 From Hollywood, it's time now for Johnny Deller Lord Parkinson Johnny eternity mutual. Oh, how are you more? I couldn't feel much worse It's the olives that do it not the martinis. I wish it was that simple Can you come over to my office right away Johnny? Well, I guess so I don't know often pull that Confidential business, but I really would hesitate to go into this one on the phone pretty rough I'm afraid you're gonna find it even worse than that. It's uh, it's about Ed Morgan Johnny Ed Morgan, I'm sorry. I Was a good friend of yours. That is one of the best I ever had Ed was a great guy It's too bad. He had to die that way Johnny a year sooner What you'd better come on over to the office 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 investigators truly Johnny Deller From special investigator Johnny Deller to the home office eternity mutual insurance company Hartford, Connecticut The following is an accounting of expended yours during my investigation of the confidential matter Item one two dollars and eighty five cents taxi from my apartment to the eternity building in the seventh floor office of Mort Parkinson vice president and general manager It was a room. I well remembered with its blank walnut paneling and deep leather chairs I've worked on a lot of cases with Mort and with the late Ed Morgan too And it sounded now as though Ed my good friend from a long time back was about to become a case himself Come in Johnny pull up a chair. Thanks Mort Well, that was quite a phone call. It's quite a situation. Yeah, I gathered that No, I just can't talk sitting down old habit. I guess Remember when we used to be over in the old Johnstone building before we built this new one We had those old-fashioned stand-up desks. It was when an old man Clement was still alive and before I was Yes, I guess I keep forgetting about you newcomers meaning everybody who's come into the game within the last 40 years I suppose I am one of the original settlers and setting my ways to yeah Well, what about I sure hated to see those desks go you could stand in front of them lean an elbow on them Make out a report or a speed You're trying too hard to avoid it Avoid what he didn't call me over here just to reminisce about the old days in a way. Maybe I did You know, it's funny. I always thought you liked Ed Morgan, but I did and why did you say it's too bad? He didn't die a year sooner because I liked him Except like is too weak a word actually I Thought as much of Ed as I would have of my own son if I'd had one Why I'm the one who hired him in the first place remember Johnny Yeah, I remember and I took a personal interest in his career Watched him work his way up To finally he was appointed chief adjuster for the West Coast head of our San Francisco claims office That was darn good for a man as young as he was when I was proud of him Johnny Yeah, I know I know you were a hard worker honest dependable and he had a good sound future ahead of him And then just like that Accidents are usually just like that foggy night sharp curve and he drove his car off a cliff into the Pacific Ocean And that was that tragedy Feeny the end only it apparently wasn't the end or you wouldn't have called me over here. No, it wasn't Johnny I wish it had been meaning You'd better brace yourself Within two weeks after Ed Morgan's death, we started getting complaints from some of our clients out. What do you mean? Complaints old demands for adjustment on claims that it reported paid weeks before Request for past due settlements and so on more and I don't get it neither did I So I sent a company accountant out to San Francisco on the QT and put him to work on the claims files And we found out you found out what that Ed's accounts had been doctored for some time What Johnny in the months before he was killed he'd embezzled nearly $80,000 Ed Morgan Ed Morgan. I don't believe it. He did it You might as well accept the fact anybody else. Yes, anybody else but not Ed For one thing money didn't mean that much to him I know we were always joshing him about living like an old hermit instead of a young bachelor Well, then why would he do it steal $80,000 after all these years of being honest What would he want that would cost that much money? That's exactly what I wish you'd find out. Wait a second more Wait a second. This is one. I don't want any part of neither do I but I'm afraid I'm stuck with it And you are too in a way why because Ed was your friend Here's a flight ticket and reservation to San Francisco plane leaves in two hours. No, no, no I'd rather pass it more. Well, so would I but we can't neither of us. There are too many questions left And they've got to be answered by me $80,000 of the company's money is missing. I can't just write it off and forget it It has to be accounted for there are other investigators more and another thing. That's just as important to me at least Is to find out why he did it. It's a failure in human dynamics Man like Ed a man. Everybody respected and trusted and he goes wrong Why get somebody else to find out? I'd be pretty grateful if you do it Johnny Mort I just don't want any part of it. I know how you feel. It's quite a shock to find out. He was a crook It's like somebody pulling the rug out from under you So now you want to forget all about him leave him safely dead and buried dead Mort, but not buried If you remember they recovered the car, but not his body It's still somewhere beneath the Pacific all right then look at it from an efficiency standpoint of nothing else Do any other investigator Ed Morgan would be just a name an unknown quantity But you knew him I Thought I did regardless of what he did Johnny. I just hate to think of a stranger pouring into his past Maybe I still think back to the old times in the old country when the family buried their own dead And sometimes Johnny a friend has to go all the way even when the other person is Goofed isn't that what the younger generation calls it? I'm not the younger generation mort right now. I'm older than Confucius I sure appreciate it Johnny After all somebody's got to do it Yeah, somebody's got to do it and like you said it was my friend All right, Mort Let's have the ticket Item two fourteen dollars and thirty five cents tips taxi and incidentals in Hartford and same in San Francisco Plain trip between points paid from expense account of company manager and not included here with I Went straight from the airport to Ed's last address when he was still alive an apartment house in the Nob Hill section called the Drakeley arms And there's where I got my first surprise Ed had always been the two-room bachelor walk-up type But the Drakeley arms consisted of equal parts of glitter glass swank and price Including a uniformed dormant a small private bar off the lobby and an assistant manager with a gardenia on his lapel Oh, he was a rare one that manager and it was a real gardenia I am of course most desirous of assisting you in every way possible. Mr What did you say your name on dollar DOL? I can spell dollar. I'll bet you can I beg your pardon. Oh, it's kind of I didn't mean you didn't mean to be offensive. I understand now About the former occupant of sweet 14 mr. Dollar. I'm terribly afraid. Oh, please don't be I mean There is simply very little I can tell you about the lake mr. Morgan a matter of discretion. Is that it? Discretion policy the house Something of that sort. Well, we do of course try to protect the privacy of our residents. I'm sure you understand Even to the extent of turning down $20. Oh, well a curse one, isn't it? Under the circumstances nice likeness of Andrew Jackson, isn't it? Thank you, sir Gratuities of this nature are always so helpful in smoothing the rough pathway of human relations. Don't you think so mr. Dollar? Definitely it's already helping you remember my name Well money is a mental stimulant, isn't it? Don't call it money. Just think of it as item three. I beg your pardon item That's quite all right. I meant yeah, I know it's a kind of a habit. I seem to be picking up now Has your memory been stimulated any in regard to Ed Morgan? Oh, yes the late mr. Morgan Pardon me mr. Dollar Yes, oh Yes countess Margie Yes, I'll be delighted to send the boy up for two quarts of suds would a nice driver very in a will be Yes, countess just plain beer. Yes countess right away Frightful old lady mixes it with creme de marte, you know Now where were we mr. Dollar? We weren't not sure. Oh, yes the late mr. Morgan Well, he'd been our guest you understand for about six months at the time of his tragic accident What was he paying for his suite of rooms? Oh, well ordinarily we don't release information about it. This is not ordinary. How much? $1,200 a month I See, oh, he was a true gentleman if I may say so a bon vivant and on the crassly materialistic side It will forgive me sir a very free spender. Sorry 20s the limit mr. Dollar I was not trying to coerce your generosity by Well putting on another bite precisely all right, so Ed was bedded down in a mink line stall I was throwing money around like water. What else who came to see him? What sort of visitors did he have well none at all that I can recall none at all He leased that overpriced cubicle and then just sat in it. Well, what about friends here in the building? Most of our guests might be termed individually exclusive Even eccentric in some cases except of course mrs. Barrett. Yes, one of the loveliest guests. We've ever had the pleasure of Excuse me mr. Dollar Yes Yes Countess Margie the boy is on his way. I Know but he has to go clear down to the corner Yeah, well, please tell you to pimpam that I'm so sorry The dog drinks that stuff too now where were we about this mrs. Barrett you mentioned oh, yes Well, of course she and mr. Morgan were inseparable you understand they were together constantly and mr. Oh, there wasn't any well out recently. I mean deceased You know dead. Yeah, when early this year as I recall I didn't know him of course Mrs. Barrett moved in here shortly after his death not until then and Ed Morgan When did he move in about six weeks later? Oh, he met her here then. Oh, no, no, they were already acquainted Well acquainted I see in fact I believe that mr. Morgan and the young and very lovely widow met at the time of her husband's death a matter of Settling the estate or something of that sort it would figure all right I don't remember exactly why I thought so but I do recall having an impression at the time that he moved in here only Because of her and as I say they were together constantly right from the first That's all very interesting. I wonder if I could have a talk with this mrs. Barrett. Hmm. That would be utterly impossible I'm afraid now. Look if you think I mean she isn't here isn't here She's been gone for ten days now where'd she go? I really haven't the slightest idea mr. Dollar Well, if she moved out she must have left a forwarding address of some kind She didn't move out. She still has her apartment here. She'll be back eventually. I imagine but at the moment I haven't heard a word from us and she left. Oh poor dear You know one can understand why she'd want to get away for a while such a tragic coincidence having two deaths of exactly the same Oh, God. Well, wait a minute. What do you mean by tragic coincidence? Hmm. Oh, well as I understand it Mrs. Barrett's husband also died in some sort of accident Yes countess Now here is our star to tell you about tomorrow's episode of this week's story tomorrow The trail back into a man's past is a faint and twisting one and at times it runs through quicksand Join us. Want you yours truly Johnny dollar Yours truly Johnny dollar 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 Hugh Brunberg speaking