The Early Ayn Rand

HELEN: Good morning, Steve.

FLEMING: [Looks at the two of them, then:] Is Billy up yet?

INGALLS: Don't know. I haven't been downstairs.

FLEMING: Guess I'll go to see if he's up. [Exits Right]

INGALLS: [Turning to HELEN] Helen.

HELEN: [Quietly] I know.

INGALLS: Helen, will you marry me?

HELEN: [Looks at him, startled, then shakes her head slowly] No, Steve.

INGALLS: Do you think that I am afraid?

HELEN: No. But if I told you what I think of this, you'd be very angry. You're never angry, except when people say nice things about you. [As he is about to speak] No, Steve. You don't love me. Perhaps you thought you did. Perhaps you didn't know who it was that you really loved. I think you know it now. I do. You can't hurt me, Steve, except if you refuse to admit this. Because, then, I'll know that you have no respect for me at all.

INGALLS: [In a low voice] I'm sorry, Helen.

HELEN: [Nods her head slowly. Then forces herself to say lightly:] Besides, you should have noticed that I never said I loved you.

INGALLS: I noticed something else.

HELEN: Oh, that? Well, you must be generous, Steve. You mustn't hold a moment's weakness against me. After all, you're very attractive, and... and Adrienne was right about your manner of making love.

INGALLS: Helen, I'm making it harder for you.

HELEN: [Calmly, her head high, looking straight at him] No, Steve, no. I wanted to say it. And now I want you to forget it. No, I don't love you. I've never loved you. I've known you all these years — I've seen you so often — I've looked at you — I've heard your voice... But I never loved you.

INGALLS: Helen...

HELEN: And that, Steve, is all you have a right to remember.

[She turns, walks to stairs. The doorbell rings. She stops on the stairs. INGALLS opens the door. HASTINGS enters]

HASTINGS: Good morning.

HELEN: Good morning, Mr. Hastings.

INGALLS: Hello, Greg.

HASTINGS: [To INGALLS] It would be your face that I'd have to see first. All right, I suppose I'd better take you first. [To HELEN] Will you excuse me, Mrs. Breckenridge? This case has upset all my theories. I'll have to revert to the conventional and question some of the people in private.

HELEN: Yes, of course. I shall be upstairs if you want me. [Exits up the stairs]

HASTINGS: [Sitting down] Goddamn this case. Couldn't eat a bite of breakfast this morning.

INGALLS: Oh, I did. I had scrambled eggs and bacon and fresh strawberries and coffee and —

HASTINGS: All right, all right. It doesn't prove anything. You'd eat as well whether you'd done it or not. Did you do it?

INGALLS: What do you think?

HASTINGS: You know what I think. But damn it, Steve, if I don't solve this, it's you that they'll throw to the lions. The jury lions.

INGALLS: I don't think I'm a good type for a martyr.

HASTINGS: No. But a swell type for a murderer.

INGALLS: Oh yes.

[DIXON enters Right, carrying a stack of newspapers and a phonograph record]

DIXON: Good morning, Chief. Here it is. [Deposits his load on a table]

HASTINGS: What about the shrubbery outside and the balcony?

DIXON: In perfect order. No broken branches. No footprints. Nothing. [Picking up the record] Rachmaninoff's Prelude in G Minor all right. And the newspapers.

HASTINGS: [Looks through the newspapers, stops at one] Who reads the Red Worker?

DIXON: Mrs. Pudget.

HASTINGS: [Having gone to the bottom of the pile] No Courier?

DIXON: No Courier.

HASTINGS: Damn it, Dixon, we've got to find it — or prove that it wasn't here at all!

INGALLS: But it was here. I saw it.

HASTINGS: That's the hell of it! Too many of you saw it I don't think that little Holy Russian rat would've had the guts to fake it with an earlier edition. And yet I know there's something phony about that alibi. Dixon, look through the garbage cans, the incinerators, everything!

DIXON: We did.

HASTINGS: Look again.

DIXON: Okay, Chief. [Exits Right]

HASTINGS: Steve, don't be too damn noble and tell me who'd really have a reason to frame you around here!

INGALLS: If you'll take my word for it — and I wish you would — no one.

HASTINGS: No one?

INGALLS: I wouldn't vouch for Serge. But I know of no reason why he'd kill Walter.