 When a man executed in the electric chair of a state's prison be reborn to wreak vengeance against society, in a moment you will hear a weird and fantastic story of a terrible obsession starring Mary Anderson of a psychopathic ward, redolent to vial deform and heraldohyde, where a moon-faced clock bites off time and rounded nibbles, a girl lies under the white counterpane of a restraining veil, a girl somewhere in her early twenties. She had been found wandering in the streets, her mind enveloped in that dark semantle that is called amnesia, remembering not even her name. Then at the hospital, that void of darkness was probed by the searching skill of a psychiatrist and she wanted to talk. She had to talk with the same urgency that one must breathe. It was an obsession. Can you feel a little easier now? Let's get the bedside, Nana Doc. I just want you to listen to me for a while. That's all you can do for me anyway. Spuzzing around inside driving me crazy. Yeah, I saw that love between you two. Maybe I am. Maybe I'm dead too. I don't know. It all seemed like simple arithmetic. Just simple arithmetic. What is it you want to tell us, Miss Bennett? I don't know why I want to tell you the whole lot on me. But I've got to stop this buzzing inside my head. Bye, bye, bye. Look, Doc, do you remember a guy called Olens? Frankie Olens? The gangster? Oh yes, I saw him in the headlines. He held up a postal truck, didn't he? Well, let's see now. He got away with $400,000. Well, he almost got away. And the next time I saw his name, the state had him in a gas chamber. And that was it, wasn't it? No, Doc. Not by a long shot. That was just the beginning. You mean you've been in conversation with him since he went to the Great Beyond? Where Frankie finally went. It's too hot for conversation. But he didn't go there when the state and the newspapers thought he did. You see, I was Frankie's girl. Well, anyway, he figured I was. So I know the whole story. I don't know. I made it happen. Right from that day I went to visit Frankie in the death cell. He was waiting for his mouthpiece, Jim Vincent, and for his brother Carl. I knew he'd never tell where he had hidden that $400,000. $400,000. Unless we got him out. So when Jim and Carl arrived and told us the reprieve had been turned down out by everybody, even the governor, I decided to try a long shot. Something I had been keeping under wraps for a long time. Frankie was pacing the cell again. Well, what are you going to do? Just sit here? Can't you think of something? Come on, Carl. Where's that brotherly love? We've seen everybody. I don't know what to do. There's not a legal trick left. But there is a chance. Just one. It's a long one, Frankie. What is it? Fuck Pete's sake. What is it? There's a friend of mine, a doctor. I was talking to him last night. A doctor? Are you kidding, Sally? What good can a doctor do me? Why don't you let her talk, Frankie? Maybe she's got something. All right, all right. Go ahead. It's like this, Frankie. The doctor told me that with the right injections, a man as thin as gas can be brought back to life. Brought back? Sally, what are you giving me? What kind of a double-cross is this? Max, honey. Before you have a guard here, I'm telling you a plain fact. Anyone who's been gassed and even put out dead can be revived, provided you get him to the right doctor, fast or not. You want to hear the details, Frankie? OK, Sally. I'm listening. But get this straight. You, Jim, and you, Carl, I don't do no talking about the 400 grand until I'm out of this pen. And you can figure how much talking I'll do if I come out dead. I was laughing in myself all the time, Doc. Frankie, worrying about Jim and Carl when it was little me who had all the plans. Well, anyway, we pulled it off. We bought ourselves a couple of prison guards and a laundry driver. On my instructions, Frank asked to be cremated. Then, after the prison officials pronounced him dead, our guards switched bodies. One body was sent to the crematory with a tag of Frank Hollins. That's the one you read about in the headlines. But the real Frank Hollins were shoved into a laundry sack. In less than ten minutes, the truck driver was filling up in the rear of an old house I'd rented. I bought a mile from the pen. OK. Give me a hand. Yeah. That's it. I am done on the table. All right. OK, driver. OK, OK. Here's your money. Beat it. OK, lady. OK, here he is. A friend of mine, he had his apparatus all set up. A tank of oxygen, a poor motor, and a little miracle drug called methylene blue. You can look it up in any medical journal if you're interested. Anyway, Scotty went to work. The miracle all right. But I didn't have no time to think about miracles. Not then I didn't. I had a neat little plan all worked out. And I had to spring it forth like he got too much like him old self again. Right now, he was kind of dazed. And what was more important to me, pretty grateful for the seeing light coming through the windows and no bars on them. I can't believe it. I just can't believe it. The last thing I remember, I was being strapped to the chair in the gas chamber and then I'll forget it. Frankie, you're going to be fine now. Oh, you bet I am. Especially when we pull out of here and I pick up that dough. That's got to take a little doing. You leave this house and you'll be spotted in a minute. Well, what do you expect me to do? Well, up in here like a hermit, we got a better plan than that. We're going to fix it so you'll never be recognized as Frankie Owens again. Yeah? How do you mean? Plastic surgery, Frankie. A new face to go with a new life. Well, you know, that's not bad. Not bad. Well, come on, let's do it and get it over with. And the only trouble is we're broke. Shut up, Carl. Sally, what's he giving me? What do you want? An out of my statement of how much it cost to buy your life? All right, here it is. $5,000 for each of the guards. $2,000 for that other staff. $2,500. You'll get it back with interest. Sure. Sure, we trust you, Frankie. Well then, what are you after? Look, honey, it isn't what we're after. It's what we've got to have. Enough of that $400,000 to buy the plastic surgery and then get us all out of here. But it isn't safe for me to go after it. You said so yourself, Sally. That's right, I did. But, uh, how about one of us going after it? No. No, I can't. You mean you want to drop the whole thing just after going this far? Well, why won't the surgeon go on the cuff? Maybe he don't believe you got $400,000 buried. Why should he? I have nothing to show him. All right, then. Look, Sally, do you think you could convince him if you had a map to show him? Now you're making sense, Frankie. I don't know whether I am or not. But I'm trusting you, Sally. I'll draw a map of where the dough is. Then you use it to sell a doc, see? But get this, nobody is to leave this joint until I'm ready to leave with him. Is that a deal, Sally? Sure, it's a deal, honey. Now just sit down and I'll get you a pen and some paper. Right at this point, on the left side of the highway, there's an auto club road sign. You just pace off 10 yards into the woods from that sign. And that's it, right next to a big rock. That's fine, Frankie. Now, I'll take that place. Now, how about run up the dock, huh? So we can get this whole thing over with it. Jim, get your hands up, Frankie. Come on. Now, over against the wall. Sally! You're not gonna let him do this to us. Sally! Sorry, Frankie. But this is the way it's gotta be. What? Get your dirty little double croissant on chicken. I swear I won't. Go on, go on. Get back to the wall. Yeah, that's better. You always were hotheaded, Frankie. Jim, don't do it. She'll only double-cross you like she done me. Carl. Carl, you tell him. Carl's not gonna tell him a thing, Frankie. It's a simple question of arithmetic. 400 grand divided four ways just don't add up to as much as when you divided among three. All right, Jim. Wait, for me to take away. That map I drew, it hang on the level. I was trying to trick you. Let me go and I'll show you where it is. No good, Frankie. We were expecting that one. So long, honey. No! The real end of Frankie, Ellen. I don't know why he couldn't understand. It was just a matter of simple arithmetic. Besides, it wasn't any crime. There's no crime involved, is there? Hitting a man who was already dead? There is no crime in killing a man who was already dead. No crime to be reckoned with in the courts of mortal men. But what of the crime reflected in the dark mirror of your mind? The hideous crime of your own obsession. Now to the strange obsession starring Mary Anderson. In the white-walled cubicle of the psychopathic ward, the sweep-hand of the clock turns silently on its orbit as Sally Bennett's voice knifes through the stillness like a thin blade of a scalpel ripping through membrane. Frank Orleans is dead. His debt to society marked, paid in full. And somewhere, $400,000 lies waiting for those who can find it. For those whose murder-warped minds will stop at nothing under the compelling influence of obsession. So now there were only three of us. We piled into Carl Sadan, Jim, Carl, and me. And we started out. Well, Carl was anxious to get there all right. He drove like one of those high school kids and I cut down Lizzie. Get there, don't you? Exactly, I want to get there. That's why I'd like you to slow down. Take it easy, both of you. All right. Say, why don't we stop at a roadside hotel for the night and go on in the morning? Okay with you, Carl? Well, I think it's crazy, but that's the way you want it, okay? The three of us had dinner in an upstairs room. Dinner and wine and conversation. Conversation that set things up for a little plan I'd work out with Carl. How's about it, Jim? Another glass for you? I don't think I'd better have any. Don't be silly, Jim. We've got luck to celebrate tonight. Okay, yes, certainly have. Okay, Carl, fill her up. Sure. You keep Jim company, Carl. I'm going to take a look at that balcony view. Okay, Sally. Well, here's to the 400 grand, Jim. And to Sally, huh? Ah, what a girl. Ah, and it's one thing I want you to keep straight, Carl. The money we divide, but not Sally. She's all mine, you understand? Again? Huh? Why'd you come out here on the balcony with me? It's nice and private out here. Now, you don't have to repeat that invitation. Well, see you later, Carl. Go to it, Jim. I wouldn't have a chance with her, even if I wanted it. Yeah, I am, Jim. I'll go for the railing. It's pretty out here, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. You're pretty, Sally. Come here, come here. You and me are going to have a great time, aren't we? Why not? I'll have nearly 300,000 bucks to keep us one, Sally. Anywhere we want to go, we go there. Anything we want to do, we do it. I've been waiting a long time for a setup like this. So have I. Oh, Jim, look. Right in our backyard, a deer. Yeah, that's nice. Look at him, Jim, he's cute. I don't see anything. Here, get where I'm standing. Right by the rail. I still don't see anything. He's down under our balcony. You'll have to lean over to see him. Ah, sure you're not seeing an elephant, Sally. A little pink one, huh? Oh, where? Now, you're seeing things, Sally. Maybe you'd better have another... No! Kyle, what are you... No, no, no! ...deceased James Vinson at his death from an accidental fall while under the influence of alcohol. Naturally, the other guest understood when Carl and I left immediately after the end quest. We couldn't bear to hang around the scene of a tragedy. Besides, there was a collar doe waiting to be dug up. Carl and I, we were the only members left of the 400-glam club. There were no secrets between us except one. Just one. Carl didn't know that. I'd gotten Jim's gun. A girl can't be too careful, you know. What a nice, isn't it? What's that? Two of us alone. You did want it that way. What do you think, Carl? I think the future looks mighty sweet. It was different with Frankie and Jim along. They were both suckers, always in hot water with the cops. Ah, you and me, nobody's got a thing on us. It's because we keep our heads working. Carl, Carl, there it is, the sign of the map! Yeah, you're right. Come on, honey, get your purse open. Just a minute, Carl. Get that shovel out of the turtle bag. Oh, yeah, I'm so excited, I almost forgot. And you were just saying you always keep your head working. Well, mine's still on tight. Let's see now. Ten paces from the sign into the wood. Yeah, you measure it all. I'll get the thing. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. Ten. This must be it, all right. Does everything match up? It sure does. I came right out by this big rock, just like on the drawing. Yeah, I... Okay, Carl, I'll keep a lookout, just in case anybody gets... Yeah, okay, okay. Go on, you can start digging, huh? Don't worry, baby, I'll dig it wide as a grave. I never felt more like working. Maybe there she is. Looks like an old tool chest, don't it? But we know better, don't we, Carl? We know it's a gold mine. Come on, get it out of that hole. Yeah, okay, okay. Oh, there we are, safe and sound. Oh, now, Sally, now we can... Sally, Sally, what are you doing with that gun? Sally, we're partners, ain't we? There's plenty here for both of us. Please, Sally, don't, please! I, none of them understood. It was all just simple arithmetic. I wanted it to be four hundred thousand, divided among one. One, me, and that's the way it was now. I pushed Carl's body into the graveyard for himself, and then I knelt down beside the chest, and I patted open with a shovel. That did it. I wondered if the money would be in small bills or big ones. I lifted the lid. There didn't seem to be anything in it. Just torn pieces of newspaper. But there had to be. It just couldn't be empty. Then I found something. An envelope sealed. That was it. I tore it open. Do you know what was inside? There was a single dollar bill. And a note. A note from Frankie that said, whoever's double-crossed me, keep this butt for your trouble. The rest of the four hundred grand, I'll leave to the work. Say they found me wandering on the highway. I don't know how I got there. I didn't remember anything until just a little while ago. And then I got this awful buzzing inside my head. I thought it'd go if I told you about everything, but it's worse than before. Anyway, it'll be better that way. I wouldn't want to live without the money. John did so much. He thought about the things I was doing to get it until the money wasn't there. You understand about that, don't you, Doc? It was all just simple. What happened to a Dr. Arnold? Just a minute. No, it's no use. She's dead. Been listening to obsession.