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"Death of a Doll" is a classic episode of the Inner Sanctum Mystery radio show that originally aired on October 18, 1948. Written by Fred Maytho, the suspenseful noir-style thriller follows a reporter named Will who investigates the murder of a woman who was found holding a doll.
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00:08Good evening, friends.
00:10This is your host to welcome you through the creaking door into the inner sanctum.
00:17Slither in, won't you?
00:19Hmm?
00:21Sorry, the place is such a mess.
00:22I'll sweep it up later.
00:24Those are just chips off the old block.
00:27Been doing my bone work.
00:31Oh, didn't I tell you?
00:33Sure, I'm going back to skull this term.
00:37All cozy now.
00:39Ready to string along with us for a while.
00:43Good.
00:45After all, this is a newspaper story.
00:49If you feel a little cold as we go on, it's only because we have a story to tell you.
00:55Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
01:02Tonight's inner sanctum mystery, Death of a Doll, was written by Fred Matho and stars Mason Adams in the role
01:10of Will with Ted Osborne as Bo Cousins.
01:16This is the story of Willie Harper and the Devil, and how Willie, on his first assignment for the Morning
01:24Blade, finds himself at two in the morning, sweating nervously in the murky shadows of a riverfront street in the
01:31lower city.
01:33Willie has a gun in his pocket, and a doll that belongs to a dead girl tucked under his arm.
01:40A block away, leaning against the one street-like, impassive, grotesque, ape-like, is the Devil waiting for Willie.
01:52I keep saying this is 1948, and I keep saying this is Manhattan, and I keep saying whether you believe
02:00in the Devil or not, you don't meet him till you're dead.
02:05But believe me, that's the Devil over there under that lamp.
02:10At three o'clock, he's coming for me.
02:15Sure, you've got a right to think I'm crazy, standing around waiting to be killed, with a doll under my
02:23arm.
02:25This all started ten days ago, around five in the afternoon, at the city morgue.
02:30Well, Grundy, the night editor, sent me there on my first assignment.
02:34The morgue, he says, is a good place to start for stories.
02:39Looks like you might be in luck soon.
02:43How's that?
02:44Come along with me.
02:47What's your name?
02:49Will Harper.
02:52All right, Willie.
02:55Come down to the coolers with me.
02:58Yes, I'm very wrong.
02:59I've got a story in there for you.
03:02The girl in locker number seven.
03:06She's been here four days.
03:10Tomorrow we close the case on her.
03:12What does that mean, Mr. Jackson?
03:15It means, in spite of everything the police have been able to do,
03:21we can't find out her name, where she lived, or anyone who knew her.
03:29How is she found?
03:31Tugboat crew fished her out of the East River.
03:37Tomorrow, she goes to the city burial grounds.
03:40In a plain box, marked Jane Doe.
03:46That's horrible.
03:48Just dying and nobody...
03:52Do you think she was murdered?
03:54There's not a mark on her.
03:57Please say she wasn't.
03:59But I want you to look at her face.
04:02And tell me...
04:05What do you think?
04:10This is Jane Doe of number seven, sir.
04:14Sir?
04:16This is Willie Harper.
04:19I want you to see her face, Willie.
04:22Tell me what you see in it.
04:25A strange emotion shook me.
04:28She didn't seem dead to me.
04:31Her skin was perfect ivory.
04:33Her hair was fine-spun copper.
04:36Her lips twisted slightly.
04:39I...
04:39I blushed and turned away,
04:42catching myself imagining what those lips must have looked like
04:45with life's color and...
04:52Jackson led me back to his office without speaking.
04:56As I lit a shaky cigarette,
04:58he fished a brown paper bag out of his desk.
05:00He handed it to me,
05:01tilting it forward as he did so.
05:05What the devil?
05:07Yeah.
05:09And when they pulled her out,
05:11she was clutching this doll close to her.
05:15Even the doll hasn't helped trace her.
05:19The police are through with it.
05:22Mr. Jackson, you'll think I'm nuts.
05:25I suddenly feel sore, boiling mad.
05:27I don't know why, but I think she was murdered.
05:30The...
05:31The look on her face...
05:33A kind of SQ to help?
05:36Yes.
05:38Dead girl.
05:40Nobody wants.
05:42And a doll.
05:44Here's your story, Willie.
05:47Too bad you didn't know her...
05:49before.
05:51Yeah.
05:55Well, thanks.
05:56Here.
05:57Take the doll along, Willie.
06:09I beat it back to the paper on fire
06:11to do a story about the dead girl and her doll.
06:14As I gave McGrundy my report,
06:15he stared at me.
06:17When I got through,
06:18he had a sort of twisted grin on his face,
06:20sort of know-it-all.
06:22He grunted and tilted the paper-wrapped doll forward.
06:27Think she was murdered, huh?
06:29Yes.
06:30The cops don't think so?
06:32No.
06:34They're closing a case tomorrow?
06:36Yeah.
06:37No clues, facts, or anything outside of this doll?
06:40None.
06:42All right, Hopper.
06:44I'll give you another day to find the nasty character
06:46who did this horrible thing.
06:49Cops have been wrong before.
06:51Go ahead.
06:52Thanks.
06:53I'll get a story.
06:56Here.
06:57Take your dolly along.
06:59And keep falling for the dead ones, Hopper.
07:01You're better off.
07:08Now I know why I resented that crack of McGrundy's.
07:12He must have guessed before I did.
07:16That I had fallen in love with the girl in the morgue.
07:19Half hour later, disgusted with my own morbidity,
07:22I went to my room before going out to eat.
07:25Slammed the door and tossed the doll onto a chair.
07:29I couldn't shake the feeling that the nameless girl in the morgue had something to say to me.
07:36If only the doll could talk, could tell me about her.
07:40What was she like?
07:42Was her voice soft?
07:44Was it kind?
07:45Who was cruel to her?
07:46Where did she live?
07:47Who killed her doll?
07:48Who?
07:54I grinned sheepishly at myself in the mirror.
07:58And with that gesture, this story really begins.
08:01The next few moments remain electrifyingly vivid.
08:05I had set the doll down on the bureau.
08:07I didn't touch it.
08:09Wasn't even looking at it when a new sound came from it.
08:18I stared at the crumpled, ridiculous little fool.
08:20Almost afraid to touch it again, but I did.
08:22I had to.
08:24I picked it up and tilted it limply.
08:31That was what I had heard.
08:33A sound.
08:35A sound only.
08:37No.
08:38Somehow I thought it was more than a sound.
08:41A name.
08:44Maybe a name.
08:45Half because I didn't want to stay alone with the doll any longer,
08:48and half on a hunch.
08:49I stuffed the doll in its bag and went back to the paper.
08:51I went straight to the reference room,
08:53filed the doll under my arm.
08:57What?
08:58What are you looking for?
08:59I want to know if you've got anything in the files
09:01on someone named Karanon.
09:02I spelled with a K-R-C.
09:03Huh?
09:04It's funny.
09:05You seem amused.
09:06Don't tell me he's around again.
09:09If you've got a lead on Karanon, you've got some story.
09:13Oh, will you get me the clips on him?
09:14I'll get you my earth's anthropology of a shirt, isn't there?
09:19Anthropology?
09:20Why?
09:20Who is he?
09:21The devil.
09:24Karanon.
09:25Of course, an almost forgotten myth from Asia.
09:28Lucifer on earth, wearing out one body after another,
09:31walking the earth always.
09:32I remember it now from college.
09:35I decided on the long walk and headed down Fifth Avenue,
09:38my head whirling with a maddening conflict.
09:41I think I would have given up the whole thing then,
09:43but always at the point of going home to bed
09:45or of chucking the blasted doll in a can.
09:48The face of the girl in the morgue blanked out other thoughts.
09:53When I reached Washington Square, it was dusk.
09:55The sidewalk artists were packing up their canvases
09:58as I passed them, all but one, that is.
10:01He was a tall, angular man with a completely bald head
10:05whose four or five paintings had the advantage of a street light.
10:09The man paid no attention to me
10:11until at the sight of one painting, I stiffened an utter shock.
10:15What's the matter, friend?
10:16The stuff that bad?
10:17That one.
10:18One of the girl, it's...
10:19Woman with a doll, I call it.
10:21Like it?
10:22Who's the girl? Do you know her? Tell me.
10:23Sorry, I'm selling oil paintings, friend.
10:26I'm not a dating bureau.
10:27No, no, no, no, you've got me wrong.
10:29I've got a good reason for asking.
10:30Look, I'll prove it.
10:31Here.
10:32Here.
10:33Isn't this the doll you've painted with a girl?
10:36Where'd you get that?
10:37I haven't seen Hazel in a week.
10:39She left for the coast.
10:40I gave her that doll to pose with.
10:42What's wrong?
10:44Hazel is dead.
10:45Dead?
10:47Where is she?
10:48If I tell you, will you promise to say nothing for a while?
10:50I'm a reporter for the Blade.
10:51My name is Will Harper.
10:52I won't say anything unless I believe you had something to do with it.
10:54Where is she?
10:55I'll take you to her.
10:56She's at the city morgue.
11:05Bo Cousins had simply nodded at my questioning look.
11:09Seeing the girl again, knowing her name now, added to the emotions I already felt for her.
11:15I had a sudden impulse as we stood in the street.
11:18I handed the artist, Hazel Dahl.
11:20Are you giving me the doll?
11:21No, no.
11:22I want it back.
11:23But I want you to tilt it.
11:25Make it cry.
11:31What did that sound like to you?
11:34What did you hear?
11:36The doll said, Karanana.
11:38You heard it too.
11:40Say it again.
11:41Say that name again.
11:42What did you hear the doll say?
11:44I distinctly heard it say, Karanana.
11:47Then I'm not crazy.
11:50And do you know who Karanana is, Mr. Cousins?
11:54I'm afraid I do.
12:05It's the most fantastic coincidence I ever encountered.
12:09Why?
12:09Do you know who Karanana is?
12:11The devil.
12:12Lucifer.
12:12Satan.
12:12White.
12:13I think we'd better go to my place and talk this out.
12:16Certainly if what I think is true is true, no one will believe us.
12:21What do you think?
12:22I think that Hazel was murdered by Karanana.
12:30I followed Bo Cousins silently along the dark streets of the lower city.
12:34His long legs led us finally to a dingy, narrow, fish-fowl street where we climbed an outside
12:39stair to the loft of a warehouse.
12:41You're in love with her, aren't you?
12:43An amazing circumstance to be in love with someone you met.
12:46Too late.
12:47I could have loved her, yes.
12:49I met her at a bow remission house.
12:51I conceived the idea of painting her with a doll.
12:53Somehow that seemed right to me.
12:56Go on.
12:57Well, we worked here for three weeks on the painting.
12:59I paid her enough so that she could go to California.
13:02Dream of hers.
13:03One night as we walked the streets nearby, Karanana appeared.
13:08Karanana?
13:09Yes, Karanana.
13:10Or a man who calls himself Karanana.
13:13The devil or the human form of the devil.
13:16However you choose to think.
13:19There can't be such a thing.
13:21The devil, it's just a myth.
13:22Is it?
13:24I met him in Istanbul eight years ago in a cafe.
13:27Did a painting of him.
13:29What's he like?
13:30Squat, massive man, ape-like.
13:32As I painted him, he admitted to me such crimes that I could hardly hold my brush.
13:36Like what?
13:38He made his living as a professional murderer.
13:41Very discreetly, very cleverly, very effectively.
13:45Why didn't you turn him in?
13:46Oh, really, no.
13:48I like to take and to live.
13:51He was so pleased with the picture I made and gave him
13:54that he told me any time I needed to rid myself of some embarrassing in person,
14:00he'd be around.
14:01Lucky you, but who'd believe that story?
14:04We do, Willie.
14:06And that's the important thing.
14:09Do you have any spare cash?
14:11Why?
14:12I have about $150.
14:14If you could make up the difference,
14:16I think we should claim Hazel's body
14:19and give the child a decent pay.
14:25I fixed it up with Jackson at the morgue.
14:28And the three that afternoon,
14:29Bo Cousins and I, plus two grave diggers in Simeon Cemetery,
14:33were watching a bright new casket being lowered into a new grave.
14:37Man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live
14:41and is full of misery.
14:44He cometh up and is cut down like a flower.
14:47He fleeth as it were a shadow
14:50and never continueth in one stay.
14:54In the midst of life,
14:56we are in death.
14:59Thanks, Bo.
15:00I liked her too, Willie.
15:02Very much.
15:04You're a nice guy, Willie.
15:07Wouldn't you rather go now?
15:08No.
15:08No, let's wait till she's covered over.
15:10I want to talk to you.
15:11I've just gotten an idea.
15:13Bo,
15:14I know how to make things come out even for Hazel.
15:16I know how to get Karen on.
15:17And I will be very glad to see that you're buried next to Hazel here.
15:21I see things a lot clearer now that Hazel has a name and a passport.
15:25If there is a man named Karen on, as you say,
15:28I think he's human and that's an even chance.
15:30Maybe Karen on isn't the one.
15:32Then I'll find out.
15:33Do you want to help?
15:34In any way, sort of being discreetly disposed of?
15:37Yes.
15:37Well, Karen on said he'd do a little job for you whenever you wanted him to, right?
15:42Yes.
15:43Then you get in touch with him and...
15:45Sorry, Willie.
15:46My merchant of death is unreachable.
15:48He shows up when he wants to.
15:50All right, I'll wait.
15:52But when he does,
15:54you've got a murder for him to do.
15:56I have?
15:58Who?
16:00Me.
16:07That was a week ago.
16:09An exciting week for me, covering all sorts of stuff in the paper.
16:13I'd begun to think Bo Cousins was an imaginative phony.
16:16Even my editor, McGrundy, had stopped kidding me about Hazel's doll perched on my desk.
16:21Then this morning at 9.30, I got a call.
16:26Morning, Blade.
16:27Willie Harper.
16:28Greetings and farewell, Willie.
16:29This is Bo Cousins.
16:30Oh.
16:31What?
16:32What's up?
16:33The devil is in town, Willie.
16:34He wants to see you.
16:35Karen on?
16:36Yes.
16:37I saw him last night.
16:38He was delighted to help me get rid of you.
16:41I see.
16:41I told him you were a reporter who was planning a story about art which tore my work to pieces.
16:47What's the matter, Willie?
16:48Change your mind?
16:49No, no, no.
16:51Did he say where?
16:53He never lets his clients in on the details.
16:55But he did say I'd be rid of you by 3 o'clock tomorrow morning.
17:00Thanks, Bo.
17:02I'll be seeing you.
17:03Quite seriously, Willie.
17:04I hope so.
17:06Be careful.
17:07Remember, bullets don't work on some things.
17:12Aye.
17:13So long.
17:16By 3 this morning, he said.
17:18I didn't know where, exactly when, or even if I could get the drop on the devil and force the
17:23truth about Hazel out of him.
17:25I stuffed the doll into a bag and started out, but McGrundy caught me.
17:29Harper!
17:30Yeah?
17:31Woman shot through the back of the head.
17:33Plank solitaire.
17:341-4-7 Parkway North.
17:36Husband with her.
17:37One out on him.
17:38Phone it in.
17:38Right.
17:42When I hit the lobby downstairs, an unaccountable chill got me in the small of the back.
17:49Something made me stop short and turn around.
17:53It was my first look at Caranana.
17:57He was leaning against a phone booth, a heavy-set, ill-shaped man whose arms sloped weirdly from his neck
18:03into a heavy stomach.
18:05He was eyeing me impassively.
18:08The game was on, I knew.
18:10I grabbed a cab to get my story just the same.
18:15I phoned the stuff in from the cigar store across the street.
18:19When I stepped out of the booth, Caranana had just bought some cigarettes.
18:23He turned to me as I froze, waiting.
18:26Some murder across the street, huh?
18:29Yeah.
18:30How'd you know?
18:31I got around.
18:34Murder a hobby of yours, mister?
18:36No.
18:37It's strictly a business.
18:40So long.
18:44That's the kind of thing that went on all day.
18:46McGrundy kept me on the hop, but no matter where I went, Caranana was there ahead of me.
18:51This afternoon, I got to my room long enough to pick up my Luger pistol and the license I've got
18:55to carry it.
18:57He was waiting for me when I came out.
18:59Better put it in your inside coat pocket.
19:02It shows on your hip.
19:05Be seeing him.
19:10It's a quarter to three now.
19:13Fifteen minutes.
19:15And he hasn't moved from under that lamppost in two hours.
19:20I'm not waiting.
19:21I'm not waiting another minute.
19:23I'm going to meet the devil and have it done with.
19:26He doesn't move.
19:28Will a bullet do it?
19:30Can I trick him into admitting Hazel's murder?
19:32Or will he kill me first?
19:37Well, here I am.
19:39Yeah.
19:41I see.
19:43What can I do for you?
19:45It's almost three o'clock.
19:48You know, you're right.
19:50Time sure flies.
19:53Well, time for me to get on home, I guess.
19:56So long, Willie.
19:58It's a trick.
19:59A fiend's trick.
20:01He's deliberately leaving me with only a few minutes to go.
20:03No, I've got to stop this.
20:04I can't go through with it.
20:05I'll go to Bo's place.
20:06I'll tell him to call it off.
20:07I don't want to die.
20:08I don't want to...
20:08Wait, I have it.
20:09Bo!
20:10I was running for your place.
20:11That's right.
20:11You might be down this way.
20:13You look scared to death.
20:14And you should be, I guess.
20:15I've got to hide, Bo.
20:16Let's beat it somewhere.
20:17It's almost three.
20:17All right.
20:18Quick, cross the street, Willie.
20:19There's a broken down pier there.
20:20Come on.
20:26Pretty dark here, Willie.
20:27But we're safe for a while.
20:29You certainly have worked yourself up.
20:31At the dial you've got there.
20:32Yeah.
20:33I don't know why I carried it.
20:34Glad you did.
20:36Got a gun with you?
20:36Yeah, my luger.
20:37Let me have it.
20:38You're too rode up.
20:40Here.
20:40Good.
20:42Now be still a moment.
20:45Three o'clock?
20:46Yes.
20:47Three o'clock, Willie.
20:49Time for us to part.
20:51What do you mean?
20:52You're not a very astute person, are you, Willie?
20:55Why?
20:57Maybe Hazel's doll can tell you.
20:59No, no, no.
21:02No, no, no.
21:05You.
21:06No.
21:07No, Bo.
21:07This is crazy.
21:08You're...
21:08The same water that received Hazel is at your back, Willie.
21:12The time is three, and tomorrow you will be fished out with the doll under your arm.
21:18You're...
21:18Quite.
21:21Farewell, Willie.
21:22Hazel, poor sweet child, learned the same truth by accident.
21:27Dirty, filthy...
21:32Farewell, Willie.
21:34And you shall take your...
21:36Drop him, darling.
21:38Drop him.
21:38Where?
21:39I said drop the kid, cousin.
21:40Stop.
21:40No.
21:41No, I will not.
21:44Get a nun.
21:47Never dies.
21:59How's the head feel now, Willie?
22:01Better, Mr. McGrundy.
22:03Thanks, that's better.
22:04My professional pride hurts more.
22:06Not in needn't.
22:08Your father threw like an old timer on that story, didn't he, Shea?
22:11Yes, he'll do.
22:12How could I have taken you for the devil, Inspector Shea?
22:16I've been called worse.
22:17How did you know where I was going to be and all that?
22:20How come you were on hand at the end?
22:21Well, I cover the morgue, Willie.
22:23When a young guy suddenly decides to claim a nameless corpse, it's time to follow up on it.
22:28Now, you seemed okay, but cousins turned out to be wanted as a professional killer.
22:32So you tagged me to get to him?
22:34Sure.
22:35He was after you, no doubt about that.
22:37Oh, there's your doll, Willie.
22:40Yeah.
22:43Well, I tilt the doll and nothing happens.
22:47No sound.
22:49Must be broke.
22:51I guess she doesn't have to speak anymore, Mr. McGranny.
22:57I think the doll is dead.
23:10Hey.
23:11Psst.
23:13Want to buy a doll?
23:15Hmm?
23:16I'll sell it to you, but there'll be the devil to pay.
23:20Take a tip from Willie Harper.
23:22There's no romance at the morgue.
23:24Well, you'll find nothing there except cold, hard figures.
23:31Sorry I've got to skip along now, but I've got a date with Hazel's doll.
23:35She promised to help me in a grave situation.
23:39I've just got to dig up something for next week's show.
23:42Well, I think if we work at it long enough, we'll turn something up.
23:47Don't you?
23:49Hmm.
23:51Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
24:00Good night.
24:03Pleasant dreams.
24:06Mmm.
24:08Mmm.
24:08Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
24:21This is the United States Armed Forces Radio Service,
24:25the voice of information and education.
24:49THE END
25:15THE END
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