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Show I Jerry said he didn't want to go ' out. Just back from a trip, he ' wanted to slay at home with his i wife, but he went to admit the 1 callers. Pam returned to the bedroom bed-room to finish dressing. Jerry begged off from going out for cocktails or to dinner and Ben Wilson said: "It's no use, Jerry. I know how you feel, but you are licked." He gave his wife, Jane, a stealthy look. She took offense at his remark re-mark and they would have started start-ed quarreling had not Stuart Blanton Blan-ton reminded them they were guests in someone else's home. "I know how you feel, Jerry," said Blanton. "It's all right with me. You tell Pam I'm in quaran-j quaran-j tine with chicken-pox and the din-I din-I Tier's called off." "You're sure it won't put you out?" ! "Not at all I asked you because at my party yesterday Pam said her cook was out." Jerry was surprised. "Pam went to your party? Yesterday afternoon?" after-noon?" "Yes " , - , - - ... j-- .. .a M. ' - . . W- .. i , . - ...... - . s-,J-,.- - "ill muke him regret to hit dying day that this wasn't his dying day." v.m. k mRS. Adapted from the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Picture by LEBBEUS MITCHELL CAST OF CHARACTERS Pamela North ..... Oracie Allen Gerald P. North . ... William Post, Jr. Lieutenant Weigand .... Paul Kelly Carol Brent . . . . . Rose Hobart Jane Wilson Virginia Grey Louis Brerex Tom Conway Arthur Talbot .... Felix Bretsart Stuart Blanton ... Stuart Crawford George Heyler Portar Hall "It's a figure Carol had on exhibit at the Danbury State Fair a portrait bust of herself. her-self. It's kind of futuristic, fu-turistic, but I told her I'd bring it to Louis." She explained to Jerry that Carol Brent and Louis Brerex were very much In love and wanted to get married and that Carol's husband hus-band wouldn't give her a divorce. She did not confide in Jerry, however, that Carol wanted her to try to persuade Stanley Brent to do so, nor that she had tried twice to get Brent on the phone to plead with him. At an opportune As she opened the door, the body of a. well-dressed man fell lor-, ward. Pam, horrified, could not make a sound for some moments. Then she called in a small, uncertain un-certain voice: "Jerry..." "I know. Don't tell me. You forgot for-got to order scotcli. Or U it A full-voiced scream frightened, the angered Mm so that he approached ap-proached the study door on the point of scolding her. At sight of her pallid face, her shakily pointing point-ing finger, he dashed past her. Then he saw the body. "Holy smoke! Holy... It's all right, Pam. Keep calm. Keep very calm." He put his arm about her and led her to the telephone in the foyer. In a shaken voice he notified the police that a man had been killed in his apartment... Lieutenant Weigand and Detective Detec-tive Mullins responded to Jerry'a summons. They found no paper.-of paper.-of Identification on the murderec man whose head had been bashec in. They proceeded methodicallj about their business, and Pam buried her face on her husband'! shoulder. "Oh, Jerry, it's awful!... And now we'll have to find somr other place to keep the liquor." Weigand suddenly confronted them. "You sure you never saw this man before?" They were both certain they never had. "He was in your closet, wasn't he?" demanded Mullins truculently. "What of that?" asked Pam. "We keep all sorts of things in that closet. We don't know people who go out and get themselvea murdered." mur-dered." "Tell us exactly what you know about this murder," Interposed Inter-posed Weigand. "Go back as far as you can." "If you go back far enough it was probably mother " "You mean to say your mother murdered this guy?" Mullim interrupted. in-terrupted. ' xiow dare you say my mother kihed a man?" demanded Pam indignantly. in-dignantly. "I didn't say it You did," sale Mullins. Jerry explained. "She's trying to say that all this happened because she went to her mother's yesterday yester-day and I went to Boston." Through his questioning Weigand learned the time Pam left the apartment, the train that Jerry took, the name of the friends who had called. A plainclothes man came up with the janitor, Buano. In spite of his desire to aid Jerry, Buano's story was damaging to him. Weigand quickly dismissed him and resumed his questioning of Jerry. He had been in his office of-fice at four the previous day, he told the Lieutenant, and his secretary sec-retary and any number of employees em-ployees would coroborate that statement. state-ment. Weigand was non-committal and finally asked if there was anything else he could think of. "Not a thing . . . Oh, yes. I'm sorry. sor-ry. I forgot to tell you that after we came home we found a gold compact on the floor. It's on thi . . . Pam, that's funny. I saw yoi . place it here." "I took it into the bedroom. I'll get it," said Pam. She returned with a silver compact that Jerr recognized as one he had giver-her. giver-her. At his amazed expression, she said: "Why, darling, can't you tell the difference between white gold and silver?" Weigand looked suspiciously at them, but soon took his departure. "Pam," said Jerry, "if you've got a sound, innocent reason for what you did, you've got to tell me about it, so I'll know what to do. Otherwise Other-wise we're in for serious trouble." "I'll tell you everything then. It goes way back . . ." She stopped and he prodded her verbally. The doorbell buzzed and she brightened with relief. "How can I tell yot with someone at the door?" He went and opened It. Th caller was a Fowler brush agent. Jerry sent him away. Pam called him back. "I want to see you. I need a new broom a special kind. Brown. Have you a brooiu made sort of thin?" "Fibre brooms? Yes, ma'am We're the only firm that has fibre brooms patented. We also hav tooth brushes, kitchen brushes floor mops "' "Just brooms, please." "Furniture mops, patented " Jerry Interposed roughly. "Pam I've got to know the truth." "Please, dear, this Is very Important. Im-portant. I want a broom, not a stiff " With a muttered yell, Jerry sprang at the broom agent. "Get out of here! Do you bear? Gt out before I kill you!" Don'f miss Chapter II of cit-challenging cit-challenging murder mystery. Printed la TJ. 8. k. Oopyrltht 19 br Loew's tac Chapter One Instead of finding: his wif Pamela Pa-mela at the Grand Central Station to meet him, an attendant shouted through the call system that Gerald Ger-ald XNorth was wanted at the station sta-tion master's oillce. His wife had left a call there for him. He phoned to the number, but the drug store gave him another, the florist still another number. Finally he located Pam at the police station. Bho was charged with striking an officer, but she maintained that she was only showing him that she did know enough to signal with her hand when turning her car In the street when he had expressed ex-pressed doubt of that fact, and that the striking was accidental. "You can have her for fifty dollars," dol-lars," said the Desk Sergeant, "and If you haven't got the money, we'll all chip In. Go and get her, Pete and watch yourself." "I have the money. Is my wife All right?" "That's funny! I was Just going ,to ask you the same thing." He waited until Pete returned with her. She was followed by two panting, disheveled policemen loaded down with bundles. He ( went to her asking: "Pam, are you all right?" "I'm all right. There's the man 'who needs your sympathy." She ' pointed to the Desk Sergeant. "I'll Intake him regret to his dying day that this wasn't his dying day!" ; "Please, darling " "I'll show him that American womanhood can't be bullied and heckled as long as I'm created free and equal! I'll take this case to the highest court in New York City. And then to the Supreme Court in Washington. I'll take it to the President himself and then to his wife!" "Come along!" urged Jerry. "I've paid your fine." At length, still threatening the unfortunate Desk Sergeant, she let him take her out to the taxi In which he had hurried hur-ried from the station. Pam watched her husband covertly cov-ertly as, almost concealed with parcels, he sat silently in one corner cor-ner of the cab. She sidled towards him. "I can't blame you a bit, darling. dar-ling. You ought to be mad at me. You ought to hate me... But I wish you wouldn't." "A fine homecoming!" he burst out. "Mysterious phone callsf Everybody Every-body telling me not to worry. And all the time ..." But suddenly he relented, freed himself of parcels, pulled her to his side and kissed her. "Love, my dear, Is one of the mysteries . . ." But there are some things that even love can't stand, as Jerry discovered dis-covered a short time later when Pam ordered the driver to stop at a curio shop In the window of which was displayed an old cigar store Indian. "Jerry, what a lovely knick-knack! knick-knack! I've always wanted an Indian! In-dian! He'll just match the new furniture I am going to get when I do the place over in early American." Ameri-can." "You can't have him. Get this clearly, Pam: the day he comes into our house I move out!" In Waverly Place Pam stopped to leave a present for the artist-inven'or, artist-inven'or, Louis Brerex. She had ricked it up in Danbury. returning from her mother's, for Carol Brent. moment, however, she confided secretly to Brerex that Brent had never called her back as she had asked his secretary to have him do. "The only thing that worries me," said Brerex, "is Carol. She's getting get-ting desperate. And she's counting on you, Pam." "I'll do what I can, but it's awfully aw-fully difficult on account of Jerry. He hates getting involved in in this kind of thing ..." When they reached the apartment apart-ment house, Pam went up ahead while Buano, the Italian janitor, helped Jerry bring up her parcels. Buano, somewhat mysteriously, hinting that Jerry probably did not want his wife to know, said that the next afternoon after Mrs. North had left to go to her mother's, he had heard Jerry come in. He had been called, he explained, to the Clarks' apartment just below Jerry's, and there he had heard the fight in Jerry's apartment, followed by a cry, and a fall that shook the Clarks' chandelier. Jerry asserted that he had not returned to the apartment that he had been in Boston. But Buano did not believe him. With sly nods and winks, he assured Jerry he would not tell on him not even that he had pounded on the door of the Norths' apartment and that Jerry would not answer. "It must have been Pam's cat you heard," said Jerry. "Yep. Sure. Pete he very smart cat. So smart he can speak English Eng-lish like I hear outside your door. Anyway, Mrs. North, before she go away, bring Pete down for Mrs. Buano to keep for her. So it must have been another very smart cat." Jerry was rather amused at the janitor's thinking he had returned and had a fight, but was concerned enough to ask Pam if she had returned to the apartment after she had left to go to her mother's. Pamela said she had not. While Pam was changing her clothes, Jerry hung a futuristic picture that had been among the parcels she brought home. Getting Get-ting off the chair, he saw a gold compact on the floor. He had never seen it before and Pam said she hadn't either. They were still discussing dis-cussing it when the door bell buzzed. "Good heavens! Four-thirty!" cried Pam. "That's Stuart Blanton and Jane and Ben Wilson. They've come to take us to Tompkins for cocktails and to Stuart's for dinner." din-ner." She placed the compact on a 1 table. A loud shriek from Pam sent them scurrying to the bedroom. Ben Wilson stopped at sight of the gold compact, stared at it as though stunned. Then he put it in his pocket. "Someone has been in this room while we were away!" Pam cried. "My hand glass was on the dressing dress-ing table right side up and it was on the wrong side of my powder box, and now it's on the right side and that's the wrong side." To Blanton's amazed exclamation, exclama-tion, Jerry said: "Don't try to understand her just at first. It takes time." "Yes, the wrong side Is the right side," said Pam. "And nobody but a burglar would put anything on my dressing table on the right side. I never do." "Wait a minute," said Jerry, and hurried into his study and tried the drawer in his desk. It was locked. He opened it and examined the contents before returning. "The drawer hasn't been fooled with. Still, you may be right. Buano said he heard someone in the apartment." apart-ment." Pam threw her arms about Jerry. Jer-ry. "I'm frightened!" "Whoever it was is not here now, Pam. I'm afraid, Stuart, we are in no mood for cocktail parties." "Of course not. And don't bother about coming to dinner," said Blanton, Blan-ton, going towards the hall. Jane Wilson followed him, but stopped as she caught the burning eyes of her husband, still standing by the table, staring tensely after her. "What are you sore about now?" she flared. "What's happened?" "I don't know yet," replied Ben as he slowly followed her to the foyer. "Feel safe now?" Jerry asked when he was alone with Pam. She kissed him, murmuring assent. "Pam, did you go- to a party at Stuart Blanton's yesterday afternoon?" after-noon?" "Yes, I did. I'd given him my lobster recipe. I wanted to see if he'd ruined it, and he had." They went into the living room. Pam screamed again. "The window! win-dow! It's open! I closed it when I left!" "So now it's open. Is that any reason ... Great Scott!" cried Jerry, collapsing in a chair as he remembered re-membered Buano's story of a fight and the fall of a body in h;s p.rmrt-ment. p.rmrt-ment. Frightened at his expression, Pam ran to the liquor closet in Jerry's study. |