What happens
Lee Brand, a gangster who lives as wealthy retiree Julius Belmont, is elated over a business deal. The story then turns back two years, to the night Brand pulls Paul Elliot from the Sacramento River after Elliot tries to jump. Brand offers to clear Elliot's debts in exchange for naming him beneficiary of a $250,000 insurance policy, and Elliot signs a suicide note. Elliot later prospers and becomes engaged to Barbara, but as the deadline approaches he begins to fear what Brand intends. This episode of The Whistler, the Signal Oil radio series, first aired on July 7, 1948.
Sacramento, California, and the Carmel estate of Lee Brand as Julius Belmont, in the late 1940s
Characters: Lee Brand, Paul Elliot, Barbara, Dick, Bill Adams, Dave, Julius Belmont
Listen for: The bargain Brand strikes with Elliot on the riverbank, and the moment Elliot recognizes Brand in the Carmel curio shop.
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.