Another Thin Man Page #5

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when it happened, right?

No.

- Then there was someone else?

- Yes.

- Who?

- The baby.

Yes, the baby. But not the nurse?

No, the nurse was in her own room,

asleep, I guess.

You'd better ask her.

Her room is across from ours.

She ain't in there, she ain't anywhere

in the house. She's gone.

- Personally, I think she's very wise.

- Is that so?

This is a murder

we're trying to clear up, lad.

So let's don't hang up on who tells what.

Now, who gets the money?

According to his last will...

Miss MacFay was to get everything

but $100,000.

That went to Mrs. Bellam.

Well, now, what do you figure

all but $100,000 would amount to?

Certainly several millions.

You say you were asleep about an hour

when you heard the shot.

I said half an hour.

Stop wasting time here

and start looking for him.

I got a lot of time to waste.

Now, this Church,

you say you worked together.

- Are you and he still pretty close?

- We were never close.

- You didn't like each other much.

- Right.

Are you unfriends enough

so you'd like to see him in jail...

- or maybe the chair?

- Are you suggesting that I'd frame him?

Now, don't get sore

over a little thing like that.

Wait till you hear

what I'm really gonna suggest.

It seems to me that every time

your husband gets in with a girl...

the insurance companies

take an awful beating.

Now, it's nice, very nice for a wife

to trust her husband, but get this.

There's that Wynant girl

he knew before he was married.

He comes here to New York

and there's a murder.

He goes back to the West Coast,

there's a good-looking girl there...

and there's another murder.

He comes back here,

meets this Lois MacFay...

There's another murder.

Listen, we're not dishing the dirt

on your husband for the fun of it.

We're trying to show you

what you're up against.

It ain't that a man

that's had that many numbers...

could settle down to one.

- Was he really like that?

- Was he? Baby.

I always thought he was bragging.

He tell you about the coal man's widow

in Cleveland...

that wanted to set him up

into the agency for himself?

- Was that Jeanette?

- No. Her name was Bella Spruce.

Bella Spruce?

And the lighthouse keeper's daughter in...

- The what?

- The lighthouse keeper's daughter.

- What was her name?

- What it all comes down to is this Lois.

You're wrong to think

there couldn't be anything between them.

They're just making a monkey out of you.

Covering up for them.

I'm sure you're right.

But what was the lighthouse keeper's

daughter's name?

- Letty Finhaden.

- Letty Finhaden.

He wasn't in the room with you

when it happened, was he?

I say, he made you give him that alibi,

didn't he?

No.

Mr. Charles.

- I'm Van Slack, the Asst. District Attorney.

- Oh, yes.

I thought perhaps...

Well, of course, everybody knows

your reputation...

- but if you don't mind...

- Not at all.

Well, I'm a little confused.

The lamp torn away,

a glass of water knocked over.

Seems to have been quite a struggle.

But, nobody heard anything.

Funny you didn't, Mr. Charles.

The way I figure it.

MacFay was lying here reading the paper.

He puts it down...

he turns off the lamp.

The murderer comes in through the door...

or the window.

MacFay hears him, he grabs for his gun.

It was his gun, wasn't it?

Yes, he kept it on the table.

From the look of this hole...

where would you say

the bullet was fired from?

I'd figure it come from about here.

Then the murderer was already

bearing down on his arm...

when MacFay got the shot away.

Or it could've gone off

when it hit the floor...

after the arm was broken.

A paraffin test will show you

whether he pulled the trigger.

Yes.

The murderer knocked him back

on the pillow with a blunt instrument.

Then went after him with a knife.

Anything to show

that he came through the window?

No, not yet.

One of the servants said

the front door was open.

Yes, if you and the two other gentlemen...

came, as you said,

when the shot was fired...

wouldn't you have seen or heard or...

I didn't get here that quickly.

The lights went out.

An electrician can tell you

what happened...

when the wires were cut from that lamp.

Electrician. Yes.

Did you people have a man

watching Church?

Well, not exactly. I suppose I should have.

The Colonel was always yelling,

imagining things...

which you know yourself

is all pretty ridiculous.

Could've been turned into

a practical joke, couldn't it?

Then you didn't have...

You didn't have a heavy-set man

with thick glasses watching Church?

- No.

- I thought not.

I'd never seen a country cop

with a $6,000 coup before.

So I took down his number, I'll get it.

- Did you get anything out of Mrs. Charles?

- No, she's bats.

I wish my old lady was bats that way.

Here, darling, please drink this.

No one will tell me anything.

I'd feel better if I knew whether Father...

Did he die without...

There was no pain. He died instantly.

Where was he shot?

- He wasn't shot. It was a knife.

- A knife?

Don't talk about it now, dear.

Let's all get out of here

as quickly as possible.

- She can't stay here.

- That suits me.

Just as soon as we finish with the police.

- Did you have your session with them?

- Yes.

It was very interesting.

You think the police

are going to be enough or...

I should say they're more than enough.

- You'd better take a bromide.

- You're shaking like a leaf.

- Is there something you haven't told us?

- Yes, what is it, Horn?

It's no wonder I'm jittery.

There's someone out to get Lois.

- How do you know?

- I was warned over the phone...

just a little while ago, a man's voice.

He said, "Call everybody off

or Lois will get what her old man got."

- No.

- We've got to call everyone off.

We've got to.

You can't call the police off

once they're in.

The warning said call off everybody.

- It must have been one of Church's gang.

- Sure.

You think Church murdered the Colonel,

don't you?

- Don't you?

- Of course.

Your dog's outside,

running with a knife in its mouth.

- Asta, quickly.

- That will be Asta.

We're gonna have to shoot it.

We'll never find him like this.

Wait a minute. He's not gonna

run to strange men with lights.

What do you think he is, a moth?

- Call your men off, give me a flashlight.

- Give me that.

Hey, boys, lay off.

Give Mr. Charles a chance.

- Where did the dog find that knife?

- We don't know.

He came around thataway.

- Where is he now?

- He went thataway.

I'll go thisaway.

Asta.

Asta, come here. Give it to me.

Give it that back.

- Charles.

- What?

- Mr. Charles.

- Yes, dear.

What is it? What are you doing out here?

What's the matter?

It's... He has a gun.

- He has a what?

- Look out!

- Why, it's Horn.

- Well, can you beat that?

What were you shooting at him for?

I wasn't shooting at him,

he was shooting at me.

- Why were you shooting at him?

- Well, everybody else was.

She's all right, she's alive.

It's just her arm.

Carry her into the house.

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