- A worried woman contacts Friday and Smith when her elderly mother mysteriously disappears and suspects her father of foul play, a suspicion that proves to be correct when blood is found at her old house.
- Synopsis - The Big Glasses Airing 10-20-55 Friday, Smith are working Homicide day watch, a woman called saying her mother had disappeared, the police expected foul play, arriving at the house to check the particulars, they talk with Ella Ryburn while she irons her clothes. She tells of an abusive father, a mother of 62 looking 92, and once the kids were married, and out of the house, they rarely returned. One day recently she went to see how her mother was doing, the house had been rented to another couple, her parents were gone. She went to see her parents at their new place, her father answered, said her mother had gone back to the old country on a vacation. Ella did not believe her father's story. She called police thinking the letter written supposedly by her mother could not be her mother's. The sister she was seeing in the old country had died three years prior. Ella suspected something was not right when the house was rented, her mother did not contact any one of her siblings, and seeing her father was not the same irritable man he always was.
Friday, Smith interview the father at his apartment. Alfred Shroder admits to his wife not seeing her sister, he says he burnt the letter, he disagrees with the stories Friday says came from others. He claims his wife left him after thirty years of marriage. He calls his wife names, never had a good marriage, and he knows his daughter Ella gave the police their information. Alfred says he could not tell his children his wife left him, giving no reasonable excuse for fear of they hating their mother for leaving him. He admits writing the letter, his wife took money with her when she left, so he says. He rented the house because everything was his wife's, so he got out. He says her personal effects are in storage, offering to give the address where they are located. He decided not to tell his children about their mother being gone.
Friday narrates the two stories could both be true or one a lie, it would be a matter of checking, in order to prove the validity of what they had just heard. Back at the office, Friday calls the storage company for confirmation; he gets an affirmative of the items being stored, but the proprietor was told to sell everything. An in-person verification with the storage company manager confirmed all items were requested sold. A look at Shroder's bank records show checks written for the storage, but no check cashed from Pauline Shroder, the missing wife. Friday, Smith got in touch with each of Shroder's children, each talked about how mean a man he was and on occasion had struck his wife. The children could confirm it was possible Pauline could have left her husband, but she would have certainly been in touch with one of them. Neighbors confirmed Mr. Shroder was always angry at his wife and had made no attempt to hide his feelings.
Mike Armstrong renting the house is interviewed, with Ella present in the house. Mike never saw Mrs. Shroder. Anything he requested to be fixed was granted by Mr. Shroder, which surprised Mr. Armstrong, guessing his landlord was a tightwad. Ella gets permission to look around while she's there, looking at her mother's room now having wall to wall carpet. Friday, Smith ask to look at the basement while requesting Ella remain upstairs. In the basement, Friday sees blood seeping from the bedroom, telling Smith to get the crime lab out there right away.
The crime lab confirmed the blood stains on the basement walls, the bedroom carpeting removed revealing additional blood stains. The yard was checked, nothing found. The crime lab confirmed the blood was human. Friday, Smith return to the yard, Friday starts digging in the incinerator ashes piled up along the fence. He uncovers a pair of glasses, and Ella confirmed her mother wore glasses. The incinerator ashes contained several pieces of bone according to the crime lab.
Shroder is called into HQ for interrogation. Friday, Smith ask about the withdrawal Mrs. Shroder made. There no record of it in the account, yet she used the account regularly. The storage items were put up for sale, Schroder claims confusion. Blood stains were found at the house, Shroder says he is confused, the carpet laid was his doing, the incinerator ashes yielded the pair of glasses Friday shows Shroder. Shroder finally admits to killing his wife, his excuse for doing so does not pass with Friday. You did it all yourself.
Suspect was tried, convicted of murder in the first degree. Alfred Shroder was executed in the gas chamber at the State Penitentiary, San Quentin, CA.
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