dialogue
What do you think you're doing?
Casting some old spell.
You've taken all my valuables.
Left me here in the wind.
I'm in a hurry.
How come you're trying to show me
When you should be showing yourself?
You live your life just like a man
Waiting on a shelf.
Because I know, yes I know
I must know that the world is coming
Coming, coming, coming, coming
I live my life just like a man
Waiting on a shelf.
And I know, yes I know
I must know that the world is coming
Running, running, running, running
The man gives you
And he won't let go
Yes I know, yes I know
It's coming, coming, coming, yeah
Yes I know, yes I know
It's coming, coming, coming, yeah
Yes I know, yes I know
It's coming, coming, coming
Yes I know
Honey!
Turn that light down and come!
Senior, remove the
Wow, it's really hot tonight, I say.
Three strikes in a row, one warning on the lead.
Tell me if the Chief wins.
Okay.
Hello?
Yes.
All right.
I told under pressure, no Chief, not the way you're building tonight.
Something wrong, Frank?
Oh, no. No, nothing.
I just have to go someplace, that's all.
Ed, could you take me, please?
Sure. Let's go.
See you later. One more throw and you're out of here.
Okay.
Mr. Hamilton?
No, Clinton, Frank Clinton.
Where's Liz?
Yeah, well, Liz and I are engaged.
She called me.
Where is she?
In the study.
Okay.
How's your boy?
He's dead.
Okay.
I'm sorry.
Liz.
Liz!
Relax!
This is an emergency room.
Look for her.
Liz?
Liz!
Liz?
Liz!
Hey, don't cry!
You're not being fair, Liz...
Come on, Liz, come on.
You're not to play, Liz, come on.
I was angry!
He was dead!
Be reasonable.
Well, I said выз...
He was dead!
I was mad at him!
Is there anything I can do to help?
No!
It's too late.
No, it's not.
I helped Donnie and he didn't walk out the door five years ago.
No, no, Liz. Come on, no, no. He's not going to blame me.
Don't say that. Don't say that.
Three eight fifty eight, okay seven.
Seven seventy five.
Thanks for coming, Chief.
Close friends?
Show me the body.
It was eight feet two inches from the body.
Prince.
All right.
Give me a clamp.
Pull it out.
Everything in its place and a place for everything.
He was very neat.
It's a far, far better thing that I do.
Neat, but not original.
For a neat boy, he used a torn piece of paper.
And the corners, corners missing.
And have you checked the waste paper basket?
Harry.
Nothing.
All right, Harry, bring me two clamps.
What's kick B mean?
I don't know.
I'm afraid there's no one around to tell us.
Harry.
Brian, close the door.
Is anyone interested in a rubber band and a paper clip?
Make that two paper clips and two straight pins.
In the bag, if you will.
The policeman broke that to get in.
Have you touched this latch?
No, the officer did with a pen.
What's that?
I don't know.
Harry, you got one of those in.
Thanks.
Frank Clinton?
Yeah, and this is my partner David Wallings.
I'm Chief Ironside.
It's okay to be here, isn't it?
I assumed it was Frank calling.
I got right into my car.
It's all right, Mr. Wallings.
How's Miss Hamilton?
She's in her room, I hope.
The doctor gave her sedative.
Please sit down.
Okay.
Can you tell me about the family, Mr. Clinton?
A lovely family, really a lovely family.
I met Liz a couple years ago.
I began dating her.
We fell in love.
Talked to getting married.
What time was the boy?
We gave him an after-school job at the plant.
Which plant is this?
It's a C&W furniture.
Small but growing.
And you saw him almost every afternoon.
Well, not quite.
I'm out of good deal on sales.
I saw him every afternoon.
He was a very good boy.
Was he depressed or despondent?
No, not that I could see.
But maybe I'm not a very good judge.
I've been trying to win Donnie over to accept that his mother and I will be married.
So maybe I tended to overlook his bad mood, you see.
I take it then he resented the marriage.
Listen, he was a young boy.
Boys, they don't think like grown-ups.
You said he had bad moods.
Well, the boy had problems, yeah.
But he was working them out in therapy.
Well, talk to the therapist.
He may have an idea what triggered this.
Well, he hasn't seen his therapist for the last two months.
Why not?
Well, I ran out of money.
You see, Liz could not afford it.
She just...
And there was nothing coming in from Donnie's father.
Well, paying for it is the least I could do.
Because I figure that as long as Donnie resented me, we just couldn't get married.
That's no longer a problem, is it?
Sergeant Brown, Officer Belding.
Belding?
Fran Belding, the good friend who brought her the gun and taught her how to use it.
David.
Well, what good did it do?
I'm sorry.
I didn't mean to yell like that.
I think of that boy killing himself.
Perhaps he didn't, Mr. Woollens.
Good morning.
Morning.
No fingerprints.
Not on the desk, the door, or the window.
You sound as if you'd come to a conclusion.
I think somebody made sure there wouldn't be any.
Donnie's fingerprints were on the gun and on the note.
Why nowhere else?
Not on the record or the record player.
Ballistic scissor matches.
The note, it's authentic.
Handwritings are saying there's a loose-leaf binder full of classroom assignments.
Stuff we scraped off the door was wax.
You want to see the report?
Yes.
I don't believe he killed himself.
Then who did?
I don't know.
It's just a feeling.
What kind of feeling?
I don't know.
Maybe it's...
Maybe it's because I...
I don't know.
Maybe it's because I'm sorry I gave Liz that gun.
Officer Belding, what do you want?
A few days off so you can feel sorry for yourself?
No way.
Then suppose you expend your energies in pursuing the case.
Did Donnie have any visitors yesterday afternoon?
How did he spend his afternoon?
Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
Goodbye.
Well, how about me, too?
I think you not see a doctor.
There's no simple answer to that question.
Hit me with it anyway.
Okay, I saw Donald twice a week for about a year.
When his parents were divorced, when they split.
Donald did what a lot of kids do.
He blamed himself for their breakup.
He had immense feelings of guilt.
But when I first met him, he could handle it.
He could talk about it.
Although the divorces are almost four years old by then.
But he had a compulsion to talk about it like he was reliving it.
How did he feel about his old man?
Donald loved his father very deeply.
I had the feeling that he hoped that one day if he was a good boy,
that is, if he redeemed himself somehow,
that his father and mother would be reunited.
And that's all he talked about almost every session that we were together.
Yeah, but he's planning to marry some other dude.
You see, Donald lived in two worlds.
A fancy world where his dreams came true,
where he was successful,
and a rather shabby world that he constructed out of his own sense of guilt and failure.
So, he lived in both of these worlds at the same time.
Eventually, you would have had to make a choice, you know, one of these two worlds.
But I thought it was too soon to force this decision.
Were there any indications that he might kill himself?
Oh, no.
Unless I missed a signal somewhere.
The chief didn't actually say he agrees with me.
He sent us out here, didn't he?
That room was locked from the inside.
And the gun was over eight feet away. Why?
I don't know. Maybe the recoil threw it over there.
I suppose it cleared away all the other fingerprints, too.
Fran, you're chasing down all the freaky things.
But if we wind up with logical reasons for them...
What is it you're trying to say?
I'm trying to say you're gonna have to let it go.
You can't spend the rest of your life trying to prove Donnie was an instant kill.
I can spend the rest of my life trying to get at the truth,
unless you have a monopoly on it.
I'm sorry.
Okay?
Okay.
Why don't you go in and make sure Liz is all right?
I'll check out the neighbors.
Liz?
Oh, I didn't mean to.
No, please. I was just thinking.
Time out from thinking.
How about some coffee or something?
There are so many ifs.
If my dad was a good man,
I'd have a good wife.
There are so many ifs.
If Morton and I hadn't divorced.
If I could have spent more time with Donnie.
If he could have continued with his therapy.
If I hadn't had that gun in the house.
If you never married, never had a child.
Ever since I met Frank, things have been different.
Donnie knew it. He could feel it.
I loved him, Fran.
But I suppose in a way I resented him too.
It's a terrible thing to say.
I was Donnie's prisoner.
He was protecting me.
Do you know why there's a bolt on this door?
He put it there.
He said if I was going to lock him out of my life,
he'd lock me out of his.
Do you know what I told him?
I told him I'd pay for it.
You're entitled to your life too.
That's what my husband said.
That's what the divorce was all about.
He wanted his freedom.
He didn't want to be bothered with a house or a mortgage.
Or a wife and a son.
Does he know about Donnie?
I don't know where he is.
He stopped sending the checks three years ago.
My letters kept coming back.
I gave up trying to find him.
He didn't care about Donnie then.
Why should he now?
Fran?
In here.
Next door neighbors saw a man come into the house
with Donnie at around 5 o'clock.
His day 20 minutes then came out.
In the description it sounds like Frank.
Neighbor also says the hi-fi started about that time.
It was very loud.
Loud enough to cover the sound of a shot.
Are you implying that Fran...
No.
But there are a few things that don't fit, Liz.
There is a possibility that Donnie didn't kill himself.
But if he didn't...
No, no.
The music has nothing to do with it.
He always played it too loud.
I told him a hundred times.
He loved to lock himself in here.
Turn it up.
Room volume he called it.
That was the one he was playing.
You've heard it.
But if he didn't...
We're not sure of anything, Liz.
We're not sure of anything at all.
It's money.
Donnie's.
He saved his pay from the plant in an envelope.
He must have had a very good job.
Well, five bickwens are a lot for a kid to have stashed away.
Liz has no idea where he might have gotten it.
He didn't get it working part-time.
All right, we can assume he didn't come by it legitimately.
Or his mother would have known.
You think he stole it?
But where would we find that kind of bread?
How about the place where he worked?
Clinton's place.
It's small.
They wouldn't keep this kind of cash around.
Have it dusted for prints.
If it fits anyone at that furniture plant,
then they do keep that kind of cash around.
I don't know.
I told Liz to come right back here.
I'm sorry.
I owe you an apology.
Sometimes in the heat of the moment.
That's why Frank's the outside man.
I yell at the machines.
Nobody cancels the words.
I understand, Mr. Walms.
Liz phoned to tell me you were coming.
It's about me driving Donnie home, isn't it?
Yes, it is.
Well, what's the problem?
One of us always took him home.
I drove him home.
You didn't mention it.
There was a policewoman at work.
A joke.
It's a joke.
I better get out of here before she arrests me for something.
If you need me, I'll be yelling at the machines, Miss Belding.
I didn't mention it.
I didn't think it was relevant.
It's like David said, it's not unusual.
I drove the kid home whenever I could because that was important to me.
Donnie and I be friends.
Were you making progress?
I thought so.
He was even adding me a look over some of his schoolwork.
Not to criticize, just to share.
Test papers, book reports, things like that.
Did he give you a book report recently?
Yeah, as a matter of fact, he did.
You still have it?
Yeah, I think so.
I hadn't gotten around to reading it, Chance.
It's in here someplace, sir.
Yeah, yeah, here it is.
It's a tale of two cities.
May I see it, please?
Yeah.
Dickens justified the sacrifice of Sydney Carton by having him say...
Page five seems to be missing.
Yeah, well, I don't know where it could be.
Do you recall what it was that Dickens had Sydney Carton say?
It is a far, far better thing that I do than I have ever done.
It is a far, far, far, far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.
Look, maybe...
Listen, I don't know how this...
I...
I never locked my desk here.
I guess Donnie must have taken it back.
Perhaps.
Wait a minute.
Are you implying I had something to do with Donnie's death?
You were the last person to see him alive.
I thought all this was just routine.
It's incredible.
I mean, I tried to be Donnie's friend, and suddenly I find myself defending an act of kindness.
I just gave the kid a ride home. Is that criminal?
You also went inside with him.
Yes, I did.
He finally asked me to come into his room, in his private domain, to hear his new record.
That was encouraging to me, you see, because I thought maybe Donnie was finally accepting me.
Because he invited you into his room?
Yeah, that, and because we actually talked a little in the car.
What about?
Oh, I don't...
Life, I guess, about the rotten things adults do to each other.
I was going to, you know, give me a concrete example, and he...
He almost killed me.
Then he changed his mind. He said something like, I'd probably find out sometime, or...
But the point is, is that in a year and a half that I knew him, it was a first personal conversation.
I never really had with the boy.
You said you met his mother about two years ago.
Yeah, she works in a firm I was trying to sell to at that time.
We just started the business, and I was out beating the bushes, and I was out selling the
business, and I was out beating the bushes for orders.
Where'd you work before here, Mr. Clinton?
That important?
I was just curious.
I worked out of state, some place you wouldn't know about, but look how long does this inquisition go on?
I mean, I cared for Donnie. I really cared for that boy, and I love his mother.
I had high, high hopes.
I'm sure, but you did stop his psychiatric care.
I told you, some unexpected expenses came up, and I couldn't afford it any longer.
Maybe I could have managed somehow, but it's too late now.
I really thought he was going to come around. I really thought he would all work out.
He just needed a father, and I was hoping it could be me.
Did you find an arrest or something?
No. I would like you to go with Officer Belding.
We'd like a set of your fingerprints.
What are you trying to do to me? Why don't you leave Frank alone?
I'm trying to help you.
How? By accusing Frank of killing Donnie?
No one's accusing him of anything.
Donnie committed suicide. He killed himself. It's finished.
But it is possible that Donnie didn't kill himself.
The room was locked. He did it. He's dead.
Just leave it like that, will you?
Liz, Clinton isn't his real name.
It's Cameron, Frank Cameron. He told me you'd find that out when you took his fingerprints.
Did he also tell you that he served 18 months in prison for theft?
I've known that for some time, although it wasn't theft.
There was some money missing where he worked.
He tried to cover for the man, to give him time to pay it back,
but it all blew up, and he had to serve a year and a half.
He swears he didn't touch a cent of that money.
He came here, changed his name, and went to work.
Maybe you think it was stupid of him to have changed his name,
but who would hire him? Who would go into business with him?
He's paid his debt. Why does he have to pay it again?
Please, Fram, I can't believe that Frank would have done anything to hurt Donnie.
Please don't make me choose between them.
Well?
Frank Clinton made regular deposits in his savings account for nearly two years.
What about the withdrawals?
Well, he withdrew 2,500 March 10th, another 2,500 April 17th.
And that explains fingerprints on the bread in Donnie's room.
The kid was checking them down.
Not necessarily.
The lab report and the money said the only recognizable fingerprints were Clinton.
They didn't say anything about Donnie's.
Yeah, but he had it in his possession. His prints have to be in the bills.
You think the lab assumed we would know that
and didn't think it would be necessary to put it in the report?
Sure, wouldn't you?
At this point, I don't assume a thing.
You know you're driving in circles.
I know it.
You also know that nobody of his right mind would ticket this car for parking overtime.
I know that too.
Well, then let's stop for a minute so you can fill me in.
There's nothing to fill you in on yet.
Aren't you going to tell me anything at all?
Yes. I want you to go to the lab and tell them when I ask for a report,
I expect a complete report.
Donnie's fingerprints are on the money. I want to see it in writing.
Yes, sir. And?
And buy me some dental floss.
Dental floss?
Yes.
Okay.
Anything you want to see, just look around. There's nothing to hide.
So you already know that Frank Clinton is Frank Cameron.
Certainly there's nothing to hide after that.
I was hoping to see Mr. Cameron.
No, not today. I gave him the day off. I blame him for taking a week off.
You fellas.
Sure, I know you have a job to do, but there's doing a job and doing a job.
You don't have to wear a man down, break him into little pieces and walk all over him.
I mean, suppose, just suppose.
If he didn't do anything, then what?
Say, uh, I'm sorry, and then it's all over.
Here, have a drink.
How long have you known Clinton wasn't his real man?
From the time we started our place.
I tell you, he's honest. He said to me, David, he said,
but then he told me the whole story.
I admired him for his courage, for his desire to be open.
I tell you, that man is honest.
Where is he now?
If he has any brains, he's with Liz, telling her not to listen to you.
What did you think? He's running away? He's hiding?
I most sincerely hope not.
Well, now you know my dark past.
It would have been better if you had told us.
An end to my head and a murder wrap-on?
Look, I've been guilty of a lot of things, mister.
I mean, a lot of things, but murder isn't one of them.
But you are guilty, aren't you, of being a party to blackmail?
In one way or another, I've been blackmailed for years and years and years.
And after a while, no matter how stubborn you are,
you just want to stop fighting City Hall, you understand that?
And change your identity.
You do what you have to do.
Including paying a blackmailer?
In the last two months, you've drawn $5,000 from your savings account.
Yes, that's right.
Who was blackmailing you?
I don't know. I mean, I don't know.
The threats came in the mail along with the instructions on where to leave the money.
You have no idea where they came from?
That's right, I have no idea.
They were addressed to me, to Frank Cameron.
Well, ever since, they seem to know enough about me to make it worth my while to pay off.
So I paid off.
You still have the letters?
I burned them.
You didn't make any effort to find out who was blackmailing you?
No! Going to the police might emit publicity, right?
We could have kissed the business goodbye.
Besides, the police don't bend over backwards for ex-cons.
Did you know Donnie had $5,000 in cash hidden in his room with your fingerprints all over it?
What are you talking about?
Did Donnie know of your past?
Well, he could have overheard me telling Liz, I suppose.
But if he knew, why would the boy do such a thing?
To get rid of you, perhaps?
Didn't you tell me that he resented you, that you were a threat to him, to his relationship with his mother?
Liz, I'm sorry, Liz, but I believe Donnie did kill himself.
No matter what anyone else here says, that room was locked from the inside.
Locked, but not necessarily from the inside.
Ed, lock the window.
Dental floss.
Polished cotton fiber.
Covered with refined wax.
In other words, a piece of string with a built-in lubricant.
All right.
Now, what I'm going to say is going to sound crazy.
What I've... Liz, I swear I believe Donnie... Donnie's trying to frame me.
How could he do that?
Just right here.
Liz, when did Donnie put the bolt on the door? When?
When he got the bolt on the door.
Liz, when did Donnie put the bolt on the door? When?
About three months ago.
That's just before the blackmailing began, right?
Just before the blackmailing began.
Now, I told you, he resented the idea of us getting married.
Well, tell him why. Tell him.
He had the feeling that his father and I, that we...
Would get back together again if no one got in the way.
And you were in the way, so Donnie blackmailed you.
Yeah, to get me out of town.
Or if that failed to...
Well, to provide me with a motive.
You're making my son out to be some kind of a monster.
No, no, he was just a sick boy, Liz. He was sick.
That could solve his problems.
I mean, he thought in his mind he was to blame for the divorce.
And if he were not hanging around and I was out of the way...
Then his mother and his father could be reunited.
I can't believe that.
Yeah, well, you'd rather believe I killed him, Liz?
I've already considered everything you've brought up, Mr. Clinton.
It could be the truth.
It is the truth. It is the truth.
Except for the gun. It was over eight feet away from him.
Yeah. Well, I...
I can't answer that. I...
I'm surprised. You've done so well up to now.
Could have been easy enough for Donnie to have set it up.
Ed?
I'm sorry.
We found some of these on the floor.
Yeah.
So that's how he did it?
We didn't say that. That's how it might have been done.
That's how his killer wanted it to look.
What?
You're confusing me.
Exactly.
If it wasn't you, it had to be Donnie. If it wasn't Donnie, it had to be you.
I don't understand.
If Donnie could have set up a suicide to point at Frank, so could anyone else.
And if for some reason,
Frank had an ironclad alibi,
we would come right back to Donnie again.
Isn't that right, Mr. Williams?
No. You've lost me.
No, I haven't.
Donnie's murderer wanted both Donnie and Frank Clinton out of the way,
with no suspicion on himself.
If Frank had been convicted,
he'd have spent the rest of his days thinking Donnie had done it to him, instead of you.
Me?
What kind of a joke is that?
No joke.
You weren't at the plant that afternoon,
and the kitchen door is always open during the day.
You were here,
waiting for Donnie to get home.
Frank, what...
Would you tell me what he's talking about?
The blackmailed Frank,
took the note out of his desk and planted it here in Donnie's room.
Why would I do a thing like that?
I love them, all of them.
Strange way of showing it.
Adults do rotten things to each other.
Isn't that what Donnie said?
Yes.
He wasn't talking about you, or his father, or his mother.
He was talking about your partner.
I... I don't understand anything that's happening.
I mean, nothing!
Didn't you see Donnie trying to leave word for us
while you were talking to him, getting him into position to shoot him?
Kick-off.
He scratched out off and wrote B, Kick-B. He never finished.
Kick-B.
Kick-backs, Mr. Wallins.
Donnie saw you taking kick-backs from your suppliers,
something you didn't want Frank to know about,
something he could have sent you to jail for.
That's a lie.
No, it's not. I checked it out.
Two of them already admitted it, and we'll talk to the others.
David.
David, is that true?
A few little rebates, that's all.
More than a few, and a lot of money.
I needed it.
I was gonna make it up to you, surprise you with half.
But as far as the rest, me kill Donnie.
I was nowhere near here.
If you came here to kill Donnie, you wouldn't have parked near the house.
You'd have parked somewhere else and walked through the back alley
and through the backyard. You'd have waited, made sure Clinton was gone.
Then talked to Donnie, gotten him set up.
And afterward you would have walked back, back to 1800 Resnow Drive,
where you were ticketed for parking in excess of one hour,
just about the time Donnie was killed.
I was only gonna talk to him.
Ask him to...
Tell him, tell him.
Not to say anything.
He didn't like Frank.
I thought he'd help me out because of that.
For a little while.
He kept his mouth shut.
He was such a good boy.
But I could see...
I could see Frank was winning him over.
He would have told... I know he would have told.
And I... I couldn't live with that.
I couldn't live with that. I...
I mean...
The thought of prison...
Terrifies me.
I'm not the kind of man who could survive.
We're going to find out, Mr. Willens.
I'm sorry.
I'm so sorry.
You were winning him over, Frank.
Don't lose that thought.