 From Hollywood, it's time now for Johnny dollar a Mac Woodson, mr. Dollar the girl from the claims office called Oh, yes, mr. Woodson. It seems we're working on the same case for the same company. Well, I'm how much is missing $80,000 so far all of it was taken during these death. I'll say one thing in 20 years as an accountant I've never seen a looting more cleverly carried out. Oh, that was a very bright lad a man who'd go far They all said I thought I did he was one of my best friends But it turns out I'm only beginning to know him. Could you meet me in his office around 10 o'clock mr. Woodson? Better be careful that's what got it into trouble Tonight and every weekday night Bob Bailey and the transcribed adventures of the man with the action-packed expense account America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator yours truly Johnny dollar From special investigator Johnny dollar to the home office eternity mutual insurance company Hartford, Connecticut Assignment the confidential matter location San Francisco Expense account continued Item for $1 one martini item five one dollar one tip to the bartender who stirred the martini All in the house the check bills I don't know who built it actually but it took Jack to live in it 1200 bucks a month to be exact That was the take-home bite for an apartment at the Drakeley arms on knob hill and of course that didn't include drinks in the Inabit little private bar just off the lobby And this is where Ed Morgan had lived during the last five months of his life Until he missed a curve one night and drove his car off a cliff into the Pacific Ed Morgan whose idea of a big night had always been his pipe slippers and a mystery novel But things were different when I'd known him and been his friend For one thing he hadn't stolen $80,000 or I don't think he had Do you find the martini adequate to your expectations, sir? Oh, yeah, yeah indeed. It's a heck of a belt for a buck. Thank you, sir Quite nice little place you got here Oh, I find it a most agreeable sanctuary from the stress and strife and the hurly-burly of the city Then he'll on I have tended by here in the Drakeley arms rendezvous for some two years now Well, then you may have known a friend of mine who had an apartment here up until a month ago a mr. Edward Morgan Oh, yes, mr. Morgan was a regular customer here and Eager supplicant for my humble and healing wares a beer drinker mostly as I recall the rendezvous does not serve beers, sir Oh, forgive me. I didn't know I'm quite all right, sir Yes, I was here before mr. Morgan moved in here. I am still now that he is no longer with us Such as the chance and mystery of life One just never knows precisely. Oh, could I say not yet? Thanks Get to know it pretty well, did you the policy of the Drakeley arms sir is to maintain a certain degree of Formality in relations between guests and personnel Sort of like a zoo you might say with bars to separate the people from the animals The comparison is quite hapt Somehow I can't see Ed Morgan sacking in and a marble scroll cage like this John I confess I he hardly seemed the type to me, sir. He was much too Unrestrained for the Drakeley. I came in here a lot today almost nightly for a few minutes at least on his way to some gala night spot I'll a night spot Ed Morgan. Oh, yes, and all the years. I knew it I was only able to drag him into a gala night spot once He stayed 20 minutes and left because his tie was choking. Are you quite certain that your friend was the same Ed Morgan? I wish I weren't Where his friends did he always come in along? Oh, no, no never alone, sir. He and Nikki were inseparable Nikki Oh, I should say of course. Mrs. Barrett. Oh young widow as I remember lives here in the building a lovely girl Fascinating and also unrestrained definitely And Ed then was one of her friends. Oh, they were together every night, sir An hour here in our little establishment a few champagne cocktails then out to dinner dancing the opera ballet head Morgan Oh quite life was just a mad world for those two. I Gather your friend was something of a wealthy playboy. He was a claims adjuster for an insurance company Then how could he possibly live in the fashion he did if I told you it flip my bigger pardon Tell me something was Ed in here on the night. He was killed. Oh, yes Yes, he left here about nine as I recall and a few hours later. He was dead How did this Nikki take it pretty broken up was she She is a woman a very strong character. Oh another word. She didn't ban an eye. Well, I was that night Ed was killed did he leave here alone? No, sir He was alone when he went off the cliff not when he left here though Nikki was with him Item six two dollars and forty cents taxied at the Telegraph Hill apartment of Lisa Duval Lisa had been Ed Morgan secretary for about four years But it seemed Miss Moussey business at the office was Miss North Beach Bohemia at home Italian slacks and halter cushions on the floor and Naturally a view of the Bay Bridge from a corner window We sat on the floor naturally and drank yanty from a half gallon jug while a record player moaned agonizedly under the gouging of its needle Vi-talk I gathered was now last year's kick. This was progressive Jack Maybe it seems a little affected to you, Mr. Dollar The way I dress and live in private life as you might say why so Everybody's got a right to saw his own dish of porridge the way likes it. Well, I've done this deliberately I guess there's a sort of antidote for the insurance business Has it been that bad not bad boring. Oh, not your end of it, of course Investigation work must be exciting. Yes scream a minute day and night. I just keeping records filing papers week after week I used to stare out of the office window at the ships and the harbor and think about Stowing away on one, but of course I didn't have the nerve Too bad The cruise would have been delirious. I thought of quitting several times. I guess I stayed because of Ed Mr. Morgan. Oh It was always so wonderful to work for so lenient and understanding Up until the last few months at least what about those last few months Lisa? What came over him? I don't know. He was different. That's all as though we were tense and nervous and a pressure Any idea where the pressures came from he didn't confide in me, Mr. Dollar What? What were your personal relations between the two of you during the years you work for him? What do you mean? I mean Were you friendly formal? Strictly business friendly. I think would cover it best. Did you see each other outside of office hours? occasionally, I Notice one of his pipes there in the bookcase. He'd come here sometimes in the evening and we'd listen to music and talk up until the Until the last few months. It wasn't that we stopped being friends. Mr. Dollar. He was he was just different That's all tense under pressure. That's about the only way I can describe it But you don't know why he was that way. Well looking back I suppose it was because of the money if he really did take it Just I just can't believe it. It wasn't that kind of a man. It was gentle and honest at least until Until the last few months Yes Or were you going to say Until she came along How did you? Lisa Yes How long have you been in love with Ed? Ever since I started to work for But he never knew it. He couldn't even see me I'm sorry Lisa. I'm sorry for you too, Mr. Dollar I know how close you and Edward and I know how you must feel being called in and have a good job That's sure just a job. So is major surgery this woman. He was going around with Nikki Barrett. Did you ever meet her? I'm met her. What did you think? What's the difference? I was prejudiced. I'll allow for that in the old days They used to believe in witches Vampires some of them were very beautiful and they knew you were a man on and on and then Destroy him and you think she did something like that to Ed? Oh, you weren't out this way during the time he knew her you weren't around him to see how he changed Oddly enough the one time I was through here about three months ago. Ed was unexpectedly called away on business He wasn't called away. He was avoiding you. He knew he was getting in too deep. How do you meet her? She came to the office with a life insurance claim $50,000 her husband had just died. I Knew her type from the minute she walked in the grieving widow all in black and looking like a powers model And he just melted down and laid his head under her foot That was the start of it. Why'd she come to him unless she had a disputed claim It was a double indemnity clause her husband had been killed in an accident Her husband too. What do you mean? Ed Morgan died in an accident remember Adam 7 a dollar and 15 cents taxi from Lisa's apartment at the Deckman building on Montgomery Street It was after 10 and the financial district was nearly deserted The canyons between the tall buildings were hollow and empty a cold wind was blowing off the bay Or maybe it was blowing out of the past an old old past dead and far away The pattern was beginning to look familiar to familiar Lord the woman gave me the forbidden apple to eat Ed Tuetson The same old wine the same old dodge And yet there was something not quite right about that pattern Cotton runs into some funny ones mr. Dollars Morgan case here is one of them How do you mean mr. What's in well the way he was going about it for one thing running hog wild as you might say of course As I said on the phone his general scheme was pretty clever He certainly knew who standard procedures well He'd been with a company a long time one of these payoff checks on claims Of course they were sent out from Hartford and carry this off So what Morgan did was open a disbursement account in the bank here then sign and deposit the checks and draw out the money In cash chargeable to direct disbursement funds under his own name mr. What's the course the canceled checks would return to Hartford But since they were countersigned to disbursement they wouldn't even be processed instead. They'd be returned to Morgan So you see there'd be no evidence and hot mr. Woodson. I'll accept the fact that it was clever But what did you mean there was something funny in the way he was going about it? Well, he must have known couldn't last it was a good scheme for a short time But it carried the seeds of its own destruction what way complains some of these claims are four months old and legitimate claims Morgan couldn't stall these people off forever. I See only other embezzlement case I've worked on that was similar was a man who worked a quick swindle for a blackmail payoff He knew he'd probably get caught, but he just had to take the chance. Yeah, you may have stumbled on to something mr. What's in oh, that's all you mean it ties in with that file folder you've been studying there. I don't know It's an investigation report on an accidental death happened about a year ago Ed Morgan handled the insurance claim and got to know the widow He'd been running around with her for several months just before his death. I don't quite see the kid Oh, of course, mr. Morgan also died in an accident Unless he was murdered Now here is our star to tell you about tomorrow's episode of this week's story tomorrow $80,000 and a beautiful girl both missing Then one of the two is found at a bombshell explodes Join us. Won't you yours truly Johnny dollar Yours truly Johnny dollars starring Bob Bailey is transcribed in Hollywood Written by Les Crutchfield. It is produced and directed by Jack Johnstone Be sure to join us tomorrow night same time and station for the next exciting episode of Yours truly Johnny dollar you run late speaking