The Spence.
Tonight, with the George Murphy, as star of Deaf Bomb Highway 99, a suspense play produced,
edited and directed by William Spear.
Dear Julie, the clock here in my room has just struck seven, which means I have about an
hour for writing this letter to you.
I guess already you've said who's this from, what goes, so I'll tell you right off.
Remember Morton Blake, Speed Blake they called me in high school, the guy who sat behind
you in Algebra II in chemistry?
Now that was more than seven years ago.
And I'm writing to you because there's no one else in the world that I give a darn about.
There never has been, Julie, since I saw you the first time.
Well, I sure had other plans about you and that's probably a surprise too because I never
had the nerve to let you know I was alive before.
But as it is with me now, this letter is all you'll ever know.
Letter telling what a mess I've made of things, what a mess I've made of my life.
You see, Julie, it's because I always decided too late what to do, because I always was
a coward.
That's why I never spoke up and told you back then what I thought about you until it was
too late.
And you married someone else.
That's why I'm writing you the last letter I'll ever write to a girl who can't even
remember my face.
That's why I'm waiting for Captain Shannon to come and get me.
You see, Julie, I'm a murderer.
Yes, in just a little while I'll see the squad car pull up outside and then all the fumbling
and mistakes will be over.
But I want you to understand, that's all, because it really was all her fault, Pauline's.
Do you remember Pauline?
She was that strawberry blonde who hated you so much.
Of course Pauline hated everyone.
She was so sharp and mean and not like you.
But when you got married, I married Pauline just to show myself that I didn't care, just
because she was there handy and you were lost.
It was five long years we were clawing each other like two cats tied in a sack.
Right up to that last night, she'd gone to a show alone.
I was there with her.
What?
Oh look, Pauline, I work late, I'm tired.
Now why don't you just sit there and be quiet?
Yes, you'd like that, wouldn't you?
You'd like it if I was deaf and dumb.
But you won't shut me up, Morton Blake.
When I want to talk, I'll talk.
What are you stopping for?
It's a boulevard stop sign.
Oh, for isn't that silly?
It's almost two in the morning.
There isn't a car in sight.
Oh, Pauline, let me drive the car, will ya?
All right, sure.
Take your time.
After I waited almost an hour in the cold.
You don't care about anybody but yourself.
Pauline.
What?
Look, let's stop kidding ourselves.
Let's be honest for five minutes.
Honest?
You're a fine one to speak about being honest.
I just wonder if it really was work that kept you tonight.
After all, I know a couple of things.
Oh, forget all that, will ya? And listen.
What I'm trying to say is our marriage is finished.
You know it and I know it.
It was no good before we started.
Yes.
And whose fault was that, may I ask?
I know what you were thinking of then.
I know who you were mooning about.
I know that.
Oh, all right, all right.
But why should you and I go on?
Why don't we just call the whole thing off?
You've been working too hard, Mort.
You're delirious.
Do you really think I'd ever give you a divorce?
Well, it's as bad for you as it is for me, Pauline.
Why not?
I got my reasons.
But we're wasting our lives.
You're still young and pretty and you could get a much better deal.
And you think you could too, don't you, Mort?
Oh, I don't know.
Well, just because you want your freedom so much, it's no go, see.
Because I like to make you squirm because I loathe and despise you.
Do you get me, Mort?
Yes, yes, I get you.
Pauline, oh, let's don't talk anymore.
Let's forget it.
Look, you don't have to speed up just because we started.
Look, a minute ago I was going too slow.
You said...
Never mind what I said.
Stop going so fast.
Well, I'm under the limit.
Dry up.
Mort will turn over.
Oh, I said dry up.
But Mort, there's somebody on the road.
Morton, but aren't you going to hit him?
You hit him.
You stay in the car, Pauline.
Don't go, Mort.
He's dead.
Maybe.
Just stay where you are.
He's moving.
Hey, mister.
Mister, can you hear me?
Okay.
I drove off.
Couldn't see me in the dark.
Now, don't try to talk.
Here, just hang on to me.
I'll get you into the car.
Good, now you're on your feet.
Who are you, mister?
Name...
Haggerty.
Okay, Mr. Haggerty.
Take it easy now and I'll take you to a doctor.
Doctor, quickly.
Quick.
He's passed out.
Pauline, open the back door.
He's alive.
Here.
There, now if we hurry.
We've got to get him to the hospital right away.
Well, there.
There's the result of your temper, Mort.
My temper?
Well, you know it wasn't my fault.
He jumped right in front of the wheel.
Not your fault.
He doesn't seem to think it was your fault either.
Well, it wasn't.
You saw.
He ran off from the side without looking.
Oh, sure.
You're lucky.
As usual, Mort.
Lucky?
What are you talking about?
The streets are completely deserted.
Well, it's late.
What's so strange about that?
Nothing.
There weren't any witnesses.
Well, that's right.
No witnesses except him and you.
Yes.
That's right.
Him and me.
What's your hurry, Morton?
What's my...
Well, I've got to get him to a hospital.
He may be dying.
No, Mort.
He's not dying.
You don't have to hurry.
He's dead.
She said it just like that.
Like she was handing me a birthday present.
I pulled the car to the curb and got in the back seat.
The old man was sprawled across the cushions.
His head twisted back.
When I put my face down, there was no whisper of any breathing on my cheek.
I slipped my hand inside his coat.
Still as stone.
Not a flicker from his heart.
I crawled back under the wheel and sat there thinking.
Mort.
Yeah.
You know what you've done?
Yeah.
He's dead.
That means you're guilty of...
What is it, Mort?
Murder?
No, it's not murder.
Or manslaughter.
And even manslaughter will mean prison.
Won't it, Mort?
Huh?
I said manslaughter will mean prison, won't it?
Prison?
No, it wasn't my fault.
You heard him say so.
Yeah.
If I testify that I heard, then you'll get off.
Is that it?
What?
Well, you'll have to testify.
Or else...
Or else what, Mort?
Or else I'll be sent up.
There weren't any other witnesses.
That's right, Morton.
Hey.
What are you trying to tell me?
Mort, you must have imagined that poor man said it wasn't your fault.
What?
Because I didn't hear him say a thing.
You're lying.
You're lying, Pauline.
You heard him.
As soon as I put him in the car, he said, it's not your fault.
Can you prove it, Mort?
Can I prove?
This is what I wanted, Mort.
I'll have my freedom, but you won't have yours.
You'll be that jailbird, Speed Blake.
And you'll have years and years and years to think about the other girls you used to know.
Won't you, Mort?
I looked at her.
She had a thin smile on her lips.
I got a crawling feeling at the back of my neck.
I held onto the wheel so tight, my knuckles began to ache.
Well, Morton, what are you waiting for?
What was I waiting for?
What had I always waited for?
Well, Morton.
I began to think of something.
A line my beloved wife's ran through my brain.
No witnesses.
There were no witnesses.
Why wait, Mort?
Be a man.
No witnesses.
There were no witnesses.
I could dump the old man's body somewhere on the edge of town and no one would be the wiser.
No one but Pauline.
But...
But what if there was no Pauline?
Where are you going?
This isn't the way, Mort.
Morton, look at that speedometer.
I tell you, you're going the wrong way, Mort.
We're way past the city limits.
Morton.
Morton, stop this car at once.
Stop it, do you hear?
Okay.
I'll stop the car, Pauline.
Oh.
Mort, you...
You didn't really believe me when I said I wouldn't testify?
Did you, Mort?
Yes.
Yes, I believed you.
But I was only kidding.
I wouldn't think of not telling you.
I believed you, Pauline.
But you know I'd never do such a thing.
I believed you, and so I'm going to kill you.
You're...
You're joking.
Am I?
You wouldn't dare, Mort.
Anyway, how could you?
Look outside, Pauline.
Did you notice where we are?
What do you mean?
We're on Austin Bluff.
Remember the cliff just ahead?
Oh, Morton.
Must be at least 300 feet to the bottom.
Pretty picture, huh, baby?
Oh, please.
Please, Morton.
Come on, get out of the car.
No.
No, no, no!
Oh, yes, yes.
We're going for a walk, Pauline.
No, no!
A walk in the moonlight.
Just you and me.
After five years, we ought to have a little romance, we two.
She didn't budge, and her eyes blazed at me.
I got out of the car and closed the door.
Walked around to the other side to pull her out.
But she locked the door from the inside before I got there.
I ran fast, back to the other side.
I wasn't fast enough, she'd locked that door.
And the back doors, too.
She and Haggerty were locked in.
Oh, it made me crazy wild to see her little white face in there.
The face that had kept me from anything a guy could want in life.
Open up.
Open up the door.
You can't get away.
I got the keys, so quit stalling.
Open up.
Stop it.
Stop that horn or I'll...
OK, I'll fix that.
You won't keep that ragging up long, sweetheart.
Let's see now.
Which is it?
Ah, ah, there.
Got him.
You see, Pauline?
You'd be smart to come out and get it over with.
I pressed my face against the glass.
She was crouched down in the front seat.
Her eyes watched every move I made.
She was trapped, and she knew it.
I could see Haggerty in the back seat,
his head still twisted back.
His eyes were shut, and his sprawled old body
had a look of pain and surprise.
Even wild like I was, I felt bad about him.
But I had to hurry.
Pauline was fooling with the lights,
flashing them on and off.
I fell around on the ground and I found a good solid rock.
I picked it up and I showed it to her.
Open up.
This is your last chance or I'll smash the window.
OK, whatever you say, baby.
Here we go.
No!
No, Martin, no!
Now for that walk.
No, no, no, don't, don't hurt me, please.
Don't hurt me.
Come on, I'll stop that screaming.
Martin!
Now, I think it's a clear drop here.
No ledge.
That's water.
See that glow down there?
That's water.
Taylor Creek.
Clear all the way down.
Oh, you want to talk, huh?
OK, talk.
You can even yell.
No one will hear you now.
You can do this, Martin.
I promise I won't hurt you.
You're not the kind of person to kill.
You can't do it.
Can I?
You'd be surprised what I can do, Pauline.
No, please.
Stop it, Martin.
Goodbye, baby.
No!
Goodbye.
Sweet dreams.
Yes, Julie, I did it.
When you get this letter, you'll be the only person who will really know why.
You'll know that I'm only sorry that I didn't kill her sooner.
All right, so you can't quite remember which guy I was.
I was the tall one or the redheaded one.
Or if you spoke to me when you saw me in the hall,
that doesn't matter to you or to me now.
What matters is that I lived with her for five years.
Five years that I might have spent at least thinking about you.
Well, it was done.
I climbed back into the car, the clock on the dash said 20 after 2.
I still had to get rid of the old man's body before daylight.
So I started driving.
When I came to a strip of forest along the road, I stopped my car and got out.
Right then, the beam of a spotlight pinned me in my tracks.
I didn't move.
I saw it was a cop.
Hey, what you doing there?
I started walking towards him, rolling his motorcycle.
No parking anywhere along the highway, mister.
Oh, well, okay, officer. I didn't know.
This ain't no lovers lane. You gotta keep moving.
Oh, I'm sorry. I'll get moving right away, officer.
Hey, you're not carrying any vegetables in your car, are you?
Uh, vegetables? Oh, no.
There's a beetle thing on again.
I just better take a look in the back there.
Oh, there's nothing in the back.
Hey!
What? What?
Listen.
Where does that guy think he's going?
Oh, yes. He's speeding all right.
Say, am I gonna slap a ticket on him?
But you clear out of here, mister.
I don't ever park on this highway again.
Oh, no.
No, sir, never again.
So I took another road and got back on Highway 99.
By then, I felt jittery.
I smoked one cigarette after another,
and the sweat was rolling down my face.
I found another spot, and this time, I made sure I was alone.
Then I parked the car, and I opened the back door.
I reached in for Hagerty's body.
He was still limp and warm, and really, I was sorry about him.
You see, that proves I wasn't the killer.
That proves that it was her fault, Pauline.
And if she hadn't been like she was, I never would have killed.
Not anymore.
Well, I got the old man out onto the road, and I left him.
When I got home, I put the car in the garage,
and I looked it over to see that everything was okay.
There was no blood on the seat. That was a break.
The window was broken, of course, but I could fix that.
There was mud on the tires.
So I got out the garden hose, and I washed them down.
Then I went into the house.
I was pretty nervous, and I knew that I had to be on my toes
for the next few days, so I took a couple of sleeping pills.
They did the trick.
I was asleep the minute my head hit the pillow.
The telephone sounded like it was ringing miles away.
I didn't know if it was day or night.
I stumbled down the hall, shaking my head, trying to clear my brain.
Hello? Hello?
Is this Martin, Blake?
Yes.
This is Sergeant Graham down at headquarters.
Oh, yes, yes. Is there anything wrong?
I have some bad news for you, Blake.
Bad? Bad news?
Yeah. A report just came in from the East Precinct.
A couple of campers found a body at the bottom of the cliff.
Yes?
Well, tough to tell you, but the body's been identified as your wife, Pauline.
It looked like an accident.
They didn't suspect a thing.
I was in the clear.
The sleeping pills were still working.
I wanted to go back to bed, but I didn't dare.
I had to get down to the morgue right away to identify what was left of Pauline.
I thought that might throw me,
but I was as cold as steel when they took me in this year.
They were watching me, so I pulled a little act.
Hey, hey, hey, take it easy here.
Sit down. I'll get you some water.
Oh, thanks. I'm all right now.
Here. Take a swallow of this.
Oh, thanks.
I guess... I guess you must get pretty hardened at these things after a while.
Yeah. We see them every day.
But I don't know. You never really get used to it.
We had another sad case this morning.
Another accident?
Yeah, yeah.
They brought in an old fella.
Found him on Highway 99.
Smacked by a hit-and-run driver.
Is that right?
Yeah. Nasty business.
Of course, this old man isn't dead, but still...
Hey, you're jumpy.
Here, I'll get you another glass.
Oh, thanks.
You see, seeing my wife, I guess I...
Sure, I understand.
Yeah. Just take it easy.
Well...
Feel better?
Yeah, sure.
Uh, you were telling me the old man wasn't dead?
No, no, he, uh...
Just by luck, one of the boys got a very faint heartbeat when they felt his pulse.
Well, he went to work on him fast and it looks like he's gonna pull through.
Oh, that's... that's sure a break.
Uh, for him, I mean.
Yeah, yeah.
He's at the receiving hospital.
The report is he's come along fine.
Got a bad smack in the head, lost his memory.
Oh.
For... for good?
No, no, they say it's only temporary.
They say when he snaps out of it, he may even remember the dirty rat that hit him.
Hagerty was alive.
Alive.
Well, of course, I should have been glad.
The poor old guy had never done anything to me.
But I couldn't think that way then.
Hagerty was alive and he'd remember me.
He'd remember Pauline was with me.
I almost gave up, I almost shouted,
All right, I did it, I killed my wife.
Something kept me fighting long enough to get out of there.
Long enough to drive to the hospital where Hagerty was.
It was taking an awful chance, but I couldn't stay away.
I was just walking up to the desk to find out his room number one.
Blake!
Aren't you Morton Blake?
Uh, yes, yes, I am.
Well, I'm Captain Shannon from headquarters.
I just saw you down at the morgue.
Oh, oh, yes, I, uh...
I didn't remember.
Well, I can't tell you how sorry I am about your wife.
Oh, yes, sir.
Thanks, Captain.
Funny running into you here.
Yes, sir, I, I...
Well, I thought I'd find out if I could get a room and take a rest for a few days.
I feel pretty shot.
Hmm, I can imagine.
But I don't think you have a chance the way hospitals are crowded.
You better get your rest at home.
Get a friend to stay with you.
Yeah, I guess you're right.
I drive you home, but I got called down on this hit-and-run case.
Oh, the old man, the attendant at the morgue was telling me.
Yeah, he's conscious now, so I'm going out to talk to him.
Uh, do you think he'll know who hit him?
They said over the phone he has a good description,
and even if he isn't good,
we've got the tire print of the car and a footprint of the driver.
You have? From where?
There was a lot of mud where the car stopped.
The driver was careless. That kind usually are.
Oh, uh, there's a doctor on the case now.
Oh, Dr. Leeds. Yes.
I was just coming up to talk to old Haggerty.
Yes, I know. Did the nurse tell you he described the driver, Captain?
Yes, I'm going to take it down and, uh, make the arrest.
Fine, but would you mind waiting about two hours?
The old man's sleeping now, and rest is important to a man his age.
Mind, doctor? No, no, what's time to me?
It's two hours more for the hit-and-run driver, whoever he is,
to wonder just how smart he really was.
And we know the answer.
So, Julie, I'm waiting now.
I'm writing you all this because I got a crazy idea that you have a right to know.
You, a girl I knew seven years ago who won't remember me.
Who won't remember that nickname, Speedy, or if I had freckles.
I did.
First you signed my book on class day.
You didn't, because I didn't have the nerve to ask.
So maybe it isn't a real girl at all that I'm writing this to.
I guess I'm writing to how I failed.
To how I never did anything on time.
To how I thought good and acted bad.
But you see, what I think you were adds up to how much I failed.
I guess every guy in the world has someone like you.
A girl in a blue dress.
An excess of having her now.
Knocks back the limelight and they drove up now.
They drove up now.
Captain Shannon and a couple of cops.
Hang on, Mike.
Okay.
Well, I've only got seconds to get ready for them.
So, goodbye, Julie. Goodbye.
Blake. Blake.
All right, you can come in now.
It isn't locked.
Yes, I brought this to Hagerty, Blake.
I think we all ought to have a little talk.
Sure. Sure, I know.
This is the man, isn't it, Hagerty?
Yes, but I told you, Captain, it wasn't his fault.
You told him what?
Of course.
I stepped out and you couldn't miss hitting me.
But he left you there. You might have been dying, Hagerty.
No, he got scared.
I don't blame him.
I'm not going to make any charges, Captain, and that's that.
Well, I guess that's all, Blake.
Oh. Oh.
You ought to be happy about it.
What? But wait.
Didn't he tell you about...
What about your wife?
Sir, that she was with me in the car?
Last night? Your wife was with you?
Hagerty.
He didn't tell you?
And now it's too late. I... I...
What's wrong with you, Blake?
Come and get the water.
It's too late. I... I took...
I took cyanide.
When you drove up, it's too late.
You see, I killed Pauline.
But Hagerty never said...
I know. I know.
He didn't see it.
He passed out before I put him in the car.
It's too late.
It's funny about me, Captain.
Oh, but I was always too late.
And I used to call him Steve.
Oh. Oh.
Blake.
George Murphy, a star of death on Highway 99.
Tonight's study in...
Suspense.
This is the Armed Forces radio surface.
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