Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar - The Salt City Matter - Ep 4
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Speaker 1: From Hollywood, it's time now for.
Speaker 3: Johnny Dollar.
Speaker 4: Ready with your call to San Francisco.
Speaker 3: Go ahead, please. Hello. That you, Johnny? Yeah, I'm in
Salt City.
Speaker 2: I'm surprised they have phones there. How does it look?
Speaker 4: Located, Ed, Julian, yet?
Speaker 2: I just got here. It looks terrible. And I haven't
even located a hotel room.
Speaker 3: Mr.
Speaker 2: Gumby, if I have any luck at all, I'll be
back in San Francisco by tonight. I'll serve the subpoena
on him if he's around. From what I've been able
to pick up, there isn't much of a law enforcement
agency here.
Speaker 4: You get that subpoena in his hands and he'll have
to answer to it. He's still in this county, even
if they have to use state police to grab him.
Speaker 3: Okay. Anything I can do for you here?
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Find out how a town like this ever got built.
Speaker 2: The End.
Speaker 1: Tonight and every weekday night, Bob Bailey and the transcribed
adventures of the man with the action-packed expense account, America's
fabulous freelance insurance investigator... Yours.
Speaker 2: Truly, Johnny Dollar. Expense account submitted by Special Investigator Johnny
Dollar to Samuel Rubin and Associates Insurance Brokers Majestic Building, Hartford, Connecticut.
The following is an accounting of expenditures during my investigation
of the Salt City matter. It all started when Sam
Rubin asked me to bodyguard Ed Julian. Julian was supposed
to be in San Francisco, but I never saw him there.
I saw his wife and his lawyer and the insurance
agent who had sold him the policy... but no Ed Julian.
And then a clerk at his apartment told me about
Salt City. He didn't tell me much else. I found
the rest out for myself. I checked my bag in
the station locker and walked over to the Salt City
Bar and Grill. Expense account item 12, 10 cents, coffee.
Speaker 3: Just getting on the train? Yeah, a few minutes ago.
Speaker 4: Everybody calls me Connie.
Speaker 3: Everybody calls me Johnny.
Speaker 4: That's nice. Never seen you around here before.
Speaker 3: Well, I've never been around here before.
Speaker 4: Gonna stay long?
Speaker 3: I hope not. No fault of yours.
Speaker 4: I can't blame you.
Speaker 3: As soon as I get a stake for myself, I'm
pulling out, too.
Speaker 4: All kinds of funny things going on around here.
Speaker 5: Now, for instance, last week I.
Speaker 3: Hello, Mr.
Speaker 2: Reno. I recognized him from the Landry killing that he'd
stood trial for in Baltimore in 1950. He still looked
like his pictures, tall, thin, quiet... I'd always wondered where
he'd disappeared to after his lawyer got him off with
a bought jury.
Speaker 4: My name is Jim Reno.
Speaker 3: I run this restaurant. Everything all right? Everything's fine.
Speaker 4: Oh, that's good. Good. You ought to have some of
that stew.
Speaker 3: This time of morning? Sure, it's a thing.
Speaker 4: Connie, why don't you go back in the kitchen and
put some stew on the fire, huh? Well, Mr. Reno,
I don't cook. You know that. Learn. Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
Speaker 3: You wouldn't be connected with the Salt City Smeller Works,
would you, Mr.
Speaker 4: Reno? I own them with some other friend.
Speaker 3: Then you might know Ed Julian. I understand he owns.
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, I know Ed. He's out there at the
Smeller Works, staying in a cottage.
Speaker 2: Right by the office.
Speaker 4: I'll, uh, call you a taxi if you like.
Speaker 2: Well, the last taxi driver I asked to drive me
out there threatened to call a cop.
Speaker 4: Well, in this town, it's better if I call. You know,
small town. Sure, sure. Finish your coffee, Mr.
Speaker 3: Dollar.
Speaker 1: What?
Speaker 4: I'll call the cab for you. I own the taxi company, too.
Speaker 2: Expense account item 12. Ten more cents, more coffee. While
I waited for the cab to appear. Somehow I wasn't
surprised that Jim Reno had been able to read my
name in the coffee grounds. But by that time I'd
learned not to be surprised by anything in Salt City.
Item 1350 cents tipped the cab ride out to the
Smeller Works was on Mr.
Speaker 3: Reno.
Speaker 2: The chimneys and stacks were dark and sullen against a
gray storm-gathering sky. The only sound was a gasoline generator somewhere.
Lights were on at intervals across the smoky area. One
dim light burning in a little yellow cottage just inside
the main gate caught my eye. No one seemed around
to ask questions of me, so I walked in. Ed
Julian and another man I didn't recognize were sitting in
chairs opposite each other. Neither of them moved or flicked
an eyelash. They just sat there, propped up, staring at
each other. I got closer and decided one could get
surprised in Salt City. They weren't dead. Dead men don't perspire.
Dead men don't have pulses. Dead men don't breathe. They
were just kind of in between.
If you ever walk into a house in Salt City
and find two men just sitting in a room quietly
staring at each other and they aren't dead, turn around.
Speaker 3: And walk out. Johnny Dollar.
Speaker 2: Don't fall down on your hands and knees and crawl around.
Speaker 3: The floor like I did. Don't start to laugh to
yourself about nothing at all.
Speaker 2: Don't get weepy and perspire.
Speaker 3: And don't prop yourself up against the wall and wait for.
Speaker 2: Something to happen and Then I could see somebody standing
beside me looking down.
Speaker 3: I couldn't move my arms.
Speaker 2: And my legs, and that seemed pretty funny. Somebody laughed
about it. Then it came to me I was doing
the laughing. The noise was coming out of me. Somebody
leaned down and took my gun out of my shoulder holster.
He was wearing gloves and dark glasses. And then all
at once he had a face.
Speaker 3: Easy, darling, easy. I'll just take this. Sure, sure.
Speaker 4: I know all about it.
Speaker 3: I know all about it. What is this?
Speaker 4: You came to town looking for Ed Julian so you
could protect him. Maybe serve a subpoena.
Speaker 3: Get him in jail.
Speaker 4: Well, Ed don't need no protecting. You can see that.
He don't need no subpoena. He don't need anything better.
Speaker 3: Not now. You hear me? I hear. You slipped me
something at the cafe.
Speaker 4: Nah, don't you worry about that. You see, Dollar, you
were just out on a regular job for Sam Rubin.
But you got in a fight in Ed's place in
San Francisco, bashed up a couple of his boys. You
came over to Salt City looking for him.
Speaker 3: You walked in.
Speaker 4: This place and Ed was sitting here talking to Chili Winters.
Speaker 3: That other fella's Chili Winters? Nah, you're getting it.
Speaker 4: Chili Winters, a big powder from the East.
Speaker 3: Bad boy.
Speaker 4: Ed didn't want you to protect him, did he, Dollar?
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 4: No, he didn't. He didn't want to take the subpoena. No,
he didn't. So you argued with him, didn't you?
Speaker 3: Oh, no.
Speaker 4: You argued with him like you did with a pair
of his boys in San Francisco. You beat them up. Well,
Chili got into the argument here now, didn't he? Chili
might have pulled a gun on you. He was famous
for that.
Speaker 3: I don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 4: And you had to protect yourself. You just pulled out
your gun and you shot them both.
Speaker 3: Like this? Oh, no, no. Well, Dolly, you.
Speaker 4: Just shot and killed Ed Julian in chilly winters. As
good a job as anybody in this town ever saw.
And I saw it. Guess I'll have to call the police.
Speaker 2: An autopsy report will show they were drugged before they
were killed. And how are you going to explain that?
Speaker 4: We don't believe in autopsy reports in Salt City. All
our police need is your gun.
Speaker 3: It won't work, Reno.
Speaker 4: Now, Dollar, you know it will. You'll be arraigned, indicted,
and tried right here in Salt City. It'll be second
degree or self-defense, maybe. Now, if I'd have done it,
or some of the boys had done it, there'd have
been all kinds of trouble from San Francisco to New York. This.
This is the way it was figured. This is the way.
You walk right into it. Right smack into it. Hey! Hey!
You crazy fool.
Speaker 3: You can't do anything.
Speaker 2: He got to his feet and tried to drag me
up with him, and then both of us toppled over
into a lamp. And then I had the lamp base
in my hand. In any other place, the next move
would have been to run to the nearest police station.
Speaker 3: But from what I'd heard of the brand of law
and order practiced in Salt City, that wouldn't have been
much help to me.
Speaker 2: Instead, I walked the three miles back to town, making
my way over the crusted arroyos and cactus lands that
seemed to surround it.
Speaker 3: My first stop, the Reno Bar and Grill. Oh, my.
Speaker 2: What happened to you?
Speaker 3: That's about the longest story in history. Anybody around?
Speaker 4: Just you and me, Johnny.
Speaker 2: My full name's Johnny Dollar. I'm an insurance investigator. I
came here to see Ed Jr., and I saw him
shot to death. What?
Speaker 3: Now, listen to me.
Speaker 2: I saw him shot to death along with a man
named Chili Winters about half an hour ago. Jim Reno
did the shooting with my gun.
Speaker 3: I better call the police. Wait, wait.
Speaker 2: Now, listen to me. Remember, I came in here from
the station. I made a phone call from that booth
outside there.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I sat down, had some coffee, two cups. We talked,
I remember. Do you remember putting anything in my coffee?
Speaker 2: Me?
Speaker 4: What are you talking about?
Speaker 2: Somebody did. Probably Reno when he came up. Now look,
you said something about wanting to get out of Salts.
Speaker 3: City. Well, sure, but... Now's your chance. I'll get you
out of here. How? You got a car?
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 3: All right. Can you buy one for this?
Speaker 2: $ 3. 50?
Speaker 1: I think so.
Speaker 3: Go do it. I'll wait here for you. You better
not wait here. My room's across the street, second floor.
Speaker 4: Use the back stairway.
Speaker 3: I'll be there in a half hour.
Speaker 2: Expense account item 14, $ 350, one automobile, 1948 vintage. The
waitress returned with it in exactly one half hour. In
another 10 minutes, the time it took her to pack
two suitcases, we were on the road to San Francisco.
Item 15, $ 18. 30, gas and oil. It took us seven
hours and 20 minutes to make it. Item 17, $ 50.
I gave the waitress the car and the money, then
went back to my hotel, showered, shaved, and changed clothes
and made a phone call. Hello?
Speaker 3: Johnny Dollar, Inspector.
Speaker 2: Hello?
Speaker 1: Police all over the state are looking for you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I thought they might be. Inspector, I'll be glad
to explain all of it, but I need some time.
Speaker 4: Come on down.
Speaker 3: And explain it, and then we'll see if you can
have any time.
Speaker 2: Now, listen to me. I was sent to Salt City
to be a patsy. Reno wanted to get rid of
Ed Julian and Chili Winters.
Speaker 3: Where are you? Never mind. Well, you've got five minutes
to get down here and turn yourself in.
Speaker 2: Otherwise, you'll go out on an APB. I got out
of the hotel in about 20 seconds. A cab picked
me up, and I spent item 15, three bucks, transportation,
getting to Ray Gumby's office at 8 Julian's Enterprises.
Speaker 3: No Ray Gumby.
Speaker 2: Item 16, eight dollars, more cab fare, this time locating
Ray Gumby's home address, an apartment.
Speaker 3: Over in Berkeley. He took a long time to answer.
Speaker 2: No. I don't know how he ever made it with
the two holes in his neck. He lurched forward and
I caught him. Who did it, Mr.
Speaker 3: Gumby?
Speaker 1: Swifty and Luke. You met him at Ed's apartment house.
Speaker 2: Came by about an hour ago.
Speaker 4: What's it all about? Why....
Speaker 2: Why it was a good question little ray gumby was
a dead attorney and ed julian and chilly winters were
dead gunsels why everywhere i seemed to go people were
dying hard violently without apparent reason why i had one
idea same old thing the feeling the old feeling it
didn't explain anything it was just.
Speaker 5: There Now here's our star to tell you about tomorrow's
intriguing episode of this week's story.
Speaker 2: It winds up tomorrow, the whys and the wherefores. Love
and hate, the usual ingredients for big explosions. Join us,
won't you? Yours truly, Johnny Dollar. ¶ ¶.
Speaker 1: Yours truly, Johnny Dollar, starring Bob Bailey, is transcribed in Hollywood,
written by John Dawson. It is produced and directed by
Jack Johnstone. Be sure to join us tomorrow night, same
time and station, for the next exciting episode of Yours Truly,
Johnny Dollar. Roy Rowan speaking.
Speaker 2: ¶ ¶ THE END
Speaker 3: THE END