 A tale well calculated to keep you in. SOS FENSE I looked over his shoulder to see the big open mouth of a nice blue 45. And suddenly I knew what a man feels like when he's just finished digging his own grave. Listen now to act one of Death of an Old Flame starring Larry Haynes and Terry Keen and written especially for suspense by George Bamber. The name's Warren, Ronnie Warren. I play piano. I play what they call piano bars. That's where they tear the top off a baby grand and build a counter all the way around for the jerks to put their drinks on. I must have played back and forth across the country a dozen times. Never the topspots but all the joints I worked kept the pianos to. There I mean the lady wants to hear the song. That's Leo. He owns this place. Not a bad guy as owners go but still an owner. I look up at the chick at the far end of the piano. She smiles, I smile, slow and shy. You know I gave her the old caucus spaniel like a boy fresh out of college and she eats it up. He even wrote it out for you. Yeah so I see. A hundred and fifty a week thick spender it just stung her to the back. I figured if she was going to make a move she'd wait till his back was turned. She said she'd like to hear stardust. Well tell her that looks more like a telephone number to me. I think she wants you to call her. Well tell her I never learned how to use a phone. My name is a customer. Yeah yeah I know. So I smile at her again like we're both college sophomores and this is our first date but she's a chick like any other poured into an expensive dress for a night on a town. A local princess who thinks she deserves better than she got better than a second hand current garage and television every night. Better than the guy that brought her better than anything she'll ever have from the first moment she has it until the last moment she throws it away. Well the moment the piano player in the downtown club is better and that piano player is me. Tell her I get off work at two. If she can't make it she's with the guy. Yeah I see that but it hasn't stopped at this far has it Ronnie. Leo I've been playing saloons for 10 years and if I've learned anything I've learned never to trust a chicken never give me a break. She'll be here and I'll take her home if something better doesn't turn up. Tell me Ronnie how do you do it. My boyish charm. My boyish charm. That's a joke around the saloons. I'm 35 years old and I still look like I should be in college. Some guys say that's why I score so much but really it's the way I play piano. I play like I'm in another world and when I look up I always smile like I'm pleasantly surprised that such excellent music could find itself in the presence of such superior company. I smile this way whether I'm looking at the wall a bartender a crying drunk or the chick I'm working on at the moment but out of all of them only the chicks are flaky enough to take it personally. Why I get along without you. I don't play that number. I'm used to. I hadn't seen a coming in and I swung around to see what the voice told me I would find. The eyes were still incredible so deep and brilliantly blue that you had to look twice to believe what you saw. Hello Ronnie. She smiled and somebody took a clean blade and dumped my insides on the floor. There was nothing left but an empty aching hurt. I turned back to the piano because I was afraid I couldn't control my mouth. Hello Anna. Mind if I sit down. No no go right ahead. I haven't seen you around the pool in the long time. Five and a half years to be exact. I didn't keep track. I don't buy drinks because of it. She sat like she was suddenly very tired and she toyed with the gloves for a moment the way she used to. Her mouth was as I remembered it and her hair still soft and natural gold. But then I noticed there was a hole in one of the fingers of a white cotton gloves and a dress was last year's style. I'd signal the bartender to buy her a drink. Thanks. I read in the paper you were playing here. I kept track of you where you'd been when you'd hit town. Yeah well I would have kept in touch but when I got back that night all I could find was an empty hotel room you didn't leave much of a forwarding address. Ronnie I know I I know what was wrong. I've been sorry a million times. The paper never said. Did you marry again. When a man said until death do you point I figured he wouldn't have bothered to say it if he had meant it. Besides it came in handy when a chick would scream marry me I just say oh baby I'd love to but I'm already married saved me a lot of scenes. How about you know Frankie leave you for somebody else. No he won't marry me. He's still with him. Yes. Ronnie play our song. Now you heard me before I don't play that song. Well I forgot how it goes. I don't believe that. Please just once more for old time's sake. That's it. It sets over everybody gets a coffee break including piano players. Come on and what's the pitch you don't just run out and then pop up six years later for nothing what do you want. Ronnie I need help what kind of help Frank's flat we don't have a cent what do you want me to do a lot of money no more than what he knows where he can make a score he figures if he can make one good score we can leave town and start all over again maybe go to another country what score Frank knows where there's a half million dollars worth of first just waiting to be picked up it's an inside job he'd handle it himself except he'd be the first one they suspect all you got to do with help me load the truck and drive so let me get this straight you want me to help you make a heist risk a prison rap so you can have enough money to take your boyfriend Frankie someplace else where you can live happily ever after you get half the take Anna the last thing I want is your money on a please look I know I shouldn't ask you but there's no place else I can turn nobody else I can I wanted to take where my arms and tell her everything would be all right because in the heart of every cynic lie the fragments of one great dream and in the heart of every lady killer smolders the embers of one great love so when she said please Ronnie just this once I said okay Anna just this once for old times sake what I got to work the next night I talked to Leo boss man look I uh I have some business from 10 or 12 tonight I'd like out it's important yeah it's so important that if anybody should ask I'd be much obliged if you'd say I spent the time sleeping off a hangover on your office couch okay let me give you a little piece of advice like like I don't want to know but if this important business has anything to do with that broad I saw you talking to last night I'd watch my step why that's Frankie a mutt of girl is one of the worst rats in this town I know okay so you know but watch yourself when 10 o'clock came I left the piano and slipped out the back way to a truck marked royal furs Anna was sitting inside waiting I love it she drove us across town into the back of a small shop no one was in the alley so she got out locally overhead garage door with a key while I back the truck inside she closed the door behind us and locked it the freezer inside this cold storage wall she slid back the heavy door and started stripping the hangers it didn't take long because there weren't too many pieces I don't know anything about furs but I do know that what we took wasn't worth any half a million dollars finally the truck was loaded and we were ready to go but then she started pouring cleaning fluid out of cash help me spread the stuff around huh what for so we can set fire to the place why so we can destroy it thanks as we have to set fire to the place to burn all the evidence look you didn't mention anything about a fire before me I didn't because I was afraid you wouldn't go through with it if I did well of course I wouldn't taking a few furs is one thing but awesome it's something else somebody could get killed we have to right now Frank is playing cards with the guy that owns this place we have to fix his alibi with the time of the fire oh oh I see all it matters is Frank and his alibi huh all it matters is that Frank is safe that he's got somebody to steal from the life for him and for what what does he do for you Anna answer me what does he do for you make one answer me what does he do for you nothing what do you stay with him for you happy being turned into a two-bit thief to do his dirty work for him and for what to lick his boots and gratitude are you happy Anna no then why Anna why Ronnie I I don't know if I know I probably wouldn't do it I've wanted to leave him a hundred times I don't know just answer me one thing baby do you love him I I don't know Anna answer me do you love him no I love you I never stopped at every time I hit every place I went I walked the places we used to walk and listen to the songs we used to sing please don't you don't need this Anna put it down we could cut out of here leave this town and never come back no we can start all over again right from the very beginning Anna make it like it was before only better a hundred times well please no look we we can't talk about it now there isn't any time help me finish this and then then we can go to someplace and talk about it no Ronnie please we've got to get out of here no no help me do this and I'll never ask you for another thing as long as I live no Anna please I'll do it but I want condition what but after we burn this place you'll come with me and promise never to see Frank again well okay Ronnie I took the camera cleaning from her hands and started splashing it all over the back room in a cold storage walk while she got down off the shelf we splashed more of it on the loading dock and down the hall leading toward the front of the store and she stopped at a door marked office in here why in the office Frank said to make sure the whole store burns by the way it didn't sound right to me but I splashed the stuff all over the walls behind the desk the plush carpet on the floor the paper is over the desk everything until the room was reeking with cleaning fluid flames until you could hardly breathe and suddenly little things I've been noticing in the corner of my skull began to hit me wrong it just didn't add up until now Anna had been as cool as a cucumber but now she was shaken so badly she could hardly hold a can in her hands a long coil of rope lay on the top of a filing cabinet looking strangely out of place and then I noticed that all the mail spread across the desk was addressed to a Mr. Frank or Martin now wait a minute this is Frank's office isn't it honey we gotta hurry come on I'll answer my question this is Frank's office isn't it this is Frankie's office and he wants it burned for a reason I want to know what you're talking about oh yes you do Anna you know a lot more about this setup than you're letting on now what is it you haven't leveled with me all night have you you haven't leveled with me since the night we met don't touch me Anna what's going on you had the lady piano player keep your hands off I looked over her shoulder to see the big open mouth of a nice blue 45 and suddenly I knew what a man feels like when he's just finished digging his own grave in a moment we'll return with act two of now from Dupont comes the most advanced antifreeze and summer coolant ever developed for any car new or old its name tell our t e l a r tell our it takes one and a half gallons of tell our to protect the average full size car down to zero and at its new low price your dealer can protect your car with tell our for only about a dollar more than ordinary antifreezes even less for compact cars but and this is important once installed Dupont tell our can be left in all year round summer and winter for as long as you keep your car any car new or old your servicing dealer will tell you exactly why this is possible in addition tell our is specially recommended for modern aluminum engines so ask your servicing dealer to install tell our antifreeze and summer coolant in your car remember it's made by Dupont tell our t e l a r tell our that's right college boy keep your hands over your head no one ever introduced us but i'd say offhand you're frank and you're bright college boy real bright now look if this is a shakedown i'm afraid you got the wrong party i'm broke how this isn't penny handy stuff i'm going after this is money big money well pardon my density but i still don't get it you're very insurance haven't your college boy oh sure sure but i don't see how you can collect on the store you don't own or do you i don't own the store i don't have that kind of changing present so i insured myself well either not worth two cents but then i'm worth fifty grand it's quite a piece of change and anna here is my only beneficiary oh well i don't know how this figures me unless you want me to help you commit suicide oh suicides don't collect besides that wouldn't die for any broad that's strictly for suckers like you okay i've been a sucker up until now but i don't think i can make this gig anymore man nobody's gonna commit suicide i'm going to be murdered but like i said i still don't get it i guess you ain't as bright as i thought i told the owner of the store i was gonna work late tonight go over the books the police will think i accidentally left the door unlocked somebody found it open came in tied me to my chair stole all the furs then burned the store to destroy the evidence now wait a minute time i'll be on my way to mexico where anna will join me after she's had sufficient time to recover from her grief and collected the insurance money well there's only one thing wrong with that little plan frankie nobody would ever confuse me with you not in a million years oh i don't know what about the same height and build you ever seen what a man looks like adries been soaked with cleaning fluid and touched off with a match i'm betting there's not much more than a crisp char to compare anything with you always wanted to take my place college boys sit down in my chair behind the desk and turn around and face the wall i did as i was told there wasn't much else i could do but before i did i took one last look at anna she couldn't face me hold the gun on a matter while i tie him up he even looks like he's gonna move let him have it since i was as good as dead anyway i knew that anything i did would be the right thing they say that a man was about to die starts praying i didn't i started thinking hard and fast because i wanted so badly to go on living i don't look like i could punch by a way out of a paper bag but while i was waiting out the army's boredom in japan a gentle old japanese man taught me you don't need brawn to defend yourself just brains and speed and a thing called karate piano players best friends you don't hurt your hands and i knew i had to have something to defend myself against husbands and boyfriends so i learned karate in the art of timing and surprise i waited until i could feel him touch my arm and when he slid his hand down on my wrist i made my move i grabbed two of his fingers and hurt them snap as i bent them back that couple with a surprise made it easy for me to slip them around in a half nelson his fingers hanging like loose spaghetti so his body was between me and the gun i knew anna wouldn't hesitate to shoot me but i figured maybe frankie boy was something shoot but god fakes had a shoot put the gun down and back out into the hall no come on do as i say anna i can kill him with my hands if i want to you know that no anna you know i can do it anna you've seen me practice remember all i have to do is add a little pressure right here that's better anna i waited until she put the gun on the table in the back clear out to the hall before i spun frank around and slammed them with stiff fingers hard right under the breastbone he crumpled like a rag doll with his eyes bulging like a drunk with the heaves i ran from the office grabbing anna by the arm as i went what did you do nothing nothing he'll live come on you killed me he only wishes i had come on i dragged her all the way back to the loading dock and she fought me every step of the way we jumped down and ran past the truck to a small door where i struggled with the bolt all the time keeping a tight grip on our wrist i guess i didn't jab him hard enough because frank came out of the dock after his doubled over in pain his gun in his head frank come back here you come back i shoved her out the door ahead of me and dove out just as he cut loose the shots were like matches in a gas tank the cleaning fluid fumes made the whole building explode in a roar of flames ah come on let's get out of here oh we can't leave can't help a man it's too late and i you can't go in there and i come back here in the paper where my old friend frank amato finally met with a fatal accident he burned to death ah that's so what happened last night i don't guess you'd know anything about it would you uh no no i don't guess i would i didn't think so the way the cops figured it he was trying to rob the place where he worked and then burn the store to cover his tracks and somehow he touched off the place ahead of time and burned him and the girl that was with him that was a girl yeah probably the one that was in here last night but they aren't sure yet they haven't even been able to identify his body positively yet that's too bad yeah that's the way i thought you'd feel i don't look now but i think you've got a customer coming your way i think i'll check the bar yeah thanks leon without even looking i knew do you know stardust i have to struggle to keep for choking do i know stardust but i don't let it show i look up slow and shy smile and give her the old carcass spaniel beautiful song about a beautiful girl i was hoping that thank you pleasure's mine i've been listening to you you play very well thank you it's been a long time since anyone said that oh most people just drink pretend to listen but not you you're different you're special for a special girl i'm gonna play a special number not just something like stardust what they call it all this i get along without you very well just call it to death of an old cousin terry keen and written especially for suspense by george bamber directed by bruno zorato jr special music for today's story of suspense was controlled and performed by norman paris featured in tonight's story where ralph bell as frank robert donnelly as leo and evelyn juster's the girl listen again next week when we return with till death do us part written by ben kagan another tale well calculated to keep you in suspense