Gaslight Page #8

- What was that?

- What was that name you said?

- Sergis Bauer.

I found this, but my husband said

I dreamed, and now it's here.

- Bauer.

- It's been here the whole time.

There was a Sergis Bauer

connected with Alice Alquist.

He was a young pianist who played

for her in Prague. Let me see that.

"Dear Miss Alquist,

I beg of you to see me just once.

"I followed you to London."

Look.

"Dear Lady Dalroy..."

This is my husband's writing.

So is this.

Your husband and Sergis Bauer

are one and the same person.

This letter from him to Alice Alquist

was written two days before her murder.

He said there was no letter,

that I was going out of my mind!

No. You're slowly and systematically

being driven out of your mind.

Why?

Perhaps because you found this letter

and know too much.

Or because then he would have control

of your property, of this house...

and could search in the open

instead of the dark like this.

Search? What is there to search for?

For the things for which

Alice Alquist was murdered: Her jewels.

I have her jewels.

They're the jewels

you didn't know she had. Famous jewels.

Jewels for which

he was searching that night...

when he was frightened away by hearing

someone come down the stairs.

Someone he never saw.

A little girl.

Me.

So he was here that night, but he never...

He never knew her.

You're wrong. You're making a mistake.

I know him. He's my husband.

I've lived in the same house with him.

You're talking about the man

I'm married to.

Mrs. Anton, there's not a detail

of the Alquist case that I don't know...

and unless I'm more mistaken

than I've ever been in my life...

the man called Sergis Bauer

has a wife living in Prague now.

So you see, he must have planned

the whole thing...

step by step from that night.

If that were true, then from the beginning

there would have been nothing.

Nothing real, from the beginning.

I'm sorry to take everything away

from you like this.

- No.

- But you must believe me.

Your life depends

on what you're going to do now.

Nothing less than your whole life.

Don't you see the way everything fits in?

The gas.

How long has it been up?

Elizabeth, whatever happens tonight,

have her welfare in mind.

You can count on me, sir.

But what am I going to say to the master

when he comes back?

He won't come back anymore, Elizabeth.

- What are you doing?

- I was lying down.

Fully dressed?

- Did you hear what I said?

- Yes.

Then why don't you answer?

- I don't know.

- You don't know?

Do you know anything

about anything you do?

I will be obliged if you will come with me

to my room.

Sit down in this chair.

You know what you remind me of

as you walk across the room?

Have you ever seen anyone

walking in their sleep?

But you're not asleep.

No, you can't deceive me.

You're fully awake, or you would not have

broken open my desk!

Now be careful how you answer.

Why did you open my desk?

I didn't open your desk.

- Nancy?

- Nancy's out.

- Who, then? Elizabeth?

- No, it wasn't Elizabeth.

Please don't question me anymore.

Let me go back...

No. Stay there, Paula.

- Why did you open my desk?

- I didn't open your desk.

- Why did you open my desk?

- I didn't open your desk. It was he...

He opened it.

What are you talking about?

Who is he?

A man.

A man who came to see me.

- When?

- While you were out.

Who let him in?

Yes, sir?

Who was the man who came to see

your mistress while I was out?

What man, sir?

Come, Elizabeth.

You must have answered the bell.

No one was here, sir, while you were out.

But, Elizabeth...

But you saw him.

You opened the door for him yourself.

Elizabeth, say it!

No, ma'am. I didn't see anyone at all.

But he was here. I know it.

I know it.

But he was here. I know it!

I saw him.

You see how it is, Elizabeth?

Yes, sir. I see just how it is.

I couldn't have dreamed it.

No, I couldn't have dreamed it.

Did I dream? Did I really dream?

Yes, Paula, you dreamed it.

You dreamed all day long.

- Are you telling me that I've dreamed...

- Everything.

- All that happened?

- All that did not happen.

Then it's true.

- My mind is going.

- Haven't I told you?

- It was a dream.

- Like all the rest.

- Take me away. I can't fight it anymore.

- I will.

It was a dream. Take me away.

Was I any part of this curious dream

of yours, Mrs. Anton?

You.

Perhaps my presence here

might help you to recall it.

Who the devil are you?

Apparently a mere figment

of your wife's imagination.

- How did you get into this house?

- Through the skylight, like you...

and down these stairs.

You made it very easy.

Will you tell me what you're doing here?

Mrs. Anton, I think you'd better

go to bed. You must be tired.

You'd better explain your business, sir.

As a mere figment, as a mere ghost

existing in your wife's mind...

I could hardly be said

to have any business.

Paula, go to your room, please.

So you found them after all.

I was right about you.

I knew from the moment I saw you

that you were dangerous to me.

I knew from the first moment I saw you

that you were dangerous to her.

I should have followed my instinct

about you, as you followed yours.

I thought she was Alice Alquist

come back to life.

I didn't know then that she was walking

with Sergis Bauer.

- I'm afraid I don't know your name.

- Cameron. Want my address, too?

- No. I think I can guess it.

- So we both ended our search tonight.

This is where Alice Alquist hid them.

Where the world could see them,

yet no one would know where they were...

except the man who gave them to her,

watching from the royal box.

Pretty clever of her to put four priceless

jewels among a lot of paste and tape.

- For the last time, what do you want?

- The jewels, and justice.

How does it feel, Bauer, to have planned

and killed and tortured for something...

- and then to know it's been for nothing?

- For nothing?

- What is it, ma'am?

- I thought I heard a shot.

Help! Mr. Williams, come quick!

Up there!

Anybody at home?

Well, Mrs. Anton, you believe me now.

Perhaps you'd like to see these things.

They cost a woman's life.

They cost you something, too.

- I want to speak to my husband.

- Mrs. Anton, I don't think that's advisable.

- I want to speak to him alone.

- I'm afraid that's impossible.

- I assure you, I'm quite helpless.

- Please.

I'll be waiting on the stairs.

Go and see if he's listening.

- He is not listening.

- You have got confidence in him.

- Did he tell you a lot of things about me?

- Yes.

- They were lies.

- Why should he lie to me?

Because he's in love with you.

I can tell. I feel it.

Do you? Do you really, Gregory?

Or shall I call you Sergis?

So he told you that, too. What of it?

Have you never heard of an artist

taking a stage name? Sergis Bauer's mine.

It was a part of my life I didn't care to tell

you about. I was a failure then.

- They don't hang a man for that, do they?

- No, they don't hang a man for that.

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