What happens
Mark Hendricks, a young costume jewelry salesman in Boston, is in the private office of Sam Heiler when a registered parcel arrives containing a sixty-one pearl necklace insured for $650,000. When the box is opened, it holds only sugar cubes wrapped in newspaper, and the necklace has vanished. Police and a postal inspector question the mailman, the secretary Jeannie Cummings and Mark, who stays close to Sam. Sam offers a reward for information, and Mark begins to work out how the switch could have been made and what to do with the pearls.
Boston, in the 1950s, in and around Sam Heiler's jewelry business office and the city's fences and stations.
Characters: Mark Hendricks, Sam Heiler, Jeannie Cummings, Detective Kelly, Inspector Shoe, Mr. Larkin, Detective Colley
Listen for: The police questioning of the mailman and office staff, and Mark's conversation with Jeannie in which he proposes a scheme to get the pearls sold.
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.