The Strange Love of Martha Ivers Page #7

Who'll kick off first? Your team or mine?

You look terrible, Sam. Have a drink.

Thanks.

My hand!

"The report on Sam Masterson."

Here, take this. I'm two up on you.

Thanks.

You're out of shape, Walter.

For a minute there I thought you were dead.

I was.

- I wasn't going to shoot.

- I wasn't going to wait and see.

Come on.

I took a gander at this while you were out.

I could have given you a much more

detailed picture on Sam Masterson.

I didn't know you cared.

You know it now.

- Now I'll let Martha give it to you.

- Give him what, Sam?

The facts concerning a guy

called Sam Masterson...

and his attitudes towards life and love.

Walter's got the wrong ideas.

- Sam, you're hurt.

- You ought to see the other guy.

- What happened?

- This.

It fell out of a guy's pocket

and hit me in the face.

Private d*cks.

What's the trouble, Walter?

Don't you trust your own cops?

You're right, Sam.

I hired the man who worked you over.

The idea was mine.

I thought it might scare you

into not coming back. It hasn't.

We're ready to listen to the

current quotation on blackmail.

- Walter!

- Blackmail?

I said blackmail. Now, what is the price?

Remember you are dealing

with two old friends.

- Which one of you do I deal with?

- With me.

Be at my office at the plant at 3:00.

Okay.

May the deal be profitable, to all of us.

Whatever the price is, that's it, Sam.

Don't try this again.

What happened last night

can happen again, and worse.

Don't try it, sweetheart.

I'll make this a flat statement.

I'll kill you.

Hold your hand under the water.

Now dry your hand.

This will hurt.

- Even pain at your hands.

- You were lucky.

- Yes, I'm a very lucky man.

- And a stupid one.

Yesterday afternoon he told me he didn't

want anything. That he was going away.

- lf you had let me handle it...

- I didn't like what you had in mind.

It's quite a thing, in a small city like this,

to be a district attorney.

You get to feel like God.

You know everything.

Down to the smallest detail.

Even a call to Dempsey's garage.

Sam's leaving Iverstown today.

- That's what he said.

- I want to hear you say it.

- It's up to him.

- No, it's up to you.

I know you, Martha. You are my life's work.

I've studied you all these years.

A little girl in a cage,

waiting for someone to let her out.

And along comes Sam.

Do you know what's on my mind, Martha.

About Sam, I mean?

I think I do. And that's where it will stay.

On your mind.

Unless, of course, I tell you differently.

What did O'Neil say?

Do you think he'll make trouble?

No, no, I had him figured out right.

He's still just a scared, little kid.

Coffee, please. Black.

You know,

Martha's the one I can't dope out.

- Martha?

- Mrs. O'Neil.

The three of us grew up together.

I told you about it, remember?

Thanks.

- What's she like now?

- What do you mean?

- Is she pretty?

- She's beautiful.

That's why I can't figure it out.

Why should a beautiful, rich girl stay

married to a guy she's not in love with?

- How do you know that?

- I know.

You sound like you're in love with her.

You sound like you're in love with her.

You sound like you're jealous.

Could be.

- When are we leaving?

- This evening, if the car is ready.

What do we do until then?

I know, why don't we find out

what happened to your people?

Yeah. That ought to be simple...

now I know I left town September 27, 1928.

The exact day. How come you remember it?

Wouldn't you remember a date,

the exact date...

about something

that happened that long ago?

No. Not unless something terrific

happened that day.

Yeah.

Come on, let's finish our coffee.

We'll go down to the newspaper morgue.

The morgue?

Yeah. I think I can find out

about my people down there.

Afterwards, take you shopping.

That was a strange case.

It went unsolved for years.

Then one day they picked up a guy

who stuck up a garage or something.

Someone who used to work

at old lady Ivers' house.

It came out at the trial that he was

the one that knocked the old lady off.

It's my favorite case.

Here's a picture of the guy.

He doesn't look like very much, does he?

Yeah. Kind of a scared, little rabbit.

I watched him all through the trial.

Never had a chance.

O'Neil really did a job on him.

- Is that Walter O'Neil?

- Yep. Same guy.

It was kind of dramatic, though.

Him being engaged to the niece

of the murdered woman.

Sure did a job.

- The jury was unanimous.

- What happened to him?

They hung him. Interesting, eh?

Solving a murder after all those years.

It's all in the files there,

go ahead and read it.

Thanks, I will.

- Yes?

- Mr. Masterson. By appointment.

Send him in, please.

- 3:
00, on the nose.

- On the nose. Come in, Sam.

You should have kept me waiting.

Big executives always keep people

waiting, didn't you know that?

- Good executives don't.

- I'll bet you're good.

I am.

It catches it, doesn't it?

The feeling of a factory?

When your aunt owned this place,

I couldn't get past the gate.

Now I'm a guest. Or am I?

I invited you here.

Martha, did your aunt leave you everything?

I was her only heir.

I'll never forget the way she looked

that night standing in the doorway...

- leaning on her cane.

- I don't want to talk about her.

Okay. Okay.

You look different than you did

this morning. Clean and fresh.

Yeah. Well, it's the perfume

I use that makes me smell so nice.

I bet I smell as nice as you

and Walter put together.

What do you want?

I think I've got what I want.

I think I've got a gimmick.

A gimmick is an angle that works for you...

to keep you from working too hard

for yourself.

Simple.

- Specifically, what is your angle?

- Specifically?

Half.

- Half of what?

- You tell me.

All right, Sam.

Come here.

My father used to work here as a mill hand.

So did my father, when he was sober.

- Now I own it.

- Now you're even.

Now I'm even.

I was 21 when I took it over.

It had 3,000 workers then.

It's got 30,000 now.

Ran as far as that gate.

Now it goes down to the edge of the river.

And I did it all by myself.

Without Walter, without his father.

All by myself.

Half of this should make quite a score.

Half would make you my partner.

That's what I had in mind.

You went out of here a dirty little kid

once before. That can happen again.

I don't have to give you anything,

if I don't want to.

But you do want to.

Hey, Toni! Come in here, quick!

Yes, Sam?

- Make a wish.

- I went shopping.

Any wish. You make it. You got it.

- You feel good.

- Yeah, I'm high. I had a drink.

- What was in it?

- A bucket of gold. The dice came up seven.

Toni, you bring me luck.

I'm gonna wear you like a charm.

You really think so, Sam?

You really think I bring you luck?

I know so, and that's an asset

for a guy in my business.

Toni Marachek, asset.

Toni Marachek, good kid.

You stick around, Toni Marachek.

Now I've got all the luck.

I'm funny that way.

I say what's on my mind.

You walk down the street

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