Playback Page #19

KILLAINE:

Mrs. West is a very emotional woman.

BETTY:

I don't know her.. or particularly

want to.

KILLAINE:

You probably know the type. You

find them in hotels and resorts

all over the world. They always

have clothes, and money, and usually

have had three or four husbands.

They dress and enamel themselves

with great care. They worry a great

deal about those little lines at

the corner of the eyes.. And they

demonstrate their incompetence at

the art of living bet getting mixed

up with people like Larry Mitchell.

(a beat)

Tell me about yourself, Miss

Mayfield.

BETTY:

I was born in New York City. I

grew up. And here I am.

KILLAINE:

I'll have to know a little more

than that.

BETTY:

I'm sorry, that's all there is.

KILLAINE:

Miss Mayfield, the humor of the

situation escapes me. Within 24

hours I shall know officially

whether Mitchell was murdered.

Privately, I'm quite sure of it

now. It happened in your room, and

you came to Vancouver with him..

At any rate, he made your hotel

reservation.. And you arrived

together. Here in this room he

behaved nastily to you, and you

said something to him which might

be taken as a threat. A few hours

later he was found dead on your

balcony. Would it be too much too

suggest that all these circumstances

taken together are a little

suspicious?

Betty doesn't answer.

KILLAINE:

Please answer my question.

BETTY:

You didn't ask a question. You

made a speech.

KILLAINE:

That's an evasion and you know it.

BETTY:

It is?

Their eyes meet in a long stare.

INT. ROYAL HOTEL - MARGO'S ROOM -- NIGHT

There is some moonlight. In the foreground, the back of a

man seated in a chair. Door opens, Margo is silhouetted

against corridor light. She switches light on, shuts door,

turns, and reacts violently. Clarendon is sitting in chair

with his cane between his knees. CAMERA PANS her over to

Clarendon.

MARGO:

(tensely)

What are you doing here?

CLARENDON:

I don't think you locked your door.

MARGO:

What do you want?

CLARENDON:

See how easy it is? Perhaps Miss

Mayfield left her door unlocked.

Or if she didn't, there's a passkey

on every floor in the linen room.

The head porter has a passkey. The

bell captain has a passkey. The

hotel's full of passkeys.

MARGO:

Passkey?

CLARENDON:

Or--since one is a well-known and

respected guest--one could go to

the desk in the lobby and say "Miss

Mayfield seems to have lost her

room key--have you another"? They

always have another.

MARGO:

Don't be a fool. I loved him. He

wasn't worth it, but I loved him.

CLARENDON:

And now that he's safe from all

other women, you can go on loving

him.

MARGO:

You nasty, sardonic--

CLARENDON:

Sardonic, if you will my dear.

Bust nasty. You lied about the

gun.

Margo reacts, shocked. Clarendon gets slowly to his feet.

CLARENDON:

I'm a very observant man. You had

something in your bag this

afternoon, Something that causes

you to hold it in a particular

way. Something that made a

particular sound when you put it

down on the bar. You went out with

Mitchell. None of us ever saw him

again.

MARGO:

(desperately)

That's not enough.

CLARENDON:

I saw your face this evening when

the detective showed you the gun.

You lied. It was obvious.

MARGO:

He saw my face too.

CLARENDON:

So he did--but he hasn't told you

what he saw. I have.

MARGO:

They'll arrest that girl.

Everything points to her.

CLARENDON:

Convenient, isn't it?

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