 Good evening, friend. This is your host to welcome you through the creaking door into the inner sanctum. There, a lot of job seekers came up through the cracks in our floor the other midnight. One argue that he was a writer of the sinister variety claimed he wrote poetry on tombstones. We put him to work in our burial bureau. And although the girls said she specialized in screen, we told her to meet our gang and demonstrate. One look and our young miss never got her voice up off the floor. We all chipped in to blow the girl to a 20-week course in sign language. Tonight's inner sanctum mystery, Appointment with Death, was written by John Robert and star Charlotte Holland in the role of Janet with Carl Swanson as Richard. Tonight's story is custom tailored for the timid. We guarantee a vent. Manhattan's East River harbor, cold gray granite, an architectural eyesore imported from the old world. A high wall and iron fence hide its secrets from the city's teeming millions. Inside the high wall, a woman in black walks slowly toward a man. The man is silhouetted under the moon, bending over a lilac bush. Richard! Hmm? Oh, I'm sorry I started you, ma'am. I am trespassing, I know, but I couldn't resist your garden. I'll go. No, wait. You're not Richard. You're staring as if you don't see. My eyes are old. Turn your face to the moon so I can see you. All right. I've forgotten. So many faces have been Richard's. So many, many faces everywhere. Everywhere? What does your Richard do when he isn't roaming about? He sleeps right where you stand. There is a grave and in it Richard sleeps. How did you get in here? I walked in through that open gate, the rear of the garden. The Florentine gate, you found it unlocked? Yes. You're trembling. Is there something wrong? The open gate means the last Lowell is about to die. I am the last Lowell. I am about to die. There were five of us. My brother Tom, my sister Melanie, and me. We lived silently and silently in this house which father had bought in Italy and then had shipped stone by stone to be restored here. It was as if a dark plague hidden in the ancient granite had infected us all. As if we were born to destroy each other. Mother was first. She roamed the great halls and hide. We never knew where she slept or how she managed food. All we knew of her was a laugh. It was the only way she spoke to us. One day she just disappeared. Never to be heard or seen again. Father was next. He was sick and grew worse but refused to allow a doctor to enter the house. On his last night we were gathered around his bedside. Tom, Melanie and me. Water. Melanie brought a tumbler of water but Tom struck it from her hand. No tenderness Melanie. It doesn't become you. He's calling for water. You'll get all the water he wants soon. His casket will be brimming over. Father passed on during the night. A shrunken figure just skin and bone. We buried him in a simple mocking ceremony during the rainstorm. You see my sisters, it rains water for father. Father was gone but he lived on in Tom. With the same dark brooding obsessions we had known in father Melanie and I were there in Tom. We'll go on rotting away exactly as we have. Nothing's changed. Tom, we don't have to go on like this. Don't we Melanie? No, with father's death we're free. And this new freedom Melanie, what would you do with it? I asked what would you do with it? Just live Tom. I see. And you Janet? Are you full of new purpose? We have a right to womanhood Tom. Nice word womanhood. I'll give you another word, manhood. I turned the word over in my mind a thousand times before I gave it up. Womanhood. Give it up. It's an impossible word. Your whole life's against it. An impossible word womanhood. I tried to forget my whole life was against its realization when Richard came. I met Richard here in the garden. I was in mourner's clothes listening to the foghorns and staring out into the river one night. Oh, did I frighten you? Yes. I'm sorry. I'm Richard Dunn. I'm a lawyer. Oh, you're here to read father's will? Yes, but that isn't until 10 o'clock. Shall we stroll a bit? You mean pace from wall to wall? Well, a drive then if the garden's too confining. We can leave through that rear gate then. The Florentine gate, no. What did I say something wrong? Their gate must never be unlocked. Hey. Oh, I'm sorry. Are you kind of in the dumps over your father's death, huh? Richard, he had come into my life like a gust of clean wind. Shut away here in a granite tomb like a dead woman. Come alive, Janet. How, Richard? How? Just get up and leave. There's nothing here to hold you. But there is. What? Father, mother, the past. That's imaginary rot. You've all cast a spell over yourselves. Why, uh, forget the past. Think of the future. Can there be a future for me? Give me half a chance and I'll show you. Show me, Richard. Show me. But Richard never got that half a chance. My life was against it. And my fears. And Tom, my brother. One night, Tom saw to it that Richard or I would never get that half a chance. I was asleep in the grip of an old nightmare. An old fear that haunted my sleep. In my dream, there was a knife. A cold, cruel steel blade. Moving across my face, marking me. And I scream. A woop in my face, a flame. And Tom standing over me in the pale morning light. You have no beauty anymore, Janet. No, no beauty. Tom I'd dreamed of a knife branding me. An old dream with you, Janet. Tom, my face. The scar will heal and you'll wear a black veil no one will look upon your face The scar healed I wore a black veil and No one looked upon my face. I Hid as my mother hid I Hid and spied and eavesdropped I hid from Richard too In time Richard stopped asking about me as his infatuation for Melanie grew I Eavesdropped on a hundred intimate talks. They had Melanie and Richard But I remember one They were in the music room Melanie come away with me. You're just speaking to Janet through me. No, I forgotten Janet. She disappeared. She's gone It's you that I want why Richard Why do you want Janet or me? I don't know Sometimes I feel compelled as if somehow I was fated to come here. I feel that I must pull one of you from this contamination Melanie say yes At least I need time to think but I'm going away. Well, when you come back if you come back I'll come back. You're right to me Yes Yes, Richard. I will write to you Melanie and Richard Lost him and I was lost I had lost him but Melanie would too Melanie must lose him too. I Stooled Melanie's letters to Richard before the postman could pick them up Finally, I intercepted a letter from Richard to Melanie Steamed the envelope open and substituted a typewritten letter. I had written and Then I watched Melanie tear the envelope open. It's a letter at last from Richard. I watched to read it equally Then silently I could hear the words I'd put into Richard's mouth whispering my brain Melanie if you can ever forgive me out in the world It's as if I'd never known you. I see men at play and I hear women laugh I remember that these are the things that are really me Forgive me Bad news Melanie Bad news. Oh, no. No, it's good news the best for Richard. He's escaped He almost became one of us, but he escaped Melanie. It's a wonderful world. He's escaped into a world of laughing women Laughing women Janet. When did you laugh laughter isn't for us? No marriage Melanie nor escape nor or but you're wrong There is escape for both of us your escape is the Florentine gate the gate opens and you escape now Melanie stop your heart cannot stand the strain, but that's my escape my heart my poor wonderful Unpredictable heart. We worried about it as children. You remember you used to put your hand on it and count Well Janet put your hand on it now Melanie you're deliberately provoking an attack put your hand on my heart Just one last time Melanie Melanie now stop it, please The storm in my heart dies and the lights Go out. Goodbye Janet Melanie She'd fallen as if she'd willed her own death for Melanie Was all too much for her Tom she She dropped dead right before me Melanie drop dead if you feel more comfortable thinking of it that way What do what do you mean? Melanie's collapse was a bow to your talent for writing letters or to put it crudely That you murdered her I Lived on with an hourly wish for death wishing Melanie's escaped for me, too But death was to come to me last First Richard was to come back re-enter our lives as if the touch of us had contaminated him. I Was in the garden here lost in the fog horns and the noises of the river Hello Janet Richard I've come back to you Janet to me No Richard not yes to you I've come to know that it's always been you Only you but you gave your pledge to Melanie. I heard you that was only compassion Wasn't loud. It's not the feeling that I have no Richard. You must know you can't hide from me anymore Janet You can't fail your face or your heart If I were to raise my veil if you were to see my face see your face Yes Richard Look What do you see? Mark Running the length of your cheek to your eye a brand Richard, but how Tom never mind how or who? Your love cool or does it? Did you really think the beauty was just something outside? We'll tell Melanie about us I Tell Melanie Telling Melanie is something to do. Well, why can't we tell Melanie openly non-stop for a simple reason Richard? Melanie's dead Richard wanted me only me and I wanted him if only for a moment It was an impossible wish, but I turned my thinking aside. I packed to a note You're forgetting Janet that your whole life is against it now Tom don't try to stop me Don't pull me deeper into your insanity third finger left hand when he slips the wedding band on How will you keep him from seeing the blood Tom? Please and the uninvited witness standing between you How will you stare Melanie down when you say I do that Tom Tom stop playing on my feet And how will Richard take the dowry you bring him Janet a dowry of murder blood and guilt? Tom went straight to Richard And it was another Richard who came to me his face was grim the gentleman has gone. His eyes were bright and hard Change your dress Janet change it Richard. Yes You will be married in the blackest black We have an obligation to the dead We were married a Macabre ceremony with the principal's dressed in mourners clothes. I couldn't stare Melanie down The I do caught in my throat Motoring back. I knew I'd Never know that moment of life We'll go back to your house Janet. No, no not my house. Yes Only to your house Then Richard you you don't mean to be really married to me. Could I really be married to you? You signed my name to a letter that killed Melanie Yes, I wrote the letter that broke her heart and Melanie will always be there between us making any happiness impossible We'll live in your father's house dark lignite hating punishing each other Marriage was a new nightmare. I Watch Richard brood watched his sensitive mind slowly slip into darkness and I wished him dead For his sake and mine The ghost of Melanie sits beside me Sayer Janet Richard go away if there's a shred of reason let's please go away Come come come sit on the bench with Melanie between us I am sorry that you said My arm oh I clawed your arm another brand scars your lovely white flesh Richard you can't stay here anymore You can't live in this house anymore. I Don't want to But I must he grew worse steadily I Dreamed of escaping him being rid of him somehow It was a nightly dream Every night in my sleep an old remixed with the new the knife The same knife that I've lived in my nightmares for so many years But this time the knife was in my hand This time I was hovering over a victim this time. I was the attacker She said it you won't torture me anymore No, I won't live with your eyes on me anymore. Don't I'm dissolving our marriage Don came in a sick gray haze I Awakened huddle on the floor Tom was in the room with me. I could feel his presence. Good morning, Janet. Oh Tom. I I Had a terrible dream a dream Janet in my dream I was in Richard's room and I Must see Richard you mean the remains of Richard No, yes, Janet you murdered Richard right thoroughly. No, it's a lie. I couldn't do murder. Is it a lie Janet. I Don't know. I don't know come We'll bury Richard in the garden You used to meet in the garden Coming Janet No, no, I can't I can't very well if I must play solitary grave digger My dream hadn't been a dream Tom said I Stayed in my room until Tom came back the stains of digging were on his hands and clothes You know, I'm wondering Janet since you're averse to burying your victims who bury me Will you be my victim? Yes One day when my strength is at its lowest you'll kill me. Why must I kill you Tom? Why because we were born to destroy each other The years crept by years and ghosts in time Tom's strength failed He took to bear the shrunken figure like father before him It's come Janet My turn has come Yes, Tom, you're dying, but that's not the way it's to be. I Must die by your hand. You must kill me. No You're insanely obsessed and you've tied me to your insanity But you can't push me into murdering you Janet kill me, please If only for hate I'm too tired to hate Tom then if only to settle your score with me I turned Richard against you because of me. You were married in black to a bridegroom of death Because of me your honeymoon was a crimson knife Remember Janet. I'm dead to memory And if I could hate This is your punishment. This is a payment of my score with you You'll die By just dying Janet kill me you must He's yet it come back. I Turned away and never came back Tom died, but not by my hand But Tom was right about our dark family destiny. How was Tom right Janet? The Florentine gate is open you say yes Then Tom and father were right The gate opened of itself as they said it would And now it's my turn to die Richard sleeps under the lilacs So now sleep beside him. Maybe Janet and maybe not Did you say maybe not what if your dream of murdering Richard? Were only a dream what if Richard merely came to his senses and went away that morning long ago if But Tom buried him right where you're standing. Yes, but what if Tom deceived you into thinking so? What if it were a trick to keep you imprisoned here forever? What if this grave is empty? Deceive me about Richard's death. Yes a ruse to make you insane and as hopeless as he was I'm more confused Janet Look me again. This time really open your eyes You're not yes, I am Richard a bit older, but much much wiser Shall we stroll a bit? That's one way of getting out from under a lilac bush tender love story Dream girl and Rover boy a love so haunting that everyone rounded was touched in the head Though they've picked up where they dropped off, but they make a charming picture walking earth last mile together Strolling into eternity one day arm in armature to gay skittering skeletons and pressing so close They're two sheets flappers one Good night pleasant dream Inner sanctum was heard in the United States over CBS the Columbia broadcasting system and has been rebroadcast for service men and women Overseas through the facilities of the United States armed forces radio service the voice of information and education