Double Indemnity Page #7

PHYLLIS:

It's raining.

NEFF:

So it is. Peel off your coat and sit

down.

She starts to take off her coat.

NEFF:

Your husband out?

PHYLLIS:

Long Beach. They're spudding in a

new well. He phoned he'd be late.

About nine-thirty.

He takes her coat and lays it across the back of a chair.

PHYLLIS:

It's about time you said you're glad

to see me.

NEFF:

I knew you wouldn't leave it like

that.

PHYLLIS:

Like what?

NEFF:

Like it was this afternoon.

PHYLLIS:

I must have said something that gave

you a terribly wrong impression. You

must surely see that. You must never

think anything like that about me,

Walter.

NEFF:

Okay.

PHYLLIS:

It's not okay. Not if you don't

believe me.

NEFF:

What do you want me to do?

PHYLLIS:

I want you to be nice to me. Like

the first time you came to the house.

NEFF:

It can't be like the first time.

Something has happened.

PHYLLIS:

I know it has. It's happened to us.

NEFF:

That's what I mean.

Phyllis has moved over to the window. She stares out through

the wet window-pane.

NEFF:

What's the matter now?

PHYLLIS:

I feel as if he was watching me. Not

that he cares about me. Not any more.

But he keeps me on a leash. So tight

I can't breathe. I'm scared.

NEFF:

What of? He's in Long Beach, isn't

he?

PHYLLIS:

I oughtn't to have come.

NEFF:

Maybe you oughtn't.

PHYLLIS:

You want me to go?

NEFF:

If you want to.

PHYLLIS:

Right now?

NEFF:

Sure. Right now.

By this time, he has hold of her wrist. He draws her to him

slowly and kisses her. Her arms tighten around him. After a

moment he pulls his head back, still holding her close.

NEFF:

How were you going to do it?

PHYLLIS:

Do what?

NEFF:

Kill him.

PHYLLIS:

Walter, for the last time --

She tries to jerk away but he holds her and kisses her again.

NEFF:

I'm crazy about you, baby.

PHYLLIS:

I'm crazy about you, Walter.

NEFF:

That perfume on your hair. What's

the name of it?

PHYLLIS:

Something French. I bought it down

at Ensenada.

NEFF:

We ought to have some of that pink

wine to go with it. The kind that

bubbles. But all I have is bourbon.

PHYLLIS:

Bourbon is fine, Walter.

He lets her go and moves toward the dinette.

A-45 THE DINETTE AND KITCHEN

It contains a small table and some chairs. A low glass-and-

china cabinet is built between the dinette and kitchen,

leaving a space like a doorway. The kitchen is the usual

apartment house kitchen, with stove, ice-box, sink, etc. It

is quite small.

Neff goes to the ice-box and Phyllis drifts in after him.

NEFF:

Soda?

PHYLLIS:

Plain water, please.

NEFF:

Get a couple of glasses, will you.

He points at the china closet. He has taken a tray of ice

cubes from the refrigerator and is holding it under the hot-

water faucet.

NEFF:

You know, about six months ago a guy

slipped on the soap in his bathtub

and knocked himself cold and drowned.

Only he had accident insurance. So

they had an autopsy and she didn't

get away with it.

Phyllis has the glasses now. She hands them to him. He dumps

some ice cubes into the glasses.

PHYLLIS:

Who didn't?

NEFF:

His wife.

He reaches for the whiskey bottle on top of the china closet.

NEFF:

And there was another case where a

guy was found shot and his wife said

he was cleaning a gun and his stomach

got in the way. All she collected

was a three-to-ten stretch in

Tehachapi.

PHYLLIS:

Perhaps it was worth it to her.

Neff hands her a glass.

NEFF:

See if you can carry this as far as

the living room.

They move back toward the living room.

A-46 LIVING ROOM

Phyllis and Neff go toward the davenport. She is sipping her

drink and looking around.

PHYLLIS:

It's nice here, Walter. Who takes

care of it for you?

NEFF:

A colored woman comes in twice a

week.

PHYLLIS:

You get your own breakfast?

NEFF:

Once in a while I squeeze a

grapefruit. The rest I get at the

corner drugstore.

They sit on the davenport, fairly close together.

PHYLLIS:

It sounds wonderful. Just strangers

beside you. You don't know them. You

don't hate them. You don't have to

sit across the table and smile at

him and that daughter of his every

morning of your life.

NEFF:

What daughter? Oh, that little girl

on the piano.

PHYLLIS:

Yes. Lola. She lives with us. He

thinks a lot more of her than he

does of me.

NEFF:

Ever think of a divorce?

PHYLLIS:

He wouldn't give me a divorce.

NEFF:

I suppose because it would cost him

money.

PHYLLIS:

He hasn't got any money. Not since

he went into the oil business.

NEFF:

But he had when you married him?

PHYLLIS:

Yes, he had. And I wanted a home.

Why not? But that wasn't the only

reason. I was his wife's nurse. She

was sick for a long time. When she

died, he was all broken up. I pitied

him so.

NEFF:

And now you hate him.

PHYLLIS:

Yes, Walter. He's so mean to me.

Every-time I buy a dress or a pair

of shoes he yells his head off. He

won't let me go anywhere. He keeps

me shut up. He's always been mean to

me. Even his life insurance all goes

to that daughter of his. That Lola.

NEFF:

Nothing for you at all, huh?

PHYLLIS:

No. And nothing is just what I'm

worth to him.

NEFF:

So you lie awake in the dark and

listen to him snore and get ideas.

PHYLLIS:

Walter, I don't want to kill him. I

never did. Not even when he gets

drunk and slaps my face.

NEFF:

Only sometimes you wish he was dead.

PHYLLIS:

Perhaps I do.

NEFF:

And you wish it was an accident, and

you had that policy. For fifty

thousand dollars. Is that it?

PHYLLIS:

Perhaps that too.

She takes a long drink.

PHYLLIS:

The other night we drove home from a

party. He was drunk again. When we

got into the garage he just sat there

with his head on the steering wheel

and the motor still running. And I

thought what it would be like if I

didn't switch it off, just closed

the garage door and left him there.

NEFF:

I'll tell you what it would be like,

if you had that accident policy, and

tried to pull a monoxide job. We

have a guy in our office named Keyes.

For him a set-up like that would be

just like a slice of rare roast beef.

In three minutes he'd know it wasn't

an accident. In ten minutes you'd be

sitting under the hot lights. In

half an hour you'd be signing your

name to a confession.

PHYLLIS:

But Walter, I didn't do it. I'm not

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