The Ninth Gate Page #4

LIANA (casually): Isn't this one of my husband's books?

CORSO:
Right. It was in his collection until very recently. He

sold it to a client of mine. I'm trying to authenticate it.

LIANA:
He sold it, you say? How strange. It was one of his most

treasured possessions.

CORSO:
He never mentioned the sale?

LIANA is fractionally late in answering. CORSO spots her

hesitation.

LIANA:
No. It's news to me. Who bought it?

CORSO:
A private collector.

LIANA:
May I know his name?

CORSO:
I'm afraid that's confidential.

LIANA:
I suppose he has a bill of sale?

CORSO:
No problem there.

LIANA:
Is this your job, authenticating rare books?

CORSO:
And tracking them down.

LIANA (smiles):
You're a book detective.

CORSO (smiles back): Kind of. (pause) Do you recall when and

where your husband acquired this book?

LIANA:
In Spain. We were vacationing at Toledo. Andrew got very

excited -- paid a great deal of money for it. He was a fanatical

collector.

CORSO:
So I gather.

LIANA deposits 'The Nine Gates' on the coffee table and rises.

LIANA:
I'll show you.

CORSO rises likewise. Then a thought strikes him: swiftly

retrieving 'The Nine Gates' and his bag, he stows one in the

other as he follows her undulating hips to a door at the far end

of the room, which she opens.

LIANA (cont.):
Look.

She walks on ahead into the library in which Andrew Telfer hanged

himself. CORSO is still eyeing her delectable rear view.

CORSO:
Magnificent...

Reluctantly, he drags his eyes away from LIANA and surveys the

crowded shelves.

CORSO (cont.):
Really magnificent...

He goes over to inspect the bookshelves. In passing he glances up

at the chandelier, which is still hanging slightly askew.

LIANA:
Andrew used to spend many hours in here.Too many.

CORSO:
Did he ever try it out?

He asks the question with an air of spurious innocence, looking

around the room as he does so. LIANA frowns.

LIANA:
I don't understand.

CORSO (cont.):
The book -- did he ever use it to perform some

kind of ritual intended to... well. produce a supernatural

effect?

LIANA:
Are you serious?

CORSO:
Absolutely.

LIANA:
A Black Mass, you mean?

CORSO:
More or less. An attempt to conjure up the Devil.

LIANA:
Andrew was a trifle eccentric, Mr. Corso, but he wasn't

insane.

She gives a mournful shrug, every inch the recent widow.

LIANA (cont.):
It's true he'd been acting strangely those last

few days. He shut himself up in here -- seldom emerged except for

meals.

She draws a deep breath, glances at the chandelier.

LIANA (cont.):
That morning I was woken by the screams of the

maid:
he'd hanged himself. (pauses, looks at CORSO) Whatever he

was up to, I certainly can't see him chanting mumbo-jumbo or

trying to raise the dead.

The flippant tone of the last few words sounds rather forced.

CORSO smiles at her faintly over his glasses, pats his shoulder

bag.

CORSO:
The Devil, Mrs. Telfer. This book is designed to raise the

Devil.

15. TELFER HOUSE EXT/DAY

CORSO crosses the forecourt to the street. A man with a MUSTACHE

and a scarred face is leaning against a limo parked outside the

house, smoking a small cigar. They eye each other briefly.

CORSO reaches the sidewalk just as a cab sails past. He raises

his hand too late to flag it down, looks around for another.

The MUSTACHE's cellphone beeps. He reaches into the limo and

picks up the receiver.

16. REFERENCE LIBRARY INT/DAY

The big reference library is divided up by freestanding

bookshelves and has a gallery running around it at second-floor

level. NUMEROUS READERS are occupying the rows of tables in the

central area.

CORSO is seated at one of the tables with the 'Nine Gates' in

front of him. Beside it reposes a large catalog and his notebook.

The 'Nine Gates' is open at the frontispiece, which displays the

title - 'De Umbrarum Regni Novem Portis'- and the words 'Sic

Luceat Lux' separated by an emblem consisting of A TREE ENCIRCLED

BY A SNAKE DEVOURING ITS OWN TAIL.

As we MOVE IN ON THE COILED SNAKE, we hear CORSO translating to

himself in a low voice:

CORSO (O.S.):
Sic Luceat Lux ... Thus ... let the light ...

shine...

17. REFERENCE LIBRARY INT/DUSK

Many of the tables are now deserted, and the shaded reading

lights have been switched on.

CORSO shuts a catalog and gets up to replace It in the wall of

books behind his chair, runs his finger along a shelf till he

comes to another fat tome and removes it. He's startled to see,

framed in the resulting gap, the face of THE GIRL at Balkan's

lecture:
short hair, green, feline eyes. The face recedes and

disappears.

CORSO quickly rounds the end of the bookshelf: no sign of her. He

looks both ways, but the aisles are deserted. Puzzled, he resumes

his seat and opens the second catalog. Then, sensing that he's

being watched, he swings around.

Nothing outwardly suspicious, just two BESPECTACLED STUDENTS

comparing notes In sibilant whispers. He looks right: a

scattering of READERS. He scans the reading-room at large: still

nothing untoward.

He turns some pages in 'The Nine Gates', comes to AN ENGRAVING OF

A NAKED WOMAN RIDING A SEVEN-HEADED DRAGON WITH A CASTLE ABLAZE

IN THE BACKGROUND. He consults the second catalog, which displays

a small reproduction of the same scene with text wrapped around

it, and jots something down in his notebook.

Wearily, he straightens and stretches, removes his glasses,

pinches the bridge of his nose. As he Idly scans the reading

room, his astigmatic vision gives him an unfocused glimpse of THE

GIRL looking down at him from the gallery overhead. By the time

he replaces his glasses, she's gone.

18. CORSO'S APARTMENT HOUSE EXTINIGHT

It's raining hard. CORSO trudges up the steps of his brownstone

with the canvas bag on his shoulder and a bag of groceries In his

arms.

19. ELEVATOR INT/NIGHT

CORSO rides the elevator up.

20. CORSO'S APARTMENT HOUSE: PASSAGE, APARTMENT INT/NIGHT

CORSO emerges from the elevator and walks down the passage to his

door. He inserts his key in the mortice lock and tries to turn

it. Nothing doing: It's unlocked already.

Next, he inserts his key in the second lock and turns it. Not

being double-locked, the door opens at once. It takes him a

moment to digest the significance of this fact.

Just then he hears a muffled crash from inside the apartment: a

window has been flung open in a hurry. He bursts into the living

room. No one there, but the light is on. Dropping his shoulder

bag and groceries, he dashes into the bedroom.

The window is open and the curtains are billowing out into the

room. CORSO darts to the window, flings one leg over the sill and

climbs out on the fire escape.

21. FIRE ESCAPE, SIDE STREET. EXT/NIGHT

Feet can be heard clattering down the fire escape. CORSO peers

over the rail just in time to see a DARK FIGURE emerge into the

side street beneath him and sprint off through the rain.

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