- Anne Avery: Thank you for coming so quickly.
- Joe Mannix: Well, you sounded upset this evening.
- Anne Avery: Someone broke into my apartment.
- Joe Mannix: Did you call the police?
- Anne Avery: They left just a few minutes ago.
- Joe Mannix: Well, I, uh, don't really see how I can help you any more than they could, Miss Avery. Things like this happen every 30 seconds in Los Angeles.
- Anne Avery: Not like this.
- [shows Joe that her apartment has been ransacked]
- Anne Avery: Lieutenant Malcolm said he couldn't spare any men to help guard the place, and if I were too frightened, I should think about hiring a private detective. He mentioned you. I am frightened, Mr. Mannix. I'm scared to death. I think I must have interrupted whoever it was before he finished. My bedroom hasn't been touched.
- Joe Mannix: Before he was finished? You think he was after something specific?
- Anne Avery: Yes. A million dollars.
- Joe Mannix: That seems like an awful lot of loose change to keep in an apartment.
- Anne Avery: My father was William Avery. He was killed yesterday in an automobile accident. You may have read about it.
- Joe Mannix: He was, uh, released from prison yesterday morning after serving ten years.
- Anne Avery: For stealing a million dollar payroll.
- Joe Mannix: Which, uh, someone now thinks you have.
- Anne Avery: I don't have it, of course. And neither did my father, not ever.
- Joe Mannix: You believe he was innocent?
- Anne Avery: Oh, I know he was. He told me, and I believed him.
- Joe Mannix: Were you very close?
- Anne Avery: Not until recently. He and my mother were divorced when I was just a child, a long, long, time before he went to prison. I lived with her until she died a few years ago. I sent him Christmas cards, and every once in a while, a letter. Sometimes he answered. And then a few months ago when he knew he was going to get out, he wrote me and asked me to come and visit him. I did quite a few times. We got to know each other very quickly, and made up for a lot of years. We talked about my life, my friends. I know he was innocent.
- Joe Mannix: Obviously, someone thinks otherwise. Miss Avery, exactly what would you like me to do?
- Anne Avery: Find out who it is. Tell him I don't have the money. Tell him I have no idea what happened to it, and neither did my father.
- Joe Mannix: We'll... I'll do what I can. Tell me, how much do you remember about your father's trial, names of witnesses, things like that?
- Anne Avery: Not a thing. My father's lawyer could help you, though- Lawerence Corwin. His offices are in Beverly Hills.
- Joe Mannix: I'll talk to him. I don't think you better stay here for the next day or two. Uh, I'll find some friendlier surroundings. Now, why don't you pack a few things in a bag and I'll be back after you about 5:00?
- Anne Avery: Fine.
- Joe Mannix: What makes you think Anne has been kidnapped?
- William Avery: [shows Joe a copy of a recently dated newspaper] That second column, Mr. Mannix, under Missing Persons.
- Joe Mannix: [reads the newspaper] "Father, must see you, urgent. Phone you at Joe's. Annie Girl." You're sure this is Anne, and she's going to phone you here?
- William Avery: Somebody's going to phone, and I know you're the Joe she's referring to.
- Joe Mannix: What makes you think that?
- William Avery: Because when she visited me in prison, she told me about all her friends. She never mentioned anybody named Joe.
- Joe Mannix: How did you find out about me?
- William Avery: The day after I got out of prison, I got to her apartment house just as you were leaving with her. You came back alone.
- Joe Mannix: [thinks for a moment] And you checked the registration on my car.
- William Avery: Right. Nobody else ever called her Annie Girl either. That was my special name for her when she was a little girl. We talked about that, too.
- Joe Mannix: Let's suppose this is her ad. There's nothing in it that indicates she's been kidnapped.
- William Avery: Yes, there is, there is. You see, she couldn't possibly know I was alive.
- Joe Mannix: Who could?
- William Avery: Well, nobody could know. Somebody's guessing, that's all. Somebody who knew me from before. And whoever it is has got Annie Girl, I know it.
- Joe Mannix: Sit down, Mr. Avery.
- [Avery takes a seat]
- Joe Mannix: To begin with, you've got some explaining to do.
- William Avery: Well, I spent ten years in prison. The day I got out, it looked to me like somebody in a car was following me. When I was sure it, I got a couple of turns ahead of him. I slowed down and jumped out of the car. When it went over the cliff, there was nobody in it.
- Joe Mannix: Did you get a look at the man in the other car?
- William Avery: Not a very good one, but enough to know that I had never seen him before.
- Joe Mannix: So far, you've told me what you did. Now tell me why.
- William Avery: Well, I realized that somebody, maybe several people, were expecting men to lead them to the payroll money. So I decided I wouldn't disappoint them. I drove fast and ended up dead. I figured that would be the end of it.
- Joe Mannix: And now you think somebody's figured you're not dead.
- William Avery: Yes!
- Joe Mannix: Same person who killed Carl Simmons?
- William Avery: [hesitates before answering] I guess so.
- Joe Mannix: All right. If I get a phone call asking for William Avery, I'll tell him that all I know is what I read in the papers, and the papers say Avery is dead.
- William Avery: No, no, no, no. You can't do that.
- Joe Mannix: Why not? If they got Anne, there's no reason why they shouldn't let her go if they really believe you're dead.
- William Avery: They'd still think I told her where the money was.
- Joe Mannix: You didn't tell her?
- William Avery: No.
- Joe Mannix: But you know.
- William Avery: Yeah, I know. I took it, and I hid it. And I spent ten years in jail for it. But I can't let anything happen to Annie.
- Joe Mannix: You're willing to make a trade? A million dollars for Anne?
- William Avery: Yeah.