And now, tonight's presentation of radio's outstanding theater of thrills, Suspense.
Tonight, the story of a mountain road and the pursuit of a runaway car.
We call it Speed Track.
So now, starring Eddie Firestone, here is tonight's suspense play, Speed Track.
Sometimes it takes you years to get to know a guy.
Sometimes on the highway patrol you learn all about a man in ten minutes.
Like the night Craig Hollister checked me out on my new beat.
Soft shoulder here.
I didn't answer.
I was too busy sweating the grade.
The wheel was easy in my hands.
Too easy like it always is on a slick highway.
My headlights caught the rain and sleet slanting down from the pass.
It was steamy inside the patrol car.
Hollister wiped the mist off the windshield.
I thought of loosening my collar, but I didn't want to make a bad impression on Hollister.
He didn't look like a police academy officer, but he didn't talk much so I couldn't tell.
I knew he was a good patrolman.
They told me at headquarters, good patrolmen go by the book.
I decided I'd leave my collar buttoned.
I wiped my hands one at a time and changed my grip on the wheel.
Curve coming up.
I don't see why they need us on this road.
Driver would be nuts to go over 30.
People speed anywhere.
This turn is called Milley's hairpin. It's slick in the rain.
Found four kids here in a station wagon after the last storm.
Over the left of them.
Who is Milley?
She went over the cliff in a model T five years ago.
She was 60 years old.
Killer?
Not a scratch. Devil's Curve coming up.
We've had three fatalities here this winter.
I don't know if I'm going to like this beat.
Oh, it isn't bad.
Once you get used to the blood.
You actually catch speeders on this highway?
So I met my wife. She was speeding here.
Pardon me.
Spatcher, this is 3-1-2-2.
Go ahead, Craig.
Joe, will you call Debbie and tell her to pick me up at headquarters?
Okay. You better get down here before she does.
A guy like her is the safest around me.
You old relic, she could break your arm.
Joe.
Yeah?
It's awful slick up here.
Tell her to take it easy on the gray.
Roger. Out.
Well, this was pretty good.
You wanted your wife to meet you.
You gave the dispatcher a call on the radio.
That was something they hadn't taught me at the academy.
I had a hunch it wasn't exactly standard either.
Maybe working out here in the sticks would have its points.
If you didn't end up at the bottom of a canyon some night chewing on a piston ring.
Or if your wife didn't go nuts feeding the chipmunks.
Well, I sure hope she doesn't try to break the record getting to headquarters.
Not tonight.
Did you say you caught her speeding here?
That's how I met her.
See that stretch at the bottom of the grade?
I remember it.
If you park off the road on the ridge, you can spot the speeders coming down.
I try to get them before they hit the real grade and clobber themselves.
That's where you met your wife, huh?
Yeah.
She was rowing down the hill with a car full of phonies.
Coming back from a party Schweitzer was giving on his estate.
All of them.
Tried to the eyeballs.
Including your wife?
I thought so. I wrote it up that way.
Well, then what happened?
Well, the county judge thought otherwise.
Debbie cried and her old man said he wanted to treat her just like anybody else.
Even if he had just given the county a new library.
So the judge decided she'd never had a drink in her life.
Wasn't a dry eye in the courthouse.
You married her, huh?
Best thing I ever did.
I think.
You think?
You're married, aren't you?
Your wife doesn't like the mountains?
Whoever I am, she likes it. Why?
It's kind of lonely for a woman, Debbie says.
Well, here's the place I was telling you about.
Pull over.
Pull over?
Yeah.
Well, wait here and follow her down.
Why?
Well, she still drives this grade too fast.
With me back of her, she'll take it easy.
So I pulled over, of course.
Even if it was quitting time.
He was the boss and if he wanted to baby his wife down the grade, it was okay with me.
I was tired and I could have used a cup of coffee back at headquarters.
And I was trying to get my wife moved into her cabin, but the man said pull over and wait.
So I pulled over and waited.
I even offered him a cigarette to show there were no hard feelings.
He shook his head.
And the flare of my match I could see was squinting up the road.
His face was tired.
Some of the roughness was gone.
This joker was worried.
He caught me looking and seemed kind of ashamed.
Should we be along in a minute?
Sure, sure, no hurry.
You can't follow her everywhere, you know.
In a hurry or something?
No, no, it just seems...
Look, I'm getting a transfer.
Debbie and I will be out of these mountains next week.
She's a good driver, but it's slick tonight.
So if it's okay with you, we'll just...
Sure, sure, I'm sorry.
What's the matter?
Look at those headlights up there.
I twisted around in my seat.
Half a mile up the grade, a pair of headlights stabbed over the cliff
seemed to hang there.
Then they whipped back to the road, jerky.
Like when somebody's really floorboarding the accelerator.
Then there was a straight stretch where the light swayed like the guy was skidding.
Hollister gripped my shoulder, then the light straightened out
and got brighter and brighter and further apart.
The guy was practically flying.
Holy smoke!
That's not your wife, is it?
No, no, she's still a little wild, but she's not crazy.
Hollister was big and a little older than me.
He didn't look like he could move very fast,
but he was nothing but a blur jumping out of that car.
He was around the hood and swinging a flashlight in circles
before I could even turn on my red light.
The crazy headlights seemed to reach out at him.
Hey!
You okay, Hollister?
Yeah.
Let's take him.
Holy cow, I thought you'd had him.
Close, but no cigar. He must be plaster of the years.
Get his tag, the light's blinking.
I just seen it was a convertible, that's all.
A convertible?
Yeah.
Aren't you going to call a dispatcher?
No.
Cappy ought to be parked near halfway house.
2429.
This is 3122.
It was a convertible, all right,
and I'd caught a flash of the driver and my heart had flipped.
It was a woman driver, young, blonde,
with a crazy grin on her face.
I felt sick.
I'd picked up the pieces after a few wrecks down in the valley.
It's bad enough when it's a man, but a young girl...
2429, this is 3122, Cappy.
We're in pursuit of a possible 502
three miles north of halfway house.
Just about ran me down.
He's weaving all over the road. Be careful.
Roger, I'll try to take him.
Curve, not here.
Take this curve tight, buddy.
What did you say?
That driver, it's a woman.
A woman?
I think so.
Okay, after this curve, you can cut loose for about 800 yards.
Try to get me close enough to spot light her license.
Hang on, partner.
You get the number?
No.
Maybe on the next stretch.
We don't need the number.
What do you mean?
I know the number.
You know it? How come?
It's Debbie's car.
You're a wife. You must be nuts.
It's Debbie.
Why would she try to run you down?
She doesn't know what she's doing.
What do you mean?
She's fried, plastered, crushed.
What do you mean?
She's a woman.
She doesn't know what she's doing.
She's going to roll that thing and that'll be all.
That'll be all.
This guy was shook.
Sliding through a turn, I caught a glimpse of his face in the light from the dash.
He was staring ahead.
And he had that thousand yard stare I'd seen in Korea before an attack.
I shivered.
Well, where do we go from here?
I could see it coming.
I could see it.
Alone in that house all day.
It's why we were going to move to the city.
But now it'll be too late.
Step it up, Art. Step it up.
If we had time to change...
I can't do any better than you.
Stick with it and try.
Try to get her before killer curve.
That's a heavy car she's got, Craig.
It's like it was glued to the road.
It isn't glued to the road.
It'll roll just like the rest of them.
It'll roll.
Tappy will flag her down.
How's he going to do it?
She didn't stop for us.
Maybe she didn't even see us.
You want me to try to take her again?
Not here, Art. Not here.
If she speeds up anymore, she hasn't got a prayer on killer curve.
Hang back. Don't press her.
Benny did something that wasn't in the books.
He reached over and cut our growler.
And he flicked off the red light.
I started to turn it back on and fell his hand on my wrist.
Leave it off.
Maybe we're panicking her.
Art, if she doesn't slow down now, she'll never make it.
Then she started her turn on killer's curve.
It was easy to see she wouldn't make it.
It's the roughest turn on the grade.
Washboard, no bank to it at all.
100 foot drop to the river bed below.
Hard enough to make on a dry day, but on a wet night.
Murder.
The tail lights hesitated for a second like they were making up their minds
whether to run into the hill or over the side.
The car slid sideways, rear toward the river.
She was going over backwards.
No, no.
No, baby. No, no.
I took my foot off the gas.
Out of the tail of my eye, I saw Hollister cover his face.
And then I was fighting to stay on the road myself.
Suddenly the miracle happened.
She'd made it.
Now we had to do it.
2429.
This is 3122.
We're a mile north.
Still unable to catch the 502.
She's doing 75.
Suggest your startup will try to box her, but be careful of it.
This is 2429.
Did you say her?
Yes.
Roger.
Okay.
I see her lights.
Starting up now.
Stay on her tail.
We can just stay.
Just ease her between us.
Watch it!
It's like glass out there.
I'll try to take her again.
What's your speed now, Gray?
73.
We're a half a mile behind you.
She's weaving.
I'm up to 65.
Is she slowing down?
No.
No, she's swinging left.
It's a heavy car, Pappy.
Be careful.
Roger.
She's swinging right.
Pappy, let her by.
Let her by!
Let her by.
How are you going to make an old-time patrolman let a drunk pass him on the road?
No, Pappy tried to fight it.
He tried to ease her onto the shoulder.
The block long convertible against the patrol car.
It was like a good pro featherweight against an amateur heavy.
All skill and no punch.
For a second I thought he had her run off the road.
The convertible lurched back.
The two sets of tail lights got closer.
And then Pappy was off the road, over the shoulder, bouncing and rolling down the embankment.
I eased my foot off the accelerator praying that it wasn't as bad as it looked.
I wanted to use the brake, but on that highway it would have been suicide.
What are you doing?
Going back for Pappy.
What about her?
Call a dispatcher. They'll stop her.
If she doesn't go off the road first, we gotta get back.
Stay on her tail.
You off your rocker, they'll stop her.
She's my wife and I don't want her killed.
Stay on her tail.
What about Pappy?
I said stay with her. I'm still running this beach.
But Pappy sneaks?
Joe, this is 3-1-2-2, a mile south of Halfway House.
That 502 just ran Pappy off the road.
Send an ambulance. We're staying on her tail.
This isn't Joe, it's Sergeant Capehart.
Setting up a roadblock outside headquarters. She won't get through it.
Go back and help Pappy.
But what kind of roadblock?
The works.
You aren't shooting at a woman.
If she tries to run this block, we'll shoot at her.
Now get back to Pappy.
Sarge, Sarge, that girl...
Don't worry about the girl. I'll take care of her.
You get back to Pappy.
It's Debbie!
Yeah?
I'm sorry, Hollister. She's just run my best man off the road.
Said she almost hit you.
Trucks and cars coming up the lower grade.
She'll have one of those.
If we don't stop her. So we'll stop her.
If we have to blast her off the road.
You are listening to Speed Trap.
Tonight's presentation in radio's outstanding theater of thrills, Suspense.
Hardly a driver is now alive who passed on a curve at 65.
Slow down driver, if you're pushing even a little bit too hard for the road conditions ahead tonight.
Play it safe behind the wheel. Your life depends on it.
The lives of others on or near the highways depend on it too.
Safety first behind the wheel.
Don't make a death trap of your automobile.
And now we bring back to our Hollywood soundstage, Eddie Firestone with Larry Thor.
Starring in tonight's production, Speed Trap.
A tale well calculated to keep you in...
Suspense.
I felt sorry for the man beside me.
I knew what was happening outside headquarters.
A couple of patrol cars rolling into position.
Spotlights pointed up the grade.
The guys drawing automatic rifles, maybe shotguns.
Flares set out further down the hill.
A reception committee for Craig Hollister's wife.
Not what he'd planned when he'd asked her to meet him at headquarters.
But there was nothing I could do.
I slowed carefully.
Keep going.
Now look, Guy. Keep going.
You heard the Sergeant, Pappy might be bleeding to death.
He's only a quarter mile from halfway house.
They can do as much for him as we can.
You stay on her tail.
I can't. The sergeant said...
I'm running this and I said stay with her, you understand?
Craig, I can't. They'll suspend me.
Don't make me pull my gun on you.
Watch this next curve.
What can we do? We can't stop them.
If she tries to run the barricade, they'll blow her apart.
If she... Hang on.
If she doesn't slow down, she won't even get to the barricade.
Turn off your lights.
Turn off my lights?
That's right. Turn off your lights.
When she doesn't see us, she slows down a little.
How am I gonna see?
Use her lights.
Her lights.
Fine. Great.
But what if there was something coming up the grade?
I wondered if Hollister had gone nuts.
I shot a look at him.
He was peering ahead and he seemed to have got a hold of himself.
I didn't really think he'd pull a gun on me, but...
Suddenly I knew I'd go along with whatever he was trying to do.
Even if it cost me my badge.
I flicked off the lights.
It seemed to help.
The car ahead lost some of its crazy fear.
You're gaining.
Slow.
Slow and easy.
Watch it.
Okay, use this stretch here.
Gaining all right, but what good is it?
She makes this turn, she's still only got a mile to the barricade.
Is that a car coming?
Looks like a truck.
Get over. Get over!
Shoot.
Watch it, get your lights on.
Now, catch her.
Every time I put on another mile an hour, we start to slide.
If I have to get closer, I'll never do it from here.
Closer, the man said.
I was already pushing 80.
My arms and eyes ached from the strain.
The range was still too far unless he was aiming for a lucky hit.
Or an unlucky.
You've got to catch her by that stretch in front of headquarters.
Well, that made sense.
It was the only level shoulder in the grade.
If he was going to shoot out a tire, it would have to be there.
But that was where the barricade was.
Now we just have to get her this side of it.
Hollister rolled down the window and I felt a spray of rain on my face.
Suddenly I spotted the barricade's spotlights.
She's slowing, Annie?
Putting on speed.
I can't wait any longer.
The range was just too great.
It had to be her left rear tire.
If she went off the other way, she'd be killed.
And if the ricochet got her, she'd be killed anyway.
But she was just too far away.
Suddenly, not really wanting to, I jammed down the accelerator.
At least I could give him a last chance.
The rear end swayed and lurched.
My hands were sweaty with fear.
And that did it.
The heavy car began to turn.
Hesitated and headed for the shoulder.
It leaped when it hit the dirt, half turned and went over.
I skidded all the way through the roadblock.
It took me so long to get stopped and turn around
that the guys from the barricade beat us back to the crash.
But it was just as well because without them,
I'd never been able to keep Hollister from the ruin convertible.
Let me go! Let me go!
Hollister, wait till we get her out.
Doc will be here in a minute.
I killed her. I killed her.
We don't know yet.
There's the ambulance.
She's down there, Doc.
Hey, how's Pappy?
He broke a leg.
Not the car that ran him off the road?
Yeah, that's it.
It seemed like an hour, but it was only a couple of minutes
before the Docs scrambled out of the ditch.
A patrolman and an ambulance driver set a litter by the ambulance.
Two other guys had Craig in their patrol car trying to calm him down.
I walked over to the ambulance.
The girl was hurt.
Hurt bad, but she was alive.
Sergeant walked up.
Is she alive?
Yeah.
Tell Hollister.
Okay to let him see her, Sarge?
Yeah, yeah, I guess so.
I started back to the patrol car and stepped back to let a convertible
onto the shoulder.
A girl got out, a pretty girl.
And I thought of the kid by the ambulance who would never be pretty again.
Then I felt the sergeant's hand in my arm.
He was staring at her.
This is Hollister.
Yes, Sergeant, what happened?
Where's Craig?
What's the matter with you?
We thought, he thought...
Oh, look.
That poor thing.
She's just a kid.
Hey, Pete, bring Hollister over here.
I guess you figured she was old enough to get fried at the gills
and try to make that grade on a rainy night.
Your husband saved her life.
How?
He and Art here almost broke their necks catching her.
I had a blast hitting her pieces.
Where is Craig? Is he all right?
Debbie.
Craig, darling, what is it?
It wasn't you.
Better skip it, Craig.
No, no.
Now, you ought to know, Debbie.
I want you to know I thought the girl was you.
Me?
Well, why me?
Oh.
Oh, I see.
And it could have been, couldn't it?
Long time ago, maybe.
Long time ago.
Well, his arm was around her when they walked away,
but Debbie Hollister had a kind of thoughtful look in her eye.
You kind of wonder at a time like that what two people are thinking.
I turn back to the sergeant.
You okay?
Oh, sure. Yeah, I...
Well, say, sergeant.
Hmm?
About us not going back for Pappy, I was driving, you know.
Yeah, I know.
Well...
Forget it.
Learn anything tonight?
Yeah.
I learned something.
Suspense.
In which Eddie Firestone with Larry Thorst starred in tonight's presentation of Speed Trap.
Next week, Suspense will bring you the story of a man who knows that he will be caught for a crime that he has not yet committed.
We call it Sight Unseen.
That's next week on Suspense.
Suspense is produced and directed by Anthony Ellis.
Tonight's script was written by Mr. Hank Searles.
The music was composed by Lucian Morrowick and conducted by Wilbur Hatch.
Featured in the cast were Lillian Byeth, Tom McKee, Ted Bliss, and Jack Prussian.
Listen while you work.
Enjoy Perry Mason every Monday through Friday in the daytime on the CBS Radio Network.