Good morning, Mr. Phelps.
We recently learned that,
in order to carry out the underworld's policy of enforcement,
this man, Burt Gordon, has set up an organisation
similar to the old Murder, Incorporated.
Gordon will arrange for the disposal of anyone, anywhere, for a price.
The victims always disappear with no evidence of foul play
and the body is never recovered.
Although we are sure Gordon is the man behind this murder ring,
he has kept himself so far removed from the actual killings,
we are unable to pin anything on him.
Your mission, should you decide to accept it,
is to prove Gordon is, in fact, a killer,
and put him away for good.
As always, should you or any of your IM Force be caught or killed,
the secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions.
Please destroy this recording in the usual manner.
Good luck, Jim.
- Good, very good, Rollin. - J ust a small sample, Jim.
Well, I think that will appeal greatly to Mr. Gordon's nature.
How about the effects at the house, Barney?
They're in the works. I also have the men.
Jim, how does Gordon handle these so-called contracts for murder?
Picks up the phone and the job gets done.
But he never does it himself.
Even if the job's here in town?
No, he has an assistant, a man named Connie.
Always uses one of these delightful things.
The bodies are disposed of in the incinerator at Gordon's lumberyard.
Why don't we just keep an eye on Connie until he tries it again?
All we'd get is Connie. We want Gordon.
- How about the sweater, Barney? - Right here, Jim.
- Heavy. - It has eight layers of laminated nylon.
Backed by fine chain mail.
- The blood? - It's in the ribbing.
Rollin, were you able to work out the mask?
Yes. I have it right here.
Disintegrates two minutes after being exposed to the air.
And did Mr. Gordon accept the Harpers' invitation to dinner?
His R.S.V.P. was in this morning's mail.
Well, in that case...
Mrs. Harper, I think we'd better get headed for home.
How are you, Burt?
Haven't lost your touch, huh?
What have you got, Lew?
Anything I should know about any of these?
The third name.
Yeah, the guy in Cleveland. What about him?
He's the district attorney there.
All right, we'll handle it. Anything else?
The last name. It's gotta be done on Friday.
That's the 13th. Friday the 13th.
It'll be done the following day.
Some of the boys think it's bad luck to take a contract for the 13th.
We can't push our luck.
Sorry I can't ask you to stay, Lew. Gotta get dressed for a dinner.
Next time, for sure.
Hi. Come on in.
I'm Lynn Harper, Mr. Gordon. Thanks for coming.
I wanted to welcome my new neighbours.
I'm glad you believe in being neighbourly.
Always.
Come, I'll introduce you to my husband and his brother.
Then we'll have dinner.
Lead the way.
Open the valve.
Excellent dinner, Mrs. Harper. Everything was delicious.
Thank you. And it's Lynn.
I understand you're in the lumber business, Mr. Gordon.
- Right. - Does that mean trees or...?
No. I don't own any forest land, do any milling.
Just lumberyards, really.
Douglas is an attorney. And a very good one.
- Do any trial work? - No, no. Nothing as exciting as that.
I confine myself to handling the Harper interests.
That's a fancy way of saying he holds the purse strings.
I can't stand that vinegar you serve. Where did you get that stuff anyway?
The wine is lovely, Stan. It just doesn't mix well with Scotch.
Now she's trying to tell me what to drink.
It's not what you drink, Stan, it's how much.
You are not married, are you, Mr. Gordon?
No. I'm a bachelor.
Well, now, you just take my advice and you stay a bachelor.
Please, try to ignore him, Mr. Gordon. You can see that he's...
You can see that he is drunk. Right, Mr. Gordon?
- He's back. - Yes, I think you're right.
It's all right, Mr. Gordon.
Just be quiet. It'll pass in a few moments.
Bobby.
It's all right, Bobby.
We're here together.
Go to sleep, Bobby. Go back to sleep.
It's all right, Bobby.
It's all right. Go back to sleep. We're here together.
I think we could all use one of those.
Mr. Gordon?
Shall we go into the other room?
Let's go.
Get started on the clock.
Stan and I had a brother, Bobby.
He was younger than either of us.
Not quite 7 when he died.
Stan and I were 12 and 14.
We lived in a big house with grounds that bordered a river.
That particular day,
our mother asked us to stay at home and look after Bobby.
We wanted to go swimming.
What we wanted to do, Bobby wanted to do, naturally.
He idolised his big brothers.
So we told him to stay in the house, and off we went.
He followed us.
We were pretty far out when we spotted him.
He was trying to...
To get to us.
He still is.
- You mean it's his...? - Spirit? Ghost?
I don't know, Mr. Gordon.
I do know that often, when Stan and l are together, this happens.
And you believe?
It happens, Mr. Gordon.
When I was a kid, a tenement on our block collapsed.
Buried some people alive.
From then on, every time I passed that spot,
I believed I could always hear them moaning and crying for help.
You through there?
Get started upstairs.
Why don't you go to bed, Stan?
Why should l?
Because you make me sick to my stomach.
Douglas...
All right, Stan. You've had enough, let's go.
Mr. Gordon will excuse you. Let's go.
Excuse me? Do you think I had too much to drink?
Whoa, wait. Wait a minute. Wait.
Good night, my dear.
Mr. Gordon.
Let's go, Dougie. Come on.
Here we go.
I want to show you that I can be neighbourly too.
Lynn?
Well, he's in bed. Probably dead to the world by now.
Thank you, Doug.
Good night, Gordon. It's been a pleasure.
- Thank you. - Must you go?
Well, yes. I've got an 8:00 appointment at the office in the morning.
Good night, Lynn. Don't bother to see me out.
- Good night, Dougie. - Good night.
I've been around long enough to know that you want something, honey.
What?
I want you to kill someone for me.
My husband.
Please.
I know who you are. I've read all about you.
You don't know enough not to believe everything you read.
It would be so easy for you.
I could help you. I'll pay you anything.
I'll be worth a fortune afterwards.
You're out of your mind.
You're lucky I don't slap you senseless for even suggesting it.
Please, you've met him. You see what he's like.
You can't imagine what it's like living with a man like that.
I want him dead.
You've got to help me.
I don't have to do anything.
Got the wrong guy, honey.
You better forget the whole thing and just hope that I do too.
Got the Cleveland newspaper.
Does it say anything?
Yeah, in a small item in the second section.
It says the local DA is missing.
Good. Get in touch with Lister this afternoon.
Tell him he did okay and he'll be paid in the usual way.
Okay.
What do you want?
- We're in trouble. - What do you mean we're in trouble?
Last night, Stan pretended to be drunker than he really was.
After Douglas left, he sneaked down the back stairway.
- So what? - Don't you understand?
He saw us. He even took pictures.
He's a creep.
He's gonna use those pictures to divorce me.
- You let him. - I won't get a cent from him.
- That's your problem. - No.
No, it's your problem too.
He's gonna smear us across every front page in this country.
I don't want that and you don't want that either.
I've had worse publicity than this and survived it.
Go home.
- Figured you'd run here and warn him. - Wait a minute.
I've already waited long enough. I thought about you all night, Gordon.
I thought about my wife with a slime like you.
- All right, buster... - Stay out of this.
Smearing you across the front pages is not enough.
Scum like you shouldn't be allowed to live.
You're gonna die.
Stan, stop it.
Stop it.
Help him. He'll kill him.
I can't believe it. I'm rid of him.
It's perfect.
We just call the police and tell them it was self-defence.
Are you crazy? That's the one thing we can't do.
But why not? He was trying to kill you.
I'm a witness.
Shut up and listen.
Connie will take care of it. You just go home.
Do whatever it is you'd normally do. Just act as if nothing happened.
When he doesn't come home tonight, call his brother, ask him where he is.
When he says he doesn't know, act worried.
Don't call the police until 2, maybe 3 in the morning.
Tell them anything you want to except that he came here.
You understand?
What are you gonna do with him?
He'll just disappear.
Police will look for him a few months, then give up.
Now, come on, get out of here.
Take his car.
After you've gotten rid of him, drive out to the airport, leave the car there.
All right.
- How did it go? - Nothing to it.
I left his car at the airport and took a bus back.
Good, then all we've got to worry about is his wife.
This will control the lights in the house.
Ready, Cinnamon.
The more I think of that Harper dame,
the more I wonder if she shouldn't have disappeared with her husband.
Yeah. Well, that can be arranged.
Burt! Burt!
It's her.
Burt, please.
My husband is back.
He's in the house.
I was in the kitchen, fixing something to eat,
and I heard a noise in the living room.
I went in there but there was nothing there. Nothing but cold.
It was colder than anything I've ever felt in my whole life.
Then I felt as if someone were watching me.
I turned around and there he was at the top of the stairs, looking at me.
Well, whatever it was, lady, it wasn't your husband.
Oh, it was. It was.
He was just like he was this afternoon, with blood, here, on his sweater.
There he is.
I'm terribly sorry.
I was coming over to my brother's, I saw Lynn come up the road.
Is everything all right?
Lynn, are you all right?
You look strange. Is anything wrong?
I was scared by the lightning and Stan hasn't gotten home yet
and I just didn't want to be alone in the house.
When do you expect him?
He didn't say when he'd be back.
I'm terribly sorry.
But as you probably know, Lynn and I are concerned about Stan.
I had a feeling that something was wrong with Stan.
A hunch.
So I drove out to see if everything was okay.
- I'm sorry. - Of course, I understand.
It was nice to see you again.
Bye-bye, Lynn.
Douglas, what is it?
I don't know.
I have a strange feeling something's wrong.
A feeling like I had when Bobby...died.
Stan?
Stan is here.
My brother is here.
And he's dead.
My brother is dead.
It could be Bobby.
No.
No, it's Stan.
Pull yourself together. He's dead.
And dead is dead.
I have to sit down.
Stan?
We're here with you, Stan.
Stan.
Now do you believe me?
Shut up. There must be an explanation.
You sure you put him in the incinerator?
Yeah. He's ashes.
I don't know who or what we just saw but it's not the same guy.
That cold.
He's here in the house, with us.
It's like ice in here, boss.
What I don't understand is, why did he come to this house?
Has he ever been here before?
Never. I barely knew him.
I met you all for the first time last night.
Go.
Let's go.
Wait. Don't leave me.
Please, don't leave me.
Go on and see what it is.
He's been gone five minutes. Where the devil is he?
I don't know.
Maybe he's with Stan.
I'm going up there.
Look!
One of my murderers is dead.
The others will also die.
First, my wife.
Then her accomplice.
No. No.
No, Stan. Forgive me.
Lynn, wait. Lynn!
Lynn, wait.
Lynn, don't run. Come back.
Lynn!
Gordon.
I'm going to kill you.
Gordon.
Get me the police.