Messenger Service, Paddy Clark

A national broadcasting company presents Dick Powell as Richard Diamond, private detective. Oh, everything will be right there.

It's okay, okay, just let me get a roll-bond. Coming, coming! Yes? Yes, there's nothing like stepping out of a nice warm shower into a nice hot murder. The only thing in sight was the body of a man lying on his face.

I didn't have to get any closer to see that he was very dead. Then I heard someone running down the front steps and out of the street, so still being the kind of guy who's always interested in seeing what a killer looks like.

I went down the stairs and out of the street. I landed on the sidewalk just as a sedan pulled away from the curb and dove into a hole in the traffic. I only had time to see that there were two people in it.

Didn't even get a chance at the license. Well, a white terry cloth robe can be a little conspicuous at 11 o'clock in the morning on East 51st Street, right off Madison. first street, right off Madison. So I shuffled back up the stairs, put in a call for the Tenor Ward of Levinson to pre-saying homicide. But it seems as if I was a little late. A neighbor

on the way to the, well, a neighbor on the way down the hall had stumbled on the dead one in front of my doorway. Now generally a body in front of my door would be left alone to sober up. But this one seemed to be bleeding, so just as a precaution the neighbor had called

the police. All I could do is just stand around the way for him. Wouldn't you know it? Finally got to be right in his own building. Yeah, Lieutenant. She said it was right in front of his own door.