The Bat Page #2

Why not murder?

Too messy.

Dr. hynes:
Too great a risk?

For half a million?

Yes.

I pinched a million

from the bank.

I'm not kidding.

I embezzled it.

Not that I think

you wouldn't do it

if you thought you

could get away with it.

I got away with it.

I'm not talking about currency.

I took negotiable

securities that

could be converted into cash.

I have the cash, in tens,

twenties, and hundreds.

I'm your doctor,

not your lawyer.

Why tell me this?

You'll find out why.

Who's going to take the

blame for the robbery?

Bailey, the cashier,l

they'll never suspect me.

I like Bailey.

Well, so do i. I love the guy.

I gave him his first chance.

He has a lovely little wife.

Charming girl, I

was the best man.

Where's the million?

In my family's tomb in Zenith,

in the crypt with my father's

casket.

I don't buy that, John.

No?

No, you forget that

I had you in charge

when you were a very sick man,

when you raved in delirium.

And I heard you talk

about a hidden room.

Now, where else could

you put a hidden room

except in that

mansion you built,

that white elephant

you call the Oaks?

Look, everyone knows

I have a bad heart.

Who would doubt it if you

wired the bank directors

that my heart had failed, that

I had fallen from a great height

here in the woods, and that

I was badly smashed up?

You could ship the

body back for burial,

and instruct them not to open

the casket due to the condition

of its contents.

Well, you realize,

of course, that we'd

have to have a body to

put in that casket, which

means that we'd have to deal

with an undertaker at this end.

Of course.

But where do we get a body?

Couldn't we provide

one of our own?

How about Sam?

Sam?

Our guide?

Sam weighs about

as much as I do.

He's practically a hermit.

He wouldn't be missed

for a long time.

The local undertaker

would know him.

Dr. hynes:
Not if we

made him look as if he'd

been in a serious accident.

But if Bailey's going

to take the blame, why

do you have to do this?

A jury might acquit him.

In that case, I'd be

a logical suspect.

I could disappear, of course.

But it's safer if

they think I'm dead.

What if I don't

go for this deal?

In that case, it

would be two bad.

You mean you'd kill me?

What else could I do?

Now that I've told

you about the million.

I'd say you were shot

in a hunting accident.

Now, look, doctor, it you

can find another body instead

of Sam's, it's

all right with me.

There's half a

million in it for you.

I'll do my best.

I smell smoke.

So do i. What's that noise?

Look, doctor!

The woods are on fire!

It's coming this way!

We've got to get out of here!

Out the back way!

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