What happens
Narcotics detective Mark Hoskins and his fellow officer Red Andrews pursue two drug dealers, Finley and Beretti, into a dark alley behind a San Francisco drugstore. A fight breaks out, and Mark is knocked unconscious. When he wakes, Red is dead and Mark's own gun has been fired, leaving him to question whether he could have shot his partner. Pressed by his chief and by a fellow detective, Ben Tolan, Mark pursues the evidence, which seems to point more and more toward himself. The episode is part of the radio series The Whistler, which is narrated by a mysterious figure who promises tales of crime and guilt. The story is presented in the present tense from the episode's opening scenes.
San Francisco, California, in the 1940s, including a dark alley behind a drugstore, a police station, and the detectives' homes.
Characters: Mark Hoskins, Red Andrews, Finley, Beretti, Peters, Ben Tolan, The Chief, Dr. Parsons
Listen for: Listen for the alley fight behind the drugstore and Mark's growing doubt about his own gun.
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.