Suspense!
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Schenley brings you radio's outstanding theater of thrills.
Suspense!
Tonight, Roma wines of Fresno, California present Alan Baxter as star of a suspense play
produced, edited, and directed for Schenley by William Spear.
Alan Baxter in Money Talks, a remarkable tale of suspense.
I had my credentials and the letters of recommendation in my hand.
I was wearing the dark blue with a conservative pinstripe and a Van Huesen collar with a knit tie
and was showing it all off to Mr. Purley.
Mr. Purley was one of a mere eight vice presidents of the Banker's Industrial Trust Company.
He had a big shiny desk with nothing on it and the kind of a mind that went right along with it.
He was my meat.
Well, Mr. Golf, of course the bank does occasionally have openings for the right kind of man.
I don't like to blow my own horn, Mr. Purley, but...
Have you had any previous experience in banking, Mr. Golf?
No, sir, I haven't, but there's this.
Ah, yes, yes. So you're a graduate of the Harvard Business School.
Yes, sir. Investment banking was my field.
Well, I must say, Mr. Golf, your grades there were exceptional, most exceptional.
I worked hard, Mr. Purley. Banking was my first love, you might say, ever since I can remember.
It's always been more than just a business to me.
It's been, well, I suppose you could call it an ideal, a sacred trust
in the best tradition of our financial and national institutions.
I guess that sounded a little romantic.
No, not at all, Mr. Golf, not at all.
I see you graduated four years ago, Mr. Golf. Now, during the past four years?
Well, you know how it's been with everybody the last four years.
Oh, of course. I didn't see you wearing any veterans insignia.
I don't like to be ostentatious about it, Mr. Purley.
Oh, yes, yes, yes. Do you understand, Mr. Golf, that you'd have to start in a rather minor capacity?
Oh, I'm not worried about that, sir. Frankly, Mr. Purley, I'm ambitious.
Without being conceited, I'm confident I can make my mark with Bankers Industrial.
You'll give me a chance.
I like your attitude, Mr. Golf. You come in tomorrow morning.
I think we can work something out.
Thank you, Mr. Purley. This is a day I'll never forget.
I think I can safely predict that you won't either.
I gave him the old do or die, look him straight in the eye, handshake, and he left.
That was more than two years ago.
The whole thing was phony as an eight dollar bill, all but the part about ambition.
There was nothing phony about that.
I was going to make my mark with Bankers Industrial, all right.
About a hundred thousand dollars worth.
You probably know how a bank works, the bookkeeping, I mean.
All day long the tellers pay it out and take it in, and then at three o'clock the bank closes.
Only that's when the work really begins.
Because then the tellers have to hand over their checks and receipts and statements of cash on hand
to girls, you see, running those big calculating machines.
When it's all over, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth in a big bank like this one,
it has to balance out to the last penny. I mean penny.
That's where Anita Willoughby came in.
She was young and demure looking, but sort of intense too, if you know what I mean.
She looked like just what the doctor ordered.
Of course, I couldn't start anything in the bank.
Banks are poison on office romances. You'll see why after a while.
But a couple of weeks of little attentions and I was ready.
It just happened that I was looking into the window of a men's furnishing store.
She was passing by on her way home.
I was lighting a cigarette and it just happened.
I turned suddenly and of course it just happened.
I bumped right into it.
Oh, Miss Willoughby. Oh, I am sorry.
Oh, it's all right, Mr. Gough. Just startled me a little.
It's terribly clumsy of me. You on your way home? Going my way?
I don't know. What is your way, Miss Gough?
Well, as a matter of fact, I was just going down here a couple of blocks to where I left my car.
You have a car, Miss Willoughby?
No, unfortunately I don't.
Well then, perhaps I could give you a lift, Miss Willoughby.
Perhaps you could, Mr. Gough.
Well, we wound up having dinner. It went on from there.
After the first ten minutes I knew that demure act was strictly something for Mr. Purley and the adding machine.
Anita Willoughby was smart. She'd been around and she knew the score.
I was glad of this because it would take less sales talk later on.
In another way, it was too bad, really. It was too bad because I was going to have to kill her.
For suspense, Roma Wines are bringing you Alan Baxter in Money Talks.
Roma Wines presentation tonight in Radio's Outstanding Theatre of Thrills, Suspense.
Suspense, Radio's Outstanding Theatre of Thrills, is presented for your enjoyment by Roma.
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And now Roma Wines bring back to our New York Soundstage, Alan Baxter in Money Talks.
A tale well calculated to keep you in suspense.
If you're cool-headed and cold-blooded, if you have a plan, if there's something you really want,
all the laws and locks in the world won't stop you from latching onto it.
That's what I'd always figured and that's what I figured now.
That's why I sold two years of my life to a bank for a lousy 60 bucks a week.
That's why I made the play for Anita.
That's why I was going to have to kill Anita.
Before that there was a lot of other ground I had to cover with Anita.
I spent six months more covering it and then I was ready.
We were having dinner at a quiet little place we used to go to and Anita was happy as a lark.
I was bearing down hard on an act I'd been working up all week.
What's the matter, Cliff?
Oh, I don't know.
Oh, come on. You've been moody like this for days.
What's on your mind?
Well, it's about us, I guess.
What about us?
I don't know.
When I first started to work in that salt mine two years ago,
I thought I was going to set the world on fire.
But now...
What's all this got to do with us, Cliff?
What kind of a life is it to look forward to?
Two years and I'm third assistant cashier.
Maybe in ten years I'll even get to be first cashier. So what?
Well, you didn't expect them to make you majority stockholder, did you?
Or if you did, you shouldn't have.
Honey, I wish we could get away from here, go places, see things, have fun.
So do I, Cliff.
Yeah, but on what?
Well, maybe in ten years or so when you are first cashier.
All right, laugh at me. I got it coming.
It's a job, that's all, Cliff. That's the way most jobs are.
But it's not the kind of job you want your husband to have, is it?
My husband?
What do you think I've been talking about all this time?
What's the use if we can't look forward to getting married and having some fun,
some romance, some glamour in our lives?
Well, it's a funny proposal, Cliff, but I like what it says.
But if some guy with a hundred thousand bucks came along, I can't blame you.
I'd rather have you with my hundred thousand, Cliff.
Darling, why can't we have both? Where's the justice in it?
When I think of the millions, millions in cash money that's gone through my hands
in the past two years, what have I got?
Doesn't it make you feel funny sometimes, Cliff?
What?
Handling all that money.
Yeah, yeah, sometimes I can almost hear it talking to me.
So can I.
You too, huh? Listen, Nina, do you ever get to thinking how you could get that hundred thousand?
Of course I have, but I never thought of a way it'd work.
Suppose you had, suppose there was one.
Listen, Cliff, I've got no scruples. You only live once, but I'm allergic to penitentiaries.
I asked you a question.
You mean a way that was absolutely certain, guaranteed safe?
Yeah.
I'd buy it.
Listen, baby, you know what's the matter with all those guys that try to clip a bank?
They're not dishonest.
No, I mean it. Look what happens, what always happens.
The guy's hard up or he's got a tip in the market or the races or something,
and he dips into the till, and after a while he takes a little more and then a little more,
but he always figures he's going to pay it back.
He covers it up with a lot of fancy bookkeeping.
So along comes some auditor that's a little smarter than he is,
and bluey, the big vacation, the long-term lease.
All because the guy is fundamentally honest.
Well, you can't win, I guess.
No? Listen, you know the guys that do?
The big shots, the president's board chairman.
When those guys clip a bank, they grab themselves anywhere from a hundred grand
to a cool million one fine night and blow.
You never hear of them again.
But you can bet they're sitting pretty somewhere.
You know why? Because they were dishonest.
They planned it.
They'd laugh themselves to death at the idea of paying it back.
Only you're not a big shot, darling.
Listen, they do it all at one clip.
They're out of the country before anybody finds out.
That's what I'm talking about.
Sure, but they have the chance. You don't.
No, but us, between us, we do.
We?
Dick Breen, the first cashier, takes his vacation in August.
Every Thursday, Jerry Malone the second goes over to investment.
They're teaching us out of the business.
That means that for two Thursdays in August,
I take his place and consign for cash from the vault.
But, Clare...
Wait a minute.
All I have to do is give you a receipt
so that when you add it up at the end of the day, we get our balance.
Don't you see it?
What kind of a receipt?
Any kind. One of the big payroll receipts will do it.
But how you...
How do I get it? I write it myself.
You won't question it.
Oh.
Now, do you get it?
Oh, it's awful risky, Cliff.
What about the next day?
I've been trying to tell you. You don't wait for the next day.
Do you realize how far from these United States you can get
in 18 or 20 hours nowadays?
You can get to places where you can live like a king
for the rest of your life on $100,000.
The rest of my life, Cliff?
Sure, baby, sure. Why not?
Well, what about it?
All right, Cliff. I'll do it.
The first Thursday in August was six weeks away.
But waiting for them to pass was like living through six lifetimes.
We went over it again and again, every detail, every possible variation.
There's no use saying I wasn't nervous, because I was.
A couple of times I even thought Anita and I were being followed in the car.
I was that bad. I managed to keep under control at the bank.
And the big day finally rolled around.
I waited until about a quarter of twelve, just before the noon rush hour,
and then I marched over to Mr. Purley's desk, trying to look casual and nonchalant.
This was the worst part. Right here, right now.
My hands were sweating and my mouth was dry until I began to be afraid
the words would stick in my throat.
There was nothing to it, really. It's the kind of things that's done every day in a bank,
not the way I was doing it.
Sure, I was scared.
Hello, Cliff. What is it?
You want to countersign this for me, Mr. Purley?
A hundred and four thousand.
Cash?
Yeah, Eastern Chemical. They want us to get their payroll together on Thursdays after this.
Some kind of new accounting system over there.
Oh, well...
There you are.
Thank you, Mr. Purley.
There it was. Just as simple as that.
After all those weeks of worry and jumpy nerves, there it was.
I went to the vault and drew the cash, and the worst was over.
I came out on the floor again. The noon crowds are beginning to line up in front of the windows,
keeping everybody on the jump and minding their own business.
I took over Harrison's cage, same as I always did at the lunch hour,
and I don't think he even noticed the canvas bag I was carrying.
It's that usual.
After he left, I simply took a minute to transfer the cash from the bag into my own briefcase,
and that was that.
When he came back, I strolled over to Anita's machine with the Eastern Chemical receipt
that I'd made up the night before.
Oh, Miss Wellaby.
Yes, Mr. Gough?
Eastern Chemical has changed their payroll date to Thursday. Here's the receipt.
Don't forget to include it in your tally.
Yes, Mr. Gough.
There was nothing to do now but sweat it out until five o'clock.
I went out to lunch myself, but I didn't eat much. I was beginning to get nervous again.
I went back to my desk and tried to look busy.
I kept thinking of all the things that could go wrong.
Purley happened to call Eastern Chemical on some other business.
But it turned out to be one of those days that come about twice a year
when you can't get a balance and you can't find the error and everybody has to go over every transaction of the day until they do.
That hundred and four thousand item would stand out like a red flag at a businessman's lunch.
I was beginning to think about what I would have to do afterwards, too.
But, well, that wasn't getting me anywhere, and I knew it.
Finally, three o'clock came and the bank closed.
The gang went to work on their totals and the girls began to bring me their balance sheets.
Anita was the last one.
Hey, you want us to go up?
The balance?
Uh-huh.
How are the others?
Well, I guess that's all then, Miss Willoughby.
Good night.
Good night, Mr. Gough.
Oh, Mr. Purley.
Oh, uh, yes, Cliff.
Oh, I got your balance.
Yes, sir. All in order, I guess. Here you are.
Uh-huh.
All right, Cliff, thank you.
Well, going to do a little homework tonight?
A pretty bulky briefcase you're taking home there.
Oh, yes.
Yes, I wanted to do a little reading up on that South American situation.
Good boy. Well, good night, Cliff.
Good night, Mr. Purley.
Well, I had a hundred thousand dollars in wonderful bright green folding money.
Driving out of town, I felt edgy and depressed.
I even got the idea I was being followed again.
I knew what it was all about. Of course, it was Anita, what I was going to have to do.
I tried to forget it up until now. I tried to kid myself it would be some other way.
But I know there wasn't. She was smart, too smart.
She'd have the little poison blue after me before I could get to the airport.
One thing was for sure, I wasn't splitting that dough with her or anyone else.
So it had to be this way. It just had to be.
So far, I was pretty sure the idea had never entered her head.
I'd let her get the plane tickets to Mexico, although of course I had other than my own to Rio.
And I told her to meet me at the little shack I had in the country because it would be safer.
She'd already arrived when I got there.
Cliff, can I come?
Okay, baby. Are you ready?
Of course. You're early. Are you sure?
You mean did I get it?
Look at that. What do you think that stuff is, huh? How about that?
So you did. You really did.
Of course I did. Did you think I wouldn't?
Well, something might have gone wrong, Cliff.
Not with me, baby. Not with me.
Have you got that Eastern chemical receipt? I told you to slip it out of the heap when you got through.
Yeah, I've got it. Let's see it.
Here.
Uh-huh. Okay, that's all I need.
But... that's what?
I'm sorry about this, Nita. Honestly. I really am.
Cliff! No! No! Cliff!
I got the rope and tied her up and tied a towel over her head, mostly because I didn't want to see her face.
And I got out the gasoline and spread about half of it around the room.
I took the rest of it down the cellar and poured it in a big shallow pan I had down there.
There was a candle set in the middle of the pan and it came about three inches above the level of the gasoline.
It would take about two hours to burn down. By that time, I'd be in a plane over the Atlantic Ocean.
The way it was pretty rugged and I felt sort of bad about it.
But you always hear that they suffocate from the smoke before the fire ever gets to them.
So I lit the candle and I got out of there.
Well, it was over. It was done with now.
And I began to hear it again. All the way down there in the clipper, I could hear that money talking.
Maybe I'd get a rancho, one of those cattle outfits with a big hacienda and a couple dozen servants.
Plenty of dough and Argentine beef.
Or maybe it'd be oil or nitrates.
All I knew for sure was that this hundred thousand was all I needed.
If it was smart operating, I'd roll it up to a million before I was forty.
In Rio, I registered under my new name of Clarence Gage for the best suite and the best hotel in town.
Got ready to relax.
Next day, I got the times that they fly down here for the big shots and there it was on the suburban page.
I found Anita and she'd been identified by jewelry and stuff.
I mentioned that she was employed at the blueprints and she was a very good
and she'd been identified by jewelry and stuff. I mentioned that she was employed at the Bankers Industrial
and hinted she might have been in some trouble there.
I was all to the good and I relaxed even more.
And then the next day, I got a very funny feeling.
All the way up in the elevator, I felt it.
I didn't like it. I didn't like it at all.
When I opened my door, I liked it even less.
Mr. Gage?
Yeah? Who are you?
Gorman's the name. Sam Gorman.
You and me have got a little bills to transact.
Have we? I don't think I know you, Mr. Gorman.
Well, maybe this heater will jog your memory, huh?
Guns never remind me of anything but trouble and I don't like trouble.
But you got it, Mr. Goff. You got it.
All right. What's the pitch?
You mean this heater doesn't remind you of anything?
Like money? About a hundred grand?
Or somebody named Anita?
You got a rotten memory, haven't you?
You're a cop. You're wasting your time.
Cop?
I know some guys who get a big kick out of that.
No, I'm no cop, Mr. Goff.
Well, let's talk then. What do you want?
Can't you guess, Mr. Goff?
I wouldn't try.
I want the bill, Mr. Goff. The money.
What makes you think you're going to get it?
Well, for one thing, this.
Wouldn't try that again. Gun or no gun?
No.
Cut it out, Sam. I said no rough stuff.
Anita.
Yeah. I owe him at least that much.
Oh, don't be silly, Sam. All we want is the money. Now start looking for it.
Sure. He just tried to fry in gasoline. That's all. No rough stuff.
Did it just make complications with the local police and you know it?
Now stop being jealous. Find the money.
Anita. They said... What's said in the paper...
That little fire at your place?
Oh, they found somebody all right.
It just didn't happen to be me.
You don't mean... You didn't deliberately...
Yes, him, well, yes.
I don't think the guy's got much of a sense of humor, sugar.
It was somebody Sam didn't like. And nobody that'll be missed.
All right, I've got no sense of humor. Maybe I'm dumb, too. I don't get it.
Well, you see, Civ, we never did like the idea of leaving the country.
You said it.
But this way, I'm off the hook.
We can go back any time we want to, because legally, I'm dead. See?
May I ask who this we is that suddenly got into the conversation?
Me and Sam. My husband.
Your husband.
That's me.
Mm-hmm. I went to work in the bank for the same reason you did, Civ.
There was gonna be a stick-up and I was gonna help from the inside.
Only your way seems so much better.
Well, how do you like that?
Yeah. How does it feel, wonder boy?
It's like me trying to tell you how to be dishonest.
Aw, there don't have to be any hard feelings, Civ.
At least I don't have any.
It was really Sam's fault what happened to me.
What?
We're almost dead.
He lost you somehow, following you out to the place.
We were almost certain that you'd try it, of course.
Yeah, of course.
Yeah. I still owe him some lumps for that.
A hundred thousand really wasn't enough for both of us.
If it were two bits, I'd give it to him.
Sam, haven't you found that money yet?
Of course I have, wonder boy.
I don't think I have it here, do you?
I do.
Look for a brown leather briefcase, Sam.
Two will get you ten. It's all right there.
Yeah? Well, here's the briefcase.
Well, well, well.
I guess wonder boy just didn't have much confidence in thanks, huh?
Not that I blame him.
Well, I guess we better get going.
Listen, Nita, it was a bum deal all the way around.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry about that other part, about you, I mean.
I believe it. You even said so.
No hard feelings, Cliff.
I think wonder boy is leading up to something.
I can see you, the intellectual type.
All right, how about leaving me a little?
Nuts.
Why not, Sam?
Just a thousand or so.
What's the use? They won't get him anyplace, even down here.
Listen, you don't think I'm going to stick around down here now, do you?
I've got to get back to the States and make another pitch.
Give him the money, Sam. One thousand.
And, uh, Cliff.
Yeah?
I'd be a little careful about going back to the States if I were you.
Sure. That goes double, Nita.
What does?
About being careful.
I don't get it.
You will. And that money begins to talk.
Talk about honor among thieves.
But it could have been worse. I'd only lost two years of my life, not all of it.
So, a month later, I was out on the West Coast, credentials, dark blue, pinstripe, Van Huser and all,
and this time the sucker was a Mr. Ambrose.
Uh-huh. Well, your record at the business school is certainly impressive, Mr. Gage.
I worked hard, Mr. Ambrose.
Banking has always seemed more than just a business to me.
It's been, well, an ideal, a sacred trust, and the best tradition of our financial and national institutions.
Ah, you've got the right spirit, Mr. Gage.
Come in tomorrow morning, and I think we can work something out.
So, it all began all over again.
Only about three months later, there was a little man in a derby hat standing in line in front of my window,
and his business was strictly personal.
You Clarence Gage?
Yes, that's right.
Can we have a little private talk?
Well, I guess, oh, can you take over for me a minute, Harry?
And maybe for a little bit longer than a minute.
Well, now, what can I do for you, Mr....
I used to work on a name of Clifford Goff on the East Coast.
Oh.
Yeah. Headquarters.
Listen, you got me all wrong on that. I didn't have anything to do with it.
What would I be working here for if I had that kind of dough?
I can prove to you, I never got a cent.
Now, wait a minute. You knew the girl, didn't you?
Sure. When I heard what had happened, well, I'd been going around with her, and I got scared, that's all.
Yeah, I bet you didn't. Well, she's dead.
Anita? Oh, no, she's not dead. It was another girl that...
Get your coat, Mr. Goff. You're under arrest for attempted murder and grand larceny.
Well, it's a funny thing what happens to people when they hear that money begin to talk.
I guess Anita finally heard it, too, before she died.
You see, Sam Gorman had started a big gambling joint in Las Vegas, and it was held up, and he was killed.
There was a girl with him that was killed, too, Anita.
But before she died, she talked money, told him everything.
Well, she won't talk anymore, but that money will.
So, I wonder who that money is talking to now.
In just a moment, we will bring you Alan Baxter, tonight's star of Suspense.
Presented by Roma, that's R-O-M-A, Roma Wines, America's Largest Selling Wines.
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This is Alan Baxter. It was a great pleasure to appear on tonight's broadcast of Suspense.
Next week, Suspense will again originate from New York,
and Roma Wines will bring you one of the most provocative and glamorous actresses in America, Miss Gloria Swanson.
Tonight, tonight's Suspense play was written by Robert L. Richards.
Next Thursday, same time, you will hear Miss Gloria Swanson as star of Suspense,
produced for Schenley by William Spear.
This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.