The Blonde, The Neighbor, and The Murder: "Blueprint For A Secret" Audio Drama

0:01 Speaker 1: When you sleep, you enter into another world. Beyond that world lies the doorway to nightmare. Come in. Welcome. I'm your host through the doorway to nightmare. Consider the police detective. He or she is called to the crime scene where it is up to them to gather evidence and make a conclusion about the crime committed. They have to see the world as an entire race of criminals because everyone is a suspect until they can be eliminated.

1:07 Speaker 2: I didn't kill him!

1:09 Speaker 3: You planned it!

1:11 Speaker 4: You put the poison into his drink!

1:14 Speaker 2: He was an inhuman son of a.

1:16 Speaker 4: He was a living being and you murdered him! Make it easier on yourself and just tell me what happened.

1:27 Speaker 2: I will only tell you one more time. I did not kill my husband.

1:36 Speaker 4: I sure hope that you didn't. I don't think that death row would suit you.

1:44 Speaker 1: Our mystery drama, Blueprint for a Secret, was written especially for Doorway to Nightmare by Winslow Swan and stars Crimson McKenzie and Raymond Gibson. It is sponsored in part by Swanage Press. I'll be back shortly with Act One. Murder. The very word seems to send chills down a person's spine. I have never known anyone who was a victim of the crime. However, we have all known the killers. Watching the news on a daily basis, you can come into contact with some of the most heinous perpetrators of the act.

2:41 Speaker 1: But, as Ambrose Bierce once wrote, there are four kinds of homicide. Felonious, excusable, justifiable, and praiseworthy.

2:54 Speaker 4: Testing 1-2, testing. Detective David Ross, badge number 4859, interviewing Mrs. Sharon Parchek, case number 83402, in her home. Also present is Officer Mackey and Detective Millard.

3:10 Speaker 1: Mrs.

3:10 Speaker 4: Parchek, could you please state your name and address for the record?

3:13 Speaker 2: Ms. Sharon Parchek, 8281 Maple Drive. Thank you.

3:20 Speaker 4: Now, you have been advised of your rights and that you do not have to talk to me without an attorney being present.

3:27 Speaker 3: Yes.

3:27 Speaker 4: You also understand that no charges have been levied against you at this time.

3:32 Speaker 2: I understand.

3:33 Speaker 4: Why don't you tell me what happened here tonight?

3:37 Speaker 2: My husband died tonight.

3:39 Speaker 4: Do you know how he died?

3:41 Speaker 2: He... he choked to death. Mrs.

3:44 Speaker 1: Parczyk.

3:46 Speaker 2: Please, call me Sharon.

3:47 Speaker 1: All right, Sharon.

3:48 Speaker 4: Sharon. According to the ME's preliminary report, he was poisoned. Do you know anything about that?

3:57 Speaker 2: No. All that I know is we were sitting down for dinner. He opened up a bottle of wine, poured his glass, took a drink, and began choking. I called the ambulance, but by the time they arrived, he wasn't breathing anymore.

4:13 Speaker 4: You said he opened the wine?

4:15 Speaker 2: Yes. He always opened the wine for dinner. considered himself an expert. He'd select the right wine with what dinner we were having and open and pour my first glass.

4:28 Speaker 4: Did you ever try to help him?

4:30 Speaker 2: When?

4:31 Speaker 4: When he began choking.

4:33 Speaker 2: Of course. As soon as I noticed, I jerked his arm in the air and shook it, as one does if someone's choking, or at least that's what my grams used to do for us.

4:44 Speaker 4: I see. Well, tell me, how was your marriage?

4:48 Speaker 2: What do you mean?

4:50 Speaker 4: Well, were there any problems?

4:54 Speaker 2: Our marriage was perfect. Perfect? Oh, it was far from perfect. I hated my husband. He was an insufferable tyrant. Everything had to be just right for him. He kept me more like a pet. I couldn't have any friends. I was not even allowed to see my family. Why did I marry him? For the dumbest reason in the world. I fell in love. And for the first few months, our marriage was perfect. And then... Hey, Sharon.

5:43 Speaker 1: I'm home.

5:44 Speaker 2: I'm in the kitchen. Well, hello. Hello, yourself. How was your day?

5:50 Speaker 3: Yeah, it was the usual. What's for dinner?

5:53 Speaker 2: Oh, I thought we might go out tonight.

5:56 Speaker 3: Then what are you cooking?

5:59 Speaker 2: Um, just this casserole for Sandy across the street. She's been taking care of her aunt all day and hasn't had the time to cook dinner for her family. I thought I would help out.

6:10 Speaker 3: So this is for Sandy and her family?

6:15 Speaker 2: Well, yes. I thought we could go and try that new place that opened up last week. I hear the food is really great.

6:23 Speaker 3: You have time to cook for the neighbor and her family, and you want me to turn around and go back out after I work today?

6:35 Speaker 4: What?

6:36 Speaker 3: You have time to cook for everybody else and not your own husband?

6:41 Speaker 2: Ow! Jason, stop!

6:44 Speaker 1: Stop it!

6:48 Speaker 2: I could not stand to be in the same room with him. If something went wrong at work, it was my fault. If the car wouldn't start, it was my fault. If he broke a glass, it was my fault. Everything became my fault.

7:07 Speaker 3: Didn't I tell you? Did you not understand?

7:10 Speaker 1: Please!

7:11 Speaker 4: Don't hit me, Jason!

7:12 Speaker 3: Hit you?

7:14 Speaker 1: Hit you!

7:15 Speaker 3: I should go ahead and get my gun and put you out of my misery.

7:19 Speaker 2: Then why don't you just kill me?

7:22 Speaker 1: Oh, no. No, no, no.

7:24 Speaker 3: That would be too easy. As a matter of fact, I think I will kill you. Just not tonight. Probably not tomorrow. But the time is coming.

7:40 Speaker 2: That's how it was for the next six months. You would either hit me or threaten me. Why didn't I go to the police? The simple short answer was the life insurance. For a million and a half dollars, that was how much his life was worth. Or rather, his death.

8:14 Speaker 4: That's probably the office I told them where I was if they needed me.

8:18 Speaker 2: Please answer it. I don't really want to talk to anybody else.

8:22 Speaker 1: Hello? Yes, this is Detective Roth. Are you sure?

8:34 Speaker 4: You ran the test twice. On all of them?

8:40 Speaker 1: No, thank you. I'll pick up the report.

8:43 Speaker 4: In the morning.

8:48 Speaker 1: Mrs.

8:48 Speaker 4: Perchick, do you know of anyone that may have wanted to see your husband dead?

8:54 Speaker 2: I can't think of anyone. Everyone liked him. Why do you ask?

9:00 Speaker 4: That was the lab on the phone. We took all of the wine bottles from the basement. They just let me know what the test results were.

9:07 Speaker 2: What did they find out?

9:10 Speaker 4: All of the bottles contained poison. Strychnine, to be exact.

9:15 Speaker 1: Mrs.

9:15 Speaker 4: Perchick, Why did you kill your husband?

9:35 Speaker 1: Sharon sits on the sofa, the body of her husband removed a long time ago. Her face is stoic as the detective has just accused her of murder? We will find out her answer when I return with Act Two.

10:05 Speaker 1: Sharon Perchek has been accused by Detective David Ross of murdering her husband. He has just received a report that told him all of the wine in the Perchek household contained a lethal amount A strip line.

10:20 Speaker 2: I find that both vulgar and insulting.

10:24 Speaker 4: Find it however you want. The fact is that every single bottle of wine contained poison. Wine does not turn to poison. It had to have been added.

10:35 Speaker 2: Why would I want to kill my husband?

10:38 Speaker 4: Oh, he was cheating on you. There was another woman. Life insurance. I really don't care. I just want to know how you did it.

10:45 Speaker 2: Detective Ross... If I were going to poison my husband, I don't think that I would have to spoil every bottle of wine.

10:53 Speaker 4: Okay, let's try this. Who else would have a reason to want your husband dead?

10:59 Speaker 2: How would I know that?

11:00 Speaker 4: Unless... Unless what?

11:08 Speaker 2: Jason did have an indiscretion. Only once, though.

11:14 Speaker 4: What sort of indiscretion?

11:17 Speaker 2: It was at a dinner party last month. Oh, Jason had just had a little too much to drink.

11:22 Speaker 1: So what happened?

11:24 Speaker 2: He made a pass at Frank Johnson's wife, Emily.

11:27 Speaker 4: And what did your husband do exactly?

11:30 Speaker 2: Like I said, Jason had just had a little too much of the wine and he tried to grab and kiss her in the kitchen. Frank walked in on them and while Emily was trying to fend him off, Frank, well, he hit him.

11:43 Speaker 1: So Mr.

11:43 Speaker 4: Johnson hit your husband?

11:45 Speaker 2: Not a full punch, mind you, but Enough to get the point across.

11:49 Speaker 1: Oh, I see.

11:50 Speaker 2: Jason made some remarks about the wine that was being served, and Frank said that it was better than the poison he tried to pass off.

11:57 Speaker 4: Mr. Johnson called your husband's wine poison?

12:02 Speaker 2: We had the Johnsons over for dinner, and the wine that Jason had picked out had gone bad. He didn't know it, and was a little embarrassed about it.

12:12 Speaker 4: Do you think that Mr. Johnson would have come in and poisoned all of the wine with strychnine?

12:17 Speaker 2: Well, he did come over quite a bit. Quite a bit? Every chance he could get. Every time that Jason was away. Frank? Where's Emily?

12:45 Speaker 5: She's at her sister's for the weekend. I just thought I'd come over and say hi.

12:49 Speaker 2: Well, why don't you come in? I just poured myself a drink. Would you like one?

12:55 Speaker 5: Thank you.

12:59 Speaker 2: Glass of wine?

13:00 Speaker 5: Yeah, that would be fine.

13:05 Speaker 2: So, did you really just come over to say hi? No.

13:15 Speaker 5: How long do we have?

13:17 Speaker 2: Jason won't be home until late. We have all afternoon.

13:20 Speaker 1: Great.

13:23 Speaker 5: You look so good.

13:25 Speaker 2: Thank you.

13:26 Speaker 5: Wait, what's that bruise?

13:29 Speaker 2: You know what it is.

13:30 Speaker 5: Damn, you know you should really do something about that.

13:33 Speaker 2: What do you suggest?

13:35 Speaker 5: Call the police for one thing? I hate what he does to you.

13:39 Speaker 2: I'm not wild about it myself. However, he knows practically everyone. They'd all stand up for him.

13:47 Speaker 5: You know, I could kill him. I could really kill him.

13:51 Speaker 2: Would you, Frank? Would you really murder my husband?

13:55 Speaker 5: Oh, well, you know, that's just something that someone says.

14:01 Speaker 2: But if it came down to it, would you kill him?

14:05 Speaker 5: Ask me afterwards.

14:10 Speaker 4: So Mr. Johnson threatened your husband?

14:13 Speaker 2: Like I told you, he was upset that Jason made that pass. He came over, had a drink, and I think perhaps he may have already been drinking, and said that he could kill him.

14:24 Speaker 1: I see.

14:26 Speaker 4: So without you knowing about it, he could have used a syringe to inject the poison into the wine.

14:33 Speaker 2: I suppose he could have.

14:37 Speaker 4: Perhaps I need to ask Mr. Johnson a few questions.

14:48 Speaker 1: Sharon smiles slightly. Naturally, she has not told the detective about her own affair with Frank Johnson. Killing someone over the emotion of love is not uncommon. Is this what has happened? We will find out when I return with Act Three. Sharon Perchick, abused wife of Jason, has just given Detective David Ross a possible suspect in her husband's murder, one Frank Johnson. Detective Ross is now sitting in an interrogation room with the accused.

15:39 Speaker 4: Admit it, Johnson. You poisoned Jason Perchek.

15:43 Speaker 5: I had nothing to do with it.

15:46 Speaker 4: We searched your house. We found strychnine poison in your basement and syringes in your medicine cabinet.

15:53 Speaker 5: My wife is a diabetic. Of course we have needles.

15:56 Speaker 4: Rather convenient, wouldn't you say? How do you explain the strychnine?

16:00 Speaker 5: I can't explain it.

16:02 Speaker 6: Look, I don't like the fact that Jason made a pass at my wife, I grant you, but kill him?

16:08 Speaker 5: I had no reason to kill him.

16:11 Speaker 4: Maybe you found out that it was more than just a pass.

16:14 Speaker 5: What is that supposed to mean?

16:15 Speaker 4: Well, maybe you found out that your wife was running away with Jason.

16:19 Speaker 5: Oh, that's absurd.

16:20 Speaker 4: Maybe Jason was leaving his wife and taking your wife with him.

16:25 Speaker 6: That is the most ridiculous thing that I have ever heard.

16:29 Speaker 4: Ridiculous or not, the evidence that we found at your house is enough for me.

16:35 Speaker 5: I didn't do anything. Sharon, she's the one that you need to arrest.

16:40 Speaker 4: Oh, I think that the widow of the man you murdered has been through enough. Mrs.

16:52 Speaker 1: Perchak?

16:52 Speaker 2: Detective Ross?

16:54 Speaker 1: May I come in?

16:55 Speaker 2: Of course.

16:58 Speaker 4: Is there anyone else here? No.

17:00 Speaker 2: All of the technicians left about an hour ago.

17:03 Speaker 4: So we are alone.

17:05 Speaker 2: At the moment.

17:07 Speaker 1: Good.

17:12 Speaker 4: I've been wanting to do that to you all day.

17:17 Speaker 2: Were there any problems?

17:19 Speaker 4: Well, Johnson isn't going to confess, but the DA is willing to go through with an indictment.

17:23 Speaker 2: Poor Frank. I know this is just going to devastate Emily.

17:28 Speaker 4: Oh, I'm sure, but I sure am glad to see him safely behind bars and knowing that he's going to be there for quite a long time. I don't think that I could have waited any longer, knowing that he was pawing all over you.

17:42 Speaker 2: I did what had to be done. Besides, the money will help you forget, won't it? Yes.

17:50 Speaker 1: And you.

17:54 Speaker 2: Now, you know we cannot meet for a while.

17:57 Speaker 4: That is going to kill me.

17:59 Speaker 2: I'm sure you'll survive. It'll take at least six months for the life insurance to come in.

18:05 Speaker 4: You know, I can't believe that we actually got away with it.

18:08 Speaker 2: When you saw the bruises that day in the grocery store, and I told you what Jason was doing, and what I was planning... I knew you would never let me down.

18:18 Speaker 4: Tell me something. Did you really ask Frank to do the job? I did.

18:24 Speaker 2: I just knew he would never have gone through with it.

18:28 Speaker 4: Good thing I was able to plant that strychnine in his house.

18:32 Speaker 2: Let's just say that you were my backup plan.

18:35 Speaker 4: And with Frank going down for murder, we don't have anything.

18:38 Speaker 1: To worry about.

18:39 Speaker 2: How much time do you have?

18:41 Speaker 4: Oh, I've already checked out. I'm not due back until Monday.

18:44 Speaker 2: All weekend?

18:45 Speaker 4: I thought that maybe we could go somewhere, you know, more private.

18:51 Speaker 2: Hmm. Well, how about some champagne first?

18:55 Speaker 1: Why not?

18:56 Speaker 4: After all, you are about to be a very rich woman.

19:01 Speaker 2: Oh, I'm so glad I can trust you with our little secret. I can, can't I?

19:07 Speaker 3: Of course.

19:08 Speaker 4: I'm the best at keeping secrets. After all, I am a detective.

19:12 Speaker 2: So... You never breathe the word to anyone?

19:15 Speaker 4: Of course not. Why would I implicate myself?

19:20 Speaker 2: That's wonderful. Here you are. To a better future.

19:27 Speaker 1: That is very good.

19:29 Speaker 4: Aren't you going to drink yours? They say it's bad luck if you don't drink after clinking glasses.

19:35 Speaker 2: So they won't be expecting you till Monday.

19:37 Speaker 4: That's right.

19:39 Speaker 1: Excuse me.

19:41 Speaker 4: I could drop off the face of the earth and no one would be looking for me.

19:46 Speaker 1: Until Monday.

19:49 Speaker 2: Something wrong?

19:50 Speaker 1: I'm not.

19:55 Speaker 1: I'm not sure.

19:58 Speaker 4: Good.

19:59 Speaker 2: That means I have all weekend to put your body in the basement and disappear. I withdrew all my money and Jason's last week. It amounts to almost 2.3 million. Did you think I was really going to share the life insurance with another man? I'm so glad that you will be able to keep our little secret.

20:23 Speaker 1: Sharon Perchak watches as Detective David Ross collapses to the floor. After a few moments, he is dead. She smiles at the corpse on the floor, walks through her bedroom, and retrieves passports and identification with an entirely new name. And as the song says, two can keep a secret if one of them is dead. I'll be back shortly. They say that there is no such thing as a perfect crime. I like to believe that there are perfect crimes, and the reason that they are perfect is because no one knows about them.

21:21 Speaker 1: Our cast included Crimson McKenzie, Raymond Gibson, Mark Wheeler, and special appearance by Raven Adams, who appears courtesy of the YouTube channel as The Raven Dreams. And now, a preview of our next tale.

21:41 Speaker 5: Why don't you tell me what happened?

21:44 Speaker 4: I simply took a picture. That was all I did.

21:48 Speaker 5: And the old woman just died from that.

21:52 Speaker 4: Bill, I swear to you, she was not an old woman when I took the photograph. That was my model.

22:00 Speaker 1: Karen.

22:01 Speaker 6: Jason, you're crazy. I've met Karen. She wasn't 25 years old. The woman lying on your floor, according to the M.E., is at least 97.

22:13 Speaker 4: And I'm telling you that an hour ago, that was Karen.

22:19 Speaker 1: Doorway to Nightmare is brought to you in part by Swanage Press. This is your host inviting you to return with us through the doorway to nightmare for another adventure into the world of your terrifying imagination. Until next time, slumber peacefully. Epilogue. The butler did it.