A tale well calculated to keep you in.
Suspense.
I looked over his shoulder to see the big open mouth of a nice blue 45.
And suddenly I knew what a man feels like when he's just finished digging his own grave.
Listen now to Act One of Death of an Old Flame,
starring Larry Haynes and Terry Keene, and written especially for suspense by George Bamber.
The name's Warren, Ronnie Warren. I play piano.
I play what they call piano bars. That's where they tear the top off a baby grand
and build a counter all the way around for the jerks to put their drinks on.
I must have played back and forth across the country a dozen times.
Never the top spots, but all the joints I work kept the pianos too.
There I mean, the lady wants to hear that song.
That's me, I'll be old this way. Not a bad guy as owners go, but still an owner.
I look up at the chick at the bar into the piano. She smiles, I smile, slow and shy.
You know, I gave her the old cock of spaniel, like a boy fresh out of college.
And she eats it up.
He even wrote it out for you.
Yeah, so I see. A hundred and fifty a week big spender, it just stuggles to the back.
I figured if she was going to make a move, she'd wait till his back was turned.
She said she'd like to hear Stardust.
Oh, well tell her that looks more like a telephone number to me.
I think she wants you to call her.
Well, tell her I never learned how to use a phone.
Ronnie, she's a customer.
Yeah, yeah, I know. So I smile at her again like we're both college sophomores,
and this is our first date. But she's a chick like any other,
poured into an expensive dress for a night on the town.
A local princess who thinks she deserves better than she's got,
better than a secondhand car in a garage and television every night.
Better than the guy that brought her, better than anything she'll ever have
from the first moment she has until the last moment she throws it away.
But the moment, the piano player in the downtown club is better.
And that piano player is me.
Tell her I get off work at two.
She says she can't make it. She's with a guy.
Yeah, I see that. But it hasn't stopped her this far, has it, Ronnie?
Leo, I've been playing saloons for ten years, and if I've learned anything,
I've learned never to trust a chick and never give me a needle break.
She'll be here, and I'll take her home, if something better doesn't turn up.
Tell me, Ronnie, how do you do it?
It's my boyish charm. My boyish charm.
That's a joke around the saloons.
I'm 35 years old, and I still look like I should be in college.
Some guys say that's why I score so much, but really, it's the way I play piano.
I play like I'm in another world.
And when I look up, I always smile, like I'm pleasantly surprised
that such excellent music could find itself in the presence of such superior company.
I smile this way whether I'm looking at the wall or the window,
I play whether I'm looking at the wall, the bartender, or crying drunk,
or the chick I'm working on at the moment.
But out of all of them, only the chicks are flaky enough to take it personally.
Why do I get along without you?
I don't play that number.
You used to.
I hadn't seen her come in, and I swung around to see what the voice told me I would find.
The eyes were still incredible, so deep and brilliantly blue
that you had to look twice to believe what you saw.
Hello, Anna.
She smiled, and somebody took a clean blade and dumped my insides on the floor.
There was nothing left but an empty, aching hurt.
I turned back piano because I was afraid I couldn't control my mouth.
Hello, Anna.
Mind if I sit down?
No, no, go right ahead.
I haven't seen you around the pool in a long time.
Five and a half years to be exact.
I didn't keep track.
Will you buy me a dress?
I don't buy a dress for customers.
She sat like she was suddenly very tired, and she toyed with her gloves for a moment the way she used to.
Her mouth was as I remembered it,
and her hair, still soft and natural gold.
But then I noticed there was a hole in one of the fingers of her white cotton gloves, and her dress was last year's style.
I signaled the bartender to buy her a drink.
Thanks.
I read in the paper you were playing here.
I kept track of you, where you'd been, when you'd hit town.
Yeah, well, I would have kept in touch, but when I got back that night, all I could find was an empty hotel room.
You didn't leave much of a forwarding address.
Ronnie, I know I... I know it was wrong.
I've been sorry a million times.
The paper never said, did you marry again?
When a man said until death do you part, I figured he wouldn't have bothered to say it if he hadn't meant it.
Besides, it came in handy.
When a chick would scream, marry me, I'd just say, oh, baby, I'd love to, but I'm already married.
Saved me a lot of scenes.
How about you?
No.
Frankie leaving you for somebody else?
No, he... he won't marry me.
You still with him?
Yes.
Why?
Ronnie, play our song.
Now, you heard me before. I don't play that song.
Ronnie, please, I haven't heard it in so long.
I don't believe that.
Please, just once more for old times sake.
Please.
That's it. It sets over. Everybody gets a coffee break, including piano players.
Come on, Anna, what's the pitch? You don't just run out and then pop up six years later for nothing. What do you want?
Ronnie, I need help.
What kind of help?
Frank's flat. We don't have a cent.
What do you want me to do, a loan of money?
No.
Well, then what?
He knows where he can make a score.
He figures if he can make one good score, we can leave town and start all over again, maybe go to another country.
What score?
Frank knows where there's a half million dollars worth of furs just waiting to be picked up.
It's an inside job. He'd handle it himself, except he'd be the first one they suspect.
All you gotta do is help me load the truck and drive.
Now, let me get this straight.
You want me to help you make a heist, risk a prison rap so you can have enough money to take your boyfriend, Frankie, someplace else where he can live happily ever after?
Ronnie, you'd get half the take.
Anna, the last thing I want is your money.
Ronnie, please. Look, I know I shouldn't ask you, but there's no place else I can turn, nobody else I can trust.
I wanted to take her in my arms and tell her everything would be all right, because in the heart of every cynic lie the fragments of one great dream.
And in the heart of every lady killer smolders the embers of one great love.
So when she said...
Please, Ronnie, just this once.
I said, okay, Anna, just this once, for old time's sake.
Well, I got to work the next night. I talked to Leo.
Boss man, look, I have some business from 10 to 12 tonight. I'd like out.
It's important?
Yeah, it's so important that if anybody should ask, I'd be much obliged if you'd say I spent the time sleeping off a hangover on your office couch.
Okay, but let me give you a little piece of advice.
Like?
Like I don't want to know, but if this important business has anything to do with that broad I saw you talking to last night, I'd watch my step.
Why?
That's Frankie Amato's girl. He's one of the worst rats in this town.
I know.
Okay, so you know. But watch yourself.
When ten o'clock came, I left the piano and slipped out the back way to a truck marked Royal Furs. Anna was sitting inside waiting.
Hi, Ronnie.
She drove us across town into the back of a small shop. No one was in the alley, so she got out and opened the overhead garage door with a key while I backed the truck inside.
She closed the door behind us and locked it.
The furs are inside this cold storage wall.
She slid back the heavy door and started stripping the hangers. It didn't take long because there weren't too many pieces.
I don't know anything about furs, but I do know that what we took wasn't worth any half a million dollars.
Finally, the truck was loaded and we were ready to go. But then she started pouring cleaning fluid out of cans.
Frank, help me spread the stuff around, huh? What for? So we can set fire to the place. Why?
So we can destroy it. Frank says we have to set fire to the place to burn all the evidence.
Look, you didn't mention anything about a fire before.
Ronnie, I didn't because I was afraid you wouldn't go through with it if I did.
Well, of course I wouldn't. Taking a few furs is one thing, but arson is something else. Somebody could get killed.
We have to. Right now, Frank is playing cards with the guy that owns this place. We have to fix his alibi with the time of the fire.
Oh, I see. All that matters is Frank and his alibi, huh?
All that matters is that Frank is safe. That he's got somebody to steal from, to lie for him, and for what?
What does he do for you, Anna? Answer me. What does he do for you?
Please.
Come on, answer me. What does he do for you?
Nothing.
Then what do you stay with him for? You're happy being turned into a two-bit thief to do his dirty work for him and for what?
To lick his boots in gratitude? Are you happy, Anna?
No.
Then why?
Ronnie, I don't know. If I knew, I probably wouldn't do it. I've wanted to leave him a hundred times. I don't know.
Anna, answer me one thing, baby. Do you love him?
I don't know.
Anna, answer me. Do you love him?
No.
I love you.
Ronnie, please.
I never stopped out. Every time I hid, every place I went, I walked the places we used to walk and listened to the songs we used to sing.
Ronnie, please don't.
You don't need this, Anna. Put it down. We could cut out of here, leave this town, and never come back.
No.
We could start all over again, right from the very beginning, Anna. Make it like it was before, only better, a hundred times better.
Ronnie, please, no. Look, we can't talk about it now. There isn't any time. Help me finish this, and then we can go to some place and talk about it.
No.
Ronnie, please. We've got to get out of here.
No, no.
Help me do this, and I'll never ask you for another thing as long as I live.
No, Anna.
Please, Ronnie, please.
Okay, I'll do it, but on one condition.
What?
That after we burn this place, you'll come with me and promise never to see Frank again. Well?
Okay, Ronnie.
I took the cam cleaning fluid from her hands and started splashing it all over the back room in a cold storage wall while she got more of it down off the shelf.
We splashed more of it on the loading dock and down the hall leading toward the front of the store.
Then she stopped at a door marked office.
In here.
Why in the office?
Frank said to make sure the whole store burns.
By the way, it didn't sound right to me.
But I splashed the stuff all over the walls behind the desk, the plush carpet on the floor, the paper, the sole of the desk, everything, until the room was reeking with cleaning fluid flames until you could hardly breathe.
And suddenly little things I'd been noticing in the corner of my skull began to hit me wrong.
It just didn't add up.
Until now Anna had been as cool as a cucumber, but now she was shaken so badly she could hardly hold a can in her hands.
A long coil of rope lay on the top of a filing cabinet looking strangely out of place.
And then I noticed that all the mail spread across the desk was addressed to a Mr. Frank Armato.
Ah, wait a minute.
This is Frank's office, isn't it?
Ronnie, we've got to hurry.
Come on, now answer my question.
This is Frank's office, isn't it?
No.
This is Frankie's office and he wants it burned for a reason.
Now what is it?
You don't know what you're talking about.
Oh yes you do, Anna.
You know a lot more about this setup than you're letting on.
Now what is it?
You haven't leveled with me all night, have you?
Stay away from me.
You haven't leveled with me since the night we met.
Don't touch me.
Come on, answer me, Anna.
What's going on?
You heard the lady.
Piano player, keep your hands off.
I looked over her shoulder to see the big open mouth of a nice blue 45.
And suddenly I knew what a man feels like when he's just finished digging his own grave.
In a moment, we'll return with Act Two of Suspense.
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TELAR.
That's right, college boy, keep your hands over your head.
No one ever introduced us, but I'd say offhand, you're frank.
And you're bright, college boy, real bright.
Now look, if this is a shakedown, I'm afraid you got the wrong party.
I'm broke.
Oh, this isn't penny-ante stuff.
I'm going after this is money, big money.
Well, pardon my density, but I still don't get it.
You're fed of insurance, haven't you, college boy?
Oh, sure, sure.
But I don't see how you can collect on a store you don't own.
Or do you?
I don't own the store.
I don't have that kind of change in present.
So I insured myself.
Well, either I'm not worth two cents, but then I'm worth 50 grand.
That's quite a piece of change.
And Anna here is my only beneficiary.
Oh.
Well, I don't know how this figures me.
Unless you want me to help you commit suicide.
Oh, suicides don't collect.
Besides, I wouldn't die for any bra that's stripped of the suckers like you.
Okay, I've been a sucker up until now, but I don't think I can make this gig anymore, man.
Nobody's going to commit suicide.
I'm going to be murdered.
But like I said, I still don't get it.
I guess you ain't as bright as I thought.
I told the owner of the store I was going to work late tonight, go over the books.
The police will think I accidentally left the door unlocked.
Somebody found it open, came in, tied me to my chair, stole all the furs,
then burned the store to destroy the evidence.
Now, wait a minute.
In the meantime, I'll be on my way to Mexico where Anna will join me
after she's had sufficient time to recover from her grief
and collected the insurance money.
Well, there's only one thing wrong with that little plan, Frankie.
Nobody would ever confuse me with you, not in a million years.
Oh, I don't know.
We're about the same height and build.
You ever seen what a man looks like after he's been soaked with cleaning fluid
and touched off with a match?
I'm betting there's not much more than the crisp char to compare anything with.
You always wanted to take my place, college boy.
Sit down in my chair behind the desk and turn around and face the wall.
I did as I was told.
There wasn't much else I could do.
But before I did, I took one last look at Anna.
She couldn't face me.
Hold the gun on him, Anna, while I tie him up.
He even looks like he's going to move.
Let him have it.
Since I was as good as dead anyway, I knew that anything I did would be the right thing.
They say that a man who's about to die starts praying.
I didn't.
I started thinking hard and fast because I wanted so badly to go on living.
I don't look like I could punch my way out of a paper bag,
but while I was waiting out, the Army's bored them in Japan.
A gentle old Japanese man taught me you don't need brawn to defend yourself,
just brains and speed, and a thing called karate,
piano player's best friend, you don't hurt your hands.
And I knew I had to have something to defend myself against husbands and boyfriends.
So I learned karate in the art of timing and surprise.
I waited until I could feel him touch my arm,
and when he slid his hand down on my wrist, I made my move.
I grabbed two of his fingers and hurt them snap as I bent them back.
That couple was surprised, made it easy for me to slip them around in a half Nelson.
His fingers hanging like loose spaghetti, so his body was between me and the gun.
I knew Anna wouldn't hesitate to shoot me, but I figured maybe Frankie Boy was something else.
Shoot, for God's sake, Anna, shoot!
I can't.
Kill him, Anna, kill him!
I can't, I might hit you.
All right, Anna, put the gun down and back out into the hall.
No!
Go on, do as I say, Anna, I can kill him with my hands if I want to, you know that.
No, Anna, no!
You know I can do it, Anna, you've seen me practice, remember?
All I have to do is add a little pressure right here.
You got to!
Do like he says, do like he says.
Please.
That's better, Anna.
I waited until she put the gun on the table and then backed clear out to the hall
before I spun Frank around and slammed him with stiff fingers hard right under the breastbone.
Oh!
Frank crumpled like a rag doll with his eyes bulging like a drunk with the heaves.
I ran from the office grabbing Anna by the arm as I went.
What did you do to him?
Nothing, nothing, he'll live, come on.
You killed him.
He only wishes I had, come on.
I dragged her all the way back to the loading dock and she fought me every step of the way.
We jumped down and ran past the truck to a small door where I struggled with the bolt all the time,
keeping a tight grip on her wrist.
I guess I didn't jab him hard enough because Frank came out of the dock after us,
and I remember in pain his gun in his head.
Frank!
Come back, can you come back?
I shoved her out the door ahead of me and dove out just as he cut loose.
Frank!
The shots were like matches in a gas tank.
The cleaning fluid fumes made the whole building explode in a roar of flame.
Frank!
Come on, let's get out of here.
We can't leave an infernal life.
You can't help him, Anna, it's too late.
Let me go to him.
Anna, you can't go in there.
Let me go!
Frank, I got it!
Anna, no!
Anna, come back!
Anna!
I see here in the paper where my old friend, Frank Kamato, finally met with a fatal accident.
He burned to death.
Oh, is that so?
It happened last night.
I don't guess you'd know anything about it, would you?
No, no, I don't guess I would.
I didn't think so.
The way the cops figured it, he was trying to rob the place where he worked,
then burn the store to cover his tracks.
And somehow he touched off the place ahead of time and burned him and the girl that was with him.
That was the girl?
Yeah.
Probably the one that was in here last night.
But they aren't sure yet.
They haven't even been able to identify his body positively yet.
That's too bad.
Yeah.
That's the way I thought you'd feel.
I don't know what now, but I think you've got a customer coming your way.
I think I'll check the bar.
Yeah, thanks, Leo.
I knew what was coming without even looking.
I knew.
Do you know Stardust?
I have to struggle to keep from choking.
Do I know Stardust?
But I don't let it show.
I look up, slow and shy and smile
and give her the old cockatoo spaniel.
Stardust.
It's a beautiful song about a beautiful girl.
I was hoping you'd ask.
Thank you.
The pleasure's mine.
I've been listening to you.
You play very well.
Thank you.
It's been a long time since anyone said that.
Most people just drink, pretend to listen.
But not you.
You're different.
You're special.
So, for a special girl, I'm going to play a special number.
Not just something like Stardust.
Oh, that's nice.
What's it called?
Oh, this?
That used to be called.
I could along without you very well.
But from now on, let's just call it our song.
Suspense.
You've been listening to Death of an Old Flame, starring Larry Haynes and Terry Keene,
and written especially for suspense by George Bamber.
Suspense is produced and directed by Bruno Zorato Jr.
Special music for today's story of suspense was composed and performed by Norman Paris.
Featured in tonight's story were Ralph Bell as Frank, Robert Donnelly as Leo, and Evelyn Juster as the girl.
Listen again next week when we return with Till Death Do Us Part, written by Ben Kagan.
Another tale well calculated to keep you in.
Suspense.