WROW Albany, fair and cool tonight, gradually diminishing winds, the low 25 to 30, Monday continued fair and mild, high in the low 50s.
Present temperature, 45 degrees.
And now, a tale well calculated to keep you in...
Suspense.
In a moment, act one of Memory of a Murder, starring Philip Sterling as Harry Jonas, and written especially for suspense by John Robert.
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I let my thoughts project once.
It was while I was sitting on a bench in Cumberland Park.
I saw a scene suspended in time.
I saw it, just me and nobody else, like I was getting a sneak preview of something yet
to happen or maybe something that had already happened.
An old scene that keeps wandering in space because it never found its place in time.
In the scene, there's a young guy screaming.
A scream of terror.
A scream of a man looking into the face of his murder.
It's in Windgate Cemetery.
In the scene, I'm hiding behind a tombstone, watching Gravedigger working away by lantern
light.
There's a body on the ground.
The young man blew in the face where the moon touches his cheeks and very dead.
The digging stops, then soon the earth is restored.
The digger is a tall man with sunken cheeks like deep holes in his face.
The last thing he does is pick up an object that looks like it might have fallen from
the corpse's pocket.
He exams it and heats it in the direction of my hiding place.
It hits the tombstone I'm hiding behind.
When I can, I pick it up.
It's a metal the size of a half dollar.
There's engraving on it, Queen Isabella of Spain, and the words Buen Aceto, meaning
good luck in Spanish.
Then I lose the digger.
The following day, I find him again.
I find him on a colored poster nailed against the wall of the pageant theater.
There was his picture.
A tall man with sunken cheeks wearing a flowing black cape.
The poster read, Constantine, Prince of Illusion, assisted by the beautiful Marietta.
Constantine, Prince of Illusion, was a vaudeville act.
There was a guy outside the theater nailing up a sign.
Man wanted it read, apply inside.
I applied outside.
I'll take that job, mister.
What?
Hey, you don't even know what the job is.
I'm adaptable.
I learn fast.
It's sweeping floors.
Well, I'm a whiz with a broom.
It's troubleshooting backstage.
If a wire shorts or a fire starts, you've been handling trouble since I was born.
What's your name?
Harry Jonas.
All right.
I'm Charlie Prince, the theater manager.
Okay, Harry, looks like you've got the job.
Well, maybe a better way to put it, Mr. Prince.
The job's got me.
The job did have me.
I saw the floors changed fuses when they blew and announced the act from 1 p.m. to closing.
Closing was Constantine, Prince of Illusion, assisted by a beautiful blonde named Marietta
and an old lady and our kind of a wardrobe mistress to Marietta.
Constantine's act was the one the audience really paid to see.
It was straight terror.
The regular routine of sawing Marietta in half, knife throwing, setting her on fire,
with a new wrinkle for a smash finish.
A guillotine.
Marietta stuck her head on a chopping block and an overhead knife came slicing down.
A head rolled.
It makes you sick?
What?
What'd you say?
I say Constantine's act with a guillotine makes you sick.
It was old Anna, the woman who got Marietta in and out of her costumes.
Yeah, it looked so real it gave me the shivers.
Even knowing it's phony I know.
Always you are afraid for Marietta.
Like Nino always was afraid for her.
Who's Nino?
Nino stood here in the wings like you, sick for Marietta.
I asked you, who's Nino?
You have his job now and you have his medal.
What?
I have his what?
Nino's medal with the face of Queen Isabella.
What?
I saw it in your hand today.
A lucky medal for most, but for Nino very unlucky.
It is one of a kind.
Take care not to lose it.
Anna, wait!
Take care never to lose the Isabella medal, Anna said.
One of a kind.
When there was a lot I didn't know.
When I got him alone I asked Charlie Prince, the theater manager, a few questions.
What happened to my predecessor here, Nino, the guy whose job I've got now?
He's skidooed.
What do you mean he's skidooed?
He got an advance on his pay and then beat it without notice.
Just disappeared.
Why would he do that?
Constantine, Nino and Marietta were sweet on each other and Constantine was pretty jealous.
There's a tip for you on how to hold your job here.
Stay away from Marietta, huh?
You get the idea, Harry.
You get the idea.
If I didn't stay away from Marietta, even if I had wanted to I couldn't.
I joined Marietta in her dressing room an hour before the theater opened.
Got something I have to show you, Marietta.
The lady on it is Queen Isabella.
Nino's medal.
That's right, Nino's medal.
Where'd you get it?
I found it.
I've been lying about where to everybody, but I'll tell you.
I found it in Wingate Cemetery.
And Nino?
He's dead.
Constantine killed him.
I knew Constantine would kill him.
I only saw Constantine bury him.
Why would Constantine kill Nino?
Look, as he was, he was insanely jealous of Nino.
Jealous enough to commit murder?
You don't know Constantine.
Are you, are you involved somewhere?
Yes.
Yes, and Constantine will see to it that I'm blamed for the murder of Nino along with,
with everything else.
What is everything else?
Robbery.
Constantine's not just a paid performer.
He's also a master thief.
And Nino was his accomplice?
Yeah.
And you?
And me too.
You're asking me to protect Constantine?
No.
Just to, to protect me.
My reason for protecting you?
It's in your eyes.
Yeah.
You're sure of your men, aren't you?
I accepted Marietta's story that Constantine was a master criminal, that her fate was bound
up with his fate.
I worked at my job and I announced the acts and Marietta on the chopping block still gave
me the shivers.
One night she seemed to hesitate before putting her head on the block as if she was afraid.
See how Marietta is afraid?
Yeah, yeah, and she looks scared stiff.
Marietta knows Constantine means to kill her tonight.
In front of a thousand people?
He wouldn't dare.
It will be an accident.
Something goes wrong and Marietta is killed.
Constantine is very clever.
And I've got to stop him.
It is too late to stop him.
See, the knife comes down.
The wake's up!
Marietta!
As always, I head rolled.
If it was Pony, it was a perfect illusion.
If it was Pony, for the first time there was blood.
Blood as real as if Marietta had been beheaded.
Blood spattered the page and Marietta's head rolled.
Then lay still in the purple light as the curtain came down.
The audience was applauding, so it was only an act.
Constantine's throat.
Constantine!
Yes?
You killed Marietta deliberately.
It wasn't any accident.
Are you crazy?
You're more palmyrofus than I am.
All on paris up.
Marietta.
You thought I'd really lost my head.
Yeah.
All the blood.
Examine it, idiot.
Is it really blood?
No, no.
It all seems surreal.
Even the phony head looked real.
The man's insane.
Come on, Marietta.
I won't forget that you tried to strangle me, Harry Jonas.
I've fallen for a perfect illusion and the phony witch talk of old Anna.
In your mind now you are blaming Anna for telling you things that are untrue.
You're getting me to make a fool of myself.
So Constantine was going to kill Marietta tonight accidentally on purpose.
But yes.
You're not starting out again.
But it is true.
It is another accident that Marietta still lives.
One accident canceling out another, huh?
Yes.
Mr. Charlie Prince saved Marietta's life.
How?
He moved the guillotine knife just enough away to save Marietta's beautiful head.
I checked Anna's story with Charlie Prince.
Yes.
I inspected the guillotine knife and ordered it moved eight to ten degrees.
How come you inspected it?
Routine.
I do a theater-wide safety check all the time.
But how come you inspected the guillotine knife, one of Constantine's own professional
props?
Marietta asked me to.
She said the act had her nervous and could I adjust the position of the knife even if
it meant the illusion would lose something.
Marietta didn't want to lose her head for love of the act.
Oh, Harry, what in the devil you driving at?
Look, Harry, if there's something you think you know...
I don't only think.
I know Constantine is a murderer.
What?
I know he murdered the guy whose job I've got, Nino.
What's so funny?
You!
I just got a wire from Nino.
He's in Mexico City having a time of his life.
He even wired me the advance money he'd skipped off with.
Here, read it for yourself.
It's a phony.
Constantine murdered Nino and buried him in Windgate Semitory.
Oh, Harry, go soak your head somewhere.
I like a joke as well as that look-a-guy, but...
Belong to Nino.
An Isabella medal, one of a kind.
One of a kind, huh?
Have a look.
I got a mint of them.
There was an act here two years ago, a gal who billed herself as Isabella,
Queen of the Dance.
We handed these medals out to the cash customers as a stunt.
I went to the Windgate Semitory for another look.
It was a stony night.
I found the same tombstone I'd hidden behind before.
I found the spot I'd seen Constantine digging at, but...
No grave.
The spot was flat and even,
and a patch of grass and flowers were sprouting on it.
The ground had never been touched.
I got back to the pageant theater an hour before showtime
and went looking for Marietta.
She was at a dressing table,
white-faced and strained and beautiful.
Marietta.
Yes, sir?
The story I told you about Nino,
about Constantine burying Nino in Windgate Semitory
and me there watching?
Yes, Harry.
Right now there isn't any grave or Nino in Windgate Semitory.
I just came from there.
I can't explain it. Can you?
Just that Constantine's place.
He's a master of illusion.
Grandmaster at the rate he's going.
Another thing.
Charlie Prince says Nino is in Mexico alive and kicking.
Another of Constantine's tricks?
I guess that just about covers every missing explanation, huh?
Did Constantine plan on killing you last night?
I want to know, Marietta.
Yes.
And tonight again Constantine plans to kill me.
But he's fixed the guillotine knife back?
No.
This time he'll try to take my life in the dagger-crowing act.
And you're waiting for it to happen?
Yes.
Period, huh?
You're scheduled to die and you've got your shroud all laid out.
I can't do anything about it, Harry.
I'm powerless to resist.
I'm powerless to resist Constantine.
Funny thing.
I was in kind of a spell myself.
Marietta was scheduled to die and all I could do was stand on the wings and watch Constantine throw his daggers.
The daggers fit into the wooden frame.
I watched him hold the last dagger and I could tell by his face that this was it.
If this was the dagger, it was going to be murder by accident.
I didn't need old Anna pulling at my sleeve to tell me his dagger goes to her heart.
Watch.
I couldn't do anything for Marietta if I wanted to.
My legs felt nailed to the floor.
I saw the dagger aim and go.
Marietta screamed before I hit her right into her heart.
The dagger bit right into her heart.
Blood spurred at soaking her costume.
I heard the audience applaud as the curtain dropped.
They thought it was all part of the act.
I came out of my paralysis and went for Constantine.
I pulled the dagger out of the board.
Marietta was impaled against and went for him.
I got behind him and circled my arm around his neck.
Constantine!
I'm coming to kill her!
I gave you what you gave, Marietta!
I fought Constantine, cropping the dagger, twisting my arm, turning the blade around,
turning the blade into my chest and ripping it open before I could finally strike home.
I heard her laugh at me.
Marietta?
It was Marietta.
The old lady, Anna, sent another Constantine to the
body she was laughing at.
Both of them.
Some bet they made it paid off.
I got it finally.
I played Patsy and murdered Constantine the way Marietta wanted it.
I'd been set up to do it and I'd done it.
Marietta read my eyes and confirmed it.
Yeah, Harry.
Yeah, you freed me from Constantine.
The way Constantine freed you from Nino.
Yeah.
Nino's grave?
I moved the headstone you were hiding behind.
You looked in the wrong place.
The dagger in your heart and the blood.
Constantine was a prince of illusion.
No, no, I'm not buying that anymore.
Constantine was clever, sure.
But you, you were the real queen bee of the act.
The illusion was your trick.
You're the queen mother of illusion.
Yes.
The illusion was always my part of the trick.
What happens to me?
Don't you care?
I care a little.
Just a very little.
Sure.
Run.
Run?
Escape quickly.
It's better to be a fugitive murderer than a captured one.
Run, Harry.
Run!
I ran.
I was weak from loss of blood, but I ran.
I got my chest sewed up where Constantine ripped a dagger across it.
Forty stitches.
And then I kept on running.
I ran right to the cops.
But the hitch is, Lieutenant Belson won't let me settle down.
He's nibbling at my confession like a guy being fed food to exotic first taste.
Forty-eight hours now and Belson's still only nibbling.
About your confession of murder, Harry.
The story you just told me, you read it somewhere, hm?
I lived it.
Look, wasn't the murder of Constantine officially reported?
Yes, it was.
On the books is an unsolved murder.
Well, then it's solved now.
But it happened in the year 1922.
Forty years ago.
I've got the paper out of here.
There was a Ford-Will-Ack called Constantine Marietta booked into the old Pageant Theater.
Got a record here telling what happened to Marietta.
She died in a railroad crash.
She's been dead since 1934.
Dead?
Pageant Theater was torn down in 1932.
Thirty years ago.
You still insist you're a pawn in the murder of a long-ago vaudevillian named Constantine?
Yes, I do.
Look here inside my shirt.
I've got forty stitches and a scar across my chest to prove it.
Yep.
You got a scar, all right.
There's a survivor coming in.
See if you recognize him.
You know this man, Harry?
Yeah, sure, sure.
It's Charlie Prince, but...
He's so old.
Forty years older.
He was thirty then. He's almost seventy now.
Mr. Prince, do you know this man?
Is he the one you told me about, Lieutenant?
Yes, he's the one.
Never saw him before.
Never saw me before. Charlie, you hired me right off the sidewalk.
You were nailing up a man wanted sign and I applied right on the spot.
Yeah? That's how it happened, all right. Way back.
The lad came up and had me take down the sign right there.
But how could you know about that?
Because I was the lad.
Crazy sod, crazy as a...
What do you mean, I'm crazy?
Why are you both looking at me as if I am crazy?
Harry, it all happened forty years ago.
Okay, okay, so some things get lost in space, some things never find their place in time, but it's all true.
Is it? Forty years ago, Harry?
How old are you now?
How old?
Don't bother answering.
You're closer to your twenty-fifth birthday than you are to your thirtieth.
Well, I don't even give him that much, Lieutenant. I say he's not a minute more than twenty-one.
Face up to it, Harry. You read the story somewhere and made it your own.
Lieutenant, are you sure? Are you really sure it happened like that?
Am I sure?
Harry, of course I'm sure. Aren't you?
Suspense.
You have been listening to Memory of a Murder, starring Philip Sterling as Harry Jonas, and written especially for Suspense by John Robert.
Suspense is produced and directed by Bruno Zerotto Jr., music supervision by Ethel Huber.
Heard in tonight's story were Connie Lemke as Marietta, Ralph Bell as Lieutenant Belson, Ethel Everett as Anna, James Monks as Constantine, and Lawson Zerby as Charlie Prince.
Listen again next week when we return with You Died Last Night, written by Robert Arthur.
Another tale, well calculated to keep you in...
Suspense.