Yes, Roma wines taste better because only Roma selects from the world's greatest wine
reserves for your pleasure.
And now Roma wines, R-O-M-A, Roma wines present Suspense.
Tonight Roma wines bring you Mr. Van Heflin in Three Blind Mice, a suspense play produced,
edited and directed for Roma Wines by William Spear.
Suspense, radio's outstanding theater of thrills is presented for your enjoyment by Roma Wines.
That's R-O-M-A, Roma wines, those better tasting California wines enjoyed by more Americans
than any other wine, for friendly entertaining, for delightful dining.
Yes, right now a glass full would be very pleasant as Roma wines bring you Van Heflin
in a remarkable tale of Suspense.
Lockwood, Bentley and Walt's Publishing, it still said it on the big brass name play.
Going down.
Oh, good evening Mr. Lockwood.
Good evening.
Sure, the elevator operators were nice to me, most of the office boys remembered to knock
on my door before they came in and even some of the stenographers still spoke to me.
But everybody else above the rank of junior story reader knew it was just a question of
time before that big brass name play in the lobby came down and another one went up in
its place, Bentley and Walt's Publishing.
No more Lockwood.
If ever a man hated his partners, I did.
Main forcer.
I went out of the building and across the street to the Savoy Fidenna.
Even the head waiter must have heard the rumor he gave me the dime sized table over in the
corner that's generally reserved for out of town ribbon clerks.
It's all right, Bob, there'll be another day.
I'd gotten to coffee and dessert when I saw Helen Conover.
Well, that just about summed it up.
There were two things that I wanted in this world to get my hands back on that corporation
and Helen Conover.
Well, she saw me and I waved to her and she waved back and started over to my table.
She was head of our promotion department.
She was smart and ambitious and she could have personally modeled for any pin up art
that you ever saw.
But she was reserving anything along that line for my partner, Dick Walsh.
Okay, sister, there'll be another day.
Hello, Arthur.
Dining alone?
Yes, it's a habit that I could break it under the right conditions.
Oh, but you're all finished.
That's all right.
I'm just a big book publisher.
I've got nothing to do.
Well, if it's not against office regulations to have dinner with the boss.
Regulations?
Well, they never bothered you now, did they?
No, Arthur, let's keep this clean.
Does Madame wish to order?
Yes, the steak dinner, please.
No soup and no potatoes.
Very good, madam.
You're working kind of late, aren't you?
Not working.
Dick wanted me to see him off on the train.
Train?
Where's he going?
Chicago.
What for?
Business, I suppose.
Didn't he tell you?
You know, they never tell me anything anymore.
Well, it wasn't anything very important, I guess.
Well, I'd know even less if it had been.
Maybe you can tell me about Sam.
About Sam?
Did he get his report from the doctor?
Oh, yes, he did, as a matter of fact.
How is it?
I'm afraid it's pretty bad.
How bad?
Well, it's his heart, all right.
They don't give him much more time.
Six months at the most.
Well, that means they'll have to work fast.
Or I will.
What?
Wouldn't you say so?
Arthur, I don't understand you.
I just told you that one of your partners has only six months to live and you don't even
seem to care.
Look, let's be grown up about it, at least.
Sam Bentley and Dick Walsh have been trying to ease me out of the firm for the last year.
Now Sam's going to kick off.
Why should I care?
You really hate him, don't you?
Me?
I don't hate anybody.
I just hope he kicks off tonight instead of waiting six months and the Dick Walsh's train
runs into the Hudson River.
That's all.
I don't hate anybody.
I just wish they were dead.
Oh, Arthur, how can you?
What's the matter with that?
I wish my partners were out of the way and you wish...
Well, I know what you wish, too, only I'm honest about it and you're not.
This isn't a very pleasant conversation.
There's always a better one.
For instance, what are you doing tonight?
I'm going home and get a good night's sleep for a change.
By the way, how long is Dick going to be away?
About a week.
You'll be kind of lonely, won't you?
I don't see why I should.
That's what I was thinking.
You know, I've always had a sort of a yen for you, Helen.
Why, Mr. Lockwood, why don't people tell me these things?
People don't have to tell people like you those things.
Now that you mention it, I do seem to have noticed a sort of a leer every so often.
That wasn't any leer, baby, that was the real McCoy.
Look, Arthur, this may sound kind of corny, but I'm in love with Dick and he's in love
with me.
It does.
What?
Sound corny.
Why doesn't he marry you?
You know why.
Sure, that wife that won't divorce him.
You know, he's been using that one for the last ten years.
Please, Arthur, I'd rather not talk about it.
Okay, okay, not to change the subject, but what do you expect to get out of it?
Get out of what?
The reorganisation, the big day when they kick old Arthur out of the firm.
You think maybe they'll make you a vice president?
I really don't know what you're talking about, Arthur.
Well, you ought to think about it, because you can never tell, I might be able to make
you an even better proposition.
I'm afraid I'm not interested in your propositions, Arthur.
Any of them.
Okay, baby, there'll be another day.
It was mostly bluff and she knew it, but there was one thing that she didn't know.
There was a chance that my smart partners had actually been holding out on me, and if
they had, the way our incorporation papers were drawn, then I could really mail them.
Well, I'd been snooping through the files at night lately, and I'd already dug up a
couple of things, and this night I went back at it again.
I let myself into the side door of the building and walked up the two flights to the office.
Everything was dark and deserted, barely make out the long lines of desks.
And then I saw the light under Sam's door, and I crossed the office very quietly and listened.
Hmm, nothing.
I tapped on the door.
Still nothing, so I opened it, and there was Sam.
There was Sam, leaning back in his chair and staring at me with those cold and slightly
protruding blue eyes, much the way he always did.
But tonight, there was a small hole in the right side of his head, and Sam Bentley was
dead.
The gun was lying on the carpet where it had fallen out of his hand.
It was his, all right.
I recognized it.
His other hand had fallen against an open drawer of the desk, and his wristwatch was
broken.
It had stopped at five after eight, and I picked up the phone to call the police.
And then I noticed a letter on his desk.
It was addressed to Richard Walsh.
Well, I put up the phone and looked at that letter, and then I opened it.
Well, it was about what I figured.
The doctor's report on his heart, the usual all-around apology, and then a detailed explanation
of how Dick Walsh could use the corporate insurance to pay off Sam's family for his
share of the business, and then take it over himself, because Sam didn't want me to have
any part of it.
The signature was a little scrawly, but it was Sam's, all right.
So there it was, the double cross.
And yet it's funny, but almost before I got through reading it, I knew the answer.
I looked at that broken wristwatch of his again.
Five after eight, it said.
An hour later, I was home in bed, sleeping like a baby, knowing that Dick Walsh, too,
was going to die.
I strolled into the office the next morning, about 10, just to be on the safe side.
But of course, they'd already found him.
All over the office, there were little huddles that broke up frantically in my approach.
Well, I played it for what it was worth and headed for the largest and most important
huddle, the executive huddle outside of Sam's door.
They were all there, including Helen Conover.
And she was looking pretty sick.
Well, what is all this?
Just a minute, who are you?
Oh, I'm Arthur Lockwood, also.
What's all this about?
Oh, just wait here, please, Mr. Lockwood.
What's going on here, anyway?
Somebody robbed the till?
Arthur.
What?
Arthur, it's Sam.
What?
His heart?
No, he was shot.
Shot?
Arthur, the police say it's murder.
Will you come in, please, Mr. Lockwood?
Yes, certain.
The captain would like to see you again, too, please, Miss Count, Arthur.
Oh, yes, all right.
Well, we went in.
Sam was still there.
But by this time, somebody had thrown a towel over his face.
Big gangling guy came across the room toward me with his hand out.
Mr. Lockwood?
Yes.
The captain gave him his homicide.
Is... is that Sam, Sam Bentley?
Yes.
I know it must be something of a shock to you, sir, but I'm afraid I'm going to have
to ask you a few questions.
Oh, yes, of course.
Please go right ahead.
Know anybody who want to kill your partner, Mr. Lockwood?
Are you sure it was... I mean, I mean, couldn't it have been suicide?
Why would he want to kill himself?
Well, he's been pretty depressed lately.
His health has been bad.
Only yesterday he got a report from his doctor that he probably wouldn't live more than six
months.
No, won't hold, Mr. Lockwood.
Not unless you figure that Bentley shot himself and then carried the gun into your other partner's
office.
That's Mr. Walsh, isn't it?
Mr. Walsh.
Yes.
Was that surprising?
Why, yes, it...
Do you mean the two found the gun in... in Mr. Walsh's office?
In the wall safe.
How many people have the combination of that safe, Mr. Lockwood?
Why, just the three of us, I think.
The three partners.
We each have a safe, but somebody else has to have the combination, too, just in case...
Well, you know...
Did you trust your partners, Mr. Lockwood?
Well, captain, I'll be frank with you.
There hasn't been a great deal of love lost between us lately, but, yes, we trusted each
other in our own way.
Where were you at ten after seven, Mr. Lockwood?
I was having dinner at the Savoy across the street.
You can prove that, I suppose?
Yes, of course.
As a matter of fact, Miss Conover here came over and later joined me.
I understand Miss Conover was seeing your other partner, Mr. Walsh, off on the 735 in
Chicago.
Yes, so she told me yes.
You're sure of the train time?
Yes, of course.
Well, it's the one Dick Walsh always takes to Chicago.
But why this interest in time?
Have you set the time of the... of when it happened?
Bentley's watch was broken.
It stopped at ten after seven.
Oh.
Either of you see this before?
Where did that come from?
Recognize it?
Yes, of course, that's Mr. Walsh's watch charm.
He keeps losing it.
He loses it all the time.
Yes, he does.
We found it in the chair behind Bentley's body.
Oh, now wait a minute, Captain.
You don't seriously mean to suggest that...
How does it add up to you?
Well, I mean that watch charm doesn't mean anything.
It's true that he did lose it all the time, but he could have lost it in here any time.
Not in a chair, Mr. Lockwood.
It wouldn't stay there very long, not without being found.
Oh, Captain, there must be some mistake.
There must be.
You can go now, Miss Conover.
But please.
I said you could go now, Miss Conover.
Come on, Helen.
I guess that's it, Harry.
I guess it is.
Better call Chicago and issue a warrant.
You're under arrest for a suspicion of murder.
No, it's...
All right, all right.
It's nothing now.
She's just fainted.
For Suspense, Roma Wines are bringing you Van Heflin in Three Blind Mice.
Roma Wines' presentation tonight in radio's outstanding theater of thrills, Suspense.
between the acts of suspense this is Ken Niles for Roma wines next time you have
friends over in the evening try this simple gracious way to add warmth to
their welcome serve delicious Roma California sherry
port or muscatel delightful with cheese nuts cake or any tasty snack you're sure
to please every guest with better tasting Roma wines for Roma wines are
favorites from coast to coast enjoyed by more Americans than any other wine the
reason Roma wines taste better because Roma starts with choices grapes because
Roma with patient skill and America's finest wine making resources guides
these naturally finer grapes unhurriedly to tempting taste perfection because
Roma then places this luscious grape treasure with Roma wines of years before
to await selection from the world's greatest reserves of fine wines for your
pleasure so insist on Roma roma Roma wines made in California for enjoyment
throughout the world and now Roma wines bring back to our Hollywood soundstage
Van Heflin as Arthur Lockwood with Kathy Lewis as Helen Conover in free blind
mice a tale well calculated to keep you in suspense
the defendant will rise and face the court
does the defendant wish to make a statement before sentences pass if not
we will proceed Richard Leonard Walsh having been tried and found guilty of
the murder of Samuel Bentley in the first degree you are hereby remanded to
the custody of the warden of the state penitentiary where at such time as the
state shall deem appropriate you will be executed in the manner of scribe by law
it's a nice way of getting along in the publishing business if you're lucky one
of your partners commit suicide you rig the evidence to frame the other partner
for his murder net result a new firm Arthur Lockwood incorporated Arthur
Lockwood be me of course there were the usual appeals and the thing dragged on
but that didn't worry me I had other things to think about and number one on
that list was Helen Conover but there I'll admit I was surprised because Dick
knew that he'd been framed and must have suspected me and Helen was supposed to
be a mother with big well I played it very carefully the paternal approach the
sorrowing friend dinner in the theater and stuff like that but never a word
never a wrong word or gesture and then one night about a week before Dick Walsh
was scheduled to be executed I just brought Helen home from a sedate little
tour of some of our most upper crust hot boxes and we were at her apartment
this well evening Arthur you've been awfully sweet to me well it's the least
I can do Helen oh you mustn't feel that way Arthur what way but you but you sort
of owe me something oh you're something well why should I it's just that I I know
how you feel and if you do well yes I think so you've been awfully brave about
it but I I think I know Arthur once you said that something I said was corny
remember yes I remember it was it wasn't even true you want you weren't in love
with him afraid I'm a pretty heartless little girl Arthur I'm afraid I love
myself too much to be really in love with anybody that's not heartless that's
just honest you know that that tease to be executed next week don't you yes then
he's not much good to me now is he even if he did want to marry me now you know
I'm heartless and cold-blooded and cruel I ought to but I don't know I don't have
to be that way I can be other ways what are the ways like this
that was that I didn't care about anything after that even marriage we
made a quick trip down to Virginia where names in the publishing business wouldn't
mean a thing even hours and it was all very quiet no publicity no fuss nothing
when we got back we took a little place in these 50s although of course she kept
her apartment I kept mine it had to be that way for a while at least until
after Dick's execution and the things had cooled down a bit well I knocked off
early at the office that day for the looks of the thing and Helen was already
home when I got any particular reason no no no particular reason
penny for your thoughts darling my thoughts oh nothing special I guess I
was just thinking I don't know that I know what you were thinking about dick
he's going to die tonight well maybe I was I don't know well I'm glad you did
come home anyway darling because I wanted to have a little talk with you
sure about what you really shouldn't let it bother you you know like what bother
me the execution why should it bother me he killed a man didn't he why should I
worry about what the law does to him are you so sure so sure of what so sure that
he did kill a man right then it hit that all the time I've been thinking how slick
everything was something was wrong terribly wrong that all this time she'd
been playing with me like a smart young cat with a silly blind old mouse
pretty nice and one of them dead and another with him as good as dead and I
was left all the evidence and everything wasn't like dick to do a thing like that
you don't think he killed him Arthur do you remember oh it's a long time ago you
asked me what I expected to get out of it if Sam and Dick squeezed you out of
the firm yeah I remember and you said you might have a better proposition well
I've decided what I want sure you really want to be a vice president we can fix
that easy enough although I sort of had the idea that you'd be pulling out after
a while now that we're married your price list no I'm afraid a vice
presidency isn't at all what I have in mind and I don't know where you got the
idea that I'd be pulling out of the firm ever all right what do you want I want a
full partnership Arthur a partnership yes that's a strange well we are partners
now in a way you're my wife no I mean a real partnership a corporate partnership
look Helen you're asking me out of a clear sky to give you a half a share in a
million dollar business yes well I that'll take some thinking about yes I
suppose it will I'm saying it was strange about that evidence for instance
there was the letter what letter the letter that was on Sam's desk when he
killed himself it disappeared you must be crazy am I and what about the
wristwatch when he died it said five after eight but when they found him it
said ten after seven and the gun it was lying on the carpet by his hand but
somehow it got into Dick's wall safe you knew all that and you let an innocent
man go to the chair you are priceless I let an innocent man go to the chair you
know of course that a wife can't testify against her husband oh no no a wife can't
be forced to testify against her husband but she can if her conscience all right
what do you want I thought I'd mentioned it the partnership I see now you're not
going to be unreasonable about it are you darling no Helen I'm not going to be
unreasonable she'd even turned her back on me now she was gazing out of the
window dreaming of the future her future just the way she planned it I couldn't
guess how she knew she must have been hiding somewhere and seen me but that
didn't matter much now I only knew that I was right back where I'd started from
the business slipping out of my hands and someday no business and no Helen I
had to think fast and act fast it was a bronze statuette on the end table I
picked it up and hefted it it was just about right so I stepped over behind her
the officers then will be just exactly the same except for that darling you
won't mind that will you duck
I hit her hard but not too hard because this was one suicide that was going to
come off right I carried her out to the kitchen and propped her up in the chair
in front of the kitchen table and then I went into the bathroom got some towels
that wouldn't leave any marks and I tied her hands and feet and gagged her so
that even if she did come to in a few minutes it wouldn't matter all I had to
do was come back in a couple of hours and put the towels we make everything
look just as natural as I could was a risk those two hours and I knew it the
whole thing was a risk but it was the best I could do I looked at her once
more before I left she hadn't moved a muscle and then I turned on the gas
by the time I got back to my apartment I was shaking all over this time I had
really killed somebody but why would anybody connect me with it I told
myself why would anybody think it was anything but suicide she had the motive
this day of all days everybody knew that she was in love with watch and even if
her marriage to me came out the motive would still hold and then they the doorbell
rang I jumped the foot at first I wasn't gonna answer it and then I thought I'd
better whoever it was would establish that I was here at home and that I could
brush them off before I had to leave hello mr. Lockwood busy why no no no
come right in thanks right here have a seat cigar thanks pretty good cigar
must be doing pretty well for yourself nowadays better let me light it myself
you seem kind of nervous well you know how it is I mean today the oh mean your
partner Walsh going to the hot seat I try not to think about it but well yeah
you'll be sitting down there pretty soon now pretty soon they say it doesn't hurt
I don't know you ever see one look do we have to talk about it makes you feel
kind of bad I wouldn't wonder why did you do it lock one do what frame it I
don't know what you're talking about sure you do you change the time stash the
gun tore up the suicide note in fact as I was saying you framed him no Walsh
killed him you you know he did he was convicted of killing him all the evidence
was that he killed him oh sure Walsh killed him all right what Walsh killed
him he told us he did just today but it was uh they look what is this Walsh
killed him framed it to look like suicide then you came along and pinned it
back on Walsh where it belonged in the first place he gave us a full confession
just this afternoon then then you so I don't know whether we ought to thank you
for making it easy for us so try to pin a wrap on you but the DA is willing to
let it go so all right with me he wants a statement though oh sure sure anything
anything you say by the way what about that dame what what dame the one in your
office that was supposed to be sweet on walls we want her the worst way you why
accessory to murder she was in it up to over years
yeah so that was all that's how she had known and I'd taken my life on my hand
for nothing she was up there dying right now I was murdering it while Gibbons sat
there risking my life to do something that the law would have done for me maybe
it still wasn't too late but Gibbons just sat there talking and talking and talking
well you were you just go down there to the DA's office and give him that
statement eh sure sure tomorrow the very first thing you know you sure are a heel
knock one but you're a lucky heel
it's ten blocks away I didn't dare take a cab I didn't dare even run for fear
that somebody would see me and remember in case it was too late by the time I got
there I was gasping for breath of swine so I'd run every second so I let myself
in the smell of gas he can just like a brick wall I put my handkerchief over my
face and rushed in I threw open the window shut off the gas she was sitting
there just as I left her well I got her up on the table I dragged it over toward
the window I got the gag out of her mouth and I began working her arms
artificial respiration I knew that much I worked over by that window until it was
wet was running down my face but I couldn't tell I couldn't tell yet the
towels that I tied her feet with were still there but I I didn't bother with
them or anything else I just kept working over up and down up and down as
though yes as though my life depended on it it did I'm afraid you're too late
Lachwin I'm afraid your wife is dead
he was a smart cop that Givens he knew a lot he says now he's pretty sure it
doesn't hurt the electric care I mean well tonight I'm gonna find out
you
suspense presented by Roma wines our OMA Roma America's favorite wine well this
is Ken Niles bringing back to our microphone the distinguished star of
tonight's suspense play Van Heflin Van you played the part of a publisher
tonight how about publishing a few tips on Roma wines well with wine like Roma
Ken all you need to do is publish the facts well fact number one is that Roma
America's greatest vintner has asked me to present you with this basket of Roma
wines for your wonderful performance tonight well that's a very good beginning
Ken my my thanks to you and to Roma a fact number two Van is that your friends
will enjoy the Roma California sherry in your gift basket for gold and amber
fragrant Roma sherry with tempting nut-like taste is the perfect first call
to dinner the ideal wine for entertaining anytime right Ken but tell
the people why Roma sherry is so good give them the facts my boy the facts
all right you are professor Heflin the fact number three Roma sherry like all
Roma wines begins with California's choices greats then Roma vintners with
America's finest wine making resources guide these select grapes unhurried lay
it to tempting taste perfection and place them with Roma wines of years
before later Roma selects from this vast taste treasure the world's greatest wine
reserves for your pleasure Ken you're hired thank you and good night
Van Heflin may currently be seen in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Technicolor musical
till the clouds roll by with Van Johnson Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra tonight's
suspense play was written by Kenneth Pettis and Robert Richards next Thursday
same time you will hear mr. Glenn Ford as star of suspense
produced and directed by William Spear for the Roma Wine Company of Fresno
California this is CBS the Columbia broadcasting system