William Haggard - The New Black Mask (No 5)

Polly: “In my bag. Shall I tear it up?”

Dancer: “Maybe you are as dumb as you act sometimes. Listen. Try to understand what I’m telling you. Landis is killed — dead. Maybe we’re going to need that paper bad. So you don’t let anything happen to it. Be sure you don’t.”

Polly: “All right, but I still don’t get it. I don’t know what you…”

Dancer: “Shut up and do what you're told.”

At this point, as they move toward Dancer’s apartment, they pass the head of the stairs and are joined by Nick, returning from the street.

Nick: “Now let’s have that little drink Lum Kee was talking about.”

Dancer: “Swell! And, Mr. Charles, I want to apologize for losing my temper like that.”

Nick, linking arms with them: “Don’t give it a second thought. Some people lose one thing, some lose another, but they all like a drink afterwards.”

To Polly, sympathetically: “Tough you couldn’t do a better job of seeing Landis got home all right.”

Polly, sullenly: “It wasn’t my fault. I did the best I could.”

Nick, as they go into Dancer’s apartment: “I’m sure you did.”

Lum Kee is at the telephone, saying, “Better you come right away. You bet you.” He hangs up, explaining blandly to Nick, “Mr. Caspar. He our lawyer. Sometimes good thing when you have trouble.”

Nick: “You bet you.”

Dancer: “Maybe, but I think you’re going to a lot of trouble over nothing. It’s a cinch none of us shot Landis, so what do we need a lawyer for?”

Nick: “Maybe to help you explain how you know he was shot .”

Dancer: “Well, whatever way he was killed, it’s still a cinch we didn’t have anything to do with it.”

Nick yawns, says, “A cinch is no defense in the eyes of the law,” and makes himself comfortable on the sofa.

Dancer smiles ingratiatingly at Nick and says, “I don’t blame you for thinking maybe we’re tied up in this somehow. It’s our own fault for starting off with you on the wrong foot, but… let’s have that drink first and talk things over. We can show you we’re in the clear.” He pushes a button for a waiter.

Nick, indifferently, lying back and looking at the ceiling: “Don’t worry about me. Talk it over with the police.”

Dancer catches Polly’s eye and jerks his head a little toward Nick. She nods and moves as if aimlessly over to the sofa. Lum Kee looks from Dancer to Polly, then goes over and sits on a chair not far from the sofa, but behind Nick.

Dancer calls, “Come in,” as the waiter knocks and moves over so that he is between Nick and the door. (None of these movements should be definitely threatening, though it should seem to the audience that Nick is being surrounded.)

Dancer, to Nick: “What’ll you have?”

Nick: “Scotch.”

Polly and Lum Kee: “Same.”

Dancer: “And a glass of milk.”

The waiter goes out. Polly sits down on the sofa beside Nick and says, “Do you suppose that David Graham could have killed Robert?”

Nick blinks in surprise, then says: “I’m no good at supposing. What do you know about David Graham?”

Dancer is regarding the girl with a puzzled look.

Polly: “Only what Robert told me, that he was in love with his wife.”

Abrams, stolidly: “Good evening, Mrs. Charles, or I guess it’s good morning. Did you see him there? I mean Robert Landis.”

Nora: “Yes.”

Abrams: “What happened?”

Nora: “Nick knows. Go down there. He can tell you everything.”

Abrams, not very hopefully: “I hope somebody can tell me something. These people!” He looks gloomily at Aunt Katherine and Kammer and shakes his head, then continues: “Anyhow, I got to ask a couple more questions. Dr. Kammer, do you often have to give Mrs. Landis things to quiet her?” Kammer stares at him. Abrams turns to Nora for sympathy, saying, “You see? That’s the way it’s been going.”

Nora: “But surely you don't think Mrs. Landis…” She breaks off, looking from one to the other in amazement.

Abrams, patiently: “How do I know what to think if nobody'll tell me anything. Well, Dr. Kammer, let’s put it plain: does she take dope?”

Aunt Katherine: “Mr. Abraham, you're insulting.”

Kammer: “Certainly not.”

Abrams, paying no attention to Aunt Katherine: “OK. Check that off. Then is she crazy?”

Kammer: “My dear sir, why should you think that?”

Abrams: “Easiest thing in the world. I’ve seen you three times in my life before this, and all three times you were on the witness stand testifying that somebody was nuts.” He begins to count on his fingers. “First it was that guy Walter Dabney that killed a guy in a fight; then it was that Harrigan woman.” He opens his eyes a little wider. “By golly, she shot her husband, too; and then it was…”

Nora goes up to Abrams as if she were about to smack him and says angrily, “Too! What right have you to say a thing like that?”

Dr. Kammer bows to Aunt {Catherine and says, “Miss Forrest, in view of this definite accusation by the gentleman” (He bows to Abrams) “I think you would be justified in insisting that your attorney be present at any further interviews members of your family may have with the police.”

Aunt Katherine continues to regard Abrams in stony silence, as she has throughout this scene except for her one speech.

Abrams groans wearily and says, though not apologetically, “Anybody’s tongue’s liable to slip.” Nobody says anything. He addresses Nora as if he were disappointed in her: “It’s what you’d expect out of them, but you ought to know better.” When she does not reply, he shrugs his shoulders and goes out.

Nora wheels to face Aunt Katherine and Kammer, asking, “Where’s Selma?”

Aunt Katherine: “She’s sleeping, my dear,” adding quickly as Nora starts toward the door, “Don’t disturb her. Dr. Kammer says she must not be disturbed.”

Nora looks at them for a moment, then says very deliberately, “I won’t disturb her, but I am going to be with her until she wakes up,” brushes past them, and goes out of the room.

Aunt Katherine puts a hand on Rammer's arm and in almost a whisper asks, “Well?”

Kammer: “I think there is as yet no reason for alarm.”

Nora goes into Selma’s bedroom, where a dim nightlight is burning, and stands for a moment by the bed, looking down at Selma. When she turns away to take off her coat, one of Selma’s eyes opens cautiously. Then she sits up in bed and whispers, “Nora!”

Nora runs to her, exclaiming, “But they told me you were…”

Selma: “I know.” She unwads a handkerchief while she speaks, showing Nora two white tablets. “They gave me those to put me to sleep, but I didn’t take them. I wanted to see you. I knew you’d come.” Selma and Nora go into a clinch. Then Selma asks, “Has David come back yet?”

Nora: “I don’t think so. He’s not here now.”

Selma: “Will you phone him for me, see if he’s home?”

Nora: “Of course.” She puts out a hand toward the bedside phone.

Selma, catching her arm: “No, not here. That's why I was afraid to phone. The police might be listening in. Go to a drugstore or something. Or, better, go to his apartment; it’s only a few blocks.”

Nora, puzzled: “But I don’t understand.”

Selma: “He took the pistol and told me to come back and not say anything, and I want to know if he’s all right.”

Nora: “The pistol!”

Selma, rapidly, unconscious of the effect her words have had on Nora: “Yes. I took it and ran out after Robert when he said he was going away — you know, to scare him into not going — and he’d insulted me so terribly. And he turned the comer before I could catch up with him, and then there was a shot, and then when I turned the comer, there he was dead, and after a while David came and took the pistol and told me to come back home and not say anything to anybody. And now I don’t know whether he’s all right or…”