Suspense is next over WROW music, row 59 on your Albany dial, 635.
And now, a tale well calculated to keep you in...
Suspense.
In a moment, Act One of Brother John, starring William Redfield, and written especially for
Suspense by Elspeth Eric.
It was so simple, it was ridiculous.
I was lying there in the Veterans Hospital with a brain embolism.
Stroke, they call it, for short.
You think that only happens to old people?
Both of us in that room were under 30.
You see, you get a stroke on the left side of your brain.
It paralyzes the right side of your body, and it makes you so you can't talk.
I mean, you got all the words in your head and you understand what everybody says, but
you can't talk.
So I was laid there and listened to Brother John talking to the Army doctor.
He's your brother?
Yes, yes, 20 years younger.
I've taken care of him since he was a kid.
Well, we'll hope for a spontaneous recovery.
What's that?
The damage to the brain clears up by itself.
Speech returns and the paralysis disappears.
Ah, well, what do I do now?
Well, can you remember what books he read as a child?
Little poems or songs.
Hey Diddle Diddle, Humpty Dumpty.
Often these things come back first.
Charlie was born in France.
Our parents both died there when Charlie was 10.
By that time I was in okay shape financially and they sent him back to me.
But he only spoke French.
I remember he used to sing that Frère Jacques thing.
Yes, singing often helps.
The rhythm carries them along.
I hardly know any French.
Well now you do your best.
This may all clear up sooner than you think.
The man on the other side of the screen has the same trouble.
He seems to be coming along.
Well, thank you doctor.
Anything else you want to know, ask for me at the desk.
Thanks.
Uh, hey there chum.
You look fine.
Now, now listen.
I'm going to tell you what we're going to do.
You know the apartment I have over the garage at the Tremains?
Are you going to come there?
Well, it's big enough.
Wait till you see it.
It's great.
Yeah.
What's the matter?
You think they'll mind?
They won't mind.
They're very nice people.
Of course they're really not in any position to mind anything.
Are they?
Huh?
No.
When I took that prison rap for Jerry Tremain, he promised he'd look after me for the rest
of my life.
And somebody asks you what does your brother do?
You can say he's Butler for the Gerald Tremains.
It's not much.
I grant you that.
But it's better than saying he's a bum.
Right?
Yeah, he's doing, doing very well incidentally, old Jerry.
More strictly on the up and up ever since that one little mistake that I did time for.
But I'm a nice fella.
I've stuck to our original agreement, 200 a week for life.
Of course I get my board and room.
So most of it I've got put away for you.
And if you ever need a little extra, well, the truth is Mrs. Tremain is what you might
say crazy about me.
I could always put the bite on her for a little extra if you needed it.
Listen, I brought you some champagne.
Want me to open it now?
Huh?
Oh, okay, later.
And with your buddy here, huh?
The doctor says you both got this cerebral thing.
Okay if I introduce myself?
My name's McGee.
Yeah, I'm Charlie's brother, John.
I brought some champagne.
You and Charlie can have it together, okay?
You both look great, you know, just great.
Well good luck.
Enjoy the champagne.
Hey, looks like a nice fella.
You want to say something, Charlie?
Go ahead, go ahead, try.
Go ahead.
Frère Jacques, Frère Jacques, dormi vous, dormi vous.
I had to laugh.
Big brother John standing there trying to sing in French.
Well, all right, so he didn't know French.
But he had brains.
He does a little stretch in prison for a guy, then when he gets out, he moves in with the
guy, gets 200 a week, and takes over the wife, besides.
Well, anyway, a few days later, I had a spontaneous recovery.
Blood clot was absorbed, speech came back, paralysis is gone, I'm out of the Army.
I'm walking around.
But you see, I'd never met these Tremains, and I'm very curious to find out what they're
like.
So, Mrs. Tremain comes to the door.
Not a bad looking woman for her age.
She lets me in and introduces me to her husband.
This is my husband, Mr. Tremain.
Gerald, this is John's brother, Charlie.
Charlie, good lord.
Sit down, Charlie.
Well, I should have called John, I guess, but I wanted to surprise him.
Gerald, you tell him.
I just can't.
Charlie, we were just going to call you at the hospital.
Yeah, the truth is, well, your brother has been shot, Charlie, killed.
John?
John was shot?
It just happened about an hour ago.
Why?
Who'd want to do a thing like that?
We don't know who did it.
The police don't know.
Gerald, you ought to let them know that Charlie's here.
All right, I will.
I'll be right with you.
I...
Oh, he...
He was such a wonderful brother to me.
I know.
He talked a lot about you.
I mean, he did everything for me.
You were planning to stay here with him, weren't you?
He said so.
Yeah, yeah, until I get a job or something.
Now I don't know what to do.
Well, why don't you just stay on here anyway for the time being?
Oh, I don't know if I could...
John's apartment's over the garage, you know.
Why don't you just move in?
Well, I...
Gee, Mrs. Tremaine, I...
I kind of like that.
I'd like to poke around there sort of and see if I can't figure out who could have wanted
to kill my brother John.
It was so simple.
It was ridiculous.
I could move right in and I did.
Ah, they were nice, really.
She was what you'd call fated, I guess, but not too fated.
I could see how John could have gone for her a little bit.
Next morning I asked if I could help her with breakfast.
You know, John told me a lot about you, Mrs. Tremaine.
He did?
He liked you a lot.
Well, that's very nice to hear.
I can see why.
You're very attractive.
Well, now...
I mean, John certainly thought you were.
And so do I.
That's a nice compliment from a young man.
And you're not much older than I am.
Well, I'm certainly not younger.
Ah, lots of men my age go for older women.
I really wouldn't know about that.
Oh, come on now, Mrs. Tremaine.
You must have had lots of guys going for you.
Really, Charlie?
I don't think this is the way for us to talk.
I knew I had her.
When they say they shouldn't talk this way, they're starting to weaken.
They talk that way all the time they're saying they shouldn't, and pretty soon they're ready
for action.
Anyway, I could see she was getting uncomfortable, and that was exactly what I wanted.
Her husband came downstairs, right, Ben?
And I took him some coffee in the living room.
John was with us a long time, you know, Charlie?
Yeah, yeah, I know.
A terrible shock.
Awful.
You talk to the police?
Last night, they don't seem to know much.
Well, they need time.
Oh, sure, sure.
Look, Charlie, you stay on here just as long as you like.
Oh, no, Mr. Tremaine, I'll be moving on pretty soon, I guess.
I mean, John said he had some money saved up for me.
Oh?
Yeah, quite a lot.
Good.
I don't know how he did it.
Almost $40,000.
That much, huh?
Yeah.
Well, he must have made good investments.
No, no, he just had savings.
Yeah, in four different banks.
Oh, is that so?
Yeah.
Every week he made a deposit, a big one.
You don't say?
Ever since the first week, he came to work for you.
Well, now, what do you know about that?
Well, they had him, too, and I knew it.
Now, both of them were uncomfortable.
Ah, but they were nice people, really.
I could almost have gotten to like them.
Yeah.
Anyway, I helped Mrs. Tremaine put the breakfast on the table.
They even asked me to eat with them, but I said no, I was going out.
Only, I didn't go out.
I stayed in the kitchen because I wanted to hear what they had to say to each other.
Connie, how long is he going to stay?
Charlie?
Yeah, Charlie.
I don't know.
Nice fellow.
Very nice.
Ah, not like John, though.
No, not really.
Doesn't even look like him.
He's a lot younger, of course.
Yes.
I'll miss John.
I'll miss him.
You want me to make that a friend of mine?
Don't be a fool.
It's not like John.
Uh, we'll get somebody else.
Not like John, though.
No, not like John.
I was sorry I wasn't like John.
I really was.
I'd have liked to stay on with these people for a while.
I was even a pretty good butler, if you can imagine that.
I helped Mrs. Tremaine get lunch.
I'm...
I'm terribly awkward in the kitchen, I'm afraid.
Oh, well, let me do that.
John always did everything.
He was a good man.
Yes, he was.
You know, I'm sorry. I didn't get to see more of him.
Well, we used to ask him to have you here for a visit, but he never would.
I know, I know. I wonder why he wouldn't.
I wonder if it was a woman.
Oh, no, it wasn't a woman. I'd have known if the...
Oh? You would?
Well, I mean, if that was why he wouldn't have you here, I'd...
I'd have known if he was seeing some woman here.
No, I meant if it was some woman who killed him.
You should have seen her face.
All of a sudden she looked like somebody had hit her.
Then Mr. Tremaine came home for lunch.
I made him a drink first in the living room.
You join me, Charlie? Oh, well, thank you, Mr. Tremaine.
I don't usually indulge in the middle of the day.
Of course not.
Thirty-eight thousand dollars.
How's that?
That's what my brother had.
In four different banks.
Oh, well, that makes you a rich man, doesn't it?
Well, not quite. I just can't help wondering, that's all.
Wondering what, Charlie?
Where he got all that money?
Who gave it to him all those years?
Well, I wouldn't know if anybody gave it to him.
Well, you see, if somebody was paying him,
that could be the man who killed him.
So he could stop paying him.
Oh, I see what you mean.
She came in right then and told him lunch was ready,
and they both went into the dining room looking absolutely sick.
As a parting shot, I said that I was going down to the police station.
I thought that should start a little something, you know?
I went out to the kitchen, and I opened and shut the door like I was leaving,
but I sat down to listen.
That's the third time he's talked to the police.
That's natural, isn't it?
Yes, I guess so.
I'd say he doesn't seem to be mourning for his brother very much.
No, they were supposed to be very close, weren't they?
I guess men just don't show their feelings, in fact.
I'm sure they don't.
Meaning me?
Toward each other.
Some men don't even show their feelings toward their wives.
Me again?
If you have any feelings toward your wife...
Oh, Connie, don't start that again.
Sorry.
That Charlie, it's me, he is both nervous.
I'm not nervous. Are you nervous?
No, not nervous, exactly.
Yes, you are.
Why don't we get rid of him?
Get rid of who?
That Charlie.
But we just asked him to stay.
You asked him of me.
If you want him to leave...
I didn't say I wanted...
Tell him so.
Well, I'll give him some money till John's estate is settled.
That'd be nice.
Well, so tell him.
Me? You tell him.
Why should I tell him? You tell him.
Why me?
And so it went.
You tell him.
No, you tell him.
I wanted to laugh.
I got out of the kitchen very quietly...
and I did go down to the police station.
They didn't know anything.
They hadn't found the gun...
and they couldn't figure out who had a motive.
So, about 5.30, I went back to the house.
Mrs. Tremaine was setting the table for dinner.
Did you see the police, Charlie?
Yeah, yeah, I saw them.
Really? All afternoon?
They wanted me to tell them everything I knew about John.
Really?
Yeah.
I didn't know a lot.
He never said too much about himself.
No, no, he was sort of a quiet man.
A few things, I told him.
Oh, like what?
Well, like I gathered, he was very happy.
He was very happy.
I mean, you took good care of him.
I gathered that.
Well, we tried.
He was really happy here.
Yeah, he really was happy.
He used to say he never wanted to leave here.
Did he?
Yeah.
I guess he had about everything he wanted...
right here in this house.
Everything?
I mean, jobs like that are sure hard to find.
That have everything.
I suppose they are.
Her hands started to shake, and pretty soon she gave up trying to set the table
and went out to the living room to join Mr. Tremaine.
I told her that I was going to go up and wash up for dinner.
Instead, I went out in the hall.
She closed the door to the living room.
She was so happy.
She closed the door to the living room.
She was standing on the other side.
I could hear everything that went on.
Gerald, I must tell you something.
What, dear?
Gerald, we've got to get rid of that man.
I told you that at lunch.
He knows something.
What do you mean, something?
Gerald, I never meant to tell you this.
It isn't anything much, really.
Only now it might make the police think I killed John.
You?
Oh, I'm so ashamed of myself.
Carrying on with a servant.
What?
All that lonely house life.
Taking up with the first man who was nice to me.
Connie, Connie, what are you talking about?
That's the way I thought of myself, Gerald.
It was all self-gaining.
What was it?
I was alone all day, and John was here.
Connie, I...
That's the way it was.
You and John?
Yes.
Looks hard to believe.
Gerald, I'm not trying to excuse myself.
I'm not.
It's just that now John's dead,
and that awful Charlie thinks some woman killed him,
and I think he thinks I'm the woman.
No, he doesn't.
He's been hitting around.
He thinks some man did it.
Some man who was paying John a lot of money, extortion money.
Who?
Me.
You?
Yes.
He doesn't come right out and say it,
but he knows someone's been paying the money,
and I think he suspects me.
And he's right.
What do you mean?
I paid John for 15 years ever since he got out of jail.
We were both guilty, but he took the rap.
Guilty of what?
Embezzlement.
Embezzlement?
Yes.
We took $70,000 from the firm before we got caught.
As I said, I went free, and John went up the river.
I paid him $200 a week, 52 weeks a year.
He'd saved up almost $40,000 when he was killed.
But you didn't kill him.
Is that a question?
I know you didn't do it.
You know I didn't?
Of course.
Do you think I didn't?
No, no, no, of course not.
You don't think maybe he got tired of me,
or I got jealous or hysterical or something, and John...
No, of course I don't.
I did get jealous sometimes and hysterical.
But you didn't kill him.
No, I didn't.
Neither did I.
I know.
Well, that wasn't the way I'd thought it would go, frankly.
In the first place, I never thought they'd spill everything to each other,
and in the second place, I thought if they did spill everything,
they'd each jump at the chance to pin it on the other.
Yeah, they must have loved each other or something.
Oh, something like that.
Anyway, I decided to walk in and settle the whole thing right then and there.
Mr. Tremaine.
Oh, yes, Charlie.
Mr. Tremaine, the fact is, I need $50,000 from you right now.
What is this, Charlie?
Well, it's extortion money, Mr. Tremaine.
You know what that is.
It's just a word like embezzlement.
Oh, I see.
Gerald, he knows.
He actually...
That's right, that's right.
I actually know, Mrs. Tremaine.
I didn't know exactly before that it was embezzlement, you see.
But Brother John told me he'd done time for your husband,
and that was why he had this cushy job.
I didn't know why he bothered to work at all.
I know I wouldn't have.
Oh, I guess you wouldn't have.
Now, wait a minute.
Well, I take that back.
I know a reason why he worked here, don't you, Mrs. Tremaine?
Yeah, you were fooling around a little, weren't you, huh, with Brother John?
Look, my wife and I have no secrets,
so this is not a shock to either one of us.
But have you told the police it might be a shock to them?
Have you?
Well, now, of course you haven't.
My wife didn't kill your brother, neither did I.
Maybe yes, maybe no.
How do we know you didn't kill him?
Why would I kill my own brother?
For the money and the four savings banks?
I was going to get that anyway.
Brother John told me so in the hospital.
He even said he could put the touch on your wife for a little extra if I needed it.
You can't prove that.
Well, I think I could if I had to.
There's a guy up at the hospital.
He had the bed next to mine.
He was there when John came to see me.
He knows all about this?
Well, he might.
Neither one of us could talk at the time.
Maybe he can't even now.
I don't know.
But he was still there when I got out.
What's his name?
Now, why would I tell you that?
I can find out.
What's the difference, Mr. Tremaine?
Suppose he says the whole story is true, that he heard John tell it to me.
It'll all come out anyway, newspapers and everything.
And then what will the police think about you?
So come on, I mean, let's be sensible.
You raise the 50,000 and I'll clear out.
How am I supposed to raise 50,000?
Come out of your house, your car.
You must have insurance.
You two stay there.
I'll answer that phone.
What do you think, Constance?
Don't give it to him.
It's just money.
Don't give it to him.
You sure?
It's wrong.
What I did was wrong.
Let's not keep on doing what's wrong.
Well, it's the wrong number or something.
It sounded like a singing telegram.
Singing telegram?
I couldn't make it out.
Well, how about it?
Charlie, we don't think we can give you 50,000 dollars.
We don't think we can afford it.
Can you afford being smeared all over the newspapers?
We can't afford to go on living this way, lying to each other.
One of you may not go on living at all.
Let me answer it this time.
Leave the phone off the hook.
Charlie, neither one of us killed John.
I'll tell that to the police.
I'm going to.
I've talked to my wife and she agrees.
Gerald, come here.
You too, Charlie.
Look, I don't think you've thought this over.
Oh, yes, we have.
We don't want to think about it anymore.
Gerald, listen.
What is it?
Listen.
I'll hold the phone up.
Listen, Charlie.
Frère Jacques, Frère Jacques, dormez-vous, dormez-vous.
Well, that's the story.
It was the real Charlie on the phone, the guy in the other bed.
See, he hadn't had a spontaneous recovery like mine.
But he'd gotten back enough to get to a phone in the hospital, dial the number, and then
sing this French song into the phone.
Brother John, Brother John, are you sleeping?
Are you sleeping?
That's what it says.
It's just my lousy luck I never learned French, or I'd have known it was the real Charlie
the first time he called.
Oh, I guess you want the gun I killed John with, huh?
Here.
Yeah, I'll give you the gun.
I'll kill John with, huh?
Here.
I've had it in my pocket the whole time.
Oh, and thanks for offering me a lawyer.
But frankly, I don't think any lawyer in the world could get me off.
Do you?
Well, do you?
Suspense.
You have been listening to Brother John, starring William Redfield, and written especially
by Suspense by Elspeth Eric.
Suspense is produced and directed by Bruno Zirotto Jr., music supervision by Ethel Huber,
sound patterns by Joseph Cabibbo.
Heard in tonight's story where Connie Lemke is Constance Tremaine, Paul McGrath is Gerald
Tremaine, Sam Gray is John, Bill Smith is the doctor, and Guy Rep is the voice of Charlie.
Listen again next week when we return with The Curse of Temasek, written by Jonathan Bundy,
another tale well calculated to keep you in...
Suspense.
This is the CBS Radio Network.