Playback Page #38

Brandon stops reading, his face is tight, and grim. Slowly

he refolds the note and turns to look at Betty.

BRANDON:

If you meant it, you wouldn't show

it to me, Betty.

(pause)

Or am I supposed to deliver it to

dear Inspector Killaine?

BETTY:

(in a half-wild

tone)

Wrote it in the waiting room of

the Hudson Bay Store. With

somebody's Pekingese trying to

climb into my lap. Perhaps you're

right. Perhaps I didn't mean it.

All I know is that I'm licked.

BRANDON:

(very slowly)

There's a lot of water between

Vancouver and the U.S.A. This note

is a suicide note. After you're

gone where would they look for

you?

(long pause)

Why would they look for you?

Darkness, and open water, and a

fast cabin cruiser. And I have a

pocket full of money. And if I

helped you, I'd be committing a

crime, or so they tell me.

BETTY:

That wasn't why I called you. Why

did I hope--when I hadn't any right

to hope?

BRANDON:

How bad is it? Bad enough for--

(he taps pointing

to the note)

BETTY:

Yes. I've never been very far

from it, for a long time. Will

you do something for me?

Brandon nods.

BETTY:

Take me where I haven't the courage

to take myself.

BRANDON:

How bad is the other thing? The

secret?

BETTY:

I was tried for murdering my

husband. Guilty. The judge set

the verdict aside. There was one

man on the jury--

(she pauses, shakes

her head)

--but he was afraid. They were

all afraid--of my father-in-law.

That man followed me last night--

he came from him of course. My

father-in-law will never give up.

Never. He promised me that.

(she laughs a little)

So I came to Vancouver, B.C. As

far away as I can get from North

Carolina. And it happens all over

again. Almost the same thing.

Almost the same way. Do you wonder

about this--

She reaches to take the note from his hand. He pulls it

away from her.

BRANDON:

This is the ace, Betty. But not

of spades. They'll find out about

the other. They might know already.

And when they get this--

(he holds up the

note again)

What would they look for? Where?

Out there somewhere?

(he points towards

the open water

beyond the ships)

BETTY:

They'll look for you.

BRANDON:

I run over to Victoria. Play some

golf with some people I know. Do

it all the time. That's why I

have a cabin cruiser. Custom-

built.Forty knots. Mr Clark Brandon

an almost gentleman of almost

complete leisure. Member of six

golf clubs. Broke 70 once on the

Shaughnessy Heights Course. You

have to be good to do that, And if

you look out of a front window of

the Empress Hotel in Victoria, in

a few hours you can look right

down on Mr. Brandon's boat, the

Valkyrie. Came alone? Sure. He

always comes alone. Mr Brandon's

a rather lonely man.

BETTY:

(staring at him,

fascinated)

And Betty Mayfield--

BRANDON:

Blonde, beautiful, and sad--and

nowhere. Of course she might have

run away--if she knew how. And

where to go. She might have dyed

her hair. Bleached it before

probably.

(Betty nods)

And changed her name again. But

look at this note.

(he holds it up)

And look at her room in the hotel.

Her stuff is all there. Hasn't a

rag except what she stood up in.

You don't run away like that. Not

if you are young and beautiful.

No chance.

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