Still of the Night Page #5

And remember that part two of

the Maddow Estate sale will continue

tomorrow morning

here at Crispin's

with important Greek

and Roman antiquities.

You've been a wonderful audience.

Thank you all again. Good night.

- Uh, Miss Phillips? Excuse me.

- Oh, hi.

- Can I talk to you for a

moment, please? - Sure.

I'm trying to locate

Brooke Reynolds.

She was going to meet me

here half an hour ago.

Do you have any idea

where she is?

Uh-uh. Haven't seen

her since the sale.

Did you try her apartment?

Yes, she's not there.

Well, you might call her

tomorrow morning at work.

She gets in between

9:
30 and 10:00.

Wait a minute.

I've got to talk to her,

it's very important.

Oh, God,

she's going to kill me!

Her parents have a house out in Long

Island. She goes out there sometimes.

Where?

It's in Glen Cove.

It's on Wood Street, or Wood Lane.

Okay.

Thanks.

Brooke?

Anybody here?

Miss Phillips?

Oh, my God.

You scared me to death.

Oh, I'm sorry to

bother you this late.

I was wondering if I could talk

to you for a few minutes.

It's important.

It's about Miss Reynolds.

Sure.

You want to come up?

How did you find me?

What's-her-name,

your friend that works with you.

She told me you

might be out here.

All right.

It was wrong for me to go through

your desk. I'm sorry about that.

I mean, I can understand

how you feel.

How can you understand

how I feel?

You don't know

anything about me.

You're right.

I don't know anything about you.

But I know this much. I know the

police think you killed George Bynum.

What do you think?

Do you think I killed him?

No.

But you're not sure.

Listen to me.

On account of you,

I'm an accessory to something...

I don't know what.

I'm withholding evidence.

I'm obstructing justice.

I'm going to get my license revoked

if I'm not thrown into jail first.

And on top of that,

I've just spent

$15,000 for a painting

I don't even like.

That's the man

in the clipping!

That's my father.

Sam, I don't know how those

things got into my desk.

- All that happened a long

time ago. - All what?

My father's death.

What happened?

This house belonged

to my mother.

I grew up here.

They separated when

I was very little.

But I remember...

Well, that's when

she started to drink.

Anyway, I was 16.

I was away at school when, uh...

they called and told me that she

finally drank herself to death.

Uh, they didn't

say that, but...

That's what it was.

I remember I felt

nothing for her.

No remorse, nothing.

After the funeral,

my father came

and took me back

with him to Florence.

I lived there for two years.

And it was the happiest I've

ever been in my whole life.

Then, uh, on my eighteenth

birthday, in June,

I came into my inheritance.

They had all the lawyers flew over

and lots of documents to sign.

And in and among all these

papers there was a, uh,

a letter that she'd written to

me not long before she died.

In it she said...

She said she'd

always loved me,

and she was sorry that

I hadn't known that.

She told me, my father...

had turned me against her and

that that had broken her heart.

She said he never loved her.

He just was interested

in her money.

And she said he never

loved me, either.

That he only pretended to

as a weapon against her.

She said she was

afraid for me.

She said...

I should be very,

very careful of him,

that he would do

anything for the money.

So I was supposed to...

I was supposed to go

back that afternoon

and sign all these papers,

but I couldn't...

I didn't. I went to a chapel

that was near us and...

Just to be alone, but there

were a lot of tourists there,

so I went up into

the bell tower.

My father followed me.

He was very upset. He wanted

to know what was in the letter.

I wouldn't...

I wouldn't...

I didn't want to see him,

I just wanted to get away,

but he...

He wouldn't let me,

so I showed him the letter.

He was shaking.

And I remember the paper

was shaking as he read it.

And when he was done, he folded it up

very carefully and gave it back to me.

And then he made a joke...

about my mother.

That she was probably... drunk when

she wrote it, or something like that.

Then he smiled at me.

And I knew that she

was right about him.

He came towards me with his arms out,

I suppose to, uh, embrace me.

But the look on his face,

it terrified me.

I shook him off and

he got very angry.

He grabbed me and he pushed

me against this barricade.

I tried to pull away,

but that made him furious and he

held me hard against this rail and I was

sure that it was going to give way.

And then I thought, "That's what he is

trying to do. He's trying to kill me. "

And I got wild.

I just... I, um,

twisted myself around and

I hit him as hard as I could.

He fell backwards.

I guess he must have

lost his balance,

the whole railway broke

loose, and he went down.

And he...

He said my name.

But I...

I couldn't move.

I just couldn't move.

They said he died instantly.

Just...

There was, um...

some scandal...

at first, but, uh, it never...

There wasn't even

a formal inquest.

Everyone knew how much

we loved each other.

And you kept this buried?

Until you told George Bynum?

No, no.

I never told George this.

But he knew.

Yes, he did.

How?

I don't know how.

I don't know.

When I explained to him that there was

no use in our seeing each other anymore,

that's when he told me

he knew all about it.

He threatened me.

He said he would

bring it all up again.

I couldn't...

I couldn't bear it.

- And that was here in this house.

- Yes.

How did you know that?

Because Bynum had a dream.

And this house was in the dream and

so was the person who killed him.

In the dream, Bynum comes

to this house late at night.

He enters a room where all the

furniture is covered with sheets.

Against a far wall is a large oriental

cabinet, like the one in your office.

Inside there's a green box.

He takes the box and

puts it in his pocket.

He sees a little

girl sitting in a chair.

She's holding

a stuffed animal.

She reaches across and

pulls out one of the eyes.

The animal starts to bleed.

Sam, I don't know why you're

doing this. I don't know.

He turns and looks

for a door...

which leads to

a long hallway...

He tries to get

away from her.

But she begins to follow him.

The hallway opens up

onto a large room

with a lot of French doors.

He tries to get out,

but the doors are locked.

By now, the child has

followed him into the room.

He looks around

and sees a staircase.

He starts towards the...

Wait a minute,

there is no staircase.

Yes, there is.

He starts up the steps.

When he gets to the top,

he tries the door, but it won't open.

He can feel the

child getting closer.

Finally,

he gets the door open,

steps inside,

closes it behind him.

And then he takes the

green box out of his pocket.

It slips through his fingers.

It's not a green box.

It sounds like "green box"

but it isn't.

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