 Johnny dollar hi Johnny. This is Charlie Charlie Warren right worldwide mutual out in LA none other Charlie You're a bum. I don't even know you know what brought that off that last case you headed me out there back in December Take it easy pal. Why not come out here to nice warm sunny southern, California Johnny and get away from all that freezing New England Whether you said we're sure I did so where did I end up hunting for that killer? 7,000 feet up in the mountains where I nearly froze my ears off I am only just beginning to fall out. So I say it again Charlie. You are a bum Okay, okay, then Johnny come on back here, and I'll make it up to you. How another assignment This time right out in the middle of the Mojave Desert. Yeah matter of fact It's over near an old stamping ground of yours Lake Mojave Lake Mojave say no more I'll pack a razor a clean shirt all the fishing tackle. I can find and be on my way and 38 pistol maybe you just telephone hamprad over at Lake Mojave resort to have a room for me and What was that last crack you slipped in there bring along a what? Just kidding is all Johnny. Oh, yeah What kind of an assignment Charlie meet you here at LA International give it a whole story Yeah, I think you'd better CBS 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 account submitted by a special investigator Johnny dollar to worldwide mutual insurance company Los Angeles office Following is an account of expenses incurred during my investigation of The mixed blessing matter Expense account item one 199 27 for a cab to Bradley field a plane to New York then a jet to Los Angeles Thanks to good connections. It was only about 6 p.m. Pacific time when I arrived at LA International Airport True to his word Charlie Warren was there and waiting after helping me load my luggage Including the fishing tackle into a rented rental car. He led me up to the flight deck restaurant and we ordered cocktail Your health Johnny may we never grow old while drink to that I can use this I'm the little man who's had a busy busy day. So let's eat drink and be married Johnny. Oh tomorrow. We may die What or is this big dinner bit just so that you can say the condemned man ate a hearty meal What another son are you? Oh, you mean that crack I made about being sure to bring along. Yeah, it's honest engine Johnny I was only kidding about you were honest engine. Oh, you said that but it got you curious enough to come out here Didn't it well thought of a chance to break up a long hard-winter with a little warm water fishing is what got me out here Nothing else, but So if you want to make up for the freezing I took on your company's behalf last time and keep me happy Johnny I told you I'd make up for that and I will I telephoned your friend hampratt and told him you'd arrive there sometime late tonight He promised to have not only a comfortable motel unit for you But a boat and 75 horse outboard complete with electric starter Electromagnetic drive a tank full of gas and a bucket of live bait sounds great It works for as soon as you can get yourself out on the lake and that's really my boy We'll be at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning Johnny just telling Isn't the fishing over there supposed to be a lot better in the late afternoon What is that supposed to mean? How's about another drink before we order the food huh Charlie another the same Johnny, okay? All right Charlie. Let's have it Worth it. I don't know what you mean the reason I am not supposed to go fishing tomorrow in spite of all your sweet talk Did I say that but didn't you or I meant to not tomorrow morning is all why not? well There's just one little thing maybe you ought to sort of take care of first one little thing Yeah, like arson or murder burglary embezzlement one little thing like that. Oh, sir. What then? We'll just pick up some money over at our branch in Kingman. You know our man over there Jake Kessler No, I'm very well But don't tell me you're gonna pay me off in advance. Well, no not exactly But that well let Jake tell you what it's all about what the money's for don't you know let him handle it He's the one that seems to be worried how much? About 40,000 what in cash, you know to pay off a retirement policy Charlie what's the hitch Johnny all I know is the payments do it's been okayed by the company and for some reason Jake doesn't want to Or can't make it himself. Why not? Well, you know Jake the old worry ward. Well, sometimes his worries pay off Well anyhow after a good night's sleep at Mojave going over to Kingman, Arizona pick up the dough and deliver it Then you can spend the rest of the week fishing on expense account. Okay pal Sure, sure Okay Why not? There's only one trouble with it trouble. What do you mean? You know as well as I do Charlie It all sounds just a little too easy Planning to send your children to college How would you feel if you found that your son or daughter couldn't get in because there was no room? You'd feel doubly bad if you learned only then that there was something you could have been doing about it All along in less than 10 years the number of college applications will have doubled Now support the college of your choice and for more information about this problem and what you can do to help write higher Education box 36 times square station New York 36 higher education box 36 times square station New York 36 Jake Hessler over there in Kingman, Arizona is quite a character. He's about 55 Tall angular long-legged well tanned by the desert Sun His office there on the main street is on the second floor above the Conroy, Mercantile Hey, what happened to you I made a gall dang fool of myself Johnny sit out. Tell me what happened After all the ribbon I've took from these natives over the years about that the clothes I wear Well yesterday morning. I finally took a dare and tried getting up on top of a horse. Oh And what happened? God darn quitter ended up on top of me. Oh Busted one ankle threw a knee out of joint So I got to be carried up and down those stairs by a couple of the boys the mercantile and all in all I'm a gall dang mess Can't even drive my own car. Oh, well, Jake all I can say is I'm sorry And that's why I have to send for somebody who could represent the company officially to pay off old man's blessing when he Suddenly up and demands the whole thing in one hunk of cash. Did you say blessing? Yeah Name's Barney bless. Mm-hmm 41,000 cash, and I'm sure glad you're the one that sent to do it for me like I asked them to You were you're supposed to the company got suspicious to Johnny suspicious of what Jake? Well about why in spite of Setting up that policy for him to get paid off something every month after 65 and for as long as he lives Now he wants it all at once. What do you think there might be something fishy about it? That name of his doesn't ring a bell No, I don't think so You're old enough to remember prohibition all the bootleg and racketeering in those days. Why sure well Barney blessing Was a gunman back then But he never got caught. Oh Then about a year ago. We moved out here to worked out hunk of land the other side of Hackberry Mm-hmm him and a fellow named a harry Higby and a beat-up old dog named a Vicki or who is this Higby just a friend of Barney blessings friends not on your life hated him You see that Higby back in those days. Well They called him the twin Yeah, he was the reason Barney never got caught. I don't follow you He was just a hanger on he wasn't a killer. He wasn't a much used to that mob except for one thing Higby looked so much like Barney blessing that when Barney was sent out to do a job Then they had plant Higby some place where a lot of people had see him would swear that he was Barney So that he was kind of Barney's alibi right He was how come they could never pin a thing on Barney. I see Well, why did he bring Higby along out here? Well, don't you see Johnny? Black male Yeah, maybe you have something there Jake sure that Higby knows enough to send him up for life All he has to do is open his mouth and start singing So Barney's not only had to keep him around and feed him But even made him beneficiary of this policy to if Barney dies before the policy matures, right Tell me when will Barney be eligible to start collecting on it? Well, that's just a trouble. He's 65 right now And Johnny the old coot must have read all the fine print Why you say that all of a sudden now that I'm all Busted up and can't get around anywhere all of a sudden he telephones me from Well, wherever it is he gets to a telephone where there's demand we pay him off in cash Deliver it to him in hand. That's the way that fine print reads in hand But you don't want to pay him off. No, why not? What's all this old fired big hurry about all of a sudden? Why this sudden change to wanting the whole thing in one lump sum without letting us know beforehand? Have you seen him and talked to him at all since he moved out here? No, I've never seen him like a darn fool. I just never got around to it never even met him Well, who round it does know him Jake not anybody He or Higby or whichever it was used to come here to Kingman for groceries at first But for now on on to a year now. There's been no sign of him Jake yeah If you've been able to have yourself holed up to this office every day you could have got out there to Barney Blessings ranch Well So what well so instead you sent for me? Why? Johnny Johnny do I have to lay it out to you go ahead? Well, you just ought to know by now that I have me a nose for trouble and when I think of what Barney was once and How he said over the phone that if I showed up at his place to give any argument showed up without the money Well, uh, Rascal, I think you pulled your accident on purpose that you're scared Probably for no reason at all. You just want me to stick my neck out for you. I tell you I got an instinct Always have had and it's always been right But now Johnny if you know if you just want to duck out of this one duck Yeah, stay away from those two ex mobsters and go over to the lake and do some Quiet fishing instead. Well, okay, Jake. Just tell me how to get there By our golly Johnny. I Knew you wouldn't let me down. Mmm. So now here. Yeah Here now You'll have to take this along with you. That's the 41,000 dollars in cash money At the bank delivered to me just before you got here I thought that kind of payoff had to come from the main office of a company like yours. I wish it did But you know worldwide immediate payment on any claim at any place in the world. That's the slogan Yeah, that's why even a little local office like this one has to come up with it That's why I can't give Barney Bles in any argument. Well, if I do find any grounds for your wild suspicions or whatever they are Maybe I will now you listen Johnny. Yes, Jake well here Here's the receipt and so on that he'll have to sign Okay, no wait a minute now is that a copy of the policy itself there? That's right Well, how about if I borrow it for a little while Jake just long enough to have somebody make a copy of it And you are thinking the way I am aren't you am I? So here Just in case I well I had this extra photo stat made for you good. All right, Jake Give me some directions and I'll be on my way sure But now Johnny well Well, like you say, maybe I'm all worried up about nothing at all. Sure you are but Be careful anyway Will you Johnny? Sure Jake had told me the ranch was near the old mining town of Hackbury population about a hundred But from Hackbury, I had to take a narrow crooked dusty little road some 20 miles further to the foot of the Cottonwood Mountains Believe me. This was really desolate desert country But the tiny ranch was like a sort of oasis out there Five or six acres. I'd say all of it surrounded by a barbed wire fence except for the driveway up to the house Thanks to half a dozen windmills busily pumping water old Barney had managed to make himself a tidy little farm with vegetable gardens enough to supply all his needs and then some And over in one corner fenced off by themselves were a dozen or so beef cattle making the most of a surprisingly green lush growth of alfalfa The house sitting there in the middle of the property was a small but well kept building of concrete block as I pulled up and stopped The front door opened just a crack And then slowly a man emerged an old man weather beaten but husky and healthy looking As I started told him he slowly raised and aimed a high-powered rifle at me Don't you see that's time out from there. There's no Christmason. I saw the sign That's what you're doing buster. This is my property now get out Your property hmm. That's right then your Barney blessing. That's right So what now you get out sure if you don't care about getting your insurance money Oh, that's better you saying you're that Jake Hesler. I talked to on the phone. No, I don't sound like him Who are you? My name is dollar Here now watch it. What what you're reaching for my credentials You want to lower that gun and have a look at them you say dollar. That's right Johnny dollar right again. You're some kind of detective, ain't you? What you doing here? Well, if you put down that gun, I'll tell you when I'm ready. Okay Jake Hesler is laid up. He couldn't make it. So I've brought your insurance money and my 41 grand Where is it right here? Mr. Blessing? $41,000 okay, okay, give it over to me and then get out of here before you sign the papers for it The receipt and so on. Are you kidding? Come on inside here. I don't trust you until I get the dough. Let me see them papers Put them here on this table. All right. Here you are If you're Barney blessing, just go ahead and sign them. Don't you want to see my identification or something? Make sure who I am. Well, that depends after you've signed Here now watch it As I was about to say here you can use my pen you're pretty jittery aren't you mr. Blessing I don't like strangers around here. See no I can see that. Well, are you going to sign? Only I'd say I get my money. Don't you come any closer? All right. All right Okay Bar you always have that much trouble signing your own name you're talking about Yeah, okay now Before you sign those others watch it. I don't like the way you keep reaching inside your coat that way I don't like the way you keep waving that rifle around now. Look What's the matter? Just compare your signature with the one here on the policy What do you expect after all these years after all these years you've had to practice what are you talking about? Will you put the gun down for a minute? No, sir? All right, then tell me this Where's your partner the man who came out here to live with you? He'd be Harry Higbee Dirty rotten blackmail What do you want to know for what's he got to do with it? They called you the twins didn't they so what so much are like that nobody could tell you apart Certainly nobody out in this country ever knew which was which now wait a minute You saying I ain't Barney blessing. I said where is he this partner of yours? Well Okay, so I'll tell you Dirty chiseled stooley. I finally got fed up with him. I throw them out You didn't yeah, it cost me. Oh, but I paid him off and made him get out of here Okay Let me sign the rest of these here papers so you can give me the door and you can get out one more thing They know what what about the dog? huh Well, I mean Vicki. Well, whatever her name was What's that sticking lousy flippant hound dog got to do with it? You say that about her after the way you brought her all the way out here from Chicago, wasn't okay? Okay, okay, so I'm all upset on a color Vicki died a couple of days ago At the barrier. Oh, you didn't You don't believe it look outside the window there at the back See that mound over the place where I laid the poor little pooch away Mr. That mound of freshly turned earth is one of the first things I noticed when I drove in here You know something I Like to see what's really under it. You know something dollar. I don't like you I think you're trying to pull something on me. I mean I won't stand for that to see this You think I don't know how to use it. I'm sure you do okay I'll sign all your papers just to make it legal But in the meantime you reach inside your pocket and lay down that 41 G's where I can see it Hear me Now go ahead. I Guess I haven't much choice. Have I you've got no choice go ahead Well, how about this and I'm out of my hand. Well, I don't make a move You listen and don't forget that I'm holding a gun now. Okay. Okay, you were Maybe I got excited. I'm sorry Let me sit down. Oh It's like the rest of papers. You can give me the money and get I'm afraid not not yet Not until you've done a little digging for me outside with that mound of earth is No matter don't you believe me? I tell you all you're gonna find is the body that poor little Ricky the dog. We'll see Now get going Satisfied now See dollar It's only what's left of poor old Ricky. Yeah Yeah, I see In spite of the size of the grave Vicky was a big old dog Well, you're satisfied now No, we go back Wow Looks pretty convincing with fool almost anybody, but I think you better dig a little more No, no, sir. No, I won't I said dig now you go ahead and dig. Oh, no, I won't do it I showed you vicky's body and doesn't know it's whatever may be underneath it that I want to see now dig now Listen you listen. He didn't die soon enough to leave it to you Did he what and then you somehow find out he was going to take it all in cash enough to let him get away from you Out of a country where your black mailing couldn't touch him anymore Take that so you killed him then you thought that you'd collect instead that nobody would know the difference and nobody could prove That you aren't Barney bless now listen dollar, please You know his fingerprints are on file that when you dig down there to him all we have to do Okay, it's Barney under there. I give up. I give up Don't you see dollar? I dig mr. Higbee dig Do it Jake didn't you? Well, just a hunch Johnny and even if it was the right one. I didn't know how I could prove it But that's feeling I had a couple of punks like them and nobody around here could prove which one was really which and with all that money at stake well Johnny I I Just I just kind of had me a hunch is all and Jake It looks like that instinct that knows for trouble of yours is something that you had better hang on to I've done it because of a call from back in Hartford I again had to miss out on the fishing but I'm gonna keep trying you can depend on that Spent the count total including mileage in the rental car in the trip home for 97 40 yours truly Johnny dollar Oh, here is our star to tell you about next week story next week a case that could be marked top secret That blows wide open in more ways than one Join us. Won't you yours truly Johnny dollar really Johnny dollar is written by Jack Johnstone Produced and directed by Bruno Zirato, Jr. Music supervision by Ethel Huber Johnny dollar is played by Mandel Kramer also featured in our cast where Louis van Rootman is Harry Higbee Lift carpenter is Jake Hestler Maurice Tarplin as Charlie Warren be sure to join us next week same time same station for another exciting story of yours truly Johnny dollar Art Hanna speaking