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A frightened showgirl writes to George, afraid that her first real break in the business will be her last. Since George is away, Brooksie listens to the distressed woman. The showgirl reports some shady happenings at the Peacock Lounge where she works. Since the club owners don’t have much contact with the showgirl with limited tallent, Brooksie decides to fill in for her and check things out for herself.
Meanwhile, the travelling George Valentine has had trouble finding the client who called him out of town, and at the train station he encounters a man who seems to be deathly sick and needs his help to get him some medicine. In the process, George misses his train. Later the station manager talks to George, and his sick old man has suddenly regained his health and was seen rushing to catch the train that he caused George to miss. The whole situation of George going to Seattle in the first place was clearly a set up to get George out of town.
George phones his police detective friend, and they think its a trap designed to grab the curious Brooksie. Back in the nightclub, Brooksie does her poking around, and builds an alliance with one of the other showgirls. She tells enough to the dippy showgirl about her secret replacement job to gain trust, but tries to be cautious about telling all.
Brooksie makes contact with the club owners about her expected job opportunity. Elsewhere, George gets back into town and chews out the original showgirl client about setting up Brooksie. if she knows about any danger to Brooksie, she isn’t telling. As he leaves, one of the thugs comes in with news that the deal is going down, if they can just keep George tied up for a little while longer. George finally catches up with the roughed up Brooksie, and a body at her feet. Did she kill the man,or was she set up somehow? Brooksie can’t remember a thing as she is arrested for suspicion of murder.
George keeps his head as he fights his own emotions, and tries to get the facts from the emotional Brooksie. It’s clear to him that she was drugged, and set up. Does he have the proof he needs to clear her name? George finds Brooksie’s dipsy showgirl friend, and picks her brain for what she knows, and how she got roughed up. Even the dippy showgirl has a black eye.
News about a large sum of money emerges, and it just might be a key piece of the puzzle. George’s poking around leads him to his wild goose that he spent the first part of the show chasing. Though he gets his revenge on the man, George finds himself being chewed out by the cops. Not to mention that he still isn’t any closer to finding the hard evidence he needs to clear his gal Brooksie.
In the jail they talk about the case when a major clue lands on George’s lap in the form of the morning paper. It’s time for George to call all the players together, and explain the whole case, sorting the red herings from the mastermind behind the whole scheme. With all the subtleties of the plot twists out in the open, George can appreciate Brooksie again after he softens back up to her in the office. Watch out! Mushy stuff alert, but you have to expect that from George and Brooksie. We’ll forgive them.
PS: A very good mystery that had an ending I didn’t quite expect. However, I was a little disappointed the whole episode didn’t take a different track. Once it was made known tha tGeorge was out of town, and Brooksie was going to handle a mystery on her own, I had hoped the writers would let her handle it fom beginning to end. Then having George just pop in for the end, and be amazed at Brooksie’s ability to handle an adventure on her own. The woman is indeed tougher than I think George ever gives her credit for.
Even an ending where Brooksie has solved the whole mystery on her own, but downplays it on George’s arrival, so nobody knows her little secret except the radio audience would have been a different twist. Not that the twist at the end wasn’t an interesting one.
