 Box 13 with the star of Paramount Pictures, Alan Ladd, as Dan Holliday. Box 13, care of star times. I know my life is in danger. I think you can help me. I'm desperate and don't dare go to the police. Please, if you want to help, call at the Tivoli Theatre Box Office for the ticket left there. Our hand bill will tell you more. Our hand bill will tell you more. Yeah, that's the way it started. The note from the girl Maria, the theater ticket, and then murder. And now, back to Box 13. It was Thursday when I received a letter from Maria through Box 13. Some of the letters I get are from cranks. Some from people who are just curious about a reporter turned fiction writer who advertises adventure wanted, will go any place, do anything. But with this one, it was just like Susie said. Gee, Mr. Holliday, it doesn't look like one of those crank letters or somebody that's just curious thinks you're crazy or something. How can you tell, Susie? Oh, I don't know. Maybe it's just female ignition. There's a dictionary over there, Susie. Look up ignition. Don't you know what it means, Mr. Holliday? It's when a woman... Skip it, Susie. Skip it. Oh, okay. I'm supposed to pick up a ticket for tonight's show at the Tivoli. Take a look at this hand bill. Torino. The great Torino. Like his look, Susie? Well, I don't know. That's what I thought. Okay, Susie, close up shop for the day. You're going to follow it up, huh? That's the general idea, yes. I want to see what Maria has on her mind and why she's afraid. This was it. I picked up the ticket at the Tivoli. A big poster told me this was a charity affair with the acts doing a two-night stand. Tickets, $10 a throw. I circled around the lobby, looked at the acts advertised, singers, dancers, a dog act, and then... there it was. A big life size cut out of the great Torino, complete with mustache and goatee. Nice-looking guy, maybe too smooth-looking, but it was what he was doing that made me take a better look. He held a rifle to his shoulder and was aiming it across the lobby at another cutout. And this one? This one was a girl. Pretty? Mm-hmm. Big eyes, maybe a little scared-looking, and looking straight across at the great Torino into the barrel of that rifle pointed at her head. Well, if this was Maria, she had a right to have something on her mind. Anybody who stands up and lets a rifle be fired at her is earning a living the hard way. I was thinking about it when the call buzzes into my ear. I drifted in with a crowd during the overture and took my seat, first for all right on the aisle, easy to get at. An usher had shoved a program in my hands. The great Torino was scheduled next to closing. Okay, that meant I'd have to sit through the rest of the acts. I did. It was skippin'. But the great Torino was something different. He had two assistants, a girl and a good-looking young guy. It was a magic act with class, and Torino was clever with his hands. He did a trunk effect that was really great, and the girl who helped was the same girl whose cutout was in the lobby. Torino tied her with the ropes that the big canvas bagged over and locked her in a trunk. He fired a shot, and bang, the girl came running down the aisle. And the trunk she was put in, well, empty. All done in a split second, too. The great Torino took his bow, but I noticed something. When he restarted to take the girl's hand and bow with her, she managed to be busy at something else. Okay, she didn't like him. He gave her a funny look and walked to a rack and picked up a nice nickel-plated rifle. I sat up at my seat because the girl threw a quick look at me in a tiny nod. No one would have noticed it, but me. I looked back at Torino. He was speaking. Ladies and gentlemen, I wish to call your attention to my final effect. A most dangerous one. So dangerous that few illusionists will attempt it. The history of the Magician's Art has recorded several deaths during the feed. My assistant will go into the audience now and select a committee of volunteers who will please come upon the stage. Maria, if you please. So the girl was Maria. I guess my cue was to be selected as one of the committee. I raised my hand. She picked me. I went on the stage with four others from the audience. I stood there while Torino went to the footlights and spoke again. Please, the music. No music. Please, no music. Thank you. Now, ladies and gentlemen, I shall give the gentleman of the committee this rifle. It may be examined thoroughly. Also, three bullets, which they may mark later for identification. Gentlemen, the rifle. And here, the bullets. Please mark the lead in any way you choose, unmistakably. We took the rifle and the bullets. And the great Torino. Well, he had the audience sitting on the edges of their seats. No one knew exactly what was going to happen, and Torino wasn't going to tell them until the right time came. Then one of the other men on the committee spoke to me and... Bullets look okay to you? As good as any bullets can look. 22s, huh? Yeah. How do we mark them? Initials? Yeah, yeah. Good idea. The three of us cut our initials in the lead. That all right with you, mister? Good. How about the rest of you? Suit's me. I've got a knife here. Let me see the rifle. Yeah, sure, here. Rifle look okay? No gimmicks? Not that I can see. All right. My initials are cut in the bullet. You want to cut yours? Oh, yes. I cut my initials, D.H., in one of the bullets. I had three bullets with initials cut in the lead. No chance for substitution. Then Torino took the rifle and the bullets. Thank you, gentlemen. Grazie. You are satisfied? Sure, I am. Yes. Good. Now, if you will all watch closely, I shall load the bullets in the rifle. So, and what is your name, sir? Holiday. Good. Then, Mr. Holiday, if you will please hold the loaded rifle until I am ready for it. Oh, sure, sure. In this way, there can be no trickery. Ladies and gentlemen, you saw me load the market bullets. Yes. So, and you have the loaded rifle. Good. Now, ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce once more Maria. Maria, the young lady is as courageous as she is a lovely. Maria, you will take your place, please. Mr. Holiday, would you care to shoot at Maria? Oh, no. No, thank you. Then, that leaves it up to me. No. The rifle, please. Oh, here you are. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, I shall ask for complete quiet. Thank you. Maria, you are ready? Yes. Mr. Holiday, you will walk to the other side of the stage. He raised the rifle to his shoulder, pointed it at Maria. She was pale as death. Her arms were tense, tight. Perspirations stood out on a forehead. And on mine. And on everyone in the audience. Then, so help me, this is what happened. A bullet appeared between Maria's teeth. She let it drop to her plate. Her hands then... And two more bullets popped between her teeth and fell to the plate. No one in the audience moved. No applause, just that tense feeling. Torino walked over, took the plate. His hands never touched the bullets. I'll swear to it. He walked to me and the other three men with me. Gentlemen, you will please to identify the bullets, yes? This one. Initials, T, G. That's me. Thank you. And this one. K, R, mine. Thank you. And the third, the H. That's mine. How did he do it? I don't know. All I know is that when I walked off the stage, Maria managed to get a note into my hands. When I read it later, it asked me to meet her at a little coffee shop about three blocks from the theater. All right, that's what I did. We sat in the booth, back out of the way, and Maria talked. Thank you for coming, Mr. Holliday. That's all right, Maria. I saw a great act, but what am I doing in it? You can help me. Please help me. How? Doing what? You can keep Torino from killing me. More coffee? Didn't you hear me? Oh, sure. Sure, but I don't get it. You saw the act? The rifle trick? Yeah, it was great. Then you must see how easy it would be for Torino to kill me while doing it. Slow up a little, Maria. Let's start from the beginning. All right. You saw the other assistant. You mean the good-looking kid? That's Billy. I love him and he loves me. Then what's your problem? Torino. He hates Billy, and he hates me for loving Billy. Jealous? Insanely. Well, quit then. I will. I have to tomorrow night's performance. But why wait if you're afraid? I won't be afraid if you're there. What could I do? Be on the committee again. If I think anything's wrong, I'll signal you. And then? Do anything. Drop the rifle, but don't give it back to Torino. Now, wait a minute. How could he kill you? He'd claim it was an accident. Three magicians or their assistants have been killed accidentally doing the trick. The mechanism of the gun goes wrong. Giving away secrets, Maria? I have to. There's a mechanism in the breach of the gun. It drops the real bullets down into Torino's hand when he closes the breach. Oh, then I get an unloaded gun. There are blanks in it. The mechanism substitutes them for the real bullets. That's good. And he slips the real bullets to you. Yes. When he takes my hand to introduce me. And you slip them into your mouth. While the audience is watching Torino and the rifle. I see. Maria. Yes? Why don't you go to the police? Torino would know. He'd know. How? He watches me. Then aren't you afraid he's watching now? No. Not tonight. I slipped away. I don't think I could manage it again. Don't you see, Mr. Holliday, you're my only chance. I saw you add in the paper box 13. You mean the police would ask him questions and he'd lay low until he got the chance to? Yes. Will you be there tomorrow night, Mr. Holliday? Look, I have a ticket for you here. The same seat. Please. Please. All right, Maria. I'll be there. Thank you. And we'll try to keep the trick from being trumped by the great Torino. And now, back to box 13 with Alan Ladd as Dan Holliday. Well, it sounded like a great assignment. From the way the set-up looked from where I sat, it gave the great Torino a perfect chance to kill Maria. I checked on Maria's story about the accidental deaths during the trick and Jonesy at the Star Times verified it. A smart cookie like Torino could fake an accident and who's going to pin the black ribbon on him? Nobody. Okay, it's up to you, Holliday, to figure it out. Next night, I sat in the same seat and watched Torino go through his act. A trunk thing, still great, knocked the audience off their seats. Me, too. Couldn't figure it. But the big stuff was still to come, the rifle trick. I went on the stage, kept my eyes on Maria. I marked one of the bullets again. Oddly enough, Torino didn't seem to recognize me. It was all right with me. Torino went through his same spiel word for word. I kept my eyes on Maria. But it was though she'd never seen me before in her life. She looked... Well, it sounds silly, but she looked hypnotized. Then I heard Torino saying to me, Mr. Holliday, would you care to shoot at Maria? No, thank you. Torino looked at me hard. My name and my face together might have tipped him. There was a funny look in his eyes. I stared at Maria, not a sign from her. Maria, you are ready? Yes. I relaxed a little. She hadn't given me a sign. Everything was all right, and then... Maria! She dropped. Maria dropped. A right between her eyes, a little, round hole. Look, Holliday, is that straight that story? Sure it is, Kling. She was afraid she'd be killed. But you say she didn't give you a high sign? No, she didn't even look at me. But she told you if there was anything wrong, she'd tip you. Yes, but she didn't tip me. Okay. Sergeant. Yes, sir, Lieutenant. Get Torino over here. Yes, sir. All right, Joe. Lieutenant Kling, why aren't you over? Any ideas, Holliday? Ah, I'm dry. Bone dry, Kling. What about this guy, Billy, she told you about? I told you. Okay. It was accident, accident. Something, she was go wrong. Quiet. Now look. It was accident. She's wrong accident that happened. I am an artist. You tell me I do something wrong. No, no, no, it is wrong. It was accident. Holy mackerel. Sergeant. Sergeant. Yes, sir. Put this guy in his dressing room, and keep him there until he blows off that head of steam. But watch his door. Please listen to me. And a window from outside. Yes, sir. Come on, Hoodie. It's funny, Kling. I'm hysterical, I don't think. What's funny? The girl, Maria. I don't think she knew me tonight. She looked right at me. Didn't give me a tumble. Yeah? So? She told me she'd signal me if anything was wrong. I... I don't get it. But it looks as though she... She what? She deliberately let Terino fire a gun she knew was set to kill her. That makes great sense. I know, no sense at all. Besides that... Get away with it. You're gonna let him tell you it was all an accident. Well, don't believe it. He killed her. That's Billy. Kling. What? Let me ask him a couple of things. Now, look, holiday. I'm in charge of this case. You're in on a rain check. Okay, but I'm in, huh? Yeah. For the one reason that Maria told you about it, and he... He killed her, it wasn't an accident. Oh, I better go help the surgeon. Any objections if I mosey along with you? None. Just keep your mouth closed, that's all. Sure. All right. So I listened while Kling asked questions. There was something knocking at the back of my head, asking to be let in. Something I'd seen, heard, remembered. I didn't know. But what bothered me was Maria not giving me a signal. When she said she didn't know if Torino was up to something, Billy answered Kling's questions. No, no. All I know is that Torino bluffed Maria. He said he'd kill her if he saw me hanging around her. Who loads the rifle with blanks? Maria. Does she do it tonight? She always does it. Maria loaded the rifle herself. She did. Before the performance. So I got an idea. I left the stage where the investigation was going on, and I walked backstage toward the dressing rooms. I wanted to talk to Torino, but there was a large blue cop sitting at the door. He looked at me and... Well, holiday. Oh, hi, Amir. I feel lousy. No, it's too bad. Say, I think I could talk to Torino. No. Oh, no, look. You can watch and listen till Kling everything that goes on. Bring in detection quality? Nope. Playing hunch. What about? Why not listen and find out? And if you learn anything, tell Kling. And you might learn something good. You mean something that might break the case? Yeah, might. Well, where is it? What's the matter, Amir? Can't you use a couple of strikes? Hey, sure. Oh, okay. But I'm standing right here in the sand. Sure. Right. Hey, you, get up and... Oh, brother. Look. Hmm. Ain't nobody gonna ask him no questions. No, I don't think he's in any shape to answer. A promotion, you say? A promotion. I'll be lucky if I am fouled up for good. This guy's been knifed right under my nose. That's right. Somebody stabbed Torino. He was as dead as Maria. And nobody saw anybody go in or out of the dressing room. There was one window. It was open. But the officer outside swore he had his eye on it. Hmm. Nobody in or out. And nobody in the room but Torino. Now, the knife was in his back, so suicide was out. Kling and his boys turned the room upside down. Torino's apparatus and functions were shoved around. Still nobody. And it turned out nobody had a motive for killing Torino except Billy. Me? Me? Are you crazy? I never left the stage. I was talking to you. I was answering questions. I can't be in two places at once, can I? He was so right. Kling was tearing his hair. Then more questions. The rest of the acts were strangers to Torino. Nothing about him. I was thinking about it when something hit me. Something Billy had said. While Kling was still firing questions, I got to a phone. Hello? Hiya, Kenny. Still running that private eye? Well, do something for me, will ya? Hmm. Okay. Put a man on the Tivoli Theater right now and get him to tell a guy named Billy. Huh? Here's what he looks like. About five-nine, stocky, light complexion wearing gray suits. Good morning, Mr. Holiday. Hiya, Susie. Any messages? Uh-huh. The detective agency called. And what? What's the message? Oh, I wrote it down shorthand. Here. Uh, trail Billy in shoe. No, wait a minute. Oh, terrible ink. Uh, oh, I got it. In insurance company this morning. He placed claim for a double indemnity policy for his wife, Maria Baker. Hey, wait a minute, Mr. Holiday. That's not all. That's enough. I'll see ya later, Susie. Oh, Tarino. Step on it, Jonesy. Oh, you want odd facts. It takes time to find him. Even in a mortgage to start times. Okay, Jonesy. Okay. But hurry up, will ya? Ah, here we are. Tarino born Italy. Skip that. How long's he been in the country? Uh, six months. Noted magician in Italy and Europe before the war. Only six months. Uh, Jonesy, if you were a magician, you wanted assistance. How would you get them? Advertising a billboard. Magazine for show folks. What else? Hmm. Where can I see the last six months' copies of the billboard? Well, they got a local office in town. All the copies you want. Hey, where you going? Thanks, Jonesy. Be seeing ya. I've got a lot of reading to do. Six months' copies of the billboard. I looked through every one of them, and when my eyes were falling out of my head, I saw it. An advertisement. The one I wanted. And the one that tied up with something Billy said. And something I saw during Tarino's act. I tried to get Kling on the phone, but no dice. He was out. I left word for him to meet me at the Tivoli, and I went there myself. There was nobody there but the watchman. The $5 bill got me in. Oh, there's no place gloomier than backstage in an empty theater. I headed for Tarino's dressing room. Because I had a good idea how someone got in and stabbed Tarino, then disappeared. I opened the door, stepped inside. It was dark. The shade on the window must have been down. I was fumbling for the light switch when somebody pulled the shade on me. My dear, who's slugged your holiday? Yeah, Kling, I have. All right. Who? Billy, maybe. No dice. He didn't come near this place. We had a tail on him. You know about the insurance? Sure, but he couldn't have killed his wife because she loaded the blanks into the gun. Uh-huh. And the medical examiner's report on the bullet that killed her? What about that? 22. And no initials on it? No, none. So it looks like this Maria deliberately planned her own death. It wasn't an accident. If it had been, the bullet in her head would have been marked. Kling, put out a dragon. For who? For the one who slugged me. I'll cut it holiday. If you know anything, spill it before I lose my temper. Who do you want to pick up? Here's a description. Young woman about 26. Brown hair. Lovely blue eyes. About five foot two. Worked as a magician's assistant. Hey, what are you giving me? That's Maria. Uh-huh, Maria. She's dead, you dope. You mean her twin sister's dead, Kling. Twin sister? What are you talking about? The trunk effect Torino worked. Could have only been done with twins. Billy, tip me off on it. Billy? Sure, when he said nobody could be in two places at once. And Torino advertised on the billboard for twins. You aren't dreaming this. Put out a dragon for Maria. Who stabbed Torino? Maria. She got her twin sister to take her place in the rifle trick last night. That's why I didn't get a signal from her. The sister didn't know me from Adam. Now look, holiday, we searched this dressing room. There was nobody in it when Torino was stabbed. Maria was here. Look, false back in his cabinet. Good old magician's gimmick. She was here all the while. Maria and Billy took out an insurance policy on her. And planned to make me the patsy. Because I'd testify that she told me Torino hated her. That she was scared. Torino was knifed to keep him from spilling about the twins. Billy was in the clear on that. Because he had an alibi when Torino was killed. OK, Kling? I, uh... OK. We'll put out a dragon. And they got her, Mr. Holiday? Yeah, Susie. They got her. Gee, sounds just like a story. Uh-huh. Only nobody will believe it. Look, I've got an eye on my forehead to prove it. Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho. Does that make you hysterical? No. But I was just thinking... Don't be reckless, Susie. What about? I was just thinking, with that bump, you'll have to wear off the faith hats for a while. You're a great help. Good night, Susie. Next week, same time, Alan Lad stars as Dan Holiday in... Box 13. Alan Lad appears through the courtesy of Paramount Pictures and may currently be seen in Wild Harvest. Box 13 is directed by Richard Sanville with original story by Russell Hughes and original music composed and conducted by Rudy Schrager. The part of Susie is played by Sylvia Picker. This is a Mayfair production.