 From Hollywood, it's time now for $8. Glad they gave you a telephone in your room. Yeah, that's the only thing good about it. Well, hospitals are designed to make a man impatient. You're a pretty lucky fella at that. Let me tell you about your operation. Yeah, please do. You stopped two slugs. They fried one out of your neck and another one out of your rib cage. Missed your heart by a snakes whiskers. I was luckier than Gloria Tierney. Yeah. Oh, for that chance. Tonight, in every weekday night, Bob Bailey in the transcribed adventures of the man with the action-packed expense account, America's Fabulous Freelance Insurance Investigator. That's truly Johnny Dollar. Expense account submitted by Special Investigator Johnny Dollar to a four-state insurance company, Wilmington, Delaware. The following is an accounting of expenditure during my investigation of the Todd matter. Expense account item 11, $3.05, breakfast. I got mad at the nurse when she brought in a bowl of hot cereal and a glass of milk. So I bribed an orderly to slip across the street and get me a tray of bacon and eggs. I was just finishing same when up came Sergeant Mapes. He looked haggard and tired and worried. You nearly got it for good, baby. I got enough of it. You sure did. What do you remember, if anything? Well, we tailed Melva Charles to an apartment house. We stepped inside and somebody began trying to kill me, and that's when I left town. Yeah, it was quite a mess. Corner had a real job in his hands. Yeah. Hey, how about you? Not a scratch. Coroner, did you say? Yeah, Melva Charles got it. Her husband stuffed a butcher knife in her back. That was for trying to sell him out to you. Yeah. Yeah, maybe he thought he was worth more than $2,500. Maybe. A man named Henderson, who happened to be walking down the hall at the wrong minute, took three in the head. He was dead before he hit the floor. Woman on the street got hit, not too bad. Two people outside just getting into a car got cut up pretty bad when bullets smashed their windshield. You keeping track of all this? I'm trying to. This all happened after we got there, huh? Yeah. You see, when you and I walked in there, William Charles had just finished killing his wife. He saw us and began pumping. You got hit and I pumped back at him. You get him? Yeah, but not until he had shot up everybody else. He's on the floor above you, hanging on by a hair. He knew his ticket was up and he just didn't care. It's my fault you're here, baby. I'd rather cut off my arm than get you in on this. What do you mean? Well, tagging you and going after her. I didn't use my head. You know what? What? I still think you're a pretty good copper, Mapes. Thanks, Johnny. Here, I brought you a book of poetry. Poetry. Read. Take it easy. We'll be talking again soon. I felt awful. Sergeant Mapes dropped in later that afternoon, but I was half asleep. Vaguely, I remember they wheelchirred me down the hall for X-rays and lab tests. Expense account item 12, 10 cents, the morning paper. The story of the shooting was splashed all over page one and the solution to the glory attorney killing in part. Slugs from William Charles' gun were matched with those that had killed glory attorney. No mention was made of any loot from the Todd burglary being found in the Charles' apartment. Between back rubs and sleeping pills, I worried about that. I didn't worry too much about the fact that William Charles' killer gunman burglar was dying in the room directly above me. About midnight, Mapes showed up with a wheelchair. There we are. Now, you're all ready to go up and see what he has to say? Sure, I guess so. I still have to finish my job. Let's take it easy now. All right. A week. That won't last long. There. Now, here we go, baby. It was the second time within a week I'd been in a hospital room with a dying person. The first one had been a young and beautiful woman who had been shot by the man who now laid dying of police bullets. What did they... What'd they say? You know what they say, Charles. You haven't got a prayer. I didn't mean to kill Gloria. I didn't mean at all. Won't you know that? You took a lot of pains to do it. I was there, remember? Yeah, I remember. Sorry. I'm doing pretty good with those... those house jobs. Todd Place, another one in St. Louis. Doing all right. Enough to buy a nice car, live in a decent place, get around a little bit, work all along. I met her. I liked her. I wanted to marry her. I did. Really did. You already had a wife. You think I'm kidding? I gave her a mink coat, didn't I? I thought that it'd cinch. She didn't want to take it. Told me she was going to marry some other guy. Some guy she'd been married to before. I got mad. I came back that night, let her have it. At all? Yeah, that's all. That's it. That's it, mister. You take it or leave it. How did you meet her? Mutual friend. What friend? Ah, none of your business. All right, this is my business. Where's the rest of the stuff? What stuff? The stuff you took from the Todd place. Where have you got it? Now, what's funny? You think I'd tell you that? What's the difference now? Come on, what's the difference now? It's a laugh, you know. You know what? I'd die before I tell you. He died, and he didn't tell me. Not a word. Later, a private ambulance took me from police emergency hospital to my hotel room. Three days after that, I was able to get back on my feet. I went right down to Maple's office at headquarters. How do you feel? Ah, better now. Oh, you sure look lousy. Here, sit down, baby. All right, thanks. Should you be out of bed? Yeah, sure, sure. You're lying, and you know it. Ah, I suppose so. How's it going? You mean have we located the rest of the stuff? No, not a lick of it. Funny guy, wasn't he? He had his last laugh. Well, you shouldn't be worrying about this stuff now. You ought to be taking care of yourself. I am. I'm sitting here helping you worry. I'm not worried about anything. You're worried about the same thing I am. Where's all the rest of the Todd stuff? Well, it'll turn up somewhere. Why, Mr. Dollar? Hello, Mrs. Tromburg. I read about what happened to you in the papers. I'm sorry. I'm terribly sorry. Oh, well, I'm better now. Well, come in. Come in, please. Thanks. You'd better sit down, Mr. Dollar. I'll get you a cup of coffee. Do you have any bourbon? Well, yes, I think so. All right, I'll take that. Is water okay? Yeah, sure, fine. Should you be out of bed, Mr. Dollar? You know everybody, yes. No, no, I shouldn't, and yet I should. Here you are. Oh, thanks. Oh, here's cheers. Remember the night Gloria was shot? Of course, very well. You know I've been worried about that night. Huh? Remember I came over here and I told you I was in the insurance business and you said you'd have her call me when she came in? Yes. Well, I remember pretty clearly you said you'd have her call me when she came in, not if you saw her come in. Yes, did I? Uh-huh. You saw to it that she called me, Mrs. Tromburg. You also saw to it that she wasn't here to meet me when I got here. She was out, out there somewhere, because by then you knew I was an insurance investigator. I don't understand you, Mr. Dollar. What are you trying to say? You sent her out so he could take care of her and you were waiting in the hall for me. Waiting for you? I know. I happened to see you and I wondered what... You wondered what kind of cock and bull story you could give me to get rid of me. That's silly. I sound that way. That's a good drink. But not so silly if you knew that coat she was wearing was stolen and that I was after it and her. How would I possibly know that? Because you introduced her to one of your friends one night and he went overboard for her and eventually he gave her that little present. Are you saying that I had anything to do with Gloria's trouble? Yeah. Why, that's silly. Oh, here's something silly here. A small-time burglar and thief lay on a hospital bed yesterday and wouldn't tell me how he met Gloria Tierney. Oh, he was a real galant one, this bird. He killed an innocent girl because she was wearing a mint coat and might tell me who gave it to her. Mr. Dollar. There were three people in an apartment including me. He got shot himself. He knew he was dying. But a simple thing like telling me how he met her wouldn't come out. He wouldn't tell me that for anything. Now where could he meet her? Was he her kind? Did he go in the same circles? Did he? Nah. He was introduced by a mutual friend, Mrs. Stromberg. You, the manager of the apartment house. No. Something else he wouldn't tell me. What happened to the rest of the loot from the Todd burglary? Two things he wouldn't tell me. He didn't have to when I sat down and thought it out. You've been working with him right along. You've been keeping all this stuff here. That's fantastic. Not so fantastic at all, Mrs. Stromberg, when you think that his wife, and she was a girl who'd do anything for money, they tell me, was wanting to sell him to me for 2,500 bucks. 2,500 bucks. When there's still over $60,000 worth of loot from the Todd burglary lying around. She didn't know where it was. But you do, Mrs. Stromberg. Well, if you say I do, I do. Now what? Let's go down to Sergeant Mapes. Oh, no, I... I'd like a good excuse to use this. Yes. I suppose you would. If I can't charm you or plead with you, can I buy you? You could have prevented her death. You practically ordered it. What is it you want? You. Behind bars. You're silly, but I'll go. For a while it did look silly. Mapes and his men searched the apartment house from top to bottom and found no trace of the Todd loot. That is, until they found a movable cement block in the basement. Well, the Todd matter ended with a 90% recovery of the stolen items. About $70,000 in cents. In lives, Gloria Tierney, one innocent bystander, and William Charles. For me, let's see. Expense account item 14, $162.30. Hotel and board while in New York. Item 15, $17.40. Airfare and incidentals back to Hartford. Item 18, $230. Miscellaneous. Expense account total, $1,095. Remarks, nil. Yours truly, Johnny Daller. Remember, there'll be another intriguing story for you beginning next Monday night. Next week, a music lesson on a priceless Amati violin. Music and mystery and danger. Join us, won't you? Yours truly, Johnny Daller. Yours truly, Johnny Daller, starring Bob Bailey, is transcribed in Hollywood. Written by John Dawson, it is produced and directed by Jack Jumstone. Heard in this week's cast were Janis Barbara Fuller, Shirley Mitchell, Lawrence Dobkin, Frank Gerstle, and Marvin Miller. Musical supervision by Amarigo Marino. Be sure to join us on Monday night, same time and station, for another exciting story of Yours truly, Johnny Daller. This is Roy Rowan speaking.