Nick: “Mind if I look around?”
He goes into the living room without waiting for the landlady’s reply, then into the kitchen, and finally into the bedroom. The apartment is not dirty, but there are signs that Linda Mills is a careless housekeeper. The landlady complains about cigarette burns on a table and when she touches them, she gets dust on her fingers. The bed has not been made; its two pillows are on a chair beside the bed.
Nick notices an unfaded rectangle of wallpaper the size and shape of a nearby picture, looks behind the picture, and sees that the wallpaper behind it is faded the same shade as the uncovered paper—except where a small patch of white paper has been pasted over a small hole.
He goes over to the bed. On the floor beside the bed there is a scorched spot on the rug.
Nick: “How long since either of you have seen this Mills girl?”
Cookie: “Oh, I’d say ten days anyways, maybe longer.”
Landlady: “I ain’t seen her in a couple of weeks, but that ain’t unusual. I don’t see my people much most of the time—them that ain’t behind with their rent.”
Nick: “What does she look like?”
The landlady and Cookie collaborate in giving him a description that would fit either Lois MacFay or the nurse, Ella Waters, with allowances for heavy makeup, flashy clothes, a tougher manner, etc.
Nick, wandering around, opening drawers: “She get much mail?”
Landlady: “Not that I know anything about.”
Nick stops by a small table and, as if idly, thumbs the phone directory there.
Cookie, coming over to him, eagerly helping him turn the pages: “See, there is Sol Vogel, the delicatessen on Third Avenue. See, I didn’t lie to you. See.”
Nick, skeptically: “I see it’s in the book and I believe it’s on Third Avenue, but I don’t know how much further I can go with you.”
Cookie begins long-winded protestations of his trustworthiness, which continue while Nick leaves the apartment and walks down the street. Cookie trots along beside him, chattering away until they are in front of an electrical appliance shop.
(Nick then drops back, the CAMERA PANNING WITH COOKIE until he suddenly realizes he is alone, turns to look back, cannot see Nick, and, crestfallen, goes on alone.)
Presently Nick comes out of the electrical appliance shop, saying “A million thanks” to someone inside, and goes off down the street.
When Nick returns to Nora and Asta in the park, she is still asleep. He starts to rouse her, then sits down beside her, starts once more, hesitates, his eyelids drooping, lifts his hand a couple of inches in another attempt, and goes to sleep beside her.
When they are finally awakened it is early afternoon.
In their suite at the Normandie, Nick and Nora find Nick Jr.’s guards—Detectives Dan Schultz and Red Jensen—playing cards. Nick Jr. is sitting under the table playing with a pistol.
Nora cries out in consternation.
Jensen: “It’s all right, lady. I took the bullets out. He can’t hurt anything.”
Nick Jr. bangs the pistol down on Jensen’s foot.
Schultz falls out of his chair laughing, gasping between laughs: “That kid’s a humdinger. I never seen anything like him.” He points at the child, who is staring with calm interest at Jensen holding his injured foot, and goes off into further roars of laughter.
Nora picks up Nick Jr., separates him from the pistol, and goes toward the bedroom. Asta grabs the pistol and heads for the kitchen with it, Jensen running after him.
Nick, to Schultz: “We live like this.” He follows Nora into the bedroom, where he takes the child from her and begins to play with it.
Nora: “Sh-h-h. You’ll wake her up.”
Nick: “Who?”
Nora, indicating door opposite the one they came in through: “Didn’t I tell you I brought Lois up with me?”
Nick: “No, you didn’t. Are you telling me now?”
Nora: “But, Nick, I couldn’t leave her down there alone with all those terrible things happening.” She puts a finger to her lips and goes over to open the other bedroom door. Nick goes with her.
In the next room Lois is lying in bed apparently asleep. There are no pillows on the bed.
As Nora softly shuts the door a commotion breaks out in the living room, that door opens, and Schultz sticks his head in.
Schultz: “Hey! Gangrene’s setting in out here.”
They go into the living room. The corridor door is open. Jensen is blocking the doorway, trying to keep out Creeps, Whacky, and six or eight of their friends, each with a child of some sort in tow.
Nora: “The baby party!”
An hour later, with the baby party in full blast. The scene:
1. Creeps and Whacky tend the door, insisting that “You can’t come in unless you got a kid.”
2. Gilbert Wynant is slugged when Mimi tries to pass him off as a kid.
3. Bootleg business in kids being passed out at service chute at a dollar a head to be used as tickets of admission. Nick Jr. used for this purpose, as his guards have trouble telling one child from another and are satisfied to be guarding any child that is about the same age and size as Nick Jr.
4. Children of Nora’s more social friends, some terrified by the thugs’ brats, some delighted.
5. Mrs. Bellam and Freddie come to see Lois, but are drowned in party before they see her. She is still asleep.
6. Assortment of gifts brought for Nicky, ranging from costly dolls to homemade blackjacks.
7. Creeps, with his collection of keys to fit every door in the hotel, throws open adjoining suites to the guests as Nick and Nora’s suite becomes crowded. A very dainty young girl from one of the higher social levels follows him around in admiration, and when, in one of the suites they open, a man sits up in bed, she snarls at him: “Nick Charles has brought his mob on from the Coast and we’re taking the dump over for a little while, but you’ll be okay if’n you stay in bed with your head under the covers.” The man quickly takes her advice.
8. A drunk staring at the party in two layers—bending down, he sees a room full of children, playing, squabbling on the floor, with everything above them a hazy blur; standing erect he sees a riotous adult party, with the children blotted out by the haze.
9. Creeps and a thug near a telephone. Nick comes to phone, says to operator: “Hello, darling, will you get me . . . .’s candy store.” Then: “This is Nick Charles at the Normandie Hotel. Can you send me over [some candy suitable for children] right away? Thanks.” He hangs up, starts away from phone, then remembers something, and says: “Creeps, will you phone the drugstore and order some . . .” Creeps says: “Sure, Nick,” picks up the phone and tells the operator: “Sweetheart, will you get me the drugstore?” Then: “Will you send . . . to Nick Charles at the Normandie Hotel?” The Thug, curiously: “What do they do, send it up C.O.D?” Creeps: “No, these rich people don’t have to bother about things like that. They pay for it downstairs and put it on the bill.” The Thug: “Say, that ain’t bad.” He picks up the telephone and says: “Snooky, will you get me Tiffany’s jewelry store?” Creeps takes the phone away from him.
FLASHES:
Smitty at her phone, saying heatedly: “He’s gone to the Normandie? He can’t get away with that.” (It should seem that she may be speaking threateningly, though she is not.)
Dum-Dum, at drugstore phone, speaking to Smitty, saying softly but menacingly: “Maybe you’re right, but you stay away from there.” He hangs up, thinks for a moment, then leaves the store, steps into a taxi, and says to the driver: “Drop me around the corner from the Normandie, Ted.”
Smitty getting up from phone, grabbing hat and coat, and leaving apartment.
Nick Jr.’s nurse walking up and down the street opposite the Normandie, starting towar
d it, then walking on a little way.
Vogel getting out of a car in front of the Normandie.
Church, his hat pulled down over his face, walking swiftly toward the Normandie.
Nora, in her bedroom, picks up the telephone and asks the operator: “Will you ring my living room, please?”
In the living room, Nick answers the phone. The ensuing conversation is interrupted from time to time by one or another of his guests falling over him, etc.
Nora, in a disguised voice: “Mr. Charles?”
Nick: “Yes.”
Nora: “Oh, Nickie. Guess who this is.”
Nick: “Oh, hello! It’s good hearing your voice again. I didn’t recognize it for a moment. How have you been?”
Nora: “Who is it, then?”
Nick: “Now you don’t think I’d ever forget your voice.”
Nora: “Yes, I do. Who am I?”
Nick: “Okay, who are you?”
Nora: “Oh, Nickie, to think you’d forget poor little me in just a few years.”
Nick: “I know your voice as well as I do my own, but I just can’t place it at the moment.”
Nora: “It’s Letty, Nickie!”
Nick: “Who?”
Nora: “Letty Finhaden. Don’t you remember? My papa used to have a lighthouse.”
Nick: “Of course . . . This connection is so bad and there is so much noise I can hardly hear you. How are you, darling?” He takes the Belle Spruce note from his pocket and nods at it.
Nora: “I’m fine, but you had forgotten me completely.”
Nick: “No, no. It’s all this noise. I often think about you. How is your father?”
Nora: “He’s all right, except that he gets a little giddy climbing up and down those ladders. Can you meet me for lunch, Nickie?”
Nick: “Not today, honey. I’ve been up all night and—”
Nora: “How about tomorrow?”
Nick: “Well, you’d better phone me in the morning. I’ve been so—”
Nora: “I know what’s the matter. That awful rich woman you married won’t let you out. Tell me, Nickie, is she really as ghastly as everybody says?”
Nick: “She’s not as ghastly as everybody says.”
Nora, after a moment’s struggle to stay in character: “Hold the line a minute, Nickie. I hear Papa coming in his rowboat and I know he’d love to talk to you.” She hangs up gently.
In the living room, Nick makes a face at the telephone and hangs up, then goes over to straighten out a disagreement between a couple of his guests, after which he goes into the bedroom.
Nora, at the telephone, is saying: “Will you ring my living room again, please?”
Nick: “Who are you this time? That cooch dancer I used to run around with in Juarez? You have to do that with a Greek accent.”
Nora puts the phone down and turns toward him, then gasps and looks over his shoulder. Nick spins around.
Church is coming into the room from the fire-escape, one hand in his coat pocket as if pointing a pistol at Nick.
Church: “I got no time to waste. Get your hands up.”
Nick puts them up, backing away until he is against the door leading to Lois’s room. Church walks over to him.
Church: “I missed connections and need getaway money. Come across.”
Nick, somewhat loudly: “How much do you need, Church?”
Church: “I’ll take what you’ve got.” He runs his hand over Nick’s clothes, finds his wallet, and takes it. He is very careless, giving Nick ample opportunity to grab him, but Nick makes no move in that direction.
Nora, watching her husband in proud anticipation at first, begins to look puzzled as he makes no attempt to disarm Church, even when Church’s attention is centered on counting the money in the wallet.
Church, too, seems puzzled. He stands there awkwardly for a moment, until it is apparent that Nick is not going to grab him; then he says: “If you’re smart, you’ll wait five minutes before you blow any whistles,” and goes out the window and up the fire-escape.
Nick, still standing with his back to Lois’s door, says in a clear voice: “I never saw anybody trying so hard to get caught as this Sam Church. And now look at the clown, going up the fire-escape in broad daylight.”
Nora, who has been looking at Nick with almost tearful disillusionment, asks: “But why would anybody want to get caught?”
Nick: “Maybe because he thinks he could beat the rap now—and then he couldn’t be tried again no matter what came out later.”
Nora: “But—”
Nick: “That’s the law. What fooled all of us was our not thinking there was anything serious between him and Smitty, that they were just playing around.” Nick is sweating.
Nora: “But what’s—”
Nick: “They’re a couple of no-goods, but what I’ve got hold of now shows they’re certainly two people in love with each other, if two people ever were. Wait till he gets off the fire-escape. I’ll show you a—”
There is a sound of a shot from outside.
Nick starts and goes to the window. Nora goes with him. On the sidewalk below, Church is lying dead. Not far from him stands Smitty, staring at him. Near her on the sidewalk is a pistol. Dum-Dum is running away; as he reaches the corner a policeman jumps out and grabs him.
As Nick and Nora see these things from the window, Lois joins them, asking: “I heard a shot—what is it?”
Nora leads Lois away from the window, then exclaims, “Nickie!” and the three of them go into the living room.
There is a mad scramble of departing guests; thugs are grabbing their ticket-kiddies and hurriedly departing. Vogel, coming in, is caught in a jam of departers, and his glasses are knocked off and broken. He takes another pair from an inner pocket and puts them on.
Schultz and Jensen are standing guard over a child sleeping on a sofa. Nick and Nora do not see the child’s face, though Lois does. Jensen assures them: “This is our job and we’re sticking with it, no matter who gets killed where.”
Police begin to come in, bringing Smitty, Dum-Dum, and Ella Waters. VanSlack and Guild arrive. Vogel does not try to leave. Mrs. Bellam and Freddie try to go, but are detained.
VanSlack takes Nick into the bedroom and, after a bit of preliminary hemming and hawing, says: “Look here, Mr. Charles. You kidded me unmercifully about suspecting you, but I want to tell you right now that if Church did come here to make good his threats in connection with your wife and child and you killed him, I don’t think any jury in the world would or should convict you.”
Nick: “Let’s go back with the others. They’ll think we’re talking about them.” He returns to the living room, followed by VanSlack.
Guild is questioning Smitty: “What were you doing around here anyhow?”
Smitty: “I knew Sam was coming to see Nick Charles and I wanted to head him off.”
Guild: “Why?”
Smitty: “I knew Sam would be up to some trick too slick for his own good and I knew he’d wind up in trouble—but I never expected this.”
Guild: “How’d you know he was coming here?”
Smitty: “Dum-Dum told me.”
Guild turns to Dum-Dum, who has been crying since he came in. He does not sob and his face is not contorted; it’s simply that tears keep running down his cheeks.
Guild: “Come on—talk.”
Dum-Dum: “Mr. Church told me he coming here. He did not say why. I did not ask. When Miss Smitty ask me, I tell her, and then I am sorry when she get excited, and I afraid she come over and butt in maybe, so I come to maybe stop her.”
Guild: “And then what?”
Dum-Dum: “I just had seen her and was going cross the street to talk to her—a truck get in my way—and when it pass I see her—an
d Mr. Church.”
Guild: “Didn’t you hear the shot?”
Dum-Dum: “No, sir. I am dodging noisy truck.”
Guild, to Smitty: “What did you see?”
Smitty: “I heard the shot, I think, though I didn’t know what it was at the time.”
Guild: “I didn’t ask you what you heard. What did you see?”
Smitty: “Just—I looked up and there was Sam falling down right in front of me. I didn’t know who it was at the time. I—I don’t think I knew until the copper grabbed me.”
Guild: “Oh, you didn’t? And you didn’t know about the gun you dropped?”
Smitty: “I didn’t drop that gun. I heard it fall right after he fell, but I didn’t drop it.”
Guild turns to Ella Waters: “And what’s your unlikely story, Hilda?”
Ella, turning to Nick and Nora: “My name’s really not Ella Waters. I took that after I got out of jail for shoplifting, but I was honestly trying to go straight, but I knew the police wouldn’t believe it after Colonel MacFay was killed, and would find out from my fingerprints who I was, so I ran away; but I felt bad about it and was coming back to tell you about it, because I knew you’d understand, when there was all that excitement downstairs and a policeman that knew me grabbed me and brought me up here, but I—”
Guild stops her by putting a hand over her mouth, growling: “You still talk more and say less than anybody I ever ran into.” He turns to Vogel: “And what were you here for, Diamond-Back?”
Vogel: “I had a couple of questions I wanted to ask Charles.”
Guild: “Such as for instance?”
Vogel: “Is that monkey Church really dead?”
Guild: “He’ll never be any deader. Somebody shot him off the fire-escape from below with a .38, and if the slug hadn’t done the job, the fall would—he must’ve dropped twenty stories.”
Vogel: “Okay. I didn’t trust that guy, and when it looked like he was going out of his way to do folks a favor I thought I’d better come over and see what I could angle out of Charles.”
Guild: “Could you come to the point now—you can fill in the details afterwards.”