When a Wife Suddenly Vanishes: "Circumstantial Evidence" (Suspense Podcast)

0:05 Speaker 1: It lies in wait amidst your dreams, where nothing is ever how it seems. It is a portal to a terrifying world beyond the doorway to nightmare. Nightmare. Come in. Welcome. I'm Artemis Black.

0:45 Speaker 2: In the world of the courtroom.

0:47 Speaker 1: There are two sides to a story. One side will swear that the defendant is guilty of whatever the crime may be. Naturally, the defense will contend that they are innocent. It's up to a jury to decide which one is true.

1:09 Speaker 3: Bill, are you saying what I think that you're saying?

1:13 Speaker 2: I'm not saying anything. I'm only looking at the evidence.

1:17 Speaker 3: What evidence? There's no evidence to even consider the possibility that I may have done something with Emily.

1:24 Speaker 2: Ugh, George. You could save me a lot of trouble if you just tell me what did you do with the body.

1:36 Speaker 1: Our mystery drama, Circumstantial Evidence, was written especially for Doorway to Nightmare by Winslow Swan and edited by Crimson McKenzie. Our cast includes Nick Davis, Darren Marler, and Patience Adams.

1:53 Speaker 1: I'll return shortly with Act One. This Christmas Eve Doorway to Nightmare invites you to gather around the Yuletide Tree for a ghost story. You?

2:12 Speaker 4: You may be an undigested bit of beef, a piece of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There is more gravy than grave of you. It's all humbug, I tell you.

2:24 Speaker 1: Christmas Eve, beginning at 7 p.m. Join us as we bring you To a new audience. Scrooge. What?

2:41 Speaker 2: Who's there?

2:42 Speaker 1: Scrooge. Featuring the voice talents of Raven Adams, Dave Archibald, Quentin McKenzie, Patience Adams, Mick Davis, Winslow Swan, Annie Nick, Robert Jackson, and starring as Ebenezer Scrooge, Darren Marlowe. Eastern Time, The Doorway to Nightmare Christmas Special, Charles Dickens, A Christmas Tarot, adapted by Winslow Swan and edited by Clemson McKenzie. We will be lurking for you. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, wrote, circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing. It may seem to point very straight to one thing, but if you shift your own point of view a little, You may find it pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something entirely different.

4:04 Speaker 1: And so begins our little drama tonight. It is a beautiful Sunday afternoon, and on this particular Sunday, on this street in a suburb of a large city, there is the usual routine of life. Some people are mowing their lawns. Others are preparing for a barbeque. And then there is Bill Mahoney, who sits on his own front porch, watching life as it happens. He takes a sip of his cold beverage and finally makes a decision, something that he has been wrestling with ever since last night. We see him walk casually over to his next-door neighbor's house.

4:53 Speaker 1: The front door stands open and Bill Mahoney steps inside. Hello? George?

5:11 Speaker 2: Are you home?

5:12 Speaker 1: Hang on.

5:13 Speaker 3: I'm down in the basement.

5:14 Speaker 1: Give me one minute. No hurry.

5:17 Speaker 2: Take your time.

5:22 Speaker 3: Oh, hi Bill. Come into the kitchen with me. Gotta wash my hands. You want something to drink?

5:31 Speaker 1: A beer, maybe?

5:32 Speaker 2: Yeah, that sounds fine.

5:33 Speaker 1: Thanks. That's better.

5:38 Speaker 3: So, Bill, what brings you over here?

5:41 Speaker 1: Ah, no reason.

5:42 Speaker 2: Gladys and I haven't seen much of you or Emily since you moved in three weeks ago. I see you are still unpacking.

5:51 Speaker 3: You never know what sort of junk you have until you actually move.

5:56 Speaker 1: Here, here.

5:57 Speaker 2: Would you believe I actually found an old bowling trophy from my college days?

6:02 Speaker 3: I believe you. I came across some old concert tickets when Emily and I were dating. Here's your beer.

6:13 Speaker 1: Thanks.

6:15 Speaker 2: Sure is hot today.

6:16 Speaker 3: Which is why I'm not mowing the grass.

6:20 Speaker 2: Haha. So then, what are you doing today?

6:23 Speaker 3: Digging up the basement.

6:25 Speaker 2: Really? What for?

6:27 Speaker 3: I told Emily when we got the place that I didn't like the hardwood floor down there. So I picked a day to tear it up, dig three feet deep, and then lay down a concrete floor.

6:37 Speaker 2: Huh. You know, Gladys and I looked at this place to buy it when it first came on the market, thought maybe we could rent it out for a second income. I kind of liked that floor.

6:49 Speaker 1: Well.

6:49 Speaker 3: You're more than welcome to the scraps.

6:52 Speaker 2: Hey, where is Emily, anyway?

6:55 Speaker 3: Oh, she's visiting a friend.

6:58 Speaker 2: Really? I asked because her car is still here. She walked.

7:01 Speaker 3: It's not that far away, and Emily loves to get in her exercise.

7:05 Speaker 2: I see. You know, I'm really glad you two like the house. I was telling Gladys just this morning what a nice couple you two made. Hey, have you met any of the other neighbors yet?

7:16 Speaker 3: Hmm, let me see. Yes, Miss Miller from two doors down brought us over a pot roast.

7:22 Speaker 2: That sounds like Ruth. I think maybe she's afraid that if she doesn't feed any new neighbors, they'll starve to death.

7:28 Speaker 3: Which would make more work for you, eh?

7:31 Speaker 2: Yeah. The life of a police detective. Creeps in even when you don't want it to.

7:36 Speaker 3: Kind of nice to know that our next door neighbor is on the job.

7:40 Speaker 2: Well, I do like to have my days off. It's... Kind of funny, though, how the last couple of nights have been.

7:48 Speaker 1: Funny?

7:49 Speaker 3: In what way?

7:50 Speaker 2: Well, reasonably warm, for one thing. You can usually hear the critters and the birds out here, but man, the last couple of nights, nothing. Almost too quiet, you know?

8:01 Speaker 3: I hadn't really noticed. Emily and I are more prone to stay inside.

8:06 Speaker 2: The one thing about those quiet nights without the critter sounds, it's a lot easier to hear what's going on in the neighborhood.

8:13 Speaker 3: Like what?

8:14 Speaker 2: Well, take old Mr. Johnson's dog, for one thing.

8:18 Speaker 3: You mean that huge Great Dane? What about him?

8:22 Speaker 2: Last night, he was wailing like somebody had taken his favorite toy away.

8:28 Speaker 1: Mournful, you know?

8:30 Speaker 3: Interesting. I didn't hear anything.

8:33 Speaker 2: And then across the street, at Debbie and John's place, they were watching an old movie. You could actually hear the dialogue through the window. In fact, I know the movie. It's one of my favorites. It's a nice little murder mystery.

8:47 Speaker 3: A detective who likes mysteries? Go figure!

8:50 Speaker 1: Yeah.

8:51 Speaker 2: I told Gladys that I should go over there, see if I could sit down and watch it with you guys. She, of course, stopped me before I made a complete fool of myself.

8:59 Speaker 3: Probably a good thing, too.

9:01 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. And then, well, then there was what we heard from over here.

9:08 Speaker 3: What do you mean?

9:11 Speaker 2: What were you and Emily fighting about last night?

9:13 Speaker 1: Fighting?

9:14 Speaker 3: No, Bill, you must be mistaken.

9:16 Speaker 2: No, no, both Gladys and I were sitting on the front porch having a glass of wine. We both heard you two going at it.

9:24 Speaker 3: Arguing? We were simply having an argument. You mean to tell me that you and Gladys never argue?

9:30 Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, sure, occasionally, but... What we heard last night, George, went far beyond an argument. You sounded like you wanted to do... I don't know. Something to her.

9:45 Speaker 3: It was just an argument. Nothing more.

9:48 Speaker 2: George, be honest with me. Where's Emily?

9:52 Speaker 3: I told you. She went to visit someone.

9:54 Speaker 2: And you don't know who?

9:56 Speaker 3: Of course I know. Her name is Amy Stewart. Satisfied?

10:03 Speaker 2: And you say that Emily walked to Amy Stewart's house? Yes.

10:07 Speaker 3: She only lives a few blocks from here. Emily always likes to walk.

10:12 Speaker 1: Funny.

10:13 Speaker 2: I've never seen her walking before.

10:16 Speaker 3: That's because she goes out the back and walks through the woods. She loves the woods. Always has. It was one of the reasons we bought the place.

10:24 Speaker 2: Kind of convenient, wouldn't you say?

10:29 Speaker 3: Bill, what are you getting at?

10:32 Speaker 2: And you say that you've been in the basement. Digging.

10:36 Speaker 3: Yes, I told you I'm putting in a concrete floor.

10:40 Speaker 2: Putting in a floor, huh? Are you sure you're not hiding a body somewhere?

10:47 Speaker 1: Many things happen within a home that the average person is not privy to. Discussions, arguments, even fights are not uncommon within a domestic relationship. But murder? I'll return shortly with Act Two.

11:11 Speaker 2: It is in all of us. Waiting.

11:14 Speaker 3: Watching.

11:16 Speaker 1: Growing.

11:18 Speaker 5: Evil Within, by Winslow Swan.

11:21 Speaker 6: Now available on Amazon. Hey guys, this is Crimson.

11:25 Speaker 3: And this is Swan.

11:27 Speaker 6: And we'd love to know what you think of the stories. Even if it's bad.

11:31 Speaker 2: So leave us a comment.

11:32 Speaker 6: Or give us a thumbs up.

11:34 Speaker 1: Thank you! Henry David Thoreau once said, Some circumstantial evidence is very strong. As when you find a trout in milk.

11:48 Speaker 5: This is KB and Tony Obey. I've got more music lined up, so keep me turned on. And I'll try to do the same for you.

12:01 Speaker 3: Are you kidding? Did I hear you correctly? You were standing there in my home, accusing me of.

12:09 Speaker 1: of murder?

12:11 Speaker 2: Hey, I'm just going by what I've seen and heard, George. You know, you wouldn't be the first husband to have accidentally killed his spouse and then hid her body in the basement. It's been done before.

12:23 Speaker 3: Only in Edgar Allan Poe stories. I just can't believe.

12:27 Speaker 2: Well, look at the facts, George. Gladys and I hear you two having what you so euphemistically call an argument, and then it just all stops. Suddenly. Gladys nor I hear anything the rest of the night. And I'm a police detective, which makes me kind of suspicious about everything anyway.

12:45 Speaker 3: What do you think you were supposed to hear? Me snoring?

12:50 Speaker 2: And then I come over here to see if everything is alright, like a good friend and neighbor should. And then I find you coming up from the basement where you say you were... Digging.

13:01 Speaker 3: And that's all I was doing. I told you, I'm putting in a concrete floor.

13:06 Speaker 2: Kind of deep for a floor, don't you think?

13:09 Speaker 3: I want a solid foundation. What's so suspicious about that?

13:14 Speaker 2: And on top of all of this, nobody has seen your wife since last night.

13:18 Speaker 3: She went to visit.

13:20 Speaker 2: I know, I know. This Amy someone, you already told me. And she likes to walk in the woods. You trust Emily out there all by herself?

13:29 Speaker 5: Ha!

13:30 Speaker 3: You don't know Emily. It was one reason I married her. She's strong as an ox. Wow.

13:36 Speaker 2: I would never want Gladys walking out there by herself. Not in the woods.

13:40 Speaker 3: Believe me, Bill. If you were going to try anything with Emily, well, let's just say I want to be the one holding the camera when she hands you your ass.

13:50 Speaker 2: I'm so glad you find all of this amusing, George.

13:53 Speaker 3: Oh, Bill, come on. Emily is visiting someone and I'm doing some work in the basement. Nothing more.

14:02 Speaker 2: Would you mind, then, if I take a look around the house? Just to settle my suspicious nature.

14:10 Speaker 3: Let me guess. You'd like to start in the basement, right?

14:14 Speaker 2: As good a place as any to start.

14:16 Speaker 3: Without a warrant?

14:18 Speaker 2: Come on, George. Do I really need to get one? No.

14:23 Speaker 3: So, come on. Let's go.

14:33 Speaker 2: I had forgotten how large the basement really is.

14:36 Speaker 3: And there, you see? A hole three feet deep. And over there, the bags of concrete I brought in yesterday. Satisfied?

14:44 Speaker 2: It all looks normal, so far.

14:49 Speaker 3: Here, take this.

14:51 Speaker 1: What?

14:51 Speaker 2: Why are you handing me the shovel?

14:53 Speaker 3: Because I see it in your eyes. You don't believe me. You think perhaps I dug deeper, and that's where Emily is, right?

15:01 Speaker 2: I never said that you.

15:03 Speaker 3: You don't have to. So, help me. Dig her up.

15:20 Speaker 1: American author Jodi Picoult once said, Witness testimony is always flawed. It's better than circumstantial evidence, sure, but people aren't camcorders. They don't record every action and reaction, and the very act of remembering involves choosing words, actions, and images. In other words, any witness who is supposed to be giving a corked fax is really just giving them a version of fiction. I'll be back shortly with Act 3. You can help support the channel and visit our merchandise store. T-shirts, caps, mugs, and so much more.

16:05 Speaker 1: Now available at doorwaytonightmare.com. Watch Circle of Mystery, Tuesday nights at 7 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on the Doorway to Nightmare YouTube channel. Mark Twain once said, Even the clearest and most perfect circumstantial evidence is likely to be at fault, after all, and therefore ought to be received with great caution. Take the case of any pencil sharpened by any woman. If you have witnesses, you will find she did it with a knife. But if you take simply the aspect of the pencil, you will say that she did it With her teeth.

16:50 Speaker 2: George, come on. That's enough.

16:55 Speaker 3: No way, officer. We're going to settle this, understand?

16:59 Speaker 2: George, it's enough, all right? You don't need to dig anymore. Oh, no. Come on, officer.

17:04 Speaker 3: Help me dig Emily up.

17:05 Speaker 2: George, we can stop. We're already down to like five feet already.

17:09 Speaker 3: Stop. We will dig all the way to China. You already know she's somewhere under this earth.

17:16 Speaker 2: I said enough! Stop it, George. I believe you already. She's not here.

17:22 Speaker 3: That's what I tried to tell you. Are you going to answer that? You went outside and called someone before we came down here. Is that who you called?

17:44 Speaker 2: Hello? Yeah, Sergeant? What'd you find out? She was, huh? And you're sure that it was. No, no, that won't be necessary. Thanks again, Sergeant. I owe you one.

18:03 Speaker 3: I cannot believe it. You actually sent someone over to Amy's house to see if Emily was there?

18:10 Speaker 2: Look, George... You gotta admit.

18:12 Speaker 3: I don't have to admit anything.

18:14 Speaker 2: I was just going by what I saw and heard, okay? You have to admit the circumstances were a little unusual.

18:21 Speaker 3: Circumstances? Exactly that. You must be reading way too much Poe.

18:27 Speaker 2: Look, I'm sorry, George. I really am. Let me make it up to you, okay? You and Emily, come with Gladys and I. We'll go out for dinner. Anywhere you want to go. My treat.

18:39 Speaker 3: Right now, I want you... Out of my house.

18:45 Speaker 1: Now!

18:52 Speaker 5: George?

18:54 Speaker 6: Are you home?

18:54 Speaker 3: Down here, in the basement.

19:02 Speaker 6: Well now, I see you managed to tear up that old flooring.

19:05 Speaker 3: I told you I was going to.

19:07 Speaker 6: A little deeper than you said it would be.

19:11 Speaker 3: That is another story. Did you have a nice visit?

19:14 Speaker 6: Yes, I did. Amy is a very nice, um, woman. A little too young for you, though, don't you think?

19:22 Speaker 3: Love does not recognize age.

19:25 Speaker 6: Well, be that as it may, we did have a nice long talk.

19:29 Speaker 3: I'm glad. So do we see the attorney tomorrow?

19:33 Speaker 6: You know, George, no one in my family has ever been divorced before. My parents... Grandparents, both my brother and sister, have stuck it out through thick and thin. We don't believe in divorce.

19:50 Speaker 3: Emily, I just want.

19:51 Speaker 6: Let me finish. We believe in the sanctity of marriage, which is why I won't give you a divorce.

20:00 Speaker 3: And the money has nothing to do with it, right?

20:02 Speaker 6: You made me sign that prenup agreement. If we divorce, I get nothing. However, if I were a widow.

20:15 Speaker 3: You would inherit everything.

20:17 Speaker 6: You see our little predicament, don't you, George?

20:21 Speaker 3: I believe I do, Emily. You won't give me a divorce so that I can marry Amy. And you don't want to be left penniless.

20:29 Speaker 6: I've had a lot of time to think while I was walking through the woods, George. A lot of time to think. And here we are. standing in the basement, alone. I see there is a second shovel down here.

20:44 Speaker 3: Part of that story I mentioned.

20:48 Speaker 6: So we each have a... pardon the expression... a means to get things done.

20:55 Speaker 3: It seems we do with that.

21:00 Speaker 6: And there is a nice, deep hole about... at least four feet deep from the look of it, It almost looks like a grave.

21:12 Speaker 3: Yes, it does, doesn't it?

21:14 Speaker 6: I wonder, George, are you thinking the same thing that I am?

21:20 Speaker 3: I believe I am, Emily.

21:23 Speaker 6: The question is, which one of us has the willpower to simply do it?

21:45 Speaker 1: The victim lies at the bottom of the hole while the killer begins to shovel in dirt. Soon, there will be a concrete floor over the body. What a strange bed the victim will sleep in. I'll return shortly with a final word.

22:23 Speaker 5: Have you heard any good books lately? Audiobooks from Winslow Swan, now available on Spotify.

22:43 Speaker 1: You are probably asking yourself, who murdered whom? A valid question, but we don't promise answers. We only promise you a chilling tale to rattle your nerves. Our question to you is, who do you think was buried in the hole? Drop us a comment and let us know. Our cast included Nick Davis, Darren Mahler, Crimson McKenzie, and Patience Adams. The story was edited by Crimson McKenzie and directed by Winslow Swan. Music was provided by Kevin MacLeod. And now, a preview of our next tale. This Christmas Eve, Doorway to Nightmare invites you to gather around the Yuletide Tree for a ghost story.

23:51 Speaker 2: You?

23:52 Speaker 4: You may be an undigested bit of beef, a piece of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato.

23:58 Speaker 2: There is more gravy than grave of you. It's all humbug, I tell you.

24:04 Speaker 1: Christmas Eve, beginning at 7 p.m.

24:14 Speaker 3: Scrooge.

24:19 Speaker 2: What? Who's there?

24:22 Speaker 1: Scrooge. Featuring the voice talents of Raven Adams, Dave Archibald, Quentin McKenzie, Patience Adams, Mick Davis, Winslow Swan, Annie Nick, Robert Jackson, and starring as Ebenezer Scrooge, Darren Marler.

24:40 Speaker 2: It's all a humbug, I tell you.

24:45 Speaker 1: The Doorway to Nightmare Christmas Special. Charles Dickens, A Christmas Tarot. Adapted by Winslow Swan and edited by Crimson McKenzie. We will be lurking for you. Doorway to Nightmare is brought to you in part by Swanage Press. This is Artemis Black, inviting you to return with us to the doorway to nightmare for another adventure into the terrifying world of your imagination. Until next time, slumber peacefully.