 Hollywood, it's time now for... Johnny Dollar. Johnny, this is Fritz Meltzer here at Star Mutual. Fritz, I can't think of anybody I'd rather hear from. What? Every insurance case you've called me on has put a lot of dough in my pocket. Well, now, Johnny... And it just happens that right now I can use a few extra bucks. Quite a few. So what's the deal? Well, as a matter of fact, I hadn't thought in terms of any fee on this one. Oh... But of course, we'll pay whatever expenses you need. You, uh, trust me with my expense account, Fritz. Are you kidding? Of course not. Ha ha ha. Okay then, now that we understand each other, what's the problem? All right, here, who's the problem? John Wakefield Edwards. Have you heard of him? No, I can't say that I have. Retired businessman, leather goods, I think it was. He lives just outside of Auburn in New York. So what's happened to him? Well, nothing that I know of. But he has a lot of insurance with it, including a strained life policy worth $155,000. How old is he, Fritz? In his late 60s. Marine? No. Then who's the beneficiary? His adopted daughter, Marilyn. And how old is she? In her late 20s. Then who cares about a fee? Fritz, I'll take the assignment. Easy, Johnny. You probably won't even see her other than Matt did, and I sent you over to see him immediately. Yeah, why? Action Pact Expense Account. America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator. Yours truly? Johnny Dollar. Gator Johnny Dollar. The the Star Mutual Insurance Company, Home Office, Hartford, Connecticut. Following his account of expenses incurred during my investigation of the hair-raising matter, when a beautiful girl and a fortune are involved, while instead of waiting until morning, I got out of my car and drove over to Albany. Item 170, 20 for mileage. I arrived shortly after midnight, checked in at the Sheraton Ten-Ike, and although I was pretty tired, I ran up item two a dime for a phone call. Yes, this is John Wickfield Edwards. Johnny Dollar, Mr. Edwards. Well, why do you waste your time and money calling me? I told Fritz Melcher to send you up here. I'm right here in Albany, sir. Oh, good. Do you want me to come out and see you right away? It's pretty late. No, first happened before then. Nothing will happen. I'll expect you to have breakfast with me. I thank you. What was that? I said to hear it at breakfast. 7.30 sharp. Oh, OK. But now, just what did you mean about nothing will happen? I'll tell you about it in the morning. Goodbye, Mr. Dollar. Well, now, wait a minute. Look what it was that he was expecting to happen. Or it obviously tied in with his wish to see me. But I guess that was tied after the long drive, he seemed to think the morning was time enough. So I hit the sack. Early in the morning, some coffee sent up to my room and then the hotel bill came to $9 even, that's item 3. And by 25 minutes after 7, I swung on to the long winding drive that led up to the front of the Edwards mansion. It was in a wealthy residential section, a couple of miles north of the city's proper, and sat in the middle of what must have been a full acre of beautiful trees and gardens. As I approached the house, I noticed a car parked out front. The door was open and the good-looking got out of it and it was just about to climb in. As I pulled up to a stop, she stood there looking at me, questioning me. Is that right? You want to see somebody? Why, yes. As a matter of fact, Mr. Edwards sent for me. Oh, really? Are you an old friend of yours? Old. I didn't know it should be. Oh, that isn't what I... I mean... My name is Johnny Dolly. Don. The insurance detective or investigator or whatever you call him. Yeah, something like that. Hi. I'm Marilyn Edwards. Well, hi. I should have guessed he'd send for someone like you, Johnny. Come on in. Why, uh... Why do you say that, Marilyn? Well, daddy seemed to be worried about something lately. You know what? No, at least I'm not sure. That's why I thought I'd stop by this morning before going to work. Oh, I thought you were just leaving. No, I just got here. Just before you arrived. What do you do for a living? Don't laugh. I'm a model. Oh. You stop raising your eyebrows. After all, somebody has the force for those ads for discount ads. Oh, for sure. And so we go in and see daddy. That is if he's up. Oh, it better be. I have a breakfast date with him. It's 7.30. And it's now exactly 7.31. Then we'd better go in. He hasn't come down yet. Johnny, this is Girdkin. Daddy talks to me. Yeah, I ordered a breakfast pump. It's 7.30. And I ring the bell and he don't come down for it. I think I'd better go up and see. I'll go with you. It is a long clock. Go off three quarters of an hour. Go to the system. No, sir. No, I guess not. Without touching nobody, I found the Albany police homicide division. And within minutes, Sergeant Christie arrived with Dr. Warren Lincoln. And Dr.'s examination was brief and very thorough. Including several on-the-spot tests. I didn't, doctor. He was 68 or 9, I think. And he hasn't been sick? Not that I know of. Girdkin, the housekeeper, would know better than I do. He hasn't had a day of sickness since he caught that cold last. Yeah. If new folks want, I can order an autopsy. Oh, no. No. That would be terrible. First the natural causes. Approximately 7.15. Doctor. And I expect you can carry on from here, can't you miss? I'll take care of the man. If he can't, I will. But getting what's closer needs weather. Well, come on, Sergeant. Back to the morgue. Oh. The morgue. If you want some breakfast, ain't gonna do him any good now. Girdkin, how can you? I suppose we may as well, Johnny. Then do whatever we have to do here. There was something mighty wrong here. Yet I couldn't put my finger on it. Had I really caught the smell of cordyce before we entered that room. It's too late to tell now, even when the windows close. Those windows. It's a cold morning. Had he left them open while he dressed? Sure. Maryland. Heard of his big insurance policy. Had she really just arrived when I got there? If the housekeeper, Girdkin, had been in the kitchen making breakfast. It would have been easy for someone to sneak in and... But who? And why? And what about Girdkin? The police medic said death due to natural causes. No prison. No wounds of any kind. So that's that. The undertaker must have been hungry for business because he got there before noon and took the body away. Meantime, of course, I'd question both Girdkin and Maryland pretty early. Enemy? Oh, no, Johnny. Daddy doesn't have... Johnny, you keep talking as though you think he might have been murdered. Does anyone beside you benefit from his death, Maryland? That's a horrid thing to say. I do. Girdkin, what are you doing snooping around this way? Well, it's as much my affair as yours now that Mr. Edwards is gone. What do you mean by that, Girdkin? Johnny, he left me and his will. And the co-discipline, his will, it says Maryland's got to share the insurance with me if he collects it. Girdkin. What do you mean by that? Everybody knows her and her father served off their father. Ain't been getting along too good ever since she decided to get out and learn her own living or try to... I've been getting along all right. Sure, sure. And all the attention you've been giving your dear daddy these last couple of years. Why, today's the first time you've been in this house and... That doesn't mean that daddy and I haven't... Girdkin, you wish to be left alone. Sorry, Johnny. Maryland, I want to go up and look at your father some again. All right, if you like. And I'll go along with you to... No, thanks. I'd rather do it alone. Oh? I find nothing. I'm sure there were a couple of old bottles of hair tonic hidden away under some shirt. But after all, I mean at his age. And that funny little thing on his dressing table. It was a little... well, hat stand, I guess. You'd call it the kind you find in a woman's hat shop. You know, a little wooden stand about eight or ten inches high. Johnny, look! Huh? Who did you get that? After what you said downstairs, I guess I began the work. Very special. So I looked around outside, you know, for footprints or... I don't know what I was looking for. And you found this handgun. It was in the middle of a myrtle bush. It was daddy's gun. Oh? And see? One saddened been fired. Yeah. I also see you've carefully put your fingerprints all over it. Oh! Fine. Now my prints are all over it. So if it was used to... What am I talking about? If it'd been a shot, Durkin would have heard it. What's more, there would have been a bullet wound and there was no sign of anything in the... Wait a minute. Marilyn, maybe there was. It was truly Johnny Dollar. I'm by her raising matters. My hunch was right. I was sure of it now. I told Miss Durkin and Marilyn to stay there at the house and wait for me, then jumped into my car and drove into Albany to the other ticket. Prepare, Mr. Evertybody, yet. Good. We do. Rather rushed. Oh, yeah. Yeah, sure. Now where is he? Was he a relative of yours? No. What are you doing? Trying to make sure that a crazy hunch I had is true. Look here. How are you trying to pull his hair up? No. Off. What? I think... Now look here, young man. Look. Look. Do you see what... What I'm trying to do here? What? Yep. Heavens, I can't believe it. We would never have noticed it. I don't think anybody would have. But it's a hairpiece, all right. Just big enough to cover a small bald spot. It matches the rest of his hair so perfectly. Hey, you got some kind of a solvent? I don't want to have to rip it off. What is it? Yeah, I think we have. To be here, sir. Two of those old bottles of hair tonic. Probably hadn't used them in years. But that little wooden stand. Sure. It parked his wig on it. What did he say? And probably nobody knew who the ward except himself. And somebody's very close to him. Here, Mr. Dollar. Here, this will remove the toupee without damaging it. Yeah, all right. Right in the middle of his bald spot. Covered up by the hairpiece. And the bullet that made it was a 38 special. You can get here this morning until I did. Yes, Johnny. You're sure? Yes, Johnny. Run up to his room again. Where's Durkin? It's an idea. Johnny, you have a funny look. I mean... Yeah, come on. I'll tell you this much. Your father was murdered, all right? You... You sure as that. Yes, you bet I am. Now, look here, here. On his dressing table. You know what this is? Of course. It's a little hat stand I used when I was a kid. What's it doing here? I don't know, Johnny. I never really noticed it before. How long did Daddy wear a toupee, Marilyn? A what? A toupee, a hairpiece. Oh, never. I was very proud of the hair. You're sure about that? Of course I am. For a long time, he always used the smell of hair tonic when he came downstairs in the morning. Well, it just happens that you're wrong. What? A small, very well-made hairpiece covered the bald spot where he was shot this morning. With this 38, you say you've found out some. What an idea. All right, I believe you. In spite of the way you've covered up any fingerprints that may have been on it. You did, too, Johnny. Yeah, that's right. Now, listen. He's only one person who could have known about the hairpiece if killed him and then covered up the bullet wound with it. I knew I'd smell burnt gunpowder when we first came up here. Johnny, do you think that... Yeah, yeah, but I'll prove it. Well, I've got to try a bluff. Yeah, I'll see if I can bluff her. I can't believe it. Yet with him dead, she'd have money, more money to do. Hold it, Marilyn. Well, there again? Well, you're back. Where you been, anyway? Checking up on something. Something I should have suspected last night when I talked to Mr. Edwards on the phone. What do you mean, Johnny? Line clicks that meant somebody was listening in on the phone downstairs. Don't look at me. I didn't even know you called him last night. I wasn't there to sleep. Were you jerking? What I was just checking on at police headquarters... Police headquarters? Yeah, it was a set of fingerprints I found on a glass you'd been using in the kitchen. What? I wanted to compare them with some prints I found on this gun. Well, that's Mr. Edwards' gun. The one you used to kill him? That's a lie. Is this the fingerprints map? No, that's a lie. I wiped him off the gun. You threw it out the window? Yes. Then over the other windows to let the smell of powder out? Yes, I wiped him off. At least... We know part of the insurance or any other money for circuit. The court will take care of that. And probably with many. Mr. Marilyn, well, you know something? There's a gem I think I'd like to see again. And I don't mean because of her fortune. Expense account total, including all the mileage on my car. $47.50. Yours truly? $20. Here we'll return in just a moment. Well, here's our star to tell you about next week's story. Next week, a little jade statue is the key to one of the clever spots I've ever seen. Join us, won't you? Yours truly? $20. Johnny Duff. Rejected by Jack Johnstone. Heard in our cast were Virginia Craig, Shirley Mitchell, Jack Edwards, Ralph Moody, Junior Matthews, and Parley Bear. Be sure to join us next week. Same time and station for another exciting story of...