Deadline at Dawn Page #5

Don't look around.

My cab is just beyond the door.

Every minute brings Alex closer

to his last hour of freedom, doesn't it?

We'll do the best we can.

He's such a baby.

But a sweet baby?

Yes.

Golly wolly, it's hot tonight.

Not since the old days...

Is he there?

Yes.

Don't lose him.

Oh, he's right behind us.

We'll shoot up on the west side,

catch him uptown.

Changed my mind.

I'll make a sharp right turn down there.

There's a police booth to intimidate him.

Say, what's this all about?

- Don't get tough.

- My fare asked to follow you.

- Who's your fare?

Ask him.

- What are you following the lady for?

It's a mistake.

What do you mean, "it's a mistake"?

June.

What kind of a lounge lizard are you,

following a helpless lady in the night?

- Do you know this man?

- I can't see him in there.

- Well, get out, kind sir.

I won't.

- There's a police booth.

I don't wanna get in no trouble.

I work. I'm just a parasite on parasites.

What are you following her for?

Uh...

You know him?

Meaning no disrespect.

- My admiration, Miss Goffe...

- Let him go, Gus.

No disrespect, you understand.

I am Edward Honig, 5265th Avenue.

Honig Accordion Company.

I am foreign-born, but since last month,

I am a citizen of your great country.

My citizenship papers.

American.

No, don't go. Please.

Come on, Gus.

No. Meaning no disrespect.

Quiet, Mr. Honig, quiet.

Take the American citizen home.

That poor rag of a man actually proposed

to me tonight on the dance floor.

Why are you crying, June?

I don't know.

I thought this chase would lead

to something.

What'll happen to that boy?

I don't know.

He can't take care of himself.

It's hot and I feel unnerved.

Electric storms always unnerve me.

Life in this crazy city unnerves me too,

but I pretend it doesn't.

Where's the logic to it?

Where's the logic?

The storm clouds have passed us.

Over Jersey now.

Statistics tell us we'll see the stars again.

Golly, the misery that walks around

in this pretty, quiet night.

June.

The logic you're looking for...

...the logic is that there is no logic.

The horror and terror you feel, my dear,

comes from being alive.

Die and there is no trouble,

live and you struggle.

At your age, I think it's beautiful

to struggle for the human possibilities...

...not to say I hate the sun

because it don't light my cigarette.

You're so young, June, you're a baby.

Love's waiting outside

any door you open.

Some people say,

"Love is a superstition."

Dismiss those people,

those Miss Bartellis, from your mind.

They put poison-bottle labels

on the sweetest facts of life.

You are 23, June.

Believe in love and its possibilities

the way I do at 53.

What's wrong here?

This man bothering you?

He's the only man in four years

in New York who hasn't.

No place to park.

Let's face it, Val.

After all, you and I are partners

in a $42,000 investment.

That's why I called you, Val.

You own a 20 percent piece of my show...

...but if it doesn't open Tuesday,

you own dirt.

We got better grapes in the restaurant.

Why won't the show open Tuesday?

- And who's this twist here?

- Oh, you know Mrs. Raymond, don't you?

Her husband has pledged

to put up the extra 10 G's to open the show.

But if he finds out his wife and I are friends,

we're ruined.

If she cut off her head,

she'd be very pretty.

Yeah. Frankly, what would you do

in my place?

- Why should her husband find out?

- Because your sister has some letters.

Uh, little notes

that she wrote to me last spring.

Your sister says she'll show those

to Mr. Raymond...

...unless she gets a piece of the show.

People with wax heads

should keep out of the sun.

- I don't know anything about it, Lester.

- Wait a minute, Val.

I happen to know you tried

to buy those letters back from Edna.

But you go and give her a bad check.

So why be surprised she got sore?

Don't go, Val. Uh...

Frankly, I don't know how to tell you this,

but we've gotta get those letters...

...because, uh, right now, your sister...

...is lying dead in a room.

Take it easy.

Yeah.

- Mrs. Raymond just came from there.

- You shut your mouth, you hear me?

Now, you play it again and play it sweet.

It's true, Val.

I swear on my mother's life I didn't do it.

- Who done it? Her?

- When she got there...

...there were a lot of people.

Tried to hold her up.

- A sailor and a cabby and a dame.

- Who was there and what's their name?

- The boy is coming here.

- What boy?

- Stay where you are.

- Well, that must be him now.

Don't I know how to talk to a boy?

Yeah?

Who's this?

Come right up, sailor boy.

Put on your clothes, Lester.

Come in.

Uh, put the check on the table.

Going somewhere?

- You wanna be paid first, is that it?

- I wanna make sure it belongs to you.

Well, let's face it, out of 7 million people

you found me, it must belong to me.

Some grapes.

Frankly, you kids are the limit.

Frankly, I could put you behind bars

for that.

In some states, they put you behind bars

for passing bad checks.

I wouldn't hit you if you didn't.

Where'd you get that check?

Cab.

- Where?

- In a cab.

Where'd you get it?

Who's that?

Call me "sweetheart."

Shut that transom so it don't rain in.

- Didn't you go home with my sister, Romeo?

- Yes.

- You killed her.

No.

Val, don't make a fuss here.

We can take him to Edna's place, not here.

Val, let's face it. This is a hotel.

A public place.

- You go home to your husband.

- Go on. Do as he tells you.

- Keep your mouth shut.

- He means keep your mouth shut.

Yes. Yes, I will.

But how can you love a boy

you've just met?

How can a casual passing stranger

change your entire life?

You'd be amazed.

My wife I met and loved in a minute.

In a dentist's office.

With all the vitamins too.

I love her to this day...

...although it's 16 years she's been gone.

- No children?

- A girl. She's married now.

Last year, I put her husband

in a dry-cleaning establishment.

I had some savings.

I'd die for that girl.

- Does she remember her mother?

- My daughter? Oh, very well.

She even remembers the man.

What man?

The man my wife ran off with.

You won't believe it, the first six years,

I shaved every night before I went to bed.

I thought she might come back.

There's no papers in there anywhere.

She was no lullaby,

but she had the brains like a man.

I'll take her inside.

Val, stop it. For Pete's sake.

The cops are right across the street.

- I'll stop it. I'll... Do you have a priest?

Val, stop!

I hope nobody heard that.

I was in the deep water there a minute.

Drop that gun and don't turn around.

- Is he hurt?

- He's punched black and blue.

Get some water.

Now you can turn around.

- Who are you?

Who likes to know?

A man with a gun in his hand.

Don't move.

The human body bleeds very easy.

Don't move.

- Where is the body?

- I put my sister in her bed.

I'm a friend of his. Lester Brady.

Are you hurt?

Pretty weak. I can't deny that.

- What did you beat that boy up for?

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