Mystery House
Mystery House, that strange publishing firm owned by Dan and Barbara Glenn,
where each new novel is acted out by the Mystery House staff before it is accepted for publication.
Mystery House
This story we're trying out for Mystery House novel tonight, Barbie, a murder with a punch.
What's the big punch?
It's not that kind of a punch, Dan. The story deals with a punch in Judy's show.
Oh, you mean those little wooden dummies that the performer works with his hands from under the stage?
That's right, hand puppets. I think they're fascinating.
A good punch in Judy operator can make them almost human.
I disagree, Mrs. Glenn. The punch in Judy voices are always too unnatural.
If you're going to say anything, why not say it in a natural voice, like this? Listen.
Mystery House
Okay, places everybody. Set the scene for tonight's story, will you, Tom?
Death with a punch.
The story opens in a dressing room of the Mirador nightclub.
Jeff Rochlin, owner of the club, hands a little envelope to one of the performers.
As you noticed, Gee-Gee, Saturday night.
But look, Mr. Rochlin, you brought me into the Mirador on a contract for six a week.
So I made a mistake. We all make mistakes once in a while, don't we? Your act's no good, Gee-Gee.
No good? The grand, you know, punch in Judy's show no good.
The finest hand-carved puppets in the world. My father and grandfather spent their lives building this act.
I've got testimonial letters from royalty, from presidents, from...
You've got an act that as far as nightclubs are concerned is strictly from hunger, Gee-Gee.
No, that is not so. The Berlin Winter Garden, the Vienna Olympia, the London Palladium, the New York Palace,
all holdovers, top-beering, an international success.
The finest hand puppet show in all the world and you as chief nightclub operator and next gangster.
Got it, Gee-Gee. I don't like that kind of talk. Your act's out after tomorrow night. You're done. Through.
But I turned down engagements to take this.
You know what that act of yours ought to be playing, Gee-Gee?
Little girls birthday parties. That's about its speed.
I bet you'd knock the little kiddies for a loop.
You'll pay me for the balance of my contract?
Are you kidding? You're lucky you're getting paid for the week you've been here, you bum.
I'll report you. You fill that contract or I'll see you get no more act.
No, you won't. Because I'll have a receipt to show I paid off.
You have no such thing.
I said I will have. Here's the receipt. See? All made out.
And I've even got a fountain pen for you to sign it with. Right now. Here.
You think I'm crazy? You think I'd sign a receipt for money I'll never see?
I think you better, Gee-Gee. It'd be good business.
You do not scare me.
Of course not. But you know how it is. A guy does his act, satisfies everybody, going along fine.
Getting paid. And then he has an accident. Away from the club, of course. Away from me, too.
Being dead, he can't fill his contract.
You would not dare kill me.
Ah, now what kind of talk is that, Gee-Gee? I never killed anybody.
If I got friends that, well, are kind of rough, can I help it?
Just because they're bad don't make me that way, does it? Come on now, sign.
No. I'll get your license revoked. You will not be able to hire any acts at all. I will ruin you out of business.
I got boys on my payroll who would take care of you without the flicker of an eye light, Gee-Gee.
And that's just about breaking my heart, too. You're going to sign this or not?
No. You think you are very brave and tough. Well, maybe I'm brave and tough, too.
I have a contract. I know my rights. Now, get out of my dressing room.
What? Hey, what is that thing?
The little cop punch you to hit Judy over the head in my puppet show.
Get out before I break it over your head. Get out!
Okay, sucker. Suit yourself. But don't say I didn't give you a chance.
Aw, don't worry about him, Gee-Gee. Rockin's a great A-Hill. As big a bluff as he's a rat.
He tried to pull a fast one on you and it didn't work. You'll pay off your contract.
He has to. The bum.
He says I'm through after tonight. I've already made a report to the Union kind.
You think my act is bad?
I think it's the cutest act I ever saw in my life.
Those little wooden puppets are darn near human the way you handle them.
Well, it sort of makes me feel like a little girl again.
Thank you.
You know the real reason he's firing you, don't you?
No. He said he doesn't like the act.
Ah, you wouldn't know a good act from a flop.
You came in here at top money. A big build-up and all that.
And Rocklin's hard up as a devil.
Hard up? But the club is crowded. The prices are high.
I know.
And the money's going out faster than it's coming in.
There's a payoff somewhere that's got him scared to death.
Scraping up every dime he can get his fingers on.
What? Are you sure?
There's no other answer. The club's rolling in money and Rocklin's broke.
I mean broke.
This payoff, you know who he's making it to? For what?
No. All I know is there's something going on.
Somebody has him right where they want him.
And it's somebody who's really turning on the heat.
Connie, if anything should happen to Rocklin, if he should have an accident...
Not a chance. With all the thugs watching out for him all the time.
But if such a thing should happen, my contract would still be good.
You'd be free. Isn't that true?
Hey, you act sort of excited. You're not thinking of bumping Rocklin off, are you?
Oh, no. But I think Mr. Rocklin has gone too far.
I think he's about due for some trouble. Thanks to you.
Thanks to me?
You have answered the question that has been bothering me, Connie.
With your story about the payoff, I think I'll fill out the period of my contract.
I think everything is going to be all right.
Hey, what was that?
The door. I thought it was closed, but it must have been open a crack.
Somebody was listening to us. To what we said.
So what? We said nothing anybody could use against us. Do not be so nervous.
Face to face in a fist fight, I'd almost bet on myself to whip Rocklin.
But he doesn't fight with his fists, and he doesn't fight face to face.
If he were spying on us, I'd admit it. I'm scared.
It is he who should be frightened, Connie. Not us.
Mr. Rocklin is just about through.
Good evening, Mr. KG.
Good evening.
Say, you shouldn't leave your dressing room right on.
Mr. Rocklin would find out you went out without turning it off. He'd be sore.
Kind of mean that way.
But I did not leave the light on. I turned it off, I am sure.
Maybe so, but I walked past a couple of minutes ago and saw the light on and stopped to talk to you.
The room was empty, that's sure. And the light was on. I snapped her off.
Thank you.
Here comes Rocklin now. Good evening, Mr. Rocklin.
Hi, Pop. I want to talk to you alone, KG.
We have nothing to discuss.
I got a call from the Union.
I know. It would be bad for you now if anything should happen to me, Mr. Rocklin.
You see, I told them all about the little threats you made.
Yeah, so they told me. Looks like there's nothing for me to do but pay off, huh?
I hoped you would see it that way.
Pop, didn't you hear me say I wanted to talk to this guy private?
Me? Oh, sure, Mr. Rocklin. I was just standing here.
Well, don't stand there. Get moving.
Guy can't do anything around his joint without somebody rubbernecking.
Oh, I didn't mean anything, Mr. Rocklin. And I didn't hear a thing.
Speaking of rubbernecking, Mr. Rocklin,
somebody was listening outside my door while I was talking to Connie Clare this afternoon.
Yeah? Did it scare you?
No, I just mentioned it.
Yeah, if it was nothing of any importance, you got nothing to worry about.
But if it were something important?
And if I was you, I would worry about it, Gee-Gee.
Look, I've changed my mind about firing you.
Oh, that is very touching. What made you change your mind?
Who cares? The point is you stay.
Maybe I'm getting soft for puppets.
It is quite impossible for me to continue, Mr. Rocklin.
You gave me my notice, but you will pay for the balance of the contract five weeks without my stay.
I take a little vacation at your expense.
Okay, Gee-Gee, suit yourself.
And it would be most embarrassing for you if anything should happen to me.
You mean about the union you're telling them about what I said might happen to you?
That too. But I stumbled onto a very important piece of information.
What are you talking about?
The person you're giving so much money to. The payoff.
What? Listen, you...
Now, do not get excited. I will not hurt you if you behave yourself.
You know something. Something I want to know too.
This is worth dough to you, Gee-Gee.
More dough than those puppets could make you in a thousand years.
You do not need to try to impress me, Mr. Rocklin.
You fool, I'm leveling.
Leveling? That means being honest, doesn't it?
Sure.
Interesting, if true.
We're going to make a deal, Gee-Gee.
Later. They are moving my puncture duty stage onto the floor.
Gee-Gee, you're on.
They're coming.
Now, the Club Mirador presents the most unusual novelty of the year,
Gee-Gee and his grand guinole Punch and Judy show.
Hooray! Hooray! That's what I like. Puppets.
Ladies and gentlemen, my little puppets are not operated by strings.
The oldest and classic form of puppetry,
they are controlled by the human hand from beneath the stage.
At several times during the process,
there will be three puppets active upon the stage
and only one person, myself, operating them.
Try to figure it out.
I thank you.
And now, in just a moment, the grand guinole Punch and Judy.
Hello, folks. I'm Mr. Punch.
And you know something?
I'm a bad, bad boy.
I kill people.
Just a regular killer-diller. Would you like to meet my wife?
Judy! Oh, Judy!
What is it, Punchy?
Come on up and meet the folks.
I don't want to.
Oh, yes you do.
No, I don't.
Yes, you do.
I won't do it, Punch.
If you don't, I'll come after you with this revolver.
I'll fix you good.
Remember, I'm a bad boy.
I'm not afraid of you. Come right ahead.
Okay, I will.
Excuse me, folks.
Oh, Rodland! Rodland! Jeff Rodland!
Gigi! Somebody quick, it's Jenny Graham!
She's been shot!
Hey, quiet. Not so loud.
What are you trying to do anyway?
Listen, listen, she's been murdered.
She was standing in the wings watching Gigi's actions.
She was shot.
Gigi, huh? I knew that guy was poisoned.
The gun! The punch gun!
Somebody put real bullets in it.
I fired the blanks toward the floor, and real bullets come out.
Who do you think you're fooling, Gigi?
I'm not fooling you.
Oh, I see.
Jenny Graham.
So, you kill her, and you think you'll pin it on me?
Well, Mr. Rockland, you will not.
Shut up, Gigi.
I'm calling the cops.
And it looks like you're canceling your own act for good.
Who is Jenny Graham, the singer?
And why should she be killed?
If that's not enough to puzzle yourself about,
was she killed by a bullet from the gun the little punch puppet was holding?
We'll find out on the second act of tonight's story.
And now, act two of Death with a Punch.
The customers have been unceremoniously ushered from the Club Mirador,
and Jerry James, ex-song and dance man turned police detective, has taken over.
All right, all right.
Sit down, all of you.
I never saw a guy working with puppets yet that wasn't screwy.
Sir, this is the finest hand puppet act in the world.
I know, I know.
And you sure brought the house down tonight, chum.
Punching Judy.
I didn't know there was a punch act still on the road.
Where'd you come from?
Out of the woodwork?
My act has headlined at the gr...
Skip it, skip it.
Sure, you're big time.
Now, why'd you kill this dame, huh?
Well, I did not kill her.
I scarcely knew her.
That's right, Mr. James.
Only woman in the place to ever see him do any visiting with was Connie here.
Oh, you want to get into the act too, huh?
What are you, a juggler or an acrobat?
Pop's a stage carpenter.
Takes care of everything backstage.
Oh.
Now, don't tell me.
Let me guess.
You're Jeff Rockland.
Yeah.
This is a real pleasure, Rockland.
The boy's thinking awful out of you down at headquarters.
You know what the chief says about you, huh?
No.
He says you're the slickest little hoodlum in town.
Yes, sir, the slickest little hoodlum in town.
Save your cheap wisecracks for somebody who goes from.
Hurry up and get this screwball puppet guy out of here before he kills somebody else.
But that's the point, Rockland.
He says he didn't kill the girl.
Yeah, you fool.
He was holding a revolver in his hand with that punch doll.
He pulled the doll down out of sight of the audience.
There was three shots, and Jenny Graham screamed and toppled over.
Blanks.
I never use anything but blanks in the gun.
How about this time?
Somebody had tampered with the prop gun.
There were real bullets in it.
And you're going to claim you shot her by accident, not knowing the gun had real slugs in it, huh?
I did not kill her.
I could not kill her.
I fired three times at the floor.
You will find three bullet holes in the floor.
I already found them.
Somebody could have gone into his dressing room while he was out for a fact.
There was a light on while he was gone.
I saw it.
You remember my telling you?
Somebody was awfully interested in Gee-Gee's dressing room.
He and I were having a little conversation and nearly caught somebody eavesdropping.
What's your racket, sister?
I direct the dancers and do the solo dance routines.
I'm in charge of the line of dancing girls, the chorus.
If you can call six girls the chorus.
Hooper, huh?
You and me will have to cut a few touches before this is over.
I used to be a hooper myself.
Look, Copper, it ain't old home week.
What are you going to do with this guy?
Who hired him, Rockman?
Why, I did.
Of course.
I hire all the acts.
A punch in Judy's act seems like an awful funny thing for a swanky nightclub.
You couldn't have hired him with any idea in mind, could you?
No. No idea, except I was bats.
I was letting him go after tonight.
His act smelled.
You cannot talk to me like that.
The finest...
Skip it, Gee Gee.
Is that right?
Rockman was going to let you go after the night?
Well, yes.
Until he changed his mind just before I went on.
The union was putting a heat on me on account of a contract.
He said I had to pay off, so I figured I might as well use the guy.
You hired him for Big Doe and you were going to let him go after the night.
That's very interesting.
He planned this. All he wanted me for was to pin a murder on to me.
That ain't bad reasoning for a puppet guy, Gee Gee.
Well, don't anybody else agree?
Don't ask me. I just work here.
And I'd like to keep on working, if you'll get what I mean.
Smart girl.
There's only three bullets fired from the punch doll's gun.
And there's three bullets in the floor.
So that means there's another gun around here somewhere.
Of course there are guns around here and permits for them too.
All right, wise guy. I ain't interested in permits at the moment.
I'm interested in seeing if there's any slugs missing from any of these guns you're talking about.
Suppose you let me see them.
I can let you see mine. It's in my office.
Come on, all of you. I ain't leaving anybody alone.
You want me to come to the office too?
Sure.
This way. I didn't have to rot with me at the time of the murder.
Hardly seems like there's any use looking after you telling me that.
But I guess I'm just the suspicious type.
Okay. Where do I unlock the door?
Quite a fancy spot for a retired gangster.
Well, let's see the gun.
There you are.
You satisfied?
I'll let you know. Don't worry.
Yeah, I'm pretty well satisfied.
There's a bullet missing and the gun's still warm.
That's a frame up. I didn't have to rot with me. I didn't shoot it.
You don't get away with this, copper C.
Ripe down, tough guy.
You hired the Punch Act.
The girls murdered. There's a bullet missing from your gun.
You can't frame me like that.
Just a minute.
This is as far as I go, Rockland.
What?
He was making payoffs, officer. Big payoffs to somebody.
We didn't know who, but...
Connie, for the love of heaven, what are you...
He was doing a big business raking in money, and yet he was broke, flat.
That money was going someplace to somebody who was shaking him down.
How about that, Rockland?
Okay, sure. I might as well admit I was being taken for dough.
Plenty of dough. I was being kept strapped.
By this Jenny Graham, the singer?
I don't know, but that's what makes it so crazy.
I ain't got the slightest idea who was shaking me down.
What? I'm laughing.
Okay, laugh, wise guy, but it's the truth.
I get letters telling me to leave money.
Leave money where?
Well, never the same place twice.
Those letters must have given you a pretty good reason for coughing up.
What was it?
That's none of your business.
Guess again, Rockland. Where are those letters?
I destroyed them.
What did they say? How could they threaten you?
I'm not saying, and you can't make me say.
You found out this girl, Jenny Graham, was the one getting your dough, so...
No, you fool, I didn't know who was getting it.
Geegee, didn't I offer to make a deal if you'd tell me just before you started your act?
Huh? Didn't I?
I? But how should I know who was shaking you down?
I didn't even know such a thing was going on.
You lie, I heard you and Connie talking.
Oh, so you were the little eavesdropper, huh?
Whatever it. I've been suspicious of everybody,
thinking maybe anybody might be the one who was gouging me.
And you think the punch guy knew who it was, huh?
Well, he practically said he knew.
I... That is quite true.
When Connie told me Rocklin was being blackmailed,
I remembered something I had seen.
What?
I saw Mr. Rocklin very carelessly drop a tube of grease paint
in a dark corner backstage.
A little later, somebody came along and picked it up.
Whatever.
Oh, don't you see? It was not grease paint in that tube.
The empty grease paint tube had not been used to conceal anything but money.
Builds rolled into it.
And this Jenny Graham picked it up, huh?
No, that is what puzzles me.
It was the stagehand, Pop.
What?
Ah, look here, Mr. Geegee, you can't do this to me.
That ain't so and you know it.
That won't work, Geegee.
What?
You can't pin it onto him.
But he was the one. I saw him.
No, no. I'm betting it was the singer, Jenny Graham.
No. I am telling you the truth.
Why, you...
Trying to frame yourself was a cute little racket, Geegee.
It almost worked.
What?
You swiped Rocklin's gun some way.
It wouldn't be too hard for a guy like you who's done mechanical stuff like making puppets.
You'd know locks and that kind of stuff easy.
But his gun, what good would that do to me? My gun would...
I know.
Everybody heard three shots fired and there were three slugs in the floor.
It was simple and good. Almost good enough.
I don't get it.
Sometime last night when nobody was around,
Geegee fired a shot into the floor right about where they'd set up his puppet stage.
Nobody noticed it.
Then tonight he loads two slugs into his own gun before time for his act.
Oh, no. You do not know what you are saying. That would be impossible.
Oh, no. You're handy with both hands.
Ambidextrous.
You fire two slugs out of the punch gun into the floor right next to the one you already planted.
No.
And then with the other hand you let Jenny Graham have a slug from Rocklin's gun.
You were behind the curtains at that punch stage so nobody could see you.
I bet it's the first time anybody ever pulled a trick like that in front of a whole audience.
No. Rocklin's gun was in his desk.
So that's why you run back here to make a phone call in such a hurry after the murder, huh?
I did not.
Yes, you did. I remember. And why deny it?
But why should I kill this girl? I did not even know her.
There could have been a couple of reasons, Punchy.
She'd been shaking Rocklin down for money.
We've been looking so hard for a murderer we haven't even thought about money.
She got it. But where is it now?
I do not know. I know nothing.
You figured you were really getting fired on account of her shaking Rocklin down so he couldn't pay off.
You wanted your money and didn't want the humiliation to get in canned.
You were sore at Rocklin and figured you could get even by planting murder evidence against him.
You were trying to kill an awful lot of birds with one stone.
But no. How could anybody fire a gun with a doll in his hand, fire it accurately enough to kill,
holding the gun through the clothes of the doll?
Shucks aside from the head and hands and feet, those dolls are just cloth.
I bet I could do it. I'll get one of them.
No, no, no. You stay away from there. You fool. No.
I do not let anyone rule those dolls. You cannot jump in whiskers.
What?
This doll here. I can't work my hand up into it. All clogged up.
Hey, money. Look.
Hundred dollar bill and a thousand dollar bill.
All right. You are so clever.
I will tell you how she was getting the money from Rocklin.
I am not the only murderer. Rocklin, he is.
She had all the proof. I found it. I...
James. James, look out.
Rocklin.
I... I... I still win, Rocklin.
Proof. I stole from a girl in my dressing room, in a trunk.
All about murder you committed. And now you kill me.
You did just fine, Rocklin. You took care of one murderer for us.
And now, even if the proof he claimed the girl had isn't any good,
we've still got you on at least one murder charge. Gee-gees.
Well, the proof's good enough, I guess.
If I didn't think it was, I wouldn't have been paying off that kind of dough, would I?
And they don't treat you any rougher for two murders than they do for one.