The Strange Love of Martha Ivers Page #9

Like you did when those goons

worked me over.

Now we're even.

Now I'm beat up.

I'm sorry I said that, Toni.

Look, kid.

I'm sore at myself, not at you.

Do you want me to leave?

Do you want to leave?

That's up to you, Sam.

I'm here on a rain check.

Now, don't put it that way.

You're here because...

that's the way we wanted it.

And now?

I'm not sure.

I'm just not sure.

Hello. Gable Hotel?

I want to speak to Sam Masterson.

- Put that phone down.

- Hello, Sam. This is Walter.

I know I'm not disturbing you.

Martha just came in.

- Well, what do you want?

- I want you to come up here.

Now. Right now.

- Are you crazy? The servants...

- I gave them the night off.

You're drunk.

I've had a lot to drink, but I'm not drunk.

I suppose it would be stupid

to ask where you were.

- Yes, it would.

- Sam's not leaving, is he?

- Ask him when he gets here.

- I just got my answer.

Then there are no more questions.

No, I know what I need to know.

Sam, the superman.

Sam, the dirty, little boy

from the other side of the tracks.

I'll go and change.

I wouldn't want him to see me

in the same dress twice.

Come in.

Toni.

- You're leaving, huh?

- There's a bus out in about an hour.

Toni.

Sam, it's better this way.

Look.

Sam, I came back here with you because...

you said you didn't like

to be pushed around.

I liked you when you said that.

You were looking for trouble,

but it was a good kind of trouble.

- And now...

- Now what?

Sam, I saw her. You're going to get hurt.

Leave her, Sam. Leave this town.

Even without me, but leave.

I can't.

At least, not just yet.

You're going to need some money.

No, thanks. Let's break clean.

- See you around.

- Yeah.

Around.

- Where's Martha?

- Upstairs getting dressed for the occasion.

We'll go upstairs.

Why did you call me?

I've got a riddle, Sam.

Maybe you can help me solve it.

It's a little riddle called, "What's to be

done about me, Martha, and you?"

Sounds just like a poem. If it rhymed,

it would rhyme with murder.

He's drunk. He's been sitting here

drinking all night.

Draw a chalk line and I'll walk it.

Or I'll take a mental test,

any question, like...

what is my object in life?

- I tried to stop him from calling you.

- You're a wiseacre...

an angle boy.

You know all the answers, don't you?

How are you on dreams?

Then I was glad he called you.

I was frightened of him, Sam.

She was frightened of me.

I had a dream, Sam. It was about you.

In my dream,

you were not a handsome corpse.

Maybe it was some other guy.

- In other dreams there were others.

- I told you, he's drunk.

- Did you say "others?"

- Many others.

- He's lying.

- Poor little Martha.

Her life was so empty.

Is that what she told you, Sam?

I don't want him in here, Sam.

Make him get out.

Now you're all of them, Sam.

Every one of them rolled into one.

- Sam, make him...

- Keep talking.

- I'm all of them rolled into one.

- Yes.

You're a gymnasium instructor

in Philadelphia.

With a muscle for a brain

and a tendency to insipid verse.

You're a guy, just a guy, named Pete,

in Erie, who smells of fish and sings.

You're last year's greatest fullback...

and you flunked your bar exam,

but you wanted to be an industrial engineer.

You're a guy who came along to fix a tire...

so well you became a city-paid inspector.

And you're a lot of others.

But worst of all you're the one

and only man who shares with me...

the only claim I have on her. Ask her, Sam.

Say to her, "Martha, is all this true?"

What if it is? What did you expect?

She never wanted to marry you.

If you had any self-respect...

She married me because she felt

that way I would never tell.

That's a lie! Your old man forced her!

How long you expect her

to go on paying off?

Forever.

Well, whatever happens to you,

you've got coming.

What can happen, Sam? Shall I tell you?

She'll try to get you to kill me.

Like she got me to send an innocent man

to the gallows.

I told you the way it was.

It was his father's idea. He...

Did she tell you how she stood up in

the police station...

how she looked at the man

without batting an eye...

how she said, "Yes, that's the man.

"He's the one who came

into the house that night.

"He's the man who killed my aunt."

That even stuck in the throat of my father.

My poor, dear, departed, greedy father.

- But he went right on and so did I.

- He's lying.

- You believe me, don't you, Sam?

- You believe her, Sam?

Martha, at least tell the truth now.

Tell how much you were afraid

of an unsolved murder.

Tell what a threat it was to the power

and the riches...

that you'd learned to love so much.

That I'd learned to love, too.

Tell why I became district attorney.

Tell why you made me hang that man.

Tell the truth!

I told the truth! They were like leeches!

Both of them.

- They wanted everything.

- All I ever wanted was you.

- Everything you are.

- I'm nothing.

- Everything you have, I gave you!

- You gave me nothing!

Then let go!

You're insane.

You're out of your mind.

Me, too.

You see, Sam, how close we really are

to each other?

Don't break up our happy home.

It'll have to be you or me.

And unless you do it now, it'll be you.

You mustn't think I'm drunk. I'm not.

It's just that I'm sick.

Inside of me, I'm sick.

Martha, help me. Please.

Sam, you believe me, don't you?

Now, Sam. Do it now.

Set me free. Set both of us free.

He fell down the stairs and fractured

his skull. That's how he died.

Everybody knows

what a heavy drinker he was.

Sam, it can be so easy.

- I thought you loved me.

- I thought I did, too.

- Now, you hate me.

- Now, I'm sorry for you.

When I dreamed about you coming back...

Your whole life has been a dream.

I thought you'd be the Sam

I knew as a child.

Martha, you're sick.

I could run to you when I was in trouble.

In your mind, I mean,

that's where you're sick.

And you'd help me.

So sick that you don't even know

the difference...

between right and wrong anymore.

You've killed. It says so in your record.

I've never murdered.

Are you all right, now?

All right.

You fell down the stairs.

I remember.

You carried me in here?

Yeah.

You had your chance, Sam.

It's a thin line.

The one between life and death.

You said I didn't know the difference

between right and wrong.

What's right for Walter and myself?

For us to tell the truth?

- I think so, yes.

- And hang for it?

You wouldn't hang for it.

Not if you confessed. You'd do time, sure.

Sure, I'll rot in prison for the rest of my life.

And for what?

- What am I guilty of?

- Murder.

What were their lives compared to mine?

What was she?

- A human being.

- A mean, vicious, hateful old woman...

who never did anything for anybody.

Look what I've done with what she's left me.

I've given to charity, built schools,

hospitals, given thousands of people work.

- What was he?

- Another human being.

A thief, a drunkard, someone who would've

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