Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:51 — 5.5MB)
After a few morbid bits of humor about freezing to death, the feature gets started.
A recently arrested man sits in a gloomy jail cell. In flashback and narrative, we learn his story. He is an art dealer, and has bought an Indian religious relic at auction. It’s not only that the idol had caught his attention, but actually moved to face him. He was meant to own it. Right?
In a mysterious meeting with a man in a fez, he learns of the power and legend of the idol. He is also warned that with that power comes great dangers. The man is told more about the legend and prophecy of the laughing idol. His curiosity and intrigue lead him down a strange new path, but where will it take him? Personally, I’d be a little suspicious, but hey, let’s just enjoy the story.
Whatever awaits him, fame, fortune, power? It comes at a price. He faces the prediction that he must kill, or soon be killed. He is to kill his wife, a detail that is reinforced when he takes a sneak peek in her diary. It sounds to me like he’s waking up to a reality of an unhappy marriage, but there’s better ways to deal with it than murder. But this makes for a more dramatic story.
Now that he has killed his wife, he plans to cover up his tracks. Can he make this the perfect murder? Well, of course he won’t get away from it, but it’s too late for him when the cops haul him off, and report their investigation results to him. Who was that guy who reported him? I knew I had good reason to be suspicious.
The police report fills in the gaps in the mystery for the listener.
