Victim Page #6

All right. You want to

know. I shall tell you.

You won't be content

until you know, will you?

Till you've ripped it out of me!

I stopped seeing him

because I wanted him.

Do you understand? Because I wanted him!

Now what good has that done you?

When did it begin?

From the moment I saw him.

You don't call that love?

No.

If it was love, why should

I want to stamp it out?

Why would I do that if it was love?

His feeling for you? What was that?

I don't know.

Yes, I - I think

perhaps for him -

Perhaps for him it was love.

The only kind of love he could feel.

He died for it to protect me.

That thought will remain with

you for the rest of your life.

I don't think there's going

to be room for me as well.

Oh, yes, milord. Oh!Just

one moment, please.

Lord Fullbrook, sir.

Thank you, Mrs. Brooks.

Yes, Charles.

Well, can't it wait till Monday?

I must say you make

it sound very dramatic.

Very well...

If you put it on a personal basis.

What address?

18 Nightingale Mews.

Come in. Fullbrook's waiting inside.

Oh, hello, Farr. Good of you to come.

- You said it was a matter of life and death.

- It is to me.

- You two know each other.

- Come to cases, teddy. Come to cases.

I'm afraid you upset tiny

at the theater last night.

Ask him who he's working for, Teddy.

You seem set on stirring up a lot

of trouble. I want you to stop.

- What exactly has it to do with you, Charles?

- Well, the demands addressed to Calloway...

Cover the three of us.

I see.

- Frankly, I'm surprised.

- Why?

You're a sophisticated man. You

know the invert is part of nature.

- Sherry?

- But I've known you for years, Charles.

One is discreet about these things.

- What do you want?

- I want you to persuade your client to join us.

We'll pay the blackmailer

off in one nice big sum. Hmm?

- Any idea who it is?

- No.

It's a filthy thing, extortion.

- Where'd you leave

the money? - At the -

there you are, teddy.

- You haven't done a damn bit of good.

- Steady, tiny.

Listen. Our apparently calm acceptance of this

blackmail must seem very extraordinary to you.

But do you ever wonder about the law that

makes us all victims of any cheap thug...

Who finds out about

our natural instincts?

Paying blackmail won't alter the law.

It'll only encourage the blackmailer.

We've got to pay.

Tell him, teddy. Explain.

If we don't pay,

10-To-1 we land in jail.

With our crime - So-Called - Damn nearly

parallel with robbery with violence.

Man-Made laws are never perfect.

I'm a born odd-Man-Out, Farr, but

I've never corrupted the normal.

Why should I be forced

to live outside the law...

Because I find love

in the only way I can?

You're a star, Calloway.

People like you set a fashion.

If the young people knew how you lived,

mightn't they think that an example to follow?

Of course youth must be

protected. We all agree about that.

But that doesn't mean that consenting males in

private should be pilloried by an antiquated law.

And made meat for blackmail.

If you're old enough to vote, you're old

enough to choose your own way of life.

Many of us reach the grave without

arriving at that stage of responsibility.

Do you support the law?

I am a lawyer.

Do you ever hear from

the Stainers, Farr?

I was the old man's secretary. That's

how I knew young Stainer killed himself.

While you stayed alive.

Shrouded yourself in virtue...

And married Judge Hankin's daughter.

Like an alcoholic takes a cure.

I thought you were

unconscionably put out.

Now I see it's the rage of Caliban on

seeing his own refection in the glass.

I may share your instincts,

but I've always resisted them.

That's what cost young Stainer his life.

He was a neurotic and an hysteric!

"Deny me and I'll kill myself.

" He was always crying wolf.

What did happen to Stainer?

When we were up at Cambridge together...

We became very good friends for a while.

He was clever and amusing.

But quite unstable and

completely possessive.

One night he telephoned to say

he was going to kill himself.

I didn't believe him.

He had said it before.

But apparently this time he meant it.

And that's all there was to it.

All this ancient history

isn't getting us anywhere.

Did you or didn't you? Who cares?

What you've got to do now is to forget any

ideas you've got about exposing these people.

Bring them down and we come with them.

- Just pay.

- You pay, Calloway.

I shall make my own decision.

Darling.

Darling, come home. It's cold.

- Been awake all night?

- Yes, I've been awake.

Looking at myself.

When you told me about Phil

Stainer, it was over, in the past.

I was young and conceited, I suppose.

I thought marriage

would make you content.

I was wrong.

That impulse is still there.

There hasn't been a day that

I haven't thanked God for you.

Mel, I'm not a life

belt for you to cling to.

I'm a woman, and I want

to be loved for myself.

I do love you.

If he was alive and standing

beside me, who would you choose?

You've had your answer to that.

But he's still in your heart.

I feel completely destroyed.

Have coffee tonight?

There's a real charnel house

atmosphere in this place today, Mickey.

Ghastly. I shall be glad when

we can get back to Cheltenham.

We'll go home after we've

made the last collection.

Shh! Eddy's on his soapbox again.

Henry paid rates and taxes at his

shop the same as everybody else.

But they knew he couldn't

go out and call the cops...

So he just stood there watching while

these bastards broke up the shop.

You don't know it happened that way.

It couldn't have happened any other way.

Eh, Phip?

I don't like to think about

it, old mate. No joy there.

- Call for you, Mr. Mortimer.

- Who is it?

Some bloke. Said, "tell him Sandy. "

- Madge.

- What?

- Oh, what are you drinking?

- Oh, no more for me, dear.

I'm working today.

Modeling corsets at Hobday and Rouse's.

Hope they've got the studio

warm. It's always the same.

Mink in August and bikinis Christmas.

Oh, well. That's life.

- See you.

- Yeah, bye.

I don't see how I can.

But how?

It's impossible.

I know. I know.

I said I know!

Uh, I'll work it.

I'll work it. Yeah. Somehow.

- Have a snack. Go on.

- No thanks, Eddy.

You look as if you could do with a good stoke up.

How much weight have you lost in the last month?

Be a laugh, wouldn't it...

If one of us developed some

guts and turned copper's nark.

Somebody puttin' the

screws on you, Phip?

- I never said that.

- You meant it.

Fantasia, sport, fantasia!

All right. Keep your shirt on.

I'm not suggesting you bash round

the police station and blow the gaff.

No, I just wanted to be sure.

Don't you mix me in anything,

old mate. I can look after myself.

See you.

Anybody can come and

look at a car, sport.

You can put a penny on the bonnet, sir, and

I promise you the coin won't vibrate one iota.

- Would you drive around the park, Mr. Mortimer?

- Very good, sir.

How'd you know about me?

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