And now, a tale well calculated to keep you in...
...suspense.
You pull that trigger, you kill me Feathers and I'll come back and haunt you.
I'll come back and haunt you for the rest of your days.
Don't you forget that.
Listen now to Act One of Feathers, starring Lawson Zerby.
And written especially for suspense by Jonathan Bundy.
Hey Pete, Pete, come on Pete open up, I know you're in there.
Hey Henry, sit open up, I gotta bust down this lousy door.
Okay, okay.
Alright now, what's the gag? What's the idea trying to make out like you wasn't here?
Because I thought maybe it was you Feathers.
Yeah it's me, I wanna know where you've been.
Why ain't been out collecting for me, why I gotta co...
Well, well, well, now look at that.
Now that's what I call a real nice looking set of luggage, Petey.
I'm glad you like it.
Yeah, yeah.
You know, I had a feeling today.
You know those feelings I get Petey when the stars and the moon ain't right for me?
Like that astrology, you know that star reader said.
The one I go to to have my fortune told.
Oh that's just a lot of superstition Feathers.
Oh well you call it superstition, huh?
When one of them lucky horseshoes I got fell off the wall this morning.
When all of a sudden this lucky rabbit's foot here starts kicking around in my pocket.
You call that superstition?
Yes I do.
Well I don't.
Because they told me something was wrong Pete, so that's why I come up here looking for you.
And what do I find?
Instead of you out on a job, you're locked up in here with all this nice new fancy luggage.
So what?
Full up too, now how about that?
You thinking of maybe taking a little trip Petey boy, huh?
Oh come on, now you wouldn't be keeping any secret from your old pal Feathers, would you?
When a guy that picked you up off of the bread line, knocked some of those hick ideas out of your head.
Showed you how to make yourself a little easy dough here in a big city.
Now you wouldn't be holding out on me now, would you Petey?
Wait, come on I asked you kid, you think you're going someplace?
Yes.
Oh you do.
I'm going on back to Kansas, and I'm going to face up to it.
And admit that I couldn't make an honest go of it here in the city.
I'm leaving just as soon as I can finish packing here.
Well that's what you think but...
Nobody walks out on me, you understand, but nobody.
I'll kill you first Petey, you understand that? I'll kill you.
Oh no you wouldn't.
You'd be too scared that I might come back and haunt you.
What?
Yeah.
You better think about that, hadn't you?
No.
No, because that's something I don't believe in.
Well you better believe in one thing.
I'm through with all this feathers and I'm getting out.
Oh you are, you're too good for this kind of work, is that it?
If I'd had sense enough to realize what a rotten crooked business this money lending racket of yours was going to turn out to be...
Now listen you two bit punk, you was tickle silly for a chance to hook up with me and you know it.
Oh sure at first.
Because I was all alone.
I was broke and I was hungry.
I didn't even have a place to sleep.
That's right.
I was so down and out I didn't know what else to do.
Yeah well you're eating plenty good now, ain't you?
You got a place to sleep, you got lots of fancy clothes.
What else do you want?
I want to get away from this filthy racket of yours.
What do you mean racket?
Yeah, racket.
In the beginning it looked as though maybe you were doing a favor to some of those poor people who didn't know how to go out and borrow from a bank or from some place legitimate.
What if you did charge them 15, 20 percent on a loan? You were giving them a hand, helping them out, tidying them over.
That's right.
Sure, so I was glad to go out and help collect for you because I thought you were okay.
And I didn't even blame you too much when you'd beat up on some of those stumble bums.
Those winos who never figured on paying you back.
But when you started pyramiding on them, on the people who really needed help when they couldn't pay off right away.
Charging them 30 percent, 50, 100 percent.
And then when you told me I had to beat up that lame kid, the newsie, because he couldn't come up with a dog.
Oh did you? Did you rough him up and get the money out of him?
No.
Oh I know you didn't. That's another reason I come up here to find out why you didn't.
Because I tell you feathers on through.
I'm going on back home where I can live it decent again.
That's where you're wrong, P.D.
You can't stop me.
Ed I know you listen to me buster and look.
Look at this.
You pull that gun on me.
Who said anything about a gun?
You see this?
You and your crazy superstition.
You can call it anything you want P.D.
But when I found this rabbit foot, I found you the same day I knew I was lucky.
You think that rabbit's foot had anything to do with it or all those horseshoes you keep around?
I know they did.
That's superstition.
I told you, you call it anything you want.
But they and you got me started in the big door and ain't ever let me down.
See, it ain't going to let me down now.
And that means that you are staying around with them to keep my good luck coming in.
No.
Now get out of here so I can finish packing up and leave.
Now wait a minute, wait a minute. Back to Kansas, huh?
Yes of course.
Or maybe down to the D.A.'s office.
Wow.
Because you got wind that he's investigating this racket all over town.
You heard about that.
No, no, no, no.
That's it.
So maybe you thought that you'd get out by turning stooley, huh?
No, I never even thought of it.
No, but now you're thinking about it, ain't you?
Oh yeah, I can tell just by looking at that silly map of yours.
Oh, you're crazy.
I'm getting out of here. It's all right now.
So if you'll just...
You better put down those bags, Petey.
Put away the gun, Feathers.
Get out of my way.
You hear me, Buster? You're staying right here.
Feathers?
You pull that trigger.
You think I wouldn't?
You pull that trigger.
You kill me, Feathers, and I will come back and haunt you.
I'll come back and haunt you for the rest of your days.
Now, don't you forget that.
Now get out of my way.
Oh, you want it, don't you? You're really asking for it.
You think maybe you could scare me, don't you?
Well, you can't, because you ain't leaving here.
Now you sit down in bags and you listen to me.
You hear me, set them down.
Now I warned you, Petey.
Out of my way.
Oh, no, you don't.
Don't play on me again, Feathers.
I bet I will.
I might have known.
That was the only kind of language a crook like you would understand.
Yeah, yeah, I...
I guess I was wrong, Petey, wasn't I?
Pulling this gun on you.
You are plenty wrong.
Would you listen to me just for a minute, huh, Petey?
Sorry, I'm leaving.
You're gonna...
You're gonna turn your back on the one guy who tried to help you, Petey?
Tried to help me?
Now, you shouldn't do that, kid.
You shouldn't turn your back.
So long, Feathers. Good luck.
Hold it, Peas. You're too late.
Am I?
Oh, cross me, will you?
You're gonna be too late, huh?
So, I'll figure it out, Gilroy.
Either we pin this murdering Feathers grogan, or the press and radio and all the civic groups start tearing into us again.
And you know what that means.
There'll be a shake-up in this police department.
We'll never live down.
If you want to keep on eating regularly, you better get busy and slap it on them.
I know, I know, Captain, but the only evidence we have against them is circumstantial.
If it wasn't for that usury charge, we wouldn't be able to hold them at all.
Yeah, and the way these soft-hearted juries have been behaving belatedly, we'll be lucky if they don't let them off on probation.
Now, Gilroy, somehow we gotta pin this murder on them and once and for all put him where he belongs.
But how, sir?
And the only one who actually saw the murder happens to be very, very dead.
Yeah, too bad this isn't the old days when you could beat the truth out of a punk like that.
Well, now you're not suggesting, are you, Captain?
No, no, no, I'm not suggesting.
Just keep on it, Gilroy, and keep me posted.
Yes, sir.
Oh, Captain.
Yeah?
If you should happen to get any ideas...
Don't worry, I'll pass them on to you.
Yes, sir.
Oh, I'm sorry, mister.
Sorry.
Quite all right.
Captain Nichols?
Nichols here.
Right over there at his desk.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Well, okay, put him on.
Well, good morning, Commissioner.
How are you this morning?
Yeah.
Oh, well, we are making progress, sir, and we...
Well, no, no, we haven't, but I've assigned Lieutenant Gilroy to the case and I'm sure...
Oh, yes, sir, yes, sir, yes, of course I am.
But until some tangible evidence, some...
Yes, sir.
Yeah, I know, sir.
Yes, sir.
Yeah.
Well, young man.
Captain Nichols?
Look, I'm afraid I'm pretty busy right now, so if it's something that can...
Good Lord.
Weldon!
Yes, sir.
Peter Weldon, but you can't be.
I saw you lying in a morgue myself.
I even ordered your burial.
You're dead!
Oh, no, no, Captain.
My brother.
And we have half of this department out trying to...
What was that?
It was my brother you saw.
Your brother?
Yes, sir.
Peter.
The one who was murdered.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Peter Weldon.
Yes, sir.
Peter Weldon.
Yes, sir.
Peter Weldon.
Yes, sir.
Peter Weldon.
Peter Weldon was murdered.
Oh, brother.
Oh.
Yes, sir.
My name is Richard.
Richard Weldon.
Yeah, I said, well, you sure gave me a shock, Mr. Weldon.
I'm sorry, Captain.
Oh, that's all right.
That's all right.
But help me.
When I turned away from this phone and I saw you standing here, I...
So you're Peter Weldon's twin, huh?
No, no, no, sir.
Peter was a year and a half younger, sir, but I guess we've always pretty closely resembled
each other since we've grown up, I mean.
Resembled?
It's uncanny.
Well, I suppose you've come to see me in regard to Peter's death.
Sit down, please.
Thank you.
Yes, I read about it in the papers out in Chicago.
That's where I live.
Oh, we didn't know of any relatives, Mr. Weldon, or of course we did notify you.
Have you been able to find the man who killed my brother?
Well, let's say we're working on it.
Well, perhaps I can be of some help to you.
Oh?
Well, just how much do you know about the case?
Well, only what I read in the papers, sir, but then I got some letters from Peter recently.
What?
Yeah?
Yes, you see, after leaving the, well, the old farm out in Kansas after our parents died,
Peter and I went to Chicago where I live now.
Yeah?
You see, Peter had never finished his education, Captain, so he had a kind of rough time of it.
I mean, you know, one job after another and never really getting anywhere, so.
Well, finally about a year ago he thought he'd try his luck here in this city.
Uh-huh, I see.
Well, I didn't hear from him then until about, oh, three months ago when he wrote to me that he'd gone into partnership with a man by the name of Feathers Grogan.
Feathers? Go on, Mr. Weldon.
Well, Peter had told me very little about the sort of work they were engaged in, but, well, it wasn't very reassuring to find out they were in the money lending business.
Business, Mr. Weldon, it was a racket usury of the worst kind.
I, I suspect it as much, sir.
Well, anyhow, in a letter I received just a few days ago, Peter said he had found Grogan to be a crook.
And so he was planning to leave him, go on back to Kansas.
Before I could write to congratulate him on his decision, suggest he try again in Chicago where I could possibly help him, I, I read of, of his death, his murder.
Yeah.
And, uh, have you reached the same conclusion we have that Feathers Grogan killed your brother?
Yes, sir.
And I take it you know all about this man, Feathers.
Yeah, we sure do. He's cooling his heels downstairs in the lockup.
Then you have the evidence necessary to convict him.
Oh, no, no, no, Mr. Weldon. Instead of a murder charge, he's only being held in connection with the D.A.'s investigation of the money lending racket.
The only evidence we have that he killed your brother is purely circumstantial.
You see, Peter apparently had packed his bags and was getting ready to walk out on Grogan when Grogan intercepted him.
Argued with him and they had a fight. During that fight, Peter must have struck Feathers in the face. He still bears an identifiable mark from that old ring your brother wore.
Yes.
Oh, what's more, immediately after that a series of shots was heard. And a man answering Feathers' general description was seen leaving the place out through a back alley.
You need more than that, Captain?
Wait, Mr. Weldon. Victims of their racket have testified one after another. And there was obvious friction between them. And there's other evidence, lots of it, and it's all good.
Except for one thing.
What, sir?
Feathers' Grogan has trumped up or rather bought himself an alibi that, try as we may, we simply can't break.
Oh, you know, it's a phony, we're sure of it, but there's no way that we can prove that.
I see.
So we're at a standstill.
At least you have him locked up, though.
And what'll happen? He'll pay a little fine, perhaps even get a short prison term for his loan shark practices, but so far as your brother's murder is concerned, he's going to get...
Wait a minute.
Yes?
Wait, wait, wait.
Yes, yes, sir, yes.
Superstitious.
What?
Feathers, terribly superstitious. He literally begged to have his rabbit's foot left with him. Yeah.
And he almost cried when he accidentally broke the little mirror that he shaved with there in his cell.
Look.
Look, Weldon, I got an idea.
Yes, yes, Captain.
This, this, this almost unbelievable resemblance. And I know it sounds fantastic, but it just might work.
Well, what is it, sir?
Look, I'm going to have him transferred right away. There's one cell down there that's completely isolated from the rest, and that's where I'll have him put, because in that particular cell, he can be watched without us knowing it.
Watched and listened to.
Now, if we should pick the proper time, say, like it midnight, when all the ghostly supernatural things we hear about that he believes in are supposed to happen.
And if you're willing to cooperate, Mr. Weldon.
Yes, yes, sir.
Tell me, you believe in ghosts?
What?
Of course not.
Maybe you will, sir.
After tonight.
All right, now you, you have enough light on here, Brady, so we can get everything Grogan says done in short time?
Yes, sir, Captain.
Twenty or light.
Delroy?
Tape recorder's all set, Captain. I only hope that when he wakes up, Grogan doesn't hear it. He gets suspicious.
Well, with all the noise we've made so far, I haven't even disturbed his slumbers. I think we'll be okay.
I don't know what's holding up to Mr. Weldon. He called me from his hotel and said he'd be here at the stroke of midnight. It's now all over.
Here he comes.
Yeah.
Oh, Peter.
Shh! But look at him, Captain, so help me. He looks more like Pete Weldon than Pete himself did before we buried him, even the clothes.
Yeah, well, I know. Quiet now.
All right, start the tape recorder, Delroy.
Right, sir.
Feathers. Feathers Grogan. Wake up, Feathers.
Yeah, what?
I said wake up, Feathers. Wake up.
Oh, why'd you leave me alone, huh? Why'd you leave me alone?
Wake up.
Heading it, Brady.
All right, sir.
Wake up and look at me, Feathers. I said look at me.
I said why don't you guys in the stump leave...
Pete. Pete Weldon.
That's right. I said I'd come back, didn't I?
No. No, get out of here. Go away and leave me alone. You're a ghost.
Never, Feathers. Never will I leave you alone.
Listen, now. Listen. You've got to listen to me, please.
It's no use, Grogan. I'll haunt you to the end of your days.
No, no.
Everywhere you look, you'll see me. Do you understand? Forever.
Unless you tell them what you did to me.
Tell them?
Yes. Unless you tell them. Confess.
I can't. I tell the cops how I killed you. They'll burn me for it.
That's right. Burn you. Justice.
Pete. Pete. I didn't mean to kill you. Honest, I didn't.
I only wanted to scare you, Pete. I was afraid you were going to squeal to the DA
so you could clear yourself when they caught up with me the way they done.
No, Feathers.
Honest, Pete. I only meant to scare you. You've got to believe me. See?
No, Feathers. That's a lie and you know it.
Because you didn't know I was planning to walk out on you.
You went to my room for another reason. To kill me.
So there'd be no more split of the profits.
Well, didn't you?
I hadn't thought of that one.
Answer me.
Could be, Captain.
Isn't that the way it really was?
Huh?
Feathers?
How did you know that?
In my present form, I know many things.
Confess, Feathers. Confess.
All right, all right, all right. That's the way I done it.
That's why I killed you.
So now will you leave me alone?
I told you, stop haunting me this way. Will you leave me alone?
Get it out of here!
Somebody help! Get this thing out of here before I...
Before I...
Looks to me like he's passed out, Captain.
Yeah, right, Captain.
Okay, you boys have it all down.
Yes, sir. Sure have.
Yeah, me too.
All right, then come along back to my office.
So you can transcribe your notes, Brady, and we can thank Mr. Weldon for his pretty astonishing impersonation.
Boy, he sure did the trick.
You know, if Grogan doesn't sign this confession...
Yes, sir, Captain. In that dim light there in Grogan's cell, Mr. Richard Weldon looks so much like a ghost.
He even sounded like one, believe me.
You know, boys, I'm free to admit it almost startled me for a minute there.
In spite of having planned the whole thing.
I thought maybe my plan had caught up with my imagination and yours.
The way that Grogan's conscience caught up with him.
Well, you're going to see the fastest confession on record.
And if he hesitates, all we have to do is play back the tape we're doing.
I'll say this, it'll scare me into signing almost anything.
Ah, here we are now. You can use that tape right on the corner, Brady.
All right, sir.
Sit down, Gilroy.
Yes, sir.
I'll tell you this, sir.
Go on.
This is sure going to help to get the commissioner off our necks for a change.
Yeah. And all thanks to Mr. Richard Weldon for the way he carried off his end of things.
Which reminds me...
I wonder what gave him the idea for the real reason Grogan killed his brother.
How could he have known that?
I wonder is where he is.
Do you suppose he got lost trying to find his way up here to your office?
I thought he'd be up here waiting for us.
Hope he didn't just go on back to the hotel.
Maybe I'd better go downstairs and take a look for him.
Yeah, good idea.
Also, maybe you'd better look in on Grogan and make sure he's recovered from his little paintings, pal.
Yes, sir.
You want me to take that?
No, I'll get it.
Hold on a minute, Brady, will you?
Yes, sir.
Nichols here.
Captain? Captain Nichols?
Yeah?
This is Richard Weldon.
Yeah, yeah, I know.
Say, where'd you go to, Mr. Weldon? We were just about to go down to look for you.
I'm sorry, Captain. I'm terribly sorry.
Sorry? Well, I certainly don't see why.
Well, I mean that I couldn't get there tonight, as promised.
That you couldn't do what?
That I couldn't get down to the jail, sir.
You see, as I left my hotel on the way down there, I started crossing the street.
And I'm afraid I was a little careless. I got run down by a taxi cab.
But Mr. Weldon, you...
Yes, I banged up my leg a bit, and I'm calling now from my room here at Valley Hospital.
Valley Hospital?
Yes, sir.
Oh, I see.
But I'm in good hands, sir. They've taken x-rays, and I'm sure it's nothing at all serious.
So, if it's all right with you, Captain, we can do the ghost act for Grogan, say, tomorrow night.
Captain?
Why, that... that won't be necessary, Richard.
What, sir? Not necessary?
No. You see, someone else did the job for us.
Oh, now really. You must be joking.
Who could possibly have done a job like that?
Your brother, Peter.
Suspense.
You've been listening to Feathers, starring Lawson Zerby and written especially for suspense by Jonathan Bundy.
Suspense is produced and directed by Bruno Zerato Jr., music supervision by Ethel Huber.
Featured in tonight's story were Ian Martin as Captain Nichols, Robert Reddick as Feathers,
John Thomas as Lieutenant Gilroy, and Bill Mason as Sergeant Brady.
Listen again next week when we return with 2461, written by George Bamber.
Another tale well calculated to keep you in...
Suspense.
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