Double Indemnity Page #19

PHYLLIS:

I felt so funny. I wanted to look at

you all the time.

C-8 NEFF ON TELEPHONE IN HIS APARTMENT

NEFF:

How do you think I felt? Where are

you, baby?

C-9 PHYLLIS ON PHONE

PHYLLIS:

At the drug store. Just a block away.

Can I come up?

C-10 NEFF'S APARTMENT - (NIGHT) - NEFF ON PHONE

NEFF:

Okay. But be careful. Don't let

anybody see you.

He hangs up, takes off his hat and drops hat and briefcase

on the davenport. He looks around the room and crosses to

lower the venetian blinds and draw the curtains. He gathers

up the morning paper which is lying untidily on the floor

and puts it in the waste-paper basket.

The door bell rings.

Neff stops in sudden alarm. It can't be Phyllis. The time is

too short. For a second he stands there motionless, then

crosses to the door and opens it.

In the open door stands Keyes.

NEFF:

Hello, Keyes.

Keyes walks past him into the room. His hands are clasped

behind his back. There is a strange, absent-minded look in

his eyes. Neff closes the door without taking his eyes off

Keyes.

NEFF:

What's on your mind?

Keyes stops in the middle of the room and turns.

KEYES:

That broken leg. The guy broke his

leg.

NEFF:

What are you talking about?

KEYES:

Talking about Dietrichson. He had

accident insurance, didn't he? Then

he broke his leg, didn't he?

NEFF:

So what?

KEYES:

And he didn't put in a claim. Why

didn't he put in a claim? Why?

NEFF:

What the dickens are you driving at?

KEYES:

Walter. There's something wrong. I

ate dinner two hours ago. It stuck

half way.

He prods his stomach with his thumb.

KEYES:

The little man is acting up again.

Because there's something wrong with

that Dietrichson case.

NEFF:

Because he didn't put in a claim?

Maybe he just didn't have time.

KEYES:

Oh maybe he just didn't know he was

insured.

He has stopped in front of Neff. They look at each other for

a tense moment. Neff hardly breathes.

Keyes shakes his head suddenly.

KEYES:

No. That couldn't be it. You delivered

the policy to him personally, didn't

you, Walter? And you got his check.

NEFF:

(Stiff-lipped, but

his voice is as well

under control as he

can manage)

Sure, I did.

Keyes prods his stomach again.

KEYES:

Got any bicarbonate of soda?

NEFF:

No I haven't.

Keyes resumes his pacing.

KEYES:

Listen, Walter. I've been living

with this little man for twenty-six

years. He's never failed me yet.

There's got to be something wrong.

NEFF:

Maybe Norton was right. Maybe it was

suicide, Keyes.

KEYES:

No. Not suicide.

(Pause)

But not accident either.

NEFF:

What else?

There is another longer pause, agonizing for Neff. Finally

Keyes continues:

KEYES:

Look. A man takes out an accident

policy that is worth a hundred

thousand dollars if he is killed on

a train. Then, two weeks later, he

is killed on a train. And not in a

train accident, mind you, but falling

off some silly observation car. Do

you know what the mathematical

probability of that is, Walter? One

out of I don't know how many billions.

And add to that the broken leg. It

just can't be the way it looks,

Walter. Something has been worked on

us.

NEFF:

Such as what?

Keyes doesn't answer. He goes on pacing up and down. Finally

Neff can't stand the silence any longer.

NEFF:

Murder?

KEYES:

(Prods stomach again)

Don't you have any peppermint or

anything?

NEFF:

I'm sorry.

(Pause)

Who do you suspect?

KEYES:

Maybe I like to make things easy for

myself. But I always tend to suspect

the beneficiary.

NEFF:

The wife?

KEYES:

Yeah. That wide-eyed dame that didn't

know anything about anything.

NEFF:

You're crazy, Keyes. She wasn't even

on the train.

KEYES:

I know she wasn't, Walter. I don't

claim to know how it was worked, or

who worked it, but I know that it

was worked.

He crosses to the corridor door.

KEYES:

I've got to get to a drug store. It

feels like a hunk of concrete inside

me.

He puts his hand on the knob to open the door.

C-11 CORRIDOR - APARTMENT HOUSE - NIGHT - LIGHTS ON

The hallway is empty except for Phyllis who has been standing

close to the door of Neff's apartment, listening. The door

has just started to open. Phyllis moves away quickly and

flattens herself against the wall behind the opening door.

Keyes is coming out.

KEYES:

Good night, Walter.

Neff, behind him, looks anxiously down the hallway for

Phyllis. Suddenly his eye catches a glimpse of her through

the crack of the partly opened door. He pushes the door wide

so as to hide her from Keyes.

NEFF:

Good night, Keyes.

KEYES:

See you at the office in the morning.

He has reached the elevator. He pushes the call button and

turns.

KEYES:

But I'd like to move in on her right

now, tonight, if it wasn't for Norton

and his stripe-pants ideas about

company policy. I'd have the cops

after her so quick her head would

spin. They'd put her through the

wringer, and, brother, what they

would squeeze out.

NEFF:

Only you haven't got a single thing

to go on, Keyes.

The elevator has come up and stopped.

KEYES:

Not too much. Twenty-six years

experience, all the percentage there

is, and this lump of concrete in my

stomach.

He pulls back the elevator door and turns to Neff with one

last glance of annoyance.

KEYES:

(Almost angrily)

No bicarbonate of soda.

Keyes gets into the elevator. The door closes. The elevator

goes down.

Neff stands numb, looking at the spot where Keyes was last

visible. Without moving his eyes he pulls the door around

towards him with his left hand. Phyllis slowly comes out.

Neff motions quickly to her to go into the apartment. She

crosses in front of him and enters. He steps in backwards

after her.

C-12 INT. NEFF'S APARTMENT

Phyllis has come a few steps into the room. Neff, backing in

after her, closes the door from inside and turns slowly.

They look at each other for a long moment in complete silence.

PHYLLIS:

How much does he know?

NEFF:

It's not what he knows. It's those

stinking hunches of his.

PHYLLIS:

But he can't prove anything, can he?

NEFF:

Not if we're careful. Not if we don't

see each other for a while.

PHYLLIS:

For how long a while?

She moves toward him but he does not respond.

NEFF:

Until all this dies down. You don't

know Keyes the way I do. Once he

gets his teeth into something he

won't let go. He'll investigate you.

He'll have you shadowed. He'll watch

you every minute from now on. Are

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