yes. Well, I guess that's all. Let's go. Joe, cider jug. We didn't wipe the cider jug. Well, we didn't touch it. I'll wipe it anyway. Okay. Snap it up, will you? Okay. All right. Come on. I'll feel better in the car out on the road. I think we've got anything. I don't know. I can't think. I'm numb all over. Oh, darling. Oh, Mac, oh Nancy, I'm a murderer. A killer running away. Oh, we shouldn't have done it. We shouldn't have run away. Joe, it's not as if you killed her on purpose. It was an accident. Nancy, do you realize you're married to a murderer? No. No, it wasn't murder. It was so easy. So easy to kill. I never thought it could be so easy. All I did was to hold my hand over her face. Joe, Joe, please. What time is it? It's almost two o'clock. We've been driving for an hour. Then it's a good... Yeah? I think there are some in the glove compartment. Yeah, I'll get them. Joe. What? A marriage life. It's gone. What? You sure? It's gone, Joe. It was right here. The murderer. He took it. Why? Why would he take our marriage life? I don't know. I can't think straight anymore. Joe. He knows our names. He knows everything about us. Darling, there's no use running away. He knows who we are. We'll always be at his mercy. I feel all in. I can't drive anymore. I've got a rest, I think. Pull up at the side of the road. Look, see? I'll up ahead a gas station close for the night. We'll park there. Yeah. Yeah. I wish I could sleep for a hundred years. My poor Joe. Here, put your head on my shoulder. First night of our honeymoon. Maybe the last. Joe. Joe, it's six o'clock. Daylight. Yeah. Gosh, I slept all through the night. I guess I fell asleep, too. Oh, it's chilly. Yeah. We should have closed the windows. Honey, you look pretty with your hair messed up. Gosh, your hands are cold. Here, let me warm them. This is our first morning together. Yeah. Yeah. First morning together. But this isn't the way I used to dream about it. Oh, baby, how'd we ever get in a mess like this? Well, back where we were last night in the same jam, nothing's changed. Those two corpses still in the cabin. What do we do? Well, let's not think about it for a while yet. Let's go find a place for breakfast. Our first breakfast together. After that, we'll go back to thinking about it. But at least let's have those few minutes of sort of stay of execution. Yeah. Yeah, baby, okay. Look, there's a place, a diner. Yeah, but I haven't got much appetite. Well, we both need something hot. You think there's an alarm out for us yet? Let's not think about it. No other customers on the side, please. Good morning. You've been traveling all night? Yeah, all night. Some scrambled eggs, please. Right. That'll take a few minutes. That's all right. We'll wait. Well, I'll turn the radio up for you. Go. Yeah, I hear you. A heart attack. A heart attack and I didn't kill her. He didn't say anything about the other body. Why didn't you mention the other body? It's a trap, honey. Get it? They're keeping mum about the girl's body. No, no, no, Joe, I don't think so. Well, what else could it be? We left two bodies there, didn't we? Darling, stop the car, please. Maybe the real murderer was waiting close by all the time. Maybe after we left, he went in and took the girl's body away. I don't like it. I want to get away from here far away. Joe, Joe, wait. Look, darling, don't you realize you're not a murderer? You didn't kill Mrs. Twins, and there was a heart attack. That's what they say. I say it's a trap. Let's get moving. Come on. No, it's too late. Look. State troopers. Yeah, he's coming right over here. Sure, he's got this license number. Well, baby, I guess our honeymoon's over. Are you, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Page? Yeah, yeah. You're Joe Page? Yeah, that's right. You, lady, you're Nancy Page? Yes. Well, then, this belongs to you. Well, what is it? Take it. How did you like it? What? Where'd you get it? One of our men happened to be cruising down by the old mill stream last night. Saw a fella get out of a roaster on the bridge carrying a girl's body. Fella dumped the girl over the rail, and our man went after him. They had a gunfight, and the fella got a slug through the heart. When we went through his car, we found this. On the back of it, you notice he wrote your license number. Then you got the murder? Sure did. But we didn't recover the body of the girl. It was carried downstream. It may take several days to find it. Then we're not wanted for anything? Well, your other folks were in Mrs. Swenson's cabin last night. We figure you're left in a hurry. Kind of embarrassing to have a thing like that happen on your honeymoon, huh? Can't blame you. Oh, we're free to go on our honeymoon. Just come down to the barracks and sign a statement, and then you can be on your way. Uh, uh, what would you mind, officer? Just a few minutes. We want to go back in the diner for our honeymoon breakfast. Say, what's going on here? Two measly murders. And a happy ending. I was hoping Joe and Nancy would end up in a cell with a warden asking them what they wanted for their last meal. What do I get instead? A wedding breakfast. Ah, the crowd down at the morgue are going to laugh at me for this. It won't be their last laugh, either. No, they had that already. Yes, I have a feeling that somebody's been tampering with tonight's story. I'm an expert on rocks. You see, I'm a cat, and my favorite place to sleep is on a scatter rug. That's why they call me Ruggie. Now, one place you don't want to put a scatter rug is at the top or bottom of the stairs. If you slip on a rug on your way up or down, you can fall and go, Wow! So, take it from me. Keep those rugs away from the stairs in your quarters, and put them where cats like me can sleep in perfect peace. And now a parting word of advice, friends. Our solution for eliminating crime. The perfect way to prevent any murderer from committing murder is to commit the murderer before he commits the murder. Oh, by the way, this month's inner sanctum mystery novel is The Whistling Leg by Roman McDougald. And now it's time to close the squeaking door. Good night. Pleasant dream.