Suspense!
The George Calouris as star of The Long Shot.
A suspense play produced, edited and directed by William Spear.
The one thing that puzzles me Raymond is how in the world a man of your intelligence could expect to get away with it.
Oh you haven't heard the whole story.
Yeah?
Well come on let's have it.
You got your book Miss Andrews?
Yes sir.
Okay Raymond, okay. Start from the beginning.
You know of course there's anything you say.
Oh what difference does it make if you found the body?
Nothing I can say now. It's going to matter one way or another.
Yeah well.
Yes I admit it was a long shot. But if you followed the horses as long as I have, you know that once in a while a long shot pays off.
When it does it pays plenty.
Just like this one would have if it hadn't been for a smart Nevada cop.
Smart Nevada cop? Oh I don't understand.
Let him talk. Let him talk.
Go on Raymond.
Thanks.
Seems a year. But I guess it's only ten days since I was sitting in the Astor lobby in New York.
I'd had a terrible run of luck at the track.
Started out the season with two thousand dollars and ended up with twenty eight cents.
I was desperate.
Hey give me one. Give me one.
There you are mister. Thank you.
I don't know why but I found myself absentmindedly looking through the classified section.
All of a sudden a small black square in the help wanted column seemed to come up and hit me right in the eye.
Englishmen will pay one hundred and fifty dollars in expenses to fellow countrymen, preferably Londoner,
in return for services as driver and traveling companion on automobile trip to San Francisco.
There was a phone number and an address on 76th street.
Come in.
Oh excuse me old chap I'm on the phone.
Hello. You say you're from Devonshire.
Yes I understand.
Have you spent much time in London?
Well frankly I'd much prefer Londoner.
Town's a sort of fetish with me you understand.
Yes I'd probably bore you to death.
However if nothing else turns up I'll call you.
Righto.
Oh step inside.
Thank you. You've come about the advertisement I presume.
Yes. Oh have a chair.
Thanks. You know I couldn't help overhearing your conversation.
Yes. Been plagued all day not a prospect in the lot.
Now what about you?
Well my name's Kelly Raymond born in London in Zegall Lane just off St James's Square August 18th 1902.
I know the town like the inside of my hat.
Really? You're not making this up.
Oh no of course not.
How long did you live there?
30 years.
Zegall Lane I'm not sure I know it.
Oh well I suppose Zegall Street is the proper name.
It turns right off Sackville and runs a few squares before it crosses Wheaton Street.
Oh yes yes yes. Of course I place it now.
Well Raymond you seem to be a bit of all right.
Tell me why would you like to drive with me to San Francisco?
Are you at all interested in horse racing?
Sorry old boy my name is Hendricks Walker Hendricks.
No I'm not interested in horse racing.
No I can't say that I am particularly.
I've been to Edson Towns on a few occasions.
I see well I've become rather fond of it.
I might even say financially dependent on it in recent years and with Bay Meadows opening shortly.
Bay Meadows all the time?
That's a track near San Francisco.
Oh yes I see. Perhaps you wondered about my advertisement.
Well it was a bit unusual.
Yes well fact is I'm extremely depressed with Americans frankly.
Never would have come here if it hadn't been for urgent business in San Francisco.
Naturally I couldn't bear the prospect of making the trip alone.
I hope to find a fellow Britisher in the same predicament.
Oh excuse me a moment will you.
Hello. Oh oh oh yes.
Well I'm frightfully sorry but I've just engaged a man.
I didn't tell him why I had to leave town of course.
But there was the small matter of a few bad checks and a cell waiting for me in the city jail if I ran into the wrong people.
And thank heaven with all his eccentricity he knew when to stop asking questions.
Yes yes I was sitting pretty.
The only thing I was afraid of was death from sheer boredom because from the moment we started out all he could talk about was London.
Have you spent much time in Soho Raymond?
Well I never lived there that's what you mean.
Oh no no no I mean the restaurants and so on. Have you visited them?
Oh well let me see. There's the Moroccan.
No no no what was it the Algerian cafe in Dean Street.
Oh quite right the Algerian in Dean Street.
Isn't that the place where they sell their wonderful coffee in the little brown packages?
Yes.
Yes I'm sure. There's a big French woman there that we used to call Madame.
Oh quite I recall her now.
Do you remember the sign on the wall behind the counter?
Ah let me see.
Something about anyone caught gambling or playing for money will be kicked into the gutter and not picked up again.
Oh yes.
As a matter of fact I remember her clearly now. Yes I saw her there only a short time ago.
Oh it seems to me she died didn't she?
Was that a fact?
Oh you probably met her daughter.
Oh slow down a bit will you? Oh there's a sign Cleveland 12 miles.
Oh well we'll spend the night there I think.
Oh good idea. Let's see.
Oh yes we were talking about Soho.
Yes we were talking about Soho and we continued to talk about it the rest of the way to Cleveland and most of the night in the hotel room.
I began to think the man doubted my authenticity.
He was trying to trip me up.
On the way to Chicago the next day we covered Whitechapel, Fleet Street, Bloomsbury and Mayfair.
He still hadn't stuck me but I was beginning to feel like a well-thumbed Hitchhiker's Guide by the time we reached Chicago.
We just finished settling down in our hotel room.
You've seen that remark before.
Yes a lot of remarkable men in Covent Garden.
Of course but I mean the one who does that wonderful balancing act.
Oh yes Jim the Porter balances 20 vegetable baskets on his head in the middle of traffic at high noon.
Quite a sight that.
Mr Hendricks I wonder if I might have a small advance on my salary.
Oh I suppose so yes.
It's still rather early and I thought I might look over at the Windy City.
Of course Raymond.
Oh sure let me open my window.
Oh gosh this internal lock is always acting up.
Oh there we are.
Twenty bean off?
Oh fine thanks.
Say I believe I'll join you.
Stretch the legs a bit eh?
I could see that he was good for a couple more hours of London.
But there was no getting out of it.
Around the corner from the hotel was a place where I was staying.
But there was no getting out of it. Around the corner from the hotel was a place where I was reasonably sure of running into some of the racing crowd I'd met during the Arlington season.
I lost no time getting there.
Had a club sandwich and at Mr Hendricks request I was expounding scholastically on the difference between Chicago and London bacon when.
Kelly!
Tommy!
Hey good to see you Kelly.
I thought you were in my army.
Well even in a couple of days. How about coming along?
Oh well I'm on my way to San Francisco.
This is Mr Hendricks Tommy DeWitt.
How are you?
What do you do?
Hey you can't walk out on me like this Kelly. I got a deal for you.
No.
Yeah.
Oh sure. You like shoes on Mr Hendricks eh?
Oh oh oh rather of course.
Yes yes let's go.
Hey what was your name in that coat of blue?
I'll get right to the point.
We bought us some jockeys.
It's coming up next week at Hylia. 500 will get you 10 grand on a parlay.
But it's got to be 500.
Now look you're sure of it.
I never failed you yet have I?
Oh I've got to drive that stiff to San Francisco.
Oh what if you just walked out?
Well I suppose I could. Yes but the 500.
Has he got any money?
Wait a minute. That's Belize.
Huh?
Tommy you're sure this can't lose?
I'm positive.
Now listen listen. All you have to do is watch that booth where Hendricks is and phone me at the hotel if he leaves.
I'll call you in about five minutes and tell you where to meet me.
I'd remembered about that wallet full of bills in Hendricks Belize back at the hotel.
It was easy to slip out the back of the place leaving Tommy watching him from the small window in the door to the bathroom.
In two minutes I was back in our room at the hotel.
There it was. Just like we'd left it and to make things even easier he'd forgotten to lock it.
There were 680 dollars and 20 dollar bills in the wallet and a sheet of legal looking documents in the portfolio next to it.
I glanced at them idly as I pocketed the money. On top was a letter to Hendricks from a law firm in San Francisco.
And although this was no place to be caught reading other people's mail I began reading it.
It was dated two months ago October the 18th 1934 addressed to Hendricks in Bedford Park London.
I wish to thank you for the patience and cooperation you have shown in the matter of your uncle's estate.
Realize our position of course since you are completely unknown personally to either relatives or legal counsel in the United States
it has been necessary to establish proof of your right to the estate entirely by documentary evidence.
Happy to state that such proof is now totally established.
Ask that you present yourself with documents requested in our previous letter at our San Francisco offices
and trust that final disposition of the estate will be accomplished without further difficulty.
The sign Martin Kelsner, attorney at law.
I put the papers back in the beliefs grab my luggage and started to leave.
But I didn't leave I stopped with my hand on the door knob and all of a sudden my mind started going a mile a minute.
Birth certificate.
Affidavit from friends. Notarized statement from the Department of Records.
Chief of letters.
Evaluation of estate.
Oh, why have to get a pound.
Yes, this was a long shot.
I knew it as I stood there looking down at those papers checking them carefully.
But it paid off a hundred thousand dollars.
Everything, every affidavit and statement.
As a guarantee that their bearer was Walker Hendricks and to tie it up tighter.
One of the letters said pictures wouldn't be necessary.
Just a passport.
Yes, it was a long shot.
But did you ever see odd like that boy?
Maybe you're right boys.
Oh, I don't know.
Maybe I lost my reason there in the hotel room with a hundred thousand dollars under my nose.
Trying to think a million things through at the same time.
Trying to calm down and see it clearly when I knew Hendricks was liable to walk in any minute.
Anyway, I put the papers and the six hundred eighty dollars back in the beliefs
and put a copy of McBowthie's your London and mine on top.
Then I called Tommy Dewitt at the horse's neck told him the Hylia deal was off.
There wasn't any money in the room.
We left Chicago the next morning right on schedule.
Oh, my horse expired.
Expect we'd better stay there tonight, eh?
Oh, you were saying you know the George in Raymond.
Yes, you know, it's not in London, proper.
It's in Southwark on the other side of the river.
Oh, yes, I believe you're right at that.
What would you give for some of their jug hair or their bubbling squeak?
The rare oldie in the George.
I couldn't see a leak anywhere.
All I had to do was pick the right time and place.
Look forty five.
But according to the birth certificate, he was only a year older than I.
And you can't tell how old a man looks by the way he writes a letter.
Yes, I thought of the handwriting too.
I made traces of the signatures on the letters and practiced on them every minute I was alone.
Have you been to the cock and Fleet Street?
Have you been there, Raymond? Have you been to the cock?
Eh, what, the cock?
Yes, yes, oh yes, Fleet Street.
I used to go there with a friend of mine, a reporter on the Times.
It seems there was a waitress there that he was quite fond of,
much to the dismay of his parents.
Ah, here we are, right on schedule. Salt Lake City, three miles.
Jova, I'll be glad for a wash. That plain country's appalling.
Nice to have some trees for a change.
Yes, not a bad spot at that.
Matter of fact, I have an aunt here, you know.
Huh? An aunt?
Why, how long since you've seen her?
Oh, I've never seen her. Don't intend to.
She's a sister of my mother's, a Marguerite Stoddard.
Thoroughly Americanized, I understand, and probably a crashing bore.
But really, old man, aren't you going to look up your dear old aunt now that you're right here in Salt Lake?
No, definitely not, definitely not.
I managed to get away from Hendricks right after dinner and told him I had a friend to look up.
Yes, here was a way of telling about that payoff ahead of time.
A laboratory test right here in Salt Lake City with nothing to lose, if it didn't work out.
How do you do?
How do you do? Are you Mrs. Marguerite Stoddard?
Yes.
I'm, uh, Walker Hendricks.
Oh, I... I can't believe it.
May I come in?
Yes, of course. I'm a little... You must excuse me.
Oh, I understand, Aunt Margaret.
You know, I... I was so hoping it would be you.
I found your address in the phone book, you know.
Please make yourself comfortable. I'll fix some tea.
Oh, no, I'd just finished dinner.
Please let me. I'll only be a minute, and somehow I can talk much better over a cup of tea.
Very well. I give in.
You're a pleasant surprise, Walker.
Thanks.
I'd expected you'd be a little more like...
Like what?
Oh, perhaps I'd better not mention it.
Oh, please do.
You know, I... I think it's time we talked these things over.
You'll never know how much your Uncle Gerald regretted what he did.
Oh, you mean the will?
Of course not. Long before that.
Oh.
Cecilie never told you, I suppose?
No. Oh, no. She never told me.
Your mother was so hurt, it's no wonder.
If they could only have understood each other better.
But she and your Uncle Gerald were as two peas in a pod, Walker.
Neither would give in an inch.
You know, Aunt, she never mentioned her family.
No, I suppose she wouldn't.
After all, she loved your father, and Gerald hated him.
And so she left?
Yes. Of course you naturally don't know all these things.
No, no, naturally.
I know Gerald would be the last to admit it,
but I'm sure the will was his stubborn way of giving in to her.
Well, perhaps.
I'm sure of it.
And since I've met you, Walker,
I'm happier than ever it worked out this way.
Now that there's nothing any of us can do for your poor mother and father.
Oh, but I was going to fix tea, wasn't I?
You just make yourself comfortable. I'll be right back.
If there ever was any doubt in my mind, it disappeared then and there.
I even tried to catch myself up, and she never suspected a thing.
They knew absolutely nothing of Cecily Hendricks from the time she left home
until Gerald died, leaving her the hundred grand.
At that point, they made a pretty thorough search,
found both she and her husband had died in England,
and their son Walker was the only heir.
I could have told her I was born in a tower of London,
and I was the only heir to her.
I could have told her I was born in a tower of London,
and she would have believed me.
Yeah, that was it.
And now I even had an identity witness to back me up.
It's 521 miles from Salt Lake to Reno,
but I convinced Hendricks we could make it before stopping.
I had a special reason.
We had to hit the desolate section of Middle Nevada about midnight.
As usual, from the time I stepped on the starter that morning,
he was off on another tour of London.
You know, for all the years I've lived in London,
I've never visited Billingsgate.
Oh, you must have passed it. It's right next to the bridge.
Oh, you've been there?
You know, there's hardly a spot in London where I haven't been.
If you like fish, you'd be interested. Otherwise, I wouldn't recommend it.
Oh, fascinating district around there, though.
When you get right down to it, killing a man's a pretty tough job.
Even when it's as perfect as this was going to be.
So for once, I was so thankful for London.
It gave us something to talk about, and there was so much on my mind
that I might have given myself away in silence.
So I fraddled on like a phonograph.
Yes. I used to go down there as a boy
to watch the Dutch Yield Boats put in and out of the harbour.
I never heard of a Dutch Yield Boat.
Well, I expect most Londoners haven't.
But I've been to that town. It seems that the greenest tourist
knows more about it than the Londoners themselves.
I'd say you've done rather well, old boy.
Well, you know, I've been on my own since I was 14.
Now, take yourself, for example.
Ten to one, you've never been in Feticoke Lane.
Perfectly marvellous place.
Regular oriental bazaar, right in the heart of the city.
Is that a fact?
Japs, Chinese, Malayans, everybody shouting at once
and selling something different.
That's rather near Hangman's Dock, isn't it?
Yes.
I'll give you a good sign, will you?
Oh, very well. Slow down a bit.
Wendover, Oasis, well...
Oh, yes, Elko, three miles.
By the way, Raymond, don't you think it might be wiser
to spend the night here?
I thought we decided...
Well, yes, I know, but I've been thinking,
it's rather a long go to Reno.
Well, you can doze in the car, you know.
Yes, but why? We've got lots of time.
Look, here's what we'll do.
Make Reno tonight and take a little extra jaunt
around Lake Tahoe tomorrow.
You won't lose a bit of time, and I'll promise you
that it'll take your breath away. How's that?
Well...
We'll have a quick bite in Elko and move right on.
It's only a few hours.
Oh, very well. Although, frankly, Raymond,
I'm enjoying this remissing so much,
I hate to cut the trip short.
Oh, good. Well, that's decided, then, eh?
Left about eight.
At midnight we were somewhere between Winni Makka and Reno,
passing through some barren hills.
I knew the time had come.
My hands began to shake so much that I had to grab the wheel
with both of them.
I fell beneath the cushion for the wrench.
I had to still there.
Finally I held my breath and pulled over on the shoulder.
Who?
Oh, I see.
Oh, what were you stopping for?
Look, look, over there against that cliff.
Where? Oh!
All over.
He never knew what hit him.
I turned out the lights of the car
and pulled the body out on the right-hand side.
We hadn't passed the car for hours,
so I wasn't worried much about being seen.
Ah, he was heavy. Pretty heavy.
But I managed to carry him over my shoulders
as I walked off into the brush.
There was a small cave on one side of the ravine.
I shoved the body in
and rolled a large rock over the opening.
Started a small landslide which completely covered the hole.
Nobody could possibly find it.
Clouds came back across the moon again
and I got a bit off in my direction
because I ended up on the highway at the top of a rise
some distance ahead of the car.
I just about reached the car
and I saw something that made my stomach feel
as though it was full of ice water.
Well, there, behind my car,
was another one with a seal on the door.
The seal of the Nevada State University
and the seal of the Nevada State Police.
There was nobody in the car.
The officer must have been wandering around
looking for the driver of my car.
I lifted the hood of the engine
and knocked the battery cable off one of the terminals.
And then I waited
for a year there in the silence.
And then I almost cried out in relief.
The officer appeared from the other side of the highway.
Hey there! What's the trouble?
I don't know, officer.
He just went dead on me.
Having a look up the road when you arrive.
We usually check on stalled cars in this stretch.
You say she went dead on you?
Yes, the lights went out, the motor just died.
The lights went out, huh?
You been under the hood?
I wouldn't do much good, I'm afraid.
I'm pretty green at that sort of thing.
Let's have a look.
Fine.
All right, get the flashlight on.
Your battery cable's jar loose, brother.
Got a wrench?
Yes.
Right-hand-y, huh?
All right, there you are.
Say, try her now.
You know, that looked pretty simple.
Yeah, it was.
Thanks, thanks ever so much.
That's okay.
Let's see, your name's Hendrix, huh?
Right.
Check the registration.
You're a long way from home, brother.
That's right, yes.
Well, thanks, thanks a lot.
You're welcome, brother.
Good night.
I was sure he knew nothing.
Too sure, I guess.
I had the passport fake here in San Francisco
complete with picture and a perfect imitation of an English visa.
I was all set.
Yet when the time came, I began to waver again.
I wasn't sure about that cop.
What if he sent someone back the next day to look around?
Battery cables just don't jar loose by themselves.
For three days I sat in my hotel room here, thinking.
I bought Nevada papers from an out-of-town newspaper stand on Market Street.
No mention of the murder, nothing, nothing.
That's why you were smart.
You'd never have got me if anything had leaked out of the papers
about finding that body.
Well, anyway, when I couldn't stand it any longer, I flipped a coin.
Heads, I'd do it.
Tails, I wouldn't.
I came up heads.
Well, you know the rest.
Naturally, I denied it until you spanked on me that the body had been found
and then I knew it was no use.
Well, why don't you say something?
Still think I couldn't carry it off, Kelson?
Well, don't just sit there with a blank look on your faces.
Say something.
Well, Raymond, we were holding you for the murder of Walker Hendricks,
but it appears we were wrong.
What?
What's the matter with all of you?
Oh, it was a long shot, Raymond, but it was a pretty good bet.
Maybe that's why both of you gambled on it.
What do you mean, both of you?
You and whoever you bumped off in the vanor.
With wh... whoever I...
Hendricks is dead.
I know he's dead.
Oh, Hendricks was murdered, all right, but you didn't do it.
What?
You see, he bitched to it, Raymond.
Who be... who...
Your traveling companion, he wasn't Hendricks.
He wasn't even an Englishman.
That's why he was popping you so much about London.
He was, uh, oh, what do actors call it,
uh, getting up in his park.
What are you talking about?
I thought you found Hendricks' body in Nevada.
Oh, brother, Hendricks never was in Nevada.
Poor guy never left New York.
The New York police turned up the real Hendricks in the East River
the day after you left town,
choperin' for the guy who killed him.
This is the Armed Forces Radio Service.
The Armed Forces Radio Service.