Creature with the Atom Brain Page #3

explain them coming back to life.

What makes you so sure they were alive?

What makes me so... Well, they were

walking around, weren't they?

It says you found fingerprints.

You yourself said those dead people

committed the crimes!

Yes, those are the facts.

But I'm afraid we'll have to depart

from our usual approach

to get anywhere on this case.

I wish, Dr. Walker,

you'd make yourself a little clearer.

Well, let me give you

a very primitive example.

Do you remember Faraday's experiment

with a frog's leg?

I flunked Chemistry One three times.

I remember Faraday's experiment.

Good. Then you'll remember

that Faraday applied energy,

in that case electricity, to the leg

which had been severed from its body.

It moved.

Frog legs. I don't see the parallel.

People of that day wouldn't believe

that the leg of a dead animal could move,

but Faraday proved it.

We know why.

Yes, now we know why

and take our knowledge for granted.

In our case, which is as mysterious to us

as Faraday's was in his time,

we found traces of energy.

Energy which would increase

the strength of any animal tremendously.

Radioactivity.

Well, you've lost me.

All right, Chet. What

you're trying to do now

is throw away everything we've learned

so far about life and death

and start from scratch.

And just how do you propose to do this?

Well, we have certain clues.

One very definite one.

In both of the murders,

radioactive emanations were found.

Now that's where you come in, General.

We'll have to find the source

of these emanations.

Now I want to use Air Force planes

and trucks equipped with instruments

which can track down that source.

I'll see that you get the trucks

and I'll call Colonel Roberts

at Monroe Air Force Base about the planes.

He'll give you all the

cooperation you need.

We'd certainly appreciate that.

Tell him I'll be down to talk to him at,

say, 3:
00.

Goodbye, Dr. Walker. Good day, gentlemen.

Of all things to happen

under my administration.

Keep me posted on this.

And suppose we do find the source?

Then we'll be able to find the cause.

That car in front. Get it. Wreck it.

Drive into it.

What's he doing at the airfield?

Better wait and find out.

It may concern us.

Come back!

Stop.

It's you!

Well, who did you think it was?

Don't tell me strangers

are in the habit of...

I was wondering

if you'd be home in time for dinner.

That's not true, Chet.

Is it?

Better hide it from Penny.

- But how can I hide a thing like...

- Please, Joyce.

I'm tired and I'm hungry and I'm...

Frankly, I don't know how.

I don't know any more about it

than it says right there.

Look, how are we fixed

for a nice, cold martini?

Coming right up, Chet.

Penny's outside playing.

Well, what about it?

Well, is it safe?

There seems to be some sort

of a definite pattern.

Can't put my finger on it,

but I do know that Hennessy and MacGraw

were killed for a reason.

Well, it's all right then?

Well, for a while.

I don't think they've gotten around

to indiscriminate killings yet.

Yet?

- Hi, Daddy.

- Hi, Penny.

Where's the paper, Mommy?

I want to read the funnies.

Oh, it didn't come today, dear.

Oh, then I'll put on the TV.

- No, Penny.

- It's broken, Penny.

We'll have to have a man over to fix it.

Yeah.

Look, why don't you play with Henrietta?

She's a bad girl and I'm punishing her.

Well, did you spank her?

I put her in her bed and told her

she can't look at TV all week.

You're a tough one, you are.

Thanks, honey.

I've been looking forward to this all day.

I'll go.

Hello, Uncle Dave.

Hi, Penny. How are you?

Oh, it's you.

Oh, you don't seem

particularly happy to see me.

There comes a time in every woman's life

when she'd like to be alone

with her husband,

if only for a few minutes.

How come you never got married,

Uncle Dave?

He'd be a bigamist, Penny.

He's already married to your father.

- Want a drink, Dave?

- No, not while I'm on duty.

Well, I'm not on duty.

You will be when you hear

what I've got to tell you.

Penny, will you please go to your room?

Why? I didn't do anything.

I know, dear. it's just that Daddy

and Uncle Dave want to be alone.

I won't bother them.

Go to your room this minute, Penny.

All right. But I always let you listen

when I talk to Henrietta.

Okay, let's have it.

Look, I'm not a child.

And this is my house.

You're not going to put me out of it.

The only time my wife talks

is when I'm ready to go to sleep.

All right. I'll get dinner.

Remember you said this morning

that you were thrown

because Hennessy and MacGraw

were both killed

in the same way and by the same thing

yet they were always on opposite sides

of the fence?

- Yeah, what about it?

- Well, that worried me, too.

So I checked back on both of them

and found that they were on the same side

of the fence, once.

- Well, when was that?

- About 10 years ago

when you first came into the police lab.

Hennessy and MacGraw helped

convict Frank Buchanan.

Buchanan.

The name rings a bell, but not too clearly.

Buchanan was a top mobster

around these parts.

He practically ran the city.

When MacGraw became D.A.

he took out after him.

Well, where does Hennessy come in?

Well, Hennessy was Buchanan's

number-two man.

He wanted the number-one slot,

so he turned on him.

Oh, yeah.

I remember something about it now.

Wasn't Buchanan shipped off to Europe?

That's right.

He got five years and deportation.

I don't get the connection.

Listen to this.

I got it out of the newspaper files.

"No sooner was sentence pronounced

"than Buchanan leaped to his feet,

screaming to MacGraw,

"'I'll get you for this.

You and everyone who squealed on me.

"'I'll come back and see you die,

every single one of you!"' Get it?

That voice on the Dictaphone.

"I told you I'd come back."

That's right.

That's the first thing I thought of, too.

- Yeah.

- But you just said he was deported.

I'm not saying it's him, but it's a lead.

It's the only connecting link

I could come up with,

why any guy should want to kill both

MacGraw and Hennessy.

Did you check with the authorities

over there?

Well, I cabled them and

just got this answer.

"Frank Buchanan, resided in Rome.

Via Lucullo, Number 11.

"House vacated.

Left no forwarding address."

Well, he could still be anywhere in Europe.

Well, I cabled the chief of police in Rome.

Asked him to investigate further and

cable me as soon as he had a line on him.

Were there any others who helped

convict Buchanan?

Two others who were in with him

and the fellow who was the Assistant

District Attorney, Lester Banning.

He's now in private practice.

Think they should be warned?

I'm having the boys round them up now.

They should be in my office any minute.

Well, let's go.

What about dinner?

Oh, keep it warm, honey.

I'll be back in an hour or two.

- Sorry, Joyce.

- I'll bet you are.

One for the road?

Oh, not now, dear. I'm back on duty.

- Oh, nice to see you, Mr. Banning.

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