G-Men Never Forget – Chapter 11: Counter-Plot

OUR STORY SO FAR: Vic Murkland (Roy Barcroft), an escaped convict who’s terrorizing a large metropolitan city through his clever plastic surgery-enhanced disguise as Police Commissioner Angus Cameron, has ordered his abject minion, Duke Graham (Drew Allen) to croak Cameron’s assistant Hayden (Doug Aylesworth) and plant an incriminating note on the corpse to convince Special Agent Ted O’Hara (Clayton Moore) that Hayden was working for Murkland the entire time. Graham carries out this task, but in the process of doing so finds himself trapped in O’Hara’s apartment as the Fed and his sidekick, Sgt. Francis Blake (Ramsay Ames), return unexpectedly. (I know I’ve been using the word “apartment” to describe O’Hara’s crib when it’s really a hotel room—but this is one big friggin’ hotel room.) O’Hara knows that someone is inside his apartment, and as he slowly prepares to enter his domicile Graham has his gun at the ready…

As Dukie begins to shoot furiously at O’Hara’s arm (the one that reached inside the apartment to kick the lights on), our favorite Fed knows enough to yank it back inside and hit the ground. Duke then smashes a window near the fire escape and beats a hasty retreat, with O’Hara and Blake entering the apartment just in time to see Graham hauling all ass and elbows back to his car (which is probably double-parked, the rapscallion). Our heroes then find the body of the late Det. Hayden stashed in the clothes closet.

Back at the office, O’Hara shows Murkland (acting as the faux-Cameron) the note left on Hayden’s person:

MURKLAND: It’s difficult to believe that Hayden sold out to Murkland, but…this note certainly proves it…
O”HARA: The note’s authentic…Murkland’s signature is on it…
MURKLAND: O’Hara…you’ve found the leak in my office and sealed it—my compliments to you…
O’HARA: No, Commissioner…there’s still a leak from this office…
MURKLAND: Why…I don’t understand…
O’HARA: Hayden phoned that he was coming up to my place…Murkland sent Duke Graham there to kill him…therefore, Murkland must have been tipped off on Hayden’s phone call…
MURKLAND: True…but he could have called from any place between here and your hotel…
O’HARA: No, he used a department phone…
MURKLAND: How do you arrive at that?

Yeah, Federal Agent Brainiac—you’re so smart…

O’HARA: He put the call in only a few moments after he left your office…before he had time to leave the building…so it was someone here who tipped off Murkland…and I think it was Baxter, Hayden’s assistant…
MURKLAND: Baxter?

Apparently we’re back at the much-discussed and controversial “Baxter theory,” introduced in the previous chapter. Murkland pounces on this like a dog on a pork chop: “Yes…of course…I’ve should have thought of that…” Murkland wants to call Baxter in to confront him with O’Hara’s theory, but O’Hara waves him off, explaining that he has a scheme to lure Senor Baxter into a trap. As O’Hara outlines his brilliant plan, Murkland is seated at his desk smoking a cigarette…and absentmindedly starts to stick the ever-present matchstick in his mouth to chew…fortunately he catches himself in time, and it’s equally opportune that O’Hara is so full of himself pontificating about “Project Baxter” to pay any notice. After O’Hara exits from his office, Murkland phones “Doc” Benson (Stanley Price) at the sanitarium hideout and asks him to put Duke on the phone (Graham, for some odd reason, is laying on a hospital gurney resting comfortably after his criminal labors):

DUKE: Yeah, Chief—Duke speakin’…
MURKLAND: O’Hara thinks Baxter is one of my men… (Murkland is again chewing on a matchstick and he suddenly realizes what he’s doing, so he throws the match away) Well, it could work to our benefit…tell you what you do…get over here right away, and I’ll send Baxter out into the alley…back door…

There is a dissolve, and we find O’Hara and Blake standing around in the alley watching both exits for any sign of Baxter. But Francis is astonished to see a surprise guest pull up in his car—Duke Graham!

BLAKE: Ted…it’s Duke Graham…let’s get him!
O’HARA: Wait a minute…let’s see what happens…

Duke hides behind some boxes in the alley (apparently police headquarters is exempt from any kind of trash pickup rules) with his weapon at the ready and out the back door pops Baxter (Russell Whitman), just another cog in the bureaucratic machine who’s about to experience the high point of his sad, miserable career. Walking past the concealed Duke, he’s pistol-whipped and, falling to the ground, is grabbed by another one of Duke’s endless parade of flunkies (this time it’s Tom Steele…again) and chucked into the back of the car. Blake pleads with her partner to do something about Baxter’s kidnapping:

BLAKE: But they hit him…
O’HARA: Sarge, I don’t like to see a policeman hurt anymore than you do…but Baxter’s already hit and we can’t help him now…besides, I want to trail him…

As Duke and Jack drive off with the unconscious Baxter, Ted and Frances race to their car and continue pursuit. During the chase, O’Hara once again overcompensates by explaining to Blake that this was really his plan all along:

BLAKE: Something’s haywire…Baxter falls for your trap…he runs out the back door and is knocked out by Duke, who drives off with him…it doesn’t add up…
O’HARA: It does to me…I thought this might happen…that’s why I wanted to watch the rear door…
BLAKE: But if Baxter is one of Murkland’s men…
O’HARA: He isn’t…Baxter’s an honest cop…

“He insists on paying for every donut!” The quartet ends up at the old farmhouse hideout—and yes; this is the same farmhouse that was blowed up real good in Chapter Eight. How were they able to rebuild it so quickly? How did they manage to make the rebuilt house look exactly the same as the demolished one? And why, for crying out loud, rebuild it at all—I’m sure there were several other hideouts that could have been had for the same price…with better schools and loads of off-street parking to boot. (Just between you, me and the lamppost—I’m beginning to think they’re making this up as they go along.) Well, I don’t have to tell you where this is going—Duke and Jack are about to tie up Baxter when Ted and Frances bust into the joint, and it’s balsa-wood furniture slamming time! (Frances is out of this melee early when Jack knocks her to the floor and then smashes a clay pot over his head…the view of which is unfortunately obscured by a chair.) O’Hara and Graham tussle, and Jack is about to dispatch our hero to the great beyond by stabbing him with a knife when Baxter decides he’s sat out the fight long enough and shoots Jack—allowing Duke to get away in the process. (The guy goes through flunky-partners like Kleenex.)

O’HARA: Good work, Baxter… (The two of them go over to the part of the room where Frances is struggling to her feet…being hit with pottery apparently has left her without a bruise or scratch.) How are you doing?
BLAKE: All right, I guess…I’m still in one piece…
BAXTER: Say…what’s this all about, O’Hara?
O’HARA: First, let me ask you a question…did Commissioner Cameron send you out the back way?
BAXTER: Yeah…he wanted some aspirin…and for some reason or another, sent me out the back door…
O’HARA: There’s your answer, Frances…

Cameron is in cahoots with the Bayer Company!

O’HARA: …Cameron thought I suspected Baxter of selling out to Murkland…and planned to have him taken for a ride…
BLAKE: But why?
O’HARA: To draw me off the track…but what he didn’t realize was the plan I outlined to him could work two ways…if Baxter had been guilty…and I was sure he wasn’t…it would have exposed him…but Duke showed up, and Cameron was the only one who knew the trap…
BLAKE: Then Commissioner Cameron…
O’HARA: Exactly…Commissioner Cameron has sold out to Murkland…

Well, actually Ted isn’t anywhere close (but we’ve only one more chapter left, he’s bound to figure it out by then) but he orders Baxter to “take care of the dead man” and announces to Frances that “we have a date with the Commissioner.” I don’t buy one bit of his explanation as to how he figured this whole thing out—and I don’t think any of the other characters do, either—but since he’s a fragile and insecure man, let’s just cut to the eventual confrontation between O’Hara and the faux-Cameron:

MURKLAND: Hello, O’Hara…Sergeant…did you follow Baxter?
O’HARA: Yes…
MURKLAND: Good! Tell me about it!
O’HARA: The game’s up, Commissioner…we know you’ve been working with Murkland…Sergeant, phone the District Attorney and ask him to come here…
MURKLAND: Now, wait a minute O’Hara…
O’HARA (cutting him off) Save it for the D.A.! Go ahead, Francis…
(Blake goes over to the phone at the exact same moment Duke makes his entrance through the office’s back door…)

DUKE: Well…looks like I got here just in time…drop that phone!

Ted runs cowardly toward a recliner and ducks behind it, allowing Murkland to grab Frances as hostage: “We’re leaving, O’Hara—and we’re taking Sergeant Blake with us! Either we go free or she dies!” (With the speed he used to crawl under that recliner, I’m guessing Ted is having second thoughts about the relationship again.) Murkland and Duke duck out the back with Frances in tow—Duke is ordered to stay behind and take care of O’Hara if he attempts to follow them, and Frances finds herself reluctantly taking the wheel as Murkland’s chauffeur. Finally, I guess O’Hara is concerned about the fun they’re going to make of him if he doesn’t try to rescue Frances and he emerges from the back entrance, shooting at Duke and managing to get past him and to his own car so that the chase can begin.

On that oh-so-familiar stretch of back road that we’ve seen nearly a hundred times in this serial, O’Hara is starting to catch up with Murkland—so the master criminal cold cocks Frances with his pistol and then leaps out of the car to safety. With Frances resting her head on the steering wheel for a power nap, the car begins to careen wildly out of control and off a high cliff—the car bursting into flames as it hits the point of impact…

Next Saturday, the Final Chapter: Exposed!